Hello, I'm Serenade, a LoL PH Summoner. I like breaking the meta, so I tried playing Shen as a support instead of a split-pushing top laner. I picked Shen because I like playing ninja champs (Akali, Zed, Kennen, etc.) so I thought Shen would be a comfort pick.

I'm only in Gold, so don't expect a lot. Also, this is my first guide. Wee. Here's my current ranked stats on Shen (only played two games with him in ranked since I main mid lane, haven't played a ton of support roles unless forced to by team pick/bans).

Pros

• Naturally tanky
• Amazing kit (global ult + global single-target shield, free dash/taunt, free health sustain in lane with his Q)
• Can absorb tons of damage with his W
• Can turn the tide of a teamfight when his E is used properly

Cons

• Easily countered by other tanky supports/CC supports (Morgana, Alistar, Leona)
• His ult has a REALLY long cooldown
• His E costs 100 Energy (refundable by a fraction per taunted enemy, but still.)
• Falls off late-game if unable to get his core items

is very useful for supports. It lessens the chance of an enemy to escape or deal tons of damage to a teammate. A must-have for most supports, especially an all-in support like Shen.

is useful for both chasing and escaping. You can use a flash + taunt combo to catch up to an enemy and even secure a kill.

is a useful engage/disengage spell, but I personally prefer flash over this. You can't run over walls!

is not useful for a support. You're supposed to feed your carry, not deprive them of kills.

is not that useful on Shen, considering you have a global ult that does the same (and even provides a shield to its target). Although if you really want to be a global lane-bully, I suppose it would be fine.

could be a good replacement for Exhaust, but you have your Q, so... yeah.

Vorpal Blade is an amazing poke/sustain skill for both you and your carry. It's health restoration ratios also scale with your health, so would scale better late-game (when you complete your core build).

Shadow Dash is great for both escapes, engages and disengages. If your carry is being poked down, you could use this to taunt your enemies into hitting you instead, letting your carry escape. If you're the one who needs to escape then just use this to dash away. If your jungler wants a gank, you should be the first to go all-in as a support/tank, so you can also use this for a powerful engage.

Feint is excellent for absorbing the enemy carry's poke and for staying alive in teamfights, or for tanking damage from objectives (Baron, Dragon).

Stand United one of the most useful ults in the game. Time it perfectly so that you don't go in too early or too late. Use it carefully as well, since the cooldown on this skill is 2 or 3 minutes on its first level. Do not be afraid to use this ult close-range as well, for example, if a Zed marks your carry while you are near him, taunt Zed with your E and use your ult to absorb the damage of the mark on your carry.

Laning with Shen is a passive-aggressive playstyle. Feed your carry, heal him up with your Vorpal Blade when he gets poked, do NOT engage unless engaged or if your jungler wants to gank. Save your E for escapes and disengages. When you and your carry hit 6, it's time to play more aggressively. Try and see if the lane is push-able. If not, eliminate the enemy, push, then take dragon.

If, for some reason, your carry is not that good and falls behind, make sure to feed him with kills and tell him to keep farming. If you have the chance to take dragon, take it. Make sure to ward the bottom side of the river to avoid ganks and to avoid pushing your carry even more behind. If against champs with invisibility skills (Twitch, Evelynn, etc.), don't be cheap and buy some pink wards.

Be aware of the happenings in other lanes. You could strategically use your ult to gank top/mid lane and secure a kill for your top/mid laner, or if someone's about to die, use your ult and attempt to save your teammate. If your laner is against a melee champion, a good way of ulting to that lane would be telling your laner to engage, then once your laner is at half health, use your ult, and if the enemy laner isn't dead yet, use your Shadow Dash upon landing to taunt him and secure the kill.

Give your CS to your carry. Don't be that guy.

Once you get your BotRK and YOUR bot lane is fed (post-6, or if enemy team is incompetent, pre-6), you can start split-pushing and leave your carry to freeze bot lane and farm up as much as possible so that he could make an impact late-game. Help out top/mid lane and push that lane.

Split-pushing will test your map awareness. You could split-push top while the team is having a fight, then use your ult to change the tides. Use your ult on teammates that deal damage, since they tend to be soft (if you're just going to ult people that are way behind/haven't completed their core damage items yet, then what's the point if they're just gonna die in that fight anyway?).

Carries


As an enemy - An Ezreal matchup is a skill matchup. Basically, if you can dodge his skillshots and survive the laning phase, you're good for mid-game. His Mystic Shot and Arcane Shift deals damage, but if you could avoid the shot or stay behind the minions, he's just wasting mana. When he uses Arcane Shift to position himself to hit your carry, taunt him. He'll be forced to play safe, or even be killed.

As an ally - Ezreal can use his Arcane Shift to correctly position himself to hit a target with his other skills, so make sure that he can rely on you to have his back the moment he goes all-in. Make sure your Shadow Dash, Feint and Vorpal Blade is available the moment you go in. If he got caught, taunt your enemies and let him escape to safety. A fed Ezreal is a monster.


As an enemy - A Caitlyn in the bot lane is a bully. Long range poke that hurts like hell when you don't have armor/bonus health, or if you're a couple of levels behind. Step on her traps the moment you find it safe to do so (it'll save a lot of trouble when a fight is actually happening), and avoid getting hit by her Q. If she uses Ace in the Hole on your carry, make sure you block it. It hurts like a truck and would kill a soft carry in a perfectly-timed hit. Shut her down during the laning phase and she'll be useless late-game.

As an ally - Caitlyn isn't the type of champion to go all-in. Her long-range poke should be enough to force the enemy carry to play passive, and just make sure she gets to farm up whenever the enemy carry is forced to recall. She snowballs into late-game like a truck, but when she gets shutdown early, she's gonna be useless.


As an enemy - Twitch's early game kill potential is very low. Auto-attack reliant, but deals significant true damage per second with his passive/W+E. Stay close to your carry. Sure, some pros might not make this mistake, but most unskilled Twitch players mistakenly right-click the wrong target. A far-fetched chance, but take it. You're a tank so you should have no problems surviving this lane. Don't get too much of his passive stacks though, or you'll be in trouble. Oh, and BUY PINK WARDS.

As an ally - Twitch can sneak up behind the enemy carry using his Q, landing preliminary passive stacks through his W and AAs, and when the enemy escapes, he could just use his E to trigger the final blow (not to mention his R deals tons of damage and provides an extra-long range good for chasing enemies). Make sure he gets farmed up during the laning phase, don't expect a ton of kills from him early-game, because his early-game kill potential is low. Once he gets his BotRK, he wrecks the enemy team.


As an enemy - His kit makes him a very strong laner, and if fed, he snowballs really hard late game. Deny him farm by harassing him non-stop.

As an ally - Lucian can go all-in with his E, and escape with it as well. He has a high early game kill potential, so take advantage of that and harass the enemy. A good Lucian will use enemy minions to line-up his Q to hit an enemy, so give him the freaking CS.