New Shen is absolutely terrible.

ChickenWrap··12 votes·2,621 views

Shen has no way to farm safety: While it can be argued that Shen's Spirit's Refuge (his W) can help him farm by preventing him from being hit by auto-attacks, it can only be used once every 18 seconds and only blocks attacks for 1.75 seconds. In order to do this, however, he also needs to expend his Q to move the blade, which gives him his boost in damage which he then has to use on minions instead of hitting his opponents. Shadow Dash costs 100 energy, so if Shen wants to get in, CS, and get out without being punished for it, he's using 380 energy, so thank god he has 400 energy. That of course, however, means that if Shen tries to deal damage to his opponent before trying to CS, he won't be able to get out without taking a lot of damage. Add on to the fact that Shen's W doesn't block spells and Shen enters an even more sad place. His laning is worse than it ever was, and he has no ranged abilities. The only way he can deal damage is by auto-attacking someone with his Q up or landing a taunt. Because of Shadow Dash's extremely long cooldown, if Shen doesn't have tons of movement speed, he'll never be able to run away from or catch up to an opponent. He won't be able to throw Vorpal Blade at an enemy to help. If he misses his taunt, he's a useless sitting duck for the rest of the teamfight.

The only thing that is keeping Shen even remotely playable at the moment is his ultimate. If Riot wanted a champion that you pick so you can press R, Shen is the posterboy for that, because he sure as hell isn't doing anything else for the remainder of the game. Shen has no lane presence, no teamfight presence, very little split push presence, so the only thing he's got going for him is his global map presence. Shen needs some way to deal damage at range, or at the very least, he needs to have better base or scaling stats so he doesn't get walked all over by anyone he comes to fight against.

27 Comments

Profirix3 votes

I don't understand all of the downvotes either. Chances are they haven't actually played the champion... he is completely different from what he was yesterday and is bullied out of top lane quite easily. Lets take a second to look at his new Q... while it does a good amount of damage and refunds energy, IT NO LONGER SUSTAINS HIM. Sure, you get a shield every 8-10 seconds, but it doesn't last very long and you will likely take more damage from harass just to last hit a minion. He no longer has his ranged ability to last hit either, which makes getting close to your opponent that much more dangerous.

His W is a nice ability, however its got an incredibly long cooldown and only has usefulness against auto attacks for less than 2 seconds. Maybe it works against someone like gnar, but again, long cooldown.

His E is fine. Nothing really changed there except that it scales in damage with health :).

The loss of his sustain is honestly what makes him worse than his previous iteration for a solo lane. I think as a jungler and support however, he is actually quite good.

One last note, his base armor is atrocious for a top laner and needs to be addressed.

KDragonL1 votes

Uhhh Shen does not use mana.

Profirix2 votes

Simple mistake. Not even worth the post.

Linna Excel1 votes

Why should people be able to farm safely? Also, isn't top where everyone is supposed to be melee anyways?

ChickenWrap5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Linna Excel,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Q1fgajyv,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-01-29T03:01:38.730+0000)

Why should people be able to farm safely? Also, isn't top where everyone is supposed to be melee anyways?

"Why should Shen, a champion who is very squishy right now and whose only job is to protect his team mates, be able to farm without being demolished?"

Cowgirl Ed4 votes

{quoted}

"Why should Shen, a champion who is very squishy right now and whose only job is to protect his team mates, be able to farm without being demolished?"

This., IDK why ur getting downvoted but new Shen is kinda MEH

ChickenWrap3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Kiss Kiss Kiss,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Q1fgajyv,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2016-01-29T03:06:38.498+0000)

This., IDK why ur getting downvoted but new Shen is kinda MEH

"Muh champion rework, he's perfectly fine!"

I'm positive Shen will ahve a sub-40% win-rate in a week.

Linna Excel2 votes

Why is shen squishy? He's supposed to be a tank.

Fellix7221 votes

Because he cant heal himself anymore and since he cant deal damage he is less of a threat to engage on.

Quepha1 votes

{quoted}

Shen, a champion who is very squishy right now

Maybe if he didn't have a passive

Virgin Ray1 votes

Gnar Teemo "Excuse me?"

Dediguise3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Linna Excel,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Q1fgajyv,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-01-29T03:01:38.730+0000)

Why should people be able to farm safely? Also, isn't top where everyone is supposed to be melee anyways?

Vayne Quinn Graves Gangplank Ryze Vladimir Teemo Kennen Kayle Jayce Lulu Gnar

yup totally a melee lane.

While OP may be exaggerating slightly, the reality is that this rework made shen very very easy to counterpick. Before he was relatively safe to First pick. Now it's entirely possible to lose lane in champ select. Usually to some douchebag playing an adc top lane.

ChickenWrap2 votes

{quoted}

Vayne Quinn Graves Gangplank Ryze Vladimir Teemo Kennen Kayle Jayce Lulu Gnar

yup totally a melee lane.

