Talk:Shen/@comment-26040142-20150328163801/@comment-26266817-20150401135349

The above is solid advice, although I would never rush a thornmail. Shen scales with HP and almost always needs a Sunfire to help him push and apply pressure.

In answer to your original question - you almost always want to start with your Q whether top or jungle. It's your main sustain and harass tool, and can help you get cs without getting poked down. Only take E if your team is invading and you have an opportunity to help secure first blood. I always max Q first (take points in R when you can, obviously) and then usually W. If I'm rolling my lane I might max E first or put a few points into both W and E after Q is maxed to help me snowball my advantage.

For item builds, Shen is pretty flexible. I don't play him in the jungle so I can only speak about top. Things you want out of your items: tankiness, pushing ability, attack speed, and movespeed. As previously mentioned, he scales best with HP (% damage on his passive) and generally wants to be super tanky ASAP. He also needs a way to push the lane and apply pressure top - Sunfire is pretty much ideal for this, but Statikk Shiv is an acceptable alternative. Building Shiv early usually makes you too squishy though. I prefer to build two or three defensive items on Shen before getting an offensive item - either Triforce, BoRK, Shiv, or Zephyr. All these items give him attack speed and pushing/dueling potential.

A sample build in order would be:

Doran's Shield + 1 pot / Boots 4 pots to start

Rush Sunfire

Finish boots

One of Spirit Visage or Banshee's Veil

Randuin's

Trinity Force

Situational sixth item - probably something else tanky like Warmogs or Locket of the Iron Solari

This is an expensive build, but if the game goes late enough you'll be a tanky splitpushing monster that few champions can deal with. Sunfire is pretty much the only item I build every game - the rest is up to you.

Hope this helps!