Talk:Shyvana/@comment-24049414-20140107084440/@comment-7707879-20140116160809

"The only "buff" she received was on patch V3.9, July from last year, not anytime near her sudden popularity. She has remained unchanged since then, and the only indirect buff she has received was the Trinity buff. I could count the Wit's end changes, but those happened before her "buff". Other than that, her jungle items have been nerfed or W can't proc anymore SotEL, and she has no sustain unless you build hp regen or lifesteal. Not to mention that calling "strong" a 2% of maximum health is just like calling the old Madred's "OP". So yes, it's pretty much exaggeration"

A lot of this seems wrongheaded to me. I'm not sure why the word buff is in quotation marks, as if the claim that she was buffed is dubious. Most of Shyvanna's damage is magic, and magic damage is harder to build against early game than physical (negatron and potions is not a common starting build because it starves you of sustain), so her old 15% armour pen did less good for her than her new 2% max HP damage per hit in lane. The 2% max HP per hit also helps her considerably in going toe to toe with the strongest and most prevalent tops in the game at the moment - Renekton, Mundo and tanky Rengar - of course it does, becuase they build HP (aaaaaaaaw, it all makes sense!). The Trinity buff was NOT the only indirect buff she received, as I said, the defensive and offensive mastery changes highly favour tanky champions (bye bye Wukong and Jax) because they make better use of them and there's less access to penetration unless you go deep in the damage tree, but doing so as a Wu or a Jax will not enable you to beat a Renekton, Nasus, Rengar or Shyvanna who takes defensive masteries, plays safe then builds pure tank. Clearly the fact that she's doing incredibly well in top means that she doesn't need that sustain, what she has is enough, so the point is irrelevant. Finally, Madred's was strong, but expensive and subject to a weak build path, either way, who wouldn't want a part of it built into their kits for free?