Shen is really tanky guy even without tank items. But his real power can only be seen when he's got good items. I've seen guys, that were playing shen based on attack speed and lifesteal. Nice conception but for real useless...

Shen' pros and cons

Pros
- High survivability even without tank items
- Nice passive that can make really sick damage with Warmog
and in fight with opponents it can be used nearly every second
- Taunt (can sometimes save your teammates from death)
- His Vorpal Blade - really usefull especially when solo line
- And the best thing in Shen - his ulti. He can shield his teammates from some damage which with shadow dash can really change the tide of battle.

Cons
- For real - just problems with farming and last hitting minions

In my build i want to maximize Feint as fast as possible so that you can shield really hard damage (and it can save you from Karthus's ulti) so that with Vorpal Blade whenever possible thrown at enemy you can even win 2 vs 1 fights and kill your opponents with your passive.

At the beginning he is tough but you shouldn't go berserk (unless your lane mate is a good DPS or Healer) but try to last hit minions and throw Vorpal Blade at your enemies.
Then when you have Shadow Dash you can really do something - just try to taunt enemies when they are under your turret or just stop them from running away.

When you've got ulti whatch other lanes and use it on your allies with low health to help them (or you can sometimes use it to make some nice traps)

But generally playing as Shen is basic - taunt an opponent that come too near so that your team can kill him and even with only assists you wouldn't have problems with buying all items you need. But of course your Vorbal Blade can be used to steal kills or just to kill enemy that is running away.

Build made and tested by me (I lost only one game while playing Shen because one man from our team left) so I can say that it is really good and worth trying.

Thanks for reading and I will be very grateful if you would be nice enough to leave comments and vote for my build.