Hey summoners! Thank you for checking out my guide! My name is JkChuwahh and I am an experienced player with Shen in League Of Legends. I am a Gold V Top and Jungle main favoring bruisers such as Rengar or Darius. This is my first ever guide on MOBAFire and I plan to create many more in the future for the strongest and my favorite meta top laners and junglers.

Honestly, Shen hasen't seen as much love in Season 4 due to the new meta shift in the top lane. Shen can just get beat easily now with Shyvana and Renekton due to their high tankiness and obsurd damage output. I still think Shen can be a top pick for a team utility tank if played correctly. Its just more difficult due to the new top lane meta because Shen cannot match their damage and just get out traded in most trades.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy my guide and don't be afraid to leave any feedback on how to improve my guide! Thanks! NOTE: As of right now, this guide is work in progress. Some changes may occur overtime as well as testing. Thanks.

Pros

+Extremely tanky +Good sustain in lane +Strong poke +Useful for keeping carries alive with Stand United +Good damage output +Energy based (Blue is not need) +Has a built-in escape with Shadow Dash +Great split pusher +Damage on abilities scale off of HP

Shen overall is a very strong tank top laner. He has a built-in escape using his Shadow Dash to quickly escape ganks. His dueling potential is actually huge compared to other top laners. Vorpal Blade + Ki Strike and Shadow Dash is huge damage because Shadow Dash will lock down your enemy and not giving them the ability to cast spells or move. When considering Shen, it is important to remember his team utility. His ultimate Stand United can save your carries and your Shadow Dash can be a game-changing engage to a team fight.

Cons

-Taunt uses a ton of energy -Reliant on team to carry -Can fall behind if you don't have any farm or lots of deaths - Stand United can be interrupted with CC - Shen relies off of Sunfire Aegis for his split pushing ability and wave clear -Long CD on Stand United and Shadow Dash

Every champion has their strengths, but also their weaknesses. The first being the most dissapointing con, Shen cannot carry. Even though Shen is doing well, if his team is doing bad it is a lost game. Shen has a lot of duel potential, but cannot take down a whole team by himself. Also throughout the game, your Stand United can be interuppted with CC, which can be very bad at times. You are gonna Stand United into a fight until suddenly you realize your ultimate has been cancelled. Most champions use a lot of mana, this is the same case with Shen but with energy. Shen's taunt uses 125 energy, which is more than half his energy pool. As well a Shen that is behind in lane is extremely weak and squishy.

greater mark of hybrid penetration greater mark of hybrid penetration are excellent offensive runes for Shen. The bonus magic penetration from the runes allow your Vorpal Blade/poke to deal much more damage because of the fact that Vorpal Blade deals magic damage. The armor penetration is pretty much self explanatory and it allows your auto attacks to deal more damage when you trade with your partner in lane.


Greater Seal of Armor are basically your go to seals. The armor bonus you get from these runes allow you to soak up extra poke in the early game and help you to be extra tanky throughout the laning phase and make you become INDESTRUCTIBLE! These runes really come into play when you are against AD top laners such as Jayce or Tryndamere.


Greater Glyph of Magic Resist are your basic go to glyphs on any champion. These really dont make much effect against your enemy top laner because there are very few AP top laners. But there is always a bit of mixed magic damage in some AD Champions such as Lee Sin's Tempest or Nasus' (Doge) Siphoning Strike.


Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration works really well with Shen. These runes highly benefit you by giving you the extra health regeneration to help you sustain better in lane. Paired with Doran's Shield, your health regenration will be insane.





greater mark of armor penetration This is an alternative mark if you don't have greater mark of hybrid penetration. I wouldn't really recommend this on Shen unless if you are going some sort of on hit build because most of your damage in the laning phase is going to come from your Vorpal Blade and greater mark of armor penetration does not benefit that.


This is another alternative mark. Greater Mark of Attack Damage are far superior over greater mark of armor penetration because these will help you last hit under turret and help you trade with your partner in lane.


Greater Mark of Attack Speed are an excellent alternative to greater mark of hybrid penetration. Attack speed greatly benefits Shen because this will allow him to get more procs onto his Ki Strike and just deal more DPS overall. These would be the marks I would take if I didn't have greater mark of hybrid penetration.




