Talk:Shyvana/@comment-3578129-20120416074536/@comment-64.229.81.6-20120416113655

I find initiating with Shyvana in team fights is generally a mistake. She has no real crowd control and as a result, as you've described, flying into an enemy team just gets you killed. I tend to only pick her for jungling if we already have a capable initiator on our team (Or a Lulu that can ult me). Your role in the fight once you're in it though is to find their carry and mash the hell out of them, or keep an eye on your own carry and mash the hell out of anyone pushing them out of the fight.

Ganking is about positioning, and even so, they will always be weak. I run Exhaust-Smite on my Shyvana so that I have at least some form of crowd control outside of Red Buff. The hardest part with her is catching up to them. Save your Burnout for when you get close, as if it runs out before you get a hit in, you'll have to wait the rather long cooldown before you can ever catch up again. Wait until they Flash before using Exhaust to re-close the gap. Once you do get a hit in, and with Red Buff, the amount of damage you can put in on someone is ridiculous. It's rare that I get a kill on people in a Shyvana gank unless they're waaaaaay past the river, but you'll at least chunk away enough health to make them back or easy to deal with for your laner.