Shen - All rounder tank.

This is my first guide, for my favourite champion...

Shen is IMHO the most viable tank out of them all. I do like others like Rammus and Malphite but I find they are more armour dependant and stacking MR on them is wasted potential.

So Shen... First off, he is a flippin' ninja, which makes him instantly cool! Add the surgeon skin and your the mutts nuts of all tanks.

Now I must add when I tank and you must do this for any champion but its more important for the tank, as he is going to be taking the brunt of the damage. Aways build depending on the ENEMY team. If you stack MR against a team of 5 AD champs your not going to do very well.

First off. His skills.

Ki Strike

(Innate): Every 8 seconds, Shen's next attack deals 15-100 (depending on Shen's level (10 + (5 * level)) (+3.5% of his maximum health) bonus magic damage. Whenever an enemy champion hits Shen with a basic attack, the cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds.

This is insane early game especially the way I build him. As you will find out i start with a health crystal and health quints, giving me 800+ health. So at level one it gives 15 + 28 = 43 extra magical damage along side his 53.8 damage which is 96.8 damage. with just a basic attack. Very nice

Vorpal Blade

(Active): Shen deals magic damage to target unit. That unit becomes life tapped for 5 seconds, healing any champions who attack it over 3 seconds. The attacker's healing duration is refreshed each time the life tapped unit is struck again.

Magic Damage: 50 / 95 / 140 / 185 / 230
Heal: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 health

This is what makes Shen a great tank and support in lane. Use this on the large minions to allow allies to heal themselves a lot if low on health. Its what I level up first and max first. So taking a step back, along side the damage from passive and basic attack add another 50 damage. 96.8 + 50 = 146.8 damage at level 1 = Win. I usually get first blood with shen and its a great boost to his early game

Feint

(Active): Shen enters a defensive stance, shielding himself from some damage. Lasts up to 2.5 seconds.

Shield Absorbtion: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 / 250

This ability is a life saver, literally. It can block a tower shot if used in time. Saved my life more times than I can remember. Put a point in this at level 2 and max it second.

Shadow Dash

(Active): Shen rapidly dashes to a target location, Taunting enemies he collides with. Restores 50 Energy if you hit a champion

The big, the bad, the ugly. This is the reason Shen is feared along side of his Ult. Which 'ok' speaking creature wants to taunt just one target? That's pathetic. No. I want to taunt the whole fucking team! Great initiator, great life saver of allies, great mobility as it passes through terrain. Put a point in this at level 4 and max it last.
Tip: It can bring stelathed units OUT of stealth. So that teemo thinks he's hiding but really your just waiting for the right time to ninja his ass.

Stand United

(Active): Places a shield on a target allied champion, which will absorb damage for 7.5 seconds. After channeling for 2.5 seconds, Shen teleports to the target's location.

Shield Absorption: 300 / 525 / 750

This is the be all and end all about Shen. You wanna fuck with his team? He will fuck with you! Best thing is about this is when the enemy forget about Shen's Ult and commit to them too much and bam, Ult, Taunt, Vorpal blade, auto attack, they die.

Tip: try to use the ult so that when it wears off on the ally they are still able to fight, gaining health from vorpal blade but they need to be able to fight with you. The exception is when they are almost dead and you are just there to save their life and allow them to escape on very little health and be a 'lucker' xD

Items

Items like I said are team specific and there are 3 team builds, High AP, High AD, Mix. If you are able to buy say steps 2 and 3 together then obviously do so xD.

1. My first item is a Ruby Crystal, as I have said with my runes it boosts his early laning phase and gives him more damage with his passive.

2. Second item to get is basic boots. A ninja cannot perform without some of these bad boys.

3. Next item is dependant on the lane I have. If i'm against a strong AP champ I will then buy Null-Magic Mantle which is an item from Aegis of the Legion. If its strong AD i'm against I will get the Cloth Armour.

4. Which ever you didn't get in step 3.

5. Upgrade boots to either Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on enemy team. If it is a mix I usually go with Mercs as they are just great for slipping in and out of battle like a ninja should.

6. Buy Aegis of the Legion. This item boosts your ally too so its a great item for a tank and support like Shen is.

7. Sunfire Cape. You are going to be up in the faces of your enemy whether they like it or not so this is a must to just tick away their health.

That is the basic build for Shen. From here it is as fluid as the blood that spills from his enemies.

