I know Shen jungle is not optimal but if one were to try this (which I have), what type of rune sets would you use?
Typically I got flat AS, flat armor, and scaling MR. For quints I have jumped around from more AS or MS (Shen really lacks in movement), or DMG.
What are some of your strategies?
TehNACHO1 votesHe's actually a fantastic Jungler atm. S5 Jungler relies heavily on sustain, and between his regen, shield, and lack of mana, Shen succeeds in all fronts.
Personal strategy is typical raid boss 'farm and substitute' strategy up until I hit level 6, then all eyes are on lanes while I leave Shen to fight a camp or something.
4nth0l0gy1 votesShen...Lots of AS. Maybe some CDR. Shen's got plenty of defensive stats, but he really benefits from his autos for healing, and the more he can spam vorpal blade and his shield, the better off he is. I'd say put a minimal focus on armor and health, since you can cover most of that adequately with masteries.
But hey it's whatever you want man. Runes and masteries are all about style: do you want a faster first clear? Do you want more survivability during ganks or teamfights? That's what they're for.
SparrowPriest1 votes
Blue Collar Bear1 votesIf you're optimizing for clear and damage in the early game, try taking MPen glyphs instead of resistance.
Since Shen has sustain and a shield, it would be silly to optimize for tankiness in the jungle. Either you can take flat AS for more autos and more passive procs, or you can take hybrid pen marks / quints to do more raw damage with your Q, passive, and autos. If you want to have relevant damage to laners and possibly late, the latter would be better.
So, what I would use for Shen jungle is probably something like arpen/AS marks / flat armor seals / mpen glyphs / mpen quints. Because Shen relies heavily on his ultimate to gank, I would not personally bother with move speed. My reasoning for taking so much mpen on Shen is that everything outside of autos is either utility or magic damage on Shen. It increases your early damage output from just your kit, and later, I would build Devourer / Wit's end on Shen. The combined ten or so mpen with the twenty five resistance reduction could definitely hurt ranged squishies, since they do not have scaling MR outside of runes and masteries.
As for masteries, he has sustain and a shield for the jungle. You do not not necessarily need to optimize him for tank unless that's the role you're filling. It would be better to optimize him for clear. Shen can really put out of a lot of sustained hybrid damage, so the penetration, damage, and blade/spell weaving masteries in offense are easily very good on him. If you do optimize in offense, keep in mind that the extra AD in offense is going to benefit you a lot more than the extra AP in the early game.
I regularly play off meta junglers, but this is the first time I've given more than a few seconds thought to how I would do it with Shen if I had all the right stuff. Good luck!
EDIT:
I now realize I repeated myself a lot. //facedesk
Cenobite Azaziel1 votesWhy shen when you can pick j4? j4 CC can't be cleared (knocup), his CC has a better range, he's way more burst damage, can jungle better (clear), and even has more CC with ult. Sure, shen can ult the lanes for map presence but is way easier to carry with j4 than Shen.
