Shed Some Light on Shen's Place in the Current Meta

We all know that shen is your traditional tank, no? But say if you we're to take a glimpse of him for the first time, what would your expectations be? He is a ninja, I for one expected speed, stealth, high burst and other ninja-y traits. But it was only after I bought him I became aware of this, nevertheless I still adore him but feel he still doesn't fit the tank role in terms of appearance and his play style lacks tankyness.

Aside from that his gameplay style is very outdated, with a lot of inconsistencies within it.

For a tank shen has 1 of the Weakest defense abilities in game, even has a stronger shield than him (provided she stays in combat) and the costs aren't very energy friendly. I wouldn't want a champ with such a pewnie shield to hold my frontline.

He is the only tank to have just 1 form of CC. A very hard to hit CC at that, which deals minor dmg yet has a long cooldown.

's steel tempest is a jab. 's vorpal blade is a projectile. They both share the same range of 475 units. See what I am getting at here? In no way should Yasuo's jab be the same range as shen's Q. This is suppose to be his all around safe tool, poking from a far or healing up close. It does minor damage to be of a threat and many melee champions today can close the 475 unit gap or attack surpass that range with some ability. If your gonna make him slow with the arguable "335" you might as well buff the VB range from 475 to 525.

I for one would expect a lot more from his kit for not having a damage ultimate. I mean even out scales in tankyness at all aspects of the game. Survivability is a very small factor that is pair with overall strength. So champs who have good sustain will still get shutdown to champs who have strengths in more prevalent areas in both the laning phase and roaming phase".