If you're looking for the best rune build for Shen we've got you covered. Below you can find the best items and runes to build for Shen, as determined by calculations of thousands of Plat+ League of Legends games. If you are already familiar with how to play Shen this is a great resource to quickly get a good rune selection for Patch 14.1. However, if you are a new Shen player we highly recommend reading through some of the guides above to learn why this build is strong on Shen! Second Best 51%Win Rate 13% Pickrate Third Best 53%Win Rate 2% Pickrate Second Best 54%Win Rate 11% Pickrate Third Best 48%Win Rate 5% Pickrate Second Best 47%Win Rate 9% Pickrate Third Best 51%Win Rate 8% Pickrate Second Best 41%Win Rate 18% Pickrate Third Best 49%Win Rate 13% Pickrate Shen CountersLearn Shen's counters and discover matchups where they have an advantage! When you're starting a game of League of Legends you should always keep in mind if you'll be at an advantage or disadvantage against your opponent, so you can know whether to bully them or play safe. You can find detailed breakdowns of each matchup on CounterStats, and you can also check out some Shen guides to see how to build and play against other champions you may find yourself up against! This counter data is for Shen TOP in Plat+ games. The percent shown is the enemy champion's counter rating against Shen. Counter rating is our own statistic that factors in counter kills, overall kills, early lead ratio, comeback ratio, and win percent to give the whole picture of that champion's effectiveness as a counter pick. Counters powered by CR is Counter Rating, which is a combination of multiple counter factors. Counters shown are for Shen Shen TOP Best Against Shen
Worst Against Shen
Common Matchups
Shen SkinsFind Shen's skins and when they were last on sale. Never miss a sale for your favorite skin by using our Wish List feature! You can also find all Shen skins and chromas on Shen's skins page. These are the runes I use but that doesn't mean that you must use these at all costs. I simply suggest those for the reasons above. Alternative RunesHere I will enlist some alternative runes that fit Shen's playstyle and I will also give a brief explanation on how he benefits from them.MARKS They works really good on him as they help your last hitting and make trades easier for you. SEALS These seals will provide you with an extra 4 HP regen per 5 secons aiding your sustain in lane. GLYPHS You can pick these up when you are going against a heavy AP team or an AP top to withstand some damage early on. QUINTESSENCES Awsome runes in every champion. The increased MS will help you throughout the game in a lot of circumstances, from chasing down an opponent to reaching an ally faster in order to help him. Same reasoning as the Seals, these will provide you with an extra 8 HP regen per 5 secons aiding your sustain in lane. Summoner SpellsFor the summoners spells I recommend the following 3 spells. That's the way I play with Shen and works fine for me but I will also enlist some of the rest of them in an order from the most useful to the least one they way I consider them to be.RECOMMENDED This is your "get out of here now!" spell. Flash can be used either offensive for a well-aimed taunt and initiate or defensive in order to escape a gank or dogde an incoming ulti as Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow or Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage. That little extra damage we need to get rid of the lucker of the game who always run with 20 hp left. It will make top skirmishes turn in your favour and is a must if the opponent team has self-healing champs like Warwick, Vladimir or Dr. Mundo. Also a nice extra AP boost after use for better early harass. Teleport used to be one of my main spells. As Shen you have your very own teleport and therefore a global preseance on the map already. Compined with this spell you will be able to splitpush like mad as you will literally be everywhere.OPTIONAL Ghost is an excellent choice for Shen as you leave top very rarely and if you do you can rush back with it quickly. It is also a great escape mechanism as well as a chase spell. ]If you want to shut down their ad carry or you wanna catch up with your running opponent then Exhaust will do the job. Can also be used defensively to slow down a chaser.Abilities Ki Strike is your passive that will let you harass early game and get these last minion hits you need to farm efficiently, with its extra damage. It has an 9 seconds CD that is reduced by 1 second for every autoattack making purchasing AS