Hello everyone! Welcome to the Amazing Ki strike Shen build guide! This is my first mobafire build that I'm making to show everyone how I play Shen. It is an odd but effective build that is not to be taken too seriously, but not too lightly either. By the end of this guide, you will be a master of Shen and his Ki strike!

Shen is my favorite champion in the League so far, and thus I have experimented with many different ways of playing him, this just so happens to be my favorite, there are many, many different ways to play him, I don't claim that this is the best, but it is a fun favorite of mine

I'm open to any and all criticism and commenting, so if you would like to do that, by all means, I will answer.

Enjoy the guide!

Pros:

Extremely high hp
Hard to kill
More damage then the average Shen
Great ganks
Good at getting where you need to be
Life tap heals allies for a lot

Cons:

Resistances aren't as high
Only 1 method of CC
Banned often

Ki Strike - This is Shen's passive, and what makes this build viable. To other Shens, this is a little bit of bonus damage every 8 seconds. Following this build, this will give you a whooping extra (approx) 650 damage every 8 seconds!

Vorpal Blade - This is your fun, cheap, way to poke/harass your opponents, as well as heal yourself, as well as an amazing farming tool. You can use Vorpal Blade to last hit minions very easily, and this will even give you hp back!

Feint - A small shield, it's not too effective unless you level it early or play an AP Shen, though a shield is a shield, and protecting yourself a little is better than protecting yourself none

Shadow Dash - This is my favorite of Shen's abilities. This makes for an amazing initiator, especially with someone such as an AD carry by your side. You can also use Shadow Dash to catch anyone who dares run from you, You can use it to take some of the heat off of your allies (they'll thank you!), or even use it to escape in a pinch. It's cooldown is a little high, and so is the energy cost, so be sure to use it effectively!

Stand United - There's not much better than putting a huge shield on your ally who's halfway across the map who's getting chased by 3 enemies and walking out with 3 assists (or kills!). This nifty ultimate allows you to do just that! It can be used both offensively or defensively, you can jump across the map, or shield the person right next to you if need be! The possibilities of this ability are truly endless.

There are three summoner spells that I see being the most effective on Shen, being Exhaust, Teleport and Flash

Exhaust I think this spell is a great pick for Shen because it can help you to catch enemies running away, reduce an enemy's damage output, or even slow down someone while running away, it's a multipurpose goodness tool for Shen to have

Teleport Teleport is a nifty spell to have whether playing a solo top Shen or otherwise. (but if you are playing a solo top Shen, you should definitely have this) Imagine this, you're in the solo top and you just secured a kill, you look mid and your ally is getting beat up pretty bad, so you use Stand United to help him/her net a kill. Then you look down bot and see that it's getting ganked, so you Teleport and save the day! (This happens more often then it seems I swear!)

Flash Flash isn't my favorite spell to have on Shen, but it does have it's uses. It can be used to blink into a fight, or blink out of a tricky situation. You can also use Flash to reposition yourself so that you can properly get a taunt off of Shadow Dash

Optional Summoner Spells

Heal Heal is a good spell if you don't think you have enough sustain and you're getting beat down, you can heal yourself and jump back into the fight, it is most useful though, when around your team mates, so that they restore some health too. Health is not usually a huge problem with Shen, so I don't usually take heal

Ghost Pretty much same purpose as Flash though you can't blink through walls with Ghost

Clairvoyance If you're playing a support Shen, you might want to take this as it will give you and your team a little insight on where you enemies might be.

Summoner Spells You Shouldn't Take

Smite This is not a jungle build, but jungle Shen is a thing (apparently) and you can find jungle Shen builds on this site!

Surge As funny as seeing a huge Shen would be, you don't benefit from this spell too much

Clarity I really hate to be the barer of bad news but...Shen doesn't have mana...but that's okay because energy is way better! :D

Promote I just..who uses this spell anyway??

These are the runes I feel are the best for this build

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration I take this for a little bit of extra damage on my Vorpal Blade and Shadow Dash for the early game, it never hurts!

Greater Seal of Health I take this because it is the rune that gives the most health! (besides quints) Being that you are the tank, you should have a good deal of health, and being that you are working towards a high hitting Ki Strike the extra health will do you good

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist I take this for increased MR in the early game, this won't hurt because you're already giving up on your later game resistances

Greater Quint of Fortitude I take this because it gives a massive amount of bonus early game health, and who doesn't like early game health?

Why not take all HP runes?
I take only Seals and Quints of Fortitude so that I can maximize on the effectiveness of my runes, because Marks and Glyphs respectively wouldn't give much hp, and give more benefits with Magic Pen and Magic Resist

This section Covers skill sequence/when how and why we use these skills

Skill Sequence

Vorpal Blade Taken at 1,3,7,9,12
Feint Taken at 4,14,15,17,18
Shadow Dash Taken at 2,5,8,10,13
Stand United Taken at 6,11,16

I max out both Vorpal Blade and Shadow Dash first because they are your most used and most effective abilities, so you want them at their best as soon as possible. Like I said, Feint doesn't do you a whole ton of good, but the small shield is useful sometimes, so I max it last usually, or if I'm taking a particularly large amount of damage, I level it a little sooner for mid-game effectiveness

In a team fight your sequence goes:
Stand United> Shadow Dash> Feint> Vorpal Blade

If you aren't already in the fight, you're going to want to use Stand United on whoever is getting beat on the most, then as soon as you come in, use Shadow Dash to hit as many enemies as you can before they run away, while doing that you might wanna use Feint to eat up a small amount of damage, then use Vorpal Blade to pick off whoever is left

If you are in the fight, do the Shadow Dash/ Feint combo to initiate/grab as many runners as possible, and start chucking Vorpal Blades, but be on the lookout for anyone in trouble, as you can still use Stand United to save them, rinse and repeat grabbing people up with Shadow Dash

Items are a large part of the effectiveness of this build and of Shen in general. There are different ways to effectively do this build, which I will try to cover here

I like to start off the game with a Ruby Crystal. Some might ask, well, why not take a Doran's Shield? I don't think that the armor is all that substantial and you already heal yourself with your handy dandy Vorpal Blade! Plus, it saves you money, and helps towards building your first Warmog's Armor, which we will talk about in a sec.

