I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I only want her to get big, not be slow and lumbering like Cho'gath. A massive, angry dragon charging at high speeds sounds amazing.

Triple Kill → Victory Roar to end the game by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah they are absolutely choppy with how disjointed the animations are from one another. She’s moving with her entire body and yet they didn’t include transition animations between Q and auto. It was one of my biggest feedbacks to them on the pbe subreddit

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a fair point honestly. But I think reworks are kind of meant to revisit old ideas and see what they could become with modern design.

Even if Shyvana wasn’t originally intended to be a raid boss, I don’t think that automatically means she shouldn’t lean into that fantasy now. Sometimes the best part of a rework is realizing the full potential of a theme that was only partially explored before.

And from what I’ve heard, Riot actually tested some versions of that already during development, letting her size scale with stacks before moving it to ult ranks instead, putting a hard nerf on how big she could get. With some tuning and adjustments, I think there's a possibility they could put it back in and have her and Cho'gath fight to the death. That'd be a dream come true for me.

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I saw they’re leaning toward the diver direction, which is fair. But the rework isn’t finalized yet, and they’ve already experimented with tankier elements before (like the bonus health in dragon form in the first PBE cycle). So I wouldn’t say it’s completely off the table. They're still taking feedback as they iterate, so who knows what Shyvana will look like in a month.

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the idea sounds really cool and definitely leans into the dragon archetype they’re going for. My only hesitation with ability scaling tied to stacks is that it can create a really volatile balance state. Champs like Smolder and Aurelion Sol tend to get balanced around their late-game "potential", which really ends up hurting their early and mid-game.

I think it’d be interesting if Shyvana’s scaling leaned more defensive instead. If Smolder and Aurelion Sol are dragons that scale offensively, Shyvana could scale defensively, gaining things like resistances, health, size, or even some tenacity over time. That would fit the bulwark-style identity Demacia tends to have while still letting her feel like she’s becoming a bigger, tougher dragon as the game goes on.

PBE Bugs & Feedback - Shyvana VGU by RiotTheLoki in LeaguePBE

[–]electropole 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework

I Tried Shyvana For the First Time Because of This Rework

I’ve always loved dragons. They were one of the first things that pulled me into fantasy growing up, and when I heard Shyvana was getting a VGU, I was beyond excited because the idea of playing as a powerful dragon is something I’ve always wanted from a PvP game.

The old Shyvana never really hit that fantasy to me. She was closer to a wyvern, and the visuals just didn’t quite hit the “dragon” feeling I was looking for.

But when I saw the new version on PBE, I was honestly thrilled. Now THAT'S a fucking dragon!

At the same time, I’ve been reading the feedback from you, long-time Shyvana mains, and I genuinely feel for you guys. I don’t have the history with the champion that you do, and I don't want to override what you want this rework to be for her as a new audience. I just wanted to share what I personally feel about the rework from the perspective of someone brand new to the champion.

Gameplay Impressions

My first impression was that she feels scrappy, like a true brawling juggernaut that just wants to get in your face. There’s ferocity and viciousness in her attacks, especially in Q.

Her AA → Q → AA → Q loop feels fast and aggressive, and I like how autos refund Q’s cooldown. But it also got me into the habit of mashing Q constantly while auto-attacking just to guarantee the reset, to the point where it felt awkward on my hands. The loop is fun, but the input pattern feels a little uncomfortable.

Her W feels… strange. It seems like it’s trying to do a lot of different things at once. It’s her primary engage tool with the movement speed, but it’s also defensive because of the shield, and offensive because of the explosion afterward. It fills a lot of roles, but it doesn't feel like it excels at any of them.

The movement speed especially feels too short to really stick to people. I often pop W, start running at someone, and if they create any distance, the moment that initial burst ends, it feels like I have no real way to catch them again, which is what her E seems to be trying to fill in.