somewhat of a must. It scales of your maximum HP so building some early HP will increase your damage output also. Shadow Dash is what makes you a flipping ninja! Run through them and taunt them so your carry can run them through. It's a on area taunt that can hit multiple enemies in a line and your only form of CC. It cost a lot of energy but it returns 40 energy per champion hit, thus making it crucial to succesfully land it. You can also use it to run through walls to escape ninja style! A both defensive and offensive ability with great utility. United We Stand! Shen's ultimate is one of the best ultimates in the whole game. It's a global shield that shields an ally for 250, 550 and finally 850 HP. That's like 33% of your carry's HP. It will also teleport you at your targeted ally to help them in fight. The video in this section is focused on using Shen's Ultimate, Stand United to save allies and help in teamfights.The Top LaneWhile solo top with Shen your main objective is to farm a lot of minions and harass your opponent/s till your jungler arrives for gank. In this section I 'll try to give you some advices concerning your gamestyle against other solo top champs. Please note the fact that because you are a tank and you only have one damaging spell, it will be very difficult to bring an opponent down on your own, unless you have packed Ignite or Exhaust.Against Other Solo Top Aatrox is in my opinion a rather different version of Tryndamere. He lacks his early damage output but he compensates for that with more CC. He can set you up really nice for his jungler by slowing 1st with his Blades of Torment and knocking you up with his Dark Flight after. His ultimate Massacre gives him a AS buff and a larger aa range. What defines Aatrox however is his passive Blood Well that works like a Guardian Angel giving him a second chance after death. The easiest way to counter Aatrox is to rush a Warden's Mail as it will diminish his damage a lot.Start with: + Akali is a rather easy match up for you. You will be able to outharrass her and zone her pretty easily. Focus on harrasing her with your Vorpal Blade and shield the damage she will try to deal you. The moment she gets in her Twilight Shroud taunt her so she comes out of stealth. Once she hits level 6 she will become more aggressive. Use this to your advantage.Start with: + +sight ward
Cho'Gath is a really hard pusher and a formidable opponenet in solo top. He will be able to outharrass and outfarm you and probably set up a nice gang with his jungler. Play defensive and focus on last hitting. Don't try to harrass cause he will be able to regen the damage from his passive Carnivore. Work with your jungler to constantly gang him in order to slow him down.Start with: + +sight ward
Darius is a great damage dealer. However you bring to the table everything he hates. That is high HP from early on, Tankiness and ways to outsustain him. He will try to harrass you with Apprehend and Decimate. Counter him with leveling up your Feint and try to outharrass him. If he sucessfully pulls you to him simply dash away. However when he hits level 6 try not to fall too low on HP or you are dead!Start with: +
Diana is going to make your life hard. She is AP and has a wide range high damage Q spell. Furthermore the path of her Crescent Strike is difficult to be forseen and avoided. She will easily harass and zone you and will rely on her Pale Cascade for sustain. There are little you can do against her so focus on farming.Start with: + +sight ward
A harrass contest! Be sure to avoid his Infected Bonesaw and you will be able to outharrass him. Once he hits level 6 he will try to tower dive you if you are low on HP relying on his Maximum Dosage. In this case use this combo: Shadow Dash -> Ignite -> Feint -> Vorpal Blade -> Ki Strike -> KILL!!Start with: + +sight ward Elise is one of the hardest matchups you are going to face. She is a ranged AP mage giving her an advantage over you but that's not all. Elise is the perfect pick against high HP top champs cause of her Neurotoxin and Venomous Bite that scale of the opponent's HP. Elise won't go full AP cause of the advantage these 2 spells give her over you and she will focus in a more tanky build for survivability. She will poke you down and make your life in lane miserable. Furthermore she has an amazing long range stun and one of the best escape mechanism through Rappel to avoid and escape ganks.There is nothing you can do in this lane but farm what you can and try calling for multiple ganks.Start with: + +sight ward /
