That means im still working on it.

First of all: English is not my native language (if you want to, comment the faulty language). Second of all, my soloqueue (the bad ladder) ELO from season 1 is 1525 (season 2 dont matter! Ok, just a little!). This is to tell you I am by no means a pro player or pretend to be one. The only thing I can say is that I have a fair share of knowledge of this game and have ways to improve as well as helping other improve.

This build has not been extensively tested in Ranked Soloqueue; just 3 games. It has however been abundantly (ab)used in Normal Games.

This is my personal way to play Shen, the lane man. Yes, there's a jungle section later on.

Shen, as many of you know, is a tank. Not a tanky DPS. A tank. He can work as a Tanky DPS though, but that build is more for jungling in my opinion. No, the Shen that might be revitalized with these buffs, after months of unviability due to that cursed AD + Support Bottom Meta, is Tank(y AP) Shen. The Shen that pesters his enemy out of top lane.

Yes, this can to a lesser extent be used to duolane, but you would need Gold/10 items if you'd do that.

27th of bloody August:

-Finally got to updating again, apologies. Rework included.


2nd of January:

- I'm back home from hospital.
- Still need to do jungle.
- Still need to do teamfight counters.
- Want the images for Volibear so I can include him in the Lane Counters.


Now that my guide is actually approved, a chapter about recent changes is mandatory since people are going to read this guide more often.

Documentation start: 26th of November;

- New masteries added in. Big change. Adjusted from a few days ago.
- Jungle section delayed until new jungle is Live.
- Quintessence switch up in Rune section.
- Added newest possible top lanes. Shyvana, Fizz and Skarner (I forgot in my first version, forgive me @_@!). Add suggestion by the way.
- Being happy that my guide actually got approved since it's the first guide I've ever submitted.

And guys, I'll say it here, if you have questions: PLEASE, ask them.

Health 428 (+85)
Energy 200 (Manaless)
Attack Damage 54.5 (+3.375)
Attack Speed 0.651 (+3.4%)
Range 125
Health Regen. 7.45 (+0.55)
Energy Regen. 50
Armor 15 (+4)
Magic Res. 30 (+0)
Mov. Speed 310

Note: Energy. Mana is wasted on him.

The man himself his base stats at level 0 coupled with his leveling stats.

As one might see, he has medium base health (http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_champions%27_health) with medium incrementing stats. Having characters like , , , and even surpassing him here. All these champs, on the other hand, don't have a self shield (excluding Kayle her ultimate), making your health indirectly higher with .

His Attack Damage has been buffed to a state that it's one of the higher ones at level 1 with the increment making it that his AD at level 18 is still among the higher ones. Jungle? Yes, very possible.

His attack Speed is ridiculously high for a tank. Only Nasus and Malphite who should be around Shen's Tankiness beat him in this sector. Jungle? Yes. Wriggles? No.

His Health Regen, well, nothing exceptional.

His Armor at 18 is so high, only a tree, a midget wearing full armor, an armored scorpion, a warrior and a centaur beat this at level 18. Keep in mind, however, that Shen has no ability to increase his armor, unlike a lot of Tanks, Tanky DPS and even assassins.

His Magic resist DOES NOT SCALE WITH LEVEL. This is the greatest flaw he has as a tank, but it can be compensated.

His Movement Speed (310) is pretty bad, but it's more less a tank's average speed, so no complaining.

Free Razer Runes yay! I have no idea how I have two though and not 1 or 3.



This is a standard cookie-cutter runepage for Shen IMO.

Magic Penetration Marks. His abilities as well as his deal magical damage, so capitalize on this.
Other options are:

• Armor. Versus some champions (Riven, Darius, Garen etc) this is EXTREMELY strong. Their harassment potential will positively plummet.
• Attack Speed. Proc more passives, although 15% is not going to be anywhere visible the first 10 levels.
• Critical Chance. A tank is not expected to crit and with a crit chance of around 8~10% will crit his opponent a few times in lane, which helps establish dominance. Late game, these runes would be OK on tanky DPS Shen but way less on the tanky AP Shen.
• Armor Penetration. This is for the more autoattacking Tanky DPS (again). But it can help in lane. Useless after that though.
• Ability Power, either scaling or flat. Last resort, worst choice out of all of them.

Armor Seals. With no additional items, this, combined with the Hardiness Mastery, nets you 38 armor at level 1. That's a reasonable amount and it counters out multiple physical damage bruisers in top lane, as well as AD carries if you were forced fight them.
Other options include:

• HP/LVL. Gives you around 200 extra hitpoints at level 18, which translates to 20 extra damage on and some extra tankiness. You will sacrifice your early game armor with this so a or would be my recommendation with this.
• Endurance. At 3k Health, 9 of these seals give 135 HP. At 4k, it gives 180 HP. So, these seals are better then the Scaling HP/LVL after 4k health. Meaning that these are NOT viable in MY build, but ARE in alternative builds.

Magic Resist/LVL Glyphs. As I said before, if I had to point out the biggest weakness in Shen's base stats, it would be his magic resistance. It doesn't scale. That sucks. To cover this up, I recommend Scaling magic resist glyphs, which overtake the flat MR runes at level 12 (the exact middle point in leveling). This, coupled with the Resistance mastery, would give you a base 60 MR at level 18, good enough for covering it up.
Alternatives:

• Flat Magic Resist. Depends on lane opponent. Did you get paired against that extremely annoying or in top? Take flats. Have an easy lane vs or ? By all means, take scaling.
• Ability Power. I know my guide suggests that you will be Tanky AP, but this doesn't mean you should sacrifice tankiness too much. These runes are inferior to the Magic Resistance ones, but they ARE an option.
• CDR. Meh. If you like them, take them.

