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Recommended Items
Spells:
Teleport
Promote
Items
Ability Order
Ki Barrier (PASSIVE)
Shen Passive Ability
Introduction
Unfortunately, with the Season 3 item changes, this build is now effectively obsolete, as well as the playstyle I designed around it. I'll leave this guide up, but I don't think it's salvageable for the current season. If I figure out another good build and style I'll update, but in the meantime this page is essentially worthless.
Again, thank you for your time and help, and I hope to see you on the Fields of Justice.
Hello world! Yes, I just made a programming joke. ...I should probably stop commenting on my own article, or we'll never get anywhere.
Welcome to my first guide!


So why should you pick
Shen, when there are so many other tanks out there? Simply put, because nobody else ever picks him. I'm not asking you to feel sorry for him, or to indulge your inner hipster, or anything like that.
Shen is like an obscure fighting style that nobody ever runs into, and thus, never practices against. He can be countered, and he does have weaknesses, but in the heat of battle, if you and your team are doing your job well, the enemy won't be thinking about how to counter you. He'll just be focused on staying alive. (Note: this advantage is partially negated in Draft Pick, when the enemy can see your choice and adjust their team comp accordingly. Only partially negated, though, because they don't know you'll be stacking health, and they won't always be paying attention in the first place)
Edit: While very few know how to play
Shen really well, he's still on perma-ban status after the buffs he got however many months ago. Eventually a series of slow nerfs (or maybe the dreaded ult range reduction) will drop him back into obscurity, but in the meantime, good luck picking him in Ranked.
Now that you know why you should pick
Shen, below are the reasons you should pick this build.
Pros
Cons


Edit: While very few know how to play

Now that you know why you should pick

Pros
- High early-game HP and armor/MR: lets you outlast enemy champs while still tanking effectively
Ki Strike: high HP translates into high damage from
Shen's passive
- High armor: lets you survive the enemy team's onslaught when you taunt them
Cons
- Comparatively low damage output. If you like nukes or DPS champs, this build isn't for you
- Susceptible to counters that function against HP stacking (i.e.
Kog'Maw,
Madred's Bloodrazor)
- If you can't keep up early-game, you can quickly transform from a meat shield into bait for a feeding frenzy
As you can see above, I went 0/22/8 with this build.
Offensive Tree
Defensive Tree
Utility Tree
Offensive Tree
- I already said there were no offensive masteries, why are you looking here? What you want is in the next list.
Defensive Tree
-
Resistance and
Hardiness give you that extra bit of early-game protection.
-
Durability doesn't help much (+108 HP at the end of the game is practically worthless where this build is concerned), but
Veteran's Scars gives you an extra 30 HP at the beginning of the game. 30 HP can be the difference between life and death when running from an auto-attacking enemy, and it's saved my hide from minion aggro more than once.
-
Indomitable ,
Evasion , and
Honor Guard give you a bit more survivability. -2 damage taken, -1% damage from AoE spells and 1.5% reduced damage overall don't seem like much individually, but it all adds up over time.
-
Siege Commander works in your best interests. Lower tower armor means minions and allied champs do more damage. When you're tanking the turret late-game for your team, you don't want to stand there in the line of fire any longer than necessary.
-
Enlightenment : CDR. Shen relies on his abilities to keep him and his teammates safe, and the more you can spam them, the safer everyone will be (everyone you care about, anyway).
-
Juggernaut : I cannot stress this enough in this guide: more health is better. A 3% increase in max health is nothing to turn your nose up at, and neither is the Tenacity that comes with it.
Utility Tree
-
Summoner's Insight buffs the summoner spells I recommended. It reduces the cast time on
Teleport, and increases the defensive stats of minions you
Promote by 15%.
-
Good Hands reduces the time spent dead by 10%. Less time spent dead, more time getting back to the fight. Hopefully you'll never actually see the effects of this mastery because you never die, but if you do, you'll be glad you had it.
-
Expanded Mind : +10 energy. It's not much, but it's still better than a lot of other things in the first two tiers of the Utility Tree.
-
Improved Recall : Combined with the improved
Teleport times and the CDR on
Stand United, the extra second from your
Recall will contribute to a drastic reduction in the time spent moving to and from the base.
Apparently MOBAFire hasn't updated their complement of runes since the last patch, some of them are missing (notably the flat MR runes). Ignore what it says up top, use this setup. I'll fix it once the site has it's runes fixed.
This rune page was made with the intent of balancing early-game armor and MR, while also putting in as much CDR as was reasonably possible. MR has been nerfed in the last patch, so this is a bit outdated, but it still works. I'll update it once I recalculate everything.
Greater Mark of Magic Resist x9
Greater Seal of Armor x9
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction x5
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x4
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction x2
Greater Quintessence of Armor x1
This rune page was made with the intent of balancing early-game armor and MR, while also putting in as much CDR as was reasonably possible. MR has been nerfed in the last patch, so this is a bit outdated, but it still works. I'll update it once I recalculate everything.






