Shen/Strategy

Skill Usage

 * Getting early allows  to farm well and stay in the lane/jungle due to its heal.  also allows  to jungle along with  without taking too much damage. Because he uses energy instead of mana, the only reason to recall is when his health is low, so keep it high with  heal.
 * is effective for last-hitting due to its low cooldown and rapid energy regeneration.
 * will also heal allied champions that attack the marked target. Try using it on siege minions to allow you and your laning partner to get a bit of a heal without killing the minion too fast.
 * will also heal if it kills the target.
 * In laning phase you can use the to harass the enemy champion. Be careful when doing this, however, as its range is short, making you a good target.
 * and combine to make  a potential jungler.
 * With regards to jungling, increases energy regeneration by a fair amount, so it is still useful for.
 * can almost completely eliminate an enemy's damage early in the game.
 * Using at the right time can reduce the damage dealt to you by otherwise fatal ultimates, such as,  and.
 * can be used offensively, as it doubles the cooldown reduction per auto-attack.
 * unstealths enemies it hits, such as, , and.
 * breaks channels such as or.
 * Failing to hit a champion with can severely cripple  energy for several seconds, limiting his capabilities.
 * Use in team fights to give your carry the upper hand.
 * While using, try to line up multiple champions to guarantee at least one successful taunt.
 * Bear in mind with recent changes, hitting more enemy champions is now better than just one for energy refund.
 * Like many other dash abilities, allows him to dash through most walls in the jungle.
 * If an enemy is pushing your turret, them; when they are forced to attack you, the turret will target them, dealing substantial damage.
 * If an enemy tries to tower dive you, a well used can spell the difference between life and death, as it reduces damage for the duration of the taunt.
 * can be immediately followed up with to extend the range and catch enemies by surprise. This functions similarly to the  +  combo which  can  at the last moment for the knock-up effect.
 * relies on vision. During, cannot cast  unless they are in his line of sight; even hitting F1–F5 or clicking a champion portrait on the left will not allow you to target an ally until  is finished.
 * Coincidentally, from an ally  synergizes very well with, because while the visions of the enemy teams are limited, Shen can use  to an ally champion for a surprise gank.
 * is also good for helping a teammate backdoor. The shield protects them from turret hits and you join them to supply additional damage.
 * does not break the target ally's stealth, and produces no other visible effect. Use this to ambush enemies more effectively.
 * can either save an ally or help gank an enemy, and can be combined with other global ultimates.
 * is a very powerful solo top thanks to his sustain and harass with, and can absorb any form of enemy harassment with.

Item Usage
is a natural tank; items that grant and resistances ( and ) are best for him.
 * Surprisingly,  are actually quite good:
 *  scaling on both the damage of his and the shield of his ,
 *  scaling on the damage of his ,
 * And a staggering  scaling ratio on the shield of.
 * While building him straight would be counteractive to his role (and he can never replace a proper mage), picking up the odd tanky  item can produce surprising results.
 * provides both and  while making farming easier. In a bruiser build, it is usually paired with  to give  many of the stats that he desires:, , , , and on-hit magic damage.
 * is a strictly offensive item but it offers a fair amount of useful stats:, , cooldown reduction, and on-hit magic damage.
 * and supplements  well since enemies are forced to autoattack him. Since  calculates reflection damage before damage mitigation, it will reflect full damage while you are taking reduced damage.  can lower enemies  to reduce their damage to  as well as his teammates.
 * and other high- items boost the damage of quickly.  can be viable since it increases  shield strength, provides, and provides  with a good ranged  via  of 40% for  seconds.  is useful for more  and grants the same  as  but in a more constant way, because it applies on basic attacks.
 * can also be purchased on . It gives him and . It also gives him a nice passive and active for clearing waves. Since  buys a ton of, this item could be really useful on him.
 * synergizes well with ; it provides for tankiness, a nice chunk of  for his abilities and a  aura that increases his damage further, which he will always be in range to apply effectively. If no-one else on your team is building one (and you still have other sources of magic damage on your team) you should consider picking one up.
 * If you are dealing with an heavy team, it doesn't hurt to grab a  or  in your item build (since both grant   and ). The former grants  cooldown reduction and the item's passive synergizes well with, while the later grants  a nice shield to block any incoming spells or crowd control abilities.
 * A variety of aura items synergize with : is a useful item to help in early teamfights.  is a great choice providing a couple of tanky stats with active synergizing with his supportive role and the items it builds from make laning easier and its active helps in teamfights.

Countering
(Note: Even if does not teleport to his ally, they will still gain the defensive shield)
 * Beware  burst damage in the early game;  with combo is deceptively powerful.
 * When you see  use his  on minions, try to keep him from attacking the marked minion to deny him from regaining his.
 * isn't too great at killing minions especially against a champion that is good at pushing minion waves. Pushing him under his tower can deny him minions and further harassing under tower can force him to  or  and burn some energy to sustain. Be careful of the enemy jungler's ganks and  under the tower though.
 * Try to avoid near his turret as his  will  you, thus forcing you to pull turret aggro.
 * will mostly initiate with . Avoiding or juking it will greatly weaken 's capabilities with its significant cooldown and energy-cost.
 * Be wary when trying to kill champions on low health as  can turn the fight around – especially if the champions have readily-available, since that will make simply avoiding them and  after he arrives very difficult.
 * When you see casting, quickly use a hard crowd control effect (, , ,  etc.) to ensure he does not teleport to his ally.
 * If you are a champion with a delayed, AoE damage ability, such as Fizz and his Churn the Waters, you can cast it on Shen before he teleports; since he will most likely be teleporting to a low-health ally, with proper timing the ability will hit just as he teleports, possibly netting you a kill and setting up your teammates with the knockup component.
 * can be hard to kill due to his massive, however this makes him vulnerable to abilities and items that cause him to take a as damage, such as , and.
 * You can build which deals damage based on  passively.
 * If you are an AP champion, Liandry's Torment will work as well.