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State of Shen.

Trogmar·12/28/2018, 2:51:32 PM·9 votes·6,062 views

I'll start off by saying I like a lot of things about his shens current state. His kit is kinda unique and interesting, Ult is a game changer, taunt can save do many people and the anti auto zone is disgusting against yasuo and marksmen. Visually he looks great and spell effects are beautiful and clear.

Shens negatives are to put it straight are he isn't fun. He is in complete need of a audio overhaul, I'm fine with him not talking much but I dont need to hear about the speed of light again. I find personally his taunt is a bit unreliable, probably my lack of skill but it feels like the hit box could be a touch bigger. His sword recall has to be one of the worst feeling spells in the game. If you place it well and hit somebody with the recall it doesn't feel like it does much, perhaps it doing a sell amount of damage or pull targets towards shen slightly like swains grab.

The number one thing I dislike is unless your opponent is bad you can never use your W without pressing Q first, so it makes every engage the same. R into fight, E, Q,W. That is literally 90% of playing shen. I'm not saying his old kit was better, just his new one isn't. I enjoy him when you have a decent game on him, but if your behind your a wasted team member as your kit will just make you feed.

11 Comments

Tennousu12/28/2018, 7:18:11 PM5 votes

**Warning: Lengthy post from a very passionate Shen player. **

As I'e already done on a number of Shen related posts, I'll leave my own thoughts as a Plat 300k+ Mastery Level 7 Shen main and try to address the points in your post:

  1. Strictly numbers-wise, Shen is doing fine. NA op.gg has Shen at a 49.2% win rate overall, while lolalytics has him at a 50% win rate overall in the top lane. Remember that Shen is a champ balanced solely around professional and coordinated team play. That is a very respectable win rate for solo queue, especially if you compare Shen to his other professionally balanced counterparts (Kalista, Ryze, Azir, Sejuani, Galio.)
  2. I agree on the audio overall (voice lines wise). Shen still has the same voice lines he had from season 1, and I will admit the pool of available lines is rather... limited. Sound effects wise however, the rework was pretty spectacular. Especially the Q. Pulling your sword through someone and hitting them with those empowered "WACHUNG" autos is very satisfying.
  3. His taunt hit box is quite fair for what it has to offer: a multi-man cc that can be a gapcloser, escape, and peel. It actually had its width buffed (from 100 to 120) back in patch 7.8. The taunt comes out decently fast; a good rule of thumb is that even if you're trying to land a taunt at max range from the side, make sure the edge of the indicator is just touching the edge of a champ model if you're trying to predict and lead. The shorter from max range you need to land the taunt, the more of the indicator you should place directly onto the target. (Also, make sure you're quickcasting this spell with indicators; that is, you hold down E to show the indicator line, then release E to immediately dash).
  4. The Sword pulling takes some getting used to. Back when Riot reworked Shen, it was during a very strange phase where many reworks and champion kits focused around "minigames", forcing you to directly interact with your opponent for some (in theory) greater benefit than if you didn't. In Shen's case, dragging the sword through someone for higher damage than if you didn't. Enforce in your head that the whole point of the sword dragging is to give Shen a damaging ability that does 300% AD damage + 18% max. health magic damage every 5 seconds. On the bright side, I guarantee you that no one up to Diamond Elo pays attention to the giant floating sword, nor do they make any attempt to dodge it when you try to pull it through them.
  5. You don't always have to use Q before W, especially in laning phase. Against certain champions, e.g. Jax, you can "hover" or stay near your floating sword. If they jump on you and attempt to use an empowered auto (e.g. Jax Q into R auto into W auto reset), pop W to block the damage, then taunt through them and then drag Q, to get your empowered autos in and trade back.
  6. Yes, R into E-Q-W is 90% of what Shen does. Yes, it can be boring sometimes. But remember, that's literally why you pick Shen. Shen's kit is like what it currently is solely because of your ability to immediately grant someone on the other side of the map a shield and teleport to them. _Your ult is a literal game changer. _ Games are won or lost based on a single use of your ult. Save your jungle from an invade, or help him invade the enemy's jungle. Save your carry from assassination, and maybe pick off an enemy at the same time to turn the game into a 4 v. 5. Get the snowball rolling down in botlane, and get your ADC a double kill, or save both your carry and support from a gank. The possibilities are endless.
  7. Again to reiterate, Shen is balanced around team play. Yes, it feels horrible to lose when you have incompetent teammates. But on the flip side, it also feels amazing to win when you do have good team members. The higher in elo you climb, the better Shen becomes, simply because your teammates are more likely to know what they're doing, and how to take advantage of having a Shen on their team.
  8. Lastly, although this wasn't a point you made, if you truly want to learn and get better at Shen, join us on reddit at r/Shen. We're surprisingly active for such a small playerbase on a nice champion, and many of us are willing to lend advice and tips. Some of the more well known Shen one trick's (TrickyTravster, RoyTheRoyalBoy, and EUW Challenger player PetuTheBeast) tend to post frequently as well.
Jerry SeinfeId12/28/2018, 9:40:08 PM4 votes

The state of shen: DELETED.

This ain't shen, this is some dogshit boring champ that only looks like shen.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/3/3a/Vorpal_Blade.png/revision/latest?cb=20180512022947 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/1/1a/Ki_Strike.png/revision/latest?cb=20171227205255 BRING BACK VORPAL BLADE BRING BACK KI STRIKE BRING BACK SHEN https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/3/3a/Vorpal_Blade.png/revision/latest?cb=20180512022947 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/1/1a/Ki_Strike.png/revision/latest?cb=20171227205255

ApollyonBainer12/29/2018, 12:44:26 AM2 votes

I find shen fun just based on the assist your team factor. I agree tho his q could use some touching up. I just love hitting the double taunt and flashing for the third. Feels so fucking good

MorgManBasher12/29/2018, 3:17:06 AM2 votes

Personally think he's actually really good right now simply because he's strong against the meta picks, however he could definitely use an update to his voice lines and audio.

HydrexWolfy12/28/2018, 5:52:52 PM1 votes

Hm, I can see where you're coming from friend. I won't completely say that Shen isn't fun but I definitely feel that way when the same combo isn't working for several games in a row. The audio update is completely necessary and perhaps they can put in a few witty comments between him and Zed, Akali, Kennen, and Kayn. I didn't even think about the Q doing damage, and now that you mention it, it would be really nice if it could do just a little magic damage just for that extra boost in trades. Hopefully your post gets more attention!