FIRST OFF AND FOREMOST: I would like to give credit to Hockeygod. I only tried AP shen because I read his build called "Shen-the Hidden Mage". I would like to say that this build of Shen is something that I thought about investing in because, well, because I played Shen for awhile. When you play a character for an extended period of time, what keeps you interested in them is the amount of play styles that you can come up with to keep things interesting. So far Ive come up with a Physical DP Shen, and a mage Shen (once again crediting Hockey god for the original Idea). This build is fun, dangerous and quite effective especially late game. To this day I haven't been able to finish this build. Please keep in mind that this is also my first build.

If you like Shen, and You like awesome things, I require that you by Surgeon Shen. That is all.

PROS:
Able to survive burst damage due to improved feint.
Allows team carries a higher chance to escape sticky situations due to a much more durable Stand United shield.
usually underestimated which could make for easy kills.
Easier for you to get first blood (from what ive seen and tried out) than other shens.
EXCELLENT farmer.

CONS:
You will be made fun of OFTEN.
Your hitpoints dont come until later, so a tad bit frail until late game.
Required that you play more cautiously since youre a mage this time around.
Vunerable to Veigar.
Your "Tanking time" window is much shorter than an actual Tank Shen.

Ok. Mage Shen introduction. The first thing you need to do is tell your team "I am not a tank". That way they can make preparations (and/or **** talk you for going AP shen) for a new tank. Mage Shen is a terrific farmer, something that Shen lost since the "Great Sunfire Cape Disaster". You will immediately hear people ridicule you (for the most part) because many people have never seen Mage Shen before. "AP Shen is fail". "Noob", or my personal favorite: "What the **** are you doing?" You be lucky and get peopel on your team who go.."I dont know about this..." I had one guy go: " Mage Shen? XD I guess Roflstomp their faces off." The thing about this build too is that people will not expect it, I know Ive said this a lot, but its actually a very effective part of this build.

Ok. Lets talk about Masteries. Now the first thing you have to keep in mind is that You're setting your masteries up as if you wer ea mage, but with no mana. So just like Hockey Gods guide says: 11 Offense, Making sure to get the masteries for Exhaust, Ignite, Magic penetration, and Cool Down and 19 Utility making sure to grab movement speed and once again Cool Down. Everything else is up to you, but these are the ones that I think should be mandatory. The Magic penetration is always welcome on any mage, and the movement speed is good for "hawking" down fleeing squishies or near death champions.

Your runes, are what make you a mage...With a BIT more survivability. You'll need the standard Magic Penetration marks (Tier 3 Greater mark of Insight), then you'll need Ability per level seals (Tier 3 Greater seal of Force), here is what makes you , a decent tank as well: Magic resist per level glyphs (Tier 3 Greater Glyph of Shielding). For Quints Ability power per level (Tier 3 Greater Quintessence of Force). the items you get will stack to give you at least 100 magic resist which allows you to take about half damage from most spells. and that coupled with feint and the ability power you have, people will still suspect you as a tank Shen, which is just what you want. Your magic Pen , is for your Vorpal Blades and for your Passive Ki Strike.

Ok, now for the part that everyone cares about: Items. You should first start out an ability Tome, and a health potion. What I want you to do here, is: BUY THE HEALTH POTION FIRST. Now this is for a hidden technique that you will come to love in the mid to late game. Youll need the empty slot trust me on this one, just trust me. now all the items i have listed in this guide come into play, But you will have to buy them based on what the hell is going on in your lane. Things like: Who am i fighting, What type of damage is hurting me the most, etc etc. You want to get the Mejai Soulstealer as soon as possible, so that you can quickly pick up some stacks. If you get first blood, go back to get boots immediately, so that you can chase down the enemies. keep in mind however that chasing down does NOT mean over extend. It will be established by around level 5 that you aren't someone to be trifled with. After you get your boot and you farm a bit more, go get ya sorc boot upgrade. NOW is the important part. If you still have your health potion in the first slot, sell it, and buy chain mail. Later on when you upgrade it to a Zhonya Hourglass, It will be in your first slot. If you are getting harassed too much, get both defensive items first. this being negatron cloak, and chain mail. After you get those, upgraded work on your Crystal scepter,its actually a pretty nice item for Shen: HP, AP, and a slow. Now the enemy is slowed and taking a **** ton of damage from your Vorpal blade and Ki Strike. NORMALLY you wont finish the Crystal Scepter, but if you do, begin working on your Deathcap.

