Eventually everyone has one of those moments where life throws them a curve ball and they learn that you sometimes meet people who are full of surprises. So, when we first ran into Shyvana, the Half-Dragon, suffice to say we were rather taken aback indeed when we saw her actually transform into a dragon.

So unless you’re a truly incorrigible herpetophobic, we’re confident that you’ll find that not all surprises have to be unpleasant.

For this mechanics preview, we wanted to focus less on the individual abilities of our upcoming champion and talk about the skillset and character flow of Shyvana, the Half Dragon, as a whole.

Shyvana is a melee champion that heavily rewards aggression. She does so by utilizing a system called Dragon’s Blood, a resource that accrues anytime Shyvana lands an auto-attack. Once her Dragon’s Blood is full, she can unleash it to transform into a dragon, giving her substantial buffs, ability enhancements and some upfront damage. While in dragon form, Shyvana’s Dragon’s Blood is slowly consumed, though she can continue auto-attacking to extend the duration of the Dragon Form and maximize her damage output with each use.

It’s also worth mentioning that Shyvana’s ultimate has no cooldown, but can only be used when her reserve of Dragon’s Blood is full. The right set of circumstances can allow a skilled player to transform much more often than other would otherwise be possible.

In addition, all of Shyvana’s abilities also have benefits that trigger when she auto-attacks. This is to differentiate her from the “melee caster” paradigm embodied by some other characters, making her play somewhere between an Attack Damage carry and a fighter.

Simply put, Shyvana is for players who like any of the following:
Offensive, aggressive playstyles
Melee carries or fighters
The idea of being a super-rad dragon

We think this wantonly aggressive playstyle is something we haven’t seen previously on the Fields of Justice. It’s an exciting opportunity for players to experience a new way to play League of Legends.

Shyvana is a melee champion that heavily rewards aggression. She does so by utilizing a modified Fury* resource that accrues anytime Shyvana lands an auto-attack. Once her Fury is full, she can unleash it to transform into a dragon, giving her substantial buffs, ability enhancements and some upfront damage.

Abilities:
Twin Bite
Shyvana strikes twice on her next attack. Both attacks trigger On-Hit effects and Fury of the Dragonborn effects.
Dragon Form: Twin Bite cleaves all units in front of Shyvana.
Burnout
Shyvana deals magic damage per second to nearby enemies and her Movement Speed is greatly increased for 3 seconds. Shyvana's Movement Speed bonus is reduced over time.
Dragon Form: Burnout scorches the earth, continuing to damage enemies that stand on it.
Flame Breath
Shyvana unleashes a fireball that deals magic damage and melts the target's Armor for 4 seconds.
Dragon Form: Flame Breath engulfs all units in a cone in front of Shyvana.
Dragon's Descent (Ultimate)
Active: Shyvana transforms into a dragon and takes flight to a target location. Enemies along her path take magic damage and are knocked toward her target location.
Passive: Shyvana reinforces her scales, increasing her Armor and Magic Resist. Defensive bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.
Fury of the Dragonborn (Passive)
Shyvana's melee attacks enhance her abilities.
Twin Bite - Reduces the cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
Burnout - Extends the duration by 1 second to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Flame Breath - Deals 20% of the ability's damage to debuffed targets.
Dragon's Descent - Attacks generate 2 Fury* and Shyvana passively gains Fury* over time while in human form.

*Note: Fury was mislabeled “Dragon’s Blood” in the mechanics preview