Table of Contents •Introduction •Pros / Cons •Summoner Spells •Runes •Abilities •Items •Laning •Jungling •Warding •Ganking •Teamfighting •Splitpushing •Matchups •Conclusion

Hello everyone!
I am Silverman43, Jungle/Top main from EUW, guide writer here on Mobafire and most known for my Maokai guide. As I really like Tank/Bruiser Champions, Shen quickly became one of my favorite champions.

I want to dedicate this guide to a good friend of me, as Shen was his main champion until he left the game and I eventually started playing Shen myself. It's thanks to him that I started playing LoL and that's why I'm happy to write this guide about a champion we both love.




Note:
This is just how I play Shen. Of course there are other ways to play him, so maybe you won't agree with my build. I want people to have fun reading my guides, while also learning a thing or two, even though I'm not the best league player around.
Thanks :)


I feel honored to have been chosen as a winner in the Mobafire Guide Contest again! I want to thank the Mobafire Community for this amazing opportunities and everyone who supported me. Although this recognition is very kind, I will keep on improving this guide even further as my work is far from done.

Pros + Global Presence with Stand United + Energy user: no mana issues + Ki Barrier grants a decent shield on a low cooldown, ideal for sustain and trades + High damage for a tank + Strong Lategame + Strong vs Auto Attacking comps because of Spirit's Refuge + Really good Peel and Engage with Shadow Dash + Strong in Teamfights and skirmishes + Safe Splitpusher with Stand United + Versatile Builds

Cons - Weak early on, with many hard toplane matchups - Low CC for a Tank - Stand United gets interrupted by CC or when the targeted ally dies anyway - Relies on some knowledge of your team for optimal use of Stand United - Low base stats compared to other tanks; he needs items to become tanky - Low waveclear without items

Shen's laning phase isn't the best, but he always offers utility with his R. When you manage to get through laningphase, Shen becomes a strong teamfighter or splitpusher, depending on what your playstyle is or what your team needs.
Overall, Shen's pros and cons complement each other well, starting weak, but after getting some items he becomes a force to be reckoned with.

FLASH ✦ Flash The best offensive and the best defensive spell in one. It's a get out of jail spell, or an extra gap closer when you need to chase a low-health target. Flash is mandatory on almost every champion and Shen is no exception, no matter which role you play.

TELEPORT ✦ Teleport The best choice for Shen when you play toplane. It allows you to further impact the map or to get back to lane after backing or using Stand United.

SMITE ✦ Smite Always take this when jungling. You need it to be able to buy jungle items and you can cast it on monsters to deal some true damage (depending on level) and restore some health. When you upgrade your jungle item into either Stalker's Blade or Skirmisher's Sabre you can also cast Smite on enemy champions, stealing MS or dealing extra true damage to them while reducing their damage to you respectively.

EXHAUST ✦ Exhaust Target an enemy champion to slow them and reduce their damage for 2.5s. Take this when you play support Shen and you are going to play a more peel-oriented role. This might be in cases when the enemy botlane has high kill pressure, like a Lucian - Alistar botlane who are strong early and are able to go all-in pre-6. Exhaust might also be a good idea if the enemy team has high burst damage threats like a Zed mid and a Kha'Zix jungle for example.

IGNITE ✦ Ignite The more aggresive choice when you play support. The free true damage helps getting some early kills. It's a good choice when you play with a strong early ADC, like Lucian or Draven. Ignite also inflicts grievous wounds, what means it's a great choice against healing supports like Nami or Sona, as grievous wounds reduce healing effects.

Shen has many different viable rune options. It's not about using that one strong setup, it's about finding something that fits your playstyle and the situation. Here I go through all the different options and when to use them.



Resolve is all about defense. It grants Shen the tools to be more effective as a tank. It's the most common option on him and probably the most reliable, whether you play toplane, jungle or support.

Grasp of the Undying empowers your first basic attack every 4 seconds in combat. Auto attacking an enemy champion deals bonus damage equal to a percentage of your max HP, heal you AND permanently increases your HP with 5. A greag keystone on Shen, who can deal some nice damage with this in combination with Twilight Assault, while also sustaining him and making him tankier. The only downside is that you will have to be in combat constantly, while also being able to auto attack the enemy frequently. This means it's only a good option for toplane against melee opponents. As a jungler you won't be in combat enough and vs ranged opponents you won't be able to auto attack enough. (Both for ranged tops and botlane.)

Aftershock is also a really good keystone on Shen. But while Grasp of the Undying is better during extended trades, Aftershock is more of a burst rune. When CC'ing an enemy champion, you gain extra armor and MR for a few seconds. When the effect ends, it explodes, dealing some damage that scales with your HP. It's the best option against ranged toplaners, as a jungler or when playing as a more aggresive support, where shorter, but heavier fights are the rule.

Guardian is a rather uncommon keystone on Shen, but it's really good for an utility support. It works like this: when you shield an ally (or simply stand next to them) while you or the ally take damage, you'll both gain a shield and get hasted. The synergy with Stand United is huge and is super good for peeling and roaming as a support.

Shield Bash is a rune that was made for Shen. When you gain a new shield, you'll get some extra armor and MR AND your first Basic Attack against a champion deals bonus damage. The synergy with Ki Barrier and Twilight Assault is insane. This makes short trades really good, as you'll use Twilight Assault, which also activates Ki Barrier and Shield Bash. Ki Barrier being on a short cooldown makes it frequently useable. It's usually the best option for 1v1 scenarios toplane, but also in the jungle as it frequently provides extra sustain and a little burst during ganks and skirmishes.

Font of Life is overall not as good as Shield Bash, but it's usually a better option when you play Shen support. This is due to the fact that you'll get outranged by the enemy ADC and in some cases the enemy support too. This leaves you no opportunities to use Twilight Assault and Shield Bash frequently. Font of Life allows allies to heal from attacking enemies you immobilize. Shadow Dash activates the rune, which can heal your ADC quite a lot because of their high DPS.

I don't really recommend Demolish, as Im not fond of it, but I have to admit it can be good for certain play styles. Demolish enhances Shen's ability to splitpush, giving him a charge attack against turrets that scales with HP. In combination with items like Titanic Hydra and Zz'Rot Portal, Shen can be an effective splitpusher. If you want to go this, only do it when you play toplane. As a jungler you won't be able to use it a lot and as a support I think the healing from Font of Life is more useful.

Conditioning is a scaling rune that grants some extra armor and MR after 10 minutes and increases all your armor and MR with 5%. A great rune if you are building tank to become even harder to kill. This rune can be taken in any role, as long as you are confident you are able to survive the early game without issues. Note it's also the only viable choice when playing jungle, as the other runes require you to be in combat to be effective.

With Second Wind, you'll regen some HP after taking damage from enemy champions. A safe choice when you aren't confident in a toplane matchup, when you'll get poked/harassed a lot or when playing support, as Shen will most likely get poked, because of him being melee.

Overgrowth is another scaling rune, granting extra max HP for each monster or enemy minion that dies near you. At 120 absorbed enemies, you'll gain another additional 3.5% max HP. It makes you tankier, increases Ki Barrier's strength and increases Titanic Hydra's damage. It's good option for all situations and roles, as it will be useful regardless of how well you are doing.

Where Overgrowth is more of selfish rune, Revitalize lets allies benefit as well. The rune increases your shields and heals, both self and outgoing, with 5%, increasing to 10% on targets under 40% HP. This means it increases Ki Barrier and Stand United, but also things like Guardian, Font of Life and Second Wind. Due to the utility this rune offers, I recommend it as the main choice for support Shen.

The last rune choice here is Unflinching. It's worth taking against a team with super heavy CC, like a Maokai top, a Sejuani jungle, a Galio mid, a Jhin bot and a Lux support. Other from those occasional situations, I think Shen doesn't need it as he is already fairly mobile for a tank.

Precision is a rune path about sustained damage. It's the ideal choice if you want to play Shen as a bruiser rather than a full tank. Going Precision on Shen is probably the most known from the Shredder Shen build, created by Shen main and youtuber Tricky Travster. This rune path is best used when playing toplane against a melee opponent, or when playing jungle. As a support, the tankyness and utility from Resolve or Inspiration are more valuable.

Press the Attack is a keystone that allows you to deal bonus damage after auto attacking the same enemy thrice. This synergizes nicely with the empowered AA's from Twilight Assault. What is often overlooked from this rune is that it also makes enemies vulnerable, increasing the damage they take from all sources. This means that allies and damaging effects from item's like Bami's Cinder benefit from it too.

Conqueror is a niche keystone on Shen. While the bonus true damage and healing seems nice, Shen usually favors shorter trades and he doesn't stack Conqueror as fast as many other champions. This means he won't benefit from it as much as from Press the Attack or other keystones. The only situation where you would want to go Conqueror is when you are up against a full tank like Maokai, Malphite or Sion and you want to play bruiser Shen. They won't deal much burst damage so you can go for extended trades more easily. The true damage also really helps in killing them.

Heal some HP back after getting a kill or assist. You'll also get a little extra gold from takedowns. A nice rune that can be a life-saver in close fights and the extra gold can be really useful in many soloqueue games, as they tend to be quite bloody.

Simple, but good. Get a little extra AS, which can be increased further by killing minions, monsters and champions.

Same concept as Legend: Alacrity, you'll get extra tenacity from farming and getting kills. But like Unflinching it's only good against teams with a lot of CC.

Another quite simple rune, Coup de Grace makes you deal more damage against low-health champions.

Inspiration leans towards providing utility for your team. This makes it a logical choice for support Shen. The utility is nice to have but doesn't work as well toplane or jungle.

Shen doesn't have much CC for a tank and his Shadow Dash can be dodged. Glacial Augment gives him more CC and makes his Shadow Dash easier to land. Basic attacks slow enemy champions and item actives with a slow effect create an icy trail on the ground which slows all enemies in the zone. If you want to go this rune, you'll want to build Twin Shadows and Randuin's Omen as both actives activate Glacial Augment. The only con is that you'll only be of optimal use after getting those items.

Like I mentioned before, Inspiration is best used as support. This means that you'll have a lower gold income than usual, but Magical Footwear can help that issue a little. You'll get free boots after 12 minutes, but each takedown speeds this up with 45s. The boots you'll receive also grant 10 extra MS.

