Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight,
featuring Shen, the Eye of Twilight.
Shen: "Our wills align."
The leader of a secret clan of mystic warriors,
Shen is neither tempted by evil nor emboldened
by good, and acts only to ensure perfect balance
is maintained throughout Runeterra.
In game, Shen is a beefy, energy-based tank who can
take up roles in solo lanes, (the river), and the jungle.
Once he's picked his positional poison, he serves as
a constant protector to his allies thanks to his
global ultimate and slew of disruptive abilities.
Shen: "With balanced steps."
Before we get into those abilities,
let's talk about his spirit blade!
It's basically a big sword that joins him
as he makes his way through the Rift.
While it doesn't do anything on its own,
Shen gets to manipulate it with his abilities,
which we'll go into now.
Shen's passive, Ki Barrier, gives the big guy a
small shield for a few seconds whenever he uses
an ability.
Ki Barrier's cooldown is reduced whenever
one of his abilities affects another champion.
Basically, taunt a baddie, you get lower cooldown;
shield a pal, lower cooldown. You get the idea.
Next up is Shen's Q, Twilight Assault.
Shen calls his spirit blade to him, buffing his next three
basic attacks to deal bonus damage on hit.
If Shen pulls his blade through an enemy champion,
he gets to deal even more damage and gains bonus
attack speed for his three attacks.
Additionally, enemy champions struck by the spirit
blade are slowed while running away from Shen.
Use your Shen Schmarts to repeatedly manipulate your
enemy into areas between you and your spirit blade.
Successfully pull your blade through your opposite
number for a good trade - do that a couple of times
in a row and you'll wreck your opponent's early game.
Shen's W is Spirit's Refuge, which turns his spirit
blade into an area of effect dodge zone for a few
seconds, nullifying all basic attacks against Shen
and his allies.
Note the ability originates from Shen's spirit blade,
not from Shen himself.
If no one's around to benefit from the dodge zone, his
spirit blade will wait a few seconds before activating.
Use Spirit's Refuge to dodge predictable enemy attacks.
If you're laning, that's normally when to go in to fight -
but if you're jungling, you can trigger
the ability just before the monsters hit back, which
can let you dodge an additional round of attacks.
Next is Shen's E - Shadow Dash - which has passive
and active components.
Passively, Shen recovers energy whenever
he deals damage with Twilight Assault or Shadow Dash.
When activated, Shen dashes in a target direction,
damaging and taunting all enemies struck.
Use Shadow Dash to catch enemies out of position!
Taunt is a super strong mechanic that can easily
result in kills when Shen Shadow Dashes correctly.
Finally, Shen's ultimate is Stand United, which Shen
can cast on allied champions anywhere on the map.
Once activated, Stand United gives Shen's
target a shield as he channels - and when the channel's
complete, Shen teleports to his ally, moving
his spirit blade with him instantly.
Now, Stand United is a channelled ability, so
it's interrupted if Shen's nailed by hard crowd control
effects like displacement, taunts, charms, stuns, roots,
and, uh, death.
Similarly, Shen can only teleport
if he has still has someone to stand united with
at the end of the channel: if his target is killed
before Shen finishes channelling, he's just
going to end up...standing.
Stand United is a hugely impactful ability, but
it requires awesome awareness
and even awesomer communication.
Time it right and you'll help your
team pull off super aggressive tower dives or save
your suffering allies from otherwise guaranteed death.
Time it wrong and you'll do none of those.
Shen's passive makes him surprisingly tanky,
even at low health.
After poking him down, Gnar goes
mega and crunches in, looking to burst his enemy
down for an easy kill.
But Shen's got other ideas.
By landing all of his active abilities on either
himself or on Gnar, he gets a second round of shielding
from Ki Barrier.
Ironic if you think about it.
"Keys" normally let you get past barriers. Awkward.
As soon as you hit six, start
looking out for opportunities to get your ult on.
Here, Shen spots Lee Sin on the receiving end -
for once - of a jungle invade.
He gets a Ki Barrier shield at the end of Stand
United, and then holds onto Spirit's Refuge until
after the shield is broken - otherwise, the dodge
is mostly just wasted.
He keeps Quinn and Trundle
so preoccupied with his taunts and shields that
their entire team's able to come in and pick up
three kills without suffering any losses in return.
Just because Stand United has a global range doesn't
mean it has to be used halfway across the map.
Sometimes you'll want to hit R to hand your ally
a shield - like here, when Shen ults just to save
Lucian from what would've been Jhin's killer fourth shot.
Shensational.
As handy as Spirit's Refuge is, it's even better
with Stand United, because your spirit blade will
appear right on top of your endangered ally.
Pull off a Shadow Dash after Spirit's Refuge ends to add
even more denial to your teammate's would-be killer.
Shen's no assassin, but he is pretty freakin' good
at dueling other tanks.
He negates tons of damage
by constantly refreshing Ki Barrier, and only goes
in to fight when his spirit blade is empowered.
He also tries really hard to pull Twilight Assault through
Sion for the increased damage and attack speed.
Shen's two levels under Sion and still crushes
the fight, thanks to some really nice outplays.
Finally, here's Shen doing his thing late game!
He's able to split push with impunity until he
"Shenses" that his team is in danger, and takes a
Garen-teed ride into combat with Stand United.
Shen's so disruptive that he holds three enemy
champions captive while his team fights 4v2.
From here Shen holds onto Shadow Dash until there's
a need to taunt the enemy team, which comes when
Ziggs tosses Mega Inferno Bomb onto the enemy
marksman, blowing him up... Jhinstantly.
Thanks for tuning in to the Shen Champion Spotlight.
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Shen: "You're already dead, you just haven't caught up yet."