In the middle of building

This guide is extremely in-depth and flexible; for people who don't like long reads and only came for a cookie cut build, I apologize but you came to the wrong place.

For instance the only item setup I provided above is Dorans > Boots > Aegis > Merc treads, you may be thinking wtf? However, the reason behind this is there is no perfect shen build as it all depends on the team you're vrsing.

Also you can skip the math part for those who have no time or don't care. I just did it for all the skeptics out there ;D

(This part you can skip). Hello Gunneddown here with my first LoL guide, I've built guide for other games but this will be my first LoL guide. Was searching through and found mobafire which is a great place to get insightful advises you can adapt or copy. I thought I'd do my part and throw in what I thought of one of my mains shen, or in my case The doctor. Honestly the only reason I bought him is because both my friends I play with in real life had kennen and akali, we thought hey, might as well roll the ninja team. I haven't regretted it since.

Runes
My philosophy is, "a good start leads the way" and by that I mean that I usually try to maximize my early game potential, so that I can snowball into a good mid-game, which will inevitably lead to a good end game (assuming all your teammate are doing all right and you throw down crucial saves).

Of course I suggest using the runes I have provided top, however, you may want to change it for something else.
Your marks are flexible
Your seals aren't as flexible
Your glyphs are even less flexible
Your quintessence is strict

Runes are your first step into optimizing your hero and try to either cover up for it's shortcomings or strengthen it's strong points.

Greater mark of insight (+0.95 Mag pen)
My choice, allows you to do more damage with and , allowing you to deal 4 more damage with at level 1, 7 more at lvl 2, 10 more at lvl 3, and etc. Your will depend entirely on what items and runes you get. (All assuming your enemy has 30 mag res). This route is for people who harasses well with shen and knows who to lane with.

Also more cost efficient as your caster chars use these runes.

Long ver.
{30 - (8.5 + 21.5 x 15%)} / 118.2= 15% (assuming you put 9 in offense)
The 21.5 is 30 (default mag res) minus 8.5 which is your mag pen
The 118.2 is 18.2 (which is the answer to the first part) plus 100 (which is how riot calculates mag % reduction)

Greater mark of fortitude (3.47+hp)
A choice that I would really not prefer, I put it here, however, because it is still viable. The 31.23 extra Hp (3.47 x 9) will make your stronger by 2.5dmg (not accounting mag res)...but that's it. Defensively it would have been better to get the greater mark of resilience instead. This route is only for those who knows:
A)Good partner (such as lux)
B)Bush control
C)You will constantly and hit

That is usually too much to ask and even if you do have a good lane partner, a good combo of the other team such as a well coordinated ashe+jana can shut you down quickly. If you take this route you must get greater seal of fortitude as well, otherwise you would have done more damage with mag pen+ + as getting hp lowers the vorpal blades damage. This route is for people who hellishly harasses with shen and knows good laning partners, if he gets counter harassed he will take a beating.

Greater mark of Warding (+0.97 Mag res)
Nothing much to say, can help because you may have not taken magic res glyphs. Heck even if you do get mag res glyphs, this is still useful as you don't buy extra mag res at the beginning of the game. This route is to play defensively against casters, harassment not as efficient which may result in enemy harassing you more, however may be avoided with good laning partner.

+9 mag res= 30+9+6=45
45 / 145 = 31% mag dmg reduction (more after you account in tenacity, 4% dmg reduction)


Greater mark of Resilience(+0.91 armor)
8.2 more armor? yes please, better than health if you want to play defensively why? You'll find out in the seal section.

Greater seal of resilience (+1.41 armor)
So you think, wow there are many choices for seals such as greater seal of fortitude or heck even scaling armor because you gain slightly more armor than these runes at level 5!

I chose flat armor because I like to get my harass on and lower their hp by half or even get a kill BEFORE I hit lvl 5. Heck even if I don't accomplish that, I can stay in lane longer to farm more gold. Getting a at lvl 5 is much better than scaling def at lvl 5 and it allows me to rush my sooner.

