Hey everyone.
Like many of you, I was really excited about Shyvana's rework. I used to play her a lot in the toplane and loved her versatility. The visuals really delivered, but the gameplay felt off, for the same reasons as most of you. After seeing Riot's direction recently, as they do not seem to be willing to put more investement in big changes for her, I decided to try my hand at a proposal. I would love feedback from veterans of the champions as well as new mains.
Shyvanna's core identity: A brawler/juggernaut who clears the jungle fast, scales well, and becomes a true melee threat. Her ultimate fulfills the dragon fantasy by being a massive steroid of new tools and making her a presence that can't be ignored.
Passive : Draconic Lineage (full rework)
The live passive feels off and uninteractive while costing way too much power budget and keeping her off toplane. I tried to think of something completely different and here's what I came to :
Auto attacks apply stacks. At 5 stacks, Shyvana's claws ignite and she deals a small %max health magic burn on-hit. This state refreshes on hit but expires after ~8-10 seconds without hitting anything. The burn is amplified against monsters to keep her jungle clear healthy while being a good lever for balance. It would also be a good conditionnal fighting tool. This replaces the Fury mechanic, and will be now tied to her ultimate.
Q : Emberstrike (reworked)
Q1: Double on-hit attack reset single target. After a 1.5s windup, Q2 becomes available: tail slams in a circle dealing AoE damage and applying a 30% slow for 0.75s. Auto attacks reduce Q's cooldown by 0.5s per hit. Q3 unchanged in ult if not for the later changes at the end of the post.
The windup creates a readable moment for both players with less button mashing and more impactful hits, should pairs well with Sheen items. I believe it would also lean into her fantasy especially during her ult. A big dragon that spams her Q animations looks a bit funny.
W : Inferno Aegis (minor adjustments)
A chase and duel tool. Movement speed persists even after the shield breaks, so losing it mid-chase doesn't completely shut down her ability to stick to targets. Adjusted numbers to reduce movespeed uptime to make her sticky without making her a map-wide mobility threat with her high clear speed.
E : Molten Burst (reworked)
A short-range cone burst (similar animation with bigger area as current Q1) with a light slow. Deals damage and applies an armor/MR shred, think Kayle's Q but melee/mid range. Not a ranged tool anymore, which keeps it fair, but would be genuinely threatening in melee and allow and rewards the player for staying close while enhancing all her other damage sources.
The goal is for this spell to feed cohesive with the rest of the kit, without giving her tools to safely poke from a distance.
R : Dragon Form (adjusted)
It would return to a classic cooldown instead of Fury. While I really love the current fury mechanic on live, it would feel more cohesive and easier to read and balance. On cast, Shyvana immediately activates her passive (ignited state). She maintains dragon form as long as her passive stays active → takedowns and AA refresh it, rewarding aggressive play. Failing to land hits and letting the passive expire ends the transformation, giving opponents a clear counterplay window and punishing bad ult timings.
Alternative iteration worth considering: Dragon's Flight
I believe theses changes could work well and feel better but they'd be quite different to what we have now :
Q3 in dragon form changes to become live ult E → a massive AoE damage spell. Balanced by the Q windup making it harder to get.
It would then free up E entirely for a complete rework of the spell.
New E : human form, a short fire wings leap that would be a reposition tool, and a true flight ability in dragon form. The flight would let her pass over terrain and pursue targets, but she'd have to have to land and hit a champion to maintain her passive stacks and prevent the ult to run out. Staying airborne too long or using it to escape would costs her the ultimate entirely. It's a high-risk, high-fantasy option that I believe would be really enjoyed by the players without being too broken in my option, but i'd be cautious with it.
Design goals:
- Redistributing Shyvana's strenghts where they grant player satisfaction
- Versatile build paths (AD and AP both viable), toplane viable
- Not a balance nightmare or heavily elo-skewed with many easy to tweak levers in the kit.
- Keeps her weaknesses (kitable, needs to get in melee) intentional while giving new tools to allow Shyvana mains to overcome them through skill.
- Dragon form feels like a true power fantasy with clear counterplay more than a melee statcheck
I'd be really interested to have some feedback. I dont have experience in game design so it may have flaws I might not see, but I tried to make this a realistic power redistribution rather than a buff wishlist.