Important note: If you play Normal Games, you won't know who your opponent is. In this case scaling MR is preferred since they will have more value mid-to lategame, regardless of the enemy team composition.

Movement Speed Quintessences. I've changed the HP Quintessences to these. With the most recent builds, nearly every champion has some sort of movement speed item (or buff in itself), and that's because movement speed is HUGE, especially on a tank that has a spammable skill (with a Rylai slow on it).
Suggestions:

• HP Quints. They are still powerful, 72 HP is nothing to sneeze at at the first 3~5 levels, coupled with Shen's resistances.
• Ability Power. Powerful Quints these are, and they might aid you well. 15 AP translates to 11 extra damage on and 11 extra shield and a whopping 23 shield on . Granted, 15 AP only increases his ult shield by 11,5% at level 6, but his gets a 16% increase at level 1 and his gets an even more impressive increase of 22% at level 1.
• Magic Resist. You might need them and they are not bad. Don't you bloody laugh.
• Armor. Obnoxious physical bruiser? F*ck you, here have armor!

NEVER EVER EVER GET ENERGY RUNES, REGENERATION OR FLAT. I WILL VISIT YOUR HOME AND STAB YOU WITH A DOOR. THEY ARE THAT BAD.

New Masteries. And I will be frank, they lock Shen in a much stricter Mastery build (in my opinion), even though it helped him (slightly).

But, with no further ado, I present them here, with explanations of ALL the points below, because I'm a perfectionist.





I'll start with defense, since this is more or less the "Tank/Bruiser" Tree.





Tier 1:


Summoner's Resolve: Take if you have a summoner spell in it. Don't if not. Obviously.

Resistance: Yes, this is grand, 6 MR is noticeable in the early game. Couple with flat MR to make people mad. It's less important than armor since top lane is *usually* full on physical damage.

Hardiness: See Resistance, but for armor.

Tough Skin: Ignore minions after harassment -> Profit. Since minions do a lot of small but fast attacks, this mastery is crazy good.


Tier 2:


Durability: Scales with your and the resistances you will be getting. Unlocks Veteran scars.

Vigor: Not bad, but Durability is way better. Also, 3 hp/5 should not be overstimated. gives 8 hp/5. 3 hp/5 = 60 hp/minute. That's 1~2 auto-attack, and you sacrifice 138 hp at level 18 for that, on top of being utterly useless after the laning phase, which is already one of Shen's stronger points.


Tier 3:


Indomitable: Great for jungling, reduces minion significantly since they hit often for little damage. It's a choice between this and Initiator. I can't say which one is better.

Veteran's Scars: Good, and since you've unlocked it now, it's 1 point for 30 hp.

Evasion: This earns a look of disapproval. Even against AOE teams this is bad. If you get hit for 4000 AOE damage you will effectively reduce 120 for that: 3880. ONLY AOE, NO SINGLE TARGET ABILITIES COUNTED. Disgusting.

Bladed armor: Awesome for jungling, decent for after laning, since it synergizes with a and a for pushing while remaining tanky.


Tier 4:


Siege Commander: Your minions reduce an enemy tower's armor. No minion's increase a tower's armor by quarduple. Enemy champions reinforce a tower's armor (and some other stats) when they're nearby. All in all, this mastery has greatest effect when you are split-pushing WITH a huge wave. It's a decent mastery if you're splitpushing constantly but if you have a huge minion wave, 10 armor won't matter terribly much. It's only 1 point though, if you like it, take it.

Initiator: Movement speed is vital on a tank. This is more or less a nerfed mastery of the old Quickness, but it's still pretty damn good coupled with movement speed quintessences and .

Enlightenment: gives incredible control over a game, even more so late game, that's why this mastery is AWESOME for Shen. The only other CDR you will be getting anyway is & & , since most other CDR items are not that great for him. So in other words, Shen scales off CDR -> get as much free CDR as possible.
(Blue buff is OK on Shen, especially since his energy managament is terrible, but never forget that an AP Carry or a mana-intensive character ALWAYS has priority)


Tier 5:


Honor Guard: IT'S A TRAP! NO REALLY! If you get a 1000 damage nuke in your face, this mastery takes care of 15 damage for you. Wow. Thanks. I already regenerated that in the second after that. In my opinion, this and Evasion are in need of significant buffing.

Mercenary: Ok, 3 points in this and a teamfight later with 5 assists, this will net you an extra 120 gold. Not too shabby. But only if you get those assists. And only if you win the teamfight, which puts you in a lead anyway. This mastery probably only helps in turning a close game slightly in your favor, but that's it. Moreover, you have to sacrifice 3 points of something else to get this. Not worth it IMO. (Get it in ARAM though)


FINAL TIER:

Juggernaut: A single point of bloody awesome. Synergizes with your passive and the fact that you're a tank.





Offense is a far weaker tree for Shen. Moreover, I will only cover first 3 tiers because anything past 9 points is a waste.

