Hello, I am an EUW Support/ Shen main low elo gold trash that goes by the in-game name of 'ShriekingMammoth' and have been playing League of Legends since Season 7 (around April 2017 to be precise). I enjoy playing support, but I really like picking off-meta support picks and trying (greifing my teammates) to make them work.
I peaked gold 1 in Season 2024 split 2, though I do not primarily play ranked

I am making a support Shen guide as, well, personally I just wanted to do something in my spare time, but if this guide encourages even one person to try out some Shen support, this will be a successful guide as far as I am concerned.

Why Shen? Because he is the only champion that I have actively mained in this game and whilst I do not play him as often as I do now, he is still my go to pick. I love his gameplay and his uniqueness as a champion.

He is probably the one champion I have most knowledge on (I think) and have plenty of experience on Shen (380k mastery) as a whole and some of the roles that he plays in. I have many games on Shen Support/Top, have played a fair amount of him in Jungle and even the odd game of Shen Mid/Bot.

Shen is no stranger to the support role and has some usefulness to this role. He has some crowd control and great utility that he can provide to his teammates and is a decent source of peel for his carries as well.

Because of this, Shen is considered something of a flex pick, meaning he can played into numerous roles and the enemy will not be 100% sure where that champion is going to be played.

You should be picking Shen support as a good answer to hard engage tank supports such as Leona, Nautilus and Alistar as Shen is more than a match for those champions.
You should not be picking Shen support into enchanters such as Lulu, Janna and Seraphine as these champs are able to combat well against you in lane and heavily outscale you outside of laning phase as well.
Shen works well into compositions that like to engage a lot onto your carries, as ]]Shen]]'s kit is very good at counteracting these with the use of taunts , blocking auto-attacks , shields and making sure that he is tanky himself so that he is able to withstand the engage himself.
Try not to pick Shen into champions that scale well into the late game such as Smolder, Kayle, Kassadin as he tends to struggle against these champions.
Because Shen is a flex pick, he is technically a blind pick. However, you should always make sure that the support is not going to be picking an enchanter, so it is usually best that you try to get the counter pick to see if Shen is a sound option for your team.

The go-to runes that you saw are the best rune choices for Shen support and there is not many alternatives in terms of keystones, runes or secondary trees.

- This is the core keystone for Shen support as you need the increase in resistances when activating it. Your should help get the damage as well. Whilst is Shen's best keystone, however in 2v2 lane, it is much harder to proc grasp without getting punished, especially in a matchup that you lose.

for , and , it is completely up to you and there is no right or wrong answer. I personally go , but it is personal perference. I put on the page as that is the most consistent rune out of the 3 and best for laning phase. is good, but has too much counterplay to be considered a reliable rune.

Shen is able to use a wide variation of both tank and support/tank items effectively, which is another reason as to why Support Shen is a good pick.

1st Item: This should be one of Dead Man's Plate, Locket of the Iron Solari or Force of Nature. Dead Man's Plate is good for extra damage, movement speed to chase down targets and is a decent armor item. Force of Nature is your MR alternative if you are against a Karthus or Hwei. Kaenic Rookern is also good for burst mages such as Syndra, however you do lose the move speed that Force of Nature gives you, which is an underrated stat.

Never build Knight's Vow as a 1st item, this should be 2nd at the very earliest. Build Thornmail for anti-heal (keep in mind that the Grievous Wounds effect will only apply if the enemy auto-attacks you). Build Abyssal Mask if the enemy is stacking heavy MR as this help out your AP damage dealers. Build Randuin's Omen for heavy crit compositions and the slow active. Very useful vs traditional crit ADCs such as Tristana.

For the boots, I made brief descriptions for what boots to buy on Shen and why they are good choices using the 'notes' feature. Be sure to have a look over to see these.

I also added some for fun items that you can build if you are giga-ahead or feel like you need to carry the game on your back. These items are not part of the core build and should not be built on a game-by-game basis. You can check the reason for why they are good through the 'notes' feature as well.

You always want to go and . gives you a lot more kill pressure in lane and you always want to have for playmaking with your .

is okay, but you lose so much more kill pressure in lane, that taking is the much better option.