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/ So Fiora... She is better in jungle but she can be seen at top lane too. She brings a lot of damage but she is not much of a threat to Shen and she can be easily harrassed with Vorpal Blade. The things you should care about are that her Riposte works against Ki Strike and her Blade Waltz will let her towerdive in a gank.Start with: + Gangplank is easy pray for Shen. You can shield against his Parrrley and harrass him all day long with Vorpal Blade. You will eventually outsustain him and force him back. The only thing you need to remember is that he is a little difficult to get ganked cause he can cancel your taunt with his Remove Scurvy and increase his MS with Raise Morale.Start with: + Garen is considered a solid pick for solo top and he can bully a lot of champion. Not Shen however. He is an easy match up for you. Just Vorpal Blade to prevent his health regen and shield his Decisive Strike. You will almost never be low health in order for him to execute you with Demacian Justice.Start with: + Irelia is a difficult match up. Her Hiten Style provides her with sustain and when she activates it the effect is doubled and it adds true damage on each autoattack. Her Equilibrium Strike will allow her to stun you or slow you depending on the situation and her Bladesurge provides her with a lot of mobility to avoid ganks or follow up one. I suggest you max your Feint in order to help you in negating some of her damage.Start with: + Jarvan IV has medium sustain in lane depending on his Golden Aegis. Try harrassing him but don't stretch yourself cause he can inflict some serious damage with his Martial Cadence and Dragon Strike. Be sure to avoid his Demacian Standard+ Dragon Strike combo as it almost always preludes an incoming gank.Start with: + Jax is a hard pusher and he will try to harrass you with his Leap Strike but has low sustain. Try blocking it with Feint and counter attack with a full combo. This way you will be able to outharrass him and make him realize who is the boss. Past lvl 6 his dueling skills will overcome yours so be a little more carefull. You may wanna pick up Exhaust against this certain match up.Start with: + +sight ward This guy is just so strong! A good Jayce can win a good Shen anyday. His Thundering Blow scales 1:1 with AD as well as doing % damage of your max HP. Also he restores his mana with each hit due to the passive from Lightning Field. As these weren't enough he can go into kiting mode and harrass you all day long with his Shock Blast rendering you unable to farm. His Shock Blast combined with Acceleration Gate will also let him farm from safe distant if he falls behind anytime in the game and will also do great damage against you. Ask for a quick gang to get ahead of him and max your Feint first in order to soak some damage.Start with: + /
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/ Kayle can go anywhere. When she's top she often builds hybrid or AD and she wrecks havoc as she has a long range slow, a heal that also provides MS, a range autoattack buff and an ulty that makes her IMMUNE to any damage for 3 sec. She will use Reckoning as her main poke (it scales 100% with both AP and AD) and then drop down your HP with Righteous Fury. You can't outharrass her as she will just heal herself so you can just level up your Feint and farm passively waiting for a gang.Start with: + Kennen is one of the fellows you don't want in your lane.He can go either AP or AD but it's certain that he will destroy your game. He will costantly poke you with auto attacks and his Thundering Shuriken and try to zone you. His spells apply charges if they hit you and every 3rd charge will stun you, so play carefully. Level up your Feint to manage and stay in lane and let him push until your jungler arrives. Since you won't be able to tell if he is AD or AP till you meet him in lane I suggest you:Start with: + +sight ward This insect fellow can be a pretty tough opponent. He can be harrassed through Vorpal Blade but he can dish out some damage too. His Void Spike can do quite a lot of damage if leveled up and evolved first. So leveling up Feint is not a bad idea at all. Harrass him when possible and try to bully him in lane if possible with the help of your jungler to keep him low.Start with: + Lee Sin excels in solo lane the same way he does in jungle. A tough match up with medium sustain. Focus on harrassing him and avoiding his Sonic Wave+ Resonating Strike burst and you will be able to stay in lane no problem. Don't overpush cause he can set up some very nice gangs with his jungler by slowing you with Tempest / Cripple.Start