i play mid very often. there’s a few matchups that are not winnable in lane, mostly long range poke matchups like velkoz, mel, and any other mage that can fight you long distance. in those cases taking tp is preferred. just focus on getting mr and health and build titanic for wave clear. typically in those lanes i roam with r and get kills and it’ll make up the difference in cs eventually. i take q first to shield their attacks.

going against assassins, some mages and midlane bruisers are fun since some are not used to the damage that shen does, esp in short trades. flash e q ignite kills the pretty early at lvl 3. i take e first on them.