Nobody plays Shyvana anymore and here's why

PapaGreg21··1 votes·1,812 views

Shyvana was too strong when this season started because she could finish buff, camp, buff and hit level 3 before recalling and sneaking a dragon. She wasn't incredibly strong but probably could have been tuned down about 5%.

When the scuttle changes hit, it created a scenario where this tactic was much more difficult to do because she would have to compete for scuttle pressure to get early experience. This gave way to Graves, Xin, Warwick, Lee Sin and other strong level 2 duelists to completely crowd out other junglers which continues to be a problem to this day. If you haven't played Shyvana in a while, you may not realize that she is a terrible early game fighter. Her Q does hardly any damage now after her early game was nerfed during the devourer era and it was never given any power back, so it's basically little more than an extra auto attack. I'm not sure what jungler she can beat at level 2 right now but the list has to be pretty small. Maybe Amumu.

To make matters worse, the early ganking issue is much worse after this change because everyone ganks after 1 camp. I assume Riot did this to promote exciting champs being played in the jungle more often, which they probably don't consider Shyvana. Riot has gone on record a couple times this year saying they want to reduce boring play (which does not fare well for powerfarming champs.)

To top it off, powerfarming is probably the worst strategy for a jungler in this meta because the camps don't give you enough experience to keep pace with laners. I don't think powerfarming will ever be a viable strategy in this game again to be honest, mainly because of LCS.

So now we have a game where you either have to be good at getting ganks or good at fighting level 2, neither of which she can do well. You might be thinking that Shyvana has hovered around 50% win rate for the last 6 months so she is in a good spot, but we all know that low play rate is much more of an indicator on how good a champion is currently. For Shyvana, this probably means some kit changes are going to need to be nerfed/buffed to simply bring her into line with the current game. Either she needs to have more early damage or has to have some form of utility in ganks.

7 Comments

LeftyRaydy2 votes

So people in here saying she is "good" in solo queue is not true. She is below average and very very item reliant to do anything spectacular. Her biggest problem is her lack of CC NOTHING not even a slow. So she needs Frozen mallet, but if she has frozen mallet she does no damage, because she needs attack speed for her E. So one of the things they could do to help this champ out is provide attack speed in her kit when she lands her E. this would be a very good buff and she could go Frozen Mallet without losing attack speed damage on her E. Or they need to provide her with a slow, I mean build it into her passive.

ForFoxSakes1 votes

You dont need a mallet when you have move speed to run people down. It would be your 3rd item at the earliest but most of the time theres better items

LeftyRaydy1 votes

With all the mobility in the game yeah you do. Ally Shy can do is run at you and ult its so predictable.

After3perma1 votes

Shyvana just builds Frozen Mallet then decides to run at your team and destroy them one by one while being a tanky juggernaut.

Alzon1 votes

TBH Shyvana is a better top laner than jungler right now simply because she has the luxury of buying early HP, and she counters common picks like Aatrox, Urgot, and even Darius if played/itemized properly. If she so much as goes even, she will continuously shove lane in and roam down river or into the enemy jungle. Some champions, such as Gangplank, cannot do a single thing to stop her from doing this.

Now, you may be asking, “How does Shyvana counter Darius and Urgot?” The answer is in your first back: item 3009 item 1028

Lets have shrex1 votes

Uh Shyvana is still really strong in solo Q

ForFoxSakes1 votes

If you cant contest the scuttle early on bc of the matchup you just go buff then to the opposite side's scuttle. Enemy jg cant take both

If they're ganking level 2 then you just go take their camps.

Buff, camp buff to drag was extremely inefficient and kills your levels & gold when you have to heavily commit to a drag then go back again after. Normally you shouldve full cleared to get a item 1043 before going to dragon bc that's when the enemy jg is usually done their clear as well and looking for a gank which means they arent by dragon

Shyv is also one of the few junglers who doesnt need to take flash so she should have a combat spell w summoner 14 or summoner 3 to help big time from invades, duelling and ganking.

All of your match history shyv games shows you having very low KP, impact and really inefficient builds

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