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Shen Laning Guide (Patch 13.7)

A laning and itemization guide for everyone.

surelynottop

March 31st, 2023 ⸱ 16 min read



Welcome again, dear reader. I'm surelynottop.

If you've read my other guides,you can skip this section safely. But if you didn't and are new here,here's a quick introduction of me.

I'm a Top/jungle player, who loves to play as my main, Mordekaiser. However,due to Top starting to become less and less useful, I've switched to other roles,and started focusing on different, efficient and fun playstyles. Everything you'll read here is field-tested with at least 200+ games of experience.

However, I want to keep in mind that i'm NOT a high elo player. I've played againts high elo players myself but i've never faced more than diamonds in my matches, excluding the usual broken matchamking moments.

With that out of the way,let's break down what this guide will focus on.





What is Shen's identity?

Shen is a tanky,but also mobile, Tank champion,who loves teamfights and to help the team. His ultimate,

Stand United
,is a very good turntables spell and very efficient at roaming and joining fights. He has a very good dueling capability if used right,but that comes from experience first.



What are his strenghts?

-Very good lane sustain with his passive,

Ki Barrier

-A good amount of CC(Crowd Control) with his Q,

Twilight Assault
and his E,
Shadow Dash

-Can block autoattacks with his W,

Spirit's Refuge

-Damage based on the enemy %health

-great roaming and mobility



What are his weaknesses?

-Very bad waveclear by default,with only autoattacks being able to damage minions

-Very long cooldown on his Ultimate,at 200 seconds

-Mediocre at best splitpushing

-Weak pick against splitpushers and mobile comps

I'll include a summary here. If you wanna learn in depth, i'll explain in depth how you can improve at Shen.

Quick Shen Tank Top Build

Summoner Spells

Starting Items

Best Overall Build

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Understanding itemization and build order

Contrary to common belief,

Shen
has great synergy with a lot of items in the in-game shop. Reason why is, he has great gold efficiency for the kit it provides. Combining His intrinsic CC and his sustain, he can manage to build almost everything and make it work easily.

One of those items is

Bami's Cinder
. You can easily leave this item alone and focus on your mythic item. The 300 health and burn damage provided is super valuable to compensate a lot of his weaknesses early on.

Another example is

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
,which compensates his hefty cooldown ultimate and helps at early roams/dueling.

Last one i wanna talk about is

Warden's Mail
,which greatly reduces damage by autoattackers and minions. Of course,a argument can also be made for
Bramble Vest
and his
Shadow Dash
interaction.

Lastly,he can build a lot of mythics and make them work. As demonstrated by the Challenger Shen player xPetu, every stat you buy will benefiti him in a specific playstyle. My personal favourite is

Divine Sunderer
,but i'll be focusing on the main stuff for this guide.



How does
Stand United
work and when should you use it?

After choosing a ally champion, the spell will trigger any kind of spell effects (

Radiant Virtue
,
Iceborn Gauntlet
etc.),then,after 3 seconds,teleport to the location the ally's at. If the target is sent to
Mordekaiser
's
Realm of Death
,you'll teleport to his last location outside the ultimate.

Keep in mind these 3 things:

-You can be interrupted while channeling by any hard CC ,silences included.

-If the target dies, you will not teleport at all.

-The ultimate shield benefits from any %shield increases, such as

Spirit Visage
,
Redemption
and
Revitalize
.



Any tips to play
Shen
more efficiently?

-

Ki Barrier
cooldown gets reduced when you affect a enemy or ally champion,excluding you,with abilities. This means whenever you pull your blade through someone with
Twilight Assault
, taunting with
Shadow Dash
, and blocking autoattacks with
Spirit's Refuge
.

-

Spirit's Refuge
can and will block autoattack interactions while you're near your blade. This includes some weird stuff such as Viego's
Heartbreaker
and on-hit damage from Jax's
Grandmaster-at-Arms

- You can flash while using

Shadow Dash
to extend his range and nullify reaction time.

- do NOT use

Stand United
only when someone is at low health. It works exactly like a teleport but better, so use it also to join fights and objectives. If the target dies,you'll just waste a ultimate and stay in lane.

What runes do you think work best with shen?

-

Grasp of the Undying
is surely one of the best runes,if not THE best, for shen. The amount of CC you inflict can make you proc it at least twice,giving some good sustain, damage and 7 max health for proc. It also helps with poking a bit while laning against melee users.

-

Aftershock
works great for those matchups where you won't be able to proc grasp consistently,but a engage with
Shadow Dash
is viable. This includes ranged opponents, enemies who do short trades and some minor exceptions.

-

Fleet Footwork
is good only in unfamiliar bully matchups,where you'd rather scale than farm or fight alone.

