League of Legends champion profile: Shyvana, the Half-Dragon

Strength at each game stage

Strength in early game/laning – low

Shyvana has one really big weakness: her early game. Because she is so dependent on the bonus stats she gets through killing dragons and being in her own dragon form, she’s incredibly weak early on in the game. In addition, she lacks the attack speed early on that she so desperately needs to get full use out of her Q and E abilities.

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Strength in mid game/skirmishes – high

Once Shyvana does get to that first item, though, she can really start to take off. If she goes attack speed, she’ll have the tools to start mowing through camps and enemies in fights. However, if she goes the more meta, AP build, she’ll start to have incredible amounts of burst damage, especially once she hits her dragon form.

In the mid game, Shyvana can dominate 1v1s and small skirmishes if she hasn’t gotten oppressed in that weak early game. Her AoE abilities will hit like a truck with the AP build, or if she goes attack speed she’ll be able to outduel just about anyone regardless of her form. Around one to two items, Shyvana will start to take over the game and start taking all the dragons on the map, scaling into her late game.

Strength in late game/teamfights – medium/high

Shyvana definitely doesn’t “fall off” in the late game because you’ll keep building AP or attack speed to make her kit even stronger. Additionally, as you take more of those dragons, Shyvana will become even harder to kill with those resistances plus the bonus health she gets in her dragon form.

However, Shyvana does have one drawback in those late game team fights: kiting. Apart from her ult, Shyvana has no way to get onto a target with ease. She can be slowed, CC’ed, or just walked away from and be forced to tank all the incoming damage.

As a result, you might have a bit of difficulty in those longer, full-on team fights as opposed to smaller skirmishes and 1v1s you found easier in the mid game. That said, Shyvana still has the capacity to burst down any opponent in front of her with her AP build or shred through the frontline sitting in front of her.