Shen Build Guide by RyuHayabusa

Introduction

Welcome to my first guide,I show you how I think you can play a good Shen on Armor,Magic Resistance or AP.Hes one of my favorite Champions,I won 80% of my matches with this builds.As I first saw him in game with a good summoner I was flashed how overpowerd he can be when you just play him on armor,I like it best to play him on armor,but with the time I learned to play him for the situation. Shen is overpowerd even without much damage or AP because his aballities make enough damage,so he just needs to be tanky enough.

Pros / Cons

Pro/Cons for Armor Shen
Pro:

• Makes much damage even without AP or AD
• Easy to play
• Can tank all AD's

Contra:

• Didnt makes much damage on other Tanks
• When they dont focus you the Armor will be useless
• Mages can kill you easy

Pro/Cons for MR Shen
Pro:

• Can jump into skill shots
• Can Tank all enemies Mages
• Makes damage even without AP or AD
• Youre Feint is useful

Contra:

• Didnt makes much damage on other Tanks
• When the Mages dont focus you the MR will be useless
• ADs can kill you easy
• Hard to play

Pro/Cons for AP Shen
Pro:

• Is Tanky and makes much damage
• All od youre abillities are useful
• You have high resistence versus CC

Contra:

• Hard to play
• When they focus you,the Ap will dont save you
• Enemies can kill you easier then Armor or MR Shen

Items

As the start Item with Armor Shen I choosed Ninja Tabi,but when their is too much CC you can even change to Mercury's Treads.As the second item I take Sunfire Cape because of the good farm and armor.My third item is Guardian Angel,its a good item because when you have much Armor you always survive after the retriving.As his fourth item I choosed Thornmail its always good to have it versus a good AD carry.As next there is Randuin's Omen,it will be good for the high Armor and the HP.As his last item I choosed Locket of the Iron Solari,its a good item to support your team and even gives you more armor and HP.

For the start item of MR Shen I choosed Mercury's Treads,when you really wanna play him on MR then choose this and non other boots.For his second item I take Force of Nature,its always good for his taunt,and gives you MR and HP Regeneration.His third item is Spirit Visage,its a good combination with Force of Nature.His fourth item is Guardian Angel,its becasue the same background as the Guardian Angel from the Shen below.Then comes Banshee's Veil,its everytime a good item versus Mages because of its Passive.And his last item is Aegis of the Legion like Iron Solari its a good support item,and gives you some armor and MR.

The start item for AP Shen is Ionian Boots of Lucidity,trust me you will need the Cooldown Reduction.His second item is Rylai's Crystal Scepter,it gives you a good Passive on your abillities and gives you a little bit from a Tank.As his third item I choosed Moonflair Spellblade,its the reason why you dont buy Mercury's Treads and it gives a litlle bit AP.For his fourth item I buy Mejai's Soulstealer,its the Item with the most AP in LoL,and at the end it gives you the needed Cooldown Reduction.His fith item is Zhonya's Hourglass,it gives you some armor to save Mejais and 100 AP so why not.As his last item I choose a Magic Penentration one with some Tank things too,so I choosed Haunting Guise.

Skill Sequence

The Skills for Armor Shen

I choosed the Abilities order so because as armor Shen you need the damage from Vorpal Blade first, Shadow Dash is the skill to help youre team and Feint isnt important because you have enough Armor.

The Skills for MR Shen As a MR Shen you need to catch up skill shots, Feint and Shadow Dash are the best abilities for that.The damage from Vorpal Blade isnt important because youre just there to get the whole magic damage.

The Skills for AP Shen As a AP Shen you will need the damage skills first,begin with Vorpal Blade and Shadow Dash and max them both first.

Summoner Spells

The Summoner Spells for Armor Shen
Normally I take Flash and Exhaust,Exhaust to slow the enemy and get away or slow the enemy to come faster with Shadow Dash on him.Flash is the same,get away or get faster to an enemy for the taunt.For other good Summoner Spells there are Teleport, Heal and Ignite.All other Summoner Spell arent good for Armor Shen.

The Summoner Spells for MR Shen
For MR Shen I would choose Flash and Cleanse,other good Summoner Spells are Teleport, Ghost and Heal.I take Cleanse because there often stuns from the skill shots you catch up so with Cleanse youre ready all the time for something like that.

The Summoner Spells for AP Shen
As AP Shen I normally choose take Ghost and Teleport,I take Teleport because I dont want that I waste my ulti for just teleport,on AP it guards for to much Damage that I would waste it.Other good Summoner Spells are Heal, Ignite, Exhaust and Flash.

Runes

The Runes for Armor Shen

For the runes I took MR and Armor,both are really important for the Tank build you will gonna do.But I took the focus on Armor here.
The Runes for MR Shen The runes for MR Shen are Armor and MR too
,but I improved a little bit HP Regeneration in here.Here the focus is on MR.
The Runes for Armor Shen For the AP runes I choosed some HP Regeneration,Ability Power and Cooldown Reduction,but the most interesting are the Quintessences,I improve some Energy in there,thats because his Shadow Dash uses so much energy.

Masteries

The Masteries for Armor Shen

For the masteries for Armor Shen I took a 1/20/8 or a 0/21/9 build.For first there is Summoner's Wrath I took this because I normally play with Exhaust,but when you dont choose Exhaust or Ignite for him you will dont need this.For the defense masteries I choosed some masteries like Hardiness , Resistance and Honor Guard .For some more specially I took Initiator ,when you play on tank you will dont loose so much HP so you will have more than 70% of life most of the time.With the Movement Speed you can catch up enemies with youre Shadow Dash easier.For the utility I choosed Summoner's Insight for the Flash, Good Hands and Improved Recall for faster come into battle,and Swiftness for his Shadow Dash.

The Masteries for MR Shen For the masteries for MR Shen I choosed as same as Armor Shen much defense masteries.The only opposite is that I use Evasion ,for dont become so much damage from AoE Mages.The utilitys are the same as them for Armor Shen.

The Masteries for AP Shen For the masteries for AP Shen I would take a 21/9/0 build,this is good because he gains much damage and Colldown Reduction with masteries like Blast and Sorcery ,but I even gave him some defense masteries with Vigor , Hardiness and Resistance .

Farming

For the farming there isnt so much to explain,always last hit with youre Vorpal Blade,at the early game often use youre Feint to take up the damage from the minions,and when you hit them with Vorpal Blade and they arent down then just attack them.Even when you need some Energy then wait for your KI-Strike,and when you need HP do the same but give the minions a Vorpal Blade before.

Team Work

For the Team-Work section I will have to explain three skills for it,the first is Shadow Dash,its the most useful support ability for Shen.When you have high armor always taunt so many enemies you can with your Shadow Dash,even the mages because they cant use abilities when you taunt them.You can good combine it with Feint to catch up skill shots.For his ulti Stand United I would say that you not waste it for just teleport,always use it for your squishiest companion,normally I use it for the AD Carry,but you can even use it for your Mage.

Summary

This guide is speacialized on a Defense way to play Shen,it gives more ways to play him but after one year playing with him I think its the best right now.So when you dont like this guide or how I did it then give me feedback what I can change,and I know that this isnt so much yet here but its my first guide and we will see what I do later on it.
I wanna thank Phil Collins for his thread to look in jhoijhoi's Karthus guide and I wanna thank her too.