While OP may be exaggerating slightly, the reality is that this rework made shen very very easy to counterpick. Before he was relatively safe to First pick. Now it's entirely possible to lose lane in champ select. Usually to some douchebag playing an adc top lane.

Or a mage, or Riven, or anyone who deals any semblance of damage to him.

Dediguise1 votes

{quoted}

Or a mage, or Riven, or anyone who deals any semblance of damage to him.

He should crush riven, and all juggs...

ChickenWrap4 votes

{quoted}

He should crush riven, and all juggs...

Nah, E > Q Q Q > Shen's W runs out > Stun > Auto-attack.

Then she gets Black Cleaver and it's all over for Shen.

tiramisù2 votes

If she doesn't put some auto in the middle of her q combo shen will win every trade, and if she does shen can still use his w and still win the trade

Fellix7221 votes

Here is an Idea, don't engage shen in his W area. its very easy to do and a near 20 second cooldown means hes out of the fight for the rest of the duration.

EstebanElGuapo2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Linna Excel,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Q1fgajyv,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-01-29T03:01:38.730+0000)

Why should people be able to farm safely? Also, isn't top where everyone is supposed to be melee anyways?

because he could before and a kit rework one would assume should be a buff or equal but not a nerf.

Linna Excel1 votes

Before Soraka's rework, her Q had a much larger AoE and shred MR, her W didn't cost her health and it buffed the target with armor, and her E gave mana to allies and didn't cost any mana to cast.

Reworks can nerf the crap out of champs.

Shrîke1 votes

Wat. Shen is great right now. A little on the strong side if you ask me. But riot will listen to sheep and over buff him like they have with recent reworks -_(ツ)_/¯.

ChickenWrap3 votes

{quoted}

Wat. Shen is great right now. A little on the strong side if you ask me. But riot will listen to sheep and over buff him like they have with recent reworks -_(ツ)_/¯.

You laned against a nNasus, a Malphite, and a Poppy. All decent match-ups for Shen because none of them actually do anything in-lane.

Shrîke2 votes

{quoted}

You laned against a nNasus, a Malphite, and a Poppy. All decent match-ups for Shen because none of them actually do anything in-lane.

Poppy is actually pretty good against a shen.. Her W&E negates my entire engage. Nasus gets a little hard after a certain point, he can just wither you constantly with enough cdr. I also laned against a vlad who I thought would stomp me because of the lack of sustain but the shield makes up for it, kinda like a riven E. He couldn't do shit when I would jump on him, forcing the blood pool and potential back.

Fellix7221 votes

All it takes is to go against a champ that does good early game harass or has any range and its GG for you

EstebanElGuapo1 votes

I'm thinking based on a rioter's comment that shen's W works against big neutrals but not small neutrals that in lane it is probably only useful vs champs and not vs minions so won't help with minion agro when farming in front of turret or to lessen enemy minion agro when taunting enemy to near to his wave. This is unfortunate in that prior W shield shielded turret shots magic dmg minion agro ignites. whatever the crap u needed it to shield.

Also another thing, prior passive on hit dmg'd turret and inhibs for split pusher shen, and feinting while autoing reduced the cd of passive to do so twice as quick. New q on hit does percent health of the target, and that doesnt do anything vs structures. i've tried it. Would be useful though one would think vs baron/dragon and minibaron.

edit: the one riot dude responded back and said that he found out the W does block all minions and neutrals its just not coded or whatever for it to say blocked unless its a champion or big neutral.

Kealios2 votes

I'm pretty sad about Shen now too...I actually like the basics of the rework, but:

A) His sustain is so poor now B) No range at ALL is a hindrance C) His Q requires re-positioning constantly (not bad...), but It cannot help in a chase at all, and wont ever add on a Rylai's-like effect because of this.

My main concern is for Support. I loved Shen supp (someone said his main role is helping others take less damage - yes!), but I really need to experiment to see how the new changes will work.

Shroom Junkie1 votes

I loved the old Shen, and I love the new one even more. Now instead of a boring lane phase and having to be bottom lane support to have any fun, we get to play incredibly aggressive and actually put thought into all-ins to get max damage.

"Why should Shen, a champion who is very squishy right now and whose only job is to protect his team mates, be able to farm without being demolished?"

wat

a champion who is very squishy right now

the

very squishy

fack

Suddenly everything you've said is null and voidKassadin Not only can he built defense items, but he also has normal tankier base stats for a tank, a passive that lets him juke most poke damage in lane, and a W that lets him avoid tons of damage in a trade.

rG Thundrag1 votes

{quoted}

I loved the old Shen, and I love the new one even more. Now instead of a boring lane phase and having to be bottom lane support to have any fun, we get to play incredibly aggressive and actually put thought into all-ins to get max damage.

wat

the

fack

Suddenly everything you've said is null and voidKassadin Not only can he built defense items, but he also has normal tankier base stats for a tank, a passive that lets him juke most poke damage in lane, and a W that lets him avoid tons of damage in a trade.

Shen's base armor is well below average and his base HP is bad by bruiser/tank standards Most ADCS have more armor than shen

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