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Choose Champion Build:
-
Solotop
-
Jungle
-
Support
Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
Ki Barrier (PASSIVE)
Shen Passive Ability
Introduction

But before beginning... Why do you want to play with Shen?. If you look for a tanky champ, which possesses a nice capacity of harassing, that possesses a notable mobility, which can save allies of the death, as well as a great aptitude to decline the battle on behalf of his team, then Shen is your champion!
I have put some general builds but you can always experiment and find your own style. Do not be afraid! But must importantly, this guide will show the different styles and roles you can follow when playing Shen, squeezing the most of your skills and what it takes to play with this character.
Please, dont downvote just because you do not like the build. There are many ways to build Shen. Pay attention to my advice especially when playing with Shen, and see that this guide will be useful to improve. I explain all the time the reason for my choices.
Nothing more. I hope that the guide is right for you, and I hope comments so we can improve all points and share views.

Pros
+ Great survivability + Nice harass and easy last-hit with ![]() ![]() + Good mobility with ![]() + Very good ganks + Well used, can be decisive in teamfights + Great ability to save the allies of death with ![]() |
space |
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Cons
- Quite expensive build - Can be difficult to master - Not the best in 1vs1 - Not the fastest in the jungle - There may be more interesting options when it comes to be support - He is frequently banned in ranked play |

As solotop
- Offensive Tree:
Fury is useful to enhance our farming and harassing with
Ki Strike.
- Defensive Tree: Focused on getting the highest possible survivability as most optimized possible.
- Utility Tree:
Summoner's Insight is useful since we use
Flash and
Teleport.
As jungler
- Offensive Tree:
Fury and
Butcher for cleaning the jungler faster.
- Defensive Tree: Similar to the solotop one but with
Tough Skin and
Bladed Armor for jungling.
As support
- Just typical masteries for a support focusing on the Utility Tree.

In any role
Runes




Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Do you know Shen doesn't scale Magic Resistance?. These are the runes you need against those AP Carries and have a nice balance with your armor
Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: You are the tank of your team, so you need armor to deal with all the damage you will receive while protecting your allies!
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: It will enhance your
Vorpal Blade since the start of the game.
Greater Quintessence of Health: You will get a nice bonus of sustain in lane in early game with these quintessences. Also it will enhance your
Ki Strike and
Vorpal Blade.
As support
Greater Quintessence of Gold are a good choice if you want an extra boost on your gold, as well as other runes of the same order.

According to the role you're going to have in the game is more advisable to choose a spell or other.
In any role
















As solotop


- Use it if you look in a hurry at the lane , so you will not waste time and come back to your lane without losing experience, farm, and having bought new items.
- After using

- Aggressively, teleport to a minion and push the lane, then escape with

- Without having

As support








As jungler


Overall
Therefore, in my opinion, the best choices are:
- As solotop:




- As support:



- As jungler:




Let's take a look at Shen's abilities and and a few tips about how to use them:


How to use it: Use this skill mainly for harassing enemies and last-hitting minions easily.


How to use it: Use this skill for harassing enemies and last-hitting minions easily combined with your passive. It will give you more sustain in lane with the extra healing, also useful if you play support.


How to use it: It gives you more resistance and well used can get you out of more than a pinch. Use it to tank turrets too.


How to use it: This ability is critical to manage to be useful for your team. You can use it to gank, prevent an enemy escape, save allies, escape through the walls or simply to reach a point faster. It will reveal stealthed enemies like






How to use it: The skill that all your opponents fear. The ability to save your allies. The hability that can change a 2vs1 and 1 death in a 2vs2 and 2 kills. The ability that can change the game.

As solotop
Pick






As jungler
Pick



As support
Pick


The purchase order is described in the beginning of this guide. In this section I will briefly explain the reason for using these items.
As solotop
Mercury's Treads: This will be the main option to purchase boots. But sometimes you will find teams that have just one AP character who is not the AP carry or their AD Carry is getting fed. In this scenario, it may be more appropriate buy
Ninja Tabi.
Frozen Mallet: Excellent combination of damage and health which fits perfectly with
Shen. Also his passive allows us to chase easier and take advantage in every enemy failure positioning.
Wit's End: Great combination of attack speed and magic resistance, supplying two of the weaknesses of
Shen. With it, you can push the lanes way faster, do more dammage with its passive, and be a greater threat in attack.
Sunfire Aegis: Good item that gives us more dammage per second, health and armor. It causes considerable damage while you are close to your enemies. It will also make your farming easier.
Runic Bulwark: This object provides a great boost on all nearby allies' defensive stats. It can decant the battles on your side.
Randuin's Omen: Expensive item, but in late game a well used "active" can destroy your enemies plans. It also gives a great boost on your armor.
As jungler
Hunter's Machete: A "must" starting item for jungling.
Spirit of the Ancient Golem is a great upgrade for a tanky champion even if you dont benefit from mana regeneration.
As support
Ruby Sightstone: Some health and free warding since you buy it. Perfect choice for a tanky support.
Other interesting choices
Warmog's Armor: Health and health regeneration. Always welcomed. It is especially useful if you still do not have enough resistance to tank for your team.
Guardian Angel: Magic resistance and a passive that provides you more survivability. Good choice in some game scenarios where you need both of them.
Thornmail: Control that fed AD Carry with this item!
Mercurial Scimitar: Nice boost of magic resistance and damage with a passive that allows us to chase easier and escape on difficult situations, specially against teams with a lot of crowd control abilities.
Atma's Impaler: If you feel confident and want to go more aggresive, pick this one.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Nice combination of health and AP. It will give you more burst damage ror example with
Vorpal Blade, and more shield with
Feint and
Stand United.

