♦♦This guide is a work in progress. If you must hate on me, at least take a look at the guide instead of judging it before you comment/vote, Please and Thank You.♦♦

This guide is an adaptation from Siveo's guide Don't Mess With The Shen

I played around with Shen for a while before getting seriously into him and found that if you balance his tankiness with AP, he can be a great support along with an assist, using his ult at specific times in team fights to shield 1200+ damage easily; or to push lanes while you're other 4 defend, and ulting in when the opposing team thinks they have the upper hand. His ult, combined with teleport, is great for ganking, turning 1v1 or 2v2 into 2v1 or 3v2 [Respectively] and getting back to top lane quickly.

Once I began playing Shen more and more with my group I occasionally got the chance to play solo top with him (when I wasn't I was supporting bottom as best as I could). This is when I realized that Shen is an awesome counter for tops such as Garen and Volibear, and many other tanky champions, as well as non-tanky champions.

Now on to the guide.

The runes are pretty self explanatory (Never could figure out how people write entire sections on these).

I take the Magic Pen. runes to do more damage with Vorpal Blade early game. This helps with harassing the enemy champion in your lane, especially since most people I've paid attention to get armor if they don't get boots.

I take flat armor runes. This helps with survivability early game, and it helps since you will be playing a tank.

I take CD Reduction Per Level Runes to be able to spam Vorpal blade early game and to help reduce the late game cooldowns of Feint and Stand United.

I debated for about an hour about whether to use 1.5% total health or the Flat Health. The Flat Health Quintessences give 26 HP per rune. Shen has a base health of 428. 4.5% of that is only 18 hp early game, but it's totally worth it mid to late game, in my opinion. (I'm not sure about this, but) If the site doesn't add in the % HP from the runes in the total HP, thats 42 HP per rune you get if you are fully built, almost twice as much as the flat HP runes.

Now for the Masteries. I won't waste your time with telling you how many points to put into each mastery. You should be able to see that for yourself. If not send me a message and I'll gladly explain.

I go 9/21/0. All the way down the third column in the offensive tree, down to the 10% Magic Pen. for a little more AP, more CD Reduc, and 10% more Magic Pen.

Defense masteries are, of course, for tanking.

These are the masteries I use, but I feel like it's about preference on which masteries to skill into in the respective trees.

Start off with a Doran's Shield and head off to your respective place, whether you are invading or protecting blue/wraiths.

I usually go back when I have enough for the Heart of Gold and Boots of Speed.

The rest is usually about preference and depends on what your team is building. Obviously if somebody is getting Randiun's Omwn earlier than you, you wont need to build it at all. The same would apply for Frozen Heart. If this is the case, use your judgement on what to get. You could go more AP, or more Tank. If you go AP, I suggest getting items using Blasting Wand as opposed to Needlessly Large Rod. It's cheaper and you can build it into more items such as Abyssal Scepter for more Magic Resist.

For skills, it is odd. I don't have an ability maxed out at level 9, but it still works great. At level 1, I get Vorpal Blade for harassment and the occasional CS when I can't reach it in time. At level 2, I get Feint for defending myself when the champion opposing me tries harassing. At level 3, I either get my second rank of Vorpal blade and get Shadow Dash at level 4, or get Shadow Dash at level 3.

I get Shadow Dash at 3 when either the jungle is wanting to gank early, or the Enemy Champ is pushing the lane hard enough for him/her to be under your tower. Simply wait for him to attack the tower, use the Shadow Dash, Vorpal Blade, and, if you have the energy for it, a Feint. By the time Feint is gone, your enemy will be out of range of the tower and you can focus on killing the minions attacking it.

I get a total of 3 points in Vorpal Blade, 3 points in Feint, 2 in Shadow Dash, and 2 in Stand United by level 11. After that, I max out Vorpal Blade, then Feint, then Shadow Dash, picking up the third point in Stand United at level 16.

I won't explain Summoner Spells, I believe they are all about playstyle anyway.

Thanks for reading! Please Vote and Comment! I'll take any criticism, constructive or otherwise.