!!! Only read this if you have no prior experience with Shen jungle!!!

You are new to Shen and/or don't know how to make him clear Viable?
Here are the few tricks you should know to make it fine!

Starting at Blue is a bit easier, but both a red or blue start work perfectly fine.

Activate at 1:26, 4 seconds before the Blue Buff spawns, so you have 3 Enhanced attacks at the ready, hitting them on the Buff, and as you do the last of the 3 Enhanced attacks, should be ready again; use it instantly to get another 3 Enhanced attacks, bursting down a lot of the Buff's HP, and early proccing your intentionally, so when you use your 3rd , you will get the shield to tank the last hits of the buff and have a very healthy first buff clear.

That's the kind of logic you want to continue on your clears, having enhanced attacks prepared for the next camp, and trying to time it so you have 6 instead of 3 quickly after another.

Extra note: The Small Krugs can be easily killed with a well-aimed , so don't waste your time on them.

After the first recall, we go for Bami's Cinder, as it is a huge help for clearing the smaller jungle monsters until your jungle monster is strong enough to make that not a worry anymore, and it also is a strong early item for ganks.


When should I go with which Jungle Egg?

Gustwalker Hatchling is the best choice for most cases, but if you think you will go for a build that prefers longer fights (6+ seconds) instead of quick assassinations because they have a lot of tanks/bruisers, then Scorchclaw Pup can help with those a bit better.


Your Electrocute will help a lot for early fights, so don't be afraid to choose fights. Preferably with teammates still, though, to guarantee the kill. Your DMG, even in the early game from LVL 4, is scarier than the enemies expect it to be. Use it to your advantage.

I will make it as simple as possible, explaining why I would build what item when, especially because for Bruiser Shen, some items just have some edge scenarios where you don't want to go your common route.

Navori Flickerblade Is part of his core for a reason. Him being able to get his enhanced AA faster from his or even his Dash and AA Block can be very crucial in coming out of a fight/gank healthy while eradicating the enemies HP.

Sundered Sky's bonus health when healing with it, as well as a guaranteed crit on your first AA after already having it enhanced from , makes it a great pickup for not only having more sustain in fights but also for dealing that extra DMG!

Blade of the Ruined King is not only a good pickup for heals but also to destroy squishies quickly before their teammates can help them out. In my opinion, it should also be treated as a core item for that extra DMG, especially because it also helps chip down the HP of a tank. But it is one of the more replaceable items of this build!

Serpent's Fang is a lovely pickup, even if only one character has a shield, be it something annoying like a Leona using Locket of the Iron Solari, a Yuumi that is sitting on her ADC, or just a Lulu. It makes it a lot easier to deal with them, and for me, a guaranteed pickup whenever I have even just one enemy with a shield. Especially nice against champs that love to build Eclipse

Serylda's Grudge is a great pickup against tanky enemies to shred them down better, and also to chase down squishies with a lot of disengage options.

Sterak's Gage is a strong item against CC-heavy comps and also strong to have for its shield.

Umbral Glaive is mostly good if your team is slacking in their vision department, a good lethality alternative to have.

Iceborn Gauntlet is a surprisingly good pickup in combination with Serylda's Grudge to shred and slow.

Death's Dance is a strong pickup if you need more survivability from assassins.

Hubris is an alternative first-pick item in a very niche scenario, as I can only recommend it if there are no tanky enemies on their team. You should still build Navori Flickerblade alongside it, but you want Hubris first to stack its DMG.

Ravenous Hydra also more of a niche pick; in case fights drag out a bit more, having that extra hydra heal proc can be very helpful. Tiamat-based items in general work great on Shen.

Stridebreaker similar to Ravenous Hydra, just instead of being a niche pick for dragged out fights, it is another item to help chase down enemies and pairs well with Iceborn Gauntlet or/and Serylda's Grudge or/and Dead Man's Plate <-(more on that later).

Youmuu's Ghostblade has a good active effect for that extra move speed and is a good lethality item choice instead of Serpent's Fang in case the enemy team has no shields.

Voltaic Cyclosword is another lethality-based option that helps make Shen an assassin. It pairs surprisingly well with Kraken Slayer <-(more on that later) or/and Blade of the Ruined King, also changes your playstyle to go in quickly and out quickly; extended fights are not what you want with this item.

Jak'Sho, The Protean Can be a good last item pickup to add a bit of tankiness for extended fights and can be combined well with a lot of common bruiser items, including the ones mentioned above.

Dead Man's Plate gives survivability, extra DMG, and on top of that, movement speed, a very good flex item pick, as it works with multiple of the mini-build choices with the items you can go, great for the Voltaic Cyclosword-based Lethality route, strong for the Chase 'em Down Style of Stridebreaker, Iceborn Gauntlet, Serylda's Grudge and Youmuu's Ghostblade <-(Even though not mentioned in the Good Alternative Items List, I recommend if you go for that build path and the enemies have strong AP options, to also go Kaenic Rookern last.), and it works great with the "Standard Route" of Blade of the Ruined King etc.

