hey everyone, I desperately need some advice for playing solo queue as shyvana in the jungle. I don't have any specific problems (people have watched my replays and said I do okay), but I just never win. like, seriously, my win rate is ~25%, and that includes times when I premade with *really* good carries. every time I queue by myself, I end the game feeling useless and bad about my abilities. I'd like to just be like "oh yeah I'm just bad and deserve to be 900 Elo", but I've played other champs and other positions, without even being practiced with them, and won games. I'm actually pretty good, and every "pro" player I ask is telling me I'm doing fine and to just keep practicing. but I just can't shake the fact that I have a 25% win rate with my favorite champ.

so, please, anyone who is good with shyvana, give me any advice you can think of that might help me pull together wins out of random solo queue matches. I counter-jungle when it's safe, but I can't be in there all the time because rarely does my team help me. I usually buy a ward or two every time I go back because nobody wards, ever. I realize this could hurt my build, and I usually rush heart of gold to make up for it. I usually start ninja tabi, heart of gold, wriggles, phage, and then work on tanky stuff involving giants and their belts. I rarely gank lanes unless they are really pushed, because I CONSTANTLY go into a lane for a gank and the enemy just walks in the opposite direction, laughing at me and my lack of cc, gap close, or any decent initiate really. I lose my lane's confidence in me, the other jungler knows where I am, it just doesn't go well. so I'm usually confined to my jungle, and have little ganking power. even lategame when I am super-beefy, I rely completely on my team to do all the damage and all the CC and everything! is it just bad to play shyvana in low Elo, or am I missing something big?

tl;dr
please help me get more wins with one of my favorite champions, shyvana, in solo queue thanks

Wriggles first. Boots + 3 to start. Then HoG. Then Aegis + Merc's.

You will fail ganks, but you still have to gank. The thing is, you just have to get Wriggles and keep jungling and show up to countergank and gank. Use your speed to move around the map and be everywhere at once.

It's ok to fail ganks, just try not to waste too much time. Gank again if you can burn their flash.

you want the enemys to be more then half way in the lane prefs almost at your tower to gank you should have atealst 1 person in that lane with a stun, gap closer anything that can deter them long enough to run in and do some damage you will atleast blow there flash which is considered a successful gank get your teammates in that lane to initiate as the enemy will think there just being agressive

dont waste time trying to gank i.e sitting in the bush just head back to the jungle. mid is always going to be the hardest lane to gank due to how small the length of it is and with no gap closer or stun apart from your speed boost you typically wont catch em to land a hit but might make em use a flash.

if you see low hp enemys recalling on the tower dont be afraid to dragon ult onto them and speed off more often the not you just missed a real easy kill. with shyvs tankyness you can do dragon as soon as you get wriggles to head there ping bot to come help.

phage is a must after HoG wriggles and boots just be mindful to build according to the opposing team.

The most important thing to know about shyvanna is that she has (pretty much) no CC. You can't afford to pick her unless other people on your team have reliable cc for team fights.

I literally cannot jungle if I start boots. I can't take a buff without a leash at all (which happens in about 15% of games at my Elo), I have to go back immediately after my first buff, then duo golems will force me to b again due to low hp. even with cloth armor and 5 potions, I go back to heal no less than three times within the first 5 minutes. I've tried starting boots with jungle shyvana, and ended up raging hard at my team when they refused to leash or help and I died to the first blue buff of the game. I'm pretty sure I ended up sitting at wraiths waiting out the 60 second timer because I literally couldn't kill any of the other jungle camps. then I used my smite on duo golems just to get up to level 2.

like, after playing a decent amount of game with shyvana, I definitely get the feeling that I am doing something HORRIBLY wrong, and am simply not noticing it. when I watch replays, these guys don't even bother to buy wards or potions. they just stay alive. they counter jungle whenever they feel like it, and gets kills and buffs. teammates come and help them for buffs, ganks are initiated by cc from carries and are always successful. everything just WORKS. and when I play, *nothing* does. I don't even feel I'm getting better, because I never find something I'm doing wrong and fix it. I just.. lose.

