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Playing against Aatroxs is extremely difficult. You have to be able to mechanically outplay his Q's or you stand no chance. Generally you want Aatrox to push you in. The trades you take is by dodging his first Q and afterwards taunting on him to dodge the 2nd Q. Do 1 or 2 hits and dodge the 3rd Q as best as you can. When going for minions it's important to not go in a straight line to take the minion. If you go in a straight line it's extremely easy for Aatrox to hit his Q or W on you. Try to do some cheeky sneaky moves around the minions before going for the last hit.
Ahri
Ahri is a very uncommon matchup, but it's still an annoying one. You outscale her extremely hard so focus on farming in the early laning phase. It's easy to kill Ahri with jungle ganks as she's an incredibly squishy champion. Try to setup your jungler for good ganks by letting her push towards you. Killing her on your own is very difficult. She can always charm you and run away whenever you try to taunt her. Your goal is to farm, scale and try to make some amazing teleport plays on the bot lane. If you get the bottom lane ahead they will destroy Ahri later on in the game.
Akali
Akali is one of the most mechanical intense Matchups for Shen. I put it as Major difficulty based on how hard the matchup is to play. Not based on how strong Shen is into Akali. Overall I think It's an even matchup, but it's very difficult to play. Early on you can win small trades against her. The main thing you want to look out for is to try and bait her Q. If you bait her Q she losses a ton of energy for nothing, and you get a short period of time where you have advantage. Another very important thing to think about is when you trade against Akali it's crucial that you do it close to minions so she can't get a free E on you. Try to block her E with your minions. You hard win the trades against her if she misses the E.
If she hits a Q on you and she's trying to hit her passive proc on you. Simply use your W shield to block it. That way you can do a quick empowered Q damage trade and actually win it. Don't take long fights against Akali as she will generally be running Conqueror while you are using Grasp Of The Undying.
Wave Management wise you want to play around your jungler. Against Akali it's a valid strategy to push and let her push you in. It doesn't matter too much. What you want to look out for is where both junglers start, and which jungler is good at ganking early. For example if you are against a Rengar you most likely want to push her, but if you're against a scary ganking jungler like Lee Sin it's very dangerous to do so.
Amumu
Amumu is one of the easiest matchups that you might face top lane. All you have to do is place your sword (Passive) up in lane. Wait for him to walk past it, hit him with it to Empower your Auto Attacks and do a triple hit trade. The best way to play against Amumu is to slow push and take control over the map. It's very important that you try and get deep wards into the enemy jungle because it's super easy for Amumu to kill you with his jungler after lvl 6. I recommend buying a pink ward on your first base to ensure you don't get any stupid deaths.
Annie
Annie is a rarity in the top lane, but she absolutely demolishes Shen early game. Play super passive, and try to rush Mercury Tread's and other passive items. Your goal is full on survival. She's a super easy kill with your jungle, but don't try to solo bolo her as that will end up in a quick death. The best way to play this lane is to simply let her push you under tower. Use your Q to proc passive every time she throws a Q at you. It's important you block as much damage as possible.
Camille
Camille is a super fun high mechanical matchup. The better player will mostly win this one.
The way to play it is to bait out her W, and try to dodge it. If you can't dodge it use Q to proc passive (Shield) or E to get out. It's extremely important that you don't take damage from her W without using your Shield. Your goal is to make her go out of mana before you go out of Health. You can trade with Camille, but I recommend short trades due to her passive. Put the sword behind the minions. When she walks up to last hit you Q to proc empowered Auto's and hit her once while she's busy hitting the minion that she wants to kill for gold. You can taunt on her after her passive is down if you so desire. That's the only time you really want to taunt on her.
One important thing to remember. Late game it's important to use your W (Block) to cancel out Camille's 2nd Q as that does a ton of True Damage. You can also utilize that in a team fight to keep your team mates safer. Your AD Carry will struggle against a Camille so protecting her is of the utmost importance.
Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is almost impossible to lane against top 1 versus 1. Luckily she's extremely easy to kill with jungle ganks due to how immobile she is. Setup ganks with your jungle. Let your jungle get the kills as him snowballing is more important in this matchup.
Generally focus on playing safe. Let her push and use your passive to shield her damage. Don't be greedy for minions. You don't need perfect CS.
Cho'Gath
Cho'Gath is a champion you can beat. I would recommend to keep the wave exactly in the middle or to let him push slightly towards you. It's important that you don't push. If you push the wave under his tower he will have a super easy time staying alive, and healing with his passive every time he kills a minion. It's also super important that you're able to dodge his Q's in lane. The easiest way it to predict when he's going to use it to last hit minions and side step it at that time. That way he losses mana, and you have an easy time dodging.
