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[S3] Top Secret Shen Guide Revealed!
Build Guide By Keppra4athene
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Shen Build Guide By Keppra4athene
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Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Ki Barrier (PASSIVE)
Shen Passive Ability
Whole guide
Introduction
Shen is very strong because of what he can offer to the team and you WILL win EVERY game when you become skilled at synergising your spells with your team, there is no other possible way. What is important to keep in mind is that, team success > individual sucess. Because of this, Shen becomes OP; it is not only his ult that makes him a very good tank, tanky/dps.
Don't forget the famous line Ra's Al Ghul said to batman in Batman Begins: '' A ninja understands that invisibility is a matter of patience and agility'' (These are the two fundamental concepts that this whole guide revolves around.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
This guide is primarily for me and my buddies so I don't care (sorry) what types of ratings or reviews I get. Your comments/questions/suggestions are very welcome and I will take them into consideration!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
I would also like to note that this is not average Shen guide. This is an expert Shen guide meaning you have to be good as a summoner to start with and try it a couple of times to get great at it. The order in which an expert Shen buys his items may seem a bit weird and can cause some problems to some less experienced Shen players. If this is your case (perfectly normal), try to buy these items but starting with any items that you desire/can get first.
Lets say you only have enough for the ruby crystal after the first time going back, only get the ruby crystal, a ward or two and some Heath potions! :)
The reason why I write this is because I have been receiving a lot of feedback related to this item order and that it would be causing people to be unable to farm efficiently and fall behind in early lanning phase, which causes them to be behind for the entire game and not be able to do anything. :(
Update Log
[title]Updates to come[/title]
- Exemplary use of Shen's skills - videos (5)
- 100% Spelling and sentence syntax, I am non native English speaker (french), so it might take a bit more time.
- In depth analysis of teamfights with video demos
- TONS of item comparisons and why some items are not optimal for Shen, compared to what is already on this guide
- Explaining why these experimental items are potentially usable items for Shen.
- Add pictures to most of the chapters
- Add quotes from movies (Batman style - he is a ninja too you know)
- Ideally, I would like to make a chapter for each of Shen's individual skills to better describe them and to clearly indicate when to use and when not to use.
- Pro's and Con's; I am kind of against such a chapter as I find it doesn't describe a champion properly and gives too quick of a picture of a champion. Any champion should not be judged at first sight. If I do make such a chapter, it will be VERY in depth :) Pro's and Con's Comming soon!
- Add top lane matchups; just need to confirm how ''in-depth'' I want to make it first.
- Will include a quick jungling item build and provide information about how to jungle with Shen correctly. This is not the main emphasis of this guide so do expect it to be too extensive. I will be working on that subject more though, a bit later on, because it always happens when you cannot top due to someone else autolocking :( You should be able to at least be able to navigate around the jungle and be knowledgeable enough to provide a high class jungler and tank for your team, in any case.
- Complete matchups chapter
[title]Previous updates[/title]
- Updated all basic chapters.
- Included 2 extra chapters for increased in depth analysis. Notably for Shen's ultimate.
- Updated descriptions for skills.
- Updated images for skill order chapter.
- Updated team fights chapter
- Updated early/mid/late game chapters
- Updated intro and final comments sections to include disclaimer about using the same item order as a pro Shen.
- Updated Item build
- Video 1 posted
- Added written Commentary to gameplay video
- Minor grammar fixes
- Added 1 video for examples
- Added 3 part video - a flawless, full game, for examples
- Added a quick team matchups sections - NOT completed
Team Dynamics - SHEN
Here is what you must do in the pre-game lobby and/or during the early game. It is touched upon in the ''mid game'' Chapter but I find that It is important enough to feature and to bring it up very early in this guide.
As you all know, Shen is a tank and one that is very team-reliant. On top of depending on his team, he also expects his team to react in a specific way when he is around. It is very frustrating when your team does not know how to react when you use some specific abilities and this ends up making your team lose the exchange or ultimately sacrifice a couple of kills for no good reason.
Here, I will be talking about using your skills and later I will explain how to prevent these scenarios :
[title]Saving a teammate[/title]
The situation, you spot a dying teammate that is at very low health, you ult in to try and save him, once he sees you there, he turns around and rushes toward the chasing enemies and gets killed in a second, gets you stunned/slowed and ultimately killed, if you cannot get away.. Very annoying and will make you lose a game. Giving up 2 kills instead of 1 to the enemy team has a VERY negative impact, specially if this happens more than once.
[title]Ganking with Shen's skills[/title]
You have just pinged a couple of times, the enemy laners are low, your team's support is in the brush and you could easily ult to her or tp down there, taunt the enemy and get two easy kills. Upon pinging a couple of times and teleporting, the teammate will completely run away thinking you were ulting to him to protect him/them from an incoming gank that you spotted. Now you'll say, but keppra, you pinged a bunch of times, no wonder they are afraid and run away! But no, this will even happen when Ulting-in without pings. Your ult is often perceived only as defensive tool, rather then being an offensive and defensiveness tool; which it definitely is.
