AP Shen Jungle Guide: Try it out :D

Hello everybody. I think a lot of people on the Boards have been really angry lately and I wanted to lighten the mood a little. Today I would like to introduce you to the other AP assassin in the jungle that nobody expected . If you've ever felt that Shen didn't feel very ninja like, this will be sure to fulfill some of that fantasy for you. With this I'm going to give a short guide on Shen Jungle with the Runeglaive enchantment. It's really fun and I think you will enjoy it.

Let's start off by asking "Why pick AP Shen jungle?". Well I've noticed that everybody has been playing AP assassins in the jungle lately, but many of them are banned because they are really strong. With AP Shen, you get to still use this playstyle, but with a champion that nobody will be expecting. "But you are wasting so many of the stats on Runeglaive": the mana and the mana restore on Runeglaive are useless on Shen yes, but having access to an early Sheen item and AOE for your clears is more valuable than the stats you end up paying for. "But Shen's AP scaling is so low": well with .6AP ratios on two abilities and a .5AP ratio on another, you would think that this is true, but the build I propose should take care of a lot of that and you may be forgetting the massive 1.35AP scaling on his Ult's shield that will be sure to save an ally from even the most bursty of champions. "Why not take AP Shen to lane": you can, but your early game is really weak and you don't have any way of pushing out your lane which prevents you from harassing your opponent or roaming to other lanes, so I think he is better as a jungler. Without further ado, let's get on to the build.

Runes/Masteries For Runes you can use a pretty standard AP jungler page: 3xAP Quints; 9xAttack Speed Marks; 9xFlat Armor Seals; 9xAP Glyphs Substitutes for Runes for a variety of situations. Quints: MS/Armor if you feel like you will need help with getting in range for abilities or if you want to go for a tankier build. Marks: Would only say Hybrid Pen as a possible substitute for a little extra damage in ganks, but attack speed is the best overall. Seals: HP/lvl or Armor/lvl can be substituted due to his W shield and Q sustain letting him survive his first clear, but not recommended as you will be easy to kill if invaded. Glyphs: MR, MR/lvl, CDR, CDR/lvl, or AP/lvl all are possible as substitutes for AP Glyphs. If you are afraid of the enemy's magic damage, take MR. Shen's basic abilities are on pretty low CD's but his Ult has a more substantial cooldown and by taking CDR based runes, you can lower that by a good amount to warrant taking them. AP/lvl Glyphs are possible but not recommended as the earlier AP will help your early ganks a lot more.

For Masteries: 21/9/0 or 9/21/0 are your best options and it really is up to the individual on how they want to play. 21/9 will give you the strongest clears and ganks, whereas 9/21 will make sure you are much safer and gives you more leeway when you mess up. For 21 in offense, you can take the standard AD masteries as well as the AP based ones to maximize your clears and make the most out of your early ganks, but it is not needed. If you forgo this option you can take the 5% bonus AP instead of the early AD and AD/lvl. I always take the Arcane Blade mastery as you will be using your AA's when you go all in and 5% of your AP on hit will boost your damage.

For 21 Defense, you will use only the 9 in offense for AP. You will also look to get the Flat Armor and Flat MR with their unique boosts after you maximize each one; the reduction on crits and reducing AOE magic damage. Taking Enchanted Armor is not recommended as you will not be building much resists. Make sure to also take Tenacious and Oppression as they are incredibly strong on Shen.

Item Build

Core: Offensive: Defensive:

Other potential options: (lategame Runeglaive Replacement) and any relevant defensive item; GA, Banshees, Thornmail etc.

The Core Items: I really like Stalkers over Skirmishers on AP Shen, it sets up your E better and can also just help you get in range for your Q and autos if your initial E didn't lockdown the opponent well enough. It is also adds a little more "burst" to your combo over Skirmisher's higher damage DOT if you are able to Auto over the duration. The other appeal of Skirmisher's is the damage reduction that can help significantly in conjunction with your W in reducing damage. Luden's is a core item for 2 reasons. Number 1: It adds to your burst damage with its passive which will add 100 base and .1AP to your all in. It is best to rush this item after Runeglaive to make the most out of this damage as the scaling isn't great but the base damage is significant in the early stages of the game. Reason number 2: It gives REALLY good stats for Shen with 100 AP and 10%MS, the movement speed is really important for Shen as his dash is short/medium range and hitting it is very important to Shen's success. Rabadon's is pretty standard on AP champs to maximize their scaling and with 35% bonus AP it is easy to see why. I would only get this as a 3rd or later item as you will always get your Jungle item first and you will want some form of "extra something" before you start thinking about scaling. For me, Luden's is an obvious second item but others are good for a variety of situations.