Darius
Darius is one of Shen's absolutely biggest nightmares. Playing against him will make you rip your hair out.
You have to be extremely careful once you meet this guy on the rift. Often he will be running Flash and Ghost which is the scariest combination. If he got Flash and Ghost it's absolutely crucial that you never push him. If you are pushing he will run you down with Ghost and you're going to die every single time. Allow him to push you under tower and focus on safely farming. If you want to kill Darius it's important that you coordinate a gank with the jungler. You can only win 2v1, but be careful of 2v2 scenarios.
It's a much easier matchup if he's running Flash and Teleport. In that case you can kinda play the lane however you want.
Diana
Dr. Mundo
Ekko
Fiddlesticks
Fiora
Fiora is a very fun matchup for Shen. It's difficult, but that's part of the fun. Overall you have a slight advantage against her. Especially if you are running Ignite. Now you having an advantage doesn't mean that it will be easy. It's going to be a very hard fought fight, but it feels amazing if you win it. The way to play against Fiora is to focus heavily on her Vitals (Passive) Don't let her hit any of the vitals because she heals and will eventually out trade you if allowed to hit vitals. If the vital is close to her walk out of range so it resets. If it's far away from her you can now trade. The way you trade is by walking up and allowing her to Q forward first trying to hit the Vital. Your goal is to bait that one out and make her miss it. Once she misses you're going to trade back on her with your Empowered Q Auto attacks. You will win that trade every time.
Now let's talk about how you want to use your Taunt. Taunt is supposed to be either used after Fiora uses her W (Block) or straight on her. If you do it straight on her it's very important that it's only a 50% range taunt. A 50% range taunt can't be reacted to in time, but a full range taunt can. If you do a full range Taunt she's simply going to W it, stun you and kill you. Be very careful with using Taunt aggressively, but it can be done in the way that I described above.
The lane is going to be slightly harder after lvl 6 as she gets a powerful ultimate, and you don't. The best way to play against her after lvl 6 is to let her push you in, and abuse short trades to your advantage in the ways described above. You can still win the lane after 6, but be very careful with your wave management.
Fizz
Gangplank
Garen
Gnar
Gragas
Hecarim
Heimerdinger
Illaoi
Irelia
Irelia is one of Shen's hardest matchups to play. You generally come out ahead in terms of the game, but it's a super frustrating lane. I would recommend that you ler her push early. Pushing her is dangerous because it's extremely easy for her to get 5 passive stacks on the 3rd-4th wave near her tower. If she gets 5 passive stacks there's a high chance that she can all in and kill you. Also Irelia is extremely good at killing with ganks so it's very important you know where the enemy jungler is. The way you want to trade with Irelia is very short trades preferably close to your tower. One thing you can do is place your Q Sword right in front of a minion. She will most likely jump to that minion, and once she does you simply click Q, get the sword through her and hit her twice. That way you dominate her in a trade window. One very important thing to always think about. Be careful with all inning her if you aren't sure that you can kill her instantly. She heals a lot on minions if she gets the possibility to jump around with her Q.
Once she gets Blade Of The Ruined king it's important that you stop trading with her. You goal isn't to beat Irelia 1 versus 1. Your goal is to help your team win by utilizing your ultimate to get your team an advantage. Shen is amazing at being all over the map, while Irelia is much worse at that. Also Irelia is incredibly squishy in team fights so you can focus her first in team fights and get easy wins by fighting like that. Make sure you don't go too deep in the fights because she will wreck your backline.
Jax
Jayce
Kassadin
Katarina
Kayle
Kennen
Kled
Lucian
Malphite
Maokai
Mordekaiser
Mordekaiser is a fat piece of Metal scrap that will smack you around with his massive Mace. If you want to have a chance at beating Mordekaiser it's very important that you play aggressive early game. You have to take the tiny opportunity you have between level 1-5. That's the only chance you have at winning the lane. Once he gets lvl 6 it's all over, and there's no coming back. The way you want to trade with Mordekaiser is to first bait out his Q by faking a minion kill. Afterwards you can taunt on him, and hit him 1-2 times. It's important you use W to block his auto attacks so his passive doesn't proc. After hitting him 1-2 times be ready to dodge his E. You lose the trade if he manages to pull you back.
Also, one thing to note. You can win the trade even if you get hit by his Q, but you will 100% lose if you get hit by the E so be careful about that one.
Regarding wave management. I would suggest that you push slightly level 1. The best is to be 2 hits ahead of him. By 2 hits I mean damaging the minions twice more than him.