Every 3 minutes you'll get a free Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will that restores 20% of your missing HP, up to an amount of 4. A good choice, especially in a heavy poke lane to sustain you through laning phase.

This rune synergizes super well with Glacial Augment. You'll get extra MS towards allies that are movement impaired or towards enemies you impair. It allows you to help allies faster while being able to catch oppponents easier, especially with Twin Shadows.

Precision is the most common secondary path on toplane tank Shen enhancing his sustained damage and skirmish potential.

Heal some HP back after getting a kill or assist. You'll also get a little extra gold from takedowns. A nice rune that can be a life-saver in close fights and the extra gold can be really useful in many soloqueue games, as they tend to be quite bloody. Great rune for a frontliner to stay in the fight as long as possible.

Simple, but good. Get a little extra AS, which can be increased further by killing minions, monsters and champions. Whether you are looking to waveclear and splitpush faster or want to get your damage of a faster in teamfights. Legend: Alacrity helps.

Sorcery can both be used as a toplane tank or a toplane bruiser. This rune path offers some tools to scale harder into the lategame.

A simple, but decent rune. Absolute Focus gives Shen AD (scaling with level) while he is above 70% HP. As Shen is tanky, he will be able to keep his HP above 70% longer than most champions.

I absolutely love this rune. It gives you extra AD, with the amount scaling immensely over the course of the game. It can help you to play out a lead further, but it can also form the base of a comeback when playing from behind.

The Domination secondary path focuses on burst, combined with extra global presence. It's mainly used as a support in combination with the Glacial Augment Inspiration primary path, but it can also be used toplane for both

Sudden Impact gives you free magic penetration and lethality after using a dash, blink, teleport... It get's activated by using Shadow Dash and Stand United. So basically you'll deal increased damage after using your E or R. The thing is that you don't need to hit your Shadow Dash in order to activate Sudden Impact unlike with Cheap Shot.

In theory does Ravenous Hunter seem lacking on Shen, with only 2 damage abilities. But the healing from the spellvamp it provides can quickly add up. Once you get a few stacks, the sustain it provides through Twilight Assault is actually huge. Combine it with Revitalize and/or Spirit Visage for even more healing.

Shen's Stand United can be a game changing ultimate. being able to cast it more often is really welcome. That's why Ultimate Hunter can be a really good rune on him. Granting extra CDR on your R for unique champion takedowns, up to a maximum of 25% CDR on Stand United. Perfect for that extra global pressure.

Resolve as secondary rune path is used for a toplane bruiser playstyle, with Precision as primary path. Take this when your team lacks some tankiness or when the enemy team has a high damage comp.

Shield Bash is a rune that was made for Shen. When you gain a new shield, you'll get some extra armor and MR AND your first Basic Attack against a champion deals bonus damage. The synergy with Ki Barrier and Twilight Assault is insane. This makes short trades really good, as you'll use Twilight Assault, which also activates Ki Barrier and Shield Bash. Ki Barrier being on a short cooldown makes it frequently useable. It's a perfect fit for a bruiser, making you tankier while also increasing your damage.

Overgrowth is another scaling rune, granting extra max HP for each monster or enemy minion that dies near you. At 120 absorbed enemies, you'll gain another additional 3.5% max HP. It makes you tankier, increases Ki Barrier's strength and increases Titanic Hydra's damage. Mainly for the last reason is Overgrowth a perfect fit for bruiser Shen.

Inspiration has some great runes that are mainly utilized when you got a lower gold income, thus as a jungler or a support. It's a great help through the sometimes rough early game.

As jungler or support, you'll have a lower gold income than usual, but Magical Footwear can help that issue a little. You'll get free boots after 12 minutes, but each takedown speeds this up with 45s. The boots you'll receive also grant 10 extra MS. Alternatively, you can take Biscuit Delivery instead if you are going to have a hard matchup as support.

Cosmic Insight increases the maximum CDR you can have with 5%, up to a maximum of 45% while also giving 5% extra CDR. Additionally, you'll also gain 5% CDR on item actives (also on trinkets) and on summoner spells. The early CDR is really helpful for your first jungle clear, because of the more frequent Twilight Assault and the reduced cooldown on Smite. It's also good as support because of the CDR on wards.

Toplane Tank As toplane tank, you'll be taking Resolve as primary path with either Grasp of the Undying in a melee matchup or Aftershock against a ranged toplaner. For the secondary path, it's mainly personal preference. Precision for sustained combat, Domination for a burst-oriented playstyle and Sorcery for better scaling.

Toplane Bruiser For a bruiser playstyle toplane, Precision with Press the Attack will be your primary path & keystone. Occasionally you can switch Press the Attack for Conqueror if you are playing against a tank. As secondary path, you can opt for Resolve for extra tankyness, Domination for burst or Sorcery for scaling.

Jungle Tank & Bruiser For jungle Shen, you can either go Resolve with Aftershock or Precision with Press the Attack as primary path for respectively a tank or a bruiser playstyle. The recommend secondary is in both cases Inspiration, as it really helps with jungle Shen's main weakness: his first clear.

Support Most of the time Resolve primary with either Aftershock for a more aggressive engage oriented playstyle or Guardian for a defensive peel oriented playstyle. The secondary path will be Inspiration because of the lower gold income. Alternatively, Inspiration with Glacial Augment is a fun alternative if you want to have a great global presence with frequent ults and good catching/ganking. Domination secondary is the way to go, mainly because of Ultimate Hunter.

From the first row, you'll want to take the AS when playing toplane or jungle, increasing your sustained damage and waveclear. When playing support, you'll rather take the scaling CDR to be able to peel more often with Shadow Dash and Stand United. From the second row, all options are possible. When going for the bruiser playstyle, doesn't matter which role, the adaptive force is the best choice to get some extra early damage. When going tank as a toplaner, jungler or support you'll want to take armor or MR, adapted to your opponents. Have they mainly physical damage, take armor. If they have more magical damage, take the MR. For the last row, the extra health is in most cases the best option, as it will help you in all cases. However, against teams that are only AD or AP, you'll want to take the second bit of armor or MR.

Ki Barrier (passive): After casting a spell, Shen gains a shield which blocks 47 + (3 x level) (+14% of bonus Health) damage for 2.5 seconds. Abilities that affect other champions reduce the cooldown of this effect by 4 - 7.5 seconds (depending on level). Cooldown: 10s

Pretty simple passive, but really useful. It offers Shen tons of sustain, scaling nicely with his HP and the cooldown is low and gets reduced while affecting other champions with his abilities.

Its activation is at the following moments:
•The moment your spirit blade reaches you after casting Twilight Assault.
•When Spirit's Refuge wears off.
•At the end of Shadow Dash.
•When the channeling of Stand United is completed and you got teleported to your ally.

The cooldown gets reduced at the following moments:
•Your spirit blade collided with an enemy champion during Twilight Assault and NOT while using the empowered basic attacks.
•When Spirit's Refuge wears off and an ally stood in the protective zone.
•When your Shadow Dash ends and you managed to taunt an enemy champion with it.
•At the moment Stand United's channeling is completed and you got teleported to your ally.

• It can be a real lifesaver, so when you are low on health, using an ability instead of just running might be a better idea as Ki Barrier might save you from an incoming skillshot or a dash.
• Ki Barrier scales with Shen's HP, so building Health is always useful on Shen, no matter what enemy teamcomp you face.

Twilight Assault (Q): Shen recalls his Spirit Blade to his location. Enemies the blade collides with are slowed by 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% for the next 2 seconds when moving away from Shen. Once it arrives, Shen empowers his next 3 basic attacks within 8 seconds to gain 75 bonus range and deal 10 / 16 / 22 / 28 / 34 / 40 (at levels 1 / 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16) plus 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4% (+ 1.5% per 100 AP) of target's maximum health as bonus magic damage. If the Spirit Blade collides with an enemy champion, the empowerment is enhanced, dealing 3% (+ 0.5% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health as bonus damage and Shen gains 50% bonus attack speed. Twilight Assault deals double damage to monsters, up to a maximum of 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 bonus damage. Cooldown: 8/7.25/6.5/5.75/5s Energy cost: 140/130/120/110/100

Shen's main damage ability. Casting this ability draws your spirit blade near, granting you 3 empowered auto attacks. The tricky part is positioning yourself so the blade collides with an enemy champion, granting some extra damage on your empowered auto attacks. Enemies who walk away from Shen while colliding with the spirit blade get slowed, but to use it you'll have to position your spirit blade in front of you, which isn't really handy as you won't be able to cast Twilight Assault again without moving the blade, leaving you without your main waveclearing tool.

• You only get the empowered auto attacks (and Ki Barrier) at the moment your spirit blade reaches you. This means that how farther your spirit blade is, how longer it will take for it to reach you and activate the bonus damage. Keeping your spirit blade close to you means you'll be able to use the empowered auto attacks (and/or Ki Barrier) faster.

Spirit's Refuge (W): Shen's spirit blade creates a defensive zone for 1.75 seconds. Basic attacks that would hit Shen or an allied champion in the zone are blocked. If there are no champions to protect in the zone when it starts, the spirit blade will not activate until one enters or 2 seconds pass. Cooldown: 18/16.5/15/13.5/12s Energy cost: 40

Shen creates a zone at the location of his spirit blade, which only activates when Shen or an ally enters it. The zone blocks all enemy auto attacks, making it great against Heavy AD teams. Sadly less useful against mages and AD casters.

• The zone blocks all auto attacks, which means that empowered auto attacks and abilities counting as auto attacks also get blocked. Think of Renekton's Ruthless Predator, Yasuo's Steel Tempest, Nasus' Siphoning Strike...

Shadow Dash (E): Passive: Dealing damage with Shadow Dash or Twilight Assault recovers 30 / 35 / 40 Energy. Active: Shen dashes to a target location, taunting champions and monsters he collides with for 1.5 seconds and dealing 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+15% of bonus Health) physical damage to them. Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10s Mana cost: 150

Shen is a ninja after all, so it isn't a surprise that he has some mobility. This is in the form of Shadow Dash, a small dash that taunts enemy champions and monsters hit. It's quite costly and the cooldown early is high, so don't use it too often. Luckily the passive part of the ability helps a little. Dealing damage with Shadow Dash and Twilight Assault restores some energy. This effect procs with all 3 empowered auto attacks from Twilight Assault.

