Pros

+ Huge sustain + Huge damage in lane + Very good CC's + Game-breaker ultimate.

Shen is one of the best toplaners throughout all the seasons. He has proved himself that he can work with pretty much everything, with his Shadow Dash that can be used as an escape or as a massive CC in teamfights, Vorpal Blade that provides him correct damage and sustain and with a game-changing Stand United that can completely turn around entire games, he is pretty much banned from every high elo/tournament games because of that.

Cons

- Needs an AoE item ( Sunfire Aegis) in order to splitpush effectively. - Interruptible ultimate - Can't ultimate if pushed (loses tower) - Very useless in teamfight if he misses Shadow Dash

If Shen can't properly ultimate without loosing a tower or being interrupted, he will be useless. The lacks of AoE damage is pretty much his biggest weakness since he can get pushed and loose tower very fast when he faces any AoE char ( Rumble) His taunt has a lot of CD, if he misses it he will be completely useless in a teamfight. Same if he Stand United the wrong person or too late.

• Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: The MS will impact on your ability to catch people faster with your taunt and globally makes you more mobile, which is great on Shen.
• Greater Mark of Attack Speed: The attack speed marks are pretty good with Shen, which relies a lot on his Attack Speed to sustain/damage/splitpush
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: You will take the MR/Level runes if you don't face any AP matchup early ( Rumble)
• Greater Seal of Armor: Globally makes you tankier.

• 9 points into Arcane Knowledge because your damage is pretty high on lane, so let's abuse it
  
• 21 points into Honor Guard with Block and Unyielding because you won't really need a lot of CC-Reduction with Shen and you will be taking a lot of autoattacks.

Ki Strike
Every 8 seconds, Shen's next attack deals bonus damage
This helps you trading in lane and splitpushing. It deals more damage depending on your health (10% Bonus Shen's Health) and it's cooldown is reduced by 1 second each time you autoattack.
Vorpal Blade
Deals magic damage to target unit and marks them for 5 seconds.
This is your main source of damage, this has a 3 second cooldown and a huge damage/sustain which even works with your allies. If you use it to last hit a minion, you will gain a flat amount of health, otherwise if anyone attacks someone marked by a vorpal blade, he gains enormous amount of HP/5 depending on Shen's health
Feint
Shen shields himself, absorbing damage. Lasts up to 3 seconds.
This ability is great to poke safely (poke without being poked) or to splitpush effectively, since any autoattacks reduce by 1 additional second your Ki Strike cooldown (2 seconds in total.)
Shadow Dash
Dashes in a direction, dealing magic damage to champions and taunting champions for 1.5 second
This ability has a high energy cost, but if you hit 1 champion you will gain 40 energy, which helps. Remember that it has a high cooldown, so don't fail it !
Stand United
Places a shield on target allied champion for 5 seconds. After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen teleports to the target's location.
This is Shen's strongest ability. He can win a game by only using it carefully. You can save anyone in a bad situation and you will be teleported to your loved one. Be careful tho, it can be interrupted with a hard CC.

Armor

Magic Resist

Splitpush

Health

Damage

You're kind of strong in lane, but remember you're not a god, riot has nerfed you and you can't just kill anyone level 2.

At the point of the game you should just last hit with vorpal and harass a bit, don't try a kill except if he's very low, because you will not have enough dmg early.

At level 6 quickly scout the map and see if you can ult someone to make a big play (save him then kill 1/2/3/4 people) Because although your lane phase is awesome, Shen is meant to win other's people lane, not his lane.


(you should not take care if he's taking your tower top if you have done drake after you teleport botlane.)

This is where you shine the most. If your laning phase was good, you have now your core items Sunfire Aegis Mercury's Treads Spirit Visage Wit's End

And you're ready to splitpush ! (doesn't matter if you don't have them you have to splitpush anyway.)

You can carry your whole team if you splitpush very well. So use it wisely.
To master the splitpush, you have to do it again and again, and again, to have a lot of experience in this.
In teamfights, DON'T YOU F**** MISS THAT TAUNT. SERIOUSLY.
Your taunt is the only thing that is completly op if you touch 2 people at least. Try to taunt enemy AD Carry/AP Carry, but remember, if you fail your taunt, you're gonna have a bad teamfight, because you can only land 1 taunt per teamfight in the midgame, so you'll have no cc, and no more energy.

