Shen rework ideas

Hi guys. I've noticed the subject of Shen coming up once again, and this makes me glad. He was my first RP purchase and I've played him as much as I can get away with. Lately in ranked, though, I haven't been able to justify playing him. So sad. I've been sitting on some of these ideas for a while and I thought that now might be a good time to chuck them out into the wild and let people tear them apart :P This is all just spitballing, of course and I deliberately didn't suggest numbers for damage and scaling, because honestly that's where the real balance work lies and that's what Riot's supposed to do. So for the purposes of this discussion, we'll assume the numbers are balanced so that he can do what he's supposed to do without being over or underpowered. One of Shen's issues right now is that his kit is such that he's very hard to balance. This is what we should aim to change.

So tell me what you think. Throw out ideas of your own. This is for brainstorming. If all you have to say is "This sucks." Don't bother. If you don't like something, or think it wouldn't work, say why. If you love something, say why as well. I want this to be a collaborative effort to revive one of my favorite champions!

Shen Rework

Shen’s current weaknesses: dependent on too many stats. He wants health and attack speed to make the most of his Ki strike. AP to boost his ability damage and shields. Armor and magic resist to stay tanky, as his scaling is very weak. There is no elegant combination of items that provides him with everything he needs to be effective as a tank without sacrificing room for top tier items or just giving up on damage. Even if he builds full tank, he energy costs are so high that he doesn’t bring much to a fight after his initial round of abilities, even with the energy refund on his Shadow Dash. There are also complaints that he doesn't FEEL like a ninja. I don't necessarily agree, but I worked to try and give his abilities MORE of a ninja feel.

**Major non-ability changes: **removal of AP ratios in favor of defensive stat ratios or speed ratios. Abilities are cheaper, with throttling of power coming from cooldowns. New passive means cooldowns are reduced when in teamfight situations.

Defining traits: Tank (tough, cc, extended fight effectiveness). Ninja (stealth, mobility), Energy (low resource dependency, lane staying power)

Weaknesses: Low front-end damage. Low pushing power. Dependence on auto-attacks for damage.

Character Fantasy: Batman/Superman, dashing in to save allies and punish enemies with stealth abilities. Can be built as an auto-attacking carry with on-hit items, making use of his new Vorpal Blades to quickly pile on damage, or as a damage soak with moderate ability to put the hurt on champions bothering his carry.

Primary Scaling Stats: Defensive Stats, Attack/Move speed.

**Passive: Stand United--**When Shen is near allies who receive damage, he receives 15% movement speed for 1 second, and his cooldowns are reduced by 1/1.5/2 seconds. This effect has a 1 second cooldown.

Shen should be rewarded for a) protecting allies, and b) remaining in the fight. Shen's relatively high cooldowns limit his power while solo, but in a scrum his abilities should be usable much more often, and his Feint is empowered by his movespeed buff. This is also incentive for opponents to attack Shen rather than his teammates if possible, as attacking him does not trigger his passive.

**Q: Vorpal Blades--**Shen concentrates his ki energy into his swords. Shen's next attack hits twice, applying on hit effects on each strike, and marks his target. Allies that attack marked targets gain increased health regen for 3 seconds, scaled to Shen's health. Killing a minion with Vorpal Blades gives Shen the health regen buff for 1.5 seconds instead. At 1 attack per second, Vorpal Blades gains an extra strike.

The loss of Ki Strike as a passive needs to be balanced, so giving Shen a little more damage from his Vorpal Blades, as well as the chance to use it more often in teamfights. However, Shen Loses the ranged component, making it more dangerous to last hit in lane. This should open up room for more power in his Feint.

W: Feint--Passive: Attacks from stealth or in tall grass hit twice. This effect stacks with extra attacks from Vorpal Blades. Active: Shen fakes an attack, misdirecting opponents. He gains a shield that scales off of his attack and movement speed for 3 seconds. If the shield is broken before it expires, Shen becomes stealthed and gains 50 movespeed for 2 seconds. Shen can manually activate this effect by pressing w again for an extra energy cost.

**E: Shadow Dash--**Shen becomes a shadow, dashing in a line skillshot. Shen stops at the first ally encountered, or at the end of the dash's range. An ally encountered will be given a movespeed boost of 20, and refunds Shen half the energy cost. At the end of the dash, Shen taunts all enemies in a small radius around his ally, or around himself if he does not encounter an ally. If Vorpal Blades is charged, all enemies taunted gain a mark.

With the loss of his range on Vorpal Blades and damage reduction on Shadow Dash, Feint has room to become a bit stronger. The shield scaling off of Attack Speed and Movement speed may seem awkward, but it should emphasize his ninja attributes of speed and mobility. The idea is to dash into an ally, taunt the enemy, force them to break the shield, then maneuver towards a vulnerable target or towards whoever is chasing your movespeed-boosted ally, and get up to 5 simultaneous hits (ninja speed!) by stacking his passive and Vorpal Blades. This can be substantial damage, but it requires careful positioning and timing to pull off, and is secondary to his role of protecting his ally. If he chooses to build for attack damage, Vorpal Blades can be devastating. If he chooses to build tank, 5 hits will be substantial, but not fight-ending.

R: From the Shadows--Shen channels his ki and targets an ally from anywhere on the map, rendering them invisible for 3 seconds or until that ally uses an attack or an ability. After three seconds, if Shen is not interrupted he teleports to the targeted ally. Upon reaching his ally, Shen creates a large cloud of smoke, breaking line of sight for opponents inside the cloud, and from the outside into it. Allies in the cloud gain armor and magic resist that scales of Shen’s own respective stats.

Shen is defined by his ult, and it should not be changed from the global team-rescuing superman skill that it is. However, getting rid of the shield and giving it the stealth and smoke cloud feels a lot more ‘ninja’. While it provides less protection to an aggressive ally, escaping allies get more protection. In addition, it provides a larger effect in a teamfight, allowing Shen to protect his whole team, channeling his armor and magic resist towards his teammates.

There we have it. Have at it!