League of Legends Shyvana Mechanics Previewed

A few days ago Riot Games teased us with the new champion coming to League of Legends – Shyvana, the Half Dragon.

Today, they have given us a preview of the mechanics for Shyvana.  Rather than focus on the individual abilities of the upcoming champion, Riot has focused on the skillset and character flow of Shyvana, as a whole.

Riot released the playstyle of the newest champion to enter the Fields of Justice.

Shyvana is a melee champion that heavily rewards aggression. She does so by utilizing a modified Fury (originally mislabeled Dragon Blood) 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. While in dragon form, Shyvana’s Fury 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.

Shyvana is one of the few champions with no cooldown on her ultimate, but it can only be used when her reserve of Fury is full.  "The right set of circumstances can allow a skilled player to transform much more often than would otherwise be possible."

"In addition, Shyvana’s passive triggers benefits to each of her abilities 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."

Riot suggests Shyvana for players who like any of the following:

• Offensive, aggressive playstyles
• Melee carries or fighters
• The idea of being a super-rad dragon

I think I found her weakness….Thornmail.  Still, it's an interesting concept for a new champion.