Like to punch things while running really, really fast? Shyvana might be the dragon girl for you!

I'm a very picky player when it comes to choosing a champion in League of Legends. Not only do I require my character to be aesthetically pleasing, but he, she, or it also needs to be mechanically coherent with my eccentric and aggressive playstyle. Unfortunately, since the release of Skarner, I haven't really taken to any of Riot's more recent champions. Talon is undeniably powerful, but I wasn't a big fan of his squishiness; Riven is a great concept on paper, but her sword swings are clunky in execution (I was looking more for something like Pandamonium from Heroes of Newerth); Xerath is fun, but his safe playstyle can get a little tedious; and while Graves is fun, his mega-popularity has turned me into a hipster - he's simply too mainstream for my tastes. Riot's newest champion, Shyvana the Half-Dragon, however, is just right for me.

Shyvana is one of the few female tanky DPS champions who relies heavily on auto attacking and in-fighting to get the job done. Her playstyle is reminiscent of champions like Olaf, Udyr, or Trundle, which also means that she is a strong jungler. Shyvana's passive, Fury of the Dragonborn gives each of her abilities a bonus effect that triggers whenever she gets in an auto-attack. She can also be considered to be a cooldown-based champion, as opposed to being a Fury based champion, because only her ultimate uses Fury, and it requires a full bar to be used. Shyvana passively builds fury every second, but she can also attack enemies to build it faster.

Shyvana's first ability, Twin Bite (Q), is a strike ability that, when used, makes her next auto-attack hit twice, with both hits dealing her full attack damage (at maximum level). Twin Strike also applies all on-hit effects twice, so it really shines with on-attack items and proc items. Thanks to her passive, Shyvana reduces the cooldown of Twin Bite by 0.5 seconds every time she attacks something, so this ability comes off cooldown much faster when she's on a target (similar to Skarner). Shyvana's second ability, Burnout (W) is, by far, her best ability. Upon using Burnout, Shyvana gets a huge movement speed bonus (up to 50%!) while also dealing magic damage around her. Because Burnout scales with Shyvana's bonus attack damage, this ability is very threatening, and it allows Shyvana to be a fantastic pusher. As well, each time Shyvana hits an enemy while Burnout is up, she extends the duration of the ability by one second (up to a maximum of six seconds).

Shyvana's third ability, Flame Breath (E), is fairly underwhelming in its execution. It does get a significant boost while Shyvana is in dragon form, but in human form, Flame Breath is a straight-line fireball that deals decent base damage and reduces her targets' armor by 15% for four seconds. Additionally, if Shyvana hits a target who has been hit with Flame Breath, she deals 15% of this ability's damage as bonus magic damage. On paper, this is a strong ability with great potential, but in execution the fireball has a very small hit detection width, and it's nearly impossible to hit an opponent if they stand beside a creep. Try fighting against Yorick, and you'll understand what I mean (even jungling can get annoying).

A full champion breakdown on Page 2!