Welcome to my first guide! I'm Firedrakon (Firedrakon1 for friends), and I will be leading you through a path you may have come across multiple times on YT, AP SHEN! Many of you might think, damn, he is level 19, f this giude. Don't do that. I might have a low level, that's only because, unfortunately, my internet is really bad, and most of the games i play end up with an afk becuase of wi fi problems (true story). ANYWAYS, back to business: He is tricky to play, however, if you play him right, you can land tonnes of poke damage and get first lane kill EASILY. Anyways, let's get down to the first couple of tips on AP Shen:

1. GET E SECOND!
it is a common thing I see many people doing, getting their shield as a second ability. YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THAT! Shen can easily outplay someone under a turrent at level 2 if you get your shadow dash second. No one expects it. And it can get you first blood!

2. DON'T GO "ALL IN"!
AP shen is made for 1 reason, poke someone down so much that once they are low you can just E, auto a couple of times and get the kill. Don't go all in if you're low or if your opponent has more health and ad than you (which they probably do). You have the advantage of making them recall often for your Q poke, however in a face to face trade you will probably loose badly because your only ap damage spell is your Q! Play it safer, land you poke when they clear, get last hits with ki strike, wait for the right moment to go in when your Q cooldown is off.

3. WHY BUILD DORAN'S SHIELD FOR FIRST ITEM?!
I think this needs a bit of explanation. If your opponent sees that you have built doran's shield, they will straight away think you will be going for the traditional set: build sunfire cape, then spirit visage and maybe drop a BOTRK in your items for dmg and as. By starting with a doran's shield you give them the illusion that you will be going that way. They will start building armor pen et cetera to counter your armor, and they will build armor too since they think you will go ad. That's how they will become gold un-efficient. They will too late realize their armor is useless against you, and that they have wasted gold.

4. MAKE THEM BACK FIRST!!!
Land a lot of poke, as much as possible, but don't go too far, in case their jungler is planning to gank early. If they back first, they will be unable to see what you plan to do!!!! In this way, they will build inefficiently, giving you an extra advantage if they're the kind of players that don't look at your items too often.

5. (ONLY FOR LOW ELO AND PLAYERS NOT YET AL LEVEL 30) DENY TOWERDIVES!!!
On shen, I've had many occasions in which players that were in a lower ELO tried diving me since I was down to my last 70 hp. Big mistake. If you take E second (WHICH YOU SHOULD), you will be able to taunt them under turrent, and dodge the first of their attempts to land an ability. Once I did that, I just ran around the turrent in circles. I got first blood. I made them back first. I won lane.

6. DON' TOWERDIVE WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT!!!
If you're ap shen, you can towerdive efficiently if you calculate your damage. Looking at their heath, your ap, and your q dmg, will you kill him in one hit or will you taunt him? If you taunt, you will receive at least 3 tower shots. Do you have enough health for that? Start thinking about these things on Shen, since he only has 1 ap dmg ability.

7. STAY OUT OF AUTO RANGE!!!
This way, you'll land damage without taking any!

Pros:
- Very good poke dmg
- Decent poke range
- Q is not a skillshot
- Q, W, R scale as you build AP
- If you get ahead, you got ulti more often

Cons:
- If you build too much AP, he is squishy and easy to dive
- Only one AP dmg ability
- Q is also used to take minions, so you might have it on cooldown when you want to land poke.
- If enemy gets first kill, building AP can make you their "food"