Hello! My name is Horscraft and this is my first mobafire guide. Shen is my favourite and best champion with my highest winrate. I loved him both before and after his rework and he is a great top laner for almost any composition. I hope this guide helps both new and experienced players learn some new things about The Eye Of Twlight.

Shen was originally one of the best super tanks of League Of Legends with the craziest map presence in the game thanks to his iconic ultimate Stand United. However he was reworked in early 2016 and turned into a tanky/utility based fighter while still keeping two of his best known abilities.

In game Shen is the true homie. He will straight up shield you from certain death and destruction and dive right into the entire enemy team for you because he's such a nice guy. He's amazing at peeling for his carries and is pretty damn good at dueling other tanks and bruisers.

Thanks to his rework, Shen has a bit more room to breath when it comes to builds and playstyle as it used to be the same build almost every game. Thanks to Twilight Assault, Shen actually has some pretty high damage now which can be amped up with items like Titanic Hydra and if you're feeling a little cheeky Sated Devourer can make Shen a force to be reckoned with.

Pros

Incredibly Tanky
Strong Duelist
Versatile Build Paths
Massive Global Presence
Energy Based
Brings Utility To Fights
Is a Ninja

CONS

Cannot carry
Runs out of energy in drawn out fights
Gets kited easily
Very little waveclear
Melee
Relies a lot on Shadow Dash to fight
People complain when they die even when you ult them

AD Marks to give Shen a bit of dueling power.

Scaling Armor Seals for every tanky top laner of course.

Same thing with scaling MR glyphs.

Movespeed Quints can be traded out for an offensive or defensive option depending on your play style. I prefer these as Shens chase potential is pretty meh and he needs to stick to people like crazy.

Grasp Of Undying is core on almost every top laner now. It makes trading a lot better and gives some lane sustain for our ninja.

Some people take bounty hunter over oppressor which I dont really get as that extra damage when taunted can help quite a bit.

The rest can be changed how you want but I typically think these masteries are the best on Shen.

Ki Barrier is Shens passive and its what makes Shen such a tanky mofo.

After casting a spell, Shen gains a shield which blocks 48 + (4 x level) (+14% of bonus Health) damage for 2.5 seconds. Abilities that affect other champions reduce the cooldown of this effect by 4 - 7.5 seconds (depending on level).
Good Shen players can time this passive around trades effectively.

Twlight Assault is Shens bread and butter and is what gives him some pretty good damage.

Shen calls his spirit blade, empowering his next three basic attacks to deal 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5 / 5% (+1.5% per 100 AP) of his target's maximum Health as bonus magic damage. If his spirit blade collides with an enemy champion on its way to him, Shen's damage increases to 5 / 5.5 / 6 / 6.5 / 7% (+2% per 100 AP) of his target's maximum Health per attack instead and he gains 50% bonus attack speed. All enemies struck by the returning blade are also slowed by 35% when moving away from Shen for the next 2 seconds.

With a few items like Titanic Hydra this ability can give Shen a lot of burst. To get the best out of trades you always want to pull the spirit blade through players.

Spirit's Refuge is a pretty neat ability that allows Shen to win fights over AA based champions really well.

Shen's spirit blade creates a defensive zone for 1.75 seconds. Basic attacks that would hit Shen or an allied champion in the zone are blocked. If there are no champions to protect in the zone when it starts, the spirit blade will not activate until one enters or 2 seconds pass.

Shadow Dash is one of Shen's iconic abilities that was happily kept in his rework.

Passive: Dealing damage with Shadow Dash or Twilight Assault recovers 30 / 35 / 40 Energy.

Active: Shen dashes to a target location, taunting champions and monsters he collides with for 1.5 seconds and dealing 50 / 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 (+12% of bonus Health) physical damage to them.

This ability acts as multi target CC, a gap closer and an escape and can give you a lot of 1v1 potential.

Stand United is one of the best ultimates in the game, hands down.

Shen places a shield on a target allied champion, absorbing 250 / 550 / 850 (+130% of ability power) damage for 5 seconds. After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen teleports to the target's location.

This ability is going to make your team mates love you, especially when you manage to pull off the clutchest of saves. I have saved mid laners from dying 1 tick off ignites, I have dived into entire enemy teams to get them away from my ADC. This is what makes Shen a cool dude to sum it all up. The shield is the biggest in game and if you run teleport then this ult gives you so much map mobility.

Shen can work well with a multiple amount of champions in League Of Legends but there are a few champions out there who Shen can truly work with to make some frightening team compositions.

Twitch is a top pick for a champion that works extremely well with Shen. What with Twitch being a frightening mid-late game adc that has stealth worked into his kit makes for some frightening plays when a Shen Shadow Dashes an enemy team from out of nowhere while Twitch continuously sprays them down with Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat .

In short, Shen can use Stand United on Twitch during Ambush and pop out of nowhere before the enemy team even has time to wonder what just happened.

Twisted Fate is a great teammate for Shen, with his high amount of utility, burst damage and roaming potential. Both of them have the most global presence in the game thanks to and which can make counter ganks and split pushing extremely easy for your team.

Kennen makes sense as he is another ninja from the Kinkou order and can devastate teamfights when paired up with Shen. Kennen is relatively squishy yet relies on being right in the center of fights to get the most out of Slicing Maelstrom. Thanks to Kennen has a lot more safety pulling this off to rampage on towards the enemy carries.

Thank you for reading my Shen guide. I appreciate any constructive criticism left as this is my first guide and I hope you have fun playing Shen.

Jungle Shen Guide is coming soon!