Tier 1:


Butcher: Now this skill makes lasthitting easier and jungling better. It's better than 2 AP, but you should just be better at lasthitting. (Trust me, Shen is great at it)

Brute Force: Same argument as Butcher but works on champions. Still, it's only 3 AD and you're not an AD bruiser.

Mental Force: No, 4 Flat AP for 4 points is just disgusting. Even true mages benefit more from Butcher.

Summoner's Wrath: For me this point is nearly as mandatory as Juggernaut in Defense. Why? It improves both Ghost & Exhaust. That's awesome. If you have other summoner spells, well, it's not as mandatory then.


Tier 2:


Alacrity: Attack speed works, no doubt. But 4%? And it unlocks 10% armorpen? No, thanks.

Sorcery: 4% CDR for 4 points. I've had better. Mages get this more for the Arcane Knowledge that follows, purely because 4% CDR... Well... It's ok I guess. 8 seconds off your ult at rank 1.

Demolotionist: It's worse than Siege Commander from Defense, hence the reason why Riot placed it in tier 2 of offense. And I understand. It's not that good. It has decent impact early game, but it falls off so hard. Still, it's only 1 point... In offense...


Tier 3:


Weapon Expertise: No. Not even as an AD bruiser.

Arcane Knowledge: Meh. It's good for people that rely on their magical damage to actually kill something off. It's good, certainly, but can you justify those 7 wasted points in offense that you could be having in defense or utility?

Havoc: See Honor Guard in defense for explanation but reverse it for extra damage you do instead of less damage you take.






The final tree. It has a few very good masteries but to compensate, Riot filled it with crap.


Tier 1:


Summoner's Insight: For improved teleport or flash. That's it.

Good hands: Now actually the weaker part of the first row of utlity. It's still pretty good, but for Shen Expanded mind is just better.

Expanded mind: 10 Energy. It seems insignificant, but what you've got there is a full second of energy regeneration in your pool. "1 Second? That sucks!" is what you're thinking/saying/flaming. Now you come to the realization that your nearly has no cooldown and costs 60(!) energy at rank 5. Still not getting it? Ok. Late game, if you have 200~300 AP, your deals 340 damage at the least. Thanks to the 10 energy it's highly likely that you can throw one more Rylai's procced 340 damage nuke on a carry or support. Not so funny now, isn't it. Also, if your misses at rank 1. You can still IMMEDIATLY (half second delay) cast and . Without it, one of those skills would come 1 second later. And 1 second is huge in teamfights.

Improved Recall: No. 1 second is a lot in teamfights. But after teamfights and while laning, 1 second is barely registered.


Tier 2:


Swiftness: Let me put it like this. For non-mana champions this is the ONLY option.

Meditation: NO MAN, YOU'RE RUSHING !!!111!!!one!1--

Scout: Champions used Scout! Nothing happened/It's not very effective!


Tier 3:


Greed: Greed is good. Literally. If you are speccing into utility instead of defense, get this. Too bad it got nerfed to be 1 gold/10 for 2 points instead of one. Oh well, doesn't matter since:

Transmutation: Is bad. If you want sustain, attack a minion tagged with , you will heal better by a multiplication of at least 6.

Runic affinity: You won't carry any buffs outside from the ones you obtained from the enemy. You can put the point in, it's pretty good.


Tier 4:


Wealth: Extra potion or maybe a ward + potion combo. One of the strongest masteries in-game. (1 potion is ~200 hp, 1 ward is 3 minutes of ungankablity).

Awareness: Still good, but it sucks that it's now so high up.

Sage: Now this. This is ONLY good on roamers and maybe supports. Not on someone who lanes all day and gets 98% of his experience (probably exaggerated) from dying minions.


Tier 5:


Strength of Spirit: You're not . Stop it.

Intellegence: Decent. If you go 21 points in utility, take it.


GODTIER:


Mastermind: IT'S STILL THE SAME. AND IT'S STILL AWESOME. but yeah, you have 9 defense at max then. In my opinion, not worth it. But you have your own opinion, don't let me deter you.







I'll just write it down instead of images.

Of course, if you take different summoner spells then me, adjust the mastery point in offense if you need to.

More damage, Less spells/"fight" time: 9/21/0. Magic pen and CDR obtained instead of 10 energy and movement speed. Remember that you should NOT take teleport or flash if you go with this.

Less tankiness, More "Accessory" stats: 0/9/21. Sacrifice quite a lot of tank power for the stats Gold gain, Experience and more summoner's.

Hybrid Gold/Tank: 0/15/15 OR 0/16/14. More Gold, Less CDR, No "Ultimate" point in any tree. In essence, the best stats BUT you're missing out on Juggernaut OR Mastermind, arguably the two strongest masteries in the entire game.

These two spells fit into my playing style the best. Having a Rylai and Fon together with another slow and haste has just such good synergy.

not only slows people, no no, it also cripples autoattackers and hybrids (/ for example), reduces ability damage by 33% (throw it on a or a and they will feel the pain of losing 33% of their godawful high burst) and reduces armor and MR by 10.

makes initiating easier. Makes running easier (if you ever had to do it). Makes chasing easier. Makes sticking to the enemy carry easier as well as sticking around yours.

Honorable mentions:

is a versatile spell that can be used offensively and defensively. Not to mention that everyone and their parents run flash on nearly all their champions. It's not mandatory on Shen though. Moreover because he lacks a movement steroid but he HAS a dash. is a replacement for . It can cross (thin) walls and be used to increase/decrease the distance between you and your opponent. This, however, is generally a bad idea since it halves your energy at later levels and uses up more than that at earlier levels.

