1. 🏞️ Introduction: The River Shen Playstyle
2. ⚡ Laning Phase: Navigating the Early Game
3. 🌊 Wifi Support: How to Play
4. 🏞️ Why No Smite? The Strategy Explained
5. 📈Why It’s Okay to Fall Behind: The Comeback Mechanic
6. Auto-attacks setup between ganksMechanic
7. Tank burst Tech

River Shen's strategy revolves around his exceptional roaming potential. You leave your ADC in the bot lane to gain solo experience while you roam the map, securing kills for your jungler, midlaner, and toplaner. A key part of this playstyle is constantly harassing the enemy jungler through frequent invasions, either solo or with your jungler, while also helping secure vision across the map and contesting jungle objectives. Thanks to Shen ultimate, Stand United, you can gank the opposite side of the map from where your jungler is, providing global pressure and saving your team in key moments. It's also okay to fall behind in experience, because with Riot's comeback mechanics, you can easily recover XP later in the game.

As the name suggests, River Shen focuses on roaming around the river, but that’s not entirely accurate. Most of your time will actually be spent inside the enemy jungle, looking for opportunities to disrupt and waste the enemy jungler's time. Right at the start of the game, you have two options: invade with your team or invade solo. Invading alone can be risky, but thanks to Shadow Dash, you can easily slip into the enemy jungle undetected and set up plays.
The following will show standard pathing for solo invade depending on where the ennemy jungler started:

Stay in the bush until 1:30, then move toward the enemy jungler, making sure to stay hidden and out of sight at all times. If the enemy has warded the area, DO NOT invade. Before attempting to gank the enemy jungler, always place a ward in the bush near the buff to monitor their health and position. Wait until the jungler is low on health and the buff has around 100 HP before engaging. Use Shadow Dash to taunt them at the right moment. Make sure to use Ignite and Exhaust during the fight if necessary. After the taunt, your first auto attack should hit the buff to prevent the enemy jungler from healing off it and to steal it.

If you're solo invading the bot lane side red buff, you can start by waiting in the first bush near the red buff to check if the enemy ADC and support are returning to lane. Once they move out of your vision, proceed with your invade as normal, ensuring you're not seen and maintaining the element of surprise. This way, you can safely move into the enemy jungle without risking detection from the bot lane duo.
Whether the invade is successful or not, follow up by ganking midlane. After the gank, take just one minion with your Celestial Opposition stack to maintain pressure and gain gold. Then, place a ward at the enemy buff you haven't invaded yet while heading toward either the bot lane or top lane for another gank where you spend all your Celestial Opposition stack left. After this second gank, you can choose to invade the enemy jungler again or recall to purchase Boots and one or two Long Sword, preparing yourself for your next move.
You're next move should be to alert you're jungler to move toward taking an objective or ganking a lane with you. And then its up to the state of the game for the rest of the ganks/objective.

Shen excels at protecting his allies from a distance with Stand United, but when you add Redemption to his kit, you gain two powerful ways to assist your team from afar. This combination lets you support multiple allies across the map, even if they're far apart.

Here's how it works:

Core Item Synergy:

Redemption: Gives you an additional tool to heal and shield your allies from long range, providing a global impact even when you're not nearby.
Locket of the Iron Solari: Enhances your shielding potential with an active that shields multiple allies. This pairs well with Shen’s theme of providing strong, layered protection.
Moonstone Renewer: Boosts the healing and shielding power of Redemption, Locket of the Iron Solari, Stand United and Ki Barrier by increasing heals by 40% and shields by 45%, amplifying your overall impact.

Playstyle Breakdown:

Pre-Fight Setup:

If your ADC or another carry is in trouble, you can first use Twilight Assault to gain empowered auto attacks, then activate Redemption on them to heal from afar before engaging with Stand United.