[title]Shen's skills within a teamfight[/title]
Starting with the his ULT first :
So, it is teamfight time and your team is in there, poking the enemy team and getting poked back, casually. You are not there of course but are farming minions while having BOTH eyes on your team. The moment someone getting initiated upon (even if he is a tank and has half health left + Shen's 800-900 hp shield onto his ulted target, that person runs away, but also runs away with your front line and even drags YOU away, while you and that person should have been part of the front line, you now behind your carries and you (only you this time because the other guy is too affraid) is trying to rush back into the teamfight to defend your carries; but guess what? They are already all dead because SOMEONE, took the front line and shoved it all the way back (*angry smiley face*)
Then with your team wide taunt :
PEOPLE, DO YOU KNOW WHAT ''EVERY ENEMY WILL TARGET SHEN WITH AUTO-ATTACKS AND DEAL HALF DAMAGE ON THIS SHEN, ALL THE WHILE SHEN HAVING 2 POTENTIAL SHIELD?'' this means no CC, no stuns, no huge bursts from enemy AP carries, no AOE spells from enemy bruisers onto your carries, NOTHING OF ALL THIS AND FOR 1.5 SECONDS! LONG ENOUGH FOR YOUR TEAM TO CRUSH ALL ENEMY CARRIES. This was in caps because it litteraly makes me furious and want to through my monitor out of the window and litterally go down to wherever my team mates live in real life and physically inflict pain on them.
I am exaggerating but those are the true emotions I feel when this happens. And to support that, THIS IS WHAT WILL MAKE OR BREAK THE WHOLE GAME. You guys could be playing like 3.4k ELO pros and lose/fail wildly because of one or two of these mistakes happening during the game. It only takes one winning teamfight/ace to end a game, late enough in the game..
[title][highlight]What to do before a game starts or during early game to prevent all this chaos[/title][/highlight]
Here is where the magic comes from. If you are able to get the message to your teammate before the game actually starts and they are cooperative, understand your reasoning and strategies/techniques, you will be very successful in-game.
When in the lobby or as the game starts (in-game), you have a few minutes to prove to your team that you are an experienced Shen player and use these types of methods and that if they follow through, you will ult on them often and the game will be amazing. You often have only the first couple of minutes before its too late. People start judging your play-style, cooperate or don't, then its GG.
This is like a marketing pitch, at this point. It will be situational and you should perfect it on your own. You should be able to send your message through with ease, precision and speed.
We Shen Pro players do this to ensure 1.Communication, 2.Team synergy. Keep in mind that you rely on your team, but your team also relies on you and if you don't make it clear to them what you will be doing and what you expect them to do, nothing will work-out properly and you and your team will fail miserably.
Video Analysis
This is the first of of many videos to come.
I will write down here an analysis of every important action in this clip and will state what to do, what not to do and what should have been done; I will be using timestamps for ease of readability.
First, I would like to warn you that were will be some fast forwarding in some sections of the clip and that there will also be some laggyness. I was able to view the video in 1080p HD on some devices and only on 480i on some others.
Renekton insisted to dual lane top and locked in after I locked in but he wanted to see what would happen so we let it be. It turned out quite good.. :)
[highlight]All timestamps use will be in the youtube video description/comment section for ease of access[/highlight]
At first, I didn't really mind farming because I was planing on pushing the top tower and destroying it early so I could roam.
1:10 - I occasionnaly Q garen in order to get some harass in; I do know that he has a lot of health and that my Q does not provide a lot of damage but for the low energy cost, I do not mind casting it a few times. I also will aucasionnly taunt him if I know renekton and I would be able to land one or two auto attacks on him each, which will result in real early-game harass.
1:21 - I accidentally get tower aggro while pressuring garen, but right before the tower blast reaches me, I activate my W to block most of the damage. You will should become proefficient at using this very often as well.
1:32 - I taunt garen while he is in his spin and renekton stuns him right after. I use Q to lower is HP and renekton casts ignight; we get the first blood!
2:11 - I am scouting the map here. I am expecting the enemy jungler to come up to us so because we are so over-extended. The moment he will come up, we will be able to react automatically; if he is low, we will kill him, if not, run like turkeys back to our tower.
2:43 - Another quick check around the map, in order to know where to ult imediatly when I get to level 6. Also, looking our for the enemy jungler and giving the false feeling of safety to garen that I am gone.
3:02 - I spot the enemy jungler. She is low so I decide to go in. I wait until renekton is close enough before taunting in order for him to get more damage in, before she gets free from our CC.
3:28 - I see the enemy is low in bot lane and is not backing up too fast so I teleport down there and try to gank. This part is very laggy for some reason.
3:38 - I tank a few tower shots to give enough time for my ADC to survive under the tower. He ends up doing a mistake and walking back towards our tower, but by passing below the enemy tower and gets killed. At least we get some damage on the tower.