You will have a solo lane probably. And you will have teammates. And they might be unlucky/dumb enough to be in mortal danger. will save the day! But now your solo lane is empty. If your jungler is close by your lane, ask him to cover, if he can't/won't/was the one you saved at dragon, then your tower might be destroyed/severely damaged. In these cases Teleport comes in handy and allows you to save a tower. It also allows for ridiculous splitpushing, because you will have 2 teleports. Teleport also allows you to be at dragon fights or teamfights when your ultimate is on cooldown. Great spell.

is good for cheesy tactics that involve splitpushing. It can also serve as a way to teleport into battle if you are the first to fall, if you have your ultimate. Late game however, becomes the strongest summoner spell ingame by doubling your presence in a teamfight or defending those few towers you have left. I expect Dyrus & Co. to exploit and abuse this more.

is very good in early game duels when exhaust or ignite is in play. But let's face it, it's only good vs heavy cc teams or if you are an AD carry that dies after a short bout of burst.

since it's buff it now has some proper use mid- and lategame. Still an excellent baiting tool and a viable buff to your saving assery, since you can also pop this after your .

is for balls-to-the-wall bursters. Which you aren't. Still good for actually being able to finish people off.

Extremely good summoner spell, you are mistaken however:

is used for (counter)jungling. Not for laning.

is for your support. If you are the support, take it.

It's getting worse:

is for hybrids that scale of attack speed and ability power. You do. But you're a tank and miss out another summoner this way (also: the stats are bad). So don't.

is pretty bad, especially for someone who can't push or heal/buff minions.

Oh, you teamplayer, you!:



Make your enemies know you are a nice guy. You help teammates and provide your enemies with a free win!

Every 9 seconds, Shen's next attack will deal bonus magic damage equal to 4 + (4 × level) + (10% of his bonus health). Whenever Shen hits an enemy unit with a basic attack, the cooldown is reduced by 1.5 seconds. Shen restores 10 / 20 / 30 energy when he Ki Strikes.



Lackluster early game, starts to shine in the lategame. This is important, it gives energy BACK. Shen has abysmal energy problems so this helps A LOT. Attack speed and health help as well, but health scales far better on it than full attack speed. If you do want bonus attack speed, try to get it form items like , , or even .

Now, to put this in perspective having 1000 bonus health will translate to 100 extra damage on Ki. Not too shabby.




Deals 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+0.6 per ability power) magic damage to target unit. That unit becomes life tapped for 5 seconds, healing any champions who attack it for 6 / 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 (+1.5% of his maximum health) health over 3 seconds. Shen receives 33% healing if kills the target.

Cost 60 energy

Range 475

Cooldown 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 seconds




Your Q key will be destroyed after playing a game as Shen. This skill should be leveled up first and should be used near constantly in the laning phase. It also has high damage for such a low cooldown skill that's based on energy, unfortunately though, it's energy cost is high and for most of the laning phase you'd be low on energy because of this, but try to balance around 100~120 energy, this way you can still cast 2 out of your 3 abilities. Or just shadow dash.




Shen enters a defensive stance, shielding the next 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.6 per ability power) damage. Lasts up to 3 seconds. While Feint is active, Ki Strike's cooldown reduction on hit is doubled to 3 seconds.

Cost 50 energy

Cooldown: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 seconds

Range 20





This is good. Oh god, since the change this skill became one of my favorite. It block out some nice damage with its base, scales pretty damn good with AP and gives a bonus if you're not being focused (MORE KI STRIKES!). Moreover, 40% CDR gives 100% uptime. If only your energy could handle that...

Note: If the enemy team has champions like (), (/), (), (), (/), () or (), then you might be better of putting a few points more into before completely maxing out . This way you can prevent death easier.



Shen rapidly dashes to a target location, Taunting enemies he collides with for 1.5 seconds.
Restores 40 Energy for every enemy champion hit and has 50% Physical damage reduction form taunted targets.

Cost 120 energy

Cooldown: 10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8 seconds

Magic Damage: 50 / 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 (+0.5 per ability power)

Range 25000 (wat?)





A double-edged sword. is great for escaping, initiating, chasing and generally moving faster. HOWEVER, this skill annihilates more than half of your total energy pool. Yes it will return energy if you hit a champion, but it will still cost you 80 energy. Leveling this up allows you to be a better teammate, allows you to be a better tank and allows you to be more mobile at the cost of survivability. It deals some damage (nothing to write home about) but it rewards you for hitting multiple champions, so aim for that! I prefer to level this up last.



Places a shield on both a target allied champion and Shen, absorbing 250 / 550 / 850 (+1.35 per ability power) damage for 5 seconds. After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen teleports to the target's location.

No cost

Cooldown: 200 / 180 / 160 seconds

Range 25000





Teleport es #1. Shield es #2. Amazing ability. This makes you the savior of suckers and the rescuer of retards. This ability enables you to splitpush without sacrificing a summoner spell dedicated for this. In the laning phase, it turns around ganks, makes a gank succeed more easily, help win dragon fights and even initiate a gank. Afterwards, it can shield your carry/enemy's focus for a hefty shield amount after the enemy thought they could win an easy teamfight. Later, you can splitpush and still have the threat of a full 5-man team due to your teleport. If someone comes to stop you, your team is in a 4v4 or a 5v4 if you decide to teleport in. All in all, this skills wins games vs bad players and makes good players extremely frustrated with you and can even illicit a teamfight in your favor.

