Shen's Ki Strike, Vorpal Blade and Stand United in League Classic

Chapter 01

Ki Strike is an attack counter, not a clock

Ki Strike readies Shen's next basic attack to deal 8 bonus magic damage at level 1, rising by 4 per level to 76 at 18, plus 10% of his bonus Health, and to restore 10 Energy, rising to 20 at level 7 and 30 at level 13. Every basic attack on a minion or champion shortens the cooldown by 1 second, and while Feint's shield holds each attack shortens it by 2. The timer reads nine seconds in the client and the mode carries eleven, so count attacks rather than seconds: two attacks under Feint are four seconds off the timer, three once his Attack Speed has grown, and a trade planned around attacks lands the strike on schedule either way.

Chapter 02

Bonus Health is Ki Strike's only damage stat

The 10% reads bonus Health, not total: Shen's 513 base Health and his 85 per level count for nothing. Three Quintessences of Health add 78 Health and therefore 7.8 damage, Sunfire Cape's 450 Health adds 45, Randuin's Omen's 500 adds 50 and Warmog's Armor's 920 adds 92 before stacks. Choosing Health over Armor is the choice that makes the passive hurt; an Armor-only build keeps Ki Strike at its 8-to-76 base.

Chapter 03

Vorpal Blade is a heal you cast on the enemy

Vorpal Blade costs 60 Energy at every rank, has 475 range, deals 60, 100, 140, 180 or 220 magic damage plus 60% of Ability Power and marks the target for 5 seconds. Allied attacks against the mark, and by the spell's own text allied spells too, heal the ally who landed them, Shen included, for 6, 10, 14, 18 or 22 plus 1.5% of Shen's maximum Health over 3 seconds. Killing the target with the blade gives Shen a third of that amount instantly instead. In lane the blade goes on the minion Shen is about to kill or the champion the opponent's attacks are forcing him to hit; in a fight it goes on the target the carry is already attacking.

Chapter 04

Maximum Health drives the Vorpal Blade heal, so every Health item counts twice

The heal's 1.5% reads Shen's maximum Health, so his base Health and levels count here even though they do not count for Ki Strike. At level 18 with 1,958 base Health alone the heal carries 29 on top of its 22; every Health item raises both the heal and the passive's damage. That is why the recorded page builds Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage and Randuin's Omen rather than resistances without Health, and why a losing lane still farms safely behind the blade. Spirit Visage's Lifeforce raises self-healing by 20%; whether that multiplies a Vorpal Blade heal is not settled.

Chapter 05

Feint is a 3-second window to spend attacks in

Feint costs 50 Energy and shields Shen for 60, 100, 140, 180 or 220 plus 60% of Ability Power for 3 seconds, on a cooldown from 9 to 5 seconds. Its second job is the one worth planning around: while the shield holds, each of Shen's attacks reduces Ki Strike's cooldown by an additional second. Cast it when a hit is coming and Shen is about to attack, so the shield absorbs the trade and the attacks inside it speed up the next Ki Strike. A Feint cast while walking away buys the shield and nothing else.

Chapter 06

Shadow Dash pays for itself only when it hits

Shadow Dash costs 120 Energy, travels between 300 and 575 units, deals 50, 85, 120, 155 or 190 magic damage plus 50% of Ability Power to each champion it collides with, taunts them for 1.5 seconds and restores 40 Energy per champion hit. One champion makes the net cost 80, two make it 40, three make it free; a miss spends 120 and the only taunt in the kit for 16 seconds at rank one. Choose the line that crosses two champions over the line that reaches one quickly, and hold the dash for the moment the enemy commits rather than the moment Shen would like to.

Chapter 07

The taunt halves the physical damage of whoever it catches

A taunted champion is forced to attack Shen and, while the taunt lasts, only half of its physical damage lands. Against a melee Attack Damage laner that halves the trade the dash starts, which is why the recorded page takes Shadow Dash at level 2 and Feint at 4. Against a mage the taunt still forces 1.5 seconds of basic attacks but the spell that follows is untouched, so Feint and Mercury's Treads do the mitigation there. The recorded page takes Shadow Dash at 2 in every lane; taking Feint at 2 into a mage is a deviation from that page, not the page itself.

Chapter 08

Two hundred Energy does not cover Q, W and E

Shen has 200 Energy. Vorpal Blade costs 60, Feint 50 and Shadow Dash 120, which is 230 together, so the full rotation only flows through the refunds: a dash through one champion returns 40 and a Ki Strike returns 10, 20 or 30. Open with the dash so its refund pays for the blade, then Feint for the attacks that follow; a rotation that starts with Q and W leaves 90 Energy and no dash. The 26.16 Energy runes are the alternative to Health quints, not a free addition: a Quintessence of Energy adds 6 to the pool at the cost of the 26 Health in that slot, and a Glyph of Energy adds 2.3 at the cost of the scaling Magic Resist the recorded page puts there.

• Q 60 + W 50 + E 120 = 230 of 200.
• E first: 40 back per champion hit, then Q, then W.
• R costs no Energy.

Chapter 09

Level one is Vorpal Blade on the wave

The recorded page starts Doran's Shield and a Health Potion, takes Vorpal Blade at level one, Shadow Dash at two and Feint at four, and maxes Q, then E, then W. At level one a blade that finishes a low minion pays a third of the heal instantly, and on a full-Health minion the heal comes from the attacks that follow the mark; that is the only sustain the kit has before Feint. The blade on the enemy champion heals only if Shen lands attacks on the mark within 5 seconds, so it is the trading tool, not the farming tool, and it should follow the opponent's commitment rather than open the exchange.

Chapter 10

Stand United: the shield lands now, Shen lands in three seconds

Stand United targets an allied champion anywhere on the map, shields them for 250, 550 or 850 plus 135% of Ability Power for 5 seconds, and after a 3-second channel teleports Shen to a point next to them. It costs no Energy and has a 200, 180 or 160-second cooldown. Shen cannot cancel the channel himself, and the teleport does not happen if the ally dies during it. Cast it on the ally who will still be alive in three seconds and who is standing where the fight will be, not on the ally who needs a shield most; the shield is the immediate part, the arrival is the part that wins the fight.

Chapter 11

Cooldown Reduction is an ultimate stat on Shen

At 200 seconds Stand United is a once-per-fight promise, and a 20% reduction takes 40 seconds off it at rank one. That is why Spirit Visage sits in the recorded core ahead of a second Armor item: 400 Health, 55 Magic Resist, 20% Cooldown Reduction and Lifeforce on a champion whose kit heals. Force of Nature's 76 Magic Resist and 8% Movement Speed are the late answer to a magic-heavy team, Thornmail and Randuin's Omen the late answers to attack damage; none of them shortens the ultimate.

Chapter 12

Shen arrived in 26.16 and his numbers have held since

Shen joined live Classic in Patch 26.16 as his pre-rework self: Ki Strike, the Vorpal Blade mark, Feint, the taunt dash and the global shield, with no numeric tuning and no mention in the 26.15 notes. The recorded build is a top-lane tank; he is also being played through the river and in the support position. Whether a second Sunfire Cape adds a second burn is untested. Every number above still matches the 16.18 and 16.19 client records.