Hey guys. My EUW summoner name is DSL Inferno, I used to stream on www.twitch.tv/siilentrush and this in-depth guide is designed for anyone looking to climb the ladder with the most feared solo queue champion in season 1, Shen. He's a very versatile top laner with amazing map control potential, team fighting presence and is an all around fun and efficient champion for Season 6.

Pros:
-You have the best map presence in the game (arguably)
-Laning and team fighting phases are exceptional and dueling is surprisingly powerful
-Heavy poke for almost no cost
-Tank for days
-Ultimate is the biggest shield you may ever see
-Can teleport across the map by pushing R
-Can Shadow Dash into an entire team and not get blown up (so much better than Rammus)
-Does excessive amounts of magic damage with the right items
-Can also support and jungle

Cons:
-He can be kited easily when Shadow Dash is down
-Gets outscaled by hyper carries
-Is team reliant for damage if not building Bruiser Shen
-Can carry, but it's pretty hard
-Losing lane prevents a lot of play making

Greater Seal of Scaling Health may be preferred over Greater Seal of Armor in your standard page, or Greater Glyph of Ability Power over Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. Shen has a decent or exceptional AP Ratio on every one of his abilities so AP runes are especially beneficial, but magic resist may be necessary against the enemies AP carry. Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed helps to recharge your passive and allow for dueling. Hybrid penetration is useful for armor pen with attack speed and dueling with Shadow Dash while magic pen for Sunfire Aegis, Thornmail, Vorpal Blade, and Shadow Dash.

The masteries are pretty straight forward for Shen, but you can however go for Runic Armor over Veteran's Scars if you feel like it, however having extra total health is very useful, and Shen already has high sustain.

Doran's Shield is a wonderful starting item on Shen as it gives him Health, Health Regen and some damage reduction. Cloth Armor is a strong option against champions with heavy AD poke such as Pantheon and Jayce. Boots is a possible start if wanting to roam or to avoid skillshots, however Doran's Shield is more efficient for the laning phase.

Armor Items

Sunfire Aegis was made for Shen. He forces enemies to stay within melee range and take around 40 magic damage per second, gains Ki Strike damage from the bonus health and prevents them from hurting him much after he uses Shadow Dash with the armor. Sunfire Aegis is a must for split pushing and wave clearing and even dueling. I would almost always recommend Sunfire Aegis as Shen.

Randuin's Omen is a great item. It has a nice chunk of health and armor, a slow active, and an attack speed slow passive on hit, meaning if you land Shadow Dash you automatically reduce an attackers attack speed. I would get this item against a heavy AD team or fed AD champions to help peel for your carries and to add the chances of surviving.

Thornmail is a great counter to the AD heavy meta, especially as the ADC's have had a great impact in the preseason. With its tweak, I would recommend getting the item later on as it gets stronger off of additional armor.

Dead Man's Plate This item is pretty powerful on Shen right now. If you need the extra armor it stacks incredibly well with Trinity Force for burst damage and has more health than Randuin's Omen

Magic Resist Options

Spirit Visage is a great item on Shen, mostly because of the passive and CDR. 10% cooldown will help massively with map presence on ultimate, dueling, and peeling in team fights, while the passive increases sustain with Vorpal Blade.

Banshee's Veil is a very useful item against champions like Ekko and Kennen who rely on chaining and it's also good vs champions like Annie and Veigar who almost fully rely on their stun to win a fight.

Locket of the Iron Solari is a good item as you are able to sheild many of your teammates and give them all extra magic resist. This item is almost a necessity against heavy AP compositions.

Damage Items

Trinity Force is almost a perfect damage item for Shen. The only issue is you lose item value with mana. It helps prevent kiting with the rage from Phage, gives you extra damage with Sheen and some good attack speed to lower Ki Strike's cooldown with Zeal.


Sterak's Gage is a great item for Shen if your team begins to lack damage and you become the carry in teamfights. Being able to Shadow Dash into their whole team and gain extra AD and a shield is excellent and with the cooldown being so low, teamfights can be forced more often.

Titanic Hydra is Shen's almost core damage item. Building just this means that you are able to out-trade many champions, even a Darius and it also increases your 1-shotting potential with the extra damage on the active.

Frozen Mallet is the ultimate anti-kiting tool, with works so well against champions like Gnar who rely entirely on their kiting in his Mini Gnar form. It also gives him an extremely high amount of HP and some extra AD to duel better.

Extra Tank Options

Guardian Angel is when you end up as the carry (dealing a lot of damage and being the main assassin on your team), and everyone focuses you. You might be surprised how easy it is to jump into 5 people and kill the enemy ADC when you have 15+ kills.

Warmog's Armor If you have decent resistances and armor and the enemy team has evenly keeled damages or simply isn't hurting all that much Warmog's Armor will make you extremely difficult to kill. It's also useful against pesky champions like Darius, Irelia and Master Yi that do a lot of true damage (if you already have Randuin's Omen and/or Thornmail).

