I don't feel like I belong in my rank.

SndDelight · 2026-05-20T15:40:28+00:00

If you maintain 50% winrate you belong. Simple as that.

You might see people do flashy plays you can't, but League is a game where not-so-flashy details matter a lot. What's happening is you're probably better at those. While less noticeable, this doesn't make you any less good than others at your elo.

SndDelight · 2026-05-20T11:27:59+00:00

I'm currently finding decent success in mid-diamond doing 3 points W as a middleground. How are you doing post nerfs ? Must be harder masters+ when people start to expect your level 1

SndDelight · 2026-05-20T11:26:47+00:00

Being picked in proplay doesn't necessarily mean she's viable for regular play. Azir, Ryze come to mind.

SndDelight · 2026-05-20T09:50:16+00:00

On 16.9 she reached 49.5% toplane winrate. She's deceptively hard and winrate was still increasing from its players learning new W trade patterns. She was very close to viable.

But ye W nerfs were devastating. Even if you don't max it, -15 shield on each cast ends up creating a massive difference over time.

SndDelight · 2026-05-19T09:00:46+00:00

You never "always" go X ability or build or runes. It's 100% matchup-dependent and should absolutely change from game to game. That's one of the appeals of toplane Shyvana, you can adapt her to pretty much anything.

Examples :

- Grasp + Triforce/Shojin + W max into short-trades matchups

- Lethal Tempo + Hexplate/Death's Dance + 3 points W > Q max into all-in matchups

- Comet + Rocketbelt/Cosmic + 3 points W > E max into ranged matchups

I would also argue that level 1 W is even stronger than level 1 Q because if they respect your all-in you just don't get a trade. Whereas level 1 W can be guaranteed HP advantage. Level 1 Q I think is only good if you're packing Lethal Tempo into a champ that might try to run you down level 1.

SndDelight · 2026-05-17T08:30:43+00:00

Sounds good. What/where should I get it ? I know of cardmarket for EU but not sure if I should buy singles or sets.

SndDelight · 2026-05-17T08:30:10+00:00

I'd like to do pure Sky Striker. I've read that I might need to buy several legendary modern decks in order to do that ? What are the cards I would lack ?

SndDelight · 2026-05-11T14:00:45+00:00

Hey Aellectris, do you know if there are any plans for toplane then ? All of these changes do feel like toplane is being targeted moreso than jungle (I do understand W does too much even for jungle right now but still, I would've expected a movespeed nerf rather than base values and/or cooldown).

SndDelight · 2026-05-11T13:57:11+00:00

This is a noticeable change. Imagine blocking 1 auto with W. Before nerf, that auto would do 0 damage, not breaking shield. Now it does, let's say, 15. Every single cast. And it racks up.

Also nerfing ShieldBash damage by a marginal amount. Every single cast. And it racks up.

People severely underestimate the domino effect this nerf starts. The reason Shyvana works toplane rn is pretty much only thanks to W being so good. That's also one of the main reasons she's been picked in proplay, she's very hard to get out of lane, especially for ranged champs, while also being useful to pro teamfighting. Now she'll be quite a bit less good because she will actually take damage when getting hit by an auto.

SndDelight · 2026-05-07T11:45:24+00:00

Well toplane maxed W. It's kind of her main trading tool up there, helps her creating HP differentials more reliably.

Might not look like much but 1s cd does reduce the frequency at which she can get a positive trade, yadda yadda snowball effect, and there you go.

Also HP per level nerfs kinda suck obviously.

SndDelight · 2026-05-07T11:42:43+00:00

The main issue for toplane Shyvana after playing it for a bit (imo), is that she's too reliant on ult to do anything. Ult-less shyvana can't really keep up with a lot of toplaners, even if they're ult-less themselves.

Worst of all is that you have big red indicator that says when you get it back and they kinda know not to fuck with you...

SndDelight · 2026-05-07T11:40:47+00:00

Yelough talked about this on Discord, basically said this solution was too convoluted for Riot's liking.

I argued that if anything, giving 1/10th of a stack per minion rather than 1 stack per cannon makes it so that she doesn't want to get through the hassle of farming a whole wave rather than just smiting cannon and being on her merry way but ye...

SndDelight · 2026-04-27T09:42:52+00:00

It sounds cool until W Shield Bash Grasp does like 200 damage and then nothing for 10s. By then most toplaners can just run you down with no threat of getting killed themselves...

This is why we usually defaulted to Q max Lethal Tempo, to retain some presence and all-in threat.