On your first recall back, you should be looking to buy some boots. But wait, you're faced with a problem, you ask yourself, "Do I go with the trusty Mercury's Treads? or the light, inexpensive Ninja Tabi?" Personally, I prefer Ninja Tabi, as they have a good effect, and at 850 gold, you should be able to buy them in-whole on your first recall. However, if you're getting locked down with stuns and slows, and your against an AP lane, take Mercs.

Here's where things start to get fun. The third item in your build is purely situational. In a perfect world, I can take a Sunfire Aegis as it increases HP substantially, gives you good armor, and has a great passive, however, sometimes there are more effective choices. Say the enemy's team consists of Xin Zhao, Tryndamere, Ashe, Vayne, and Master Yi, you're going to want to take a Thornmail as your third item. Or, if their team is something like Morgana, Lux, Kassadin, Veigar, and Katarina, it might be in your best interest to instead pick up a Force of Nature or Banshee's Veil. Again, try to keep your third item situational to build against the enemy team so that you gain an edge.

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! Yes! The Mighty Four Warmog's Armor! It's not something that you see everyday, and especially not on a Shen, but hear me out, this does wonders. With maxed out Warmog's, you're looking at upwards of 7.5k max HP. That is an absurd amount of HP that allows you to Ki Strike for about 650-700 every 8 seconds! That's amazing damage!

Okay, now that reality is setting in, you have to come to the realization that it's not often that you'll be able to build 4 Warmog's Armor in a game (But it does happen! I'm living proof!) I often finish 2, and that's still a whole lot of Warmog. In this case though, you don't have to build all Warmog's because, well, obviously thats a very heavy bill to pay, so feel free to build other items, perhaps some of the aforementioned will do you good, or perhaps an Atma's Impaler is more your style, but remember, the HP the better!

Just a quick little chapter that will talk about how to go about the lane phase and how to be the most effective in team fights.

IN THE SOLO TOP: Know who you're up against, there will be some people who will be able to quickly over-power you in the early game, so don't go rushing your face against someone who you can't take. Use your Vorpal Blade to poke at and harass the enemy. Since you don't rely on mana, there's no penalty for throwing as many as you want. Also remember that you can use Vorpal Blade to last hit minions with ease and from a distance. Before a gank, you're going to want to let your enemy push in a little bit, then Shadow Dash to let your jungler know to engage, pop Exhaust if needed, and you're almost guaranteed a kill

IN THE BOT LANE: Shen in the bot lane is generally considered a support, and although people probably won't be happy if you steal their kills, you can still deal massive Shen damage. Remember to knock out the enemy support first, as without them, their AD carry will suffer. Shadow Dash into whoever you're trying to kill and mark them with a Vorpal Blade so that you're AD carry knows who you're attacking. Sometimes the AD carry is the easier kill, and without the carry, the support shouldn't be able to do too much, so go for whichever is the better kill. Try not to stray too far without your carry, you're an amazing tank, but you're no one man army during the lane phase (most of the time). Remember, since you're laning with the carry, you might not wanna last hit too many minions with Vorpal Blade as carries are prone to getting pissed when you take CS.

DURING TEAM FIGHTS: I touched on this earlier, so I'll just briefly go over it. If you see a team fight break out, and you're far from it, use Stand United or Teleport to get on over there and help the cause! Use your taunt to snag people who are running away, or against a carry who's hitting your team hard to alleviate the damage. After you get everyone situated, start to help your team rack up the kills by effectively using your taunt and lifetap, your team will thank you!

Shen is an amazing champion, and with a few tips, he becomes even better!

[*] Use your Vorpal Blade to harass as much as possible, remember that you run on energy, so spamming is not an issue at all!
[*] Vorpal Blade Procs with your health, so having a lot of health also benefits the lifetap for the rest of your team
[*] Shadow Dash Can break spells that need to be channeled, such as Fiddlesticks Bountiful Harvest and can even break ultimates such as Katarina's Death Lotus and Warwick's Infinite Duress
[*] Shadow Dash breaks enemy stealth abilities like Twitch and Teemo and can also reveal wards!
[*] Stand United will not break an ally's stealth, so you can put the shield on them, and suddenly you have yourself a great gank!
[*] Stand United is as great an escaping tool as it is an initiating tool! If you find yourself in a sticky situation, try and use Stand United to teleport to someone far away.

Thanks so much for reading my first ever Shen Guide! The fact that you've made it this far down the page truly means a lot to me.

Again, this is far from what someone might call a "pro" build, but it is a fun build that has led me to victory many times and I hope that it will prove successful to anyone who also wants to try it out! Remember that you as the tank/support are like the glue of the team, you hold it all together, played well, you can bring your team to a definite victory!

I encourage you all to comment and ask questions, criticism is accepted here, as it makes me better as a player and build-maker (please remember this is my first mobafire build so I'm still getting the hang of it!)

Thanks to anyone and everyone who took the time to read my build/guide!
Feel free to vote me but please tell me why you do!

P.S. I'm working on more pictures/videos/screenshots but I kinda did this all in one day as I really wanted to publish it!