Shen is quite a useful champion, especially after his most recent buffs. He's a fantastic utility support tank, BUT, he can now be used quite effectively as a tanky DPS. His abilities combine to give him very good capabilities. This guide will be dealing with the off-tank DPS Shen, even though both ways to build him can be very effective.

I take flat attack damage reds, and flat attack damage quints, so as to improve my damage output that little bit. However, I take flat health blues and yellows, to enhance my survivability, which this build definitely still needs.

I take 4/22/4 masteries, mostly defense to make sure he can still take a beating, but putting points in the exhaust and ghost buffs, and a few in health/mana regen and crit chance. Of course, so I survive longer, get back into combat faster, and can hit a few crits. Crits, coupled with his passive, and his Q, makes for a large amount of damage output.

I start with Cloth Armor, two times Health Potion, and a Sight Ward, straight from level 1. I can farm, and stay in lane, for quite a long time this way, even when occasionally diving the enemy. I upgrade the cloth armor into a Wriggle's Lantern, AD, lifesteal and armor, a great combo, and the passive helps farm a lot.

Mercury's Treads next, gotta get boots early, obvious choice for survivability.

Now, with Hexdrinker (I very underestimated item, the effects are good for such a low price, and the passive shield can, whilst not being all that useful, save you in some tight situations, you COULD instead swap it with Wit's End, whichever you get first will help, but the passive on Hexdrinker is more useful earlier, as damage becomes too much for it's small shield to block later on.

Up next is the Frozen Mallet, good survivability, health that enhances his passive, and then a Warmog's Armor for more survivability and stronger passive. But, if you find your DPS and auto attacks are what's carrying you, and you don't need any extra survivability, a Madred's Bloodrazor can be used instead.

Your is your first priority to max, as it, couple with your building attack damage and whatever teammate you're laning with. Your ultimate, , is also top priority whenever it's available.

is used for it's healing, last hit ability, and the bit of damage. When used in a 1v1, you can heal and deal a lot of damage.

is, unfortunately, not very effective at all as an ability. It CAN be the difference between life and death, but not too often, and it can also block some damage when getting red buff, or solo dragon.

Exhaust and Ghost, simple summoner spells, escape and chasing abilities. His dash, and ghost, and even an exhaust, can help him escape an entire enemy team. All these things can also chase down any number of opponents.

Keep in mind, you can dash over walls, so you may never need to burn your ghost or exhaust spells.

, and are all, to be fair, more effective tanks. and can be more effective tanky DPS champs. BUT, Shen can be majorly effective in a good team, and when played well. He can 1v1 a lot of champs, with his dash (whilst taunted, they cannot use abilities) and his heals, and in a team fight he can save the other carries. His ult, magnificent in saving teammates, and surprising enemies with an almost instant gank.

Pros:

[*] Great chasing abilities.
[*] Can completely disable a champ for up to two seconds, enough to take them down with a good ally.
[*] Heals
[*] Ability to jump walls
[*] His passive is great with any amount of health

Cons:

[*] Naturally slower than most champs.
[*] Heal is very minor.
[*] His W can often be almost useless.
[*] To save your carries, occasionally you must sacrifice yourself

Possible, and red buff on this build works wonders. You can, mid game even, dash over the dragon wall, quickly take dragon, and dash back over, safely getting your team gold. He's better in lane, to be fair, but roaming through the jungle sometimes can help dramatically.

Sometimes, farming late game is too dangerous for Shen by himself, especially when enemies are farming there already, and so jungling at this point can give you a bit of gold and experience, as well as buffs.

Always work with your team. No excuses, even if they're doing horribly, you are still supposed to ult to them to save them, and still supposed to dash into chasing enemies in order to take their focus away from some allies. You can do so much to aid your team, and at the same time take down other champions.

[*] Dashing through walls
[*] Almost instant surprise ganks
[*] If you get fed, enemies begin to fear pushing, as you can be anywhere at any time with your ult
[*] Healing with Q is, whilst very small, very useful.

Use your Q, use your W, use your passive, the more farm you have, the better, but never focus on farm over aiding allies or taking out enemies, you aren't Nasus after all.

Shen is often underestimated, but his abilities are very useful, and he can take apart the other team and aid his allies at the same time. This build I use on him every game now, and it works, and even when I've become the carry in a game, and even when my allies begin to feed, I do my best to keep them alive. After all, teamwork is what this game is built upon.

If you haven't played Shen since the buffs, give him a go now, his bases are higher, and he's a solid champion.