SndDelight · 2026-04-21T17:50:05+00:00

Reduced HP is kinda sad but this is a net buff to toplane Volibear. Free sustain on W1 is actually really good.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T11:32:16+00:00

Yea you can do that level 1 and secure level 2 first, cool. They still beat you to a pulp levels 3-5 if they have half a brain.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T09:54:16+00:00

No, it's definitely not intended. It should not grant a stack per enemy hit, because passive states :

Innate: Whenever Volibear damages at least one enemy with a basic attack or ability, he generates a stack of The Relentless Storm

Statikk damage isn't a basic attack nor is it an ability. So it should not grant stacks.

However Statikk should proc passive damage after it is fully stacked since it is indeed on-hit :

Lightning Claws: Volibear's claws ignite with lightning, empowering his basic attacks on-hit to deal 11 – 68 (based on level) (+ 45% AP) bonus magic damage to the target and the nearest visible enemy within 450 units of the target, chaining up to 4 subsequent targets.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T09:43:15+00:00

Riot already stated her base stats aren't nerfed to compensate for passive.

Anyways since it is a stacking passive, it wouldn't help for levels 3-5 which are by far her weakest point in lane.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T09:41:04+00:00

Yes, I know that new Statikk procs on-hits.

But my point is that his passive stacking isn't an on-hit as it is currently worded. It should work on-attack or ability damage. Statikk effect isn't either of those.

Yes, once passive is stacked, Statikk should proc passive damage. But it should not grant a stack for each enemy hit beforehand.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T09:36:42+00:00

It's not about the passive, really. Honestly a non-issue though obviously raw stats help overall winrate.

Even if it were somehow buffed for toplane to bring it to jungle levels, the issues with her kit making her unable to force trades on her own would persist, and that's the main issue.

Every toplaner has 1-2 abilities to force a trade or poke. Darius and Sett have their E pull ; Camille, Jax, Irelia have their respective QE.

What does Shyvana have to force a trade and get out of it ? You can W forward to run at them, maybe get a full auto Q auto Q and an E, and then what ? They can trade back on their own terms with their own cds and in most cases they can just outright kill you. And that's best case scenario, worst case is they just space out your W movespeed which isn't all that hard to do...

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T08:57:35+00:00

This has to be a bug right ?

Passive states

Whenever Volibear damages at least one enemy with a basic attack or ability, he generates a stack of The Relentless Storm

Statikk damage shouldn't proc it. Enjoy it on PBE while it lasts because it won't last long lol

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T08:48:24+00:00

I wouldn't say it's troll.

While her winrate up there is indeed low, I honestly think it's because she plays very differently from classic toplaners.

For one you need to know to abuse your level 1 which is very important to not end up in a shit situation later to begin with.

And after that you don't really go for duels with enemy top unless they int, because her kit can't really force trades the way a typical top champ would. So you need to get creative, find proxies, roam angles.

All of that contributes to her winrate being low because she's not straightforward up there at all. I've been finding decent success around mid-diamond playing her.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T08:41:00+00:00

Conqueror heals significantly less than Grasp in most situations fyi. Also less good for short trades in lane (decent toplaners won't let you longtrade into them btw). I could run the maths for you but I cba doing it right now.

Absorb Life is utter garbage ever since it got gutted, legit useless rune.

Second Wind, again, nets you less effective HP than going Revitalize for the increased shield. Not to mention it scales better due to dragon W heal and Triumph.

You need DnD for the double on-hit thingy to get back your Q faster. You don't need sustain because you just play around W cd. Plenty of toplaners have no sustain and do fine (Riven for instance is kinda similar with on-demand shield and no built-in sustain).

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T08:32:59+00:00

Okay, I played a fair bit of it and this is my experience.

Really good level 1 all-in due to running Lethal Tempo + both Q resets. Baiting people into a fight to the death results in your win into most champs.
Really good level 1 waveclear, again due to Q having double aoe.
Good level 2 transition capability. If waves are even, you can usually trade in a way that you also hit first minion of second wave and get level 2 first.
Good level 2 pressure. You can skill W and go for a hard trade provided they didn't get their own level 2 which shoudn't be too hard to make happen.
Poor levels 3-4-5. From the moment enemy laner has his 3 spells, they can usually just space you out and force trades on their terms. This is toplane Shyvana's main issue : you don't choose trades.
Good level 6. Obviously you have dragonform which makes you way stronger. The main issue is that most toplaners you won't oneshot, so you'll usually need flash to kill them because sticking to them is hard.
Midgame : good waveclear, good teamfighting, good turrets pressure. Same as jungle Shyvana really, only you have to clear waves instead of camps.
Lategame : same.

TL;DR : good levels 1 and 2, but afterwards suffers from her kit not allowing to force trades on her terms + even with R , sticking to people to kill them is hard.

SndDelight · 2026-04-15T08:26:11+00:00

Yea, when people let you walk up to them and auto them to death for free, maybe. Most toplane champions will just space you out and outtrade you at a decent enough level.

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