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Spells:
Teleport
Flash
Ability Order
Ki Barrier (PASSIVE)
Shen Passive Ability
Introduction



Why Another Guide?
"What makes this guy think he knows anything?" you may be asking. I don't want to discredit any of the other guides you may have read, but i disagree with a lot of what I read while looking at

- Why pure health/AP/attack speed/"insert your former build here" is not taking advantage of full
Shen capability
- How to make a "good"
Shen a GREAT one
One last thing, I would like to give thanks to jhoijhoi and her Making a Guide help on format, code, images, and everything else I borrowed from there. I will include an in-depth list at the end of this guide of anything else I reference so you can check your sources.

I do not claim to have read every guide on



What is a tank?
First off, if you have not read up on OR do not feel comfortable with understanding the team composition in League of Legends (or you are like me and just believe that you always have something more to learn), I highly recommend taking a look at Jebus McAzn's guide on champs, team comp, and who to buy.
To summarize what you will find there:
- Every team needs a tank, and
Shen will almost always be a damage soak no matter how you build him. His skills, especially
Shadow Dash, will be a huge asset to your team in taking the pressure off of your AD/AP carries
- An effective tank will soak damage, divert focus to himself (and herself if you play
Leona =D), and has a way to initiate fights smartly so that your carries can rain down pain on the enemy team.
Shadow Dash,
Stand United, and
Feint all fit into these needs SUPERBLY.
- Shen is featured as an ideal learner tank in the above guide, so feel free to brush up on that section as well
Essentially


Pure Health Shen here rockin' yo face?


Pure AP is gonna make that other team cry when you shield for 6475839032578289407289 health?


So if you read the above sections, you are probably realizing what I did which is that

Health is reasonably cheap so it is a prime option to build early game. Add in some mid game AP when the heavy ganks and team fights begin and you are now a Super Sneaky Teleporting Ninja of Unstoppable Force who will have the enemy team raging when you turn a losing 3v2 into a winning 3v3 when you a) give that squish-tastic


Runes




Here are my thoughts on runes and masteries. They are meant to boost your early game more than late game. The one exception to this is anything that modifies by a percentage. My explanation for this thought? Because items can be adjusted much easier and can make up for any loses you have due to not using scaling runes. A strong early game will reap the benefits you need to complete a build.
For this reason I take




The

On the bombshell ending that was the section on how I view
Shen, we have now determined that he is going to be the most effective asset to his team as a hybrid AP/Health built tank. So before we get some items, lets talk about what each ability does and when we want them maxed by to be the most effective.

![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
An extremely powerful passive! Ki Strike: refunds energy, does a decent amount of damage which is based off of health (something we want to build as a tank anyways, so we get some extra damage for free), and works superbly as a strong last hitting tool when combined with Vorpal Blade. Vorpal blade will be the bread and butter of your laning phase so we will max it first! It allows some great last hitting and an on hit heal. The heal will trigger in a lesser form if you use it to last hit, so a good ![]() Feint can be used to: block minion or tower damage after a poke in lane, take the first brunt of damage after a Shadow Dash, and any other number of possibilities you can imagine to counter the enemy. Remember to pop it before a shadow dash, when a tower targets you, when you hit a champ and gain minion aggro, etc. and you will notice game improvements. Maxed second most games. The last piece to Feint, keep in mind that it doubles the cool down reduction of Ki Strike; keeping it up consistently while farming while suck energy though, so balance the use wisely. Shadow Dash is a great utility tool. It can take some practice, but it is possible to Shadow Dash after you teleport with Stand United almost immediately after you arrive which can disrupt a fight quite effectively. Be wary that the 50% damage reduction seems greater than it is, and ALWAYS POP FEINT BEFORE you dash to provide maximum safety and protection. Stand United...what makes you a ![]() |
Hands down my two favorite summoner spells on
Shen

Some other less viable options in my opinion
I am not a fan of going over every summoner option, so if you want to hear my thoughts on other spells please drop me a comment and I will add it in. Otherwise I think this provides some good all around options.

![]() The utility of this spell is phenomenal. You can be back in your lane after a recall in seconds, or jump across the map because a good opportunity to push arose. Another fun trick is to use ![]() |
![]() Flash will help you escape, chase into range for a ![]() |

Some other less viable options in my opinion
-
A great spell to help shut down a DPS or AP carry on the enemy team.
-
If you are solo landing, this can really help secure kills or shut down a DPS life steal
-
Good utility to get around, though not as help full as flash for escaping and instant positioning
-
I can see this being useful since you will likely be targeted ALL THE FLIPPIN' TIME but I just find that
Shadow Dash is enough to shut down the teams casting ability if you use it wisely
I am not a fan of going over every summoner option, so if you want to hear my thoughts on other spells please drop me a comment and I will add it in. Otherwise I think this provides some good all around options.