Why not flat health than? First off it's 4X MORE EXPENSIVE and the flat armor is ACTUALLY BETTER. Of course this does not hold true for all champions (some squishies, junglers, etc) lets get to the nitty gritty shall we? (Huge read, can skip)

9x Greater seal of fortitude gives 48HP @ 5.35 hp per seal.
9x Greater seal of resilience gives 12.69(13) armor @1.41 armor per seal.
Lets assume you're vrsing an ashe, ashe does 56dmg per hit (assuming no items/masteries/runes) and 96dmg with . With flat armor you will be taking 32% reduced damage so 18 less damage from auto attack and 30 from . Without flat armor you will be taking 4 more damage from auto attack and 6-7 more damage from . Theoretically you'll be losing 2 greater seals of fortitude per auto attack combo! After a few min you instantly lose your health bonus, while you'll never lose your armor bonus if you took flat armor instead.

Of course that's assuming that ashes don't like getting armor pen runes...so what if she had the standard 25 armor pen like all AD carries? Than without flat armor ashe'll do 52dmg per auto attack and 90 dmg per . Now if you took the flat armor you'll take 46dmg from auto and 79dmg from . So guess what? You'll lose 3 greater seal of fortitude per auto attack and volley. In one minute you can lose all of your health bonus and after that it's going downhill from there. Remember the stronger the enemy, the better the dmg reduction, meaning you'll save more hp by going flat armor the higher dmg your enemy has....for instance if that ashe were to buy a dorans blade or if you get hit ber her crit shot, you'll save more hp (of course it's better to not get hit at all but).

(you can skip)
Math
Armor
18=Base armor
13=Greater seal of resilience
6=masteries
10=

18+13+6+10=47 (Armor With Seal)
47 / 147 = .319 (32% phys dmg reduction)

18+13+6+10-25=22 (Armor with seal and -25 armor pen)
22 / 122 = .18 (18% phys dmg reduction)

18+6+10=34 (Armor without seal)
34 / 134 = .25 (25% phys dmg reduction)

18+6+10-25=9 (Armor without seal and -25 armor pen)
9 / 109 = .08 (8% phys dmg reduction)

This route is for those who want to harass well and stay in lane longer

Greater seal of fortitude(+5.35 hp)
48.15hp @ 5.35hp per
Useful to get the extra damage, you must harass as much as safely possible with this build because if your enemies aren't scared than they will harass you. If you get harassed you'll find yourself having to go back to base more often as you take more damage from enemy champions AND minions.
48.15 Hp = 3.85 more dmg
120Hp (from Doran) = 9.6 more dmg
48hp (from masteries) = 3.84 more dmg
52hp (from greater quintessence of fortitude x2) =4.16 more dmg

Note
Unless you also get a as your starting item you will actually do less damage at level 1 than if you were to get greater mark of fortitude + greater seal of fortitude combo and at level 3 you will still do less damage because magic pen scales really well with both and .

Greater glyph of focus(-0.65% cooldown)
My choice because it's cost efficient (every champion can benefit from this) and because I honestly do believe it's better. Combined with greater quintessence of focus you can lower your ult cool down by 13 seconds at lvl 1, which is really helpful. But the main reason I get this is because with 7.5% cool down reduction from runes and 3% from the offense mastery you cut down the cooldown on your by 1 second. It may not seem much but you'll see why it's such a big deal later on. Also as Shen you will buy mag res items later on but chances are you won't buy cooldown reduction, meaning this may be your only chance to get it.

Greater glyph of warding (+1.49)
+1.49 Mag res, nothing wrong with more mag resist, however all champions do start off with 30 which is ample, but considering they may be carrying 13-14ish magic pen, it's never a bad idea to have more.

x2 Greater quintessence of fortitude(+26 Health)

Makes you beefier, look tough, strengthens . I believe this is the best quintessence for shen, if you don't get cooldown glyphs, than get 3 of these.

x1 Greater quintessence of Focus(-1.64% cooldown)
Explained in glyph section

Note

Greater seal of evasion
Not really a viable choice for shen, @0.75% dodge chance per seal you'll get 8.7% dodge (including 2%from mastery) meaning you dodge 1 attack out of 11.5 attacks. Only way this becomes viable is if you plan on buying ninja tabi but how often do you find yourself vrsing a , , and in the same team? Unless they got 3+ ad carries (it happens but rarely) a merc tread is what you should go for. Also you'd have to be standing still and taking hits constantly in beginning lane for the 8.7% to be useful...yea no