4:06 - Here is something you should not do. I miscalculated the damage that lux could output and though that ezreal was down here with us. I went in too deep, but this is something that is not too rare for shen to do, at later levels and with the correct teammates to follow through the assault.
4:38 - Here is a recording fail. I didn't record what happend exactly because the gameplay speed was too high and I didn't have time to reach the location that I had ulted to. What happened was Katarina ran in to a low Talon in the topside river and was gonna die.
Katarina jumped and used flash to get away and to hide under her tower but that doesn't work aginst Shen! Instead, because of my ult and taunt, we got the kill, even under the tower.
5:19 - Here I was simply zoning out Katarina to prevent her from gaining gold or exp. I pinged talon to fall back as I did not want him to think that I wanted to go for the kill as I was not ready to tower dive againt a full hp Katarina with my current HP.
5:51 - A quick check around the map, to spot opportunities for my ult.
5:55 - a teleport gank, this is very common for shen and can be devastating for the enemy team. I prevented katarina from getting 2 easy kills here (with taunt) and if lux had landed a stun and/or ezreal was a little bit higher in HP and not out of mana (OOM) we would have gotten a kill or two. Thankfully I survived with 15 hp after this fight.
6:46 - Everything starts lagging but I see talon taking tower shots and I am afraid he dies, plus there was a graves nearby, so I ulted and taunted graves, preventing a death and causing a kill.
7:14 - Here is when we should have just ran back to base. We had gotten the tower but did the mistake to stay around. As a general rule, once you capture a tower, you should leave, unless if split-pushing.
8:08 - Nice little teamfight here. I wait patiently to taunt them when their whole team is in range of my taunt. I was aiming to catch Katarina within my taunt and I succeded.
I try to save Lux because she was getting focued on by Graves and ULT onto her. This technique should be used, even in teamfights because it provides a nice shield for your ally. When your ultimate is maxed out, it is a lot more effective.
Here, I made a mistake in thinking that my ult would provide a larger shield to Lux but also, Lux should not have stayed in combat but should have ran away.Although, neither me or her could have expected when graves would use his ultimate.
8:55 - I use my W to walk beneath the turret and to provide a safe path for me and talon to the otherside to assist renekton which is dueling with Katarina but, he ends up dying before we can get there.
9:38 - I am targeted by one of Elises' spiders and I don't want any of my team mates to get damage so I activate my shield and take the exploding spider attack, instead of my team.
Tell me if you want more of this type of analysis, or if you prefer much shorter videos, each showing something specific. :)
- Timestamps and commentary coming soon!
Epic full game with Shen coming soon !!
Masteries
Aigh' guys, this is Athene......... Actually, I'm not Athene :)
OK, masteries, Although Shen might not win every lane matchup, early-game, which is not the point in picking Shen by the way, it is nice to be able to walk around freely in order to facilitate cs/harass/evading skill-shots.
Because of this, multiple measures have been taken to facilitate farming & other normal in-lane activities all throughout this guild. One of these measures are picking the tough skin and bladed armor masteries which prevent damage from minions. THIS IS VERY USEFUL EARLY GAME, more so, then reduced damage from incoming enemy champions.
Often, damage will be applied in very large amounts which are too significant to be counter by a flat 5 dmg reduction. Instead, having reduced damage towards minions will let you tank minion aggro early, if such a situation happens. It can also be useful in freezing your lane.
In general, I always use 0/23/7 because I find it is a nice mix of damage reduction and utility.
The points spent in Utility will help you a lot in shortening the Cooldown of your Teleport summoner spell. In total, the 10% reduction the mastermind mastery grants results in a 30 second reduction in cooldown for tp. THIS IS SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE TP WILL ALMOST ALL THE TIME ON CD.
[imgext=http://i.imgur.com/FrVH1Xd.jpg?1]
Runes
Runes are essentially personal choice but I believe in running:
(Greater Mark of Armor) x9 (+8.19 armor)
(Greater Seal of Health) x9 (+26.75 health)
(Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction) x9 (5.85% Cooldown reduction, this is equal to 10.53sec saved on ult)
(Greater Quintessence of Health) x3 (+78.00 health, this plus the Seals will give you 104.75 bonus health which is not only very useful for survivability at level 1 but will also grant an extra 10.5 AD bonus because of your passive.
[title]Reasoning[/title]
Marks :
You will be running armor Marks for the armor because you will most likely be confronted to some type of ADC with which your job will be to get his focused fire on you, instead of on your team. Armor will be needed there but also, when farming, to prevent minions damage.