AP

Force of Nature - Health regen is a godsend and MR is very nice ^_^

Banshee's Veil - If its a strong team of AP dodging their opening spell will screw them up and then you can do what a ninja does best, flip out on them!

Guardian Angel - Ok so it's not as strong as it used to be but if you distract them enough for them to kill you then your team have hopefully done some insane damage to them and then you pop back up with regen and show them that they can never take a ninja down.

AD

Now there are a few choices and it depends how your game is going and what the enemie is like but here are the main items that shen should be getting against a strong AD team

Warmogs Armour - Health and health regen. Always a nice boost for a tank. And I find the recent change to it makes it worth the money. The extra health from minions is now not so dependant as they used to be but it's always good to farm once you have this.

Thornamil - Your going to be getting agro from them with taunt, you might as well punish them for being dumb enough to be taunted.

Randuin's Omen - The active on this item is game changing. Their AD champs will fall when this has been activated and you and your team are up in their faces.

Guardian Angel - Its an all round good item for someone who's initiating or taking agro.

Mix

My personal build for a well mixed team is -

Warmogs, Force of Nature and Thornmail. It gives health, health regen, armour and MR. What you need for a mixture.

Runes

My runes for Shen are personal preferance and seem to work so I don't complain. Armour Pen reds, Dodge yellows, Flat Cooldown blues, Health quints.

Masteries

0 21 9

Defence

3 - Resistance
3 - Hardiness

4 - Evasion

1 - Nimbleness
3 - Harden Skin

4 - Veteran's Scars

2 - Ardor

1 - Tenacity

Utility

3 - Good Hands
1 - Haste

4 - Awareness

1 - Greed

Techniques

I harass when Shen, he may be melee but he has a ranged attack that your maxing first that hurts like hell every couple of seconds. A good Vorpal blade and auto attack with Ki-Strikes ready is very good harasser.

Use ult on the champions who have snowball items, out of an Akali with 15 stacks of Mejai's Soulstealer or a Morde or Mundo, I'm going to be saving the Akali even if they are the same health, as Akali is likely to be carrying the team to victory.

Don't be afraid to harass near the tower range if you have feint ready as it can take most of the damage from the tower blast, acts a little like Pantheon's shield, breaks upon use.

If you use your taunt and don't hit a champion it can cripple your energy use. It is a high energy using ability but you regain energy if you hit a champion so make sure you do.

When in fights spam Q, it will heal you, damage them and with ki-strikes being up a lot due to them hitting you, there is no way they can beat you.

One last thing not to forget....

Be a flippin' ninja!

Do you think jungling shen is viable or even possible after the buff to neutral creeps?

Have jungled shen pre buff, was possible but slow.

I can and did in ranked to allow a solo lane after they had a Rammus jungle with smite, and I had ghost and Ignite, it was slow and a few trips back to base but thats because I took the health crystal before I decided to equal out the jungle dilema. So an answer is yes, but only if you prepare for it and take Smite and cloth armour first.

Very nice guide, but I prefer mag pen over armor pen for his vorpal, it's great for harassing in lategame.

Shen vorpal, ashe shoots once, -350 HP and opponent is like "wtf just happened?".

+10 forum points!

Opus wrote:Do you think jungling shen is viable or even possible after the buff to neutral creeps?

Have jungled shen pre buff, was possible but slow.

Atm, shen is a pretty strong solo lane alternative for a jungler.

FarSeerPT wrote:Atm, shen is a pretty strong solo lane alternative for a jungler.

Yes, very good solo laner but he is a fair jungler as well so a strong alternative in a team comp with no jungler also

The fact that he runs on energy and can heal with his vorpal blade makes him pretty tough to get out of a lane.

Opus wrote:

FarSeerPT wrote:Atm, shen is a pretty strong solo lane alternative for a jungler.

Yes, very good solo laner but he is a fair jungler as well so a strong alternative in a team comp with no jungler also

The fact that he runs on energy and can heal with his vorpal blade makes him pretty tough to get out of a lane.

Yes, but still, he shines great on a solo top lane. Although, at level 6 when he tries to save someone with his ult, the lane will probably get destroyed.

Imo, he needs a gank or 2 during the laning phase pre-level 6

I've seen a lot of shens run on teleport to fix that problem but imho its a wasted spell for someone with a global ult. Just get someone to cover if they can.