@devs a few thoughts about the new shen

quick bio on me for those who care, ie nobody rofl

~i've been playing since before season 1, pretty sure i started a little before akali's first free week (so two weeks-ish after her release) ~picked up shen pretty quickly because none of my shitter friends played tanks and shen was always one of the go-to bros for tanking at the time ~shen's probably my most played champ since, literally the only champ that's stood the test of time, meta, and fotm's for me. mained lots of different things as the years have passed but i've always played shen ~capped out at diamond 5 last season because getting diamond was all i really cared about and i'm probably too garbage to go much further than that rofl

anyway, meat and potatoes. all in all i like the basic shifts made in the rework; he's more interactive, less stat checking, less obnoxiousness on both sides of the lane (at least for top) where shen feels compelled to always keep q off cooldown and his lane opponent feels less annoyed by swords constantly floating into his face every ~5 seconds. there's more mindgaming with sword positioning and clutch uses of his w (few things feel better than dodging a renekton stun with it imo). i'm not entirely sure on where he's at balancewise (lolking's saying around 50% which is good news), but there's a few things i'm kind of iffy on about him at the moment, and i feel compelled to offer input. regardless of whether or not he needs buffs (i'm on the side of qol's mostly),

~~

1. there's still some bugs with taunt, either the mechanic or the skill. not positive but it feels tied to auto attack cadence somehow, like if you taunt someone right after they auto attack and are walking away the effect simply just doesn't go off, they'll keep walking away from you anyway. lots of frustration with this one. not positive whether or not that's the cause either, just personal observation

2. taunt itself still has a goofy hitbox, but this has been the case for a long time so i'm not expecting it to change. still, with his model update, might be worth looking into. several times your face is right up the ass of some champion only for them to walk away from you flashing their mastery and you cry

3. speaking of hitboxes, q is also whacky and doesn't really feel quite right. sometimes it'll slice through the side of some nerd and you get the bonus, sometimes it'll fly through their face and you get nothing. feels more susceptible to bsing at close range

4. q in general just feels weird. feel like either the tether range should be shortened some or it should draw quicker. it's frustrating to have it take like a second and a half to get to you at max range, and if you do keep it moving chances are you're out of combat and you're just going to run yourself dry of energy just walking to lane. very obnoxious

5. and on the subject of energy regen, probably my second biggest issue with this update. shen's energy still feels AWFUL, even in combat where it's supposed to be improved. if you don't land god taunts most fights you're going to run dry extremely quickly. i'm all for being punished for missing taunts but it's so excessively punishing even if you do well right now. god forbid if you're out of combat; moving the sword alone taxes you half your pool, and even considering dashing around the map for mobility is no longer an option. shen used to be able to dash dash dash all you wanted if you wanted to get from place to place. not anymore. maybe that was intended to be removed, maybe not. regardless, i'm not a fan of him losing that one bit.

6. the sound of shen's ult got toned down a lot and his ult shield is a lot harder to notice on targets. lots of times people just walk away from fights not knowing they're ulted and you sit there and are sad. while i'm sure people will still flash away from fights when they have a shen ult on you regardless, it'd be nice if it happened less often.

7. my number one biggest complaint though is WHY ARE SHENS LEVEL 18 STATS SO BAD NOW HOLY GOD WHAT DID YOU DO. for reference:

SHEN @ 18: 1781 HP / 69.2 ARMOR MALPHITE @ 18: 2104 HP / 92.1 ARMOR RAMMUS @ 18: 2026 HP / 104.5 ARMOR SINGED @ 18: 1937 HP / 87.4 ARMOR GAREN @ 18: 2045 HP / 78.5 ARMOR

just going for champs that are traditionally armor stacking tanky dudes. but if that's not offensive enough:

LUX @ 18: 1821 HP / 86.7 ARMOR ZIGGS @ 18: 1884 HP / 77.6 ARMOR

like i get that i'm cherrypicking here; shen's a tanky dude that's going to stack defensive stats, he gets bonuses from health stacking. i get that the idea is that he's going to be getting mass shields in lategame teamfights for skill chaining. i'm a fan of the ideology that you should be rewarded more for good play than stat checking. but come on, this is ridiculous. the 4 other tank examples get free stats in their kit from steroids too, and ziggs and lux have more base stats than he does as champs that shouldn't be getting hit in the first place. sorry guys but that's unacceptable

anyway i'm not expecting any or all of these to be changed / buffed / whatever. ultimately he seems (?) pretty close to balanced. still, just some kinks in the system i'd like to see solved at some point.

thanks friends