Seals AND Quints :
These give health at a good ratio cost/health and health will be used all the time by Shen to increase his survivaility but also his damage because of his passive (I have probably said this thousands of times before and you are probably tiered of hearing this but I will keep repeating it because some people just like to skim over a guide and only take what they need)
Glyph's :
As shown above, these will give you 5.85% Cooldown reduction, this will result in a 10.53 sec CD reduction onto ult)
Summoner Spells
[title]Explanation:[/title]
The reason I use teleport is to add an increadible amount of GAME PRESENCE. I use it with my ultimate in order to always keep one (ult or tp) off cooldown in order to be anywhere on the map, at any given time. This makes the enemy team truly fear you/your team (no tower diving or going ballz deep possibilities).
Alternatively, using Your W with you're ult will make you and your team be able to tower dive for dayz.
The flash is just very useful for ganks/escaping/securing a kill with you're Q. I find
1. The effects are felt immediately (also synergises with W, for escaping)
2. If you cannot catch them with your boots of swiftness and your W after the teamfight, you are better off not chasing the enemy as you/your team will most likely be low and it is not recommended to chase in these scenarios.
3. But keppra, we need to get boots of swiftness and the Enchantment: Furor for high mobility in teamfights, why not use Ghost? Ok, well, the CD combined with the fact that you can be kited out of it + its short duration make it less useful in general.
It is preferable, if you want to use a summoner spell on a teamfight, it is way more effective to Flash + W into all of them because they will not expect something like that. When popping Ghost, the element of surprise is gone and don't forget, you are a ninja! You rely, in some ways, ON the element of surprise.
Skills
[title]
[title]Explanation:[/title]
This ability is amazing. It is what will make you scary DPS wise all throughout the game (1v1) but specially at the early game when you just got your giant's belt. Your passive scales with bonus health which a considerably high ratio (10% OMG).
Some people may think this isn't very useful, but when laning it is amazing because you do not Auto Attack (AA) all the time and use AA for harassing or last-hitting minions.
Because you will be last hitting minions, the bonus health you get early will cause your AA's to deal massive damage early game. You have to take this skill in consideration, when buying an item that gives hp and ad to find the best item.
NOTE: Remember that in order for your passive to active more often, you must auto attack more often. The cooldown of your passive is also affected by if you have your shield (from your W) on you at that time or not. If it is active and on you, each auto attack will grand a 2 second cooldown reduction instead of a 1 second cooldown reduction, per auto attack. Using this often can dramatically increase the rate of having your passive activated, which you can use for increased harassment potential.
Remember to try to time your passive with when you will reach/be close enough to the enemy to auto attack him as your passive, specially towards mid-game and late-game deals significant amounts of damage is is free of charge, in terms of energy usage.
[title]
[title]Explanation:[/title]
I simply love this skill. Use it all the time to harass and to last-hit minions at the opposing side of your wave to get that the minions that would be too far to walk over to and auto-attack because you are already hitting one closer to you, for those of you that this every happened to, you know what I mean :(
A note on this skill is to not use it too early in teamfights. You really want to focus on landing your E first and try to land it again if possible. Thus, you should conserve it for either the end of the teamfight to help in bringing down that very low hp carry. Furthermore, the damage ratios on this skill, taking into account the cooldown time it has, makes this skill pretty costly and ineffective late game, when in teamfights.
The damage you throw down is just not significant enough to actually accomplish something within a larger teamfight; of course, not if its on a squishy enemey character and if the teamfight is almost over and end result of the teamfight is in your teams favor.
You should prioritize your W within a teamfight as, on top of granting you a nice shield to soak-up some early poke damage in the teamfight, or even turret shots, Auto-attacking with it active will actually bring down the cooldown on your passive, which will be a significant source of damage, late game, for Shen.
Some people say to use it on an enemy which is being focus for the team lifesteal. I do agree with this, and it can be done, without remorse, but I do prefer to land another E to secure the ace.
[title]
[title]Explanation:[/title]
This skill is gold. This is what will protect you early game from high poke enemies and ultimately any damage. With this spell, you can easily wander around the enemy turret, get shot, and not even feel it. Due to its low Energy cost, you should use this spell VERY often. Right after your E, anytime you are going into a team fight or anytime you are under an enemy tower in general.
This spell makes Shen the best tower diver. I literally sat under an enemy turret, running in circles to taunt the enemy and tanked 6-7 shots while my ADC and I brought down 2 full hp enemies and that turret.
This skill is quite spammable, in terms of using it within a teamfight. You should use it right after dashing into the enemy team with your taunt (E) as it will prevent a large amount of damage dealt to you. Actually, it will be twice as effective towards enemies which are taunted because of the secondary effect of your dash which is to reduce damage dealt to you by 50%. This will result in a shield with a net potential of 500 (+1.2 per AP), when at level 5, to enemies which have been taunted, for the duration of the taunt.
This is pretty enormous, considering it is on a 5 second cooldown and only costs 50 energy. You will have to land a proper taunt onto your enemy team for the shield to be this effective. This is a first look at the importance to know how to cast a proper/effective taunt as a proper taunt, on all 5 enemy team members, will give you back 200 energy points, of which you are free to activate your W with. It will still be quite effective without the taunt.