For matchups, I have given a description/rating for every champion in both the bot and support role for how the matchup goes.

For synergy, I have done the same, but only for champions that are considered "botlane" champions and how they synergise well with Shen, mostly during laning phase but also outside of laning phase as well.

I am going to briefly explain what each of Shen's abilities does and how you should use them. I am going to devote another section to + combos to know exactly how it works and how to be consistent with them as they are very powerful and how to use effectively and getting the most out of your ults.

Passive - Ki Barrier
Whenever Shen uses any of his abilities, he gains a shield for a couple of seconds. This ability has a cooldown that can be reduced by using his abilities "correctly" (I will explain what this means for the other abilities). You should keep an eye on the cooldown of this as it is something that you can play around.

Q - Twilight Assault
Shen's Q revolves around his spellblade, a key mechanic of Shen. When you press Q, you bring the spellblade to your position and your next 3 autos deal bonus magic damage based on the targets max HP. If the spellblade collides with any enemy champions, they are slowed whilst running away from Shen and empowers his 3 autos, dealing more damage and increasing attack speed (which is more damage output). It is important that you empower your Qs as much as possible as this is your main damage source. If your spellblade collides with an enemy, it also reduces the cooldown of Ki Barrier.

W - Spirit's Refuge

When activated, creates a protective ring around the spellblade and blocks any auto-attacks recieved by champions standing inside it. This is a very useful ability that can also block abilities such as Pick A Card, Decisive Strike, or Trample auto stun. If no one is inside the ring when activating the ability, there will be a short delay before the ring appears. Successfully blocking an auto-attack reduces the cooldown of Ki Barrier.

E - Shadow Dash

Shen dashes in any direction and taunts any enemies he hits along the way. He cannot taunt or damage minions with this ability. This is your main CC ability, and successfully taunting an enemy champion will reduce the cooldown of Ki Barrier. Do note that if you taunt a champion and walk outside of their attack range, they will follow you until they are either in range or the taunt expires. This can be very useful vs melee champs as they will run after you uncontrollably.

R - Stand United

Shen can cast his R on any his allies to grant a shield, which can increase based on their missing HP at the time of casting. Shen will then channel for a couple of seconds. After this channel, both Shen and the spellblade will appear on top of the champion that he cast Stand United on. The shield will stay for a few seconds after Shen appears, however if the champion Shen ults still dies, Shen will not appear. Additionally, if Shen is interrupted during his channel, he will not join the champion he cast Stand United on.

Shen's + combo is a fairly simple combo to pull off, but you can easily mess it up as well. The key point to remember that when you do , your taunt will also stop after you flash.

This combo is very effective for getting on top of high priority targets or grabbing an early kill in lane with . Additionally, it also allows you to taunt enemies that were originally outside of the range of Shadow Dash.

To Successfully execute a + , when you use your Shadow Dash, as you go to , aim your cursor on top of your target. This will put you on top of your target and taunt them.

Additionally, you can taunt multiple targets as you can taunt one person mid Shadow Dash and then onto another person and taunt them as well. Use the practice tool and train on target dummies to get used to it as it is has a lot of potential to win games.

Shen's ultimate is one of the most powerful tools in the game when used well and can swing the game into your favor at any point in the game, whether it be laning phase, mid-game or the late game.

One pointer for Stand United is do NOT use this ability purely to safe someone's skin. If your mid laner is about to die to under tower and you save them with your , that is cool and your mid laner is happy, but the team did not gain anything out of that play outside of denying 300g to the enemy mid and you are out of position to help your adc. helping out in a 1v1 duel where your teammate might lose is fine, so long as you gaurantee that kill and that there is something to play for as well, for example a or .

Additionally, when casting your ultimate, be ready to use both your Spirit's Refuge and Shadow Dash as you finish your channel.

A situation where your ultimate may be good for is 1v2 situations. This may occur most in top lane as many 1v2s happen there. You can really help out your top laner by Stand United them to turn that into a 2v2 and if it results in a double kill for your top laner, you have swung that lane heavily into their control. The same applies for mid lane as well.

Another situation is if your jungler gets jumped on whilst taking a or objective as you can turn a situation where your jungler gets killed and the monster objective taken away into securing the objective and getting some free kills in the process.

