Let's talk about Shyana's Dragon form

Shyvana is a unique champion. She used to be really popular in S2 as a dedicated counterjungler and splittpusher, sadly her spot has continiously been worsened. In the new jungle Shyvana is medicore at best. While this is definitely a sensitive topic I'ld like to discuss something else: Her dragon Transformation.

At level 6 Shyvana gains the ability to transform into a dragon upon having full rage. This doubles her passive armor/mr (5~20 depending on her level). She dashes to target location and slightly knocks back enemies in her path. Her abilities recive a small bonus each.

The problem:

• Her Dragon's Descent sounds great on paper but is actuall really lackluster. The 5 to 20 bonus armor and magic reist are not really much.

• Her Knockback is even counterintuitive in terms of teamfight initiation, since you're basically already disengaging for your enemy and allowing them to group, while you are singled out. There are times when you can flank your enemies from behind and use the knockback for your advantage - but this rarely ever happens against good enemies.

• Her improved abilities don't feel meaningful.

• "Twin Bite" gets a small AoE but enemies rarely ever stand close enough to make use of it - especially when they see you coming.

• "Burnout" leaves a firetrail on the ground which deal magic damage. Magic damage however is somethign you don't really benefit from. Mpen doesn't help your jungle clear and looses your trade on toplane. As a result the damage won't be impressive to beginn with. That being said - your targets (ADCs... Mages... Squishies..) will usually run away instead of chasing you. Your burning trail is basically a Singed poison - but opposed to him you dont have the tools to trap your opponents in it or keep it up for a llong time.

• "Flame Breath" - ah the name sounds great! This has to be a great dragon tool!.... That's what one would think... Instead of an epic flame breath we however have a view weird projectiles being spit out which deal close to no damage which marks our targets? Why on earth are they marked? The sense of amrking aside: 2% max health as "bonus damage" for marking? Really? At all ranks? Kalista starts with freaking 12% at level 1 and a lwoer cooldown which don't require a skillshot...

To summerize:

• Her ultimate activation is counter intuative upon activation
• Her dragon abilities barely benefit her role
• The numbers are off as well

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Seeing all this I wondered: Why could be done to improve her? I came up with a rework concept for her ultimate I would like to share.

Dragon's Descent: Mostly unchanged - but the gapcloser is removed. New bonus: During the duration Shyvana gains magic penetration equal to 50% of her armor penetration. Shyvana gains 15 / 30 / 45 magic damage on hit.

• Shyvana looses her gapcloser but gains a noticeable bonus to her magic damage. Her auto attacks become scarier as well (which should eb a thing when fighting a dragon). Should improve the synergy with Devourer / Wit's End.

Dragon abilities: Q: Twin Fang / Dragon Assault (600 range) Shyvana charges at target location, dealing physical damage in a large radius and fearing enemies in a small radius for 0.55s. (The damage is reduced depending on how far the enemies are away, down to 40%) All enemies hit are slowed by 10 / 12.5 / 15 / 17.5 / 20 % for 1.5 seconds.

• Explanation: Shyvana gains a new gapcloser which replaces the oen on her ultimate, making it more versatile. Instead of a knockback it gains a very low duration fear which is reduced by tenactiy. It is mainly supposed to be disruptive (e.g. Riven Stun). Reason? well, who wouldn't be afraid when a dragon jumps on him/her!^

W: Burnout / Dragon Metabolism Passive: Shyvana heals for 0.1 / 0.15 / 0.2 / 0.25 / 0.3 % of her max health every 0.5s Active: Shyvana emits waves of fire which hurt enemies near her. Her movement and attackspeed are increased for 5 seconds.

• Explanation It stays truw with the basic burnout, but instead of a flamign trail which comes rarely in handy it improves her poke resistence due to a passive regneration and improves her duelling potential. It also synergizes with on-hit effects.

E: Flame Breath / Fire Blast Shyvana shoots a large projectile which explodes at target location or on champion hit. The projectile explodes, rapidly increasing in size (50 -> 175 radius). Enemies caught in the blast get knocked away from the center. Deals magic damage.

• Explanation: At first I thought I Rumble / Corki-ish type of upfront AoE, but that didn't feel unique at all. Considering that her moves lacked power feedback I felt like shifting the knockback on her current ult to another ability would be good thing to do so. I dare say this is an interesting mechnic on a skillshot, an experieced user will be able to target a location slightly behind a squishy enemy to knock him towards your location. At the same time enemies are free to face tank the ability and potenionally get knocked into saftey. I think this design not only looks impactful from a visual point of view (increasing explosion!) but also gameplay wise, for both - giving AND receiving - end.