[title]
[title]Explanation:[/title]
This skill is tricky and will make or break teamfights. The secret to using the spell efficiently is patience. Don't forget the famous line Ra's Al Ghul said to batman in Batman Begins: '' A ninja understands that invisibility is a matter of patience and agility'' (These are the two fundamental concepts that this whole guide revolves around).
You have to casually stroll into the enemy team and launch an E right up their whole team, but only when you are sure you can taunt all of them. Doing with will actually regenerate 200 energy because touching one person with your taunt refunds 40 energy, thus, if you reach all 5 enemy team members, you will regain 200 energy which is so incredibly. If you think like a ninja, you will get rewarded like a ninja.
This is one third of what differentiates a Good Shen player from a PRO Shen player. If this happens and you team follows through? There is NO way to lose that teamfight. No possible way to lose, I've done it many many times and we have never lost.
Note: there is an area in front of you (that doesn't appear in the range indicator) where you will also taunt enemies. A PRO Shen player knows the size of this area and that is one third of what differentiates a Good Shen player from a PRO Shen player.
[title]
[title]Explanation:[/title]
Your ULT! Your most feared skill. Use this correctly and you will never lose a game. This is the last third of what differentiates a Good Shen player from a PRO Shen player.
It is so important that I will write an entire chapter just for it. READ ON! :)
In the Ult chapter, I will be talking about, When, where, how why and on who to use your ultimate.
You want to keep this ALMOST always on Cooldown; it will make the enemy team fear you!
Also, it is free of charge, energy wise! This is great as it makes it usable even when you have just casted a large combo, in your own lane. Remember to cast it when you have a decent amount of health points left, in order to properly effectuate the operation you are about to commence, whether it be to save an ally or to gank an over-extended lane. When you use it, you and/or your teammate(s) should not die. You should be sure, to a certain extent, of the potential success of the operation.
[highlight]QUICK TIP 1:[/highlight]
You can use the F1-F5 keys on top of your keyboard to quickly locate anyone of your teammates. Use these keys frequently to help prevent your teammates from dying by ulting them when they get very low. Remember to read the chapter on Shen's Ultimate ''SHEN'S ULTIMATE - ENEMY'S NIGHTMARE'' for more information.
[highlight]QUICK TIP 2:[/highlight]
By pressing on the F1-F5 keys right after pressing R to use Shen's Ult, you will automatically start teleporting to the champion that is assigned that position, in your current game. This can be very useful but sometimes may cause you to ult the wrong teammate. Practice using this method and become skilled with it because it will be useful in clutch situations where you have to react rapidly or when you are in a teamfight and it is difficult to target the correct teammate, due to everyone being very close to each-other and there being a lot of action going on, from enemy CC to large AOE assaults from the enemy APC.
Skill Order
This is the order of what skills you want to get to maximum level first. Quite straight-forward I believe, just follow your QWERTY keyboard from left to right! :)
I like this skill order because getting
But Keppra! Why the shield before the dash~! I can escape ganks and taunt my enemy!
The reason why I prioritize the shield over the dash is that the dash costs 120 energy points which is very expensive to use casually early game. On top of that, you could simply not push out your wave and stay gank safe for the first 2 levels of the game. Last time I checked, 1st, you rarely get ganked at level 2, 2nd, staying close to your tower/side of the map, often solves any problem that may arise. At least for the first 2 levels.
Item Builds
I will be doing two things here. I will be showing a BASIC (not like advanced one which is at the beginning of the guide) item build and will be explaining the reasoning behind some of the items in the guide. Note: I prefer the item build shown in the Items section at the top of this build, but this one is for a more general audience!
[highlight]Here is a good way to start off a Shen game, items-wise.[/highlight]
[item=boots-of-speed][item=health-potion3]
[item=boots-of-speed][item=health-potion][item=sight-ward2]
[item=boots-of-speed][item=health-potion][item=ruby-crystal]
[item=boots-of-speed][item=health-potion][item=ruby-crystal][item=giants-belt]
[item=boots-of-speed][item=health-potion][item=warmogs-armor]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=warmogs-armor]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=warmogs-armor][item=chain-vest]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=warmogs-armor][item=chain-vest][item=giants-belt]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=warmogs-armor][item=sunfire-cape]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=warmogs-armor][item=sunfire-cape][item=spirit-visage]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=locket-of-the-iron-solari][item=warmogs-armor][item=sunfire-cape][item=spirit-visage]
[item=boots-of-swiftness][item=health-potion][item=locket-of-the-iron-solari][item=warmogs-armor][item=sunfire-cape][item=spirit-visage][item=runic-bulwark]
________________________________________________________________________________________________
[item=boots-of-speed] Why do I get this so late? (in the expert build)
Because Shen has priorities and this one is not too high on the list in early game. He already has huge mobility with his ult and tp for long distances and there are no large team fights requiring high mobility, early game.