Using Stand United:

While Stand United is channeling, you're already providing a shield to your ally. Since Redemption takes time to heal after activation, the healing will take effect just as you arrive. This timing ensures that the Redemption heal doesn't interfere with the bonus shield from Stand United, which increases by 0% to 60% based on the target's missing health. By the time you reach your ally, they've received the full benefit of Redemption's healing and shield from Stand United ensuring that they stay safe during critical moments.
Upon arriving, you can immediately activate Locket of the Iron Solari for additional shielding, then Shadow Dash to taunt enemies and protect your carry.

In the Fight:

After taunting the enemy, land your three empowered autos to deal bonus damage.
Use Spirit's Refuge at the right moment to block enemy auto-attacks, especially since the sword will appear exactly where you teleport after your ultimate, offering immediate protection to your ADC.

Multi-Target Assistance:

Redemption also allows you to assist two allies at the same time, even if they’re on opposite sides of the map. For instance, you can heal one ally with Redemption and, at the same time, use Stand United on another ally in a different fight.
With this item combination, it's incredibly hard for any allies to die. The constant shields, healing, and protection from autos ensure they can survive almost any situation. By carefully layering Redemption, Stand United, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Moonstone Renewer, you can continuously protect and save your team while disrupting the enemy with taunts and empowered autos.

Now, you might ask: why use Ignite and Exhaust instead of Smite, which could make stealing buffs easier and deny the enemy jungle more effectively? The answer lies in the synergy with Celestial Opposition. This item grants passive gold, help you contest vision against the enemy support, and, most importantly, provides a unique defensive benefit.

When you take damage, Celestial Opposition reduces incoming champion damage by 35% (for melee champions) or 25% (for ranged champions) for 2 seconds. This reduction is equivalent to gaining around 50 armor or magic resist during that window. (This passive is added with your already existing damage reduce % from your defensives stats)

So, Celestial Opposition's damage reduction of 35% (for melee) roughly translates to the defensive effect of having around 50 armor or magic resist, making it extremely valuable in fights. This gives you much more sustain during skirmishes and allows you to absorb more damage than you'd expect without Smite.

Additionally, Ignite and Exhaust provide utility during invades and skirmishes, letting you apply extra kill pressure with Ignite's damage over time and Exhaust's attack speed and damage reduction to cripple your enemies in duels.

With River Shen, it's common to fall behind in experience and gold, especially since you'll be roaming the map, supporting your team, and invading the enemy jungle rather than staying in lane to farm. However, this strategy is still effective thanks to Riot's comeback mechanic, which is designed to help players regain lost ground when they're behind.

How the Comeback Mechanic Works:

Riot's comeback mechanic provides extra experience when you’re behind the average level of the game. This system ensures that if you’re falling behind, you gain more experience from minions, monsters, and kills, allowing you to catch up more quickly.

Comeback XP Numbers for Minions:

If a champion is 2 or more levels behind the average level of the game (or enemy champion), they will start earning bonus experience from minions and jungle monsters.
This bonus is calculated based on how far behind you are:
For every level you're behind, you gain 10% extra XP from minions.
If you’re 2 levels behind, you’ll get 20% more XP.
If you’re 3 levels behind, you’ll get 30% more XP, and so on, up to a cap.

Comeback XP from Champion Takedowns:

If you're behind in levels, securing takedowns (kills or assists) will grant you a larger XP reward. This means that participating in ganks or teamfights will accelerate your comeback, even if you're a level or two behind.
When it comes to champion takedowns (kills or assists), the XP bounty scales based on how far behind you are:
If you're behind the average level of the game, you'll earn extra XP for champion kills or assists. For instance, a level 7 Shen killing or assisting in the takedown of a level 9 enemy will grant significantly more XP than a kill on a champion of the same level.

Shared Experience:

While roaming, your ADC will be gaining solo experience in the bot lane giving your adc a raw stat edge over the enemy adc. If you help the team by securing kills or assists across the map, you'll earn valuable XP through combat. Your time away from the bot lane can be compensated by contributing to the overall team’s success.

Mid to Late Game Scaling:

As the game progresses, Shen will gain back all the XP and around 13 min be effectively at the same level as the other enemy support or higher but your ADC will stay one or two level higher than the enemy ADC for the rest of the game.