With the recent nerfs to armor, Greater Seal of Health is a great alternative for Greater Seal of Armor. Although, the armor buffs did not affect much because every champion gained 4 armor in the end result anyway. So this is basically your personal preference at this point and I prefer armor. I would recommend having two rune page setups and have one with health for AP and armor for AD.


This is another nice choice for seals. This would be really useful against all-in level 6 champions, because if you run 9 Greater Seal of Scaling Health then you will have the same health bonus that Greater Seal of Health gives at level 6. I would recommend running Greater Seal of Health over Greater Seal of Scaling Health because Shen's ultimate is not an offensive ability and is not used to all in.


This is an acceptable alternative for seals. These runes are useful for all in champions at level 6 but thats about it. I wouldn't recommend taking these, just take Greater Seal of Armor.





Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction are nice alternative glyphs for Shen. These will allow you to make your skills more spammable to help you sustain more using Vorpal Blade and to stick onto targets harder with Shadow Dash.


These runes are a nice alternative to Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. Facing an AP top is pretty uncommon so taking these isn't a bad option. This way your tanky stats will be invested into later in the game rather than early in the game because they are not needed against AD. But it always helps like I said against like a Lee Sin which has mixed magic damage with his Tempest.




If you really want to go really offensive and you are confident that you are going to win lane, then these aren't a bad option. If you run Greater Mark of Attack Speed, you will get around 25% attack speed which is ridiclous. This provides lots of damage output with more procs onto Ki Strike and more DPS.


Greater Mark of Attack Damage are a nice alternative to Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration. These will help you last hit under turret and trade with your partner in lane.


Taking Greater Quintessence of Health isn't a bad option. Combined with Greater Seal of Health, you will have around 150 additional health just from your runes which is the same amount as a Ruby Crystal gives! This helps you be more tanky early game and survive lane especially against harmful AP such as Vladimir or Teemo.


Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed is another nice and uncommon alternative for quintessences. This really helps Shen with his mobility to be an even bigger threat around the map.

space Double-Edged Sword -More damage for poke with Vorpal Blade Sorcery-To make your Vorpal Blade more spammable Brute Force -More scaling damage Martial Mastery -More damage

Block -To take less damage from auto attack harass Enchanted Armor -For late game armor and magic resist scaling Unyielding -So you can soak up more damage from ranged poke Veteran's Scars -For extra tankiness early game especially against AP Oppression -This is amazing because when you Shadow Dash you take reduced damage Juggernaut -For late game HP scaling Hardiness -Basically 5 armor seals for FREE! Perseverance-For extra sustain in lane Second Wind- Spirit Visage passive when below 25% HP (Works with Vorpal Blade) Legendary Guardian -Amazing for teamfighting Tenacious -Free tenacity

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Shen's next basic attack deals bonus magic damage equal to 4 + (4 × Shen's level) + (10% of Shen's bonus health) and restores 10 / 20 / 30 energy. Cooldown reduction does not affect Ki Strike, but Shen's basic attacks will reduce the cooldown of Ki Strike by 1 second each. Ki Strike is a great passive for Shen and really pairs well with the rest of his kit. This provides great damage output overall and helps you restore energy after landing a Shadow Dash combo so you can continue using your abilities. So I recommend to have Ki Strike up first before you go in with Shadow Dash. The damage of Ki Strike also scales with HP so buying tank items can improve Shen's damage!

Shen throws a blade at the target enemy, dealing magic damage and marking them for 5 seconds. Shen and allied champions that damage a marked enemy will heal over 3 seconds, with the duration refreshing upon subsequent damage. If Vorpal Blade kills the target, Shen is granted the normal amount instantly. Vorpal Blade is Shen's bread and butter ability. It delivers excellent damage and poke because this is a ranged ability. This also provides great sustain in lane because marking an enemy will heal you for a certain amount over three seconds. This will allow you to stay in lane longer to farm and save up gold for that Sunfire Aegis!

