Why is Shen so weak?

Pythy Python··3 votes·3,268 views

I've been playing Shen for a while now and I keep think that he is very useless tank. Here are my opinions,

  1. Shen does not do enough damage to scare people in teammate but if I build damage, he becomes very squish bruiser.

  2. His ult late game is almost useless as the shield is just only two shots for adcs to remove. And also the ult itself scales with AP which no one builds Shen AP so there is no way to make your ult more powerful.

  3. His only cc which is Shadow Dash is very easy to dodge and if you miss it, you're just a walking tank with no gap closer. (Also your Dash itself uses like half of the energy which is insane amount).

  4. His split pushing ability is actually very crappy. Even if you have items like Sunfire Cape and Titanic Hydra, your split pushing speed is very slow compare to other champions (ex. Jax, Yi, Nasus etc.). And you are very slow at taking down turrets.

  5. If your team is behind, it's really hard to come back because Shen's abilities don't really provide much help (see above)

Now these are just my opinions about Shen but I think there is a pretty good reason why people don't play Shen frequently.

So my actual question is, am I just bad as Shen? or is Shen just useless?

(If you guys think i'm a bad Shen player, please give me some tips on how to improve my Shen.)

19 Comments

swiftsnipe3 votes

-the strength of shen late game is that he can split push and threaten to group with the team at the same time. -so if you go split push top and their top laner doesn't follow then you get free top turrets. -if he does come top to stop you split pushing, then you ult your team when they start fighting 4v4 and now it's a 5 v 4 in your favor.

-at low elo your team probably isn't coordinated enough to make use of a shen. -For solo Q i would just focus on ulting bottom lane to get your adc ahead, dragons etc.

his q is % ma hp damage, and his w stops all auto attacks for 2 seconds. His kit is inherently strong. It's just finicky to optomize all his stuff.

SaltyKracka2 votes

You're bad at Shen.

Pythy Python1 votes

As I said, if you think i'm bad, could you give me some tips on how to be a good Shen?

Defended2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Pythy Python,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=UlWp0Af9,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-06-07T05:14:41.293+0000)

As I said, if you think i'm bad, could you give me some tips on how to be a good Shen?i

Ignore him. Riot said they'd buff shen but im not sure when. He does close to no damage midgame+ and you can practically ignore him.

He has one good cc and thats it.. Shens not a good champ atm his whole kit only stretches so far. No damage + No sticking power + One cc = bad champ..

This is coming from someone who plays shen very frequently.. top 3played champ

Quepha3 votes

{quoted}

Riot said they'd buff shen

They said that before people learned how to play the new Shen. Once people got the hang of him it turns out Shen is actually pretty balanced.

Defended1 votes

{quoted}

They said that before people learned how to play the new Shen. Once people got the hang of him it turns out Shen is actually pretty balanced.

No. They said that after the shen mains were making posts saying that he was weaker 1-2 months after the rework.

Poppys rework = full success pick/ban then immediate nerf

Shen rework = nothing.

Thats the problem. being balanced isnt good enough

Quepha3 votes

{quoted}

No. They said that after the shen mains were making posts saying that he was weaker 1-2 months after the rework.

Poppys rework = full success pick/ban then immediate nerf

Shen rework = nothing.

Thats the problem. being balanced isnt good enough

The correct solution is to make a champion totally broken so the mains will stop crying? It seems like a lot of Shen mains are actually pretty satisfied with him now. I remember one in particular saying he was glad that Shen was more nuanced now.

Defended1 votes

{quoted}

The correct solution is to make a champion totally broken so the mains will stop crying? It seems like a lot of Shen mains are actually pretty satisfied with him now. I remember one in particular saying he was glad that Shen was more nuanced now.

Meanwhile there are 3 shen mains below this post saying how weak he is now.. Continue posting

KillerKell1 votes

{quoted}

Ignore him. Riot said they'd buff shen but im not sure when. He does close to no damage midgame+ and you can practically ignore him.

He has one good cc and thats it.. Shens not a good champ atm his whole kit only stretches so far. No damage + No sticking power + One cc = bad champ..