• Shadow Dash is Shen's only reliable source of CC, so hitting it consistently is key when mastering Shen. You can extend the range of Shadow Dash by flashing near the end of the animation, making it even harder to react to. More about this trick later in this guide!

Stand United (R): Shen channels for 3 seconds, shielding the target allied champion for 5 seconds. The shield blocks 175 / 350 / 525 (+130% of ability power) damage, scaling up to 280 / 560 / 840 (+130% of ability power) based on the target ally's current health (shield maxes out at 40% health). Upon completing the channel, Shen and his Spirit Blade teleport to the target ally's location. Cooldown: 200/180/160s Energy cost: None

Nothing as satisfying as saving an ally from certain death with Stand United. The free teleport makes Shen a good splitpusher with a great map presence. However, the channeling before you teleport can get interrupted by hard CC. The shield stays though, but with the high cooldown you don't want to spill it. Same thing when an ally dies 1v5. Then you shouldn't ult, as the ally will most likely die anyway or if the ally somehow manages to survive long enough for your channel to be completed, you'll only risk dying yourself too.

• Stand United's shield is better on low health allies. So if you have the luxury, you can opt to wait a little to increase the shield's strength. This is rather risky however, as you won't teleport when your targeted ally dies.
• A good map awareness is required to play Shen to his full potential. You should always have a look at allies in combat, so you can ult them in time if they need help. You can target your allies by simply clicking on them, but you can also target their portraits above the minimap, at the right of your screen (for most people).

As Twilight Assault is your main damage tool on a low cooldown, you'll want to max it first. Next comes Shadow Dash as it scales decently, while also increasing the energy you can recover while in combat. Spirit's Refuge is maxed last as maxing it only decreases the cooldown a little. Like on most champions, you'll want to put a point in his ultimate, Stand United whenever possible.











For support Shen, the skill sequence is mainly the same as for toplane and jungle, with the main exception that we'll max Shadow Dash first instead of Twilight Assault. This is due to Shen being melee, giving him few opportunities to use his empowered auto attacks botlane. Shadow Dash instead is a good tool for a support, giving both the power to peel and engage.








A basic combo you can do on Shen. It consists of engaging with Shadow Dash, followed by Twilight Assault, which should be easy to make it collide with the target if you hit the taunt. Finally you cast Spirit's Refuge when your spirit blade is in position so you can negate some of the auto attacks from the taunted target.





A simple, but effective little trick. The purpose is to extend the range of Shadow Dash or to simply give your enemies no time to react to it.
You don't want to cast Flash immediately after Shadow Dash. Instead, you have to wait until the dash is almost at its end for optimal result. If you want to pick up Shen I really recommend you go into practice tool and try it before going straight into a game.

Note that there isn't a general build. Each game is different, so adapt your build to your opponents. I will show you Shen's best items and when to buy them.

Doran's shield is the best starting item for toplane Shen. It gives him some extra HP and some regen to help him through his usually rough early game.

You'll have another 50 gold after buying the 450 gold Doran's Shield. 1 Health Potion is the only thing you can buy for that amount and offers some needed additional sustain.

Since Shen lacks reliable AoE damage, Hunter's Talisman is bad on him. Hunter's Machete instead synergizes nicely with Twilight Assault and helps him better with clearing the jungle early.

In order to safely clear the jungle early, you'll need some extra sustain from potions. 3 Health Potions offer more sustain than a Refillable Potion and Shen really needs it.

Relic Shield is the preferred starting item on support Shen. Ancient Coin might look like a viable option too, but the sustain and extra HP from Relic Shield is just too good on Shen. So Relic Shield allows you to execute a minion below a certain threshold with your auto attacks. You and the closest ally are healed and both get the gold. But beware: this can only occur once in a while. You should prioritize cannon minions (or melee minions if you really have to) as they give the most gold.

With your remaining gold you should buy 2 Health Potions. As a melee champion botlane, Shen might get poked a lot. The potions help him stay in lane longer. You don't want to leave your ADC alone for too long.

Like I mentioned before, Shen lacks waveclear. That's why Sunfire Aegis is one of his best items. It helps with his waveclear while also offering a good amount of HP and armor. An ideal item against an AD lane opponent.

Like Sunfire Aegis, Titanic Hydra gives Shen the waveclear he needs. Titanic Hydra is a slightly more offensive option, while also costing more, but it synergizes really good with the auto attack reliant Shen.

The best offensive item on Shen. Trinity Force offers tons of damage with AD, AS and the Sheen passive. Obviously this isn't a core item on tank Shen, but it's great for bruiser Shen.

The Standard enchantment on every jungling tank. It's basically the same passive as Bami's Cinder, but it does 300% damage to monsters, making your clears much easier. What is even more interesting is the 15% increased HP. Great for scaling into lategame along with Ki Barrier and Titanic Hydra.

Titanic Hydra further enhances Shen's clear while making him tankier and giving him some small burst damage with its passive.

This is the upgrade of Relic Shield and the core item in any build for support Shen. When you completed your gold earning quest, which I explained earlier, this item transforms into Eye of the Aspect. Eye of the Aspect allows you to place up to 3 stealth wards at a time, super valuable for a support who is supposed to maintain vision control.

Randuin's Omen as core item is mainly aimed towards the Glacial Augment build. Its active effect benefits from the rune while also having great stats and passives against (crit) ADC's. I really want to stress that the normal tanky support builds are better, but it's something fun to try if you are familiar with Shen and the support role.

Another item for the Glacial Augment build, Twin Shadows allows you to 'Search & Destroy' the enemy. The AP it offers also increases the shield power of Stand United and even the damage from Twilight Assault, although the AP on his Q too low is to really matter.

An all round good armor item. It has a passive which generates stacks while moving. Those stacks grant you movement speed. At 100 stacks, your first auto attack deals bonus physical damage and gives a slow. It's useful for roaming and moving around the map faster.

Randuin's Omen is a good anti-ADC item. It has a passive which slows attack speed, an active with a slow and a passive which reduces the damage you receive from critical strikes. A must against Yasuo or fed Crit based ADC's! The stats are also pretty good for its price, making it a really good item into almost any AD comp.

Another item against AD champions, this item reflects damage from auto attacks and inflicts grievous wounds on the attacker. Because of the grievous wounds, it is an item to counter self healers. Their healing will be reduced by Thornmail. Build it vs red Kayn (Rhaast), Aatrox and other Lifesteal building champions.

Guardian Angel is a rather offensive armor option, but it is best known for its revive passive. It can be really useful if you are the main frontliner who goes in first and dies, giving your team time to follow and fight, while you revive a little later with 50% of your base HP. Note that the effect won't make you regain energy, but you'll naturally regain energy even while resurrecting.

A good MR item, especially against mages with spammable abilities or DoT abilities. Adaptive Helm's passive reduces the subsequent magic damage you'll receive from a certain spell or effect. A must buy against champions like Teemo (Satan), Cassiopeia, Malzahar, Rumble...

A rather offensive item, as it grants both MR, AS and on-hit damage. The nicest thing about it is that you heal for the on-hit damage you deal while you're under 50% HP. Really nice when you have to play against against beefy mages like Vladimir, Swain or even Mordekaiser, as they can't be bursted easily and it requires more sustained damage to fight them.

Another good MR item on Shen. It has even better stats than Adaptive Helm, but the only con is that the passive (the boosting of all self heals with 30%) isn't that useful on Shen as his kit doesn't contain any healing. It does work with runes and items like Grasp of the Undying, Second Wind and Wit's End, but I still recommend Wit's End and Adaptive Helm over Spirit Visage.

One of my favorite items, Gargoyle Stoneplate shines in teamfights and skirmishes. The 40 armor and MR might not seem much, but once you get into a fight with at least 3 enemies, you'll get another 40 resistances. It also has an active that you can use while getting focused, as it will increase your HP for a few seconds, but it decreases your damage in trade off.

Warmog's Armor is pretty good if you are going full tank. You can just keep on healing after teamfights and the strength of Ki Barrier and Titanic Hydra get a huge boost with the insane amount of HP Warmog's Armor provide. It can also be used to counter champions with a lot of true damage, like Cho'Gath's or Fiora's ult.

Locket of the Iron Solari is a teamfight-oriented item because of the shield it offers for you and nearby allied champions. It's an ideal buy when you want to play more of a peeling role for a fed ADC or APC.

Zz'Rot Portal is a situational item, aimed towards splitpushing. The stats are decent, but the active is where the fun begins. You'll be able to place a Void Gate for 120s, which spawns a sort of minion every 4s. These Voidspawn push the nearest lane and explode while attacking structures. If you want to be a real toplane splipusher, go ahead and buy this. But only buy it toplane. A splitpushing jungler isn't a good idea most of the time as the enemy team could get free objectives at the other side of the map. For a support you won't buy it neither. Helping your allies will then be your main concern.

As Shen, you won't be buying damage most of the time, but still there are some more offensive items you might want to consider in some situations. One of them is Frozen Mallet. Beside a ton of HP and some AD does it also offer a passive that makes your auto attacks slow enemies. Nice to have when you are ahead and you need some extra sticking power against mobile targets like Ahri, Akali or Qiyana.

Sterak's Gage gives 50% of your base AD as bonus AD, which is a nice amount on Shen. But that's not the only benefit, when you take a certain amount of damage in 5s, a shield (that scales with bonus HP) will trigger and grant you tenacity. Sterak's Gage is a great choice when ahead, while the enemy has high burst damage. The shield ensures you'll survive the initial burst.

Here comes one of the utility items, Redemption. You'll only want to buy these items when playing support, as these items are cheaper, but also not as good for a solo laner as for a duo laner. Redemption's main power comes from the active, which summons a zone that heals allies and damages enemies (it can even be used while dead) and the bonus healing and shielding which is obviously valuable in combination with Stand United.

This is a fun one. You can bind this item to an ally (usually your ADC) to use the effect. When you cast Stand United near the bound ally (or when you cast it on that ally) a frost storm surrounds you that slows enemies, while the bound allies' auto attacks burn their targets. And there is even more. Auto attacking a burning enemy ignites your frost storm, dealing bonus damage and slowing them even more.