While roaming as River Shen, you can set up your auto-attacks for maximum damage, similar to how Jungle Shen prepares for a buff clear. By stacking Twilight Assault effectively, you can get 6 empowered auto-attacks and refresh your Ki Barrier to increase your damage and survivability in fights. Here’s how the comparison works:

Jungle Shen Buff Clear:

First Q at 1:16: Shen casts Q early to use up his passive shield and get it on cooldown, making sure it's ready when the jungle buff spawns.
Second Q at 1:24: Just before the buff spawns at 1:30, Shen casts Q again to get his first 3 empowered auto-attacks when hitting the buff.
Third Q at 1:32: Shen casts Q one more time, pulling the Spirit Blade through the buff. This gives him another 3 empowered autos and refreshes his Ki Barrier shield.

River Shen Gank:

You can use this same technique when you're walking in the river toward a gank or a fight.
First Q: As you walk through the river, cast Twilight Assault early to use up your Ki Barrier shield and start its cooldown, ensuring it's available again during the fight.
Second Q: Right before engaging or just as you’re about to fight, cast Q again to empower your first 3 auto-attacks. These hits will deal more damage.
Third Q: After landing those empowered autos, pull the Spirit Blade through the enemy with another Q. This gives you another set of 3 empowered autos and refreshes your shield, making you more durable in the fight.

Benefits for River Shen:

More Damage: You get 6 empowered hits instead of just 3, which makes a big difference in fights.
Better Protection: You refresh your Ki Barrier shield, keeping yourself safer during the gank.
Simple Setup: It only take 16 second before ganking so you can do it while walking back from base or between roaming from one lane to another

Time and Timing of Q Stacks to Reach Top Lane from base:

Without Boots: It takes about 30-32 seconds to reach the middle of the top lane through the jungle.
With Tier 1 boots, it takes 24-26 seconds to B-line from the fountain to the middle of the top lane through the jungle path.
With Tier 2 Boots, it takes about 21-22 seconds to reach the same spot with Tier 2 boots
Twilight Assault has an 8-second cooldown, and Shen’s passive shield has a static 10-second cooldown after using an ability.
Here a graph taking into account different boot tier for q timing:
Time (seconds): 0 6 10 14 18 22 26 30 34 38

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Without Boots ◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼Q[18s]◼◼◼◼◼◼Q[26s]◼◼
With Tier 1 boots ◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼Q[12s]◼◼◼◼◼Q[20s]◼◼◼◼
With Tier 2 Boots ◼◼◼◼◼◼Q[8s]◼◼◼◼◼Q[16s]◼◼◼

Here how all that work:
Formula Breakdown
(BonusAD+BaseAD)+100(DMP)+120(Bloodsong)+0.04×MaxHP(Grasp)+0.06×MaxHP(Heartsteel)+3.5%HPdmg(Q)=around 900 dmg
Here’s what each part means:
(Bonus AD + Base AD)
This represents Shen’s total Attack Damage (AD), including both his base AD and any extra AD from items, runes, or buffs.

+100 (DMP - Dead Man’s Plate Passive)
Dead Man’s Plate (DMP) has a passive called "Shipwrecker", which builds up movement speed and deals bonus damage on auto-attacks when fully charged.

+120 (Bloodsong Passive Damage)
Bloodsong is an item that increases damage output based on melee attacks.

+0.04 × Max HP (Grasp of the Undying)
Grasp of the Undying (a Keystone Rune) deals 4% of Shen’s Max HP as bonus damage when he lands an empowered attack after being in combat.

+0.06 × Max HP (Heartsteel Passive)
Heartsteel grants a stacking 6% max HP damage bonus after a charged attack.

+3.5% HP Damage (Q Passive Damage Multiplier)
Shen’s [Twilight Assault] enhances his next 3 auto-attacks, dealing bonus magic damage that scales with his max HP.
Since we're focusing on the first Q-auto, it deals 3.5% of his max HP as bonus magic damage.

Total Damage Estimation
When summed up, it reaches around 900 damage, assuming decent HP, AD, and the necessary items.