For the offensive items, these are items I think maximize your burst potential. Though they may not have as much AP as other items, they make up for it in giving you the most possible damage for your money. Void Staff is pretty standard if the enemy starts building a lot of MR. Nashor's Tooth augments your AA's to do more magic damage and it also gives a good amount of CDR which will give you more shields, more taunts, and more Ults. Hextech Gunblade is REALLY expensive, but it's active (150 + .4AP damage with a slow) as well as the spellvamp and lifesteal are all going to give you a lot of damage and a lot of sustain when combined with your shield and Q heal. I think it is well worth the investment if you are looking to "one shot" an enemy carry or keep yourself alive in a sticky situation with the healing. It also has a very smooth build path so it is easy to build even if you are backing more often.

The "Defensive" items are not that defensive so to speak in that they don't offer a lot of tanky stats, but they do give some tankiness and utility while giving a lot of AP as well. Rylai's is great because Shen lacks a lot of CC, relying on his Taunt alone, so making his low CD Q have a 40% slow on it makes sure you can stick to any fleeing target. It gives 400HP and 100AP which not only gives him damage from his AP scaling, but from his Passive Ki Strike's scaling as well (max Health). Zhonya's is a great way for you to be an engage in teamfights by taunting into a fight and using the active to put yourself in stasis while your team follows up. It gives 50 armor with 100AP so it's a good ball of stats too. Abyssal gives the least amount of AP out of the 3 items but it is nearly core when facing a lot of magic damage and it lowers the MR of opponents within the aura and at 700 range that includes all of Shen's abilities. This can also help your teammates if they have a lot of magic damage but don't want to build the item themselves as most of their abilities are outside the range of the aura.

The other options I threw in as they do have some merit to them, but you won't usually build them. Haunting Guise is always a pretty good pick up when trying to snowball the early and midgame, though the item falls off later in the game when Flat Pen doesn't always work. Liandry's got buffed though, so if you can land those Taunts, it might be worth the buy given the stats are comparable to something like Rylai's. Banner of Command is great if you are looking to pressure a lot of lanes lategame as Shen, which he is one of the best at due to his ult, but it has a strange buildpath and as an Assassin, the aura may be away from your Allies a lot of the time if you are trying to take out the backline. I think it's a really good item, but it takes a little bit of nuance to use optimally. Skirmisher's I have already mentioned. If you feel like you will not need the slow/speed up from stalker's, or if you KNOW you will get Rylai's, Skirmisher's is the best smite for PVP. Lichbane is a good replacement for Runeglaive come lategame as the AP ratio is higher and the AP it gives is also higher. Once you build Lichbane, you can also sell your boots for another item as you will have more than enough Movement speed thanks to Luden's and Lichbane's %MS boost.

Speaking of boots. I did leave this out of the item build portion, but AP Shen can use almost any Boots he wants/needs for any situation. are all good in different situations. Mobility/Swiftness are good for map movement, Tabi if they are all AD/AA dependent champs, Mercs for high CC teams, Lucidity to keep your ult up, and Sorcs for the most damage. Berserkers aren't really optimal in any situation, but they can work as Shen does like Attack Speed for his passive and W.

Skill Order Pretty obvious skill order for AP Shen. Max Q for the most sustain, harass, damage, and clear speed. Then max E for the damage, lower CD and lower Energy Cost. W scales with .6AP and the base shield doesn't increase substantially enough to warrant maxing it 2nd, so keep that at lvl 1 until you get your Q and E maxed. Take a point in your ult whenever you can 6/11/16. Max Q-->E-->W.

Tips While Playing

Your first clear is very healthy so look for a Lvl 3 gank as you will have your E. Hold on to the level up until you know you can pull off the gank as you should put a second point in Q if you are just going to go back to farming the jungle. Proceed to put a level in E at 4 if you went this route.

After you hit 6, you are the premier counterganking machine as it doesn't matter if you are on the other side of the map when the enemy jungler ganks your bot lane. All you need to do is pop your Ult and you can be in position for a big Taunt when you TP to your ally.

Pick your fights well. You are not the tank you usually are as Shen. You WILL be blown up if you E into an entire enemy team (without Zhonya's). You have to be very smart about when you E into a fight and when it would be best to kite back and wait for a better opportunity. With that said, you can be prone to getting kited if you are trying to chase down an opponent to get into E range. Think like a ninja and come from the shadows (fog of war/flank) or use a "shunpo" to catch the opponent off guard when using your E offensively.

You should actually be a good early pressure jungler, so make sure to keep momentum and always look for ganks that you can pull off. You fall off by lategame, but you can start split pushing to keep pressure up across the map. The enemy team will have to send someone to deal with you, but make sure you have vision throughout the jungle if you are going to split push as you may get caught out by multiple enemies.

The big payoff/end game fantasy of AP Shen is the MASSIVE 2K health Shield that you can give to an ally when you use your Ult. There are some good synergies that you can think of with squishy champs that might get caught out or locked down and blown up if they play too aggressive. You are able to keep them alive and have that aggression turn into a big play for your team.

Have fun. Try it out in normals/teambuilder before you ever try this in ranked. I've definitely had varying success with it, so don't get discouraged if you don't do so well the first time you try it, as long as you're having fun. If you don't like it, maybe it's not for you. Try some different things and tell me how it all works out. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. Later. Peace.