The stats aren't good, but the active that allows you to remove CC from an ally is valuable. Good into comps with much hard CC, for example against a Maokai top, Sejuani jungle and a Morgana support. A bonus is the 20% increased heal and shield power it grants.

Like with Zeke's Convergence, you can link to an ally (usually the ADC like mentioned before) to heal for 12% of the damage your partner deals to champions, but 12% of the damage your partner takes, is redirected to you. Another reason to only use it with your ranged carry, as they usually have high enough DPS to outheal the damage they might take.

Buy these boots when you are up against AD AA-based champions like Jax, Vayne or Shyvana.

Buy these boots against AP champions or against heavy CC as it reduces the duration of CC with 30%.

Decent for jungle or support, as you'll get many opportunities to roam the map to make plays, but not worth for toplane, as you'll have less MS most of the time because you'll be in combat more frequently.

First of all, when talking about laningphase, you obviously think of 1v1/2v2, attacking towers and farming. While farming minions might not seem as complex at first, it can be pretty tricky to learn all the small nuances of the art of wave management. I'm gonna be honest, I am no specialist either, but I can teach some of the basics. For more information about the subject, I recommend you go check out this page from Mobalytics.






The first main use of wave management is known as freezing. It means that you'll be holding the wave close to your own turret, in order to be safer in harder matchups. You can freeze the wave by only last-hitting the minions and letting your opponent push, until the wave reaches the position you want it to stay. This is where it gets tricky. In order to maintain the freeze, you'll have to damage the minions as much as your opponent does. Damage the enemy minions too hard and the wave will push. Deal less damage to the wave than your opponent and the wave will move under your turret and you will lose CS because of that.

Pros + Safe positioning close to tower. + Enemies have to overextend, leaving them vulnerable to ganks. + Possibility to zone enemies with the threat of engaging them under your tower, especially powerful with Shadow Dash.

Cons - Getting low while freezing the wave means you are in an ideal position for the enemy jungler to dive you. - The enemy laner has the opportunity to roam. - Enemies with high waveclear can easily break your freeze.

When to freeze: You generally want to freeze the wave if you are weaker in the early game than your opponent(s) to allow you to safely farm without getting killed. For example, against a Darius toplane who outtrades you hard early. For support Shen, I'll take Shen + Ashe vs Leona + Lucian for example. Both enemies have a good early game, so freezing the wave allows Ashe to farm and scale safely without immediately getting engaged on by the Leona.






The other main use of wave management is pushing your wave. It's easy to do, as you just have to damage the minions as much as possible (don't forget to last-hit) in order to push the wave. Early on it might be a little hard for Shen, but once you get items like Bami's Cinder or Tiamat it becomes way easier. Pushing the wave is the best decision in matchups where you have little kill pressure. Instead you'll push the wave to open up on other opportunities like roaming and getting deep wards in the enemy jungle. You'll also always want to push the wave before you back, to reduce the chance your opponent is able to push the wave under your tower so you lose CS before you are back in lane.

Pros + More control of the topside of the map. + Creates the opportunity to roam and gank. + Possibility to get turret platings.

Cons - Pushing the wave leaves you vulnerable to ganks. Make sure to always ward. - Much less kill pressure and it's very likely you won't get any ganks. - Playing too aggressive while pushing under the enemy tower can result in your death. A good Maokai will root you under his tower if you ever draw tower aggro.

When to push: You generally want to push the wave if you are stronger than your lane opponent(s), or when you simply don't have kill pressure due to your opponent being a tank. Instead, you can look to impact the rest of map by roaming and ganking. For example, Malphite will be almost unkillable once he gets some armor, so there is no reason for Shen to try and fight him alone. Instead, you push the wave and you might be able to gank mid while Malphite is pushing. Another example, now for support Shen. You play together with a Miss Fortune against Tristana + Soraka. Tristana is a safe champion with her Rocket Jump, while Soraka makes her laningphase even safer. Pushing the wave is a good option as you probably won't be able to go all-in on them, but Miss Fortune can still poke them under their turret. An extra advantage is that Tristana isn't the best at farming under turret due to her Explosive Charge passive.




Trading is, like most will already know, the exchange of damage between champions. In most cases, this isn't even with the intention of killing your opponent(s). Trading can happen in all lanes, but is more frequent in the toplane, because most champions there are made for sustained damage and they are usually tanky enough to not die after one trade. As a support, it's more often all or nothing. Due to the range difference, you'll have to go in with Shadow Dash, but that means you won't have a way out. The champions in the botlane are squishy in most cases too, so extended trades can easily lead to a kill or two.
Trading partly depends on your lane opponent(s), but knowing how and when to trade is even more important. Here are some general rules:

• Minions shouldn't be underestimated. Attacking a champion draws minion aggro, so fighting while there are more enemy minions than allied minions is a bad idea and will make you lose the trade. In reverse, looking for a trade while there are remarkably more allied minions significantly increases your chances at a good trade.
• You should analyze your opponents: what are there main trading tools? Which ability is the most dangerous for me? When the opponent uses one of those important abilities, you have a small window with an advantage. This is a good moment to trade.
• Besides knowing major damage spells, having an idea of your opponent's base stats can also really help to estimate how the trade will go. I mean that when you know if a champion is strong early or late, you'll have an idea when you should trade or not. For example, Shen is weak early but strong late. Early trades against a Renekton who is strong early but weaker late will be hard for Shen. In return, Shen outscales Renekton and is better at later stages of the game.

Due to Shen's early game, you want to play safe early, farm as much as possible and go for short trades when you get a good opportunity. Once you get some items and you begin to win trades, you can go for more extended trades and maybe even go for a kill. If not possible to go for a solo kill, Shen is still extremely effective in combination with a jungler, assuming you can land Shadow Dash. From level 6 on, you want to look for opportunities to roam with Stand United. Don't force anything, as Stand United's cooldown is quite high. Whether you won your lane or not, Shen's lategame is really good. After laningphase, he transitions in either a splitpusher or a teamfighter, depending on what your team needs.

The playstyle of a support can depend on the ADC you are appointed to. In most cases, you want to play safe and peel for your ADC to let him farm and scale safely into lategame. When your ADC has a strong early game, like Draven, Lucian or Miss Fortune, you might want to look for opportunities to engage and all-in. Also a super important part of the support playstyle is warding a lot to control the map and to keep the ADC safe against ganks. You can also effectively roam, with or without Stand United. But when you do so, make sure your ADC will be safe while you are away. During lategame, Shen becomes a teamfighter for his team. Splitpushing is just not effective, as you won't be building enough damage to get towers fast enough.

The first Jungle camp consists of one monster, called the gromp. It has high AS, but it decays over 5s. Because of the high AS, you want to kite it so gromp can only attack you once before having to move again. This means you'll be able to trade one AA for one AA. Luckily you are Shen. Casting Spirit's Refuge as soon as you are in combat with it means you don't necessarily have to kite it, as gromp's attacks will be blocked anyways.

The next camp is the murk wolf camp. It contains one bigger wolf and two smaller wolves. As Shen starts with the single target camp oriented Hunter's Machete, you'll want to focus the smaller wolves first before killing the big wolf. This will make the clear healthier.

The crimson raptor camp is one of the harder camp for champions who lack high AoE damage. Shen is no exception. The big raptor and the 5 smaller raptor together deal a lot of damage against champions who don't have Hunter's Talisman to sustain them. It's better to ignore this camp during the first clear. Once you get your other jungle item it becomes way easier.

The ancient krug camp is definitely a special camp. At first sight it only contains two monsters: a big and a smaller one. However, once you kill them, they split into 2 smaller monsters. The big monster can splits twice, the smaller one only once. This makes the camp the highest exp and gold provider of the non-epic monsters. They are easier to deal with than the crimson raptors, so Shen is able to get this camp early. A general tip for killing this camp is constantly positioning yourself so the large krug stands between you and the smaller krug. This ensures you only get hit by the large monster.

The last of the medium monsters, the rift scuttler is a passive monster that roams both sides of the river when it first spawns. After the initial two rift scuttlers have been killed, only one at a time will respawn at a random side. The rift scuttler takes additional damage after it has been affected by hard CC, like Shen's Shadow Dash. Killing this monster restores some of your HP and mana (but sadly no energy on Shen), while also forming a MS granting zone in the river that also grants vision.

The blue sentinel is one of the most important non-epic monsters. The killer of this golem gets the crest of insight. This buff, better known as "blue buff", grants extra mana/energy regen and CDR. The monster itself isn't hard to kill, but it is quite tanky. Later on in the game, you want to give it to a mage, for who the mana regen and CDR from crest of insight is really valuable.

Just like the blue sentinel, the red brambleback grants a buff to the one who kills it. crest of cinders is usually referred to as "red buff" and makes your auto attacks slow champions while also dealing some extra damage over time. Additionally, you'll have some extra HP regen. Later on, ADC's or other AA based champions benefit the most from the on-hit slow and burn damage from crest of cinders.

The second most valuable jungle monster is without doubt the dragon. Situated at the lower side of the map, they can appear in 4 different elemental forms, each giving an unique buff to your whole team. Which dragon type spawns is completely random, but there can only be max 3 of the same type in one game. After 35 minutes, only a 5th, stronger dragon variant will spawn, the elder dragon.

The first elemental dragon type is the cloud drake. It is fast and has high DPS against single targets. Thus making Spirit's Refuge a great tool against it. You also get bonus MS out of combat upon killing this elemental dragon. It might not seem super strong, but it allows better roaming and extra map pressure when used correctly.

The infernal drake is considered the most valuable elemental dragon by many players. Combat wise, it's probably the most all round dragon type. Note it deals AoE damage. As bonus effect upon killing it, it increases your AD and AP with a percentage. Early game, it isn't really noticeable, but lategame it can really make a difference. Especially when you manage to secure 3 infernal drakes, as they grant 24% extra AD and AP.

ocean drakes deal slowing single target damage. The slow on their attacks makes it dangerous in some cases; as it will trouble you if you have to escape. The buff it grants restores some of your missing HP and mana. Good early game, but not the best at the long term.

