Shyvana and Her Current Gameplay State\ Potential Fixes
https://i.imgur.com/EvCbtjd.jpg
I've been wanting to make a post for a while, I personally just don't know if Riot or anyone would listen or even care. I'm very passionate about Shyvana, if you couldn't tell from the post length, and I really want her in a healthier spot.
The TLDR is and somewhat of a table of contents.
Shyvanas weak current state, and her kit is very dated.
Overall, Clearing Speeds Relevance, Buff/Nerf History, Her Unknown Identity.
Abilities Shyvanas Passive is garbage and either needs to be the best in the game since it's the hardest to get, or entirely new.
Q to be reworked, with bigger ratios or maybe a small cc knocks up/grab
W to stay similar and return the trail with keeping the speed up.
E as well, small utility power up
Her R needs to be more powerful in general since it's not like nid/jayce (new abilities) or Gnar/swain powerful active/passive. Nasus/renek just a massive stat ball. She gets small augments to her abilities E is the only noticeable one and some range and HP.
Shyvana has no strengths that are not out shined significantly, not even in farming. Turn her into a Raid boss.
Shyvana in general needs a rework, I personally would like her to be more skill expressive than as basic as she is or with the same potential as Darius or Garen.
I have a ton of games on her and is by far my favorite champion. Shyvana has had her highs and lows. I just want a more consistent Shyvana not some uber tier pick that is 100% pick or ban, just a strong solid pick even when not in meta. (I'm sure all people that main a champion wants this) By no means am I saying do ALL the following, (even though I won't say no cough), but I do feel drastic changes are needed.
Currently, Shyvana is most certainly on the unhappy side of the balancing bar, while being playable and most definitely winnable she lacks a lot and becomes more "dated" as time goes on. She is fully capable of taking over a game but requires a massive lead and usually another ally to do so. Her Early and late game is weak, with a decent mid game but really spikes hard nowhere. Most people recall getting one shot by her E that one special game and call her fine or OP, before they consider the 200 games it tickled them. Dues to her low play rate, those good on Shyvana are usually the ones that play her and maintain a decent win rate (sometimes) but is inflated at times since she's one of the "play while strong champions".
Clearing speed: Everyone praises Shyvanas insane/epic/unstoppable wave clear, but it's not that strong anymore. After many indirect nerfs and jungle changes Shyvana is very "catch-able" in clear speed. Once She was the fastest with ~3:45 full clear only Udyr was ~15 seconds slower than her. (Yes, it was stupid fast in case you didn't know) Now though she can clear pretty fast, but there are 2 problems. Firstly, jungle hurts and she lost the armor runes while she might be able to still clear and fast at that, what's the point? She'll base cause she's too low to gank or invade then go the next camp that won't re spawn for 30 sec giving the enemy 30 secs to catch up which is PLENTY. That's why on a lot of jungles players can keep up (for all you who are flaming Shyvanas lol). After a certain point these are nullified, but it's also nullified for the enemy too, so if you are still power farming at 15 min yeah, you'll be faster, but you're probably losing the game.
She was hit by what some people call getting Sejuanied, which is when Riot nerfs the champion due to a strong item, then nerfs or even removes the item, then forgets or ignores the champion they nerfed only because of that item. This happened to Shyvana with Feral, Bloodrazor, and PTA. Her mini rework was a mix of a buff and nerfs, but it gutted half her kit then after more indirect nerfs to Runes and jungle and items, even Shyvana was nerfed. Nothing has really compensated for all those indirect nerfs. They are coming to light now however.
Shyvana was then given decent AP ratios, while this is actually somewhat useable and very fun. Once the surprise factor is gone players quickly adapt to playing against an AP Shyvana. While this is fun it shows the fact that Shyvana has no identity she is not a Juggernaut nor a fighter nor even a bruiser, she is a jack of all trades , but that is to her detriment because now ALL her trades have been nerfed and her biggest weakness kiting is amped up more and more as power creeping takes its toll on her with new champions and reworks insane mobility and abilities. A lot of champions out shine her and have much higher power budgets and are still simple to play. (More on that later) So what is Shyvana? A Bruiser, Juggernaut, Diver, Mage, Tank, ADC all of the above??