Why [item=warmogs-armor] and not [item=frozen-mallet]
After calculating the stats of each of these items, it is clear that the Warmog's armor is a better deal, and here is why: Warmog's offers 1000hp which also means +100 damage because of his passive. It also comes with 1.5% health regen of max health, per 5 seconds. This results in roughly 65-75 health per 5, late game, which is amazing.
The frozen-mallet on the other hand, offers 700hp +30 AD which ends up being equal to +100 AD due to his passive. The mallet also includes a 40% slow.
The reason I prefer warmog's is that you will not use the slow as often as that, specially in teamfights, and even if you do, chances are, it will be at the end of the teamfight, i.e., you are chasing, i.e., your E does a much better job at catching up and even taunting them, which, if your team is around, is wayy better then some occasional slow that is only proc'd on AA.
I prefer getting an extra 300 hp and a ton of hp regen, then slowing someone a couple of times during the whole game. NOT TO MENTION THAT IS IS ABOUT 500 GOLD CHEAPER!
[item=boots-of-swiftness] Why swiftness? Where the hell does that come from?
After many teamfights and games in general, I have found that you have enough ad/mr/tenacity from your other items and don't really need these stats anymore, not from boots at least. The common trend of what was really needed/useful in teamfights is high mobility. You want mobility inside the teamfight in order to land your 2nd taunt and/or position yourself in a way to obstruct the enemy carries and prevent them from reaching your own carries.
[item=locket-of-the-iron-solari][item=spirit-visage] Why these? arn't they too expensive?
Due to a recent buff on spirit visage bringing it to 20% CDR, I would say that it is not too expensive because of how it synergises with your other items. The 20% increased healing and regen mean that the +75 hp/5 that the warmog's armor gives you, rises to +90 hp/5. The 20% CDR on it synergises well with long cooldown spell's, i.e., your ult. The health will even grant you 20 bonus AD on your passive, and mr is always good.
The Locket is almost the same but it will give you double the AD bonus (42.5 AD), armor instead of mr and will give your team an extra 1000 hp at level 18 in teamfights with its active ((50+(10*18))*5)= 1150hp. It also gives 10% CDR and has health regen that will synergise with the 20% bonus regen from the locket of iron solari.
The experimental items are fun to try if you are going HAM and winning. Sometimes I just like to take some of them for fun, on a lost game, aaaaaaand then we end up winning :)
Early Game
Here, you want to farm as efficiently as possible. Very early (level 1-3) you can decide to harass a little bit due to your natural advantages of being tanky and having a great passive (that is boosted from your runes & masteries),
Apart from that, I would not advise any hard harassment because getting to level 6, or should I say, surviving to level 6, and having enough HP to perform either an Ultimate assisted gank, Teleport + ward assisted gank or simply using ult/tp to save an ally.
It is important to save your allies as best as possible early game using your ult and tp in order for enemy team not to snowball and for your team to snowball instead. In other words, once you reach level 6, your main laning task is complete i.e., to actaully get to level 6, but this is when you become a type of babysitter for your whole team until the game slowly falls into mid game.
People often want to push your lane and take your tower as early as possible (basically, win their lane against you and be ahead of you) because they know that if they let you farm and level up rapidly, you will be able to use your ult sooner and prevent ganks/be anywhere on the map, at any given time. By doing this, they often lose farm as well. You should not stress too much about it as it is normal to not have a record breaking minion score, every game.
As a tank, you will often rely on assists for an important source of income as well. I had 27 ***its and ended up with more gold then my ADC, being over 100 minions behind in farming. I was not too high in kills either.
Mid Game
In mid game, there will be a lot of ganks/teamfights and objectives to capture as a team. This is where Shen's principle actually shines; not to say that it is not present in late game.
As Shen in mid game, you will want to keep a constant eye on your whole team (using the F1-F5 keys again, as I have mentioned earlier), having either your ult or teleport off of cooldown.
If you team is very united and there is a lot of synergy amongst you, it is wise to move as a one. A whole, immovable object : the team. But if you feel that is not true, ex: soloqueue or normals etc., you CAN farm alone at top and/or roam around the map to farm or to complete certain objectives by yourself.
This is unique for Shen and is due to his special ultimate. It should be your duty to inform your team, either in the pre-game lobby or in the early game of your intentions to not always be with them when they are all together. Read the chapter on this subject if you want to know more about team dynamics for Shen. He is reliant on team dynamics and often people don't realize that and cannot succeed.
Late Game
You will be following your team at this point and will want to peel for your carries at all costs. You will want to save your Q skill for last and focus on only using your E skill AT THE CORRECT TIME. (See skills chapter for more info)
A lot of what will happen in the late game will depend on how well you used your ult throughout the game and how well you will use it at the end of the game (this is explained in great depth in the chapter on Shen's Ultimate ability)
If you still have a place left in your inventory, buy wards! Wards are very often game changers because if you can spot the teamfight that will catch your whole team off guard and make you lose the game before it happens, you will be able to react to it and assure that the opposite outcome arises. Wards can also be useful for warding Baron Nashor and dragon.
