Well, hello, and thank you for choosing my guide on Shen. You are choosing Shen because:
A) He's a great tank and support champion.
B) His ultimate often prevents ganks and makes players say "Oh no, not again..."
C) He is a flippin' ninja. Silent and deadly. Nuff said.

I honestly don't feel like copy/pasting Shen's back story and stuff so here is my own.

Long ago, in a land far away, the Eye of Twilight was formed. Soon after, Shen was born. Con sieved in hell fire, and born in the land of kick ***, Shen began his cruel tutelage at the Eye, meeting Akali and Kennen. Shen realized that he is a tank, Akali found out she was an op killing machine, and Kennen... well he realized that not a whole lot of people play him.

IN CONCLUSION: Shen, is one champ who is going to make someone's day get worse. By reading this guide, it will be the enemy's.


Let me first stress that by following this guide alone you will be a god. Only smart play, team communication, and lots of practice will get you that way.

Alright here's the deal. I am going to be brutally honest with you even though you already probably know this, seeing as you chose Shen. You are not going to go 900-0-0 with Shen. Your end game stats will probably be high in assists, for ex. 2-3-15. So as you can see, your job is to die as little as you can, while still protect your carries at all costs, giving you a high amount of assists.

You don't want to be a feeder tank, you are not invincible.

Greater Mark of Insight- Magic pen may seem a little strange. I usually roll with it though because your going to be throwing a lot of Vorpal Blades, and the magic pen. for your Ki Strike is also pretty nice.

Greater Glyph of Warding- These babies are nice early game, and may even just save your life.

As far as Seals and Quints go, you have two choices....
Greater Seal of Vitality Greater Seal of Vitality and Greater Quint. of Fortitude

OR

Greater Seal and Quint. of Resilience

Personally, I run with the hp/level and flat hp, but I was recommended switching to the armor. Its your call, I just like the hp cause it makes Ki Strike, your only source of damage aside from the dagger, hit harder at level 1+.

Ghost and Exhaust are awesome on Shen. Having at least one, or more, Exhausts on the team is a great thing, especially when you encounter those pesky Yis or Tryndameres. Ghost is great for getting around at all times when you need to chase/escape/ or travel if your trusty ultimate is down.


I use pretty standard tank masteries, with one point in Improved Exhaust the rest for utility.

Let me start this section by saying, "there is no build order here". Every game is different and therefore you should accommodate for these changes. As soon as you see that loading screen you have to be thinking of what you need to prioritize for defense. Therefore; let us continue...

Mercury's Treads- Great for every tank, your going to want that CC reduction and the extra magic resist early can help delay purchasing magic resistant, heavy cost, items.


Soul Shroud- I rarely see this item used. I don't know why. It's cheap health, that provides some excellent auras. Remember, you are the center of your team here, and just because you don't use mana, your laning partner, and probably the rest of your team do.


Force of Nature- SO MANY MAGIC RESISTS! Probably one of the best items for those mage heavy teams. Add in some hp regen and movement speed, and you have a great core item for Shen.


Guardian Angel- Provides you with a good amount of armor and some magic resist on the side. But the true beauty of this is that YOU WILL NOT DIE WITH THIS. I sometimes rush this item early game because if everything is going well by mid game, say its an even match 3-3, you will get targeted in team fights and make everyone waste their cooldowns on you. So when you get knocked down, you of course get up again, allowing you to track down those survivors and throw a few taunts in here and there.
TLDR; Guardian Angel is decent on Shen.


Thornmail- The highest armor giving item in the game? Yes please! Also, it's going to make your taunts do a decent amount of damage with the passive.


Warmog's Armor- Well, well, well. This item is, personally, one of my favorite items in League of Legends. Aside from the massive amount of health it gives you, it gives you the potential to build up bonuses for health and hp regen. Very useful, but one of the more expensive items in the game.


These are the items that I have displayed in the build at the top of the guide. However, I like to have fun every once and a while and these items offer a little different aspect of play for you and your team.


Randuin's Omen- This item would have been the number one required item for this build before the great nerf of 2011. By reducing its armor it is just not as useful, for me, as it used to be. I still do love the active however. Providing an AoE that slows movement and attack speed is a great thing to bring to battle. Despite the nerf, it is still a VERY good item and can be bought depending on your play style.


Shurelya's Reverie- A good alternative for Soul Shroud. Doesn't give as much health, but has a good active for chasing. It's more of a carry item in my opinion though.


Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Zhonya's Hourglass- These are two items that I've been playing with recently. These two items only help to complement your Feint and Stand United as they scale very high with AP. And with the active from Z.H. you will be the best tank in the world for 2 seconds.

Fresh off the spawining pool grab your Boots and a few Health Potions and head to either top/bottom lane.

Early game your goals should look like this:

Keep lane buddy safe

ALWAYS get the assist and not the kill (your lane partner should probably be some form of
carry therefore their gear is much more important than yours)

Last hit minions with Vorpal Blade and/or Ki Strike


Once you hit 6 put a point in your ulti and port back to base if you need to. Grab a few items and let your team mates know that you have your ultimate.

Now that your 6 let's look at your Mid-Game
Goals:

Try to use Stand United as much as possible, with limitation of course, to maximize your utility to your team. If you can port in and grab an assist without anyone dying then you did not waste it.

Your going to want to put a few Vision Wards or Sight Wards down on the map, as map awareness often wins games.

If your bottom lane grab dragon, its a lot of gold for little work if your carry comes with you.

If you can read the other team's movements, ex with wards, then you can tell when a team fight is about to break out.

You are the initiator, the **** stirrer if I may be so blunt. Cast your Feint to shield some damage and Shadow Dash in there!


Around level 15 or so, you can consider yourself in late game. Champion builds are coming along well, the enemy is well defined in their types of damage which you should have predicted with the purchase of items accordingly. If all goes as planned you are now a force to be reckoned with. Your taunt strikes fear into all that it hits and you should have around 3 fully built items. Now my kind sir, your final tasks are at hand.



Always, always, ALWAYS keep a ward at baron. In long and grueling games, Baron buff has often decided if I won or lost in the end.

Protect your carries at all costs. Your death will not go unavenged at this point in the game. I sound a little contradictory here but I will take my death for an ace any day.

Utilize your Exhaust to the fullest here by blinding their melee carry and taunt them. If your team focuses them they should be dead by the time your taunt is up or soon after.

Please don't taunt their tank, he is the least of your worries.....


On the Fields of Justice your skills will be put to the test, therefore a few helpful hints:


A very useful tip is that your ultimate applies the shield to the target INSTANTLY. Therefore, if you need to stay in your lane, or your in a team fight and your ally is right next to you,
you can cast it and then cancel the teleport affect.

As a tank, one of the most important roles on the battle field, it is okay for you to snag a kill every once in a while. Your Vorpal Blades have a very low cooldown and do some hefty damage as well, making it easy to snag those champs that are about to get away.

Map Awareness. So much I can say. However, I'll just put it this way. If you can see your opponents jungle ( mainly red and blue buff) and potential gank spots in lanes, your team will give up very few early and mid game deaths. And being able to utilize both red and blue buffs on the map is a plus as well.

Shadow Dash can also be used as a very powerful escape mechanism. If you know the range of it pretty well, you can dash through walls and over trees and ledges. Abuse this!!!

Shen is a fun champion to play, who brings the playability that new players want, and the utility and support that elder players need.

Finally, I am glad to see that you made it to the end of my first guide. Feel free to make any suggestions to this (like I don't know how to put in item pics...) and just let me know what you think! Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoy this build.