Kraken Slayer helps you proc your Enhanced AA from and/or other on-hits like Iceborn Gauntlet or Blade of the Ruined King and even Navori Flickerblade. Great pickup to quickly burst enemies down.

Even thought this build and Shen in Jungle are more than just Viable!
A few will consider you a troll automatically just for not going the most meta build on Shen, and at the end of the day you are reading a guide from a stat nerd that doesn't really play ranked.

So expect some teammates to be tilted instantly, either from the Shen Jungle Pick or from the items you build on him.
If you are not good at dealing with easily tilting players, mute them, but at the end of the day, they are still your teammate for that match, so make sure to not ignore them if they are doing well. Strong laners should get help to widen their Lead, even if they pre-judge your pick/build.

If you don't want to mute them, at least don't interact negatively. You will sabotage your own and their mood (even more). League is a heavy mental battle at the end of the day, and a lot of players have a weak mindset, thinking that you are queuing just to ruin their day.

Think of it as a relationship; actions show more than words. If you want your teammates to believe in you, don't write, but show them how you can win the match.

If they write anything against you but are still trying to be a helpful teammate, that means they are still on board, trying to win. Use it to your advantage.

Bruiser Shen is pretty strong, but it has its flaws. Some comps you just can't play proper bruiser against, and sometimes you will need to adjust to be a tank instead of a bruiser, because your team comp and the situation will benefit from it a lot more.

So here are some talking points.

Even tanky Shen can benefit from Ignite Smite, though I prefer Flash Smite on tanky Shen, especially in the early game to secure kills and in the late game for anti-heal to burn squishies.

Electrocute as well can be played out beautifully with Tanky Shen; it will still provide extra DMG. You will not have Shen's tankiness that you would have with something like Grasp of the Undying and Overgrowth, but for that you will, despite being tanky, still be able to dish out your fair share of DMG.

My Stable current recommendation would be going for Titanic Hydra into Navori Flickerblade and Dead Man's Plate, adjusting boots to what you have more problems against (AP or AD, so just between Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads).

In that case you can also keep your Bami's Cinder to make a Hollow Radiance (preferred for its second ability, Desolate) or Sunfire Aegis, but it is completely valid to not go for one of the two, as you are not laning and will deal enough DMG to Jungle Monster with your enhanced autoattacks + Titanic Hydra

Good adjust pickups are: Jak'Sho, The Protean, Unending Despair, Thornmail, Kaenic Rookern, Iceborn Gauntlet, Knight's Vow <- (especially good if you notice one of your teammates has the potential to become a carry, to keep them as alive as you can), Guardian Angel <-(very niche pick), Frozen Heart, Shurelya's Battlesong, Randuin's Omen.

Out of personal experience, I cannot recommend items outside of them for Tanky Shen with the aforementioned Electrocute rune, but feel free to experiment on your own (and if you know something to add, feel free to comment it; this guide is based on my own opinion and experience, which doesn't mean I cannot be wrong).

You playing Shen means you have incredible ganking strength, be it to keep a teammate alive with a well-placed or , while also having a lot of kill pressure with your Enhanced AA from your , as well as unbeatable Map Pressure with your Ultimate .

You shouldn't go for any fancy invades. It's important you get your clear done consistently and fast, so adjust to the situation. If the enemy invades you, accept it and go to another camp; don't risk dying. It's better to just get what you can take and leave (that is, if you don't get help from teammates, you do have good level 1 strength, just not a good way to keep them there to secure a kill, so if you have a [morgana] for example, close to you, you are able to stick if it isn't the full team invading, but rather just the enemy jungler).

On the Scuttle Crab fight, you are able to out-DMG most other junglers, so make sure you make it clear that they shouldn't underestimate you and stand your ground (as long as he isn't getting backed up by their team, that is).

Vision is key; swap to an Oracle Lens early. Grubs and Dragon are both objectives you can fight for easily. Which one to focus on is a decision you have to make based on some conditions, like which dragon is up, are my laners able to support, are the enemy laners able to stop you, do we have vision on the objective, and do I have more strength than the enemy jungler.

Bot lane is often easy to gank, and Blue being the recommended start makes it so you should be naturally ganking it, but if you notice that the bot lane probably won't carry, feel free to switch it up to either try to help mid or top lane carry.

Depending on which site your team is on, this is the way the gank is most of the time the easiest

If you're part of the blue side, then wrapping around over the top while using Oracle Lens often is a good way to get a kill (if they have vision, you can often ignore it as they don't know you are there because of your Oracle Lens until it is too late).

If you're part of the red side, you use the same principle; just wrap down instead of up.

You are doing this to get behind the enemies, blocking their escape options for a bit. There is no need to use instantly; they will often panic, so it is better to try to keep it as long as possible.