Talk:Shen/@comment-75.84.44.109-20111110034954/@comment-3486816-20111114060618

[walloftext]There are advantages to both.

Lane: his harassment and early damage with and  is surprisingly high, and catches a lot of people off guard (mainly because his late-game damage is usually pretty bad, and they make a false connection between the two). The two abilities can also be used as amazing farming tools, and he can use to ignore harassment and  to open up a great gank when his jungler comes along or to scare his enemies away from his tower. Bottom lane Shen is also better than many people think. He can focus on harassing and heal his carry a bit with vorpal blade's healing effect, securing ganks and punishing enemies for trying to trade with him all the while with. However, lane Shen has to think twice about using his ultimate to save a teamfight or turn around a fight early game, as it could cost his team a tower if he's solo laning, or might mean a death for his carry if he's duo-laning.

Jungle: The main reason you put Shen in the jungle is incredibly simple: you don't already have a jungler. If your team already has a decent jungler, you should gladly take top or bottom and not try to strongarm your way into it, because he's perfectly fine as a laner and, as previously mentioned, can be a huge help in ganks for the said jungler. When it comes down to it, it's just difficult to initiate a gank yourself because Shen just has a hard time reaching his enemies in lane, AND he's such a slow jungler that he could spend 90% of his time just taking jungle creeps and ignore ganking altogether (this is assuming you didn't get, which you should in certain games). The chief advantages he has as a JUNGLER are his superior sustain and control (Shen is actually one of the harder jungles to invade, because of his early game damage and the fact that it can be hard to escape him), and (most importantly imo) his ability to give away buffs without a thought, since in all honesty he hardly benefits from either. That taken into account, with an AP carry such as Swain, Ryze, or Karthus, Shen might be a better pick as a jungle tank than the mana-starved Amumu for that reason alone. Last but not least, he can use his ultimate whenever he wants, without a second thought as to what he's leaving behind (those wraiths will KILL US ALL!).[/walloftext]