The mountain drake is the most tanky elemental dragon, making it more time consuming to kill one. Its attacks are AoE and despite its low AS, the attacks hit hard. Its elemental buff gives your team extra true damage to objectives, both against turrets and epic monsters. Great for quickly securing other dragons and baron nashor or for splitpushing and sieging.

Like mentioned before, the elder dragon only spawns after 35 minutes. It is stronger than any elemental dragon, but the reward for killing one is even better. It grants aspect of the dragon if it's the first time your team slays an elder dragon, if your team already got at least one, it grants empowered aspect of the dragon. These buffs increase the elemental dragon buffs your team already has with respectively 50% or 100%. Additionally, dealing damage to enemies burns them for some true damage. (Doesn't work against turrets.)

The rift herald spawns in the pit at the upper side of the map. It is quite tanky, but it can be defeated easily by prioritizing the eye at its back. Auto attacking the eye will chunk its HP. As Shen, you can just attack its front and Shadow Dash behind it when the eye opens up. When killed, the rift herald drops the Eye of the Herald. It can only be taken by the team that killed it and it despawns after 40s if not picked up by then. Eye of the Herald will replace your trinket for 4 minutes. You can then use it to summon the rift herald, who now fights for your team and pushes the nearest lane. It is a strong sieging tool, but it is still vulnerable at its eye on the back, while being less tanky than at first.

baron nashor is the strongest and most valuable neutral monster in the game. Due to how tanky it is, you'll need multiple teammates to even stand a chance against it. In combination with Shen, high DPS carries like Jinx or Azir are usually the most effective against baron nashor. Upon killing this monster, your living team members get the hand of baron buff. This buff grants bonus AD and AP, while also empowering nearby minions. Ideal for when your team is ahead and is able to contest baron nashor without issues, but you can't really finish the game due to high waveclear on the enemy team.

There are 3 types of plants on the rift. They can all be found in the jungle or in the river. They can be destroyed to grant some (small) bonusses.

The first type of plant is the Honeyfruit. These plants spawn at the river and can be destroyed to spawn some fruit on the ground. These fruits can be picked up to restore some HP and mana. Note that these fruits also slow you while consuming them, so taking them while escaping can be risky.

Next comes Scryer's Bloom. These blue plants can be found at the edge of the jungle, near the river. Destroying them reveals a wide area in a cone. This can be used to reveal wards or to get a look at objectives when your team doesn't have any wards there.

The last plant is known as a Blast Cone. They appear deeper into the jungle. Destroying them knocks away all nearby units. It can be used to hop over walls, for example from your own jungle into the dragon or baron nashor pit. It can also be used in clutch situations when you have to flee.

Jungle Pathing in this meta can be different from game to game. You will have to react and adapt to the situation quickly. Some starts will be hard, where the enemy cheeses you and steals buffs, or even worse, kills you. Again an example of how important wards are in this game. Let's say you are playing vs a champ like Shaco. That guy will counterjungle you in 95% of the cases. So you and your team ward your jungle. You see Shaco at your own red, but instead of trying to stop him, you invade Shaco's jungle and you steal his red in return. Another thing is the rift scuttler. They give a lot of EXP and gold, so you want to take them asap before the enemy jungler takes them. If you know exactly where the enemy jungler started, you can probably take at least one crab without issues. But if you know it could be contested by someone with a good early game like Lee Sin or Elise, you can better just leave it. You won't lose a game by missing a crab. So now let's get over to the pathing itself.



The most common route I use is to get to level 3. The easiest start is botlane so you can get a better leash than you would get from your toplaner. That means starting at red brambleback for blue side or blue sentinel for red side. For blue side, you'll continue with the murk wolf camp, followed by the blue sentinel and gromp. For red side, you'll do the route in a reversed order. This means you'll get gromp after the blue sentinel, proceeded by the murk wolf camp and the red brambleback. Also get a rift scuttler whenever it's uncontested. This route gets you level 3 relatively easily. After that you can choose what you are doing next: gank a nearby lane or farm the remaining camps of your jungle.



This clear allows earlier ganking, as you will get level 3 sooner than with the standard clear.

For blue side, you'll start botside with your red brambleback, followed by ancient krugs and the blue sentinel. For red side, you also start bot. The blue sentinel comes first, proceeded by the red brambleback and ancient krugs.


Shen is really uncommon as a jungler and I want to be clear that jungle isn't his ideal role. Because of his weak early game, he gets outfarmed by most meta junglers and counterjungling can really hurt him. He also relies on his ultimate Stand United to impact the map, with Shadow Dash being a great ganking tool when utilized correctly, but predictable and countered by mobility.

So why would you ever play Shen jungle you ask yourself. There are better farmers, better objective takers and junglers with more reliable CC than him. But since many junglers are AA oriented, Shen can be pretty good dueler with smart use of Spirit's Refuge. Another big advantage is that you don't have to hesitate before casting Stand United. While having to use it to teleport botlane as a toplaner can easily cost you your turret in the meantime against certain splitpush champions like Nasus or Tryndamere. Shen is also really good in skirmishes and small teamfights. Jungling allows him to get into more of those opportunities. To make it short, Shen is weak early, but scales great and offers a lot of utility with good teamfighting and decent ganks.

Early on, you want to prioritize ganks and skirmishes/small teamfights, where Shen shines. Between ganks, you want to farm as much as possible. During mid-late game, group with your team and look to get objectives. As a junlger, Shen should only be used as a teamfighter if you have the choice, because splitpushing as a jungler will leave objectives really vulnerable. You don't want to give a baron nashor away for free simply because you weren't near and the enemy jungler can smite it. Yes, you still got Stand United to return to your team, but it's rather risky as it can be interrupted easily with CC.

Now I want to show some little, but important things every jungler needs to know.


Taxing is a mechanic laners hate, but it's necessarily for junglers. Taxing means taking a few minions from a lane after a succesful gank. This is necessary because the jungler spent time ganking a lane while he could also have continued farming his jungle. That's why you want to take a few minions to compensate the gold you could have earned while farming. If you got the kill from the gank, take a few caster minions. If the laner got the kill, you can take some melee minions too. Don't take the cannon minions as most laners will get mad at you. Even though that doesn't matter much you don't want another flaming teammate.


Another thing to do after ganking a lane is pushing the lane. This grants the allied laner(s) the time to back, while the opponent(s) will lose gold and exp because minions will die under their tower. Additionally, your ally won't lose much minions due to the wave being far from his tower.


Holding a lane because the laner has died/recalled is a job you should be happy to do as it grants a lot of gold and exp for little effort. You should only do it when the wave is close to the allied tower, as the laner will lose some minions to the tower anyways. Only last hit so the laner to keep the amount of minions the laner misses as low as possible.

First of all, to those who are new to League, there are 3 types of wards. These Totems grant vision on the map and are the key to winning games.

Stealth Ward, the yellow trinket, is a stealthed ward that reveals the nearby area for 90-120s* and you gain 1 charge every 240-120s*. (*Depends average champion level.) It's available from the start of the game.

The red, visible wards can take 4 hits from enemy champions before they are destroyed. These wards cost 75 gold, but it can reveal other nearby wards and stealthed enemies or traps like Noxious Trap. You can only have 1 control ward placed on the map at a time, but you can carry up to 2 as long as you can buy them. You should place them in bushes in most cases, as they are visible and will be destroyed quickly if left in open sight.

The last type of ward, Farsight Alteration, is a fragile ward wich takes only 1 hit to destroy. It can only be bought from level 9 on and replaces Stealth Ward or Oracle Lens. These wards are visible, but they don't count towards a ward limit and they can last forever. The most interesting about this trinket is that you can place it from a distance. You can just stand near your blue or red buff and ward baron/dragon pit for example.

Oracle Lens isn't a ward, but it reveals the area around you, revealing stealthed enemies, wards and traps, like a Control Ward. It is free and available at level 1, but I don't recommend taking this at the start. During the early game wards have higher cooldowns and their duration is shorter. This results in there being less wards overall.

Here I'm going to show you the most common warding locations for top, support and jungle. Like you can see in the images below, for toplane and support I focus on laningphase. Later on in the game, when people start to roam and group, you'll be warding as much as possible from the whole map instead of only your own lane. For jungle, you'll be able to place wards over the whole map during the whole game, so looking at the jungle warding map will also give you info on how to ward objectives and the jungle during the lategame for any role.





In the toplane, your main concern will be protecting yourself against ganks from the enemy jungler, while also clearing enemy vision to give your own jungler a chance to gank your lane. Besides your own lane, you are also the main team member in charge of controlling the upper side of the map, including the rift herald/ Baron nashor pit and the adjacent jungle. When your jungler is getting counterjungled frequently, help him ward the allied jungle. It is a team game after all and if you want a jungler to help and gank your lane, you must help him in return when needed. When it's safe; your lane opponent just backed, mid is pushed in and your allied jungler is near, you might want to place a deeper ward in the enemy jungle. Information is key. Revealing the location of the enemy jungler opens up a lot of opportunities for your whole team. You or your midlaner might be saved from ganks, especially against junglers with stealth ( Evelynn or Twitch) or globabl ganks ( Pantheon or Nocturne). Your team might be able to secure a free dragon with the enemy jungler being at the other side of the map. Your jungler might be able to counterjungle at the other side of the map. The possibilities are almost endless.





Protecting your lane as a support is similar to toplane, but usually more intense. Supports are the main vision providers in a team and they will buy many Control Wards (if they know what they are doing at least), so you can expect your wards to get revealed and destroyed often.

Once you complete your gold quest and you get access to Eye of the Aspect's stealth wards, you will be able to provide even more vision. The moment you get your Eye of the Aspect is also the ideal moment to get Oracle Lens to clear as much enemy vision as possible too.

Besides your own lane, you'll also have the task to control the lower side of the map, protecting the jungle, river and most importantly, dragon pit. Like I explained for toplane, a support might have to ward the allied jungle to help your jungler or in the enemy jungle to keep track of the enemy jungler.

Last but not least, against certain supports like Bard, Pyke or Thresh, you'll have to make sure the river is warded as they are quite likely to roam to midlane. If you aren't able to followup in time, your midlaner might at least be warned in time.





