I'm glad you're viewing my guide to play Shen! He's a great top laner right now with a very fluid kit.

ITEMS

Shen is not amazing at minion farming, but you can get around this with Bami's Cinder and Tiamat very easily. You want to build Bami's Cinder first because of the recent buff it received. It can save you in a scary 1v1 early on in game and is also an item which builds into Sunfire Cape. After Bami's Cinder you should aim to get Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads to help you stay alive in lane. Shen's only real form of damage is through his autoattack, so you're constantly going to be standing right next to your enemy top laner. Because you can only do damage up close, Sunfire Cape and Bami's Cinder are amazing early game items! Sunfire Cape deals passive AP to champions which means you're doing extra damage all of the time. Sunfire Cape also helps you CS with its passive damage.
Next, you need to build Titanic Hydra. This is a great item because it gives you great tankiness, a bunch of Cool Down Reduction when active, serious help with farming, and lots of extra damage when active.
You should plan on Thornmail as a third item because it's also great for tankiness and reflects lots of autoattack damage.
I recommend going Warmog's next because you get a lot of health, regeneration, and tankiness. Warmog's has a 69% win rate when built in this order in high elo play, so that's another reason to build it.
For your last item, build whatever works best. Adaptive Helm is great against powerful AP champs, Wit's End gives you better attack speed, MR, and deals bonus AP. Steraks's is great too because it gives you tankiness and AD. Build whatever you need to for this last item.

Gameplay

Shen's kit is simple. His E dashes and taunts enemies, His Q pulls his sword to him empowering his autoattack. If you pull your sword through an enemy you will deal extra damage. Your W creates an area around your sword which blocks all autoattacks.

You want to Q your sword to you, E while your sword is moving, and W when it arrives. E and W are great because you make them deal absolutely no damage to you.