Insane Active Item CDR!!!

With this build you will get a base 5% Active Item Cooldown Reduction (CDR) from Cosmic Insight + 15% from Ingenious Hunter from the start (with no stacks), for a total of 20% Active Item CDR. With Ingenious Hunter fully stacked, you will get a total of 45% Active Item CDR (almost 50%!!!). Future's Market is to help you get your items faster so you can start making good use of your Active Item CDR (e.g., wards, Smite, Predator boots, Tiamat, Zz'Rot).

Zz'Rot and Zergling Invasion for Ever!

Meaning you can have a Zz'Rot Portal spawning Voidspawns and pushing every 60 seconds or so, which means there's always two Zz'Rots going on at any one time (normal cooldown is 120 seconds). You can also ward a lot (which is even more true when you play support with sup item).

Different and Fun Playstyle!

You also almost always have Smite and Zz'Rot and Predator up because of all this Active Item CDR. It's definitely a different playstyle, but so much fun. Just running around and sieging or splitpushing, and just spamming your Titanic Hydra and Randuin's Omen and Locket of the Iron Solari in team fights, chasing squishies with Predator, etc., and repeating again.

This build can be adapted for sup and top positions, and they are also viable. But I feel like I have a preference for jungle where you can ult without having to worry about your CS or enemy laner, and you have more freedom in your itemization because you don't need to build according to your laner. If you decide to play top, you can keep the same build (without jungle item), but take Teleport instead of Smite, and if you go sup, go Ghost for even more global presence and crazy escapes/chasing/coming back to lane.

Weaknesses: You'll be less tanky in team fights than if you want aftershock or grasp, but you can still build kind of tanky. In some respect, it is not that different from standard builds (still get Cinderhulk and Titanic, Randuin).

Strengths: Lots of fun. The fun comes from abusing cooldown reductions on active items, especially Titanic Hydra and Zz'Rot Portal.

Disclaimer: This is not a bruiser/fighter build, it is more of a splitpushing-oriented build, although with proper skills and itemization you'll still be able to duel enemy champs—if they're not too fed—with your damage and HP from Titanic Hydra and Cinderhulk, and your resistances from Zz'Rot and Randuin.

You can use this in ranked (I personally do) but you might want to perfect the technique in norms first, then if you have some success with it, do what you want (I'm not responsible for your loss of lp! As could be considered a fun/alternative/original/variety build). This build requires a good knowledge of both playing Shen and jungle.

Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk

So jungle item no choice we go Cinderhulk to clear faster, which is important for this splitpush build. Now, I think it comes to personal preference whether you want to upgrade to the full completed Cinderhulk item or just stay at Stalker's Blade.

I often will not complete the item because I can smite champions just with Stalker's Blade and already start making use of our Active Item CDR (and upgrading to Cinderhulk does not bring an additional Active ability to use). I can also farm well with Tiamat, and I often want to rush Zz'Rot. But both ways are viable I think, but know that you don't absolutely need to finish the jungle item first.

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Tiamat

Tiamat because it helps us farm, it's actually our primary farm tool that we will be able to spam thanks to our Active Item CDR. Eventually upgrade to Titanic for more punch (ASAP or right after Zz'Rot). We need to rush it ASAP first item to be able to abuse our Active Item CDR! Get it on first back or whenever possible before Stalker's Blade (unless you're really low on gold and still need to buy something). But you can also go Bami's Cinder if you don't have enough gold for Tiamat and still need it for the farm. Item order is still relatively flexible to personal preference.

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Ionian Boots of Lucidity/Boots of Mobility

Then boots we choose Ionian Boots because they give us an additional 10% CDR as well as a 10% summoner spell CDR (which we already have 5% thanks to Cosmic Insight, together that's 15%). You go Boots of Mobility when you feel the other boots are not going to be as useful (e.g., you're slightly more behind, you really just need not to get caught when splitpushing, you don't need to extra CDR, etc.).

In practice, I often only get boots after Tiamat so I can focus on farm, but sometimes I will get base boots before Tiamat if I see good ganking opportunity with it (with Predator). But I certainly definitely do not upgrade boots before Tiamat is completed (and even sometimes Zz'Rot because that item is so exciting and Raptor Cloak gives you some movement speed near turrets too).

If you feel like you need or want more meta boots, just go Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi, as appropriate.

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Zz'Rot Portal

Next is Zz'Rot, the core of this build which makes it fun because of our insane Active Item CDR and that allow you to take towers or use it defensively if necessary. You'll almost always have 2 at a time working for you and bringing you gold through your Voidspawns.

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Titanic Hydra

After Zz'Rot Portal it's time to upgrade to the full Titanic Hydra item so you can start pushing waves and farming like a monster so you can make full use of your Zz'Rot when waves are pushed. It also gives you very good dueling potential. Depending on the situation, I sometimes even rush Titanic Hydra before Zz'Rot because this item is so good (e.g., when I feel I won't have as much impact and need to focus on farming/pushing waves or dueling).

