Well thank you for the comment. First off, to the person who didn't get the maximizing his ult part, I believe he means the fact that I get some AP in order to provide a much larger shield. At rank 3, his ulti does provide a great sheild, but by this time in the game, focus fire can burn through it pretty quick. With the 1:1 scaling, getting a bit of AP can make your ulti's shield larger, thus making teammates a bit safer.

I do sell the Doran's shield, but not until I have to. I don't generally sell it unless I can fill its slot with a later full recipe item. Personal preference though, you can sell it earlier if you wish to more expensive items earlier.

The HoG is a bit of a tricky subject though. I get it when I do for two reasons. It will give you a good bonus to health early making it safer to lane longer, and the gold per five helps a bit as Shen isn't the greatest farmer. I hold onto it until after I finish my core build, and then decide what to do with it then. Need more durability? Turn it into a Randuins, or sell it for more MR (Quicksilver Sash is a great idea if you need it), but in most cases you'll be durable enough to go for the mallet and rylai's. So, basically you're using the HoG for an early boost to health and the GP/5 and that's about it. I can definitly understand the mentality that some people don't want to sell items when they can be made into other things, so I am in no way saying that you shouldn't keep it and buy a Randuins with it. More personal preference I suppose.

Thanks for the input, I will include more explanation in the items section about this.

Huh?

Could be very interesting. Haven't seen many Shen builds that try to max out his ult. Has the potential to be a very good overall guide. Looking forward to more explanation on all of them. Quick questions on the items for the pure tank build: I assume you're selling the Doran's Shield to get your last item but then are you also getting rid of the HOG to get both the Scepter and the Mallet? Why not turn that into a Randuin's Omen since you already have the build started. I definitely like the builds though. Good work.