Ultimate is always priority on every champion.
Max Vorpal Blade first for massive damages and poke AND sustain.
Max Shadow Dash second for escape, chase, intiate, and even damage in some cases.
Max Feint last. Its a great ability, but just not as useful as the other 2 in most lane situations. If you're losing horribly against heavy poke, max Feint before Shadow Dash.

Flash is almost a definite on most champions. Ghost isn't very necessary as your Shadow Dash is on a low cooldown, and you can make those cheeky Shadow Dash- Flash plays.

Teleport is very useful for maximum map control, as you can Stand United bot lane, get both of them and still be able to Teleport top lane to protect turret or farm waves.

Ignite is optional. I prefer to use it against very Life Steal or Health Regeneration champions such as Dr. Mundo, Volibear and Olaf so that you don't lose purely to their health rising up crazily.

Farming is your main source of sustain. Feel free to chuck as many swords as you want at low health minions and restore health. Also, don't be afraid to blow Ki Strike on a last hit, just don't do it during a tense pre-duel situation unless you can disengage. Sustain should be done by Vorpal Bladeing a full health minion and auto attacking it once, then waiting until a little before you stop regenerating loads of health and hitting that minion again. Shen has ridiculous and subtle sustain through this method. It may push lane, however.

I put farming above laning because farming is SO important. Those were the basics how to farm, now I'll go over laning and the importance of farm while laning. Vorpal Blade is such an effective poke because 1. It uses energy so you can never be literally oom (but you can run out of energy briefly) and 2. Hitting an enemy champion with a spell does not aggro minions. It also has massive base damages. So you may think Vorpal Blade every single opportunity. Well not necessarily. Never give up creep score for poke. I have a bad habit of this because I am extremely aggressive most of the time and like to go for kills. It is a mistake. If minions are worth 20 gold each, 10 minions is 200 gold. 20 minions is 400. 40 minions is 800 gold not including siege. Late game minions are worth even more! Early game they're indeed worth less, but most of the game they will be worth around 20. Siege are around 40. 1 Kill is about 300 gold. If you sacrifice farm time and time again to poke, those numbers add up and you're hurting yourself. Don't be afraid to Vorpal Blade for a creep. It heals you! And it doesn't cost anything that won't be back in a few seconds. While Vorpal Blade is effective poke, depending on the champion Shadow Dash Vorpal Blade and Ki Strike while using Feint to out trade and disengage is tremendous poke in most situations. Be careful early game, however, diving behind the enemy minions will make you take unnecessary loads of damage after you Ki Strike and aggro them. While laning always watch the map. For an ult, for a gank, for a teleport, watch your wards, warn your allies. You never know what they see and don't see, so it's up to you to show them. Buying wards is also a key part of laning phase that almost all low ELO players do not do. Pink wards can last for an entire 30 minute game for only 100 gold. They have the potential to be the single most useful item in Summoner's Rift. Buy one and it will usually die, but it will often be well worth it. Plus it reveals whatever wards are nearby. And Teemo's Noxious Trap, Shaco's Jack In The Box and stealthed champions.

Shen is the epitome of teamwork. A great ult could literally win a game, but it's super easy to ult ineffectively. Lets go by ability.
Vorpal Blade in team fights, you will often taunt the enemy carries, Vorpal Blade them, and right click till your mouse breaks. And pop Feint to deflect large bursts. If there's no chance of you killing a carry, Vorpal Blade whoever your ADC or other auto attack reliant teammate is focusing and help burst them down while sustaining your ally. It just might save their life.
Fein is great for replenishing Ki Strike but usually it'll just get beaten down as soon as it's popped. It's still great for soaking damage after using Shadow Dash, though.
Shadow Dash can be even more useful than your ultimate in some situations. Try to land it on as many enemy champions as you can, but prioritize APC's and ADC's. You get a refund of 40 energy per champion hit, so if you think you will hit more than 2 shield first. Flash taunting in team fights for the squishies will, with the right positioning and focus, blow them up instantly. Make sure to communicate which target to focus with your team and ping during fights.
Stand United If you teleport onto a champion they will become much more difficult to kill. At level 16 your shield has 850 base, and a 1.5 AP ratio. Ulting too late, however, will prevent you from even entering the fight if your ally dies. Ulting too early will just scare off the enemy team. ALWAYS ping before you ultimate. ALWAYS. If you don't your teammate may attempt to run away from an easy fight and completely waste your ultimate and any summoners or abilities they may have used to aid their escape. Communication is key on Shen.

This is my first Mobafire Guide, my summoner name is DSL Inferno, I've been playing league since 2014 and I've been off and on with Shen. Right now he is my main ranked pick. He is also a great support and a decent jungler, and I may add sections on that in the future. He's super fun and I hope this guide helped all of its viewers in one way or another. If you have any suggestions, something I missed, or any errors feel free to comment. I appreciate any help from the community.