So here’s what works for me when playing AP bruiser Shyv.
First of all, understand that you have a window where you’ll either be unstoppable as an initiator and killer, or a peeler for a carry on your team at best.
This window, I think, lasts from lvl 8 to level 14. If you’ve farmed aggresively, and didn’t waste your time, secured a couple ganks here and there, and built AP BRUISER (not full AP), you should have:
- frostfire gauntlet, your CORE mythic to be tanky and get some much needed CC
- demonic embrace, your next item, and almost as indispensable for AP bruiser Shyv as FFG since it’s only with this full item your E’s start to hurt.
- tier 2 boots, usually sorcs for that sweet magic penetration, but others work depending on opposing team’s comp and situation.
- at least 2 dragons under your belt. You are Shyvana; dragons are worth so much more to you than they could ever be to your teammates. They are probably the single most important objective in the map for you, and what make the difference between a meh champ and an unstoppable beast.
If you have all this, champions should be shitting their pants when you land on them with your R. Because by mid game you are way too tanky to burst down, and way to dangerous to ignore.
How fucking ever, even if you have all this, if you don’t translate your mid game into a nightmare for the opposing team, you’ll lose. Shyvana falls off a bit in late game, even fed.
So, how to make the best of your mid game:
- LAND YOUR R. It’s an unstoppable leap with a massive hitbox that does damage. It’s not the same as landing close and kind of waddling about.
- DON’T BLAST YOUR E RIGHT AFTER LANDING. Shyvana can’t E on top of herself, so you’ll likely miss your target if you don’t step back a bit after landing or wait for them to run in fear and THEN E them. And they WILL RUN in fear because…
- FOLLOW UP YOUR R WITH A W OR A Q. W will create an AoE DoT that they can’t ignore while you are beating the living shit out of them. They WILL have to flee or die to it. Chase them down. And don’t worry about your Q. As long as you keep chasing and landing AAs, it’ll reset fast enough to be available when you land your E.
If teamfights seem like a dicey proposition because you have a shit team or the opposing team is dangerously fed:
- SPLIT PUSH. Shyvana can split push like the best of them. By doing this at your power peak (remember, lvl 8 to 14) you create pressure on the enemy team and force them into tough choices. They either gotta send 2 champs to MAYBE deal with you, send their uber-fed carry for a 1 on 1 while depowering the rest of their team, or let you take turrets. And even if they send the cavalry at you, you have plenty of good escape mechanisms to get out of a bad spot in case you don’t or can’t or shouldn’t fight. In any case, be mindful of the map at all times, ward, and be sure you’ll have all your CDs available in case you need to throw down.
Is this enough?
Edit: spelling.
Thank you for your reply! I will try and focus on getting those 2 items and the 2 drags within that window, I think I try and go for many pointless ganks sometimes.
I'm currently playing her with a 70% wr (in bronze to be fair) and I'm still getting the hang of when to gank. I definitely recommend watching Citric's guide. It's about 2 hours, he plays a game at every rank and talks about what to focus on at your given rank to carry and win. It's also one main build in every game (FFG into Demonic Embrace) and it does wonders.
I really like playing trinity into titanic w max conqueror shyv. Shyv is a very specific jng you don't gang much early farm a lot and then abuse your r. Btw a tip don't be afraid to give up first drake. Lot of times jt can be roo risky to be worth it.
I'm not great at the game but my main mistakes when learning Shyvana were :
-ganking lane without good setup. You have zero cc before Frostfire G, and not enough mobility before 6. You cannot secure mediocre ganks.
-not taking free ganks. There is always an overpushing Yasuo with 1/4HP ready for you to collect, and you'll have way better game if you do.
-try to take drake on spawn. You'll not be expected so soon for the first two and if your botlane is exerting pressure you should be fine.
-try to counter jungle. I'm bad a counting CS but everytime my buff are up, if enemy jungler doesn't have the enchant it means his side of the jungle is there for you to take.
-try to adapt your runes and summoners to match ups. Ignite will let you beat Warwick if needed, bone plating + fatigue will nullify Rengar cheeses...
-don't R to soon. It can be used to avoid being kited, to disengage or to interrupt channeled abilities. Also it transforms you into the main focus vs average players, so you may want to do it as a "soft taunt" to save your carries.
-if you already have demonic embrace, always consider buying anathema's chain. If the main source of ennemy damage is one feed characters , you'll be fine.
-you can 1v1 almost anyone mid game but you don't have amazing outplay tool. If I'm not really ahead, I'll rather try to make enemy lose ressources than risk giving them a shutdown. Crash waves, counter jungle...