Your standard last hit combos,




This will allow you to last hit creeps when you are being pushed hard without taking as much damage. It also provides a good way to poke an enemy champ, especially if you can block enough damage to soak up a turret hit or two. Be wary that without hitting a champ




This is probably the combination that makes

This skill can be used as am escape in a pinch but I prefer not to. A fun trick when you are taking a lot of damage in a team fight is to ult to another person in the fight, such as your AD carry. Now your enemies are still beating on you or even if they switch their focus your squishy has a bit of extra help.
A few notes:
- Using Stand United into a place protected but the fog of war (bushes, Akali's
Twilight Shroud, etc.) will allow for a good surprise since the enemy won't see it coming
- I find it much more beneficial to use Stand United early rather than late. Do not hold off until your squishy has 100 health, because by this point they are likely going to die before you get there to help. Your ultimate cool down is not so large that if you used it when it was not needed it is the end of the world. For how fast a squishy champ loses heath, ulting when they are above 3/4 health is generally the only way to guarantee you have enough channel time. I almost always ult into a fight where my team is outmatched unless:
- a) I am purposefully pushing during that fight
- b) It is obvious that my arrival will become all of us dying, not me saving them
- c) The teammate it question is obviously running away and is going to make it (i.e a tanky champ with a good escape who has a good lead)


Assuming you took teleport, which I have already highly recommended, a strong




Like many other guides out there I do not want to give you "1 Magical Mystery Build that will Strike you a WIN EVERY GAME". Instead, here is my usual core build, followed by some good paths to follow

So now we have the "core build" done, what comes next?
Spoiler: Click to view
Spoiler: Click to view
Spoiler: Click to view
Spoiler: Click to view

My thoughts on building items are that it is always better to find item's which do more than one thing if possible. I generally don't take an item that provides ONLY one stat if I can, but in some cases I make exceptions (i.e.
Thornmail).
Core Build
Breakdown:- Start with
Boots and 3
Health Potion's, unless you think you are going to be in a lane that is going to push you EXTREMELY hard. If so a
Doran's Shield can help provide you some extra tankyness early.
- I like to build an early
Heart of Gold for the health and the gold-per-5. I talked about it earlier, but here it is again. Health is easier and cheaper to get early. It is more utilitarian because you ALWAYS NEED IT. If you build magic resist for that
Malzahar who then goes 0/7/3...you just wasted a lot of gold on MR you didn't need. The build I have will give you 99 Armor and 42 MR at level 18 without any item help. That isn't great, but the point is it leaves you a lot of room to build armor/MR later game
Ionian Boots of Lucidity are amazing. After your 12% CDR from masteries, the extra 15 gets us with 13% of the CDR cap at 40%. With these boots you have an 87 second cool down on
Stand United at 3 points. Not too shabby for an almost guaranteed save. If you need
Mercury's Treads for a team with heavy CC, TAKE THEM!
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is my bread and butter item. The health and ap provide survivability for you AND your team. It will beef up your stats,
Stand United,
Shadow Dash, and
Vorpal Blade especially with more damage and you now have a RANGED SLOW. Goodbye enemies escaping with minimal health!

So now we have the "core build" done, what comes next?
Good All Around Items

Heavy Armor Needed

Heavy Magic Resist Needed

Other Items


My thoughts on building items are that it is always better to find item's which do more than one thing if possible. I generally don't take an item that provides ONLY one stat if I can, but in some cases I make exceptions (i.e.

I already talked about teamwork briefly at different points during this guide. Here is a summary and a few extra pointers I have added.
When you use your
Stand United, always be sure to leave the target of your ult enough health to survive for you to teleport there AND help you once you arrive. They should not die the instant you arrive, even if you secure the kill. As a tank, one of the most important pieces of advice I can give is you are there to keep your team alive. You will achieve victory by making sure that your carries are "carried" and that everyone stays a high kill-death ratio. The one exception might be a support, but they should have a high assist-death ratio because of you ;)
As the tank, your team needs you to be soaking up damage. You should be the first one into battle, and the last one out. If you are leading the retreat and your squishy gets tagged by a
Dr. Mundo
Infected Bonesaw which you could have blocked; YOU FAILED! It is tough to be a tank because sometimes your team will leave you high and dry, that sucks but just calmly explain what you were trying to do and help them follow your lead next time.
Shadow Dash is an amazing thing because you can stay a bit farther away before initiating. Like
Blitzcrank's
Rocket Grab, you have good zone control and can initiate from afar.

I want to reference a few things here:
Ulting
When you use your

Lead the Way!
As the tank, your team needs you to be soaking up damage. You should be the first one into battle, and the last one out. If you are leading the retreat and your squishy gets tagged by a






I want to reference a few things here:
- Win10cent A Very Detailed Ezreal Guide In the head of Win10cent is a brilliant section of his
Ezreal guide which really helped my gameplay. Take a look at it and see how it can be applied to your game.
Yes this is an old video, and yes her voice might be a bit weird, but GET OVER IT! The video outlines a very important aspect of the game which will help your game tremendously.- I already referenced Jebus McAzn's Guide on Team Comp but here it is again
- Setting up your LoL preferences by GoodGame8 Helped me a lot in fine tuning my client
- Warding by Panglot because wards are so damned important, especially solo top
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