I divided the wards on this map in 3 categories, objective/river control, jungle control and lane control. It is more of a general warding map, but with junglers being able to roam early, they have the most opportunities to ward at these locations. For the other roles, they will have to ward at these spots too, especially the objective and jungle control spots, but it will be later on in the game when everyone has left their lane and starts to group to get objectives.

So for the river and objective wards, they can be used to get vision of rift scuttlers early, dragon and rift herald/ baron nashor and just general vision of a common used path.

A ward in the river is always useful. It can warn your team for ganks, give away the position of the enemy jungler or show enemies on their way towards an objective.

Objective wards are obviously oriented towards controlling the dragon and rift herald/ baron nashor pits. These objectives are super valuable, so you don't want to give them up for free simply because you lacked vision of it so you had no chance to contest it. Against some champions you'll have to ward even more and/or earlier. A Shyvana will always try to get dragons because of her passive and she is able to solo them quite early in the game. A Warwick is even able to solo them at level 3.
When you just killed (almost) the whole enemy team, you won't necessarily have to check for enemy vision in the pits with Control Wards or Oracle Lens. But at any other moment it is wise to use these tools to reveal and destroy enemy wards, otherwise the enemy jungler could steal it. For the same reason it is smart to ward the edge of the adjacent enemy jungle, so you are at least prepared for a possible smite battle.

Finally, lane controlling wards are used to help allied laners when they find themselves getting camped by the enemy jungler, when their wards got cleared immediately by a lane bully/the enemy jungler or simply when they don't buy wards themselves (*sigh*). To make it short, you protect lanes by helping them ward. Note that this is only worth to do when the concerned laner is frequently pushing the wave under the enemy tower, thus leaving him vulnerable to ganks.

So first of all: what is a gank? Most players know this already, so this is for the newer players.
When someone is laning, so 1v1 top/mid or 2v2 bot, and 1 or more others walk into the lane to create an advantage in numbers. This is called a gank. A jungler will be ganking his lanes frequently (unless you are playing a very farming oriented jungler) to get kills or pressure the opponent. Laners are able too gank too, but this will happen less frequently, especially early, but not less rewarding!
Not every gank will gain you a kill or a turret, but when they have to use a summoner spell like Flash to escape, it's good too. Keep track of those summoner spells. Let's say you gank an immobile champion like Vel'Koz. He escapes by using his Flash. If you gank him again before he regains his spell, you are almost guaranteed of a kill because he has no escape.

Sometimes it can be better to leave a kill for a teammate. Some champions, especially assassins, are very snowball oriented and need their kills to not fall off. Some think they NEED to get those kills and some will even flame you when you get the kill instead. But it doesn't matter that much. You won't lose a game from taking a kill instead of the midlaner or ADC. Remember that a kill grants gold to all team members involved in it.

Some lanes will be easier to gank than others. The easiest way to gank is when you are voice chatting with a friend and he can set up for you by starting a fight, or freezing his lane under his turret.
Most of the time top is the easiest lane to gank, because it's a long lane and toplaners tend to have at least some soft CC. Mid is a shorter lane with assasins being harder to gank as they have gapclosers. But some mages like Ryze and Orianna have some CC as well to set up ganks. Bot lane is the hardest lane to gank. It's a long lane, but it's 2v2. 3v2 is harder than 2v1 and most supports can peel for their carry. Some engage supports can make ganking easy. Think about Nautilus and Blitzcrank with a succesful grab. When bot is an adc + mage sup like Lulu or Janna, you will have to engage yourself.

Be careful with ganking a lane that is behind. Some champions can 1v2 easily when ahead. (Those damn Darius and Illaoi...)





Ill start with ganking as a jungler. But these gank paths can be used by everyone, no matter which role you are playing. On the map you can see 3 colors, each representing a specific kind of gank.

The first one, a "flank gank", is the most common gank and here represented by the yellow arrows. It's pretty simple: when an enemy laner pushes the wave and he is further from the enemy turret than from the allied turret, then you might be able to just walk up to the target from the river. Then you can position yourself between the target and the escape path towards the enemy turret. The enemy will either have to use Flash and/or gapcloser(s) to have a chance to escape, or he will have to fight, which you should be able to win easily, considering it's a 2v1. If you have the luxury to do so, you can wait before casting Shadow Dash until the target wasted a valuable gapcloser or Flash. Then he has almost no chance to escape.

The second type of gank is a bit riskier. It's a tower dive, represented by the blue arrows. A tower dive isn't something you should do super often, but rather in certain situations. Choose your targets carefully. A Tryndamere with ult up is something you should avoid at all cost, because of him being literally invincible, while a Maokai might be able to avoid you and CC you long enough for the turret to kill you. Only do it when the target is really low and you are able to burst him fast, while being able to escape. Don't do it when the enemy jungler is near as it might result in him getting 1 or 2 easy kills.
A towerdive can be easy to execute if you play it smart together with certain champions like Kayn or Elise who are able to drop target aggro. They go in first, get targeted by the turret and at the moment they are about to die, they get out and let the turret target you.

The last type of gank is called a lane gank and is shown by the red arrows. It is quite uncommon, especially in low elo. Knowing this trick can result in some easy kills against surprised opponents.
Normally, when your allies have pushed in a lane, it might seem ungankable. Instead, it only opens up new opportunities. You can simply walk into their lane from behind and hide in one of the bushes (only executable top/bot). If your laner(s) is/are smart enough to stop pushing, you might have the chance to find yourself right in front of the enemies.
Let's say you got a ward deep into the enemy jungle. You see the enemy jungler at his blue sentinel. You are blue team, so the enemy jungler is botside, while your allied botlane keeps on pushing hard. While unseen, you walk into one of the of the bushes botlane, while the enemy jungler obviously is coming next. This allows you to easily countergank while they won't expect you at all.






For toplane, you won't have many occasions to roam and gank, but that only means efficiency is really important. The best opportunities to gank are after your lane opponent is dead or backed. Then you push your lane, allowing you to leave your lane without losing too much minions.

You are able to gank midlane with a traditional flank. Simple but effective.



Alternatively, you can go for a Teleport gank botlane. When the enemy botlane pushes hard, you might have the opportunity to Teleport to a ward between their position and the turret. Eventually, your opponents will be stuck between you and your allied botlane. Doing this can be really rewarding, but it can leave your toplane vulnerable. After your Teleport gank, you should back as soon as possible and return to your own lane. Your lane opponent might have been able to get turret plating's, or worse, your whole tower. Again, timing is key and the reward will be higher when you do it when your lane opponent just backed and he has no Teleport himself.






Similar to toplane, a support is able to gank mid effectively. The only con is that you still have to take care of your ADC too. Before you roam you should ask yourself if your ADC is able to farm safe when he is alone botlane. When you just killed the enemy botlane or they just recalled, the answer is obviously yes. In other cases, when both teams are in lane, the answer may vary. An enemy Nautilus + Lucian might hard engage and kill your Jhin when left alone. When playing against a Soraka + Ashe together with an Ezreal instead, it is a lot safer and you should roam. They have no way to go all-in, except for maybe post-6 when Ashe has her Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

Alternatively, you can completely avoid this problem by ganking after backing, instead of just walking back to botlane. this is shown on the map with the red lines beside the yellow lines from a traditional flank from bot to mid.



What you do after a succesful gank is probably as important as the gank itself. Laners want to back in order to regain their HP and mana, while also getting an item advantage with the extra gold they just got. It's important that everyone involved in the gank helps pushing the minion wave under the enemy tower. If you are able to get turret plating's or even the whole turret, you can stay a little longer before backing. The reason for pushing the wave is that the enemy laner will lose minions to the turret and thus will be set behind, while also granting your allies the time to get back into lane without missing much minions.

Shen can be a formidable teamfighter. He has AoE CC with Shadow Dash, Good damage with Twilight Assault and peel with Spirit's Refuge. But best of all: Stand United is able to keep a carry alive against all odds.

Teamfighting isn't as straightforward as it might seem. Champions have a different roles during teamfights. ADC's and APC obviously are the main damage dealers during teamfights, but to do so, one must engage first of all. Champions fit for this role are mainly tanks or fighters with some CC. And when the fight has started, you need to keep your damage dealing carries alive at all costs, which can be hard due to enemy divers like Irelia or Hecarim or assassins like Akali. Supports or CC-heavy tanks are usually the right fit for peeling.

Shen is versatile enough to be used for both peeling and engaging. Choosing which role to play in teamfights depends on the composition of your team and in less measure the composition of the enemy team.






Looking at the teamcomps, your allied team already has a strong engage and frontline with Jarvan IV and Leona. However, the enemy Katarina and Hecarim might be able to slip past them to dive and kill your backline, leaving you with tankyness, but little damage. That's why it might be better to stay more in the back together with Ashe and Syndra to protect them from harm. As long as you hit Shadow Dash, they have a high chance of surviving. And when you miss, you still have Spirit's Refuge and Stand United to keep them alive. Please note that even if they interrupt your channel, Stand United will still shield an ally.






To keep it simple, I kept the same enemy team, but with a changed allied team. In this case, your team is quite squishy. Shen is the only reliable frontliner. In terms of peel, it will be fine as Soraka and Taliyah should be able to keep enemies at bay. (As long as Taliyah is skilled enough to consistently hit Seismic Shove.) But by peeling alone you won't win a teamfight and if there is no engage Zed will have a much harder time pulling his damage off. Miss Fortune and Zyra are able to deal high AoE damage while staying safe in the back. If you can't reach and fight them up close, they will just wipe out your team. Luckily, Shen is able to function as the main engager. You can opt to engage straight ahead, but that leaves the enemy team some time to react. It can work better with the Flash + Shadow Dash combo, but you won't always have Flash available. Flanking or even approaching from behind can surprise your opponent, at least when they don't have vision of you before you dive in.

Splitpushing is the action of hard pushing a lane in order to take towers and/or draw enemies away from elsewhere on the map. Splitpushing goes better when you got more damage, so Shredder Shen can take towers faster than straight tank Shen. However, tank Shen is also capable of doing the job, especially with runes/items like Demolish, Zz'Rot Portal and Titanic Hydra.
Note that splitpushing becomes easier when your team has got mountain drakes due to the dragon slayer: earthen arms buff, which makes you deal true damage to towers.