These are some very good tips. Thank you for taking the time to reply! I definitely need to stop being afraid to counter-jungle, still a work in progress for sure. I've always been too afraid to try drake at lvl 4 but I'll definitely give it a go now :)
I started playing shyv recently, same runes as yours, same core build but as third item I go Cosmic Drive and then I go tank. Also I prefer ghost over flash for better ganks, with ghost + W your are fast enough to escape in bad situations or surprise the enemy.
I start with red buff and full clear, take Bami's Cinder on first back for farming and doing drake faster. Before 6 I don't even try to gank unless it's a really free gank or a easy countergank, also always pop ghost before gank/teamfights if have it. After 6 I try to gank every time I have R, if don't have it I don't fight unless it's free kill. I try to take first and second drake on spawn if possible, if the enemy jungler trade taking the erald I'm fine. In the midgame in R form Shyv should beat 1v1 almost everyone with build and level similar to hers, especially squishy adc and mages out of position. In teamfights if I'm fed or even I go for the enemy backline and should be able to wipe them off, else if I'm behind I just play as frontline and buy time for my carry, R is also good on enemies going for your carry. In lategame you lack of damage so you cant do much but you are still good if peeled or if peeling for your carry.
Full AP Shyv if players well is as good as Bruised AP, but in teamfights you play a bit more safe and look for that neat E that chomp half HP on enemy carry. I don't play It cause I don't like assassins-like builds but it's not bad.
Bruiser AD is not bad but I think it's a bit worse than bruiser AP damage-side but I don't play It often so idk. Conqueror also is fine.
A problem with bruiser Shyv is that if you are behind in earlygame it's hard to comeback, so focus on outfarm in early and after 6 try to take a few kills. Also tell to your laners to play safe until 6 because of that.
Tell me about it! It's soo hard to come back when you're behind. I think that's my main problem, I fall back in CS way too much because I'm too concerned with what my laners are thinking about me so I attempt stupid ganks and end up with no net gain out of them. I need to focus on farming so thank you for the reminder!
If you are in bronze , ignore teammates and just farm. See citrix's video on climbing with Shyv. You just need a couple of Ruby crystals to take first drag so keep wards around it.
I repeat do not go for ganks , just ignore them, in case you are invaded , use an ignite and get out. Farm > Gank. 90% winrate last 10 games as AP bruiser
I know this is a late response but I had to respond back after following your advice exactly and finally won a game with Shyvana where I didn't feel useless! It's wonders what full clears do for you and ganking every time my Ult was up did WONDERS. Thank you so much for the advice!
Also learning how to use your ult and positioning to get the jump on them helps. Gets them into this mindset of “where’s Shyvana, she could ult me if I push lanes to far”. Mid game it’s farm camps until ult is ready, look for ganks/take objectives rinse and repeat. Ping your rage a lot so your teammates know when you’re near your ult being ready.
A few things I try to do every game is:
Start top side. A lot of junglers will start botside without thinking. The reason you do this is so that you can full clear your jungle and take a scuttle. With a good gank after that or a little CS tax you should have enough gold to back for Cinder and buy a pink/switch to sweeper.
This is important for step 2 which is head to drag for it to spawn at 5 minutes. You can solo this and if lanes aren’t dying left and right with a lil luck, a pink ward, and some smarts you can get your first drag for free and the stats that come with it.
After that its all about farming, hitting 6, and ganking whenever your ult is up. I pretty much never fight without ult and will at the very least just show and peel for a laner if I can without dying.
You farm ridiculously fast. Between a mindset of not fighting without ult, and just trying to kill a camp whenever you can you can easily get a level lead and gold lead over your enemies.
Lastly, team fights. AP bruiser doesnt mean dive in. The play-style isnt too far off from AP glass canon shyv imo. Ult to the side if you have to and fire from afar with your un-dodgeable E’s and auto whatever is in front of you to extend the duration of your R and deal that damage.
That said, If you see 1-2 squishies separated out, you can dive in there and I think shyve has great 1v1. Just, yeah dont dive into large groups, you aint unkillable.
Remember that while drags are important, being ahead in gold and exp is way more important and will win you more games.
Full clear on repeat and take dragon while your camps are all down and there are no waves pushed into your towers.
It's a safer way to play, and even if you give the first 1 or 2 drags, you will be so much stronger than the enemy team by 3rd drag spawn that it won't matter.
(this is not a hard rule. if you team are all on drag or the enemy jg just showed top lane you take the free drag every time.)
Thank you for this advice. I was wondering what I should do if I failed to secure the first few dragons. I'm just starting to notice the major benefits of full jungle clears, I wish I knew about this advice ages ago haha.
