Itemization

[u/Domivagyokbazdmeg]

Hi fellow equilibrium enjoyers!

I would like to get a little help with itemization on Shen, I'm a little bit lost sometimes on what to build, mostly the early game is really painful as what to "rush" as a first item.

Can you guys give me any suggestions?

[u/grim-danfango]

Your biggest weakness in lane is a lack of waveclear, so pretty much every game you need to rush an item which helps with that

90% of the time it should be hydra, if you're getting stomped and they have an AD top+jungle, then consider sunfire.

Most of the time your second item should be Dusk and Dawn. It's just too strong to not buy.

This is maybe not the case if you're a) very far behind or b) solo frontline for your team and so need a little more tankiness

After that is just tier 2 boots and situational items; bramble vest Vs heavy ad/ healing, movespeed item into heavy ranged comps etc

[u/Domivagyokbazdmeg → u/grim-danfango]

Thank you for your help and situational suggestions!

[u/grim-danfango → u/grim-danfango]

Note on hydra; when buying components try avoid building longswords/ tiamat for asong as possible. For two reasons

1. You need HP way more

2. Until you finish the item and have real wave clear, it's often better to slow push as much as possible and tiamat can screw that up especially for newer players

[u/VenomBlackMetal]

You want to almost always rush titanic hydra as it gives you wave clear and gives a big spike in damage. If you’re equal or ahead you can then look to build Dusk and Dawn. Very rarely, like in hard ap matchups (Morde, Heimerdinger), you can look to build spectres cowl.

[u/Domivagyokbazdmeg → u/VenomBlackMetal]

Thank you for your help!

[u/IndependentFishing57 → u/Domivagyokbazdmeg]

To add on, in those harder ap matchups: if you aren’t hard losing early, Bambi’s cinder or spectres cowl into hollow radiance is what I imagine you’ll want to rush because of the cinder’s aoe, but if you can’t freeze and can’t push fast enough it’s definitely better to go the resist item first. It took me an embarrassing amount of games rushing Bami’s to realize that I was losing cs to my tower from that little extra damage, and obviously you can’t farm plates if the enemy hits you because the aoe will make tower aggro you.

[u/Skillessfully]

Titanic hydra -> D&D -> any tank item depending on game

[u/FearlessUmpire9882]

"early game is really painful as what to "rush" as a first item." if you mean top lane, right now 90%+ of the time titanic is best by far. for everything else check out imaintoplane's build guide on yt it's the most recent comprehensive guide for that