Important Note: Remember to inform your teammates that the green light at the left of their screen at your character portrait means you can ult. If it's off, you can't. Some people forget this after they die after bad play. Also, sometimes, it's better not to ult. If your AD carry gets caught by 4 champions, don't ult. He will die regardless of your shield. He will also whine like a girl why you didn't ult him after which you CALMLY explain it only shields for x amount of damage.

This order allows you to constantly harass in the laning phase, win teamfights mid-game and survive late-game. This skill order is also the same for Duo lane.

Please not that when the enemy team has big nukes/finishers, as described in the skills section, putting a few points in is recommended.

Maxing out first is close to mandatory though.

OR OR OR OR

You immediatly start off with counterbuilding. is my recommendation overall. It allows aggression and escaping power. If your enemy is heavy in harassment or a strong/complete physical damage dealer (/////), pick up . As this makes you pretty resilient vs them. It's not required that you pick it up, but it helps. Do you need health, armor and regeneration all in one? . Better regeneration vs harassment that is constantly there but pretty low? . Need to rush in a low harassment lane? .

Lots of variety as you can see.




OR

This too is heavily under influence of counterbuilding. Do they have 2 or more auto-attackers? . Inversely, lots of magic damage/CC?.

Next up, beefiness. You need to become tanky. It's in your interest to pick up a as soon as possible so you have a steady flow of gold, while also making you slightly meatier. Following to this: Pure magic damage? . Pure physical? . Combination of magical/physical/true? .

Sometimes you don't even need to pick up one of these items because the enemy team is extremely heavy to one side of damage. This is rare though. is always needed though.






In no particular order.

Now, as you might have guessed.... Yes, counterbuilding. In essence, these items are optimal for you. Not a single stat is wasted, everything is utilized. 's slows your target using your while also marking it for your team. counters out auto-attackers with it's armor, passive and active. speeds you up, tanks heavy nukes and regenrates your health quickly (also synergizes with health like your passive). & make you tankier and make you hurt more, also debuffs enemy team so your caster will like you more.

Shen is Bro. His items should be very Bro too.




HEALTH!!!! MOAR!!!! Yes, it helps. Yes, you hurt more. Yes, it counters true damage. Downside though, is that one of your resistances will be low. Now this doesnt matter a lot vs a team doing massive damage of one kind and none of the other, but as I said, it's rare. Shen is also not a great farmer, so filling it up takes time.

It's good vs auto-attackers and heavy physical damage teams. Not always the case, but do consider it. Does give off a "Don't focus!" aura.

Great resistances, but, even more than , makes your enemies not want to focus you.

You need even more DPS than the can give you. It's a good item for him, albeit cost-inefficient. Helpful if the enemy does NOT focus you at all.

It's just a great item. Fits on every champion, hence it's placement here.

If you need quick CDR, HP and MR, this item helps. Sell it later in the game though.




This is great for the duo lane Shen. And the team that has no support...

Best Bro-item in the League.

Best supportive initiating item. Bro.

Yes, it's here as well. It's Bro.

For all those auto-attackers in your team. Sacrifice yourself for this Broness.

Bro it up with all those casters (be they AD or AP, AP preferred).

Yes, this may look jokingly, but in all seriousness, all these items are good for you and your team.




These items are for those games that don't require you to be at your best. E.g. You're 3-0 vs a top and the score is 10-0 in your team's favor. You're a dick if you do this in a close game.



No, I won't bother to put this in order. You're a douche.





These items seem bad because they have mana. Yet, if you're vs a team of , , , & , that suddenly becomes pretty attractive.
Likewise, when playing vs , , , & , that is suddenly pretty damn good.

But usually, they are bad.

Your early game consists of:



Make your opponent mad, annoy the hell out of him, terrorize him when he goes in for a lasthit. If he starts attacking back, you're in advantage, since you heal every attack and he (probably) doesn't.
On another note, slap this on a cannon minion and attack every 3 seconds if you're low, this helps sustain you.

IMPORTANT NOTE: is magical damage. Magical damage does NOT draw minion aggro, so it's safe to throw this on the enemy when minions are around. Physical damage DOES draw minion aggro, so auto-attacking on low levels between minions is a no-no.

Also, you are Shen, you never go OOM, you can always harass and are always ready for a kill. You are tanky, which means you can towerdive quite easily, if you have the damage (and the jungler), but don't do this before level 4, since is required to keep you alive. I would also request you to not towerdive too much, since this can easily backfire or incite opponents to gank your lane. Towerdiving is advanced stuff.

Oh, and lasthit, gold is good. Gold almost directly translates to your strength, so more gold = stronger.

<- these help you a lot, since you're going to try and zone your opponent through pure harassment, you're going to find yourself overextending a lot. Wards save your life in this case, since you can see enemies incoming.

Wards always help, they are never a bad purchase.

You have your ultimate now. You can turn almost every gank around, your team can contest and win dragon everytime (provided you can teleport in and your lane opponent is still in top). Mid-game is very much about dragon control, which you provide everytime your ult is off cooldown and there's a ward/jungler nearby, and pushing, which you can do good enough.