Greater seal of defenseGreater seal of vitality Greater mark of Vitality Scaling defense runes

I discourage the use of these as it may be more expensive and less useful for shen. He's all about the early game gank and harass, at later levels his harass becomes a mere annoyance and nothing to be afraid of. So maximizing your early game and allowing you to farm and gank more allows you to snowball into late game. If you persist, the only useful scaing runes would be the Greater seal of vitality or maybe the expensive Greater mark of Vitality.

Stats

Greater seal of defense
1.9x more armor than flat at level 18, meh


1.8x more mag res than flat mag res, decent since you don;t get mag res items often but about 13 more mag res at lvl 18? meh


1.3x more mag res than flat mag res, the worst

Greater seal of vitality
3.6x more hp than flat HP, the most viable one thus far... but would still rather have a strong beginning

Greater mark of Vitality
2.8x more hp than flat health, once again decent but pretty expensive and I owuld still rather have flat health.

Basically I want to maximize my beginning game as much as possible, so that the early items makes up for the lack of late game advantages these runes give.

If you go with my runes and you like to harass well, you must use my masteries so you can get the cooldown and 15%mg pen. However, if you decide that you want to go pure defense and play passively with & armor or mag res mark; than going 0/22/8 is probably your best route putting 3 ponts in good hands, 1 point wherever, 4 points in awareness, with the last extra point going into nimbleness.

Teleport
Nonnegotiable, you must get teleport, if you see more than 2 teleports on que than you should advise someone to let their one go. Shens great unique feature is to move from one side of the map to the other, sometimes without the enemy team even knowing. When you're saving someone, it puts pressure on the lane you came from and sometimes even leaves it unprotected; with teleport this situation will be avoided most of the time.

Heal
My preferred spell, you ulti to a friend, pop up heal, and then taunt the enemy. Also a great spell in lane too for clutch saves when your ally gets tower dived.

At lvl 18, if you have no healing support, you can pop heal whenever you or your teammate is too low on hp. Giving your whole team a 250HP boost and giving yourself 500hp can determine whether you die & win the teamfight or you win & still live.

Exhaust
Another good spell, which is completely necessary if your offtanks, melee DPS, or assassin doesn't carry one. Just taunt into the enemy team and throw up your exhaust on the enemy AD carry.
Also useful for saves because you can ulti to an friend in need and throw down an exhaust on the assailant. That will either allow your teammate to escape or even score a kill. I carry heal instead because chances are, if I'm ulting to my ally, than I have a good amount of HP and my taunt alone will keep the enemy off my allies back (of course as a tank you shouldn't need exhaust to live).

Fortify
Another good spell to have if you don't have a support picking it up, be sure to put a point in reinforce (defense mastery) if you wish to tote this bad boy. This can actually save games and lives when used correctly.
Master yi or TF backdooring? Bam fortify + teleport
Teammate getting tower dived? Bam fortify they either back the f off or die in the process
Your teleport down and ultied to an ally in need? Watch your lane and fortify if you need to

Ghost
Great for chasing and running away...but that being said I'd rather take exhaust, heal, ignite, or even fortify. Your not going to be chasing as shen very often (don't go awol in the middle of a teamfight!) and if you have proper team/map awareness you wouldn't need to run. Of course if you hate heal, a support has fortify, someone is rocking the ignite, and there is plenty of exhaust than ghost is probably your best bet.

The best use of ghost, in my opinion, would be to ulti to a friend in need, keep the enemy busy, and then ghost to get out. However you probably wouldn't need that long to keep the enemy busy while your ally runs back to their turret, unless your ally got themselves found in the enemy jungle. If that did happen then the chances of you getting out with ghost becomes even smaller because enemies can cut you off and cc you to death.

