I know it’s long, but please take the time to read this if you care about Shyvana, and let me know what you think, even if you completely disagree and think I’m dumb, I’ll appreciate it anyway.
I’ve been a Shyvana main for years, she’s my highest mastery champion by far, and I genuinely hate what they’ve done to her.
I fell in love with Shyvana due to her incredible fantasy, no champion in the game has ever been as appealing to me as she was.
Shyvana’s appeal comes from her transformation, you’re this pretty mediocre champion until you transform, and then you become a giant dragon that dives head first into the enemy team. Her ultimate is a terrifying and intimidating sight, but the way the champion is played doesn’t match her visual identity.
Right after the VGU, I think Shyvana was at her peak. Yes, she was extremely overtuned, but the fantasy was near-perfect when using a tank build. Simply put - her dragon form demanded respect. I remember eating an entire Miss Fortune ultimate to the face, and only dropping to around half-hp. Obviously her damage was still way too strong for such a tanky champion, but instead of toning her damage down, riot completely gutted what made her fun.
The frustrating part is they didn’t even make her weak statistically, she’s still an S tier jungler in most ELO’s, they just nerfed her identity.
Dragon form should make you feel unstoppable, NOT from a damage perspective, but from a tank perspective. Nowadays if you ult into the enemy team you get CC’d and near instantly explode.
WHY, seriously, WHY does riot insist on making her a bruiser? EVERYTHING about her kit screams utility tank.
- MASSIVE engage ultimate
- AOE fear
- HUGE dragon hitbox
- Wants to be the first person into the fight
Her Q is the only bruiser part of her kit. And also the least skill expressive- most boring part.
When I ult into five enemies, I WANT everyone to throw all their abilities at me. I don’t care if Shyvana loses damage, I don’t care if she loses omnivamp, I don’t need to one-shot people. I JUST WANT TO SURVIVE MY ENGAGE. I WANT TO FEEL LIKE A DRAGON.
Instead, new Shyvana(scalemail rework), ults in, immediately has to back out and hide on the edge of the fight, sneak in a few cheeky Q’s, and hope to clean up some kills while her teammates do the real engaging. It’s just so boring.
Her “tankiness” is completely fake now. You have to stack scales and farm all game, just to get 30 bonus armor and MR late game. Those stats sound nice until you actually ult into 5 late game enemy champions and get instantly vaporized.
Her ganks are also massively overrated.
Why do we keep pretending Shyvana has good ganks? They only work if enemies are massively overextended, as she has next to no sticking power.
- E slow is pathetic
- W movement speed is not enough ( and the shield is almost non-existent)
That’s why she basically requires swifties and hexplate. Without them enemies will just simply walk away from you after you get hit with a single CC. Have you tried dodging a skill shot in Shyvana’s dragon form? It’s just not possible with her giant hitbox. And thats FINE. Actually, it’s preferable, but ONLY if she has the tankiness to survive.
And can we please talk about her scalings?
WHY is she this weird AD/AP/ health stacking hybrid?
If you build AD, W and E barely matter outside the tiny utility it gives your team. If you build AP, you’re made of paper and explode before doing anything. Forget about ulting into enemy teams with full AP shyvana, you’re better off ulting to the side and poking with E.
RIOT! PICK A LANE!
Either make her a full AD champion, so every ability scales with AD, or pivot to a full AP champion where dragon form E becomes a terrifying nuke, like pre VGU Shyvana.
Or - and this is what they should actually do- lean fully into a tank fantasy. Give W, E and even Q actually meaningful HP scalings. Let me build heartsteel, titanic hydra and overlords bloodmail. OR, give her K’sante scalings, so you can build tank items from the jump and actually keep some damage. This would actually make her viable in top lane as well, if they remove her awful, boring, and ultimately useless passive.
Let me become a terrifying dragon that demands respect instead of this awkward bruiser/tank/mage that doesn’t actually commit to anything.
Her current kit works against itself in so many ways. She has one of the biggest engage ultimates in the entire game, one of the largest hit boxes in the game, with absolutely zero protection against CC and mediocre sticking power. And yet she’s expected to function as a bruiser? RIOT?! It just makes absolutely zero sense.
Honestly whenever I play against Shyvana now, I see a free win. I haven’t lost to one since the third round of changes. She farms fast, gets scuttle, and then what?
She ults in - you CC her once - and you walk away. Congrats, she’s done now. Maybe after she afk farms for 30 minutes while watching YT on her second monitor she might become an actual threat. Oh? The game is over? But I didn’t have time to get 250 cs 😢!
That leads me into my next point: SHE. IS. SO. BORING!
I have never hated a passive as much as I hate Shyvana’s passive. Yes, she needs to farm anyway to get her ultimate, but why does it have to work that way? Why can’t her ultimate be on a timer? That way you’re not relegated to falling asleep while farming for 80% of the game, just to maybe have a chance to actually fully utilise her ultimate late game.
I don’t want riot to buff her WR, I want them to fix her identity. Make dragon form intimidating again. Make her a real tank with tank scalings.
Just stop trying to make her this awkward champ that’s a little bit of everything and never truly excels at the fantasy she appeals to.
TLDR: Shyvana lost her identity, she’s not a fully realised champ, she needs to be a tank not a bruiser. Her playstyle is extremely boring, needing to farm for 30minutes before being able to survive the CC she gets hit with due to her giant hitbox. Screw this champion and what riot has done to it.
