Shyvana really needs a new passive

Mister Support·Sep 14, 2017·4 votes·727 views

Currently Shyvana's passive, for those who don't know, gives her bonus damage towards Dragons and will grant her 5 bonus armor and magic resist for every dragon her team has slain. Essentially this is a passive that is reliant on your team focusing dragons and based on the rate you take dragons will drastically determine your tankiness.

Honestly this passive just needs to go entirely and replaced with something more overall useful, rather than a potential heavy snowball mechanic tied around dragon taking. Currently her kit is just damage, damage, and more damage with a touch of tankiness added in Health from ult and resistances in passive, let's give her some utility whether it's healing, slows, or something super creative (probably not hard cc she doesn't need that).

11 Comments

ZapMyHeartSep 14, 20173 votes

Shyvana should be contender for a double passive actually.

Keep the dragon killing one + add a different one as well.

With all this talk about 'keeping her fantasy', she shouldn't be easily stopped by a simple magic spell as a dragon.

Personally, with the lack of CC in her kit, she needs to be able to stick to her targets better while in Dragon form. Makes being a diver easier for her at the very least.

Ex. Dragon Scales (Passive)

While Shyvana is in Dragon Form, she gains 15/25/35% Tenacity and is immune to any displacements or knockups. When Shyvana is affected by CC, she gains 5/10/15 Fury.

Mister SupportSep 14, 20171 votes

Maybe if it turned hard-cc into soft CC (think Diablo from HotS) like slows that could work real well for her Dragon form.

woodvsmurphSep 14, 20171 votes

I agree a different passive would be nice. However, it does fit her theme AND it is hardly the only passive requiring an effort like that - just look at kindred for example or veigar stacking free ap or nasus stacking q or sion stacking hp off w and stuff like that. Not all exactly the same - but the kindred one is very similar.

Mister SupportSep 14, 20171 votes

I'd go as far as saying Kindred's could use a slight change just because it's so easy to deny her stacks and therefore any power or usefulness. Stacking passives I'm fine with, but the method of stacking for Shyvana (while thematic) is incredibly gimmicky in game and the rewards yielded are not at all impressive since the more you stack, the less each stack after will be beneficial since resistances hold diminishing returns. I'd much rather have something more interactive within her kit, distributing power from elsewhere, that would allow Shyvana's fight pattern to move a bit away from running at people and slapping them with on-hit effects.

woodvsmurphSep 14, 20171 votes

Agreed. Never said it was good. Just that it is thematic and not the only stacking effect. Riot really needs to look at the combined passives and actives of champs in the off season and rebalance them. Cuz on one end, you have stuff like 15% armor pen and on the other you have stuff like - do 10 attacks to moderately empower a basic ability... or 5 armor and mr. They are hardly equal. And when the other abilities on the champ with the more op passive are equal or better, then you have inherent imbalance among champions - not even factoring in itemization and runes/masteries. Plus the scaling on some abilities just doesn't fit whatsoever with the way Riot THINKS the champ should be played. Like renekton's q scaling off BONUS ad when he basically doesn't get to itemize bonus ad without having 0 tankiness compared to how tanky someone like kha or xin is with the same build. There's tons of other examples both beneficial ones and harmful ones for other champs, but hopefully that paints the picture. Riot needs to reevaluate champion kits and rebalance them - because some are just way more beneficial than others: as individual abilities, as a whole kit, and with scaling while not being weaker before scaling comes into effect.

Mister SupportSep 14, 20171 votes

Honestly in term's of thematics, like you mentioned originally, I'd say Shyvana's playstyle as compared to idea of a half-dragon warrior is the furthest thing possible in this game. Merely because of how Shyvana's Q works it makes the best possible builds on her be on-hit builds with Bloodrazor and Titanic Hydra, sometimes BoRK. You go from a champion who you'd assume would want to tear enemies apart goes to someone who doesn't hit too hard, but will be slapping you really fast. For the scalings that doesn't really apply much towards Shyvana because, again, she's far more reliant on On-hit items in order to deal any damage rather than damaging stats.

Your suggest of broad sweeping changes on abilities scalings and power to better fit certain play styles does sound like something needed for this game. Especially on terms of setting certain abilities for less spam/more burst or more spam/less burst decisions.

Linna ExcelSep 14, 20171 votes

Shyvana doesn't need her team too much to take dragons, especially early. She's one of the best champs to sneak an early dragon. Once you get a bloodrazor, soloing dragons is even easier.

As for the passive itself, do you want to go back to the old one? I don't think riot really wants utility in her kit and I believe she's better with that weakness.

Mister SupportSep 14, 20171 votes

There's other things you can do aside from her current and older passive, like a new one entirely.

Linna ExcelSep 14, 20171 votes

Yeah, but I'd be cautious about just changing it as well. That little armor is kind of useful, especially if she builds an extra damage item. It also works around Shyvana's strengths as a duelist who can control the jungle. It encourages her to do her thing: power clear and get big.

I mean she could get on-hit damage that scales with AS, but would that be the best thing for her?

I mean I could see riot changing the passive so it's 1 armor/mr for a large monster, 2 for an epic, and 3 for a kill or assist. However that would turn her into a scaling nightmare if the numbers are off.

FooDangSep 14, 20171 votes

I miss Top lane Shyvana but will not play it until this passive gets changed.

Mister SupportSep 14, 20171 votes

Seeing as if you even want the passive remotely utilized you MUST take dragons (be jungle or hope your jungler is smart enough to go for them) yeah, I understand that.