Ignite
Only get this if nobody in your team is willing to. Great for first blood and good damage at lvl 18 (410 true damage) but the true utility is the 50% heal/regen reduction. Throw it on chars such as , ,possibly even and before they pop their ult (not sure would like clarification). Also not sure how ignite affects lifesteal, would appreciate comment on whether it has any effect

Ki strike
Your passive which got nerfed significantly, still better than nothing. Jump from bush to taunt + kistrike + vorpal blade than walk back into the bush and repeat. If you have a decent laning partner he/she'll see what your doing and support you when possible.

Vorpal blade
Your bread and butter, it deal decent damage and heals any friendly champions (yourself included of course). Maxing this first increases health regen and reduces the amount of energy needed to cast. With a 3 second cooldown your throwing down a great harass if you throw this every 3-5 seconds. Be warned however that as time goes on your vorpal blade seems less and less dangerous until it becomes negligible around lvl 10.

Feint
Only lvl this before ki strike if you're playing REALLY passively or maybe if the enemy has karthus. At lvl one it block a tiny bit more than 1 ashe auto attack (with 25 armor pen), at lvl 2 it becomes slightly viable giving you a 100hp shield (which combined with your armor is good), and at lvl 3 it becomes slightly useful. However, you have to level it up 2-3 times before it becomes useful wasting points you could have used for vorpal or shadow, both of which is much more useful. The opposite of vorpal blade, this skill is only useful at higher levels since, at lvl 18, you will be spamming shadowdash+feint combos.

Shadow Dash
If vorpal blade is your bread and butter, than shadow dash is what makes you shen. Your ult is awesome but it has a long cooldown and becomes much less useful once it turns into a large teamfight. You may level this up first before vorpal if:
1)You have a hard hitting partner who can use your taunt
2)You have a stealth champion in your lane
3)Want to play a little less harassy so that your ult+dash is more useful at lvl 6

Remember you can use your shadow dash to pull off some nice tricks like dashing through thin-med walls, deking your pursuer by walking in bush than walk out the way you came in and dash, shadow dashing enemies at or towards your tower, taunting enemies away from your allies, and etc.

Stand united

Whats not to like about this? It can save lives, get kills, and all from anywhere in the map!

Items are extremely important to shen as a tank and it's best to optimize his potential. By that I mean not only getting the right items for Shen, but the right pathing as well. For instance you need armor because you're constantly getting killed or forced back in teamfights by the AD carry. So you're poor and have 1400gold, instead of saving up for the you wanted buy a . It'll allow you to go back to your team faster and allow you to tank a little bit better (with a nice passive). As time progresses you can buy a and than finally a . Not the most cost efficient item but you can make use of the recipe items while saving up, while on the other hand has a 1k recipe cost, which you must save up making you less tanky while you wait.

How you build shen is completely up to how the game is progressing and your enemy team composition. However, the one thing that always holds true is that I always get as it is the best starting tank item (120+hp, 8hp per 5, 10 armor) only way I'd switch it out early game is if:
1)I've maxed out health in seals, marks, quints and I'm rushing a (which will build nicely into )
2)I know for certain that i'll be vrsing AP chars like and , in which case I may take and 2 , which will also build nicely into
3)If, god forbid, your laning with a support like than going and 2 may not be a bad idea. If this is the case you want to harass as much as safely possible. + + run back and let heal you.

You shouldn't have to go back until you can buy and ( can wait ). Now is the one of the few CORE items for shen why?
1)Group benefit, you ulti to your friend in need, give them bonus mag res, armor, and then to top it off you pop your heal! Great for shen more so than other tanks because he can teleport to any ally in need and provide these benefits for them, unlike other tanks who buys it for their lane partner.
2)It gives you your early mag res (combined with your ), health for your , armor for more tanky goodness, and finally 8 bonus damage which is meh but better than nothing.

Rushing your allows you to be more useful to your allies more than . If you do unfortunately get forced back to base often just buy what you need, is hitting too much on you? Get --> --> in that order, getting your and finishing it for a when you can (If you're landing ki strikes on ezrael now and then, getting would probably be better).

After you get the Dorans, Aegis, and merc treads assess the situation, is the team comprised mainly of AD or AP? Is going ap, ad, or hybrid? Who is fed? Who does the most damage? Would I need to tank turret anytime soon?