The rest of the secondary runes depends totally on the enemy laner and team. A special mention goes for

Shield Bash
,since it can be activated multiple times if used correctly.
Ultimate Hunter
should be a must in most games, alongside
Cheap Shot
for a bit extra damage whenever you taunt or slow.

I'll list some rune pages below the matchup section,since these are very important.

I'll add more with time, but i'll list some of the most common ones for both lanes.



Matchups (Both Top and Mid)

Threats:

0

0

0

0

Here's some rune pages examples.

  • Stock Runes
  • Ranged Matchups
  • Scaling Matchups
  • Aggressive Runes

Summoner Spells

For summoner spells, Choice it's easy: always teleport-ignite/ghost if toplane, ignite-ghost is midlane. You can always opt for flash and use it for E-Flash plays, but that's not going to work always,while ghost works perfectly with Q's slows, has less cooldowns and is better at teamfights. Paired with

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
,this gives you absurdly low cooldowns.

    

    

    Item Builds

    Use

    Bami's Cinder
    if you need more clear and dueling potential, <Ionian is for roams and lanes you've gone ahead/are passive early. 300 health and a bit more damage during trades is very valuable early,as that 25 DPS from it is great.

    Boots depend on the enemy teamcomp mostly,if they got hybrid damage ionian is the best,heavy CC is

    Mercury's Treads
    ,or if 3+ AP, and
    Plated Steelcaps
    boots if 3+ autoattackers. Don't rush boots based only on the enemy laner,if possible.

    

    Iceborn Gauntlet
    is a menace of a item,since you can proc it twice during a single trade,if using your spells correctly. E-empowered Q-W will proc it twice in 2.5 seconds,giving about 200+ damage,a slow and reduced damage. Super good against heavy AD laners such as
    Fiora
    or
    Aatrox
    ,or mobile champs such as assassins or,again,
    Fiora
    and
    Aatrox

    

    Jak'Sho, The Protean
    is used for when you wanna really tank the enemy team. You can go for
    Conditioning
    when using it,so that it activates a recursive stacking on bonus resists,giving about 15+ worth of stats for both
    Armor
    and
    Magic Resist
    . Altho this item is not great untill you buy 3 items,the health drain and armor stacking works great mid-late.

    

    Radiant Virtue
    it's a awesome item and very underrated for supportive plays. Shen already has a good amount of health, so the AOE healing will be great. If using
    Redemption
    and
    Revitalize
    this greatly amplifies it to healings exceeding 400 health midgame.

    

    Titanic Hydra
    is good only if you wanna splitpush and your team has a lot of AP (3+). It's great at his purpose but for building it you'll have to give up
    Sunfire Aegis
    . It's rough but vey worth it. Don't build both or you'll just lose the value of both. Although you can go for
    Bami's Cinder
    into titanic,then sell bami later,if you really want to compensate for enemy pushes (
    Fiora
    Yorick
    and
    Nasus
    come to mind).

    

    Frozen Heart
    is super slept on ,and even if you don't get any mana,the %
    Attack Speed
    reduction it's super good. Cheap item,worth the stats if you really need to build armor. It's a great 2nd item for AD teams.

    

    Heartsteel
    it's kinda mediocre,unless stacked. The health stacking comes into play,but as a shen it's not something you particularly desire early. However,if the enemy team allows for scaling,and you're getting ahead,it's a viable option for those huge
    Stand United
    shield plays.

    

    • Item List

    

    Game plans/ Game strategies

    Since shen can have a lot of scenarios when laning and fighting,here i'll include the most common scenarios, so that you'll have a solid gameplan for when it happens. Keep in mind some champions can be more categories (Fiora is both mobile and splitpusher for example).

    • 1
    

    Splitpushing,duelists,and/or mobile champs.

    These are by far the hardest,if not the worst,matchups for Shen,if unexperienced. These ones will always have some tool to punish or negate your engage,partially,or completely (

    Darius
    ,
    Fiora
    ,
    Yorick
    etc). These ones will either demolish your tower or your healthbar. Wave management here is crucial,to say the least, I hope you got a somewhat decent one.

    

    Bone Plating
    can really help you survive ,since they don't have essential poke your passive can't deny,and they mostly do all-ins. Take 1(2 if unsure)
    Armor
    shards in the runes,
    Overgrowth
    and if necessary
    Demolish
    . If you wanna duel,you can use the standard runes.

    Game plan should be the following:

    -Don't die in lane or you'll have to use teleport,here it'll be super crucial. Stay passive and try to farm until 6,then go for plays with your ult,and come back with TP before they take 2-3 plates. If your team is behind you'll have to scale a bit and force objcetives. If you didn't manage to win lane there's nothing you can do.

    -play aggressively early,forcing Q-Grasp pokes to cheap the enemy health (its about 100 damage with a auto like this) before lv 2-3 (depending on the matchups,some like

    Yorick
    can be dueled before 6). Some enemies will not be easy to trade with or poke,so sort it out based on your experience and confidence.