My Preferred Spells
Teleport is a staple spell for me. One of
Shen's strongest traits is his ability to be anywhere on the map at anytime. This doubles that ability. You've heard of Schrodinger's
Garen, waiting in every bush until you enter one? Schrodinger's
Shen turns every 2v1 gank into a 2v2 brawl.
Promote will really help you earn gold.
Shen attacks relatively slowly, so last-hitting can be a bit of a pain. This will get you all the gold from your cannon creep's kills. It's not bad for pushing towers, either.
Other Useful Spells
Ghost can actually be very useful for
Shen in teamfights. If the enemy team is escaping, you can skirt through the minion wave they are likely using for cover and taunt a few of them to re-initiate. It's not bad for actual initiations, either; you can run through their team and taunt their squishies so the rest of your team can rush in unhindered.
There are certainly more useful spells than
Heal, but that doesn't mean it's useless. If your team has no support champ to take it, it's not always a bad idea. Taking
Heal can help you and your lane partner (or just you, if you've got solo top) stay longer while the enemy wears itself out on your defenses.
If
Revive is a useful spell for you, you may want to rethink your Shen strategy. =P Nevertheless, it can be useful in the early stages when learning him. When paired with
Teleport, you might as well be immortal because the second you go down, you pop back up.
If the enemy team is CC heavy and might keep you from initiating well, you might consider
Cleanse. I don't normally recommend it, but I'd be a fool if I didn't admit that it occasionally has value. If you really want
Cleanse, though, see about working a
Quicksilver Sash into your build instead.
Again, if you don't have a support champ in your team,
Clairvoyance may be useful. MAY be useful. I've never had much success with it myself, but it doesn't really hurt anything. If nothing else, it saves you having to buy a few wards.
Flash is borderline useless in my mind, but if you want to surprise someone with a taunt, I can't think of a better way (other than hiding in the bushes).
Flash isn't really a bad spell for any champion, but in this case, I do think other spells would be better.
Useless Spells
Exhaust is a spell that really only belongs in the hands of an offensive champion. If you're chasing someone and have time to target them with
Exhaust, your time and cooldowns would have been better spent waiting that extra second for
Shadow Dash to come back up.
Smite is essential for jungling champions. Problem is, this isn't a jungle build. End of story.
Surge, like
Exhaust, should only be used by heavy hitters. DPS heavy hitters, at that. This build has neither the speed nor the power to utilize that spell.
Clarity: Do I even need to say it?
Shen doesn't use mana. This is quite literally a waste of space for him.
Ignite: See
Smite and
Surge.








