Players of League of Legends are probably familiar with this. You are currently playing a relaxed round of ranked and asking yourselves: What would be the best item build for my champ? A YouTuber has also asked himself this and written a whole thesis about it. Now he has created the strongest jungler of the season with his experience.
What kind of thesis is this? The YouTuber xPetu is a passionate LoL player. As part of his studies, he wrote a thesis titled “Victory Probability Estimation for Strategic Decision Making in Esports.”
In total, he analyzed approximately 400,000 matches, of which 350,000 were for training and 50,000 for analysis. However, he specifically focused on the champion Shen and wanted to find out what the best first item in patch 14.15 was to increase the win chance.
The thesis consists of 38 pages in total and presents many calculations through which he determined the best first item for Shen. He divided these depending on the type of damage the opponent inflicted. He shared his thesis over a X-Post.
Later, xPetu founded Coachless.gg, a website to optimize the item builds of various champs. The win chances also play, as in his thesis, an important role. One could therefore claim that xPetu is an expert in item builds in League of Legends.
His Shen became the strongest jungler of the new season
While xPetu switched from the toplane to the jungle to optimize Shen for the new role, he shared his tests on his YouTube channel. After he optimized the Shen build, more players began to play Shen in the jungle.
According to lolalytics.com, Shen has the highest win rate of all junglers in the new season of League of Legends with 54.8% (as of February 27, 2026, at 14:20). The next highest win rate is Rammus with 53.2% (leagueofgraphs.com).
xPetu shared his story in an X-Post when Shen became the strongest jungler.
What does the item build for Shen in the jungle look like? The Reddit user adivinemessenger explains in a post about xPetu that the first two items are crucial.
- Protoplasm Harness is the first item and grants 600 health, as well as 20 Ability Haste to use Shen’s abilities more frequently. In addition, Shen receives additional health and regenerates if he falls below a certain threshold.
- The second item is Unending Despair, which grants 400 health, 15 Ability Haste, and additionally 50 armor. The special effect of the item is to deal damage to surrounding champs every 4 seconds and subsequently heal its own health.
The subsequent items are, according to the Reddit user, less important and should be chosen based on the current round.
Shen is not the only jungler who suddenly dominates League of Legends with a high win rate. Aatrox, the demon warlord, was so dangerous in the jungle that he was banned in almost every round of a tournament. If he had been played, he was found exclusively in the jungle: LoL pros ban a champ almost every round, fearing his new role