Shen's pushing is subpar compared to most other champions. The problem is that his minion killing is slow, since it's only single-target damage you can pump out ( helps a lot!). Some are worse (), some are ridiculously faster (. Towerkilling is easier since your procs on towers, quickly adding extra DPS.

Now is also the time you get ready for baron and to strike at your opponents when they least expect it (like a f*cking ninja). Ward their buff camps (don't forget to ward baron and dragon), ward important intersections, empty your (and theirs) jungle, kill dragons and coordinate pushes using your ult and common sense.

If teamfights happen when you're in the vicinity, either protect your carry by sticking close and ulting if necessary or go for their carry using your to mark them.

Assuming your team knows what to do and if no-one squishy got caught in the beginning, you can now push towers/claim dragons. Or even Baron. Do it fast though since you will be low so early in the game after Baron. If the enemy team comes in and aces you, you are further behind than them, so judge wisely.

Your core is finished, you are now pretty damn strong. Late game is all around map and baron control. Wards let's you see the enemy movement and allows you to predict their route resulting in favorable positioning for your team. If they turtle, farm all lanes and both jungles

Baron, well, Baron is ridiculous. 40 AP AND 40 AD! Just those stats alone are worth nearly 2500 gold. On top of that, every member gets 300 gold. In the following teamfight, you have 14k advantage in stats (albeit some are wasted, like AP on the AD carry). Conclusion: Baron is HUGE! And he himself is huge too.

Now, of course, sometimes Baron isn't an option and teamfighting is not favorable at times. What do you do? You splitpush, because you're Shen and you can teleport around the map if your team is in a bind. If you followed this guide and was able to farm well, you can basically beat a LOT of their team in a 1v1 if they would try to stop you. But you're not splitpushing to 1v1 people. You are splitpushing to get towers down and if they do send someone to stop you, get your team to fight the 4v4 and with them.

Oh, it's dangerous to go outside the base with 500 leftover gold and no new items purchaseable yet, take these:



In that order. Popping a red when low is good for baiting/surviving. Blue is better for overall battle. Green is mostly useless since you're not going AD.

This usually decides the outcome of a match, because winning one gives you free reign over the enemy for a maximum of 1 minute. With the 1 minute downtime, you push towers/inhibitors/nexii (?), get Baron (or dragon if down/too low). When retreating, steal enemy jungle, etc. Anything to make their lives a bit more miserable.

Now, for Shen, teamfights can be started in 3 ways. Either you run in, taunt the majority of their carries and allow you team to clean up while you harass the enemy carries ().

Or, if you have another tanky initiator or get initiated on, taunt the enemies diving for your carries and don't forget to ult that carry after taunting. 1000 strength shields should not be understimated.

The third way, is when you are away splitpushing (or being bad). Ult in on either your initiator or, when initiated upon, ult the victim. Proceed to taunt and either force their carries out or protect your carries to the best of your ability.

Pop that if you have it, it rapes auto-attackers and bruisers.

Win fight, push base, say "gg!". Don't trashtalk or go like "easy, gg noobs". I will immediatly revoke your right to play Shen. Because Shen is a bro. And Shenbro doesn't trashtalk.

And right when I start working on them, Riot announces ANOTHER huge chance to jungling (masteries being the first big change).

I will refrain from posting this section until I've played and seen others play the new jungle Shen.

This chapter is meant to discuss some abilities you need to have to be succesful. I'm not talking about lasthitting or being able to kill your lane opponent. This part is more to tell you to not try to be a carry, but to try and be a tank/support.

I'll go over his abilities again shortly to try and give a new insight on them.

This is Damage. But also a DoT heal. If you see a low health teammate at a cannon minion, tag it with this and they regenerate some 100 hp. Tag a big monster when passing your jungler. Tag it on Baron/Dragon.

This ability also has a psychological effect. What I mean is, you should tag the enemy AD carry. Your blade serves as a marker in this case.

Well, this is only to save yourself unfortunately. But, you surviving longer means you can help your team out more. This, coupled with your 200 armor, allows you to tank turrets extremely easy. If you're low, you can still jump in front of a teammate to tank a nuke and survive. It's a versatile and quick shield on a low cooldown. This makes you deceptively Ãœbertanky late-game.

CC can always be used offensively as well as defensively. If someone is defecating on your carries, taunt the f*ckers so you can give your carry some leeway to escape/burst or whatever. Liberal use of this to cross walls is not always recommended since you lose 120 to 100 energy every dash.

This skill has two aspects;

1. Priority. No matter how you see it, some of your teammates have more priority to survive then others. Usually the order is like this: AD Carry > AP Carry > Jungler/Bruiser > Support. The exception is when one of them is ridiculously fed or the only one in danger of dying. If your entire team seems to be able to escape, but your Sona is in danger of getting caught. Ult her, save her, get out safely. Her AoE Stun, heal, passive and auras can give you the edge in a teamfight more then a teleport + shield can.

2. Map Awareness/Tactical Sense. Whenever your ult is off cooldown, watch your map even more closely then you did before. Your teammates lives are in your hands. But your ult is not only a saving tool, it's also a ganking tool. And a countergank tool. And a baiting tool. You for example can ult a pantheon/tf/stealthed champion to double gank an unexpecting opponent. If your enemies are overextending to kill a teammate, wait until until they pass the point of no return and ONLY THEN ult. This skill is not only powerful (hence the long cooldown), it allows you to repeatedly kill bad opponents and intimidate good opponents (the ones that are aware there's a Shen in the game).