Like I wrote above, you might also want to draw enemies to you by splitpushing. This is a tactic that is often used to secure objectives. A splitpusher pushes the furthest sidelane while the other team members try to get the objective. The enemy team has 2 choices: either they try and stop you and give away an objective for free, or their whole team tries to contest the objective, which means the splitpusher might be able to get a few towers and maybe an inhibitor.

In an ideal scenario, the enemy team has to send multiple players to be able to stop you from splitting, which means your team is able to 4v3 or even better at the objective.

Splitpushing as Shen maybe isn't as good as with champions like Tryndamere or Nasus, but with Shen you can easily get out before they come and get you with Stand United. You might even be able to join a fight at the objective while 2 enemies are at the other side of the map while trying to stop you.
Vision is key. When splitting, ward around you so you have an idea when you gotta get out. Stand United and Teleport can be interrupted, so you want to get out before they can reach you and interrupt the channel.

Instead of rating matchups according to difficulty, I give you tips and tricks on how to play in each matchup. How hard or easy it is depends largely on the skills of you and your opponent(s). This section is still WIP as adding all the matchups for 3 roles takes quite some time, but it is my goal to add them all.

Aatrox is a lane bully. He has an overloaded kit with hard CC, sustain and a lot of damage. He outdamages and outsustains you, so fighting him alone is really hard. His main damage comes from his The Darkin Blade. It has a pretty high cooldown early, so trade when it's on cooldown. His passive is also something to keep track off. Play safe until he has to use it on minions to farm and then you can look for a trade. He doesn't have a revive anymore, so when he casts World Ender just run for your tower until the effect wears off. Luckily you scale harder as Shen, so play safe and try to help your team as much as possible. Rush Bramble Vest against him to counter his healing. Proceed with Sunfire Aegis as Aatrox is mainly a caster, so building Bramble Vest into Thornmail first isn't the best idea. Getting early Boots also really helps with dodging his Q's and W.

Akali is an assassin, which means she needs to get kills in order to be relevant. Play safe and you'll outscale her hard. Also make sure to ward the river to deny her chances of roaming. Five Point Strike is her main damage spell, but it has a high energy cost. If you manage to dodge it you can look for a trade. Landing Shadow Dash while she is in her Twilight Shroud can make her walk out of it, which you can use to your advantage. A lot of her damage also comes from her Assassin's Mark, but luckily it's an empowered AA and so dodgeable with Spirit's Refuge. Getting Adaptive Helm as first item heavily reduces her damage output from her repeated Five Point Strike and Assassin's Mark. If you need even more MR, Wit's End is a fine choice against Akali's extended dueling.

As Shen, you should be fine against Camille. You both have a weak early game, but Shen's kit works pretty well against Camille. When qhe engages with Hookshot, you can just sidestep it by walking away from the wall she attached to. Her Hookshot grants her AS upon landing, so then it's a good moment to use Spirit's Refuge. With your W, you can also dodge both casts of her Precision Protocol. Alternatively, when she casts Precision Protocol, you can also taunt her with Shadow Dash, so she is unable to get the true damage dealing recast. Post-6 can be tricky as her Hextech Ultimatum allows her to lock you in your place long enough for her jungler to easily gank you. Ninja Tabi is great to have against Camille, both because she is AA oriented and to dodge her W and E. Sunfire Aegis first should work fine.

Cho'Gath can build both AP and tank. AP Cho'Gath will probably play more aggressive, otherwise it's more of a farm lane. Early on you are stronger if played correctly, but with his stacking HP from Feast, he is a lategame beast. Vorpal Spikes can be dodged with Spirit's Refuge. Beware of the bushes. You won't see the first part of the Rupture animation if he casts it from out of vision. Keep in mind that Rupture and Feral Scream will cancel Stand United, so never cast it when he is near. Mercury's Treads are mandatory against Feral Scream's silence and Vorpal Spikes' slow. Building HP in general is good to counter Feast. Adaptive Helm is also a good choice, especially against AP Cho'Gath.

Darius is an early game lane bully that counters most tanks. Shen is no exception. Play for lategame. A Darius has no mobility and gets kited easily. Fighting together with your ADC will make quick work of him. Don't go for extended trades as you will lose them because of Hemorrhage. If he tries to hit you with Decimate and you are sure you can't get out of it, try to get inside the circle. Getting hit by the handle alone deals less less damage and doesn't apply Hemorrhage. Crippling Strike is dodgeable with Spirit's Refuge. Rush Bramble Vest into Thornmail in order to deal with his healing. Ninja Tabi also helps as he usually weaves AAs between his abilities to apply his Hemorrhage.

Mundo goes where he pleases. That summarizes this champion pretty well. Dr. Mundo is super tanky once he gets some items, but he doesn't have any hard CC. In return, he has a good laningphase and high damage for a tank. During laningphase, your main concern will be dodging his Infected Bonesaws by simply standing behind minions. Early on his Heart Zapper will cost him a lot of HP to use, so simply back off and let him waste the HP. His Blunt Force Trauma can be blocked with Spirit's Refuge. If he runs at you with a red glow around his arms, he used it. Once you both hit 6, you have to be careful with staying in lane while low on HP as he can dive you like it's nothing with Maximum Dosage. Lategame Dr. Mundo can easily be countered with CC and grievous wounds. I'd say get a Bramble Vest against his healing, but Dr. Mundo does mainly magic damage. Executioner's Calling works better and is cheaper. Adaptive Helm works well against his Heart Zapper and Infected Bonesaws.

A skilled Fiora can be hard. She has mobility, high (true) damage and a way to counter Shadow Dash. Her early game isn't the best though, as she has high mana costs, high cooldowns early and little waveclear. Early on you can outtrade her with short trades and getting a lead in the early game is the best way to play this lane. You can duel her by hugging a wall next to the current vital, denying her the way to make use of it. Before going for an all-in, you should bait her Riposte. Riposte makes Shadow Dash completely useless, but her cooldown is higher early on. Also note that Bladework can be negated with Spirit's Refuge. Fiora heals a lot with Duelist's Dance, Grand Challenge and one of her core items, Ravenous Hydra. Rushing Bramble Vest and Ninja Tabi really helps. You can then either opt to continue building Thornmail, but that leaves you with little waveclear. Sunfire Aegis instead is also good instead.

Gangplank is a melee champion, but his Parrrley basically makes him half ranged. He can poke you easily, but you are able to negate some, as his Parrrley counts as an AA, so Spirit's Refuge blocks it. Same thing for Trial By Fire. Powder Kegs can simply be dodged, but it gets harder the better the Gangplank is with his champion. Warding the nearby bushes can help you dodge the barrels even easier. Remove Scurvy removes your taunt from Shadow Dash, Shadow Dash only having 4s lower cooldown, which leaves little room to engage due to the Gangplank staying at range most of the time. There isn't really a way to fight him, unless you can get a gank from a jungler with some CC, as he can only cleanse once for a period. Early game can be rough, but you both scale hard. It's better to help your team as much as possible through roams. Only problem is that Gangplank has way better waveclear than Shen, so you will find yourself under tower more than you would like. I highly recommend taking Aftershock here, as you won't be able to stack Grasp of the Undying against him. Gangplank will most likely build Trinity Force into crit items. Sunfire Aegis will do fine in general against him, while also giving you a little more waveclear to be able to roam. Later on, once he gets crit items, Randuin's Omen can be a good idea.

Garen is a juggernaut, which means he has high damage and sustain, but no mobility nor hard CC. He outsustains you and outdamages you early, but you outscale him hard. Go for short trades when he uses his Decisive Strike on minions. You can also block Decisive Strike with Spirit's Refuge. If he attacks you with Judgment, you have to know it deals less damage while he is hitting multiple opponents, so staying around the minion wave while he attacks you with it reduces the damage for a bit. Later on, it should be quite easy to deal with him as a team. Ninja Tabi is the best rush against Garen. Sunfire Aegis should work good enough as second item and for the rest of your build you should just look at his team instead.

Gnar is definitely one of the more though matchups for Shen. Not only is he able to poke you a lot, he also becomes pretty tanky with good CC while in Mega Form. While he is in Mega Form, you should just back away as you can't fight him. The only moment you should try fighting him is immediately when he gets out of his Mega Form. He can't gain fury for 15s after exiting this Mega Form, so you have a window to fight him. If you got some armor and you manage to dodge his slowing Boomerang Throw, you might be able to taunt him with Shadow Dash and maybe even kill him as Mini Gnar is rather squishy. Dodging the 3th hit from Hyper with Spirit's Refuge is also really important as it will do a nice chunk of %Max HP damage. Ninja Tabi and Mercury's Treads are both viable options, as Gnar auto attacks a lot while also having some CC. The choice is up to you. What is really important to know is that Sunfire Aegis is a bad option against Gnar. This is due to the Immolate aura's damage also makes Gnar generate fury. You don't want him to get his Mega Form even faster. Randuin's Omen or Dead Man's Plate should work better instead.

Heimerdinger will most likely be pushing the whole game with his H-28G Evolution Turret. Not much you can do here, as fighting him with his turrets near is really hard, but if you can get a gank he is death in most cases. Sidestepping his skillshots is key. Once you get some items and you can catch him out of position, you can try to all-in him. Mercury's Treads are super important in this lane to counter Heimerdinger's damage and CC. Adaptive Helm works good against the sustained damage from his H-28G Evolution Turrets.

Hard, but not impossible. To start off with, Test of Spirit is her main harassing tool. You can simply try to sidestep it or you can hide behind minions as it she can't hit it through the wave. If you still get hit by it, getting out of the zone as fast as possible is the best decision in order to take less damage. But beware you will become a vessel by doing so, so you'll have to dodge some spawning tentacles. Stay close to an already spawned tentacle as they can't spawn too close to each other. That's for the early game, where you are weaker. With some items, you can fight her if she isn't fed. If she hits her Test of Spirit while trying to fight her, don't position yourself too close to your spirit as she will damage you even harder if her AoE hits both you and the spirit. Leap of Faith counts as an AA and can be dodged with Spirit's Refuge. Last but not least, clear as many tentacles as you can to significantly reduce her damage output. Bramble Vest into Sunfire Aegis should work against her self healing from her tentacles and her physical damage.

