Shyvana Gameplay Mini-Update Followup

My opinions on the Shyvana Gameplay Mini-Update. I gave it a few months to really sink my fangs into it, and here are my thoughts afterwords as a Shyvana main.

For starters. I feel it was a success! http://img11.deviantart.net/d203/i/2011/223/f/2/happy_dragon_is_happy_by_bobbydazzl3r-d467t6l.jpg Happy Dragon is happy! But it was a limited success. https://dragonlaffs.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/dl-confused-dragon.jpg Don't get all worried though. It was still a success at what it was aimed to do.

#What was the goal of Shyvana's mini-update? Well, it seems the goal of these updates in general is to take champions who are not huge offenders of bad design, and improve them enough so that they have the tools and numbers to be viable and fun for their players, without being too toxic for enemies and allies to play around.

Shyvana was an incredibly bad design in S5. But not so bad that Riot had to Azir or Kalista her. They just nerfed her to a point that she wasn't overrunning everyone with numbers and flattening the jungle far too fast. This was further extended by the recent removal of Shyvana's 20% bonus damage to monsters on her W, a crutch that was propping her up but also holding back her power budget.

So to make her viable and fun Riot touched base with her on the Gameplay update that came through last year. What exactly were the changes?

#Changes. 1: Shyvana's free 5/10/15/20 Magic Resist and Armor(double in dragon form) was removed from her kit. It was too much free power for no reason. Instead Shyvana starts with 5 Bonus Armor and Magic Resist so she retains her level 1 power and then gets an additional 5 for each dragon her team has killed. She also now gets 10% bonus damage to dragons. These changes are great, as long as Dragon remains a major objective I approve of them. They give her a high when she is high and enemies can counterplay her by denying her dragons and knowing she will go for them. But it isn't too crippling when behind or too dominant when ahead. The only problem comes from if Dragon becomes less valuable this entire passive is nerfed. While the doubled Armor and Magic Resist in Dragon Form was lost she gained a heal on her ult so fair is fair. To equal the old human form bonuses Shyvana must have 1 dragon by level 6, 2 by level 11 and 3 by level 16. Shyvana should be getting every dragon so this isn't a problem. Any more than 3 and she gets more out of this passive's resistances than her old one in human form.

2: Shyvana lost her Trail of Embers on her W, instead in Dragon Form it is increased in size based on her ult rank. Bad change in my opinion, Thematically Trail of Embers was amazing, and in gameplay it gave Shyvana that extra bit when retreating from a team fight, passing from front line to back line, or outmaneuvering people during tower dives and split pushing. I would have preferred leaving a flaming trail of destruction over the size increase(which only is there because her model gets bigger now and they don't want Cho'Gath Sunfire cape issues.) But it is what it is. I doubt Riot is reverting on this.

3: Shyvana's E in human form received a nerf on the number of targets it could it, it now stops at the first champion. This is very minor and probably nerfed her by 1% but also raised her skill cap by 1%, as now you have to be selective in who you E and cannot hit multiple champions. I actually prefer it this way. I just wish the human form base impact damage was a tad higher, just a little. This would help her in laning and with poke without boosting jungle much. The AP ratio was also nerfed but who builds AP Shyvana amirite?

4: Shyvana's E in Dragon Form received a massive buff and minor nerf. It went from a Cone AoE that passed over all targets in front of her with impressive range, dealing the same damage as in human form. To a fireball that hits a targeted location or the first champion hit and explodes, dealing damage and leaving fire on the ground for a few seconds that deals more damage. This damage scales with level rather than ability level so maxing E is now pointless. This is a buff overall, it is much more impressive and powerful, it is a nerf in that it moves slower and can be body blocked, I have gotten loads of snipes with the old one and multi-target damage. It is also a minor nerf to her human form E even further as maxing E is now nearly pointless. Other than visual effects the only thing I would prefer they had done differently was that the explosion set people on fire caught in it rather than the ground. It would be great seeing minions and champions alike running around burning in my dragonfyre.

5: Shyvana's ult lost 100 Range. This hurt bad, so many failed wall clears, so many failed ganks and kills at first. After growing accustom to it however it certainly is fair, I think it was fine and wouldn't rebuff it given the choice. Shyvana also lost her doubled passive in dragon form, so less Armor and Magic Resistance. This also was fine. Shyvana has instead gained a small self-heal/max HP increase while in dragon form. On ulting she gains a chunk of health and increased max health, increased max health is mostly a bonus as it boosts her TH and if you use them her Cinderhulk, Warmogs and Undying Grasp. Despite popular belief % HP doesn't get better vs higher amounts of HP, rather it just always takes the same portion of your HP bar so it just doesn't get worse, having higher max HP will make it's number higher value than flat damage, but having higher HP still leaves you with more total HP after the %HP damage to soak everything else. So I don't consider that to be a double edged sword. I am fine with all of these ult changes and approve of them. Especially her size increase.

6: Shyvana's ult is unstoppable! The most important change in this entire rework is that now a giant dragon leaping through the air is no longer stopped by jumping over a Caitlyn trap. Shyvana will still be CC'd when her leap finishes for balance reasons, but it no longer feels awful using her ultimate for engage instead of escape. Combined with an improved hitbox for her drag Shyvana now has more reliable post-6 ganks and better team fighting, permanently removing her from the Tryndamere category of "farm, push and pray" champions.

#Overview of the Rework Shyvana's rework was a success because it gave her a higher powerbudget on the healthy parts of her kit, allowing unhealthy things like her bonus damage to monsters being removed, her W damage and Q damage remaining lower than historical values, free unconditional armor and magic resist. Therefore it added a little more skill to playing her correctly. This means she can be viable without hitting unfair levels of stat check. She is now better at team fighting, better at ganking and better late game. While only sacrificing a little of the bullshit she head. While overall it was a success, there are some things I would have done differently.

#For the Future Some things I would change given the opportunity.

1: Make all of Shyvana's DoT abilities have a 1/4th second tick rate. I hate the unnatural and slopping feeling of Tick... Tick... Tick...

2: Return Trail of Embers to Shyvana's W, even if the damage is drastically reduced, visually and in gameplay it just felt great. A dragon should have a wake of destruction.

3: I would personally make Shyvana's E do a tad more upfront damage and chunk less DoT, but make the DoT stick to enemies struck. It would feel great seeing enemies run around on fire. I am a dragon after all.

4: Slightly nerf W AoE damage, but slightly buff human form E on impact damage by adding an AD ratio. This would put more value on her skillshot and also make laning more possible as she would be able to return harass without charging into the minion wave, taking minion aggro and overpushing. It also makes building AD on her a bit better.

5: Ultimate Fantasy but potentially impossible. I would love it if her Dragon Form had a slowed Attack Speed but each hit was massive. It could be something like "Attack Speed in Dragon Form is fixed at .75(or 1.0), Excess attack speed increases AD and gives on hit effects multiple applications". But... this may be impossible to code, too long of a tooltip or even risk making her too bursty. It is just a fantasy of feeling more massive and dragony.

6: Obviously all of her visuals and audio. See here https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/JAW55m2s-shyvana-vu

#End Thank you for reading! Overall I consider Shyvana's mini-rework a huge success. She still needs a VU or even a full VGU in the future. But for now she is much better than how she started. I hope after more needy champions get their turn Riot looks at Shyvana again in an attempt to further enhance her dragon/half dragon fantasy, and make her feel more beastly as their amazing new lore did.

With the best of intentions - Mira Arya Enthe.