xPetu just found out the brand new build for Shen on Top Lane.
Recently, xPetu – the most respected player in the Shen mains community has blown his subscribers’ minds by buying Riftmaker and ending up with huge success. From the gameplay video he uploaded, we can see this is not a completely different build for The Eye of Twilight, xPetu just replaced the Mythic items commonly bought by Shen players ( Divine Sunderer, Sunfire Aegis,..) by the Riftmaker.
His first item is still Titanic Hydra, then a Mythic item. The rest are all the same traditional way as Thornmail, Spirit Visage,… And it’s not one day he randomly chooses to buy Riftmaker for The Eye of Twilight, our beloved xPetu YouTuber did the math behind it, and this is how he explained it: He compared Riftmaker with the most popular item for him: Sunfire Aegis since many players still link Shen to the role of tanks.
- They cost the same amount of gold (3200).
- Both provide 15 ability haste.
- Sunfire Aegis provide 350 hp while Riftmaker provides 300 hp (not a big difference), but the Riftmaker also provides 8% omnivamp – which will give you ‘at least’ 200 hp in fights but sure as hell it usually gives you more.
- Sunfire Aegis also gives you 30 armor and 30 magic resistance which many people think is good on Shen since he should buy tank items anyway, but 30 armor or 30 magic resistance is not a lot, Sunfire Aegis simply not the best item for tank stats.
- Sunfire Aegis empowers each of your other Legendary items with 5% slow resist and 5% tenacity.
On the other hand, looking at Riftmaker’s stats:
- Riftmaker empowers each of your other Legendary items with 2% omnivamp and 8 ability power.
- Slow resistance and tenacity are always nice and necessary in many match-ups, but 2% omnivamp is the stat that can really give you the tankiness.
- Finally, Riftmaker gives Shen 80 AP to empower his Q and R.
The champion’s kit is no doubt made for the fighter role, he is excellent in the early game, but due to his lack of ability to scale as the match progresses, he has to buy tank items to make the most out of his kits in the late game state. That is why Shen’s first few items should be powerful fighting items that can help him slow down his enemies’ incomes.
It is no exaggeration that xPetu is one of the best Shen-main players out there. This build is well calculated by one of the few players who truly understand what makes this champion work and improve it.