As solotop
Your mission is to farm as much as possible taking advantage of your skills described above, harassing the enemy, and stay alert as soon as you reach level 6. You need to master your map awareness for using efectively


If you do it right it can be a real headache for your enemies, they will be frustrated to find that they can not convert their chances and even turn against them. Use your abilities as much as you can. Remember you dont use mana!
When your jungler comes to gank your lane, be sure to use


Needless to say, it is highly recommended to always have wards on the pocket. Although you can easily escape with the combination of


If you are near your tower and the opponent gets close enough, use

As jungler
You can follow two routes mainly when face the jungle:

This route will allow you to do an early gank on top after picking



This route will allow to do an early gank on bot or even giving your first blue to your AP carry, but do it only if you know that you will have more benefit in early game.
Trying to get into the enemy jungle if you are in advantage may work, specially against weak early game junglers like


When ganking, your allies must begin to fight before you go in, as well you can surprise the enemies letting them less chance of escape. Obviously this must be done on the sly because otherwise the enemy will notice and avoid combat.
As before,

Here are examples of what I have explained in these paragraphs:
As support
Shen can be a very strong support, and many players do not understand it. The key to win your lane is a good positioning. Stand in the bushes, use


Spam

Battle when your enemies have their main abilities to disrupt you on cooldown, for example against champions like







Here are examples of what I have explained in these paragraphs:
Teamwork




Normally you will be the main tank. That means that you must lead the group in front and know when to start the teamfight and when not, at any time pondering whether it is worth initiate the combat.
Protect your carries. It is essential that you know their positions at all times, and if necessary rearrange your team. Taunt as many enemies as you can with

Remember to put wards at key points, more even if you are the support. Besides improving the control map it allows to take advantage of

Here are examples of what I have explained in these paragraphs:
Bonus tips


Hard
He can be tougher than you thanks to ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Dodge ![]() ![]() ![]() |
He can be a big problem for ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Big harass tools like ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
One of the most difficult lanes for ![]() ![]() ![]() |
He can do way more damage and has more mobility than you with ![]() ![]() |
Outharass you with ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Annoying lane with constant poke with ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Resist that spam of ghosts upgrading ![]() |
Medium
Why ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
A lane where you both know you can not kill each other if you play well. ![]() ![]() |
Similar to the last one. Make this a passive lane, max a little more ![]() |
Max and use ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
In early game should be easy to outharass her and have more survivability, but as the game continues he starts to become a serious threat if she farms well, so care. |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
The key to outharass him is to block the start of his combo with ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Keep balance between ![]() ![]() |
Great sustain but if you dodge ![]() |
If you dodge ![]() |
Dodge ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Dodge ![]() ![]() |
This lane should not be a big deal since you have a nice amount of armor and you can avoid her main combo with ![]() |
Easy harassing in early game but remember his passive ![]() |
His kit makes him a difficult champion for ![]() |
Easy
Easy lane since you can harass easily but keep in mid the lane will be tougher as the game continues. |
All his abiliites can be denied with ![]() |
He needs to stay in a close range to play his style so harass hard with ![]() |
Bait and force him to use his ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Easy harass with ![]() ![]() |
Key is to go aggresive early game and no letting him to farm. Just be careful with ![]() |
Easy harass with ![]() ![]() |
Easy harass with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() |

High
If ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Great ability to quickly damage our targets with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Although ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The enemy will not have escape option with a well done ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Constant harassing with ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Although not very habitual, AD ![]() ![]() |
Medium-Low
Easy harassing with both champions but not a good lane for getting kills. Average combination. |
If ![]() ![]() |
This lane needs too much coordination and it will be hard to beat the enemies. |
This lane has good harassing but is difficult to combine well the abilities to get the kills until ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Difficult coordination. Anyway Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverse + ![]() |

And that's it!
I hope the guide has been helpful and you enjoyed reading it as much as I writing it. If it is the case, please vote me up. I appreciate all kinds of constructive comments and suggestions about the guide.
I want to thank:
- jhoijhoi's guide: Making a guide
- Summoners like JesTarifa and Oyomadna, who have been involved in one way or another in the creation of this guide
- The people who work for this site
See you next time! ;)
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