with: + Malphite will be a tough opponent. His Granite Shield will render your poke useless and he clears minion waves really fast. His biggest drawback is that if he attmpts to harrass you he will run out of mana really fast. Your best option is to keep poking with vorpal blade to keep him from regenarating his shield and focus on farming. After he hits 6 he can easily set up a gank with his Unstoppable Force. His ulty can also interrupt yours!Start with: + +sight ward The worst possible scenario! Every time I have to face him in lane I pray to god my jungler is a good one or I'm as good as dead. Mordekaiser is your number 1 counter in solo lane. It's simply impossible to harrass him, as when you are in range for a Vorpal Blade he is in range for a Siphon of Destruction damaging you and negating the damage from Vorpal Blade through his passive Iron Man. All you can do is last hit minions and wait for a good opportunity to gang him.Start with: + +sight ward Early on you will have no problem against him. Keep harrassing him with your Vorpal Blade and try to trade with him. Your job against Nasus is to deny him as many cs as you can but be carefull cause he may set you up for a gank by his Wither. After 6 he will be able to stay much better in lane as his Soul Eater will have scaled up to 17% lifesteal but you can still wither him down making him easy pray for your jungler.Start with: + If she goes AP you will win the lane by just avoiding her spearshot. If she goes AD however you may have some troubles facing her after lvl 6 as her cougar burst is quite strong. In the 1st case level up your Vorpal Blade to maximize your harrass early on. In the 2nd one you may want to lvl up Feint first to ignore her autoattacks and soak some of her burst damage as a cougar. Since you won't know if she's AP or AD before you get to lane you should:Start with: + +sight ward /
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/ Although Nunu & Willump is more famous as a support or a jungler he can be seen at top as an AP beefy guy. His sustain in lane is great due to his Consume and Visionary and his Ice Blast is a great poke that hurts a lot and also slows you. I suggest you level up your Feint first to absorb some damage and get some early magic resist like Spirit Visage.Start with: + +sight ward Olaf is vulnerable to your early harass through Vorpal Blade. You will outsustain him if you are able to avoid his Undertow. His sustain is medium rank at best and you don't really have to worry about his Reckless Swing. It deals true damage to you but it also hurts Olaf hindering his lane preseance even more. Once he is level 6 it will be difficult to gang him as his ulti Ragnarok make him immune to any disable.Start with: + He has a really strong poke with his Spear Shot and a passive that will occasionaly block your Ki Strike. He will constantly poke you and once he gets level 3 he will try to land a full combo of his skills on you. Max up your Feint in order to minimize damage taken and harrass him back with your Vorpal Blade. He will be forced back as he will go out of mana soon enough. Once he gets 6 be sure to alert your teammates cause he can jump and land on them anytime.Start with: + Renekton is an extremely aggressive laner. He deals great damage early on and can stay in lane almost forever as he utilizes fury. Watch out when he has over 50% fury cause his attacks get buffed. Try to play defensive and don't give him any openings. Focus on poking him with Vorpal Blade to get him low enough for a succesfull gank and keep on farming.Start with: + Rengar has been through some major nerfs and therefor is not much of a threat to Shen anymore. He has some burst through his Savagery followed by an empowered Savagery but thats all. He has very little sustain in lane solely relying in his empowered Battle Roar. You can outharrass him with Vorpal Blade but care not to overextend as he can pull out some very good counterattacks with his burst.Start with: + Riven is a solid pick for top. She has strong early game and gets even stronger when she obtains her ultimate. A good Riven will use Valor to shield herself to your poke and will try to bully you out of farming. She has a lot of mobility and therefor is difficult to gank her. Get your Vorpal Blade to lvl 3 at least so it will be off cooldown before her shield and harrass her. Then max out your Feint. She won't be able to kill you unless you do some silly mistake.Start with: + He has a good poke with Electro-Harpoon and an even better shield with Scrap Shield. He will try to zone you and there is little you