Team objectives become very important in the late game because first, they provide a nice source of income when people no longer have time to farm and can provide very important buffs such as the Baron buff, which will influence the course of teamfights. There is also the general activities such as pushing and capturing inhibitors as well as teamfights (sperate chapter).
Pushing and split pushing something that Shen excels at. Because of his ult and teleport, he is able to slip push all over the map and has the capability of running away in 4 seconds (ult or tp). In one of my video demonstrations, I will show how I was able to push very far and for a long time until I attracted all 5 members of the enemy team to me (bottom tower) and casually walked into the brush and teleported to another tower (top tower), before they could reach me. I will also show an example of when I tried to do that, but right infront of the enemy inhibitor as they were respawning and where it didn't go so well (what you should avoid doing)
Team Fights
In teamfights, you must focus on using your ult correctly (see chapter on ULT; next chapter), using your taunt correctly, i.e., taking your time to land a taunt on the most enemies as possible and including the ADC and APC in your taunting trajectory.
Also, it helps to end up very close to the enemy ADC in order to physically block his path from reaching your team.
You will want to read up on all the chapters talking about skills if you have reached this point of my guide. Everything is explained in great detail and I figure if someone is skimming along my guide right before a game starts, he won't take the time to read the teamfights section necessarily.
We buy a lot of mobility on the expert Shen guide because we want to be able to maneuver around in teamfights and position ourselves correctly in order to block the main enemy damage outputs and also be able to counter the enemy tanks or bypass the front line quicker.
You will discover, after many games using Shen, that positioning is actually more important that any other stat in this game. It becomes primordial when you are the tank and are supposed to peal for your carries.
A team with a pro tank or with many pro tanky champions, will have the most fed ADC's of all time, because they will create the opportunity for the ADC's to casually inflicting TONS of damage, with absolutely NO resistance from the enemy team!
SHEN'S ULTIMATE - ENEMY'S NIGHTMARE
THE ULT.. the last peice to master to be a PRO Shen player.
Here I will reveal the secrets on WHEN, HOW, WHERE, WHY, ON WHO, to use it.
[title]WHEN:[/title]
You want to use your ult the moment you reach level 6. You should start looking around the map and use F1-F5 keys. You do not want to keep it off cooldown for long. Try to vary between using it and your tp so at least one is off cooldown at all times. It does not mean not use both at the same time, I means make sure you maximize the cooldowns. Using one when the second one reaches half its cooldown time is a good way to do so. You want to use it when you are sure you can save someone. You can also use it to turn a 2v2 situation to a 3v2, if your team can get both kills.
[title]HOW:[/title]
You should always be looking around the map at your teammates to find one to ult to. Memorize your team's order and use the F1-F5 keys to quickly jump from one to the other, back to you, using the space bar.
[title]WHERE:[/title]
You should use it anywhere you are, as long as you are sure it will save your teammate or if will bring you into a teamfight. Even if you are right next to your teammate you want to ult, do it, it will save his life and safe the game, if you are sure you can save him.
[title]WHY:[/title]
Because getting the early kills is what makes that team snowball and ultimately win the game. You do not want the enemy team to get kill early game AT ALL COSTS. Sacrificing yourself for another, as long as you arn't on a killing spree is OK. Sacrificing yourself and getting the other guy killed is a big NONO. Do no tp to someone early game if you are not sure you can save him because that will only give the enemy 2 kills instead of 1 and that is even worst. Mid game, you can try it and do it more freely/on riskier situations because kills become less paramount to victory.
[title]ON WHO:[/title]
You want to ult, ideally onto your ADC or APC but if someone else is getting focused down and is about to die, you can ult him instead. Having an extra tank in the teamfight, even if he is a bit low, is very good. Also, because he is being focused, the energy shield your ult grants will soak up lots of damage that would have otherwise been inflicted onto your team.
Example Game - Flawless Shen Gameplay
This is a great game. I end up having a score of 12/0/30
There will be 3 parts for this video because it is so large (around 20 minutes)
Enjoy!! I will make commentary if people ask for it but it is pretty straight forward.
I did not put ANY music in the background like that people can put their own! :)
[title]PART 1[/title]
[title]PART 2[/title]
[title]PART 3[/title]
Quick Team Matchups
This is just a [highlight]quick[/highlight] matchups section. I.e., because I will be looking at so many characters, I only rate rate the difficulty from 1 to 5.
Can dodge your taunt. Can run in and kill your teammate before you can teleport to him at the end of your ult.
Can have high, ranged, poke damage. Not too good for Shen. When she goes into her circle of shadows, you can easily catch her though. This is why she dosn't have too high of a rating.
