Shen is not an easy champion. While his abilities and mechanics are not hard to master he requires good macro-managment and understanding of the game. You need to have map awareness as well because with Shen you can't leave your ulti chances go to waste since you can throw the game. Still he is not the hardest champion either and eventhough he is not a champ made for flashy plays he is very rewarding and he can carry teams on his back because of his ability to control the game. As a champion he is not countered easily as well because as Shen you can always do something effectively. So if you want a tanky champ with strong dueling and the ability to save teammates and turn numbers to his advantage you should play Shen.

In patch 10.6 Riot buffed Shen's Q so that it does doube damage to monsters. Shen was already a somewhat viable jungler and with this buff he can finaly claim his place in the Jungle role.

Shen is a champion that relies in snowballing his team with his ultimate and his ability to splitpush and take objectives while also being able to teleport imidiately to he heat of the battle. He is also a pretty strong duelist, especially in the early game and he is quite tanky as well. These traits make him a very strong jungler that can always be there for his teammates.

Eventhought the meta hasn't caught up yet, I am sure we will see more Shen jungle in the future.

In top lane shen usually prefers to build Grasp of the Undying and Aftershock because of the way his kit works. The second would also be a good jungle choice because it offers survivabilty and extra dmg. Still, an Ideal rune for Shen in jungle would be one that gives him burst in all stages of the game, to make hsi skirmishes and gangs more effective, since a jungle rarely does extended trades iin the early and mid game. So, after some testing, I concluded that Hail of Blades, eventhough a suboptimal pick in lane, is an excellent pick in the jungle.



So, HoB gives Shen massive attack speed burst for his first 3 attacks, which allows him to do his 3 empowered attacks from his Q, Twilight Assault, very fast. His Q does a lot of dmg, especially for such a tanky champion, and with HoB that dmg is very frontloaded as well.



This rune is obvious. it gives Shen extra burst dmg when he uses his E, Shadow Dash


This rune gives Shen more adaptive dmg. The other two choices ar enot very good with Shen because he is nto an invasive Jungler early game and he doesn't build lethality to get mac profit from zombie ward.


This Rune is very important for Shen because it decreases his Ultimate's cooldown, helping him have even bigger map pressure and snowball games better.


An excellent rune for Shen, it increases his passive shield, increases his dueling strength and his burst damage as well.


This rune is very useful, especially in the Jungle where smite has very low cooldown. Thsi Rune gives Shen extra tenacity, helping him against heave cc and loow him to stick to his targets, especially with the help of Boots of Swiftness or Mercury's Treads.

The items are a combination of his more traditional builds with adjuastments to make him work better in the jungle.

Stalker's Blade - Cinderhulk is essential for Shen because Bami's Cinder helps him with clear and dueling and it also gives him health stats. The blue smite helps slowing enemies that try to escape gangs.

Titanic Hydra pairs very well with CInderhulk since the items does more dmg with increasing health and Tiamat shoudl be prioritised early since it helps Shen with his jungle clears, since shen has no aoe dmg. The active also helps in waveclear and gives extra dmg in dueling.

Shurelya's Battlesong is the strangest item in the build, not only because it's a support item but also because it gives mana. Eventhough the mana stat gets wasted, it's a very small stat of the already cheap iteam that gives shen many useful stats like health, heath regeneration and 10% heal and shield power which increases his passive adn ulti strength. The most important stat of the item thogu is the active, which gives Shen and his teammates increased movement speed for 3 seconds, which can turn a gang or teamfight around since shen can activate the item after his ultimate and catch enemies that run or catch enemies that are out of position.

The boots usually shoud be Boots of Swiftness, because they give 15 movement speed more than all other boots (except boots of mobility) and they also give slows resitance, which helps shen stick to oponents and escape bad situations easier. Another good choice is Mercury's Treads, which are more helpful when the enemy has lot of AP and heavy CC like stuns and roots, since the boots increase tenacity.

A very good buy on Shen when he wants to go tanky but still do some dmg is Dead Man's Plate, since the item passive charges with movement speed and Shen with Shurelya's can charge the item very fast.

After these there are many viable items on Shen, he can choose to go tankyor he can choose a more dmg oriented option from bruiser items to attack speed and armor pen items. Everything depends on the enemy team comp.


I hope you guys found this guide useful and I hope that Shen will give you a lot of free LP. Good luck on Summoner's Rift.