Shyvana is a great example of a balanced manaless champion. She has one major problem though.

FF1224·May 1, 2014·1 votes·628 views

She can only use her dash/gap closer ONCE Her only CC is a minor minor knockback She doesn't have any sustain built into her kit She doesn't have reliable click and point poke She's meele

For reference, here's all the manaless champions http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Manaless

There is still a major gameplay problem with Shyvana though. A good portion of her damage is magic when she builds Tanky AD.

You have to itemize Armor. She is going to get BRK and her Q hurts. You have to itemize MR. Her W, E, and R, all do magic damage. Which means that you have to itemize Health. Except she does 2% max health dmg.

If you change the damage on her W and R to physical damage, then she would be a lot healthier because you can actually itemize against her.

6 Comments

MackleDogeMay 1, 20143 votes

I'd argue that the fact that she has that mixed damage with the (small, imo) percent health damage is the only thing that allows her to stay viable and have any real lane presence that is something other than wave clear. It's not inherently bad for her to have some mixed damage, after all, the team that Shyvana is on should have mixed damage throughout the team anyways, a balance of AP and AD. It's slightly frustrating in lane, I'll admit that, but she also isn't exactly Renekton level lane bully to begin with, so if you play smart you mitigate the majority of that annoyance.

Just my thoughts on it though.

Hyrum GraffMay 2, 20142 votes

Second this. And there are plenty of other hybrid champions. Jax and ezreal are the first two that pop to mind.

Furthermore, the "problems" you identified with her kit, IMO, are the reason that she's the most balanced and balancable manaless champ. If you give her cc, point-and-click poke, sustain, or range, then she becomes unbalanced, because a manaless champ with any of those things can bully the heck out of anybody else. Which is why all the other manaless champs are huge lane bullies.

ProfDrDeathMay 2, 20141 votes

All the other manaless champs?
DrMundo Zac

And then there's the epitome of (toxic) manaless champion, Renekton .

Hyrum GraffMay 2, 20141 votes

Sorry, I should have restated: all the resourceless champs.

Combat ChuckMay 7, 20141 votes

I feel like we whenever a champion is strong, people immediately call for them to be nerfed beyond use. Maybe instead of nerfing in an attempt to balance, we should help Riot find creative ways to make other things stronger (maybe not automatically, but through items, skills, etc) instead of nerfing them to the ground so no one plays them anymore.

That said, I have no idea how that would work or what would help. I just hate seeing champions being nerfed so often.