Skills are simple, Prioritize Vorpal blade over all else, BUT STILL get your ult when its available. I usually get Feint at level 2, and if My partner keeps getting him or herself into trouble taunt at level 3. I usually Prioritize, Vorpal Blade then Feint, then shadow dash. Shadow dash is to save lives, but it also nets you stacks, and forces the enemy to eat your vorpal blades. Feint is a lot more powerful on mage shen. Its like I told my friend: " For about two seconds, you're the best tank in the world."

Ok. Summoner spells. I PREFER, Exhaust and ignite. If you exhaust someone they take more magic damage from your blades AND your auto attacks. then you toss an ignite on them. While that's burning, you still have a blade to toss. Hockeygod says to use Teleport and Ignite. I'm only against teleport because although it can net you kills and it can net you assists, but as i said, its my preference.

I usually always kill the ghosts and the wolves. They are easy sources of consistent income, BUT since you are a mage you can KIND feel entitled to the Blue Golem buff, BUT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK FIRST. You honestly don't need it, it just helps.

Uniqueness? Ok here. Your teams Ezrael is being chased down. ALL Ezrael needs is a few seconds till the rest of your team gets there to support him. What do you do? Stand United on Ez, When you land taunt the enemy team AWAY from Ez (after you pop feint), as soon as you here the "tink" sound from feint wearing off, push the ONE button. THIS is why I was telling you the entire build to make sure you keep the first slot clear. If you did this right, You just bought Ez about 4-7 seconds to escape and for your team to get there and deal with the other team.

Special Skill: Zhonya Invulnerability

Ok I feel like this is in order just in case you weren't to sure about this. For the most part the Shen you're used to playing is no longer existent with this build. I will go over detailed skill info regarding the use of Mage Shen's abilities.

Vorpal Blade: Thsi si your primary DPS skill as well as your main laning tool. Its a great nuke as well as an awesome soure of healing.

Tip: Be sure to aim this at the bigger Minions (tanks minions) because you'll probably kill off the smaller ones.

Tip this is also a VERY effective farming tool now. Even more so than before. There is a greater margin for error as far as last hitting minions goes since Vorpal Blade now does a fair amount of damage all through the game.

Feint: This becomes a lot more important on Mage Shen than other Shens I'd think, but for much more Selfish reasons. Since this gets a lot more powerful than a standard tank Shens feint would, you can rely on it as a shield in a sword fight rather than a hat in a rainstorm. Actually You should really learn to time this ability more so with this build than any other. Most Shen builds still give you a tanky feel, whereas this one gives you.....well (another bad analogy)....Hmmm, other builds give you Plate or Chainmail, but this one gives you Leather armor or cotton robes at the least. A Mage Shen's Feint though gives you Full plate with a tower shield. at 600 AP you're feint will allow you to absorb about 500 Damage.

Tip: When in the middle an enemy team, Use feint, then Zhonya's Stasis ability, Shadow dash away then use feint again!

Shadow Dash: This ability is no longer a means of initiating a team fight. THIS ABILITY IS NO LONGER A MEANS OF INITIATING A TEAM FIGHT. I know I said it twice, I know the second time I said it, it was in all caps. I'm just saying that because i want you guys to realize what this is for. Ok at max taunt makes a champ attack you for 2.5 seoonds. if you max out Vorpal Blade and you have Golem buff with 20 stacks of Mejai's , you can throw a blade once every 1.8 seconds. In short use your taunt to Escape or pin down a carry for more vorpal blades, or even to get closer for a blade toss.

Tip: VERY Effective versus flighty characters like, Ezreal, Yi, and Kassadin.

Stand United: Ok not only is this ability still used for the same thing, but its also used for one more thing. You used to just use this for Last resort escaping, or the most primary use: Saving a team mate. Now Both of these uses are improved because of the naturally more Durable shield, BUT it can also be used to get stacks on Mejai's. This is very selfish, BUT some times you just need to get the ball rolling as far as Mejai's goes.

Tip: Use this on Champs for have an easy time 1 v Multiple. (Jax, Ryze, etc etc)

Ok, as I said before, I'd like to thank Hockeygod. Ive neve rmet the guy, and Ive never talked to him, but I hope he realizes how much he helped me with this idea. In the end this game that we play Called League of Legends is all about us having fun with each other from around the country/world. Mage Shen, is a new and exciting way to play Shen and you should have fun playing it. This is my first guide, so please cut me some slack. Also new suggestions are indeed welcome. This seems like a good idea to put here: if You rate negatively please say why, heck if you rate positively please say why.

"If we lose its your fault" GRAND PRIZE WINNER. Thi guy was akarthus whom I had saved throughout the entire match with Stand united (it was absorbing over a thousand damage by this point) and I think I damn near one shotted an evelynn that ganked him!
"Duh, of course youre a tank"
"AP Shen is fail."
"Im going to report you."
"Shen is a ****ing ******."