Shen Build Guide by LukeMaster

KickAssNinja

Introduction

This is my first build I've published so far so if there should be any questions or other feel free to leave a comment.

Shen is a nice tank and his Vorpal Blade is quite good to sustain your laningphase with that nice on-hit heal.
He is also pretty good at ganking and and has very usefull spells.

I tried many builds and found this one to work best for me.

Well let's get started...

Updating

Incons updated.
Adding AP-Shen build soon.
If you want to point something out i should update or add pls leave a comment.

Runes

My Rune choices:

3 Greater Quinessence of Swiftness
gives you that edge of movementspeed to catch up to others or be faster on lanes to help

9 Greater Mark of Insight
Your abilities deal AP dmg so you'll need Mpen marks.

9 Greater Seal of Fortitude or
9 Greater Seal of Resilience Depending on your needs.

If you are going to jungle you'll of course need the armor seals.

Finally 9 Greater Glyph of Shielding Since you mostly get armor with this build

you will need the Mres per level glyphs.

Masteries

Standard Tank Masteries X/21/X Where i go for a 0/21/9 Mastery-Tree
to get points in Expanded Mind for a bit more Energy and
Swiftness because you cant get fast enough ;)

Why not Enlightenment !? well it's only at lvl18 8,1%CDR and that only if maxed.. which gives you at for example your Shadow Dash with 10sec CD -> 0,81sec CDR on LVL18. so you will end up with 9sec instead of 10sec CD.

If you say you need that 1sec go ahead and swap it with Initiator

Summoner Spells

I highly recommend Teleport so you can get back into battle as fast as possible or protect your towers from getting backdored.



Other good choices in my opinion are:

Heal Helps your whole team in teamfights and may give you an upper hand in fights;

Ghost Again helps you to get to the wanted position faster or lets you chase/escape easier;

Exhaust If some nasty enemys just wont stop trying to escpae hit them with that spell;

Revive I rarely use this spell but it also has its times when you really could need it.

If you think "hey what about Flash!?" well your Shadow Dash gets through nearly every wall and its castable every 10sec so i would see that choice as a waste of room for a better spell. If you really need a spell to catch up i'd rather use Ghost

Skill Sequence

I would mainly concentrade on Vorpal Blade because its your only damage-spell and also helps you farm and keep your life up.

2nd spell to max should be Shadow Dash because u need it to get the enemy to focus you!; restrain enemys from escaping!; or just to catch up.

Of course skill your ultimate Stand United always when possible...

I think it's use is pretty obvious - When a teammate gets low -> ult. him!

Prioritys: Carry, Champ with the highest killstreak, Supporter
leaving you with the only remaining spell Feint which is your least importent spell normally.

Just cast it whenever you need to take a bit more dmg or when it might rescue you from a killing blow like Ace in the Hole or Requiem allthough keep in mind it does not block a lot

(250 at lvl 18 without AP)

The skillorder is Q-W-E-Autoattack, tank as much as possible let your team hit em hard and repeat to use E always when necessary.

Items

Shens passive Ki Strike scales onto health so you if you are goin to tank you might as well exploit that.

Get all the Health-Tank-Items you can get...

Sunfire Cape Life, Armor and a nice passive since you will be close to the enemy all the time.

Warmog's Armor Just an insane amount of health and the health-regeneration is also nice.

Force of Nature You are a tank so you need Mres and FoN just has the highest amount of Mress in one item + health-regeneration + a nice movementspeed boost.

Randuin's Omen Health, Armor, Health-Regeneration, CDR, On hit effect vs enemy AND an active ability to slow all surrounding enemys... do i need to say more?

Mercury's Treats A bit Mress and most important Tenacity!



For the 6th item the choice is a bit more open...



If it's running good i like to grab an Atma's Impaler which is great because it gives you about +80 AD and some armor.

Also pretty nice is Rylai's Crystal Scepter which gives your Vorpal Blade a well appreciated slow.


Otehr possible items:

Aegis of the Legion Has a bit from everything + an Aura for your team.

Banshee's Veil Troubles with a lot of CC or do ultimates like Ace in the Hole or Requiem annoy you? Banshee blocks a negative spell every 40 sec which is just nice and it also comes with health and Mres.

Guardian Angel Armor, Mres and you get revived which enables you to help your team a 2nd time.

Thormail Well you should have a lot of armor if for some reason you still take to much AD damage just get this wonder item. It is not only the item with the highest amount of armor... it also returns 30% of damage taken!

Zhonya's Hourglass Uhm ya... maybe not the best coice because it has not much stats for a tank

BUT you know just how funny it is to jump into the enemy with your taunt and then hit it's active!? ^^

Get this if you don't need anything else, you have enough gold and just want to use its funfactor ;)

Farming

Farming is pretty simple.

As usual wait for a minion to get low and hit it with Vorpal Blade

When your passive activates it makes it also easy to deal the killing blow.

If you are not under much pressure last hit with auto attack.

For safe farming stick to your Vorpal Blade .
If your health drops use Vorpal Blade on a minion which is not under attack hit it once with autoattack let its effect heal for a moment hit it again - repeat.

Jungling

Jungling is also quite possible with shen.

Like normal start with Vorpal Blade but since you dont really need a taunt for minions

skill Feint 2nd and put 1 or 2 points in it.

This just makes it easier to jungle since you can take more dmg before you need to heal.

For items start with a Cloth Armor and some Health Potions for safe jungling.

And of course you should get Smite

For ganks its best if the solo laner either lets the enemy push to his tower so you can enter from river behind him; or he pushes the enemy back and you walk into the double bushes from behind waiting to open with a Shadow Dash

Team Work

With Shen you have to relay on your team a lot but they also even more on you.

Try to pull enemy into your team with Shadow Dash and hit primary targets with

Vorpal Blade since your team gets healed on hit by this ability as well.

Your Job is on the one side to protect your team from getting damage by taunting targets away from your teammates or by using your ultimate and on the other side to prevent enemys from escaping.

Using your taunt well gives your team a great advantage.

Jumppaths (Shadow Dash)

Pretty much EVERYWHERE




It's easy to jump through walls and surprise towehugging enemys.

This will enable your teammates to enter the enemy tower's area unharmed picking up an easy kill.

Also use jumps through the walls to cutt off the enemys escape path.

Summary

Shen is an awesome tank if used right.

A well placed Shadow Dash can turn fights around completely.

He can tank a lot of damage and is great at protecting your teammates.

If you dont care dieing a few times (after all you are tank)
then you'll have lots of fun with shen.



I hope this guide was of some help to you.

Have fun and enjoy playing shen...