If you push faster than that the minions will end up close to his tower, and he gets to play safe during his weak period of the game. It's crucial that you don't allow such a situation to develop.
I am Mike aka Wickd. I've been playing this game since beta. I have been Challenger every season, peaked rank 1 world, played professionally for 6-7 years and I've been to Worlds twice.
Last time I made a guide was back in season 1 and I thought it's about time to make another one.
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Shen's Damage dealer build is meant for dealing a lot of damage. You choose this build if you have a good chance at snowballing your lane. It's an amazing build against high health tanks that tend to build a low amount of Armor. For example against bruisers like Renekton or tanks like Cho'Gath
First Base Item
You want to get Phage on your first back as it's the best early game item for Shen due to how well it synergises with him.
Second Base
Shen is extremely powerful from lvl 1-5, but generally weak afterwards until you get your first fully completed item. That's why you often tend to skip boots and rush Divine Sunderer
Boots
You obviously need standard boots as movement speed is extremely crucial and they're relatively cheap. Only upgrade them right away if you aren't ahead.
Titanic Hydra
Finally you have Titanic Hydra, and it's time to start taking over with split pushing. The reason Titanic Hydra is huge for Shen is because he got terrible wave clear by default. Titanic Hydra allows Shen to finally push lanes quickly which makes it possible to pressure the map harder.
Upgraded Boots
You have to upgrade boots now if you haven't already. Both Plated Steelcaps and Mercury's Treads are amazing. Buy whichever counter the opponent team the most.
Abyssal Mask
Now you have options in your build path. You build Abyssal Mask against Magic dealing enemies, and you buy Thornmail if your enemies are Primarily Physical.
Thornmail
If you got Abyssal Mask earlier it's now time to get Thornmail. If you got Thornmail earlier it's now time to get Abyssal Mask
Randuin's Omen
Finish up your build with a Randuin's Omen as it's an excellent last item for Shen. Especially due to how many crit champions there are in the current meta
First Base Item
Goal is to base on wave 7-9 depending on how well you CS. At that time you will be able to buy which will increase your damage by a lot
Plated Steelcaps
With Shen's tank build your goal is generally to survive and allow your team to carry. That's why you don't need to rush your Mythic Item, and it's completely fine to upgrade your boots early.
Boots
Now it's finally time to upgrade your Mythic Item. You will be decently strong, but remember to focus on playing around your team since you are their tank.
Titanic Hydra
Shen's Wave clear is decent with Sunfire Aegis, but with Titanic Hydra is becomes excellent. You can clear waves extremely fast and quickly get back to your team mates.
Abyssal Mask
Now you have options in your build path. You build Abyssal Mask against Magic dealing enemies, and you buy Thornmail if your enemies are Primarily Physical.
Thornmail
If you got Abyssal Mask earlier it's now time to get Thornmail. If you got Thornmail earlier it's now time to get Abyssal Mask
Randuin's Omen
Finish up your build with either Randuin's Omen or Gargoyle Stoneplate. Randuin's is a excellent last item for Shen. Especially due to how many crit champions there are in the current meta
Gargoyle Stoneplate
Finish up your build with either Gargoyle Stoneplate or Randuin's Omen. Gargoyle Stoneplate is an item that you only build if you're against few crit champions and a lot of burst from the enemy team. Generally I would go with Randuin's Omen, but there are definitely situations for a Gargoyle.
The standard Rune Page for Shen. It is always solid and works 100% of the time.
If you want you can opt in for instead of and instead of
The rest of the runes shouldn't be changed.
Your first job is to figure out if you're stronger or weaker than your opponent in the first few lvls of the lane phase.
If you are weaker you let the opponent push you in and focus on farming safely.
If you are stronger you now need to figure out where the enemy jungle starts. If he starts top side you want to slow push and focus on trying to damage / kill your opponent. Try to be 2 hits ahead of your opponent in the push. That way you don't end up pushing too fast and your wave manipulation will end up being excellent. Your goal is to push third or fourth wave into the enemy tower.
However, if the opponent jungle is starting bot side. Prepare to get ganked on the third or fourth wave. You want to let your opponent push you in. If your jungle also started bot side you can choose to push again and try to get a 2 versus 2 fights going at the third or fourth wave.
If your jungler started top side and their jungle started bot side. Prepare to be weaker and allow the enemy to push you in even if you are stronger than him in a 1 versus 1 situation.
The guide in video format. It tells you about the tank version of the Shen Guide.
Learn how to play Shen Mechanically in this 3 minute guide that I made. It's better in a video format which is why I refer you to the video.
Learn how to play against the 10 most common Shen matchups in this video
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