Her passive, to be frank is quite possibly the worst passive in the game and that I've ever seen. Now when other say "well what about champion _", try to stop and think about this. [No other champion besides Kindred and Rengar need to do something for the passive to have value objective wise] On top of that she has little value for such a hard task. 5 dragons for 30 armor and MR. Currently Poppy and other champions give more stats and she gets a ranged aa + shield. While this point is not to compare to any specific champion, Shyvanas passive is too hard for its lack luster reward. Additionally, if I'm winning top and mid but my bot lane is losing and they clear dragon, I lose my passive for it? Why is that fair?
Potentially she can be reworked here to have a powerful passive, maybe the best? Simply for the reason that she must get the Dragons from the enemy team and its more factors outside of her control (I.E. Bot lane losing of course this is not the only reason it's just an example). Change her passive to one of 2 things, either an innate passive that just levels up like everyone else. Its boring, but it works. Something like Brands Scorch. Or make the value huge. I'm talking big gains per dragon 7/7/50hp +5% to dragons more damage to camps?? Something that when she gets 2 people are like wow she's getting strong. Or when she gets 5 people are like next Shyvana we NEED to stop her from getting dragons or we will get stomped. Also, why does she not stack with Elders? Seems silly. People at max get 2 a game. Or maybe add something like Scorch to it, a passive ability that just amps the damage of all her abilities. Remember Shyvana is the only champion in the game that can LOSE her passive (basically have a valueless one at 0 stacks which are unattainable), so why not make it to when she gets it its super worth it? Perhaps also a similar iteration where she gets buffs for either her team or just herself per dragon type. Mountain more defense etc.
The Q Gutted to oblivion this ability at lvl 1 used to be what it is now at lvl 5 now. PTA is the culprit for this but if we are going to make it this bad don't we think its time for a bit of work to it? Some rework options could be...
While an AA reset is hard to balance Riots been on this whole true damage thing so here's my shameless true damage plug. Make the bonus damage of TB True. This would make the low ratio more valuable while not really hurting squishes. Or just give back some of the ratio it's too low.
Shyvana aa twice dealing on hit effects twice and extending scorches duration, increase dragon forms cleave range.
Shyvana scoops all targets around her and slams them in front of her dealing damage and knocking them up briefly for .2 sec. As a dragon this range is extended even more as Shyvana levels up her ult (just a little CC love)
Shyvana grabs her target and lifts them up for .5 sec before slamming them back down to the ground slowing them a bit dealing some damage. Range and duration extended (Again, CC love and just makes sense for the dragon lady.)
W: Her bread and butter, this could be a potential place to look to go the route of "Farm Queen" by returning the jungle damage. Or adding back the burn trail would give her more power over all. Perhaps the on hit damage to true damage? I think buffing this ability would assist her the most as almost all Shyvanas max it first. Honestly, this ability is probably in the best spot and while this ability for the most part is perfect I have 2 gripes... First the Movement speed decay/ Why? Just give her the full 3 seconds at a slightly lower speed (or the same) it makes no sense to decay it on a champion that has huge kiting problems already. Being full speed will help but not be enough to overcome the weakness. Additionally, a lot of fighters have reliable ways to enter fights and stick to targets Shyvana does not post ulting. More potential changes cold include....
Burntrail as a dragon while I love the new E (more on that later) The burn trail needs to comeback, it had the singed effect at looked so boss. I don’t care if it's weak just bring it back lol.