Other Useful Spells








There are certainly more useful spells than


If


If the enemy team is CC heavy and might keep you from initiating well, you might consider



Again, if you don't have a support champ in your team,



Useless Spells

























Cost: 60 energy
Cooldown: 6/5.5/5/4.5/4


Cost: 50 energy
Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5



Cost: 120 energy
Cooldown: 10/9.5/9/8.5/8


I take
Vorpal Blade as my first ability. You want to synergize your strengths as much as possible, and the extra health from the
Ruby Crystal you theoretically just bought will translate into extra health returned from life-tapped enemies.
Vorpal Blade can be used early on to harass enemy champions (especially squishy carries), and you can use it throughout the entire game to help farm minions. You can heal more over time with it if you can tap a minion and hit it more than once, but don't be afraid to make
Vorpal Blade your last hit; that will still get you health, but you'll only heal for 1/3 of the normal amount over the next second. If you really need to heal, tap the enemy cannon creep and just hit it with auto-attacks, turning to attack something else when
Ki Strike comes up.
My second ability goes to
Feint. Typically by Level 2 neither team has been pushed back to a tower, so you don't need
Shadow Dash just yet.
The ability to strategically use
Feint separates the expert
Shen players from the good ones. If you put yourself 'too far' forward, you can fake your opponent into wasting mana on an ability that will just hit your shield. By the time the cooldown for
Feint wears off, you will have regained most of the energy you used casting it, so you can essentially do it all day, while your oppenent's mana pool keeps shrinking.
In addition to all of this, while
Feint is active, every auto-attack you make reduces the cooldown on
Ki Strike by 3 seconds instead of 1.5. When it goes off, the energy returned will let you spam your abilities even more.
My third level point goes to
Shadow Dash. If you or your partner are backed against your tower, this can be a lifesaver. Taunting enemies in tower range will cause them to attack you, which in turn will cause the turret to attack them. You can actually get a few kills this way if you're careful and lucky. As an added perk, taunted enemies only do half damage to you. There's a reason this build gives you so much armor; it further reduces the damage caused by auto-attacks. Put
Feint on top of that, and now you're beginning to see why good
Shen players seem to be immortal.
My recommendation is to max
Shadow Dash last. Your taunt will always be 1.5 seconds in duration; the only benefit to levelling is increased damage (which isn't that impressive no matter what level it's at) and decreased cooldown. The cooldown can be useful, but in general I've found that if a fight lasts long enough to taunt twice, it won't go anywhere in the extra second it takes
Shadow Dash to come back up.





My second ability goes to


The ability to strategically use



In addition to all of this, while


My third level point goes to



My recommendation is to max






This











I buy


I put










NOTE: none of this is saying that you shouldn't buy








Recommended Items






As noted above, this build has some flexibility in it. No build sequence will work in every game; you have to think on your feet to survive on the Fields of Justice. Below are my recommended items.





Remember when I said










Yes, I did list











Other Options




There are some items I never quite got the hang of, or were useful so rarely that more often than not they did more harm than good. These are some of those items.
In general, I dislike snowball items, and




If your team comp is too evenly matched, and your skill levels are the same, an


Items I Do Not Recommend






Some of these seem like good ideas, but aren't. Some of these don't even seem like good ideas. Some of these don't even make sense to me, but I've seen enough




If I'm moving faster, I can initiate and taunt more effectively, right? Wrong. Thanks to


Here's one of those ideas that seems like a good idea, but isn't really.




As with





They See Me Trollin'
They Hatin'


Self explanatory.
Ah, the Phantom Impaler... If you select



Note: if you're going to try this variation, I recommend you test it on bots first. It can be easy to become overconfident.