can do about it. Care when he reaches the Danger Zone state cause his abilities are way more powerfull then. A good thing is that he pushes the lane easily due to his Flamespitter so u can use this to your advantage. Max up your Feint to stay better in lane and focus on farming.Start with: + +sight ward Mirror lane! May the best Shen win! Try to avoid his Shadow Dash in order to outharass him. Most Shens will rush Warmog's Armor, so their Ki Strike is better than your's. Try not to engage him too much and focus on farming. If you see him channeling his ulty taunt him so you cancel it and deny him the teleport.Start with: + +sight ward Suckh an easy opponenet. You wil be dominating this lane as she can do nothing for your Vorpal Blade harrass. You can easily zone her and if she tries to get aggressive you can simply taunt her and strike back. You will outsustain her, push her back and finnaly outfarm her. Just keep in mid always to ward cause you will be snowballing this lane and the jungler will camp you.Start with: + All Singed wants is to farm. He tends to push a lot and after lvl 6 his is almost ungankable. However I consider him an easy match up as he has little way of harrassing you except of flinging you back to his Poison Trail. Be sure to avoid his Fling at all costs, even if you have to Shadow Dash. Max up your Vorpal Blade for maximum harrass and get your jungler to gank him pre 6 at least 2 times. Most Singed use Ghost and not Flash thus making them easy targets for ganks.Start with: + +sight ward Sion can be a real pain. If he goes AP his Cryptic Gaze+ Death's Caress combo can inflict some serious damage. Going AD can be somewhat easier. Still hes Cryptic Gaze has wider range than your Vorpal Blade so harrassing may be a litle tough. It costs a lot of mana though so he may don't use it a lot. Try farming up and dont overextend cause he will set you up for a gank easily.Start with: + +sight ward Absolutely irritating lane with constant pokes and poison darts. He will easily zone you so lvl up your Feint to soak up some damage and just farm what you can. Call for some early gangs to help you in lane as he is squishy but after 6 he is virtually ungankable. Save your Shadow Dash for when he uses Move Quick. You may want to get some early MR against him.Start with: + +sight ward I won't discuss the AP Tryndamere subject as I think it's idiotic. As for AD Tryndamere He has no way avoiding your Vorpal Blade and he is vulnerable to harrass. Care however cause he can set up some nice counterattacks when full on fury. Build some early health and armor and this lane will be a piece of cake.Start with: + You are a ninja and he is a karate master so you are pretty even. He is not used in the jungle now as the current meta doesn't favour him but he has a skill kit ideal for a solo laner. He is going to be very aggressive relying on his Wilding Claw for damage and his Iron Mantle for sustain. Try harrassing him with your Vorpal Blade and avoid close combat. If you find youself losing hard then max your Feint first.Start with: + A formidable opponent. He has a range advantage and he will regen missing health from you through his Transfusion. However he is somewhat vulnerable to gangs despite his Sanguine Pool. Focus on farming, max your Feint to block his Transfusion and ping for an early gang to bring him down.Start with: + +sight ward Quite a disturber this one. He will try to toss you back with his Thundering Smash and harrass you. Just stay in a safe distance and poke him with Vorpal Blade. Try to pop up his passive through harrass if you can as it will immidiately make him much more vulnerable to ganking. His best chance against you is when you both hit 6. His ultimate deals a hefty amount of MAGIC damage and you probably haven't bought MR in that phase of the game yet. So be careful after 6 and before your 1st trip back.Start with: + +sight ward His sustain in lane is great through his Eternal Thirst and Hungering Strike making him a hard pusher and giving him the edge in close fight. His Hungering Strike deals damage based on the targets maximum health as magic damage making your laning phase really difficult. You can't fight him head on or outsustain him through poking so focus on farming and call for ganks. After he hits 6 he can easily set you up for a gank or cancel your ulty with his Infinite Duress.Start with: + +sight ward His Crushing Blow is a real pain and he will almost always land it succesfully. Max up your Vorpal Blade first to increase your poke and push him off the lane. Once your jungler arrives save your Shadow Dash for