Shen Build Guide by Turtality

Wall of Pain

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is "Turtality" and welcome to my first League of Legends guide. Although I enjoy most champions I have been known to play mostly tank and support characters. My most used tank characters are Shen and Malphite, aswell as Amumu for jungling. Feel free to add me as I am always looking for people to play with :)

Also please leave a comment if you are wondering about anything or have any suggestions to make the guide better!

Shen, from powerful to OP

I have been playing Shen even before the patch which gave him a massive buff and even back then I still found him to be powerful, so when the patch came out I immediately found it easier to compete with other tanks such as Malphite or Amumu.

There are many ways to take advantage of the new buffs he has and in this guide I am going to explain how!

Pros and Contras

• Strong ganks because of Shadow Dash and Stand United
• Very good at initiating team fights
• Shadow Dash is extremely powerful if used right
• Great survivability
• Stand United to save teammates
• Game changing during late game
• Underestimated because of "Old" Shen
• Large threat in teamfights

• Requires high farm to to be OP
• Feint is less viable due to hotfix
• No slows without Frozen Mallet or Rylai's Crystal Scepter
• Non-damaging ultimate compared to a Malphite

Abilities

Ki Strike is Shen's passive ability that does damage on hit and has a 8 second cooldown. Ki Strike also scales off of his level and 10% of his bonus health which makes building health extremely good on Shen. The cooldown of Ki Strike is also reduced by 1.5 seconds on each hit which can be increased to 3 seconds when using Feint.
This ability is the bread and butter of Shen's damage output and can be combo'd well with Vorpal Blade and Shadow Dash. Since this ability scales off of health very well, building pure health can be very affective.
The key to this ability is knowing when to have it off cooldown and when to use it which can make or break a kill.



Vorpal Blade is Shen's 'Q' ability that scales off of 60% of your ability power and heals anyone who attacks the target which increases from 1.5% of your health. Although this ability scales off of ability power, it scales very poorly and its utility is hindered if you just build ability power. On the other hand, building some ability power late game can really boost the damage output of this ability.
The healing from this ability scales off of health which is one of the reasons why building health on Shen is extremely useful. Using Vorpal Blade on neutral targets such as Baron or Dragon can heal you and your team for a good amount of health.
Vorpal Blade is also the ability that you will use to harass and farm creeps but make sure to use it before last hitting so you can still obtain the health it gives.



Feint is Shen's 'W' ability that scales off of 60% of your ability power and shields you for 3 seconds. Feint also reduces Ki Strike's cooldown by 3 seconds everytime you attack with it active.
This can be a great ability for shielding abilities and tower hits that would otherwise hurt you. It can also be spammed to keep you alive a lot longer and if you have Force of Nature, you will be healed underneath your shield which can make enemies think you have less health than you actually do.
In addition, the reduced Ki Strike cooldown can be very useful for farming because you can get melee hits off while shielded and spam Ki Strike easier.



Shadow Dash is Shen's 'E' ability that scales off of 50% of your ability power and taunts the target for 1.5 seconds. In addition enemies hitting Shen while taunted do 50% reduced damage and every target Shen hits with taunt, he restores 40 energy. Getting energy back from hitting targets gives another incentive to hit as many enemies as possible with it! Because Shadow Dash has a cooldown of 8-10 seconds, you will usually only get one chance to use it in ganks or in team fights so make it worth it.
This can also be used to escape over walls and cliffs because of its long range. This ability makes Shen useful while ganking and being a jungle and combined with Ki Strike can cause a large amount of damage while Feint will keep you shielded through it.
Since the latest patch Shadow Dash can no longer be used on creeps which you should keep in mind. If you get hit mid way through Shadow Dash with a stun you will continue to your destination and still taunt all targets you colide with.
Lastly, using Shadow Dash beside your tower is not as useful as Rammus' taunt because of the short duration and can easily get you killed.



Stand United is your god tool that makes your teammates either love you or hate you. Stand United teleports you to an allied position after 3 seconds and shields them for 5 seconds from the second you cast the ability.
Stand United requires a lot of map awareness and can only be useful if you know wheny too use it. Its 120-180 second cooldown makes it only viable at certain moments.
Wasting Stand United on allies you know will die is wasteful and you will not be teleported either.
Also be aware that your teleport can be broken from stuns and taunts which makes it less viable for escaping. If used correctly this ability can win games and make you seem like a hero.

Items

I often start my game with a Ruby Crystal because it gives an early health buff as well as increases your Ki Strike's damage and your Vorpal Blade's heal.
During early game you will want your starting item to adapt to your enemy team so do not be afraid to pick up Sight Ward's if you are worried about a level 2 gank.



Boots of Speed are the second item I build because Shen's base movement speed is not very high and without Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed, you will need the early movement speed increase.



Building Heart of Gold now will give you an increase in health for your abilities and increase your income. Shen is usually very gold dependent so a Heart of Gold helps during early game and can be built into a Randuin's Omen later into the game.



Ninja Tabi gives early armor because of its low price as well as reduces incoming damage by 10%. Because you are not building armor until mid to late game, you want to get that early armor and damage reduction so you can stay in your lane longer.
You can substitute your Ninja Tabi with Mercury's Treads if they have an AP team but otherwise I wouldn't.



Giant's Belt will give a large increase in health throughout the game and is used to build most of Shen's core items such as Warmog's Armor. This item works really well with Shen.



A Negatron Cloak will give you some early magic resistance and will also be used to build your Force of Nature which is one of your core items as Shen.



Warmog's Armor is Shen's first big item and it is good to buy it as early as possible because of its passive. Once you get your Warmog's Armor, you will notice a huge increase in damage output and sustainability.



Force of Nature is your second big item and because you already purchased a Negatron Cloak, it will be really cheap. The passive of Force of Nature works extremely well with Feint and will heal you for large amounts of health.


Warden's Mail will build towards your Randuin's Omen as well as give you extra health regeneration and armor. This will be your first big armor item and will health alot against attack damage champions. The health regeneration works hand in hand with your Force of Nature to heal you for large amounts of health.



Randuin's Omen grants you a large amount of armor, health, and health regeneration as well as gives you a teamfight active which slows enemy units.
This item is perfect for Shen because you will be in the middle of the fight for the majority of it. Randuin's Omen also has a chance to slow enemies attack speed and movement speed when hit and because Shen is a huge threat in fights, this becomes very useful.

Lastly to finish off your build I would go with a Frozen Mallet and a Rylai's Crystal Scepter because both give an extra chunk of health which benefits all of Shen's abilities! The slow effects from both of these items are also good for chasing.

The End

So now everybody go out and be awesome with Shen because the amount of domination you will get from using this guide is clearly over 9000... But remember kids that dominance is a dish best served like a ninja!

PS. I WILL be continuing the guide if it gets good reviews from the start, any and all suggestions would greatly be appreciated and please don't vote down the guide if its short. It covers what actaully matters and no other B.S.

-Turtality