Shen gains a shield that absorbs a certain amount of damage. The shield dissipates after 3 seconds if not already destroyed. While the shield persists, Shen's basic attacks reduce the cooldown of Ki Strike by 2 seconds.This is a great ability for Shen. It can save your life from near-death experiences. It is also useful to get more procs onto Ki Strike for more damage. As well it can increase your survivability against a champion such as Teemo because most of the time Teemo will poke at you, so if you use Feint it will absorb all the damage and not affect your health. As well when you land a Shadow Dash, it helps to use Feint so you do not lose health as they auto attack you.

Shen dashes along target line, dealing magic damage to enemy champions he contacts and taunting them for 1.5 seconds. While taunted, enemies are forced to attack Shen and their basic attacks deal half damage. Shen gains 40 energy for each enemy champion he contacts. Shadow Dash is a great ability for Shen. Landing a Shadow Dash can be game-changing, it can turn around a teamfight and even win you the game. As well it gives you energy for each person you hit with Shadow Dash, which is great to restore your energy pool and continue fighting and comboing. It delivers very little damage but a lock down onto an enemy champion for 1.5 seconds. Shadow Dash has a pretty decent range, enough to taunt your enemy and engage from a distance. Shadow Dash can also be used as an escape, which is fantastic as most champions do not have built in escapes such as Brand or Gangplank.

Target allied champion gains a shield that absorbs a certain amount of damage. The shield dissipates after 5 seconds if not already destroyed. After 3 seconds of channeling, Shen teleports to the allied champion. Stand United is a very useful, team utility ultimate. This is what Shen is most known for. Positioning of a good Stand United can be game changing. It can turn a lost fight or game around. It provides a large shield which can save your carries most of the time. Although, Stand United can be interrupted with any form of CC. So if your against a champion with a stun such as Ashe or Morgana, take caution when you use Stand United and maybe cast it around a hidden area instead of casting it in lane. Also it provides excellent global presence, you can go here to there in a matter of seconds with Teleport and Stand United.

Map awareness is key for Shen. Once you hit level 6, make sure to unlock your camera and scout every lane to know when to Stand United. Map awareness can also help you escape ganks as well.

In team fights, don't come in with your team, but try and Stand United in onto your carry that is taking most of the damage. Another alternative for this is to Teleport to a nearby ward if your Stand United is down. The enemy team will least expect you when you come in after they blew everything on the carry.

To land your Shadow Dash, it's all a matter of guessing and calculations. Try to aim in front of where your enemy is about to walk and I guarantee a landed Shadow Dash. Although, not every enemy will walk in a straight line. Just try your best at landing your Shadow Dash. If your not confident, practice landing Shadow Dash in a bots game. Practice makes perfect.

To get ahead in lane, harass your enemy with your Vorpal Blade a lot to cause your enemy to fall back. Especially against a Nasus. A Shen ahead in lane can be brutal. His tankiness is basically his damage output. If you land a Shadow Dash combo, a normal squishy top laner should be around 3/4 health.

Don't be afraid to split push. Stand United is a global ultimate meaning you can teleport to anyone anywhere around the map. To take advantage of this, split pushing and pressuring a lane is your best option. Pressuring another lane will force an enemy to back off and to come in your lane which gives your team enough time to engage and you can come in to follow ip with your Stand United.

Do not spam your Shadow Dash or Flash near the end of your Stand United channel! This will cancel your Stand United and cause you to not teleport to the targeted location leaving your teammate with no back up and no follow up.

Do not use Stand United on a teammate that is going to die throughout the channel! This leads you to a big disadvantage because you will not teleport to the location while Stand United will go on cooldown. You will be left at top lane while your team may be team fighting which is really bad!

A trick with Shadow Dash is to use your Flash while you are casting your Shadow Dash so that you can taunt the enemies to the location where your Flash is targeted. Occasionally, this is quite difficult because sometimes you will end up flashing after your Shadow Dash is finished casting so just make sure to practice your timing.

For Shen, I like to max out my Vorpal Blade first for maximum damage output, but this is very situational. At times, I will max out Feint if I am against a strong harasser like Pantheon or Teemo as I mentioned earlier. Maxing Vorpal Blade provides lots of sustain and survivability in lane and strong harass. Afterwards, I then max my Feint for the bigger shield and lower cooldown as well. Then of course, you want to always max out your ultimate Stand United for the bigger shield. Last, I max my Shadow Dash because it adds no difference but a lower cooldown which is not as effective as maxing out Vorpal Blade or Feint. Shadow Dash does have scaling magic damage but it barely does any damage. Overall, maxing Vorpal Blade is the most effective in my opinion.