when he will try to escape with Warrior Trickster. You have the advantage in this lane as he can do nothing to avoid your poke.Start with: + Xin Zhao brings a lot of damage to the lane. However you, being a tank, have no fear of him. Just stay in a safe distance and poke him all day long with your Vorpal Blade. You will eventually outsustain him. He also has no escape mechanism so he is a somewhat easy gank.Start with: + This one will constantly spam his spells on your head. There is little to do against him as he can outharrass you all the time. Moreover as he hits level 6 a possible gang may even get you or your jungler killed as he will use Omen of Death on himself and keep fighting! Make sure to max your Feint right away in order to stay in lane and last hit minions.Start with: + Zed is your nemesis. JOKING!! You will easily win this lane if you play carefuly. Early on he has the advantage as he has more harrassing spells than you. If you can easily avoid his Razor Shuriken then level up Vorpal Blade first to increase your harrass. He has NO sustainability so you will be able to make him retreat. If you can't avoid his spells then level up Feint first to soak up damage and eventually outharrass him. As you level up you will be getting the advantage because your build denies him any chance of killing you. To be completely honest by the time you get your Giant's Belt it's all over for him.Start with: + Team WorkAlways, and by that I mean ALWAYS, be aware of what's going on on map. Being too late to cast your ulti may end up to a loss while map awareness and good timing are sure to provide you a victory and a lot of team praise. Here is an example of an awesome Shen.Let's analyze what "teamwork" means for a tank. It's about jumping first in the heat of battle and using your CC to isolate the opponent carry. You must also keep in mind that you have to protect your own carry and absorb as much damage for your team as possible even if this leads to your death. Now, if you think that to tank efficiently you need 4000+ HP, 300 Armor and 200 or so Magic Resist, you are sadly mistaken. They will simply not focus you anymore. This Shen guide is based on this idea. That's why no Warmog's Armor.
You need to keep your stats to a point that you don't lose the opponent's aggro.Let's emphasize more on Shen now. Shen's only form of CC is his on area taunt. Use it wisely. The opponent's carry is your priority target however if the opponent team has a champion with a channeling ulty like Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero save your taunt to cancel his ulty. 90% of the times save your ulty for your carry. However don't use it when you can save it with any other way like taunting the enemy. Try to mark your team's target with your Vorpal Blade so that your team can heal themselves while attacking it.Finally don't you ever try to ks!!! I'll say it once more... NO KS!! Also don't try to escape if this means that your teammate will die. You are the tank. Stay in teamfights as long as it takes to win them or for you to die. Seriously, use that 50 HP for one last Shadow Dash so your team has more time to deal damage as the whole opponent team attacks you for the sake of 1 kill.TipsYou may know them already or you may not. This are some of the tips I will provide to make playing Shen even more fun.Shadow DashingWardingIn case your teammates ask you to ward and you don't know how, there is a nice map I found that shows you how to do it. Is Shen a good top laner?Shen Top has a 51.0% win rate and 2.6% pick rate in Emerald + and is currently ranked B tier. Below, you will find a very detailed guide for Shen Top, where we explain strengths and weaknesses of the champion, powerspikes, and game plans for each stage of the game. What position does Shen play?Shen's ultimate, Stand United, allows him to take a split push play style as he can ultimate away to anyone on the map and give them a huge shield. Shen can also be played in Jungle and Support, make sure to check the alternative builds at the top of the page! Can Shen do damage?Shen deals physical damage to all enemy champions and monsters he hits and Taunts them for 1.5 seconds. Who goes well with Shen?Shen Duos for Top. Warwick. 57.14% -406. -135. 0.09. -15.1. 282. ... . Vi. 57.10% -591. -223. -0.01. -18.5. -399. ... . Lillia. 55.38% -687. -358. -0.23. -21.3. -151. ... . Ivern. 54.76% -656. -359. -0.07. -18.2. ... . Amumu. 53.73% -686. -390. -0.38. -23.4. ... . Briar. 52.55% -674. -316. -0.17. -20.1. ... . Zix. 52.52% -738. -345. -0.25. -20. ... . Graves. 51.63% -814. -403. -0.23. -21.7.. | 