And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!
Vorpal Blade. If you used your own set of Masteries and have any gold left over, pick up a
Health Potion, it'll help you stay in lane longer. Regardless of what the team composition is, I'd recommend you go top (unless it's already full). This build works with a partner as well as solo, but for simplicity's sake, assume you have a partner until I tell you otherwise. Perform your usual pre-game ceremonies (ganks in the bushes, leash the buffs, dance-off in mid, etc.), and then start thwacking minions.
At this point, unless they really like harassing you, the minions will be more of a danger to you than the enemy champions. Always go for their cannon creep first, and
Promote yours the moment it shows up. The bonus gold and attack will help turn the tables against your opponents. When
Ki Strike comes up, see what you can do about landing it on a champion instead of a minion, but if you can't, don't let it go to waste by just sitting there with it.
By the time you back the first time, you should have at least enough money for
Boots. If you did well, you can pick up a
Null-Magic Mantle in addition to the boots, and if you did really well, pick up a
Giant's Belt instead.
Teleport back to your lane (use it on an almost-dead creep if you can) and continue the fight. Eventually either you will end up under their turret, or they will end up under yours.
If you end up under theirs, just kill their minions as fast as you can, and ignore the champions unless they can seriously harm you. Every time
Ki Strike comes up, land it on their turret. Do this a few times and eventually, if everything goes according to plan (though does it, ever?), the turret will fall. By the time the first turret falls, whether it's yours or theirs, you can assume you've hit the mid-game.
Warmog's Armor and
Mercury's Treads. If so, congratulations! If not, you've got a bit of farming to do. Warmog's is essential to the early- and mid-game, and if you don't have it, you'll be in a much weaker position from which to protect your team. If you're behind, don't feel too bad about stealing a few minion kills from your carry, if he hasn't wandered off yet. This seems stupid and selfish, but his ability to own in the late-game will be contingent on your ability to tank for him. If you can't survive the enemy team long enough for him to do his thing, he won't survive either. Besides which, if
Shen can steal minions from the carry, you might want to consider finding a different team member to feed and protect. If you don't have a jungler, don't be afraid to take the ghouls and mini-golems when you have the chance.
Team fights should have started breaking out by the time you finish your
Sunfire Aegis. If they start happening and you don't have your Cape yet, don't sweat it too much. Just go in there and pray for the best. A 5v5 with a dying tank is still better than a 4v5. Hopefully, the assists will get you back where you need to be. If you were already where you needed to be, then you've just started your slow climb towards victory. Even without kills, a well-played
Shen can single-handedly turn a game around.
Sunfire Aegis, and either just finished or are about to finish a
Force of Nature. This is the point in the game where you start seriously considering what your last two items are going to be. You should have enough information in the Alternate Items section to figure out your plan of attack. Whatever you do, stay with your team. You may be unable to die, but that doesn't mean you can kill them, either. And if your squishies get eaten in the meantime, your team is in for a world of hurt. Stay with them.
One of the hardest things you will have to do as
Shen is sacrifice yourself so that one of the idiots on your team can get away. Yes, he may deserve to die, but your job is to make sure that doesn't happen so the other team dies instead. Your carries are more likely to be on killing sprees than you are, so your death won't feed the enemy team any extra gold. You (theoretically) took
Good Hands
, so you stay down for a shorter period of time. And if they wore themselves down on you, your team might even be able to mount a counter-offensive... something they can't do if their damage dealers are pushing daisies. I'm not saying you should try to die (that's
Karthus' and
Kog'Maw's job), but if it's a choice between you surviving and a squishy, you are not the logical choice.
Paladin045's Guide to How the Heck to Use This Shen Build
Early Game
Start out with a Ruby Crystal and a rank in 

At this point, unless they really like harassing you, the minions will be more of a danger to you than the enemy champions. Always go for their cannon creep first, and


By the time you back the first time, you should have at least enough money for




If you end up under theirs, just kill their minions as fast as you can, and ignore the champions unless they can seriously harm you. Every time

Mid Game
At this point, you should have completed 


Team fights should have started breaking out by the time you finish your


Late Game
So you finished Warmog's and Merc Treads a while back, you finished your 