Can really make your life hard, in terms of peeling for your carries. Has a huge sheild and can knock anyone up in the air, basically disrupting all CC. Same goes for when you are ulting, he can just ram you and GG.
He is actually an advantage to your team. He grabs you, you taunt the whole team and put on your shield; your team follows through -> ACE.
May be problematic, can stun, has AOE damage and his ult can hit multiple targets, making your ult less effective when you need it to save a low teammate.
She will poke you to oblivion but as long as you have your shield and you place yourself in front of your carries when she ults, all is good.[imgsmall=summoners/clairvoyance.png]
She can stun your whole team! Focus her first and taunt her all the time. You cannot let her get many kills early and mid game, the game will be over if you don't ult properly and in time to save your teammate.
He tends to cause a problem because his ult make you have to ult really early which can cause you to lose your ult, in case of a false alarm. Plus, he has high burst damage and can pull in your teammates. Hard to counter also because he is tanky. Try to taunt him if he is alone.
She is not too bad but don't let her chase you, you will be in trouble. You can't ult out of there if she is chasing you cause she has an ability that moves your character, negating your ult.
Very dependent on the person playing him. Can be a big problem if fed and if he knows how to catch his axes because of his passive and movement speed increase. He will be able to follow you and will be able to ult you or your low teammates. Be extra careful and pay more attention to your bot lane. If you see him low, especially early (around 6) where Draven will just have gotten his ult, he will be able to through his ult and kill your ADC, miles behind your turret. If your adc is low, ult him if you find Draven is gonna ult.
Against you, not too big of a deal due to your shield. You can even intercept some of his cleavers with your shield if you know they will connect with your carries.
Quite a pain in the behind because she can bait out your taunt. Try to never focus on taunting her. Taunt her teammates instead. Don't let her get fed because she will poke the living daylights out of you and will not let you even touch her due to her jump.
Play safe with her. Always expect her ult and her stun.
You both are tanky brutes. Don't try to fight him, he will out harass you with his poison. Wait until mid and late game and outplay him there. Singeds main weakness is ranged opponants. Later in the game, your taunt will make your ranged teammates able to chew him up.
Focus on farming and on saving your teammates. Later in the game, you will think that you can ult your teammates that have been struck by a poisonous mushroom but you can't. If someone is hit by a poison and have a DOT (damage over time) spell on them, your sheild cannot help them, they will probably die :( What you can do if you are aware of any enemies nearby is ulting to your teammate in order to help him have enough time to get to safty to tp back to base.
Not too much of a problem in lane, but you will not kill him. Just farm until mid/late game and don't forget to key an eye on your teammates.
I have seen him to be quite problematic in some games. He can quickly rush to your backline and tear apart all your team structure. Try to taunt only after you have been flipped over his head, in order to not miss your taunt.
You will want to farm and try to stay in lane most of the time. Look at your minimap to save your friends. Don't mind him too much and don't bother harassing if he is not harassing you.
Same problem as Volibear, he can go through your defensive line, straight to your carries. The difference is that he is usually not too tanky, making him easier deal with.
Not very difficult but can be if the player is experienced. Try to force him to ult you, instead of your carries. Apart from that, you can easily block all his other attacks with your shield. Do not fight him head to head, he is pretty hard to 1v1. NINJA VS NINJA. You can win if you know what you are doing and if hes not an expert. If he is an expert, he will not be fighting you in the first place.
Trundle the troll, can disrput the teamfight but so can you. He doesn't pose any threat.
The reason he has 3 out of 5 is because I have seen some really good tryndameres recently. You will not be fighting this guy 1v1, first off, second, wait for your team to come when he is low and just taunt him. He won't be able to ult and will just die.
Final Comments
OK! So you've read through my guide or just skipped to the comment section to see how many people hated it and now you are like :
BUT KEPPRA WTF this guide isn't complete, you're missing so many things its just awful!
Well my friend, this guide was made for me and/or my friends! I don't really care what you think (sorry)! I know its not complete but this is what I normally take out of a guide. The rest comes from the situation or my imagination. But I would still like to thank you for reading it at least! :)
I would also like to note that this is not average Shen guide. This is an expert Shen guide meaning you have to be good as a summoner to start with and try it a couple of times to get great at it. The order in which an expert Shen buys his items may seem a bit weird and can cause some problems to some less experienced Shen players. If this is your case (perfectly normal), try to buy these items but starting with any items that you desire/can get first.
Lets say you only have enough for the ruby crystal after the first time going back, only get the ruby crystal, a ward or two and some Heath potions! :)
The reason why I write this is because I have been receiving a lot of feedback related to this item order and that it would be causing people to be unable to farm efficiently and fall behind in early lanning phase, which causes them to be behind for the entire game and not be able to do anything. :(
Thanks to everyone who read my guide and I hope it was useful for someone! Leave me a comment saying how good/bad it was!
please don't downvote me to infinity :) thanks!! have a nice match, you ninja, you..
Keppra4athene
Shen Guide
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