With the change of Ruby Crystal being 400 gold now rather than 475 gold, it is now a much better start than Boots against AP. It grants 150 health which gives you a much larger health pool and allows you to soak up more damage especially against AP such as Vladimir. There is also those 2 eztra Health Potion's to sustain longer.

Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion is another alternative start for Shen. Except most of the time its not needed because of Shen's great sustain with his Vorpal Blade. I dont really recommend this start unless your against heavy AD like Riven or Tryndamere. Start with this if your not confident, other than that start Doran's Shield.

Doran's Shield will be your start on Shen 90% of the time. It gives you a decent pool of HP to survive in lane especially against AP. It also gives you the extra health regeneration to help you sustain in lane for longer and the Doran's Shield offers an amazing passive which blocks 8 damage from auto attacks. This really comes into play against auto-attack AD champions such as Tryndamere or Xin Zhao.

Sunfire Aegis in my opinion feels like it was made for Shen. I rush it on Shen for various reasons. The first being to help his wave clear. Level 1-6 is when he does not have the greatest wave clear, not until you get your Vorpal Blade maxed out or have obtained your Sunfire Aegis. The magic damage per second passive synergizes very well with Shen's kit. When he lands a taunt or Shadow Dash, they will take a bunch of additional magic damage from the Sunfire Aegis. As well, it gives him 450HP and 45 Armor to give him those early tanky stats. Sunfire Aegis really just helps him to split push more quickly and get objectives for your team.

Laning

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Laning is very simple for Shen. The minions will always be pushed up to your turret due to Shen's lack of wave clear. This allows you to farm safely and deny enemy cs by freezing the lane. Always remember to harass your enemy with your Vorpal Blade to drive them out of lane as soon as possible to get ahead. Whenever your Ki Strike is up, try to trade with your enemy to deal a decent amount of damage, this will be fairly easy against melee champions such as Riven. If you take too much damage, dont be afraid to use your Health Potion. But you can also use your Vorpal Blade to proc the health regeneration. If you are forced to go back. Buy a few Stealth Ward's on the way to get vision control of the river.

Teamfights

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There is many ways to approach the team fight. One way is to Stand United in onto your carry that is taking the most damage. This honestly in my opinion is the best way to enter a fight. They will least expect you after they blew everything on the carry and did not even finish off the kill. Afterwards, you then use your Shadow Dash to lock down members of the enemy team. Remember to position your Stand United correctly. If they are stuck in a situation where they have no way of escaping. Don't blow your Stand United because it will go on cooldown.

Another way to come in is to use Teleport to teleport to a nearby ward. Again they will least expect you coming in except it is not effective as using Stand United because sometimes it is needed for the peel of the carries. As well Stand United goes instantly. They will know you are teleporting to a ward because they can see the ring circling around the ward. If they see you teleporting in, the chances are they will try to dis-engage.

The most common way of coming in is just with your team. Make sure to always lead the front-line and let your carries stay in the back. To engage, try to Shadow Dash when they are grouped up in a line. This makes sure that you land Shadow Dash on every single member of team or atleast the majority of them. If you can't get in range, don't be afraid to use the Flash + Shadow Dash combo.

Now, we have to make the decision whether to peel for your ADC or dive in into the enemy ADC. It's important to dive or peel for hyper carries such as Tristana or Vayne. It's rather less important to dive or peel for more slippery AD carries such as Graves or Ezreal and do less sustained damage in team fights. It's also important to look at gold value. If their Vayne is 7/0 and your Tristana is 2/6. Dive in for Vayne. Team compositions that contain a gap-closer such as Elise or Vi is perfect for Shen. After they go in, Shen can Stand United in to follow up with Shadow Dash.

Split Pushing

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Now, split pushing. Most of the time you want to be split pushing either in the top lane or the bottom lane. Most of the time, team fights will take place in the mid lane. While your team is fighting, they usually won't pay close attention to the map. So they will probably keep fighting until they just notice that your on the inhibitor. If one of your team members get caught, make sure to Stand United in right away. Afterwards, follow up with a Shadow Dash in and pop your Randuin's Omen active. If you are split pushing and your team won the fight, keep going. If they lost, recall immediately to protect your base.