One of the hardest things you will have to do as




Some opponents
Shen can eat for breakfast. Some opponents you can be effectively ambivalent towards. And some opponents you should exercise extreme caution around, because they want to eat you for breakfast. This section will identify these match-ups.
Annie:
Shen does well against burst champions, and
Annie is no exception. If she can keep away from you she'll rain fire from a distance and make your existence miserable, but if you can withstand her burst and get in close, she's pretty fragile. If she stuns you and runs, just use
Shadow Dash to catch up. Watch out for Tibbers, though; that demonic bear can do some real damage close-in.
Cassiopea: Cassie's short cooldowns can wreak havoc with your attack timing, but if you can dodge her abilities, you can do some real damage before she can chase you off again. Make sure you utilize
Ki Strike whenever you can, even if it's just landing that one hit and then backing off again.
Heimerdinger: He can be an easy target, but make sure you take care of his turrets before you attack him. If you get aggro from both of them, even
Shen can get hurt. If he still sticks around after you've destroyed his precious creations, make him regret it.
Karthus:
Karthus is slow, and attacks slowly. However, caution is still required. If it looks like a close fight, back off before either of you dies, because he won't actually be gone once you get the KO. Only take him if you can do it without getting low enough to be vulnerable to
Requiem. If you're careful about that (and avoid
Wall of Pain), though, he should be easy prey.
Morgana: She's just as dangerous at range as she is up close. The only difference is that up close, you can be dangerous too. She's a mage, and she relies on combos. Disrupt her rhythm with
Shadow Dash, and her health bar will be yours.
Nidalee: She's actually more dangerous at range than up close, so the closer you stay to her, the better. Just watch out for her traps, and get out when she pops her ult. That cat is annoying and dangerous.
Ryze has relatively low cooldowns, so rushing him can be dangerous. If you can time it right, though, you can lay on a good deal of hurt before he can counter-attack. There's no way to dodge
Rune Prison, so just take it when you get hit with it and then dash to him once you're free.
Soraka: She's a bit more dangerous since the last patch, but she's not really a threat to much of anyone. If you can get her alone, as long as you don't get messed up by her silences you should be able to intimidate her. Back off earlier than you think you need to,
Starcall has a good range.
Kog'Maw: I did the last list alphabetically, but
Kog'Maw is possibly the single most dangerous champion
Shen can face, so he gets top billing.
Bio-Arcane Barrage does damage based on a percentage of your max health. Most
Kog'Maw builds incorporate
Madred's Bloodrazor, which does the same thing. If that does happen, stack MR (both of those effects are magic damage) and pray for the best.
Akali: There are more dangerous champions, but she can still hand you your butt if you don't know what you're doing. Unlike most enemies, she's not limited by mana, so she can spam her abilities in much the same way you do. And while your abilities focus on survival and utility, all of hers are focused on killing something. If she's chasing you, lead her into the woods and
Shadow Dash through a wall; that's pretty much the only way you'll lose her. If she has
Flash, wait another 8 seconds and dash again, and hope that she doesn't follow you this time.
Ashe is dangerous because of how much she slows you. Yes, she's fragile, and she's slow herself, but she's a DPS crit champion. On top of that,
Madred's Bloodrazor is a common
Ashe build item (thank you, jhoijhoi, for recommending that. You've made my life a lot harder =P). If you think you've got the upper hand, go for it (she's still fragile and slow), but in general, I do not recommend engaging her alone.
Caitlyn,
Miss Fortune and
Tristana all go in the same category for me: champions with guns that function at extreme range, with abilities that complement them a little too well, in my opinion. All of them can poke you from a good distance, making you pay a good bit for getting in close. I wouldn't recommend taking any of the above alone. If you get two in the same lane, find someone to switch with. If their team has all three... may God have mercy on your health bar.
Jax is probably one of the most frustrating types of champion for
Shen: burst damage melee. He'll jump in, stun you, get in a few good thwacks, and then run off with his staff spinning over his head whilst doing his best Zoidberg impression. Repeat process until you kill him or he kills you. Your best bet is to keep your finger poised over the W key to minimize damage and hit back when he starts running.
Katarina is most ninja-esque champion without energy in LoL, in my opinion.
Shunpo won't get her everywhere, but 80% of the time it'll be exactly where she wants to go... and that's never good news for you. If you're behind in your build, consider
Katarina extremely dangerous.
(Note: When she uses
Death Lotus, taunt her if you can. You won't always be able to, but it will interrupt her channeling and give your team enough time to get away and regroup)
As long as you can dodge his
Thundering Shuriken,
Kennen shouldn't give you too much trouble. If you're bad at dodging skill-shots, though, or if he's really good at landing them, keep your distance. When you're in a team, taunt him as much as possible. He relies on combos, and disrupting his rhythm will severely hamper his effectiveness.
Shen counters himself entirely too well. Like
Jax, he does melee burst damage and then runs away before the enemy can counterattack. More than with most champions, a battle of two
Shens will come down to skill and build. Stay completely out of tower range if he's guarding it; he'll do the exact same thing to you that you do to other champs. Just remember: he's as afraid of you as you are of him.
Udyr is a jungler/bruiser who just annoys everyone,
Shen included. If he runs out of the bushes, just disengage and try to get back to your tower. He's tanky enough to hold his own in a teamfight, and his abilities let him 1v1 fairly well, too. Counter-gank him when you can; a weakened
Udyr can only help your team.
Zilean's
Time Bombs are damaging to anyone, but early-game against melee champions they can be devastating. When you
Feint to try and absorb the damage, remember not to pop it as soon as the bomb appears over your head, or it'll be gone by the time the bomb goes off. Try to get help to take him down if you can. If not, just keep your distance and wait until the next team-fight to give him what he deserves.