For epic lulz, splitpush and ult away when more then 2 members of their team come chasing you. Then proceed to help your team push another tower.

Remember, Towers win games, but a won teamfight wins you multiple towers. Never forget.

Shen has loads of synergy with a lot of champions. Since his early game damage to mid game damage should never be underestimated he synergizes greatly with other champions that have hard CC and burst, since after your CC's you won't be having any CC for a few seconds.

Examples of these are;

(who doesn't Sion synergize with?): He usually sits mid or top and can change lanes with you without much problem. Ganking each others lanes is quite effective. Also, the fact that you both have a shield allows you 2 to towerdive or fight off a lot of enemies.

: Your taunt allows him to chain CC his slow, a clear exception of the hard CC + burst, he usually jungles and after level 6 you can chain CC someone down quite easily. Also good in the lategame. Protect him and taunt his victim.

: So much CC, it's not even funny. Since Galio runs a lot, you guys can show up at a fight, CC ALL of them and allow your team to kill them with impunity. Let Galio ult first, so they bunch up, and taunt them after his explosion. Galio can go mid or top. As can you.

: + + + + . Dat CC. He usually jungles so you can double gank a lane very strongly together with him. Also, if you can, use your on him when he uses hi-CAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAW.

: Her Ult groups of people nicely so you can taunt them even better. She also has a shield AND she can speed you up or the enemies down for an even easier taunt. A strong mid laner. She's still good guys, especially with a nice composition.

: Do you understand the severity of this backdooring potential? Or the ganking potential when he deceives and you ult? Trust me, this works like a charm. Shaco is usually found in the jungle so it works out great.

: Speed up Shen, Bomb on Shen, Shen taunts, etc. Zilean makes initiatons godlike. Just be careful to not + the same person simultaneously, but make someone surivive for a great deal of time by placing one ult before the other. Also, Zilean can put a bomb on a teleporting Shen, making his arrival quite a blast. Excellent midlaner.




Best Synergy of all time! OF ALL TIME!



They fly over the map, you fly after them. All of them have a hard CC, just like you. Together, you guys make the best initiations, the strongest ganks, the best map control. It's ridiculous. Stragglers will be picked off, towers will be defended, doors will be towerbacked, no wait, towers will be backdoored, barons will be disrupted. It's just very, VERY strong.

Now before I make a nice little list about your match-up versus certain champions, I want you to remember. If players are equally skilled, the champion's strength will usually determine the outcome of a lane. If players are of a complete mismatched skill level, this list will be meaningless, since the better player will win the lane, regardless of the champions.

I will also list teamfight counters.

Lane:

List of common match-ups in top.


You can dominate an Akali the first 5 levels. How do you achieve this? + . Your Q does more damage than hers UNLESS YOU LET HER PROC IT and has a lower cooldown, it also heals you if you attack a marked opponent. Your also aids in your DPS quite nicely. When she shrouds, wait until she uses her Q, the dive straight in with your . Burst her down, and leave. An assault like that deals close to 200 damage, with her having no retaliation. When she hits 6 however, you can only defeat her in a straight up duel if you have at least 50 MR, and fight her outside of her . Your taunt allows you to stop some spellcasts but not for long. Remember, you have a shield, use it, however weak it may seem. After you buy your negatron cloak (or maybe 2) you can beat her again. You have the luxury of counterbuilding, she does not.


Sometimes you meet him in top lane. Be happy. Unless he stuns you, he's going to have hard time dealing too much damage, while you easily meet his burst. If he levels , you will be taking a lot of harass, but you will harass stronger. if he levels , you will have to be careful of his >>. Not a hard lane, especially once you obtain and .


If he's tank, don't bother. Both of you will just farm up and do nothing to each other. If he goes AP, beware of his Rupture, but punish him for casting it (dodge it by using towards him or away if he gets a gank). Be careful about ulting in the middle of the lane, since he has 2 ways to interrupt you. Get a first.


He will piss you off in the lane, since you won't be able to kill him without too much danger to your person. My advice is to farm up, and harass him as hard as you can. When he hits 6, your lane becomes much tougher so deny him before that. Oh, and if he's low don't get tempted. His Ultimate + E makes him ridiculously strong at low health.


I have no experience in this lane and where it's easy to predict what happens in ither lanes, this one is pretty tricky for me. I'm guessing laning in itself will be a little bit weaker than yours, but when his jungler ganks, you have a pretty good chance of dying (after 6, pre-6 he can't do anything truly threatening). So, my advice: Harass the hell out of him, his sustain is bad. Too bad the active on his w can shut yours down too. Also, his normal harassing combo is Activate-W -> Q -> W -> E to harass or GTFO. Try to anticipate this and move with him to at least hit him in the back of his head with your q, and if he stays, beat down on him, beware his ult. Last note: is a friend in this lane. As is a .


Use when he harasses you. Harass back, but stop if he uses . It heals him strongly. Don't use when in his range and just farm. Shen is just not good vs tanks.


He is stronger, hands down. Shen is a sustained damage fighter, Gangplank is too, but stronger. He cleanses your taunt, which also heals him, and he has ranged poke, just like you. My advice? Level . Buy .


Level . Buy (multiple). He is stronger than you. The only merit of this lane is the fact that you can poke from a small distance, just be careful. If you get a + to the face, you will be hurt. Severely.