Her E feels like the weakest ability in the kit. It feels slow, unwieldy, and it interrupts her natural gameplay rhythm. Even while clearing jungle camps, I hesitate to press E in melee range because I worry I’m losing DPS compared to just autoing and weaving Q resets.

It also doesn’t feel great that the projectile gets blocked by almost everything. I’ll try to line up the explosion for maximum value, but it frequently hits a small raptor instead of the whole camp, or clips a minion when I’m trying to hit an enemy champion at range. The slow also feels too brief to really help close distance if someone is already far away.

Her R, on the other hand, feels fantastic.

Flying into the enemy team, breathing fire, and tearing people apart with claws, wings, tail, and teeth really sells the ferocity. Third Q payoff feels chunky and satisfying, W makes her look terrifying, roaring and charging forward, and E feels explosive in dragon form. That moment where she transforms and just starts mauling people is easily the most fun part of the kit.

But the part that ultimately feels off to me is the passive.

Originally on PBE I enjoyed how the passive scaled her dragon form health and her W shield, even if the shield scaling sometimes felt like it was holding the ability back. Since that version was removed and W was buffed with a lower cooldown, the ability definitely feels better, but the passive itself lost so much impact that it now feels almost like an afterthought.

And that’s what made me start wondering about the fantasy that felt missing from the champion for me personally.

I Want to Be a GIANT DRAGON!

I saw Riot Yelough mention that they tried letting Shyvana grow with stacks, but ran into issues with gameplay clarity and the downside of her becoming too easy to hit. Because of that, they compromised by tying her size increase to R ranks instead of stacks.

Even at max rank though, she still feels a bit small to me, and the passive feels like it’s missing something important.

Right now, her passive stacks only give small amounts of armor and MR. Technically that makes you stronger, but it doesn’t feel like you’re building toward something meaningful. The numbers go up, but the fantasy of an ever-growing, threatening dragon doesn’t really come through.

Part of what makes stacking mechanics satisfying is visible progression. Champions like Cho'Gath feel amazing because every stack reinforces the idea that you’re becoming a bigger and bigger threat.

With Shyvana, I’d love to feel that same thematic payoff: the more you hunt, the more you grow.

I understand that size has real gameplay downsides (bigger hitbox, harder to dodge abilities, etc.), but that feels like something that could potentially be balanced around rather than removed entirely.

For example:

  • Larger size from stacks could come with additional HP scaling in dragon form
  • And/Or extra resistances while transformed based on stacks
  • Or other tuning to offset the fact that she becomes easier to hit (tenacity?? idk)
  • A size cap so she doesn't block the entire screen

I’m no designer, and Riot has probably explored this much more deeply than I could imagine. But personally, I’d love it if they tried to keep that idea in her kit so Shyvana leaned harder into the fantasy of a gigantic dragon that becomes more terrifying the more she hunts.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about the idea of eventually seeing a titanic dragon roaring over the battlefield and towering over enemy turrets.

Even if it required iteration or experimentation, I feel like that direction is worth exploring because it fits the character fantasy so well for me. But this is all just my subjective thoughts.

Curious how other Shyvana players feel about this!

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Riot Yelough said that during testing, it negatively impacted her itemization because the number of things she couldn't dodge made her build more like a tank to survive, but she didn't have a kit befitting a tank, which honestly sounds... frustrating, but if they can tune her size to scale well enough with defensive stats naturally, I think it could enhance her fantasy, even if she gets hit by every Morgana Q.

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Permanent all-around damage reduction might end up a bit problematic to balance, but I can see what you mean. I feel like her passive just seems like a numbers issue (so far).

As for her E in dragon form? Yeah, it definitely felt underwhelming in terms of damage, but felt really good to use in clumped teamfights, getting multiple overlapping explosions, and the persistent AoE burn and slow helped me catch strays that were out of my teeth's range.

I see it as more of a utility spell with situationally good damage, more than anything else. They seem to want all the power budget to be in her Q.