Easy enemies




Cassiopea: Cassie's short cooldowns can wreak havoc with your attack timing, but if you can dodge her abilities, you can do some real damage before she can chase you off again. Make sure you utilize














Enemies to Avoid




















(Note: When she uses

As long as you can dodge his











Many much thanks to jhoijhoi for her Guide to Making a Guide. Without that, this wouldn't look nearly as good as it does now. jhoijhoi, if you ever read this, you have my thanks. [bows]
PTWookie and Naraug: I doubt you'll ever see this either, but know that if it wasn't for the two of you, I never would have made it this far.
Riot Games: STOP NERFING SHEN! That is all.
To my readers (all two of you): Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'll hopefully be posting more of these as I gain mastery over more champions. In the meantime, if you've got a build that works for you, I encourage you to write your own guide. I actually learned a good bit about the particulars of my build in the process of writing these entries, and this turned out somewhat differently than I anticipated when I first opened the article editor. You'll never know everything there is to know about your favorite champ, but if you know more than most of us, don't be afraid to share your wisdom.
Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you on the Fields of Justice.
-Paladin045
PTWookie and Naraug: I doubt you'll ever see this either, but know that if it wasn't for the two of you, I never would have made it this far.
Riot Games: STOP NERFING SHEN! That is all.
To my readers (all two of you): Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'll hopefully be posting more of these as I gain mastery over more champions. In the meantime, if you've got a build that works for you, I encourage you to write your own guide. I actually learned a good bit about the particulars of my build in the process of writing these entries, and this turned out somewhat differently than I anticipated when I first opened the article editor. You'll never know everything there is to know about your favorite champ, but if you know more than most of us, don't be afraid to share your wisdom.
Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you on the Fields of Justice.
-Paladin045
June 9, 2012: Updated runes
April 25, 2012: Fixed links
April 22, 2012: Guide completed
April 22, 2012: Added the sections Ability Explanations, Ability Strategy, Core Items, Alternate Items, and Gameplay. Updated Masteries per jhoijhoi's recommendation (point transferred from
Scout
to
Evasion
).
April 21, 2012: Guide published (incomplete)
April 25, 2012: Fixed links
April 22, 2012: Guide completed
April 22, 2012: Added the sections Ability Explanations, Ability Strategy, Core Items, Alternate Items, and Gameplay. Updated Masteries per jhoijhoi's recommendation (point transferred from


April 21, 2012: Guide published (incomplete)
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