Can we talk about Shen?
So since the Shen rework was launched I haven't seen hardly any discussions on the subject whatsoever. As such I would like to get an idea on what the community thinks about the rework and to get it started I will throw my own thoughts in on the current state of his abilities, followe dby suggested changes to each.
Thoughts on reworked abilities.
Passive: Ki Barrier: Overall a great passive. The shield scales with health so it is never useless. My only real complaint is that there is a pretty large delay on the ability when using Twilight Assault as you wait for the blade to return to you.
Q: Twilight Assault: I honestly can't make heads or tails of this ability and it is by far the most controversial part of his kit. By sacrificing Shen's range he can no longer harass or farm safely when against a stronger lane opponent or an ranged laner. When the ability works, it is definitely a potent damage dealer, however this is severely gated by how reliant he is on the attack speed boost and being able to stick to his opponent. I feel as if the ability is simply a more clunky version of Orianna's ball, he needs it for all of his potential and is severely hampered by his reliance on this single move and trading out his ranged poke for it.
W: Spirit's Refuge: Over all much more helpful than his previous w, it suffers from being reliant on the spirit blade but other than this ability is over all solid.
**E: Shadow Dash: ** This ability functions almost exactly the same, but has suffered some major nerfs that make it feel more clunky and unsatifying overall. Hitbox seems wonky and the lack of the damage reduction hurts and cooldown increase really hurts.
R: Stand United: Functions almost exactly the same. Decreased cooldown has been wanted for a long time.
What can be changed?
Q: Twilight Assault: This ability is by far my biggest issue with the rework, over all the best description I can make of the issue is that Shen has lost all ranged and sustained power, for an increase in dueling potential that still can't compete with popular top and mid lane choices. This can be solved in a number of ways.
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Allow Shen to command the spirit blade to move: This would function similarly to Orianna's ball mechanic and allow him to set up situations for his team and himself better. Shen is very reliant on forcing the spirit blade to go through an opponent, but this essentially requires him to taunt to the opposite side on an opponent to make happen.
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Have the Spirit Blade deal damage when passing through enemies, this would allow him to have some level of ranged option, but still allow there to be skill and counterplay involved with it. It is very unsatisfying to watch a giant sword slice through enemy champions and minions but do absolutely nothing.
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Make this ability trigger a healing effect similar to his old q, it doesn't have to be insanely strong or affect multiple enemies or anything, but maybe som innate lifesteal while using the spirit sword autos would be beneficial and allow him to trade more reliably for a point blank melee champion.
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Give this ability an AD or HP ratio, it doesn't have to be powerful, especially because the ability has so much damage potential as it is, but the ap seems shoehorned in to make the ability scale off something Shen rarely ever builds and is not recommended.
**W: Spirit's Refuge: **Powerful when used correctly this aiblity is fine as it is. It certainly isn't insanely powerful or completely useless like his previous W.
**E: Shadow Dash: ** Somewhere along the line one of Shen's most important tools got beaten with the nerf bat, and I am unsure why. The ability can actually deal damage now that it scales off of bonus health, but the trade offs seem a bit much. The increase to its cooldown is a huge hit for Shen's mobility and presence in a fight, especially considering how reliant he is on it to position himself use the rest of his skills. The removal of the damage reduction also seemed to be entirely unneeded considering his self healing was also removed.
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Reduce the cooldown to it previous values (2 seconds shorter across the board)
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Reintegrate the damage reduction from taunted enemies (the guy is a tank)
R: This ability is fine, nothing here NEEDs to be changed as it functions the same as before.
- Give this ability a slight bonus health ratio, again it is always nice to have a champion benefit from the things you build on him. It seems incredibly silly to gate these abilities by AP ratios that will only result in cheesy off-meta builds. (wasn't this why we changed yi in the first place?)
Base stats: ** So lets assume non of the changes suggested make it through, what else can we done from a simple numbers perspective in order to aide our ninja friend in his quest of balance? Well balancing his stats would be a good start. As a tank I find it extremely off-putting to see that his defensive and health stats are lower than many bruisers. His movement speed is lower than average, his base health and hp per level is lower than others as is his armor stats, and I have just one question. _WHY?**_
If you want him to be a damaging melee champion, he has to be faster or have larger auto attack range, if you want him to be a tank he should have better defensive statistics than bruisers such as 
or 
. With his current stat disadvantage, coupled with his lack of mobility and trading potential, you have a guy that seems like a broken champion. A cool concept on paper, who just can't quite make the cut on the fields of justice, which really disappoints me. Maybe I am just overthinking it, but I had WAY more success with shen pre-rework rather than post.
