I started playing 3-4 years ago, I always liked Shen but I never played him much. But 1 year ago I picked up top lane and started playing him. In 1-2 years I learned a lot about every champion and item but I always focused on Shen, I fell in love with his playstyle and the opportunities he gives. I like to experience a lot of new builds myself, even if they don't work the way I imagined It's still fun and I can learn from it.

And please excuse that sometimes there are some grammatical errors in this guide, I'm originally from Hungary and never learned english in school.

Now enjoy the guide!

Pros → Strong early game → Extremely enjoyable champion → Pllaying him expands skills → Lots of opportunities → Admirable and straightforward kit → Not difficult to climb in SoloQ

Cons → Needs map-awarness → High skill ceiling → Lots of concentration → Precise ultimate usage → Requires knowledge about matchups → No legendary skin??

Q + Flash

Play Video

E + Flash

Play Video

Q + E + Flash [Useful for fast burst]

Play Video

#1. Stand United 6 / 11 / 16 #2. Twilight Assault 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 #3. Shadow Dash 2 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13 #4. Spirit's Refuge 4 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18

> > > The most important Shen ability is Stand United, because It's so powerful to save the adc in a teamfight, or a teammate is able to survive a towerdive. It's powerful but for beginner players It's hard the perfect timing with it, but if you keep playing the champion slowly you will get used to always watching the map and all the lanes in the game. The second most important is of course the Twilight Assault, when it goes through an enemy champion it gets a buff, which means that your AA power and speed is increased. The position of your blade is very important in the laning phase. [Look at the picture below and read the trading chapter for easier understanding]. Shadow Dash plays a very important role in Shen's kit, if you dash through an enemy you taunt them for 1.5 second and deal physical damage to them. If you go through more than 1 enemy it taunts them too. Taunt means that the enemy you dashed through starts following you and slowy attacking. Spirit's Refuge creates a defensive zone around Shen's blade for 1.75 which blocks every auto attack that would hit Shen OR the allies that stand in the zone. In teamfights It's very important to cast the abilty at the right time so it blocks a lot of damage.

Example

"Offensive" blade positioning

"Defensive" blade positioning

Now I don't want you to get confused with the offensive and defensive blade positioning. If you scroll back a little bit and look at the Q + E + Flash combo, the blade is not at the back of the enemy, but that doesn't mean it's "defensive". The offensive/defensive spirit blade refers to the laning phase.

oooSo you want to learn trading fast? Okay, I can put it in 2 ways to you.

Extended trade ✦ So what's exactly is an extended trade? Of course it's a trade that's extended but what are the components? How do I do it with Shen? Well I don't like to say that these are the "combos" for an extended trade, because there's no such a thing in LoL as "combos". We just say that so the players can understand it easier. But anyways here's the "combo" for the extended trade with Shen. ✦ With this strategy we can deal 6 AA's + E! That's a lot of damage in such a short time, almost no other toplaner can match up to it. > > > > > Play Video ✦ Shen can also do an extended trade from a defensive blade position. It's basically the same combo as the one before but without the first Q which means we lost out on 3 empowered AA's. > > > Play Video

Short trade ✦ A short trade is basically dealing xy damage to an enemy champion quickly in the laning phase. Shen's short trade is the empowered Q. > > > Play Video

Defensive This happens when we're agianst a champion that counters us and we can't push in the lane, therefore we can't place the blade behind the enemy either. In this situation we're waiting for our jg to help and when he comes we taunt him and beat him up. BUT if the jungler isn't coming we can taunt the enemy under turret if he comes close where we can kill him/lower his health so he backs. This happens a lot of times because people get overconfident very quick.

Offensive We have our blade in an offensive position, which is behind the enemy champion. We do this when we're dominant in the lane and we know can win short/extended trades. A lot of player undervalues Shen's empowered Q's damage.

We finally came to an end, I'm quite happy of what I've made, but of course there's always room for improvement. This is the first guide I've ever done, BBCode got me a little confused at the start and I started writing in Python format. I worked on it for a day 24/7, at the end I got tired like a baby. Jhojhoi's Mobafire guide helped a lot honestly, there were a lot of stuff I just couldn't figure out. I'm thinking about some other guides to make, but for now I'm satisfied with this work.
Thank you for anyone who read this through!