Keep in mind that at this point, with those three items alone, you should have 94 mag res minimum meaning you take 48% reduced magic damage. Which is small in comparison to your armor but remember that casters have cooldowns meaning that they usually cannot spam skills. You should only buy magic res at this point if:
1)They have lots of AoE magic spells, especially ones that deal damage over time such as and
2)They got 2 AP users on their team and one got fed
3)The enemy has 3-4 casters with one or none AD DPS
4)For some odd reason Veiger likes bursting you

Magic Resist

Magic resist items are few in numbers because of the fact that abilities have cooldowns, meaning they won't do steady damage like AD chars. The folowing magic resist items are viable for Shen.


Only buy 2 of these so that you can build into Aegis and Merc treads, after that this item is not cost efficient and just not worth it. It takes one of your precious slots to give you 24 mag res, negatron cloak gives you two times that amount and 60 gold cheaper than buying 2 mantles. If you get harassed too strongly by an AP heavy lane; buy 2 null-magic mantle as soon as you can with health potions and ruby crystal if you can afford it.



This is what you'll be building over 90% of the time, it gives magic resist which you need because after Aegis you'll probably be building armor (unless AP carry got fed or if the team consists of APs). Nice thing about merc treads is that you can pre-buy negatron cloak for it incases you get harassed strongly by a AP heavy lane. Finally tenacity is a must for shen and it's the only item that both provides it and is a viable option.


The most cost efficient magic resist item to date. Many times I just stack 2 negatron cloaks as my last two items. If your vrsing a AP heavy team than this will probably be your first item after you buy your Aegis, merc treads, and dorans


The question is will the health regen (about 18.5 hp per second with 3000hp) off set the loss of 2.5-7% magic resist (2 negatron cloak to 3)? If there are 2 ap users with only one being slightly fed (about 300AP) than getting a force of nature will be more beneficial.

(yellow=skippable)
A slightly overrated item for shen in my opinion, people who needs magic resists always quickly get this item. The only thing special about FoN is that it's a top tier item...with a top tier price. You need magic resist right? Not hp regen...yes the movement speed is nice but you can live without it. Now lets say the enemy team has , , , , . I currently have , , , and 2610 gold. The 200+ armor is all I need from now taking 65%+ reduced damage, so my main concern is magic resist. Why looky here exactly enough to get a force of nature! But wait let me think only 76 magic resist? You might as well sell your dorans and stack 3 negatron cloaks! Thats 144+ Magic resist and with 390gold left over!

Force of nature=76 magic resist
Aegis+Merc tread+ base MR+ mastery=94
3 negatron cloaks= 144

Cloak+base=238 @ 70% magic damage reduction
Force of nature+base=170 @ 63%

Assuming is fed Finales Funkeln deals about 700+dmg so with cloaks you receive 210 damage and with force of nature you receive 259 damage, alright only a 49 damage difference, the health regen from my FoN will offset that in about 3 seconds... Oh wait here comes in with and ; can't go forgetting with now can we? Bet you wished you took the extra magic resist now huh?




Only get this if you have gold left over, your doing very well tanking, and nobody else in your team has this. 57 Magic resist for you, +70 ability power for your and your , and -20 mag res to your enemies. Not bad

Armor

What you'll probably be stacking the most of because you constantly take more auto attack damage from both enemy champions and turrets than you would from spell casts.



Basic armor you buy to build for aegis, thornmail, randuin's omen, and ninja tabi if the situation calls. Unlike the null-mantle and negatron cloak the cloth armor is better than chain vest in terms of armor per cost, so buying 3 right off the bat against an AD heavy team may not be a bad idea. However note that you only have 6 slots and that cloth armor still only gives +18 armor.


Buy it to build into warden's mail for randuin's, thornmail, sunfire cape, or in some instance guardian angel. You can stack 2 chain vest if you really need quick armor and you want to buy into a thornmail really badly. This would probably be your first item after you get your aegis, merc treads, and doran's.