This is coming from someone who plays shen very frequently.. top 3played champ

I quit Shen.

62.5% Win Rate over since Pre Season 4 with him, 4.25 KDA over that time. He's useless now.

The Rework destroyed him.

He went from a viable Pro Pick in Top, Jungle and Support... and a Low Elo Mid to counter Assassins like Zed, Akali, Katarina, Talon, LeBlanc when your Mage would refuse to take the lane against them.

He had a variety of Builds as well. Split Push. Team Fight. Utility. Pure Tank. Pure Damage (Hand Grenade).

Now he's trash. I hate this. Was my best Champion.

All they had to do was give his Q a longer Cool Down, and if they didn't like the Shield (especially on AP Ratios) move the Ratio to HP OR give a Shen-centric Dodge Mechanic in place of the Shield. That's it. Literally nothing else needed to be changed, and he wouldn't be as oppressive in lane (the major complaint against him) but would have still be solid in Lane and equally good in Team Fights and Duels. A slight hurt to his Split Push as less Q's means slower Wave Clear, but not a big deal.

Instead they Rework and completely destroy him.

SaltyKracka1 votes

Here's the quick bits.

Don't ult for the shield. Ult to get into the fight and turn it around.

Your Q means nobody can just straight up stand there and let you attack them. You are a threat up close, and a major damage threat in the early game.

Try varying your item and skill builds. For example, try taking E first and then maxing Q! Or even skip Titanic for different tank items like Steraks!

Feed To Win 1061 votes

shen is a bad champion?? lmao u make me laugh so hard hahahaha. while I can use Shen to handle 3 enemies at the same time without allies. even yasuo, zed, and yi,.. are suck in front of shen. if u don't know about it, I can use shen to solo with u.

KillerKell1 votes

Because they reworked him.

Ozag the Mighty1 votes

The thing about Shen is if you miss his taunt, try to bully anyway, with his Q you get extra magic damage to you attacks and your W combined with you Q you blocking attacks.

He's a moble tank IMO. I play him more supp than I do top lane but if you go top your gonna want a tanky bruiser build.

If your worried about his slow damage, throw in a wits end for the AS, MR, and magic on hit.

Sunfire cape, Titanic Hydra, mercurial treads (or armor boots forget the name if opposing team is mostly ad) banshees viel, dead man's plate, and wits end is a fairly decent build on him.

DrCabes1 votes

Shen is definitely not weak. I think I have at least 100 games post rework and he can be borderline op with a lead.

KillerKell1 votes

{quoted}

Shen is definitely not weak. I think I have at least 100 games post rework and he can be borderline op with a lead.

Compared to his old self, he is weak.

I'd whip new Shen with old Shen 100/100.

AlwaysByMySide1 votes

{quoted}

Compared to his old self, he is weak.

I'd whip new Shen with old Shen 100/100.

Even assuming that is true, so what?

Even if new Shen would be countered by old Shen that doesn't mean old Shen's kit is overall stronger and better.

Garen is actually a very good counter to top lane tank Ekko.

Tank Ekko is still a stronger champion.

KillerKell1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Memeglaive Garen,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=UlWp0Af9,comment-id=000400000000,timestamp=2016-06-07T09:31:45.843+0000)

Even assuming that is true, so what?

Even if new Shen would be countered by old Shen that doesn't mean old Shen's kit is overall stronger and better.

Garen is actually a very good counter to top lane tank Ekko.

Tank Ekko is still a stronger champion.

Granted.

It doesn't change the idea that new Shen sucks.

The idea of a huge sword following around a Ninja? And his source of Ninja Dodging being tied to that Giant Sword?

There was nothing wrong from a Theme nor Play perspective with Old Shen, and a dozen Champions that NEEDED Reworks... yet they hit a very versatile and dynamic Champion that has now seen a decline because of it.

Defended1 votes

{quoted}

Shen is definitely not weak. I think I have at least 100 games post rework and he can be borderline op with a lead.

Shen is only good the first 15 minutes. After that he is garbage.

69982196_DEL1 votes

I actually think he is damn strong and needs no buffs. But if you think he really needs a buff go for it, I like Shen watch him getting stronger would be good.

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