Keep her down at all costs. Do no let her farm. She will be stronger then you very quickly, so abuse those early levels. Make her waste mana on and . Bully her. Buy . Just don't let her farm, you can't do anything to her lategame.


A slightly positive match-up for you. Play aggressive since he doesn't have sustain. Try to bait his to deplete his mana. Use your at these times to reduce damage taken. When he uses , out of it, or fight him. Whichever is more favorable. And don't forget that , his passive counters your .


+ . This is the key. Don't mindelessly attack him. Don't fight him when he has stacks from his . He has no sustain early so abuse it. Use your when he leaps at you.


He has an advantage due to his range and free poke. Just hug the minions and throw a on his face when he comes rushing towards you. get an early .


He deals more damage, but is not that bulky yet, early game. Abuse it. Buy a . Throw a on him whenevers he goes in for a last hit.


He's good vs squishies. You are not a squishy. Poke as hard as you can, his . Win lane.


I don't have any experience in this lane. But I suspect Maokai having a slight upper hand purely because he has more burst and junglers can gank his lane easier.


He's weaker now, so harass him hard. His damage is still not bad, but he got squishier. Grab a if you're having trouble.


You can't stop the farm. Can't stop the farm. This lane is a huge loss due to the passivity. Yes, you can get him down and maybe even kill him. But he gets beefier and keeps on farming. If this lane goes even, he automatically wins. Don't let that happen. Get your jungler in there.


Easy until she hits 6. Then play smart, dodge pounces and javelins. Her sustain was nerfed so you actually have a chance of killing her. On top of that, her damage to you is not high.


He be strong. Get your at level 2 to negate some of his burst. Might even consider leveling it before . Your poke is stronger than his sustain, but his poke ridiculously outclasses you. Be careful. Grab an early .


She's actually quite strong. Don't let her get free harass though and punish every lasthit she wants. Consider leveling to negate some burst if she decides to try her luck at killing you. is very strong against her.


Another ridiculous strong top laner. He beats you in harass, but you can beat him in sustain, until he has his . This lane hasn't got much of a future but since he wants to harass you, and he always pushes the lane if he does; Get your jungler on him. Get a . Fast.


Immediatly get aggressive. He can't do much until he gets his so take advantage. Consider a quick . It helps.


Yes. Very. In ranked, this would be confusing. In normals however, this might happen. Level your to catch as much of his as possible and retaliate. is the best choice here.


You have the range she lacks, if you stay in your minion wave. When she goes in for the harass with the movement speed buff (), back off, she'll probably level it first and therefore it will hurt. If her is off, harass/kill her since she has no sustain until wriggles and even then it's pretty mediocre. Do be careful for her ult though, it's pretty strong and the extra effect it gives to her skills is pretty strong (but also pushes waves massively, like her w).


Uggh. You can beat him pre-catalyst and pre-6. But when he obtains those, he's going to ignore you and push the lane. You can't do a whole lot vs him after that. Get a though, to minimize his poison DoT.


Level . Anticipate burst. Harass as hard as you can. Get a . He probably can't kill you, but neither can you.


First things first, his early sustain is bad and pushes (not that hard). The higher he gets, the more his sustain and pushing go up. He's a strong duelist and when he engages on you after level 6 on his side of the river, you are going to have to pop AT LEAST one summoner spell (unless you're stronger and smarter and got a ) to escape him since his stickiness is incredible. When he hits 6 and his jungler ganks, you are going to have to pop AT LEAST 2 summoner's or you're dead, it's that simple. He will have a hard time killing you solo though, and vice-versa. Also, his range his bad so outrange and harass him as much as possible with .


He counters you since you are melee. Dodge his to the best of your ability. You can hurt him, but it won't be easy to put him down. Get a .


Can you say HARASSMENT? Do it. Get an early and keep poking. When he ults, taunt immediatly, don't let him get his cooldown back up. Since the latest nerf, your harassment is stronger than his. Not to mention you have a shield.


He beats you. You have no range to compete against him. You might have some luck in early ganks and early harassment, but in general, he beats you.


More commonly in top. Get a , maybe a . Harass to the best of your ability and make him mad by dashing through his pillar. He beats you in straight 1v1, so stay on your toes.


The new Tryndaqueer. I'll be straight. Harass when he farms. Fall back when he wants to get to you. He beats you quite easily unless you get some early . Luckily, his attacks make your proc faster. Use that to your advantage.


Nothing beats him. Don't try. Just farm.


He will be tanky, and he will have ridiculous sustain. And he will be able to kill you when he has ignite and you drop slightly under 50% hp. Just try to farm, grab a and full out attack him when he comes to Q you. You will be able to at least even the trade out.


Not that hard, since he has 0 sustain. Pound him with your and and use when he dashes to you. Punish him after that. You don't need to rush a .


Don't bother. He has more sustain and better range. Get a .



Teamfight counters:

I apologize for all the "Bro's", but Shen is a man that makes his team. You can't dislike a good and nice Shen.

Just remember. Shen has a lot of nuisance and abilities with dual usage. To be Shen, you don't have to be mechanically superior to be good at him. You have to be good at Strategy and Tactics.

I almost forgot! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this guide. I don't know if you're new to Shen, a veteran that wants insight or someone that verifies guides for their legitimacy. But I thank you nonetheless.

Please, leave your comments, critical notions, suggestions, feedback or a poem below. I thank you.