Buy this only if the only ap user on their team is a tank/support, even then if your enemy is a cc heavy AD team then getting merc treads would probably still be a better idea. An example would be , , , , and a


If your enemy is AD heavy and their AP caster has slow cooldowns or not fed than rushing a sunfire may be the best option. Sunfire is a great item that allows you to do one thing shen dreams of doing...being able to farm. Getting this allows you to contribute a little more to teamfights, gets you more Hp ( should be almost useless by now), and gives decent armor. Shen being able to farm mid-game can allow him to be almost unkillable (don't worry about teamfights, we have size=32 .


A must have if you're vrsing 2 AD carries (especially fed ones)such as , , , etc (even .
You can never go wrong with having 100+armor in one item, even disregarding the awesome passive, it is the most cost efficient armor which just happens to have the largest amount of +armor. Better to tank the towers with my good sir! The only problem is the expensive recipe price. If they only have 1 AD carry and he isn't that fed than I'd reconsider saving for thornmail. Taunt + passive is always awesome.

Argument- Wearing thornmail makes you a less desireable target... wellll you're a tank, smart players won't even target you in the first place so having thornmail isn't going to change anything. You need armor to tank towers and sometimes players with taunt, disregarding the 100 armor at a cheap 2000gold isn't worth it just because you think some players are going to attack you less.


Great for all occasions, enemy team likes to hit and run? taunt+randuin's active! Your team needs to get away? Randuin's active! Enemy team has 2 melee DPS?...well you get the picture. The true beauty of this item was described in the opening, the fact that you can build into it with many low tier but useful items...Mid-late game your heart of gold and cloth armor becomes less useful, well guess what you can build it into a randin's and gain all the benefits from 3 items in one slot! However, if the enemy team deals too much AP damage, you may not be able to build into this. The reason being you got your initial 3 items than only 3 left over slots. Ideally your going to build a warden's mail and heart of gold first, leaving only one space for a negatron cloak. Of course you can either sell your doran's shield for an extra slot or only buy warden's mail and 2 negatron cloak. In the end though, if you sell your doran's for an extra slot or only buy warden's, you would have been better off just getting a chainvest and 2 negatron cloaks. Than if the game goes on for longer and you need more armor just build a thornmail out of the chainvest.


Only build this if your planning on building randuin's


If you know for sure you going to build into randuins, rush this item after getting your initial 3.

Consider

This item is highly situational, such as you got 2 unfed assassin class characters like , , (not really an assassin char but operates like one in a teamfight), and etc as teammates. Their not going to jump in quickly...even after you initiate because they will just drop, meaning you must run in and take a huge initial beating, than your allies (offtank, ap or ad carry) will arrive with the assassin chars jumping in during the middle of a fight. Also another time it helps to have this is vrsing pubs, people are inclined to attack enemies with low health even if it is a shen with guardian angel! Remember theoretically having guardians angel makes you a less desirable target...but if your dying your dying. If you find yourself dying too quickly and your teammates falls soon after, investing in a guardian angel may be the best decision you make.


You don't have mana mag res is meh and you can tank spells so why would you need this? Well true enough you won't need this in most cases but say you have a or in your team and the enemy doesn;t initiate. That means will constantly harass with his or with her . It's your job to stand inbetween the two team so that they don't jump either char and having a banshees makes you look imposing + they won't use a spell on you forcing them to back off or get initiated upon. If they do use a spell than depending on the spell you can rush to initiate! Also you can use banshees to save an ally from , enemy , , , or even save your self from . It will also make it harder for to troll on you with


Only viable if you bought a sunfire cape(meaning the enemy doesn't do very much AP dmg), the reason being is that the gold needed buy this and the kills needed to get stacks all comes from the sunfire cape's ability to farm. Only buy this if you are already have enough armor and mag res. A great combo (if the game goes on long enough) is thornmail + sunfire + warmogs melee dps char will kill themselves attacking you.


Not really a bad buy at all, especially if you're in a premade. Your teleport and ult will get you to many fights quickly giving you stacks. Then at low level you may be able to get a large hp bonus which will help you be more tanky, along with items such as thornmail. Getting stacks may also attract enemies to target you to get rid of your stacks, which is a bonus.

to be continued...

to be continued...

Please leave opinions and corrections as I'm just winging it