Warding will be completed soon.

The difficulty rating will be based on a scale of 1-10. 1 being the easiest and 10 being the hardest. P.S Match-ups will be added overtime. As I have not experienced facing every single top laner and their is a variety of top lane champions.

Riven should be a pretty easy matchup for Shen. Riven is a very combo reliant champion. Shadow Dash will just screw Riven up and will not allow Riven to cast her combo due to the taunt, reducing her damage output as well. You can harass Riven a lot since she is also a melee champion and has to get in range to cs. Riven has to build a bunch of armor penetration to do damage to you, it will be around mid game until she obtains her The Brutalizer and Last Whisper. So just stack a bunch of armor early game.
Malphite is an incredibly easy lane for Shen. Malphite's Q is very easy to predict and be countered using your Feint. Put a few points into Feint to make sure you block the same amount of damage Malphite is giving. His Q uses a lot of mana so he will be out of mana fast and you will still have full HP. Vorpal Blade him a ton to lower his health down and push him out of lane.
Vladimir is a very difficult matchup for Shen. Vladimir has painful poke using his Q and E. Once he obtains an early Hextech Revolver, he has so much health sustain so he can constantly poke you in lane without worrying about mana. It is also very hard to trade with Vladimir because most of the time if you try to Shadow Dash, he will just use his pool and then start kiting you with his Q and E. Most of the time, your lane will be shoved due to Vladimir's wave clear. Try to get early gank pressure onto Vladimir so he can get shutdown as soon as possible and allow you to accelerate in lane.
Renekton is a very punishing early game champion. He can easily stop Stand United with his W. So be careful when casting Stand United. Instead of casting it in lane, try casting it near tower or in a bush. Just try to hold off until you obtain your Sunfire Aegis by csing under turret and outscaling him. Don't try to engage him, he has a much stronger early game then Shen.
Volibear has a similar case to Renekton, he is a very punishing early game champion. His flip and bite do a ton of damage early game. Plus it is very hard to kill Volibear with Shen because he dosen't deal enough damage to counter the heal from his Volibear's passive. Don't try to fight him early game. It will be really hard to escape after he uses his roar and starts to slow you down. Sometimes its better not even to engage onto Volibear because your Shadow Dash might not be enough to escape. His flip has a low cd so getting slowed for a long time is death. I recommend you just cs under turret and outscale him until late game, so he cannot accelerate in lane and become scary in the late game.
Jayce also has the same case as Riven, but slightly different. Jayce has a lot of trading potential early game, atleast more then Shen does. Most of the time the difficulty of this lane really depends on the skill of the player. But Jayce is really just a punishing early game champion. What really counters Shen is high poke, and this is included in Jayce's kit. His Shock Blast delivers high damage and low cd. Again his huge power spike is when he obtains The Brutalizer and Last Whisper, so stack a bunch of armor early game. He deals a lot of damage early game and can even out sustain you in lane. But Jayce is another combo reliant champion so casting a Shadow Dash once in a while can screw him up and possibly end up in a successful trade. Jayce is a very hard pusher. Most of the time you will be pushed up to tower. Just try to cs as best as you can and don't fall behind. Try to get early gank pressure onto Jayce to shut him down ASAP.
Oh Teemo, I just hate Teemo. Teemo has a lot of harass early game and is a really strong pick against most tanks like Darius or Garen. He can really just outrange them very well and outtrade as well. His mushrooms give him really early map control so ganking can not turn out successful for most times. But Teemo is another really squishy champion, so you can actually trade him most of the time as long as you dont go too agressive. After you land your combo, do not chase anymore. He will just start to kite you and bait you into his mushrooms, turning into an unsuccessful trade rather than a successful trade. Just farm under turret as much as possible and hold out the lane until you obtain your Sunfire Aegis and Spirit Visage. Most of the time you will be pushed up to turret. So take advantage of this and play passively for the first few stages of the game.
Shen is actually a great counter to Pantheon for various reasons. Now some of you might not agree with this because of his high poke and damage early game. But he has many more weaknesses. You can cancel Grand Skyfall using your Shadow Dash causing Pantheon to lose 50% of his damage output. As well you can out sustain him using your Vorpal Blade. This really allows Shen to survive from his poke and low cd burst. This really lowers his mana pool and allows you to take advantage in the early game. Shen's tankyness really gives Pantheon a hard time to kill you. As well if Pantheon Grand Skyfall's to another lane, you can easily follow up with Stand United.
Jarvan IV is not that hard of a matchup for Shen. But keep in mind that the difficulty on this lane can also be based on skill. Jarvan IV, another combo reliant champion. Atleast most of his damage comes from his combo. So if Jarvan IV is trying to combo you, just use Feint to absorb the damage and counter attack using Shadow Dash. Jarvan IV is almost near useless after he blew his combo. Also you have sustain advantage. Unlike Jarvan IV, you don't use mana so it isn't an issue. As well you can heal up any poke you take from Jarvan IV using Vorpal Blade. Just out sustain him and poke him to get ahead in lane.