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Randuin's Omen

From there it's situational, but at this point it is often good to get more tanky with Randuin's Omen for armor and HP, plus an insane active AOE slow for team fights and so you can Titanic and Predator them to death.

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Options for Last Two Items

Other options include Locket of the Iron Solari (for team shields), Ohmwrecker (for disabling turrets when splitpushing or sieging/diving as a team), Gargoyle Stoneplate (if you need to be even more tanky and initiate/jump in/dying too much), or Redemption (which is nice to have a semi-global heal that you can spawn every minute or so).

Predator

We take Predator because since our build's power house is actually Ingenious Hunter, we need to take the Domination tree... and also it transforms our boots in an active item, which we can use with Ingenious Hunter! It's also very useful for our splitpushing strategy if we need to run away, gank, or chase squishies.

Cheap Shot

Why not? It adds a little bit of true damage after taunt or Q slow, and the alternatives are not that much more interesting (e.g., we don't need heal from Taste of Blood because we won't be laning, so we might as well get more damage on our ganks, and Sudden Impact doesn't work on our Q slow).

Ghost Poro

Ok this rune is OP because first it gives an extra 60 seconds of vision to our wards (and gives bonus adaptive damage). But combined with our reduced trinket cooldown from Ingenious Hunter, it gives insane vision!!

Ingenious Hunter

Well, the core of our build. What is there more to say? The whole build is centered around this!

Future's Market

Important to get our items early that we sometimes couldn't have afforded otherwise. Gives us earlier power spike to be able to make use of our precious Ingenious Hunter rune.

Cosmic Insight

We take it mainly because it gives a little extra bonus of 5% item CDR. But as a bonus, you also get 5% CDR, 5% max CDR, and 5% summoner spell CDR.

Shard 1

First, we take +1-10% CDR because why not? You can Q, W, E, and ult a bit more often, which is useful both for farming and for team plays. Also you don't a lot of CDR in this build, but it does synergizes with the 10% from our Ionian Boots of Lucidity (and 10% from Ohmwrecker and 10% from Redemption, if you build those).

Shard 2

Second, we take +9 adaptive force because why not? You do a bit more damage which can be useful when farming or taking towers, and we already have a lot of resists from Zz'Rot Portal (and potentially from Randuin's Omen, Gargoyle Stoneplate, Ohmwrecker).

Shard 3

Third, we take +15-90 HP because we already have good resists with Zz'Rot Portal but not that much HP which synergizes with Zz'Rot, Titanic Hydra, our passive Ki Barrier, and our E Shadow Dash.

The Main Strategy (Mid-Late Game)

The idea is to, say, clear top minion wave with Titanic Hydra, drop Zz'Rot Portal and attack tower. They send someone to stop you. You ult bot lane (maybe get a kill/assist), clear wave, drop second Zz’Rot bot tower. They send someone to stop you. You Predator your way out to top or mid lane again and drop Zz. Etc. Predator is here used defensively a lot to get away after you push. You have to remember that item CDR also applies to your Predator boots active, so you basically have it all the time too. If you have baron, siege with your team and Zz'Rot: this is your win condition, you might take the whole base.


When you do ult back to your team or for team fights in general, you don't want to initiate generally because you are more squishy. Instead, you'll want to provide maximum utility by landing a multiple man taunt when a relatively safe opportunity arises, or taunting an already-CCed target, and then spamming your Titanic Hydra on as many enemies as possible, while not forgetting to give your team and yourself an additional shield with Locket of the Iron Solari, and slowing down enemies that try to run away with Randuin's Omen and Chilling Smite, and finally chasing any left-over enemy with Predator.


It is good to learn to use all these active items with numbers on your keyboard (for me Titanic = 5, Randuin = 6, Locket = 7, Cinderhulk = 1, Zz'Rot = 2, Predator boots = 3). So when I jump in a teamfight it usually looks something like this (really fast): E to taunt then Q+W+5+6+7 then d for smite, then 3 for Predator... then eventually 2 for dropping Zz after the cleanup (if you win teamfight, or defensively while retreating if you lose it).

Here's a short highlight video of a game with this build (if you want the full gameplay, let me know and I'll add it). Here the strategy is mainly pushing the side lanes:


But you can also adopt a more aggressive strategy with Zz'Rot rush and go all-in mid creating insane pressure and allowing your mid to roam (or not, depending) and then you just keep pushing until nexus (in this example I got Zz'Rot at level 6):

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Early Game and Ganking

In the early game, you want to focus on farm and on getting to lvl 6 ASAP so you can start ulting while farming not to lose any time to get those precious Ingenious stacks. You can still gank if you see an easy/guaranteed kill, or if it is on your way, sometimes even if a kill is not guaranteed it might be worth scaring the enemy laner so that they stop bullying your laner so much. But importantly don't lose too much time at each location, you gotta roll baby!

