JUNGLE SHEN: Why Shen Is The New King of Ganking Junglers

SparrowPriest·Nov 5, 2014·3 votes·1,546 views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbr8Rcktsu4 Detailed Shen jungle guide. See why Shen is the new king of ganking junglers. There is no dispute.

14 Comments

4nth0l0gyNov 5, 20142 votes

A lot of the people you gank against have bad positioning (that pantheon you gank top lane a few minutes in is running heal/flash, which tells me something about your opponents). I mean, good on you for taking advantage of weaknesses in an opponent's strategy, but I wouldn't say that makes Shen a good ganker.

SparrowPriestNov 5, 20141 votes

Positioning is a good point that's why flash can be utilized to create opportunities against those who are positioned well. Shen is generally viewed as being useless until he hits level 6 which is shown to not be the case. Shen can clearly be used to effectively snowball lanes even at such an early level. Shen can easily contribute a few hundred points of damage in a gank and lockdown a fleeing enemy or reduce the damage upon an ally to win the trade. Once Shen gets the Frozen Mallet his ganks and counterganks are practically inescapable. Shen will have enough dps to gank by himself by mid game with Frozen Mallet. With the appropriately added armor he cannot be dueled.

4nth0l0gyNov 5, 20141 votes

Well, I'll just make the argument someone else already made, that having to flash for every gank is super inefficient and also easily countered. What most of the ganks you make in this video fail to show is the player being ganked flashing, which makes me think that they either a. have slow reactions, b. aren't running appropriate summoner spells, or c. are just not playing intelligently. So again, I'd say while your Shen works for you, it is not something you would see in all levels of play.

SparrowPriestNov 5, 20141 votes

To counterpoint, this is essentially saying the same thing as ignite is not viable in higher levels of play because you need it to get a kill and that's inefficient. Which makes taking ignite mid at high play levels not something you would see. Ignite can easily be countered by the use of barrier but that has never stopped anyone from using it. I suppose we would need a high ranked individual to run the setup to prove what the case is. Shen can also throw a q at the range of a flash to possibly finish them if need be or wait till they flash to lock them down with taunt. The ganks in the video are not the only way it can be done nor is level 2 the only time to gank.

DSRM MobiusNov 5, 20141 votes

Awesome I want to go play shen now

SerBlaiseNov 5, 20141 votes

I love shen (mostly as a sup), but You seem to burn flash for almost every gank in your video, meaning that you are left with just walking into lane for the next 3 minutes. It seems like a pretty inefficient way to jungle, when rammus can speed into lane and taunt the same way.

SparrowPriestNov 5, 20141 votes

That's what its for that's how its used. Also, you are suggesting that clearing the jungle is a bad thing. Most ganking junglers will only gank when they have the red buff. Futhermore, many of those kills were made without the use of flash while just walking into the lane. Your point about Rammus falls flat given that Rammus cannot roll through minions, I doubt the ability of Rammus to get consistent kills at level 2, and Shen offers things that Rammus does not. For example, Rammus cannot ult from one end of the jungle to make a countergank and rammus does not have self sustain. Rammus may not even be able to solo the dragon which Shen can do at level 7.

AnomanderNov 5, 20141 votes

Rammus can solo dragon at lvl 6 currently. With the up coming jungle changes he can do it at 7 still easy.

SparrowPriestNov 5, 20141 votes

That's good to know. I have not seen it done.

SerBlaiseNov 6, 20141 votes

There is no denying the pros of clearing the jungle (especially if you are going FF). But I absolutely hate the dependence on flash. I could apply the same logic to Rammus too; just take flash and flash in to the gank, so that you have the taunt AND the knockup. Any champion can flash in, but it's not as ideal as a champion that can gap close without using a summoners spell. Rammus can gap close with out a summoners and without wasting a 17 second taunt to do it. Shen's taunt is tied to his gap closer so its all or nothing, and its short range to boot. Again I love shen (hes like my 3rd most played) but his ganking ability is subpar compared to other similar junglers who can gap close and save flash. As a jungle farmer I agree he is as good as Yi or WW but I'm really not a fan of his ganking playstyle.

SparrowPriestNov 6, 20141 votes

To each his own. Shen can still make ganks without flash just might be difficult at level 2 unless they are extended. Shen has no problem ganking extended lanes without flash. or going bot through the tower bush route. If I can spend flash for a early kill every game ill gladly do it. The video does show level 2 footage of ganks made while walking without flash.

andingNov 5, 20141 votes

shen cannot duel against the likes of Vi or Lee or Khazix, and has a low clear speed. sure, shen can gank/countergank efficiently, but he has to rely on teammates to do damage

SparrowPriestNov 5, 20141 votes

Did you even watch the video? Shen when built properly can duel anyone and has very high dps. Shen built badly does no damage walks around gets hit, dies, and is useless. The badly built Shen that is constantly seen is why no one plays Shen. Shen will duel them built like this and during the low level jungle phase.

SparrowPriestNov 5, 20141 votes

The difference in the runes and masteries is astounding. Shen in the video clearly destroys the lizard camp with one potion. If I were to remove the rune set and masteries or even take my Zed rune and mastery pages Shen would die to the lizard before it was even under 50% hp. Shen cannot be counter jungled at low levels when using this rune set, masteries, and build.