Shen is a tank, he brings alot of utility to the team as well as being able to soak up good amounts of damage as well as deal ok damage himself. Shen provides the team sustain, Defense via an AoE taunt, and A shield that allows him to aid allies anywhere on the map. Shen is very durable in the top lane, and with his sustain and early game damage he can WIN vs most matchups right now.
Shen uses the energy resource which is like having alot of blue buffs on at once in your regen but you cannot build any more of it so you have to use your skills in moderation.

Passive: Ki Strike- Every 8 seconds, Shen's next attack will deal bonus magic damage equal to 4 + (6 × level) + (10% of his bonus health). Whenever Shen hits an enemy unit with a basic attack, the cooldown is reduced by 1.5 seconds. Shen restores 10 / 20 / 30 energy when he Ki Strikes.
Pretty simple skill, but even though it is simple in meaning it does ALOT in gameplay. This skill is your main source of damage output. The damage on this is based off your HP which makes building shen tanky make him deal good amounts of damage with just hit passive.

Q: Vorpal Blade-Deals 60/100/140/180/220 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to target unit. That unit becomes life tapped for 5 seconds, healing any champions who attack it for 6/10/14/18/22 (+1.5% of his maximum health) health over 3 seconds, with the duration refreshed upon subsequent damaging. If Vorpal Blade kills a target, Shen is healed for 33% of the normal amount over 1 second. Cooldown 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 seconds. Cost 60 energy. Range 475.
As a ninja in league of legends you must be able to throw something at the enemy, this is Shen's throw. This skill does a decent amount of damage, however the main use of this skill is not in the damage it is in the fact that the target that gets hit with this skill becomes life tapped making him heal allies for a % of Shen's max hp plus an okay base amount of health whenever they do damage. Gives your allies incentive to focus the enemy with this on, allows you to command and direct your teams attacks.
Last hitting with this skill sustains you in lane, remember that.

W: Feint-Shen enters a defensive stance, shielding the next 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% of ability power) damage. Lasts up to 3 seconds. While Feint is active, Ki Strike's cooldown reduction on hit is doubled to 3 seconds. Cooldown 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 seconds. Cost 50 energy.
A shield ability, however this is not like other shield abilities where you want to just blow it to block damage (Yes you CAN do that for this but your wasting potential) this shield
makes your passive refresh faster if you attack with it on, meaning like nautilus you do more damage with your shield up and are thus a bigger threat. Use this skill to get enemy attention on to you.

E: Shadow Dash- Shen rapidly dashes to a target location, Taunting enemy champions he collides with for 1.5 seconds and dealing 50/85/120/155/190 (+50% of ability power) magic damage. Restores 40 Energy per champion he collides with while dashing, and Shen has 50% physical damage reduction from taunted targets. Cooldown 10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8 seconds. Cost 120 energy.Range 600.
A skillshot dash that taunts any enemies it goes through. Not much to say, strong tank skill.

R: Stand United- Places a shield on both a target allied champion, absorbing 250/550/850 (+150% of ability power) damage for up to 5 seconds. After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen teleports to the target's location. Cooldown 180 / 150 / 120 seconds. Cost none. Range Global.
This is why you ban Shen. Its Teleport, but works on allied champions... and gives them a massive shield while the porting is going on. Yea.....

Skill Order:
Combos:

(r if ally in danger)-Q-E-W or E right after port if you need to lock down the enemy.

Darius (You have both his counters: sustain and poke), Pantheon (Throwing war, whoever goes out of mana first loses... oh wait.), Riven (Poke her, taunt her, shield her bursts, outplay her.), Wukong (Taunt when he decoys), Poppy (Poke her all day, don't let her smash you.), Jarvan IV (Poke him dodge his combos and screw him over) and Skarner (Cant touch this. Du dun duh dun.)
Yorick (His kit counters yours), Warwick (proceeds to ignore you and farm), Olaf (True damage!!!!), Udyr Turtle and farm, Mordekaiser (Always shield never die, Hue), and Irelia (Sustains your harass. Guess who gets free farm when you leave).
Play Video
Ranked 5s Game I decently showcase shen's potential here despite a few mistakes on my part.

• Stick to the high priority targets in fights, keep your Q on the most focused enemies to grant your team a sustain advantage.
• Know when you can/cant taunt what walls you can go over what you can and have the range down to heart.
• Splitpush a lane and try and get enemies to come for you, if the enemy team engages just stand united into the fight.

• Keep the lane at shen's turret so he cannot easily port away without losing alot.
• Gp/5s are very effective against shen as it will most likely be a farm lane due to his difficulty to kill
• Get some MR otherwise his passive and Q will hurt.

Warmog's Armor- More passive damage. ALOT MORE.

Frozen Mallet- Allows you to stick to targets and makes you do more damage.

Wit's End- Gives you good damage and tanky stats.

Aegis of the Legion- Helps your team alot and makes you tankier

Randuin's Omen- Good tanky stats, lets you shutdown AD lanes.

Maw of Malmortius- Allows you to have good resistance vs mages AND makes you need to be focused if you get lower on hp.

Shen can stomp games and carry here due to his strength right now. Most players do not know how to counter-play shen well here so will end up letting you establish an advantage for all of your lanes. Shen will typically be first pick/ban
Shen SHINES here. Shen is very strong with his ultimate on coordinated teams due to the strategies that can be run because of it. Shen will still be a first pick/first ban here. Many players will try and bait the pick for him here. Shen also provides a very tanky line that can decimate enemy teams.

That is all for top facts shen, I hoped this helped you learn something about one of the strongest picks in the league at this time. Shen is a very strong champion and can work with almost any team. As always summoners good luck and have a great day on the fields of justice!

SERIES UPDATE:
I plan on releasing these every day/other day until I get all of the top lane picks in the league ( about 50-60 of them) if there are any requests leave in the comments below and ill work on them. I want to make this series for others to better understand the champions of top lane. Once I am done (Or once I have a few top facts out) I will release some Facts about top lane mechanics, eventually I will probably put everything into one generic top lane guide, however until I do that I will continue to watch and update my blogs as needed. Tips and tricks I missed under my Top Facts would be helpful if you put anything I don't have in the comments I will be sure to add it. I will be forming a guide called The complete guide to Top lane or something in that nature. The intention of this series is not as a "Build guide" or a "play guide", these are more like facts you should know about the champion. These are to inspire people to think of new champion possibilities they might not have thought of or to help a new player with the champion. I do not list runes masteries or a set build ( I give a kind of recommended items) in here due to the fact I want people to think of that for themselves and try new things. This series is an attempt for the LOL community to try new things and have fun in a fun game. Thank you for reading and have a nice day :P