Shyvana VU

Back to doing what I do best, talking about Shyvana more than people are comfortable with.

#Wyvern? Before I speak of what Shyvana should look like, we have to talk about what she is. Which is not a Wyvern. Observe, Dragons as medieval people often saw them. http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Genl%20Images/Images/Portrait_Images/Saint%20George/Uccello-StGeorge2-BAR800.jpg http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Genl%20Images/Images/Portrait_Images/Saint%20George/Uccello-StGeorge1-BAR800.jpg

While it is true some medieval dragons had front legs, it was actually quite common for them to have no front legs(Like Skyrim dragons). Wyvern, Drake, Wyrm, Dragon, 龙,ドラゴン, Drakon, and so forth. Were not classifications of dragon, they were the words different cultures/tribes used to describe magical reptiles of immense power, cunning, intelligence and fury.

What happened was along came nerds, and they needed a way to separate dragons by body type. So they took some of the most common versions to fall under each name and decided those were their classifications. Which was fine. The problem came with all the baggage that things like D&D attached to these (the game that once thought Katana 60cm was longer than a longsword 100–130 cm or that a longsword was a one handed weapon). Things like "These ones are bigger, those ones are smarter, this is smarter and bigger and that one is pretty much a pet." Again 100% fine for that fantasy-verse to create it's own classifications.

But, unfortunately nerds like to sound smart. So all too often I see D&D baggage carried over into other games, and nerds use it as if it were true historical facts.

Dragon is derived from French; drake is an English word, from Old English draca (derived from Latin). The dragons were known by many different names: drakes, worms, long-worms, serpents. And came in many shapes and sizes.

It isn't. It isn't even true by the lord and savior of modern fantasy Tolkien. So Dragons in Skyrim are Dragons, not 'fake lower dragon wyvern things' as many internet boards complained. And the same is almost true for Shyvana. There is a small difference, Shyvana is a half dragon. A half dragon will obviously share characteristics of both creatures, humans have four limbs, so does Shyvana. If Riot follows the D&D style baggage that Wyverns are lesser dragons with no front legs and less intelligence, that is fine. But Shyvana will remain a Half Dragon, missing two front legs because of the mixing of magic/spirit/genes causing her body to choose her human number of limbs.

#On to the VU! Quite simply Shyvana looks awful. Not Mordekaiser or Evelynn awful, but still awful. https://storage.googleapis.com/yobi3d-web-assets/g0ebPKseGL/g0ebPKseGL.jpg Human form isn't too terrible, no pizza feet. But still pretty bad. She got a texture update years ago but the textures could be better, and the model shape is terrible.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ab8cHbz1GI/maxresdefault.jpg Dragon form just looks silly, and bad all around. To the point where skins feel mandatory. And even some of them could use work.

For human form something along these lines would be best. https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/000/364/067/large/thibaut-granet-01thibaut-granet-riot-game-art-contest-2014-shyvana-beautylow.jpg?1419027201 Credit to Thibaut Granet from ArtStation for the first one http://orig03.deviantart.net/3442/f/2014/353/e/d/_wip_5__shyvana_the_half_dragon_by_yuliuskrisna-d8agh9y.jpg http://orig14.deviantart.net/0ee2/f/2017/041/f/4/_wip_6__shyvana_the_half_dragon_by_yuliuskrisna-dayin09.jpg Credit to YuliusKrisna from DeviantArt for those two. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/540f5c01e4b0f74ac5a3f6ab/554ed3eee4b035bedaae046f/554ed3efe4b094686ab48887/1431229425436/beautyshot1.jpg Could not find source on that one. https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rAv4a (Potentially the best, Artist linked obviously, it is a full webpage with a 3D model viewer)

These look incredible, regardless of your preference for which some mix of these would be ideal for me. But I want to go a bit more in depth because pictures are pictures, not models.

Shyvana's human form should look vicious, destructive, dangerous. Like her STUNNING splash art it should have flames dripping from her hands while in combat(or at least while her W is burning). Her movements are important to reflect her animalistic nature in her new lore story. She should feel like something that is going to launch a flurry of rapid and mighty blows, swipes and strikes to pierce, gauge and crush.

Visual Effects and Audio In human form, Shyvana's voice is GREAT! I love it. The woman who did her voice also did Zyra, and Chromie from WoW(another Dragon). She is very talented, it is important we get her to redo the Dialogue. As Shyvana will need new Dialogue, considering like old Lux she has only 1:24 of dialogue and a lot of that are hitting, dying, roaring, etc type sounds. While she isn't really the talkative type, she certainly needs more character. Special Note: She should have direct interactions with Morde's Dragon/Morde, Aurelion Sol and Dragonslayer Skins.

Her Passive: Shyvana's passive has no visual representation at the moment. If we go do a VU, I think it would be awesome to have visuals for her 10% bonus damage to dragons, perhaps she could get some dialogue for engaging on dragons and some unique effects/animations when attacking them. For the stacks perhaps her fire could get more intense for all her visuals and/or her dragon form could get larger. I leave it to Riot to find something creative here. There should also be a visual effect for absorbing the Dragon's soul when she kills it. At the moment it is very anti-climatic.

Her Twin Bite: Twin bite looks and feels good, it is snappy, quick and feels very impactful when it hits. Not much, if anything, would need to change with this ability. Maybe just some small updates the the quality of the effects and her movement animations during it.

Her Burnout: Looks like crap, no offense. It looked good ages ago, now it just looks and feels 'meh'. It should look more fiery, lethal, scary and intense. Especially in dragon form(I miss my trail of destruction ;~;). Shyvana herself should look nearly on fire, and in dragon form she should have fire burning from her body that visually trails as she moves with this is active.

Her Flame Breath: Needs some refinement and update in human form visuals, and the enemy hit by the debuff should look like they have flames around them. In dragon form it is a tad disappointing because while the gameplay update made it feel great, it is just using the animation from her old Trail of Embers from her W. It should instead shoot an impressive fiery stream from her throat that flies through the air and impacts with a 'spreading' visual, like not quite an explosion but more of a plume that rapidly bursts outwards. Almost like it rolls outward igniting the ground. It should have a more fiery, burning sound to it, at the moment it's sound effects are not very impressive.

Her Dragon's Descent: To talk about this we need to talk about...

Her Dragon Form model. http://i.imgur.com/jX8rqnD.jpg Damn that art looks good. However, in game it comes off reflected like this... http://file.2000fun.com/forum/201111/01/163053jefp9ej7eqjgk734.jpg I will give the model maker credit, they seemed to be attempting to make her look part human.

But honestly, we just want to walk around as a fire breathing monster. Since Shyvana is a Half-Dragon without front legs, I suggest just going to Skyrim for examples of what shape she should have, with of course her armor and color-pallet. https://img-s1.onedio.com/id-5628bf0f56029f0055b00cb4/rev-0/w-635/f-jpg-gif-webp-webm-mp4/s-c931265175f188aa57b7d6a690fa7db5cde85ecd.gif The https://i.ytimg.com/vi/543ZDGj7GBI/maxresdefault.jpg Dragon Game https://artfiles.alphacoders.com/417/41795.jpg So far

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Thank you for reading. I would love to hear the opinions of other Shyvana players and other players in general on what they think of Shyvana's visuals and what they think she should look like. I am also working on a "Shyvana Gameplay Update Followup" which will be posted in Gameplay when it is ready and will detail where I think they went right and wrong on the update, and how I think she could be changed further in the future(after other champions have had their turn) to make her feel even more fun, fair and awesome both for enemies and allies. Giving her more Skill Expression and less Stat Check as well.

With the best intentions - Mira Arya Enthe, the Traveler.