Now that you are almost full build you are almost unkillable and pretty strong in splitushing. You'll be lacking some damage though, but it's okay as long as your AD carry isn't doing nothing in teamfights.

The only thing to care now is to not get caught when you'll splitpush. Because you'll have almost more than 1 minute dead, and this means enemy team can almost end the game on that. Also, be careful on not getting kited to much by this , if you miss too much taunts, forget about focusing her and protect your AD carry.

Last thing. Being unkillable is cool. But being alone in teamfights 5v1 are not. If your backline is getting raped, help them.

When should I Splitpush, where, and what should I have to do it effectively ?

Well it's simple, you need to have either Sunfire Aegis or Wit's End or Trinity Force to splitpush easily.

Although it's optional, you can also bring up sight ward to avoid getting caught.


You should splitpush the lane which is the less pushed. (example : your team is going to push T3 mid while you're taking the T2 botlane/toplane)

This will lead into a faster tower destructions, and will push enemies into their base, so you'll have objectives control. (Also more golds.)

This also works with baron and drake (Your team doing baron/drake meanwhile you're pushing a tower.)



If the enemy team decides to engage your team (and this is why you should always look at mid if they're doing that), You should ult either your carries or either the one that is being focused.

You can also ask your jungler to engage, meanwhile you're ulting him, so you can do a double engage.


Why Shen is good at this ? Because he's the only one that can teleport in 3 seconds into any ally with a huge shield. Nobody else in the League can.

Doomed difficulty means there is no way you can win this matchup even with 4 kills.

Hard: He sustains better than you, and outtrades you.

However he is very squishy in the early levels, you can even kill him if you play well.


Hard: If you die once before level 10, you will be loosing toplane forever.

If you didn't die, he won't be able to kill you, and neither you.


Doomed: %HP damage all the way baby, call your jungler asap because there is NO WAY you can win this match-up.


Hard: He can deny you really really hard because of his range, but if you manage to taunt him you will deal serious damage to him, and that's his weakness. He doesn't have any sustain so abuse on this.


Hard: Same as jayce, but she has sustain. Don't even think about killing her and try to make plays out of your lane with your ultimate.


Hard: This is much of a passive lane, except she got too much AoE damage for you and you'll be under your tower almost all the time. This means that you can call your jungler to score a kill if she's not warding river.

In term of trades you're pretty equal.


Hard: This is something you don't wanna face.

She runs everywhere, she harass you pre-6 with her autos, she has alot of aoe damage after 6, she basically counters you.

The only weakness is that she isn't really tanky. She will die if you manage to taunt her in a gank.


Hard: Sometimes you can find quinn into toplane, as same as kennen or jayce, this champion is meant to deny you, theres absolutely nothing you can do,she can dodge your taunt, she deals more damage than you early, mid, and lategame. The only way you can win your lane is to have a 1 kill advantage and a Sunfire Aegis for the trades.

Hard: Rumble will spent most of his time pushing you into your turret with his flamethrower. However he is absolutely not tanky and has no escape, this means that you can take over advantage if you manage to either land a taunt on him, or with a gank.


Hard: He kites you, he deals crazy damage early, and if you manage to land a taunt on him he just have to blind you so you can't sustain nor deal damage.

However if nobody killed each other at 15 m mark you should be dominating him because of your overall tankyness.


Doomed: Denies everything you can do in lane.

Splitpush ? He does it better.
Sustain ? He does it better.
Damage ? he does it better.
Tankyness ? HE DOES IT BETTER

Kill him before 6 or cry the rest of the game.


Hard: HP% Damage will make you cry.

Kite, Sustain with Blade of the Ruined King, and can't land a taunt because of her tumble.

Call your jungler asap before 6, she has no escape.


Hard: His ultimate and level 2 all in is a pain for you. you can't trade with him, call your jungler asap.