Ask for a leash. People should leash at any elo no matter how low. It's standard play. Personally I like to start Cloth + 5 pots with Shyv, because I get an earlier lantern and W helps you move around faster. You're a pretty lousy ganker early game so the lack of move speed without boots I think is easily made up by the vastly increased farm and sustainability from an earlier Wriggle's.

I usually build
Cloth + 5
Wriggle's
Boots
HoG
Upgrade Boots
Phage
Wit's End
etc...

as for ganking, Shyvana's not the best at it. Her real perk is her incredibly good mobility and map presence. She moves around the map REALLY quickly and can surprise a lot of people not expecting her, and she counter-jungles very well. She trades the CC/disruption that some of the other jungles have for higher damage and usually more survivability.

so you wouldn't recommend ganking at all until you have wriggles? that's like, at least three jungle clears, and I still wouldn't even have boots. this wouldn't bother me that much, but my lanes always seem to lose. every game, my top, mid, and bot lane are consistent dying, like once every 5 minutes or so. and as a math major, I know how statistics works - if lanes get lost EVERY game I play, it must be my fault, because 50% of the time, my lanes should have the better players. this is why I'm here asking for advice. the "farming wriggles + phage early game and not ganking until my build can make up for my lackluster kit" strategy isn't working for me. perhaps it only works at higher Elos or something? I need strategies that will get me out of hell and into the 4-digit Elos again..

the thing about shyv is she is more of counter jungler than a ganker. u shud only gank when u have red buff or exhaust up. you have no way of locking down a target unless the person ur ganking for has burst dmg or some form of hard cc. you shud counter jungle with shvy ur dmg is pretty high and ur move speeed so you shud be fine against most jungler unless its like mundo or lee. you also inform ur team that u will be counter jungling a lot and for them to back u up if anything goes down. if u put the other jungler behind that means the other team gets little to no ganks. so your team has the chance to farm n do w/e. also try to get orcales early. no vision for the other team is rlly good for your team....once they lose control of their jungle its kinda over for them....for build go the usual shvy build....also u must secure ur objectives such as drag, enemy buffs, baron...thats where oracles n wards come in....

after playing more games today, I'm about ready to quit this game - it brings me nothing but sadness and frustration. lategame, EVERYONE focuses me, as shyvana. I have nothing but tankiness, and they STILL ALL FOCUS ME!! and they get away with it!! my carries do NOTHING while I die, and then the team gets aced with no tank. I need help so badly, HOW DO YOU WIN WITH THIS STUPID CHAMP

Hey there. The biggest problem is usually macro decisions like when to gank or when to farm instead of particular item builds.

The jungle is really not a great source of income and if all you did was farm the jungle you would need to farm constantly and have 2 GP/5 items to keep up with the other lanes. Shyvanna in particular is very item dependent as well. In order to stay relevant with Shyvanna you either need to feed off of ganks or deny the enemy jungler their own buffs.

If you allow the enemy jungler to gank and farm as you do Shyvanna will fall behind unless you get fed from ganks. I highly suggest a level 1 invade if the enemy jungler relies on blue. Wait for 1:45 to move in and most of the time this results in a first blood for your team and you get to steal a blue. If this is successful the next order of business is to secure your own red and make sure they enemy jungler doesn't take your blue in the process.

If you can't manage the above you should try starting at wraiths and red buff so that you can either do a level 2 gank on top lane or steal the enemy red buff for extra xp. Remember that Shyvanna is highly item dependent and that you need to maintain a lead in the early game to make up for this fact. You should view every camp and every champion as a potential step towards this goal. Shyvanna thrives on aggression and not passive farming.

Also you don't necessarily need to take an escape on Shyvanna. Her dragon form is a great escape if you save it for when you're going to counter jungle. Instead of flash/ghost you grab exhaust. I know ignite sounds great, but Shyvanna has no innate CC and exhaust allows you to secure a kill more often in a gank than ignite does. (especially since top and mid usually carry ignite themselves!)