In this chapter, I will further explain some team comps that work really well with Shen. Although some of you may say that Shen works good with any champion, which is actually correct. Except Shen works best with champions that have gap closers and need to dive in in order to deal damage during a fight. Most of the time, your jungler will have a gap closer such as the junglers in the current meta which include champions such as Vi or Kha'Zix. Without a further a do, here is a list of champions with gap closers.

This is a list of champions with distinct gap closers for the jungle role. As well Stand United works really well with most of these champions because they are rather squishy than tanky. Some will have to build damage while others will build tank, for this reason those champions who build damage will need the large shield to survive any damage absorbed.

This is a list of champions with distinct gap closers for the mid role. Again for the same reason, Stand United works for all of these champions because they are rather squishy and require the shield to stay alive during team fights. My favorite champion in the mid lane combined with Shen would be Twisted Fate. The global presence this combo offers is just amazing. It allows you to split push effectively as well as diving into team fights effectively.

This is a list of champions with distinct gap closers for the ADC role. Stand United works really well with the rather more slippery champions such as the ones listed in here. Not much too explain, the shield helps with survivability and the teleport allows you to dive with the rest of your team.

This is a list of champions with distinct gap closers for the support role. Leona and Thresh are really the supports with massive CC and have the ability to dive and lock onto people in fights. This works really well with Shen overall.

However, please keep in mind that most team comps will work with shen except I just think that these champions work really well with Shen because of the fact of the massive gap closers which really allows Shen to dive with the rest of the team.

Thanks for checking out my guide! I hope you enjoyed this Shen guide and found it helpful. Again please leave me feedback on how to improve my guide. More match ups will be added later on. Look forward to more guides by me in the future. I hope this guide will make you a better Shen in both team fights and in lane. If you want to see Shen in action, I recommend you watch the NA LCS to see how the pros do it.

3/16/14 - Added Changelog.

3/16/14 - Added banners or thumbnails in each chapter.

3/17/14- Added different line dividers in Match ups, Abilities and Tips & Tricks.

4/4/14 - Added Team Comps section.

4/17/14 - Added an introduction picture.

4/21/14 - Huge update day!
- Reordered the chapters.
- Removed the numbers from the chapters for a more appealing appearance.

4/22/14 - Update day two!
-Replaced the banners on each chapters for new improved ones. Still have this one to do.

8/13/14 - Hey guys, I'm back! I am very sorry that I have not been updating this guide lately but I have never found the motivation to update it again. Finally after a few months, I finally found the motivation to fully update this guide based on all the changes that happened in the last few patches.
-Made minor changes in the basic guide section (Items, Masteries, etc.)
-Redid the "Runes" section and also added Alternative Runes as well as headings for a more appealing look.
-Made a few changes to my Introduction and added my ranking.
-Redid the Masteries section.

8/14/14-Made a few changes in the "Runes" section.
-Redid the "Abilities" section.
-Added a few more Tips & Tricks in "Tips & Tricks" section and added numbers beside the Tips for a more appealing look.

8/16/14- Redid the "Summoner Spells" section.
-Did a few changes to the "Skill Order" section.
-Did a few changes to the "Combos" section.
-Made minor changes to the "Items" section.