Burn out, deals damage, applies scorch instead of 2.5 % on hit. Dragon gains a Burn trail
(I like this idea a lot) Shyvana activates burnout charging but rooted in place during the channel she deals (burnout damage) and gains damage reduction (like Irelia/Galio) and slows targets approaching her (not running away) after completing she gains Movement speed and maintains the burn damage for 5 sec. Dragon form she can move while charging but not attack. (This is a skill ability that is poor for chasing but great for absorbing burst and turning on an opponent. This would sure up her ability to duel early if someone fights her while W is ready and make her vulnerable when its down. Felt more Raid boss) Could only imagine a Shyvana getting attacked and screaming like a super sayan in the middle with fire surrounding her. Would look and feel epic
E: Again her E and W are her best parts of the kits for a buff perhaps add a charge + self slow to increase range and damage. (Think Varus Q ) then removing the slow in Dragon form and keeping the explosion. Adding the true damage to the mark could be nice but would probably involve reducing the %.
Or as a Human Var Q charge Fireball with explosion at the end if fully charged. Apply Scorch. like new Dragon E obviously less damage. Dragon form make it a Flamethrower with a fireball spit at the end. (Increasing skill expression, a bit, but not to level Azir)
R She turns into a dragon and that's why we love her. However, some new paint could be nice. She transforms, but her ult gives her nothing compared to other transforming champions and it's not cause her basic abilities are loaded, or she wouldn't ever need to transform. Comparing her to a few champions.
Nid/Jayce: These champions get new kits. # new abilities, that definitely makes up for being ultless. Gnar/Swain: Both have HUGE actives along with good passives going on with the drain and huge stat boost for Gnar. Shyvana gets some hp and a wonky slow gap closer small range and size. Nasus/Renek Amp ambilities and gain stats very similar to Shyvana, except the gold value is nowhere near these 2 champs (I urge you to look at them in detail) their values TRIPLE+ Shyvanas,because she gets a slow dash?
Again, this is not to compare champions, but see how her power budget is very lackluster. When these champions transform you go "BACK UP Mega Gnar!" With Shyvana you go, "Oh she got 200 hp? Okay I got time for 1 more auto. "
Dragons decent doubles passive 1/2 (again the Dragon form should feel like HOLY CRAP Shyvana transformed)
Passives are doubled on her only + some HP
Add an Active: Add HP and 2 active charges allowing Shyvana to dash to a location. (this would help modernize her, while personally this is not my favorite choice of an active it's probably the best.)
Allow her to take flight like Quinn just not as fast while its active.
Some of these abilities would need to be tuned and some combinations are far too powerful together.
My favorite version of her would be a raid boss that cannot be jumped on and you expect to do well, but she can still be kited. She also needs to have a nice skill floor and ceiling, if you press buttons Shyvana does things and it works well almost Identical to the same results you'd get now minus a bit CC. However, using certain skills in order to maximizes damage or its mitigations, chase, stalling, and escape. This is where the ceiling gets much higher than it is now. With the loss of farming power to champions capable of keeping up like NID, Eve, Graves, and Kayn Shyvana has no strengths and would really like for her to excel somewhere.
To compare her to some champions I instantly think of her proposed class, and Garen and Darius come to mind. They are very kite able, but Darius if you get too close to him can Penta you, but is his skill really high? Likewise, is Garen hard to play? He’s super tanky and deals 1000 true damage with his ult. Skarner, while hit with the nerf bat as well, has speed defense and damage and CC! I personally would like her around Garens level where he’s strong and does his job great, but still maintains that basic feel as does Skarner and Darius. (Personally, I wouldn’t mind Shyvana being higher skill capped, but I know Riot needs some basic champions) With the Champion roadmap being, Nunu, something to EZ, Kalye and Morg. There is not a place for a full VGU, but her abilities can still be changed to a healthier spot.
This is just a list of what I think Shyvana can become with smaller or bigger changes. At the end of the day she just needs help. I know others do too, but please Riot. 🙁
Lastly her appearance, while her theme is great, I think the armored bikini on Shyvana is a needed change making her more "Armored up" just feels more right. However, while I do care greatly about it, it's not as important as game play.
And of course,... most importantly we can't forget the Battlecast or Mecha Shyvana legendary skin!
Thank you anyone who read this whole thing or the majority of it. Took a while to make and I appreciate he time you took to read it. Open to any discussion about the Dragon Lady. Let me know what you think about the image please its my first "cartoony" piece, I've ever done digitally.
