Shen General Guide by Beastyboyy

Hey! =]

This is the updated version of my Shen guide from over a year ago. Thanks for checking out my guide.

Please leave comments and suggestions, this is my first guide, I just wanted to help some players out. =] Hope I can!! :D

This is still a work in progress. Leave ideas, comments and questions below. Thanks guys!

Abilities - The Throwdown

vopal blade is a fairly spammable ability. Use this to your advantage. Getting more ability power will increase the damage output. Vorpal Blade has a 65% ability power ratio. Getting more cooldown reduction will increase the speed slightly, because the cooldown is already low, good for being annoying...BONUS!! The heal on Vorpal Blade is over time. To maximize the usefulness of this while laning, hit the afflicted target once and then continue last hitting the others, until the heal is over. The heal does small amounts over 3 seconds, but this really helps the laning. Often times when Shen is taking a solo lane, he will have more damage harassment against the other champions. You can use this to keep them away from the creep (minion) line and miss out on experience if you can push them back and keep them away. Last hitting a minion with [vorpal blade] will give you a small amount of health back.
A Few Uses With Vorpal Blade

Harassment
Last hitting minions
Stealing kills -do so with care, team may abuse you-
Stealing enemy jungle buffs - acquire free praise-
Healing up self and team -good for pushing and laning in general-
Slowing -

must have Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Simply dealing damage




Who doesn't like absorbing tons of damage? Feint doesn't have too long of a cooldown, so absorbing damage against enemy harrassment shouldn't be much of a problem. Getting Ionian Boots of Lucidity early will help achieve this. Feint has a 75% ability power ratio. If you didn't notice, Feint has a 10% better ap bonus than Vorpal Blade. You can level [feint] an extra time and push [vorpal blade] max a little farther back to get more defense for more difficult games.



Shadow Dash is an extremely useful skill.However you need to take into account that using Shadow Dash will drain your energy since it has the highest energy cost. [shadow dash] deals damage to all enemy champions hit and taunts them, causing them to attack you. Keep in mind that landing a hit on a champion only will refund energy to Shen, but it only refunds energy for one champion hit. Landing This taunt is sadly the only way to refund energy for Shen. Using [shadow dash] on dead champions refunds the energy also. Use this to initiate or to escape. --[shadow dash] is basically a free kill when your jungler comes. ^.^

-Additional Shadow Dash information-

1v1 Fights:

Shadow Dash can be saved until the enemy champion is running away, or when you need to get out. {refer to Ninja Vanish section}

Shadow Dash can taunt champions hitting or near one of your teams turrets and damage them quite heavily earlier in the game and protect your turret from taking some damage from the champions themselves. Sorry, but nothing increases the duration of the taunt.

Team Fights

Shadow Dash is a skill shot ability. Meaning he can see where the line of fire will be, and may cast it at will. This ability is able to be performed on the entire team if they are in ample position.

Shadow Dash can be used to find invisible units, it is difficult, but extremely satisfying when you get them. Invisible units include: Evelynn, Shaco, Vayne, Twitch, Teemo, Talon and Riot keeps adding more, because invis is cool. Teemo is the easiest invisible target the grab, because he cannot move while he is invisible.

Don't be afraid to grab a single target and bring them back to your team for an easy and highly beneficial kill. This removes one of their champions and gives all teammates who help will get gold. This may start a huge team fight... but they are one down. =]




Shen is one of the last remaining champions with a global ultimates, and the last with a teleporting global ultimate. A global ultimate means there is absolutely no range! BUT!!! you can only use his ultimate on allied champions. But don't be too down, this is surprisingly fun. You can turn a 1v1 into a 2v1 and save teammates all game long. Stand United has a long cooldown, so it is very helpful to get cooldown reduction. At least get Ionian Boots of Lucidity to get some cooldown. Stand United has a 50% ability power ratio. Getting large quantities of ability power will cause the targeted ally to recieve a huge shield.



This is Shen's passive ability. The visual when Ki Strike is active comes with shiny colors around his fists. What Ki Strike does is simple; it does bonus damage on his next melee attack (the bonus damage is 8% of his total health, so the more hp you get, the more damage Ki Strike will do). Another very nice aspect to this passive, is that when you get hit by auto attacks, the cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds. If you are facing an enemy with high attack speed, simply get Thornmail and hit them right back with Ki Strike since you will have almost no cooldown on it.

Basic Tips

MAP AWARENESS

You can quickly check up on teammates using the function keys.

F1: Self
F2: First allied champion listed on left side of the play screen
F3: Second allied champion listed on the left side of the play screen
F4: Third allied champion listed on the left side of the play screen
F5: Fourth allied champion listed on the left side of the play screen

You can also cast Stand United on these champion icons on the left side of the screen if there are multiple champions in a small area, you most likely won't want to shield a champion who is not under attack unless you are trying to escape.