    AD duelists

    

    Yasuo
    ,
    Yone
    and
    Olaf
    ,who are all very autoattacks focused, should need a lot of care based on both players experience. You can block (almost) their entire damage with your
    Spirit's Refuge
    ,but they can also 100-to-0 your health unless you play it right.

    

    Plated Steelcaps
    ,
    Warden's Mail
    and
    Bramble Vest
    are very good against thembut I advice to only build 2 of them. Take the choice based on how good/fed they're. of course,
    Fiora
    also resided here,cause she can be 4 types of enemies at once..

    Keep teleport up, go for ignite if you don't wanna buy grievious wounds, and fight them either by poke or all-ins when they can take one. Careful about dhases,shields or spells that will negate it.

    Scaling,heavy damage laners

    For champions such as

    Veigar
    ,
    Kayle
    and
    Nasus
    ,they won't be dangerous at all early game,instead you should be demolishing them. You can take
    Shadow Dash
    LV 1 for zoning ,and farm with autoattacks. You're a lane bully for them,so make sure to not let them scale and timegate based on what they need:

    -stackers like

    Nasus
    and
    Veigar
    scale on kill,minion farm and gold,so engaging them asap and not let them touch as many minions as possible works great. Against them you can freeze a wave and negate their farm at the very early levels. Remember,the more they stack,the faster they scale,so slowing them a bit works.

    -levelers such as

    Aurelion Sol
    and
    Kayle
    ,which power greatly scales from levels should be kept away a wave,but in midlane this is very hard, so take them as a timebomb and help other lanes when shoving. Before 5 mins, towers don't take damage,so you have time for 1 or 2 roams.

    It's very easy to roam with them,both top and mid,they hardly push waves early so Ults are a go-to if you can. You can also take

    Aftershock
    ,since they won't stay very close, and it's a good choice for fights.

    Assassins

    Easy-neutral matchups,you can easily farm and roam while pushing waves after buying

    Bami's Cinder
    . If you push the wave you can easily ult while they shove back,so you can take any runes as you wish. Some of them like
    Zed
    or
    Fizz
    will NOT engage you,but just poke you or shov. I'd advice to take at least take some sustain (
    Second Wind
    into
    Ruby Crystal
    works perfectly to build into
    Bami's Cinder
    fast and push faster).

    Control mages

    Some of them like

    Viktor
    or
    Malzahar
    will always push more,so in these cases i suggest building
    Titanic Hydra
    instead of sunfire cape. Go for a
    Magic Resist
    shard,
    Doran's Shield
    and
    Second Wind
    , to be healthy for those roams. You can trade
    Ignite
    here if you don't want kill pressure,and go for
    Heal
    or
    Exhaust
    to help around the map. Since you're likely to not run
    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    given some hard CC's,having low cooldown spells really helps a lot.

    Juggernauts

    Champions like

    Mordekaiser
    ,
    Darius
    and
    Sett
    can easily stomp you both early and mid game if you're not careful. They have high damage but have at least one crucial spell to land. They're great at negating you xp,so you've to trade some health or give up farm completely. Take teleport against all but Mordekaiser, as he sucks at pushing, AD juggernauts will take 1 or more plates if you have to go back for a emergency. Take
    Exhaust
    against them instead of
    Ghost
    if you're not confident.

    

    Sunfire Aegis
    is a great item against them,even first. For Mordekaiser,you can go for raw resist items such as
    Iceborn Gauntlet
    or
    Jak'Sho, The Protean
    ,depending on the enemy damage types. If he goes
    Riftmaker
    first you'll always lose after LV 6-9, so might as well help the team.

    Keep teleport up for roams,stay safe and let them scale,or wait for a gank.

    Ranged ADC Laners

    Literal definition of "Why are you taking a ADC into a duelist tank?"

    Some of them are easily crushed,others like

    Vayne
    are a pain. For the mobile ones, wait for their dashes before taunting, for the immobile ones,easy AF. Take double
    Armor
    if unsure, farm safely and roam.
    Ghost
    and
    Ignite
    combo it's perfect for both mid and top. Take
    Plated Steelcaps
    and they won't damage you anymore.

    Proxy farmers

    By far it's most common on

    Singed
    ,
    Sion
    and
    Rammus
    .

    Proxy happens when someone farms the waves before they come at the outer tower. Playing against them is simply not stopping them. Take the scaling runes i mentioned above, go

    Ruby Crystal
    alone (don't buy anything else) and buy
    Bami's Cinder
    asap. Then recall after 2-3 waves, buy it and it's a chill lane. Only
    Sion
    can push with
    Demolish
    ,so tower is safe too. You can also buy
    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    if you really wanna help with ults or wanna stop their proxying.