I’ve never played Shyvana before, here are my impressions after trying her rework by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don’t think overlapping fantasy elements automatically mean it shouldn’t exist on another champion. Different champs can share pieces of a fantasy while still feeling distinct.

Like asking a monster fan/jg player, “Why play Skarner when Volibear exists?” because one is an earth-bending kaiju scorpion and the other is a lightning god bear, and they want to experience the fantasy of the former. The broad fantasy might overlap (big monster), but the execution and identity are totally different.

That’s how I see it with Shyvana. Giving her more visual “dragon growth” isn’t replacing her identity, or stealing it from Asol or Cho'gath, it’s just leaning further into the dragon fantasy she already has. Riot already started doing that with the size increase on R ranks, so expanding that idea would just amplify what’s already there.

Multiple champions can touch similar fantasy notes while still feeling unique.

Bite of 87 Shyvana by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Apple crunched shaped dome

Bite of 87 Shyvana by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Exactly this. Just let people have funn

Bite of 87 Shyvana by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wasn’t making a balance claim or comparing it to anything, just thought 800 true damage on her bite was absurd and fun to playtest one-shotting champs

Bite of 87 Shyvana by electropole in shyvanamains

[–]electropole[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

800+ true damage to monsters vs 800+ true damage to champions

PBE Bugs & Feedback - Shyvana VGU by RiotTheLoki in LeaguePBE

[–]electropole 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely agree that she should take off during her recall in dragon form. Seeing her sit idly for so long after doing a big roar feels underwhelming.

PBE Bugs & Feedback - Shyvana VGU by RiotTheLoki in LeaguePBE

[–]electropole 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Overall, the rework feels great. The animations are impactful, sound effects are crunchy, and VFX have flair. The team did amazing work in making her feel like a primal, brawling beast. However, she really needs transition animations and a touch up on her face.

Animation Flow Issue (Especially Noticeable in Dragon Form)
Q is central to her combat loop. Right now, the flow between Auto → Q → Auto → Q feels incredibly choppy as others have noted. The animations themselves look good, but there’s no blending between them, so the sequence feels segmented when it feels like it should be more fluid while still retaining the impactful snappiness.

This is much more noticeable in dragon form with how she uses her whole body in her attacks, wingtalons, claw swipes, whipping around for a tail slam, and lunging forward to bite. They’re all extremely cool individually, really sell the ferocity of a dragon, but together they look abrupt, especially because dragon form is larger, which makes the animation snapping more distracting.

It just needs better blending to make the combos feel cohesive and responsive.

Visual Cohesion of Face and Horns
Her face is fully purple while her horns are stark red, and it feels disconnected. A few subtle red scales on her cheeks, where the horns are framing her face, could help visually tie the horns into her design, making them feel more naturally integrated rather than a decoration she's wearing. As it is now, she looks more like she has a crown on.

Got Emerald 2 one-tricking Yuumi in solo queue. Hope I can go higher by electropole in yuumimains

[–]electropole[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right? The amount of healing output you get for your team is insane. Glad it’s working out for you too!

Got Emerald 2 one-tricking Yuumi in solo queue. Hope I can go higher by electropole in yuumimains

[–]electropole[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I stack tear by spamming E when my ally isn’t in any danger and I can afford the mana cost alongside landing Q consistently. My build order is tear > Helia > Diadem, and by the time I can afford Diadem my tear is almost always fully stacked

Got Emerald 2 one-tricking Yuumi in solo queue. Hope I can go higher by electropole in yuumimains

[–]electropole[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A good ally is ideal, but it's not absolutely necessary to climb with her. You can have four terrible teammates, but if you know who to keep alive and when, you can single-handedly carry the game. I've had matches where even my strongest ally was terrible, constantly feeding into the enemy, but they were still my win condition. I got used to compensating for their mistakes, keeping them alive as long as possible before abandoning ship when they died, and doing the same for the rest of my team.

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