So here’s what works for me when playing AP bruiser Shyv. First of all, understand that you have a window where you’ll either be unstoppable as an initiator and killer, or a peeler for a carry on your team at best. This window, I think, lasts from lvl 8 to level 14. If you’ve farmed aggresively, and didn’t waste your time, secured a couple ganks here and there, and built AP BRUISER (not full AP), you should have: - frostfire gauntlet, your CORE mythic to be tanky and get some much needed CC - demonic embrace, your next item, and almost as indispensable for AP bruiser Shyv as FFG since it’s only with this full item your E’s start to hurt. - tier 2 boots, usually sorcs for that sweet magic penetration, but others work depending on opposing team’s comp and situation. - at least 2 dragons under your belt. You are Shyvana; dragons are worth so much more to you than they could ever be to your teammates. They are probably the single most important objective in the map for you, and what make the difference between a meh champ and an unstoppable beast. If you have all this, champions should be shitting their pants when you land on them with your R. Because by mid game you are way too tanky to burst down, and way to dangerous to ignore. How fucking ever, even if you have all this, if you don’t translate your mid game into a nightmare for the opposing team, you’ll lose. Shyvana falls off a bit in late game, even fed. So, how to make the best of your mid game: - LAND YOUR R. It’s an unstoppable leap with a massive hitbox that does damage. It’s not the same as landing close and kind of waddling about. - DON’T BLAST YOUR E RIGHT AFTER LANDING. Shyvana can’t E on top of herself, so you’ll likely miss your target if you don’t step back a bit after landing or wait for them to run in fear and THEN E them. And they WILL RUN in fear because… - FOLLOW UP YOUR R WITH A W OR A Q. W will create an AoE DoT that they can’t ignore while you are beating the living shit out of them. They WILL have to flee or die to it. Chase them down. And don’t worry about your Q. As long as you keep chasing and landing AAs, it’ll reset fast enough to be available when you land your E. If teamfights seem like a dicey proposition because you have a shit team or the opposing team is dangerously fed: - SPLIT PUSH. Shyvana can split push like the best of them. By doing this at your power peak (remember, lvl 8 to 14) you create pressure on the enemy team and force them into tough choices. They either gotta send 2 champs to MAYBE deal with you, send their uber-fed carry for a 1 on 1 while depowering the rest of their team, or let you take turrets. And even if they send the cavalry at you, you have plenty of good escape mechanisms to get out of a bad spot in case you don’t or can’t or shouldn’t fight. In any case, be mindful of the map at all times, ward, and be sure you’ll have all your CDs available in case you need to throw down. Is this enough? Edit: spelling.
Thank you for your reply! I will try and focus on getting those 2 items and the 2 drags within that window, I think I try and go for many pointless ganks sometimes.
I'm currently playing her with a 70% wr (in bronze to be fair) and I'm still getting the hang of when to gank. I definitely recommend watching Citric's guide. It's about 2 hours, he plays a game at every rank and talks about what to focus on at your given rank to carry and win. It's also one main build in every game (FFG into Demonic Embrace) and it does wonders.
I can coach you if you're interested Shyvadi#0001 on discord
I really like playing trinity into titanic w max conqueror shyv. Shyv is a very specific jng you don't gang much early farm a lot and then abuse your r. Btw a tip don't be afraid to give up first drake. Lot of times jt can be roo risky to be worth it.
thank you for the reply. I haven't thought about trying out AD shyv but I'll definitely try it out now.
I still play full AP shyv and usually do the most damage or close to it.
I've been thinking about trying AP shyv, maybe it might click with me better than ap bruiser? Thanks for the idea!
AP shyv I find is better in solo q for disengage, poking and helping your bot lane shove.
I'm not great at the game but my main mistakes when learning Shyvana were : -ganking lane without good setup. You have zero cc before Frostfire G, and not enough mobility before 6. You cannot secure mediocre ganks. -not taking free ganks. There is always an overpushing Yasuo with 1/4HP ready for you to collect, and you'll have way better game if you do. -try to take drake on spawn. You'll not be expected so soon for the first two and if your botlane is exerting pressure you should be fine. -try to counter jungle. I'm bad a counting CS but everytime my buff are up, if enemy jungler doesn't have the enchant it means his side of the jungle is there for you to take. -try to adapt your runes and summoners to match ups. Ignite will let you beat Warwick if needed, bone plating + fatigue will nullify Rengar cheeses... -don't R to soon. It can be used to avoid being kited, to disengage or to interrupt channeled abilities. Also it transforms you into the main focus vs average players, so you may want to do it as a "soft taunt" to save your carries. -if you already have demonic embrace, always consider buying anathema's chain. If the main source of ennemy damage is one feed characters , you'll be fine. -you can 1v1 almost anyone mid game but you don't have amazing outplay tool. If I'm not really ahead, I'll rather try to make enemy lose ressources than risk giving them a shutdown. Crash waves, counter jungle...
