There was a time when people ban Shen in every ranked games, mainly because of his global ***-saving ulti. But when tanky dpses became popular, pure tanks like Shen was basically being throw n away from the meta. People believed that tanks could be ignored and left to deal with last, because even if they had CCs, they didn't contribute much. It turned out to be the truth, as tanky dpses replaced pure tanks. We hadn't seen Shen in a while.

After the recent remake, Shen has the potential to be a monster. This is a guide to build a true killing ninja.

Pretty flexible. Shen is still pretty weak at lv 1 - 3, so I normally take armor yellow and health quints, which synergize with his passive and giving him survivability. I take magic pen red because his damage mainly comes from his passive Ki Strike(whole game) and Vorpal Blade(early game).

I take 21 in defenses for easier laning. I dont really need mana and magic pen in offense is better than the movement speed in utility, so i take 9 in offense. Also those bonus ability point won't do much, I'd rather invest few points in ad and extra damage on creeps for easier last hitting.

Item sequence from above is just a general idea what to build, what I mean is that you shouldn't rush Zeke's right away from the start. When to finish the items is very situational, but end game you should have all of those items because half of them synergize well with your abilities and half of them make you a tanky dps.

For example when laning against annoying ad top champion, everyone top should build a cloth armor first. I know my build won't need any cloth armors, but its for easier laning and you can sell the cloth armor later on anyway.

If they have sustain, which they normally do, you can buy vamp scepter to enhance your healing. Later you can build into Zeke's, or wriggles, which i dont prefer. Zeke is just so much better than wriggles on Shen. It gives attack speed which procs passive's cd, health for health(duh) and better damage(better shield too although not too significant)

Zeke's and Ionic spark is made for Shen and Volibear. Hell, Zeke's gives 15% CDR too, more ultis.

Frozen Mallet + Atmas + FoN = metagolem

Pretty strong all-round build.