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Lvl 1 Gank Top Start

I usually always start top red when playing Shen jungle (even if it means invading enemy top jungle). Then I immediately gank top when I'm level 2 and the top laners are still lvl 1. That's better in my opinion than waiting for the laners to reach level 2 because you lose some advantage. If you gank when your lvl 2 and the top laners are lvl 1, that's (2+1)/1=3, but if you gank when they are level 2 your level advantage is now smaller (2+2)/2=2. And often the enemy top laner will level their dash or escape on lvl 2, which means they still don't have it when you gank at lvl 1. Hopefully you get first blood and a first stack on Ingenious Hunter.

Jungle Pathing

So as mentioned above, you start Red, you gank top, then, come back for Krugs, then if Scuttle has spawned, go take it, then switch river side and take the other scuttle immediately before continuing your farming route (easy farm + super strategically important vision and speed boost for jungle skirmishes). Don't hesitate to Smite it if you see the enemy jungler coming because they will probably smite it too and steal it. If Scuttle hasn't spawned yet, try to take the Raptors while waiting for top Scuttle (see how below). Then continue with the rest of the jungle: other side scuttle, wolves, Blue, Gromp, etc.



If you start blue side, instead, after (1) stealing top red and (2) ganking top, you can go the usual route: (3) Blue buff, (4) Gromp, (5) Scuttle, (6) Wolves (then back or take the other (7) scuttle and then (8) Krugs, (9) Red buff, (10) Raptors).

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How to take the Raptors lvl 2

How to take the Raptors when you're waiting for Scuttle to spawn if you're still lvl 2? The way to do that if you have taunt leveled up is that you kite one, walk away so they are all lined up, and then taunt them with Shadow Dash all in a line. Then attack one of the small ones with Q Twilight Assault until your HP is low enough so that it is worth to Smite the big one, and then finish the big one with Q. If you don't have taunt but w Spirit's Refuge leveled up, then make sure to use it after your passive Ki Barrier expired to make maximum use of it.



Then take care of the remaining small ones (you can kite while doing so if your HP is too low).

When to Ult

Ult Stand United only if you can get a kill/assist, say someone is tower diving your teammate under your tower, or there’s a close 1v1 and you can turn the tides. Let people die stupidly if you won’t get a kill/assist. Else you’ll waste your ult or worse give the enemy team a double kill. Or you can ult proactively if someone tanky engages seriously (dash, hard CC) and you know the enemy will commit and that you’ll be able to taunt in, triple Q, Titanic, Predator, etc. Try to use your ult to get your 5 stacks faster with assists even if your ult wasn’t absolutely necessary (very important especially to get that last stack for that champ who won’t die or always avoid you).

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One Difficulty

I feel like the hardest is to make efficient use of all your items since they’re all on such low cooldowns. Sometimes it’s hard to find good opportunities for Zz and you happen to die with an off-cooldown Zz (to be avoided so just drop it wherever if you can’t find a good place).


Same with wards (I forget to wards because they come up so often) and Predator, sometimes I forget to use it where it would be useful because I feel like I just used it and don’t realize it’s available again. Ohmwrecker is kind of harder to use too I feel, because it only nullifies tower for such a short time. But it can be useful when sieging a tower as a team + Zz rush. But you'll get used to all this with time.

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How to Use Zz'Rot Portal Effectively

There would be a lot to say about how to use Zz'Rot Portal effectively too, which I think comes with time and experience using it. First, use it close to towers you think you can take, or better yet when sieging a tower with your whole team so they can’t come in and destroy it (even better with Baron buff). But also, use it defensively when for example their whole team is pushing your midlane towers (and one man’s down), or guarding your top lane tower in a 2v1, or when you need to join team fight mid now but minions are taking bot tower and no enemy is coming (instead of clearing wave yourself).

Or again say both top towers are still up you drop it behind your tower and pressure mid with your team, forcing team fights mid while your Zz top pushes waves to take their top tower. You will still get gold from minions that die to Zz, and you will make maximum use of Zz utility, unlike if you would clear it yourself.

Also, unless I have a clear opportunity elsewhere, most of the time I use my first Zz'Rot in mid, behind your very own tower. The reason is that mid is the only place where you can put it behind your tower (so it is harder for enemies to destroy it) while it can STILL reach the enemy mid tower and destroy it (eventually). Or at least put insane pushing pressure to help your mid laner and take mid tower rapidly (or roam, or objectives, if appropriate).

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Final Word

Thanks for reading my brand new first guide! Try it out and let me know what you think!