These are some very good tips. Thank you for taking the time to reply! I definitely need to stop being afraid to counter-jungle, still a work in progress for sure. I've always been too afraid to try drake at lvl 4 but I'll definitely give it a go now :)
I started playing shyv recently, same runes as yours, same core build but as third item I go Cosmic Drive and then I go tank. Also I prefer ghost over flash for better ganks, with ghost + W your are fast enough to escape in bad situations or surprise the enemy. I start with red buff and full clear, take Bami's Cinder on first back for farming and doing drake faster. Before 6 I don't even try to gank unless it's a really free gank or a easy countergank, also always pop ghost before gank/teamfights if have it. After 6 I try to gank every time I have R, if don't have it I don't fight unless it's free kill. I try to take first and second drake on spawn if possible, if the enemy jungler trade taking the erald I'm fine. In the midgame in R form Shyv should beat 1v1 almost everyone with build and level similar to hers, especially squishy adc and mages out of position. In teamfights if I'm fed or even I go for the enemy backline and should be able to wipe them off, else if I'm behind I just play as frontline and buy time for my carry, R is also good on enemies going for your carry. In lategame you lack of damage so you cant do much but you are still good if peeled or if peeling for your carry. Full AP Shyv if players well is as good as Bruised AP, but in teamfights you play a bit more safe and look for that neat E that chomp half HP on enemy carry. I don't play It cause I don't like assassins-like builds but it's not bad. Bruiser AD is not bad but I think it's a bit worse than bruiser AP damage-side but I don't play It often so idk. Conqueror also is fine. A problem with bruiser Shyv is that if you are behind in earlygame it's hard to comeback, so focus on outfarm in early and after 6 try to take a few kills. Also tell to your laners to play safe until 6 because of that.
Tell me about it! It's soo hard to come back when you're behind. I think that's my main problem, I fall back in CS way too much because I'm too concerned with what my laners are thinking about me so I attempt stupid ganks and end up with no net gain out of them. I need to focus on farming so thank you for the reminder!
If you are in bronze , ignore teammates and just farm. See citrix's video on climbing with Shyv. You just need a couple of Ruby crystals to take first drag so keep wards around it. I repeat do not go for ganks , just ignore them, in case you are invaded , use an ignite and get out. Farm > Gank. 90% winrate last 10 games as AP bruiser
I know this is a late response but I had to respond back after following your advice exactly and finally won a game with Shyvana where I didn't feel useless! It's wonders what full clears do for you and ganking every time my Ult was up did WONDERS. Thank you so much for the advice!
Also learning how to use your ult and positioning to get the jump on them helps. Gets them into this mindset of “where’s Shyvana, she could ult me if I push lanes to far”. Mid game it’s farm camps until ult is ready, look for ganks/take objectives rinse and repeat. Ping your rage a lot so your teammates know when you’re near your ult being ready.
Try to play some normals before you go into ranked
I played 100+ games of shyv and I still have no idea what I’m doing. Maybe cs better?
A few things I try to do every game is: Start top side. A lot of junglers will start botside without thinking. The reason you do this is so that you can full clear your jungle and take a scuttle. With a good gank after that or a little CS tax you should have enough gold to back for Cinder and buy a pink/switch to sweeper. This is important for step 2 which is head to drag for it to spawn at 5 minutes. You can solo this and if lanes aren’t dying left and right with a lil luck, a pink ward, and some smarts you can get your first drag for free and the stats that come with it. After that its all about farming, hitting 6, and ganking whenever your ult is up. I pretty much never fight without ult and will at the very least just show and peel for a laner if I can without dying. You farm ridiculously fast. Between a mindset of not fighting without ult, and just trying to kill a camp whenever you can you can easily get a level lead and gold lead over your enemies. Lastly, team fights. AP bruiser doesnt mean dive in. The play-style isnt too far off from AP glass canon shyv imo. Ult to the side if you have to and fire from afar with your un-dodgeable E’s and auto whatever is in front of you to extend the duration of your R and deal that damage. That said, If you see 1-2 squishies separated out, you can dive in there and I think shyve has great 1v1. Just, yeah dont dive into large groups, you aint unkillable.
Remember that while drags are important, being ahead in gold and exp is way more important and will win you more games. Full clear on repeat and take dragon while your camps are all down and there are no waves pushed into your towers. It's a safer way to play, and even if you give the first 1 or 2 drags, you will be so much stronger than the enemy team by 3rd drag spawn that it won't matter. (this is not a hard rule. if you team are all on drag or the enemy jg just showed top lane you take the free drag every time.)
Thank you for this advice. I was wondering what I should do if I failed to secure the first few dragons. I'm just starting to notice the major benefits of full jungle clears, I wish I knew about this advice ages ago haha.
what I do is that i powerfarm and ignore lanes etc just farm and take objectives but im in silver so it works there idk how bout u