There are also combos that you can use with Stand United that synergises really well with other champions, specifically dive champions. A good example of this is Nocturne's Paranoia ability has he can dive on top of carries who have some protection, knowing that you will be there to assist him. Other examples of this include Diana, Kha'Zix, Jarvan IV and Vi.

You can also use your Stand United to counter champions diving your carries and trying to kill them. Timing is very important as you want to make sure that the enemy commits into that play. Champs that may look to dive your carries to kill them are usually assassins such as Akali, Zed, Talon. Try using Stand United as they cast Perfect Execution, Death Mark, Shadow Assault respectively so that they have to commit to the play. This should result in at least the enemy diver giving their life to you.

Depending on who your ADC is, you are either going to be playing aggressive and engaging the enemy team, or playing more passive and waiting for the enemy support to make a move and counter-act their play. If against enchanters ( Janna, Lulu, Seraphine) you should play as aggressive as possible to gain as big of a lead as possible as you will not win outside of lane.

If your ADC is Samira, Nilah, Tristana you want to make aggressive plays as these champs can follow-up quite nicely with your Shadow Dash engage. Level 2 cheese is very strong on Shen as he has a good powerspike with both Shadow Dash and Twilight Assault combo. Just remember that Level 2 is obtained after the first wave + 3 melee creeps from the second wave. Your support item can also help to kill the minions faster with the execute.

If your ADC does not have as strong follow-up to your engage, you want to play a bit more passive, unless you are against enchanters. Against the tank engage supports such as Leona, you want to be waiting for them to engage and punish them when they do so becauase they will most likely have to out of the fight, or give you free gold for your team.

When you get your ultimate and use it during laning phase, as soon as the fight is over, make sure to instantly, do not dilly dally around as you are leaving your adc exposed, and be sure not to leave your adc in a position where it is easy to set-up a dive against them. The enemy champions should indicate how good their potential dive is e.g. Elise's and Alistar's are very good champions for this. The wave state is also an indication as a large enemy minion wave crashing under tower is also good dive potential.

A good way of playing aggressive, which can also help the Janna, Lulu etc. matchups is using the bushes/alcove to play out of vision, as the enemy risks walking into Shadow Dash range by walking up to ward or contest you. If they do place wards in the bush, you can use or to get rid of them. You can also select at the start of the game instead of the traditional Yellow Trinket. Just be sure to tell your ADC that you will have no wards until you have upgraded your support item ( Runic Compass).

The main difference between Shen Support and Top in the mid/late game is that you will not be in a side lane getting farm as you are going to be with your team a lot more.

Make sure that your duties as a support do not lack e.g. getting vision control and setting up for objectives, whether that be a or .

Be sure to hover around your carries around the map to make sure that they are protected whilst pushing out waves and farming, although if you do have Stand United, feel free to roam a little bit, but make sure to look at your mini-map incase anyone gets jumped on.

During teamfights, you want to be doing one of two things; you either want to be engaging onto their carries with Shadow Dash or the + combo and killing their carries so you have a good early advantage during the teamfight, or to provide good peel for your carries by using Shadow Dash, the slows from Twilight Assault and blocking any incoming damage with well-timed and positioned Spirit's Refuge. Do not underestimate your own damage either, as empowered Twilight Assault autos can really increase the overall damage output of your team, as well as aid your carries in killing beefy bruiser targets such as Darius or Renekton.

Make sure that you identify what you need to do depending on the compositions of both your enemy and your team. If your team is aggressive and wants to engage, you should aid them in this with. However, if you have squishies that need peel who are up against diver compositions or enemies that want to get on top of your carries, you are going to need to protect and peel for them.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my noob Shen support guide, though I hope you learnt something from this guide.
My objective was simple; to make a guide that may encourage someone to pick up Shen support and start playing them, as well as creating an informative guide based on my knowledge of playing Shen and my experience playing League of Legends.

Shoutout to Jhoijhoi's BBCode formatting example guide as it has helped this guide look more presentable and readable. I hope to get better at the formatting, but I am still happy with what I have produced.

Thank you again readers.