    Drain tanks (heavy sustain laners)

    

    Bramble Vest
    into
    Plated Steelcaps
    it's a must to buy. Don't rush
    Bami's Cinder
    ,instead go for
    Boots
    or
    Cloth Armor
    into
    Refillable Potion
    potion early. Champions like
    Aatrox
    will completely have their heals negated early,while
    Warwick
    and
    Olaf
    can now be fought with care. Some are dependant by your W,while some by your E.
    Gwen
    heals a lot while not being AD, so it's very hard to counter her. Only a full sustain setup will negate her(
    Doran's Shield
    in
    Second Wind
    in
    Magic Resist
    ) . Against her you can go
    Heartsteel
    ,as you won't be building any item that helps against true damage outside of raw health and regen.

    Tanks

    You melt tanks early games,so it's not a issue to fight them. Take

    Bami's Cinder
    ,push waves,ult. Easy lane,easy matchups, as long as they don't hard-scale like
    Malphite
    or
    Sion
    you'll be more useful.

    Lv 1-Early game strategies

    Try to always invade the enemy jungle with your team,either top or bot side. It's very easy to secure kills with your taunt, assuming you move correctly through a invade. Early game it deals a lot of damage,plus shielding you from it. Don't level it up unless you see someone who can be engaged upon.

    Your farm and push before

    Bami's Cinder
    is utterly horrible compared to other champions, so try to last-hit or Q-Grasp poke the enemy laner. Against some ranged ones you might opt for E, but that's up to personal preference and matchup.

    If you wanna roam,you might opt for pushing a wave,regardless of some of the damage you'll take. Doing so will let you stack

    Ultimate Hunter
    faster,meaning more roams and more ults.

    If you wanna play it safe,farm until 6 and roam after it.

    Mid-game strategies

    About LV 10-11 you should've scaled pretty well,but here is when you'll be starting to fall off. Now you're really dependant on good fights and roams, so force them when they're available.

    After 20 mins passed,you can now always focus on plays with your ultimates, while pushing a sidelane. Your focus is not to take towers,unless you can take one or you're going for a splitpushing build/setup. Mostly,you'll push waves. Doing so will sometimes force a laner to come and farm it, making it a 4v5 or less if happens. Go for plays around the map, ult,take a objective together, go back in lane,repeat.

    Late-game strategy

    There's only one thing you'll be able to do in late game: push and fight. If you die its a very crucial mistake,so make it that dying will not be your fault. Not having a teammate can make you lose a game very easily.

    It was important early game, now placing a E or W correctly in a fight is a win-or-lose scenario.

    Spell interactions(IMPORTANT)

    -

    Shadow Dash
    will apply grievious wounds with
    Bramble Vest
    since it's a taunt,meaning you're very efficient at it. You can dash through some thicker walls if using your cursor right, and can do shorter dashes by having your cursor closer to you.

    -

    Spirit's Refuge
    will block the following spells/effects:

    On-hit damage from autos,

    

    Jax
    's
    Empower
    and
    Grandmaster-at-Arms
    on-hit damage,

    

    Viego
    's
    Heartbreaker
    and mark-autoattacks,

    

    Ezreal
    's
    Mystic Shot
    ,

    

    Warwick
    's Q (negating the heal too)

    

    Fizz
    Seastone Trident
    damage,

    

    Vi
    Relentless Force
    damage (not the shockwave) and W,

    

    Ekko
    Phase Dive
    autoattack,

    

    Hecarim
    's
    Devastating Charge
    ,

    

    Kayle
    's
    Starfire Spellblade
    and passive wave damage(sometimes it's not blocked,may be a temporary bug),

    

    Talon
    's
    Noxian Diplomacy
    ,

    

    Twisted Fate
    's
    Pick a Card
    ,

    the entire existance of

    Udyr
    ,

    

    Nidalee
    's Q when in cougar form,

    

    Renekton
    's
    Ruthless Predator
    ,

    and all spells that are considered autoattacks by default. (

    Yasuo
    ,
    Yone
    and
    Trundle
    Q's,
    Aatrox
    and
    Galio
    's passives, and
    Dr. Mundo
    's
    Blunt Force Trauma
    )

    -

    Twilight Assault
    will be empowered when passing through clones,so if a
    Shaco
    ,
    LeBlanc
    or
    Neeko
    send a clone,use it for a free use.

    If you're reading this, I thank you in advance, for this guide took me a long while to make.

    As always, a like and any critiques/feedback is greatly appreciated. I'll see you all in the summoner's rift. <3

    

    

    ShenMidTop
    AUTHOR
    surelynottop
    ABOUT

    Middle elo Mordekaiser OTP,who uncovers all strategies,interactions and matchups to guarantee the best Mordekaiser experience you can,offering in-depth guides<3

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