Another way to use your ulti quickly is to use the icons on the minimap itself.

To help with map awareness, inform your team to call for help. Set up something simple yet effective such as having your team ping the "Retreat Ping" twice. The standard hot key for this ping is 'V'. You can also customize this ping. The standard ping is set to 'G'.

DON'T BE SILLY

When using Stand United be sure that the area is clear from silences, stuns or any means of interruption. This will ruin your teleportation to your ally. BUT at the same time you can interrupt the channel to remain in the same place, while granting your teammate the shield buff, do not teleport into a sure death situation. The enemy team doesn't need to be fed any more.

You can cast Stand United when you are almost dead to lend the shield to teammates so they will have it for the fight after you die.

Items/ Spells/ Masteries

Heal is very usefull with Shen. By taking Heal you can keep the lane pushing better, combined with Vorpal Blade. Heal in team fights, and also combine Stand United to not only shield an allie, but be able to Shadow Dash the enemies and take them off the dying friend, you can also throw in a kind heal, and possibly turn the losing fight into a great win for you and your team mate. An obvious choice for you preservative types. In 1v1 lanes you have a huuuuge andvantage by taking Heal because you have more health than they think, and often get first blood, or just a lane advantage, out of the use.

You need this item. Vorpal Blade will slow single enemies quickly, and Shadow Dash can be used in fights to slow targets as well. Not forgetting that it gives you health and ability power also, which for shen, are both used to survive better. AP: better shields. HP: ...guess.

With The new masteries there are many different things you can do. I would highly recommend speccing into the defence tree. BUT! Your mastery layout may be more unique to your gameplay. I more highly recommend having an ability power focused AND a tanky mastery so you can try them out, and mold to your team better.


Some players prefer to have additional energy to spend. Expanded Mind . Shen is very energy heavy, and having +10 energy is really helpful. You can also go more defense or offence. I occasionally will get Summoner's Wrath because I like the additional ability power and damage ignite offers, which is a nice bonus, but you do have to take something else down (usually worth it).

mercury treads If you are facing a team with more than 2 disables. GET THESE! Also make sure you get Juggernaut because

If your enemy team is more of a risk with their ability power champions, you will want to trade Thornmail for Banshee's Veil. You can also take Force of Nature. Small changes in every game may need to be made to your build, to accomodate your enemy's team combination. KNOW YOUR ENEMIES!!!

If you are facing a heavy attack damage, or attack speed team, you will want to get Thornmail earlier, and also remember that Ki Strike has the cooldown reduced by 2 seconds for every auto attack.

You can take teleport to stay in the action. By having Teleport and Stand United you will (basically) be continuously be in battles. Plus you can teleport into fights and quickly Shadow Dash to turn the tides.

Ninja Vanish!!!

Keep in mind the more ability power you have, the better your Vorpal Blade, Feint, and Stand United will be. But do not get too much ability power that you forget to keep your health and other defenses high enough to match the team you are facing. Also getting more health points will increase the damage done from Ki Strike


Flash is a great summoner spell to have a quick getaway. You can double this up with [shadow dash] to escape serious situations. Flash can also be used aggressively to initiate with a [shadow dash] or to catch the [ignite] or [vorpal blade] when your target would otherwise escape.


Shadow Dash can be used to get over several walls. If the curser (mouse pointer) is over the wall and still in the range, it is a 'good to go'. If you are running away from foes, don't rush a wall jump, this often leads to failure, and seals your fate: death.


Ghost is another summoner spell able to be selected to get away from battles. Often times using ghost inside, or close to, bush cover will highly increase the safe distance for you to travel. Ghost can also be used to reach teammates in peril.


Once again, Stand United comes in handy. Since Shen has a global spell you can use his ult to get out of many situations. Avoid being disabled or moving while chanelling. By barely entering into bush cover and casting Stand United on the left side icon, you can escape more dangerous situations that would be impossible from visible positions.

Wrapping it up

Other great items to get with Shen includes Deathfire Grasp, this will give you an additional damaging spell with the item activation, cooldown reduction, and ability power. Be sure to use Deathfire's Active is you get it! Use it earlier also, so it will do maximum damage.

Shen is a MARVELOUS laning partner. He keeps BOTH himself, and his allie healed if Vorpal Blade is used wisely, and can taunt his enemies. If you are facing squishier champions, you may want to level up Shadow Dash (E spell, and taunt) to hold them down so you can quickly destroy them.

Many enemies will not be expecting damage coming from the tank roles, so you can often times catch players off guard, and maybe even have gotten a few of them to start going anti tank builds. There are no champions that are solely tied to a single build. League of Legends is a game, make sure you have fun as much as you can. If you are going to try out a new build, or simply want to mess around with items on any given champion, try playing V.S. AI matches, so you can get a general idea of what is happening with that sort of playstyle.

So Shadow Dash into the Field of Justice and shred em up!!