Better nerf Irelia. No, not really. Shen is better early than Irelia. She relies too much on getting marks for her Bladesurge with Flawless Duet to be dangerous. Dodge it and you are fine. And if you don't, Bladesurge counts as an AA so you can dodge it with Spirit's Refuge. Her Defiant Dance only reduces physical damage, so your Twilight Assault's magic damage will still hit hard. Lategame it will be a lot harder though. Peel for your carries during teamfights or she will just get 100000 resets on her Bladesurge and destroy your team. Thornmail is a good first item against Irelia. The AS reduction is good to keep her from abusing her stacked Ionian Fervor. The grievous wounds help against the healing from Bladesurge and Conqueror (which she probably took).

Look out for Jax' level 1 cheese with Counter Strike. It is possible to outplay his Counter Strike by taunting him with Shadow Dash. Counter Strike's duration is 2s and Shadow Dash' taunt is 1.5s. If you can taunt him after like 0.5s after he casts it, you can just walk away from him, while he isn't able to use Leap Strike and it's an easy dodge of the stun. In general, short trades are better against Jax, as Relentless Assault heavily increases his sustained damage. Like with all AA-oriented champions, Spirit's Refuge is a valuable tool against abilities like Empower and the 3-hit passive from Master-At-Arms. His lategame strength is unmatchable though and once he gets Trinity Force + Spear of Shojin there is just no way to duel him. You'll need multiple people and CC to at least stand a chance. Ninja Tabi is your friend in this matchup. Randuin's Omen or Thornmail is also really valuable for the AS reduction.

The main thing with Jayce is that he pokes you down with his AA's and Shock Blast. Early game is where he shines, but if he is overeager he will run out of mana quickly. The problem is that you can't really engage on him as he will push you away with Thundering Blow. When he is low on mana you have a small window to try to engage on him. Once you reach him, you can punish him hard. He is really squishy, so landing your combo on him will hurt. Same thing with most ranged toplaners: they are easy to kill with help from your jungler. Jayce got nothing to escape or disengage except for his Thundering Blow. Lategame will be easy. He might still be able to delete squishies, but he won't be able to hurt you once you start stacking armor. Sunfire Aegis should work fine, but prioritize Chain Vest before building an HP part of it. Ninja Tabi is also really useful if you need more defenses.

Kayle is basically the weakest champion in the game early, while becoming one of the best if not the best lategame champion. You can and should bully her early while she is still melee. Play aggressive and go for solo kills. She will scale anyways, but you want at least to be as fed as possible before having to face her lategame. Early on she has no mobility, little sustain, but some poke. And if she does poke, she will run out of mana quickly. You can dodge Starfire Spellblade with Spirit's Refuge. Beware the lategame true damage AA's though. It isn't easy to itemize against her as she deals all types of damage, but in general AS reducing items like Thornmail and Randuin's Omen work well against her. Especially the latter is good if she goes for a crit build. Adaptive Helm is good on paper against the on-hit magic damage on her AA's, but with her exalted mechanic they will do true damage instead, making the item less effective. Against the true damage you can instead go for more HP.

Another ranged toplaner, but with a lot of safety too. Don't try to fight him and focus on farming instead. Don't let him AA you too much to avoid getting stunned. Other than that, standing behind minions will help you avoid Thundering Shuriken. Lategame you will both be good teamfighters, with Kennen relying heavily on Slicing Maelstrom. If you can taunt him before he gets in the middle of your team, he will be useless. Adaptive Helm heavily counters his Slicing Maelstrom, but any MR will do the job.

You basically need to all-in Kled twice to kill him. Watch out for his level 2-3 and don't try to kill him early on. You won't have the damage early on to kill him fast enough before he gets Skaarl back. Block Violent Tendencies with Spirit's Refuge or simply go in when he has to use it on minions as it is more of a passive effect instead of an ability you gotta cast. If you are ever able to make him dismount, you should act as fast as possible. From the moment his W is down, go in again and try to all-in. If he is still able to get Skaarl back in time, he won't be able to gain courage if you manage to dismount him again in a small period, which basically means free kill if you still got enough HP left. Watch out of his roams, but Stand United basically counters Chaaaaaaaarge!!!and you even got the small advantage that your ult isn't restricted by range. Sunfire Aegis and Ninja Tabi should work fine and an early Tiamat can help you kill him faster while dismounted.

Shen is better early than Malphite. He can't do much except for poking you with Seismic Shard, but you can negate most of it with Ki Barrier. And if he does poke you, he will run out of mana super fast. You should be able to all-in on him from level 2 on before he gets his Unstoppable Force. But once he gets it, you probably already will have enough items to be tanky enough to negate his possible all-in. Jungler ganks are scary with Unstoppable Force though. Brutal Strikes also gets blocked by Spirit's Refuge. Wit's End is a solid buy to offer you some tankyness while also giving you some damage to bully him harder. Mercury's Treads are also good against his slows.

Speaking as a Maokai main, you believe this matchup to be slightly favored towards Maokai. Early on will be even, with Maokai having more sustain, but Shen doesn't have mana, which is an issue on Maokai in return. In order to win lane against Maokai, you need to beware of the bushes and his empowerd Sapling Toss. AmBushing is one of my favourite tactics with Maokai and it can be really effective and with its %max HP it doesn't matter if it's a squishy or a tank. If you can avoid the saplings, you can try to all-in on him early if he is low on mana. But beware, as Maokai is one of the best champions to setup ganks with. Later on, you both are too tanky to have any kill pressure, so roaming is the best playstyle here. Maokai won't be a huge threat to your tower. Lategame, you will both scale well and be of great use to your teams in teamfighting or splitpushing in Shen's case. Another note is that Spirit's Refuge dodges the damage of a Sap Magic empowered AA, but Maokai will still heal from it. Mercury's Treads are unmissable against Maokai. He has CC on every ability, so yeah. A Tiamat or Bami's Cinder are good to help you waveclear to be able to roam, while Adaptive Helm will negate a lot of Maokai's damage.

Early on you can actually fight him, but once he gets some AP he will hurt. Focus on short trades before he can activate Darkness Rise. Avoid being the only target hit by Obliterate if you can as it will do bonus damage. Once he gets his Realm of Death, don't push the wave too far from tower so if he decides to trap you in the Realm of Death, you at least have a chance by running towards your turret. In teamfights, you use Stand United on the ally that is getting focused by Mordekaiser to shield him, even in the Realm of Death. But Shen himself won't be teleported to the Realm of Death. Adaptive Helm is a hard counter for his Darkness Rise, but any MR works.

No matter what you do, Nasus will always hyperscale into lategame. Early on you have to punish him for every mistake. Try to zone him from the minions to keep him from stacking his Siphoning Strike, especially from cannon minions. A trick you is using Spirit's Refuge to block his Siphoning Strike while he tries to last-hit. Once you both get level 6, the matchup will be favoured towards Nasus. If you ever use Stand United while not being able to Teleport back to lane almost immediately, he will take your tower. Lategame just peel for your ADC and let your team deal with Nasus. Bramble Vest is necessary against Soul Eater. Ninja Tabi is good against Siphoning Strike.

Ornn simply has a better laningphase than Shen. He outdamages Shen and he will always have an iteme advantage against you because of Living Forge. If you still want to trade, prioritize short trades, but it's honestly better to just farm and scale. If you are brittle because of Bellows Breath, drop Spirit's Refuge so he can't convert it into the %max HP damage. Lategame, Ornn has a fantastic teamfighting tool with Call of the Forge God. However, as Shen you have the right tools to make it useless. The main use of his ult comes from the recast. After that the elemental will knock up your allies. But Shen can taunt Ornn with Shadow Dash so his unable to recast it in time. Itemizing against Ornn is a challenge. He deals mixed damage, but because he maxes Bellows Breath first in most cases, he will mainly deal magic damage early on. Adaptive Helm is really good against Bellows Breath.

You won't expect it, but Poppy is actually a hard matchup for Shen. You can't engage on her with Shadow Dash because of Steadfast Presence, which automatically makes her win the trade. Also try to stay away from the walls as she will stun you with Heroic Charge. Farm and roam with Stand United you think then. Oh wait, she just cancelled your channel with Keeper's Verdict, even though you were under your tower. Lategame, you and your team can render her useless by positioning yourself away from walls. If she can't pin someone against the wall with her Heroic Charge, she has no reliable CC and will get kited to death easily. Sunfire Aegis and armor in general are the best decision against Poppy.

I faced a Quinn the first time I ever played Shen. She will poke you a lot early and your best bet is to negate as much as possible through Ki Barrier and Spirit's Refuge. But as the game progresses and you scale, you will be able to outtrade her. If she misses her Blinding Assault you can try to go in with Shadow Dash. This will hurt her a lot. You can also follow up on her roams with Stand United. Her relative short range for an ADC also makes it so she isn't as safe in teamfights compared to other ADC's, so you should be able to jump on her and kill her quite easily. Randuin's Omen is probably the best item against Quinn. It's even better if she builds crit. Ninja Tabi is also a really good rush item.

Rakan has an all round kit with shielding, sustain, high mobility and CC. Hard engaging on him won't be really effective as he has many tools to peel. Avoid staying too close to your ADC as Rakan can punish you really hard for that with his AoE Grand Entrance. Look out for his strong roams and be ready to use Stand United to counter it. This lane gets harder if the enemy ADC is Xayah, because of the obvious synergy between them.

Tahm Kench has a lot of damage for a tank/support. Dodge Tongue Lash if possible, but if you still get hit by it, Shadow Dash out to avoid getting stunned or Devoured. Spirit's Refuge can stop him from applying stacks of An Acquired Taste through AA's, but Tongue Lash still can. Always take into account that you have to be able to kill Tahm Kench "twice" because of Thick Skin, so going all in will be tricky. Be careful to not overstay too long as Devour can result in free kills for the enemy.

Congratulations on making it this far through my Shen guide! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did enjoy it, please upvote this guide or tell me in the comments if you know how I can keep on improving this guide.

Also make sure to check out my other guides down below!
GL & HF with Shen on the rift!