PBE Changes (Shen Rework, Jhin)

Hey guys!

For some reason the PBE forum section is not accessible to me at the moment so I'm placing the discussion here.

Let's start off with talking about Jhin. I've had the chance to play him several times on the PBE and I have a few concerns to bring up. First of all the fact that he can have over 1000 AD seems a little extreme to me. Especially with the ridiculous scaling that his kit has. (talking about you lotus trap).

Passive, Whisper: So his passive. It's pretty unique in how all the stats interact with each other. I won't go into detail with that just head over to the wiki. What I do want to talk about though is his 4th shot. His 4th shot is a guaranteed crit (although reduced crit) the big one is that it does 15-25% of the targets missing health. To put that into perspective a Lee Sin Q known for its execute damage deals 8% of the targets missing health. Sure it takes some skill to manage your shots to be able to get that 4th hit off in lane but against melee matchups this should be fairly easy. So a free point and click execute that crits with 25% of the targets missing health is a little much if you ask me.

Q, Dancing Grenade: So this ability I find is rather balanced. We'll have to keep an eye out though because it does have the potential to hit at a 123% AD and 148% AP scaling. This is rather hard to pull off in the early game but it rewards you accordingly.

W, Deadly Flourish: So this ability has a fairly weak scaling compared to his other abilities but that range though... This is the longest range skill shot in the game which is a basic ability. Combining this ability with your Lotus Trap will be a very good combo.

E, Lotus Trap: Remember the time Ekko got released and with just a few kills under his sleeve he could one shot squishies with his ult? Yeah Jhin does that with his E now. It is very easy to set up 2-4 traps on top of each other then from a ridiculous range you can use your W to root anyone stepping on it and watch them explode instantly (with 40% cdr it is possible to have 7-8 traps active at a time which ALL stack). His traps have a 130% AD scaling and a 100% AP scaling. Maxing this ability first not only gives you HUGE burst potential but lets you wave clear with ease as well. Also this trap is automatically spawned under the corpse upon killing an enemy champion.

R, Curtain Call: This is pretty much what Caitlyns ultimate wish it could be. This ability in my experience seems to be fairly balanced. If you don't get slowed by the first hit the rest should be fairly easy to dodge. You can use this in teamfights by staying rather far back and unloading it on the enemy team, other than that since it roots you in place you need to use it at the right time.

The changes I would like to see done to Jhin: His E definitely needs a nerf. Either by changing it so that it works similar to Teemos mushrooms that they don't stack (maybe limit it to only 2 stacks) or toning down the scaling. Also the fact that it does magic damage could be a concern as well. And his passive 4th execute shot might need to have the % missing HP lowered. Other than that not many changes need to be done, what do you think?

My thoughts on the new Shen: As Shen being my go to top laner I'm excited while also slightly disappointed with the changes. Taking away any range ability from his kit will become problematic for top lane Shen. I'm thinking his place in the meta will from now on be in the jungle.

Passive: So his passive has been changed. Now every time you use an ability it will grant you a shield scaling with your health. The cooldown is reduced whenever you use an ability on an ally or an enemy champion. For laning this will be his only form of dealing with harass now. While providing a healthy clear in the jungle.

Q: So his Q now is a floating spirit sword which can be called to your location with this ability granting you bonus damage based on the enemies max health while granting bonus damage and attack speed when colliding with an enemy champion. This is his core mechanic now. Being able to manage this sword will make or break a good shen in the lane phase. The energy cost is fairly high in the early levels but does decrease with levels. Shen jungle used to be viable but his clears were so slow probably one of the slowest in the game. With this new ability it does make his clears much faster making him a very good jungler.

W: So his W makes every allied champion within the small area around his spirit blade ignore basic attacks as well as onhit attacks such as a nasus Q or ezreal Q. This abiity can be used in many different ways. Late game a 1000 stack nasus will have a much harder time 2 shotting your ADC with this ability as you should be able to block at least 1 Q for your allies. In the jungle this ability does help you take a little less damage but because of its short duration you will mainly only block one auto from each monster.

E: So his shadaw dash stayed the same except now it scales with your HP. With the old Shen it was viable to not max E second. For example if you are laning against a tough matchup like teemo who will be poking you all day it was a good idea to throw at least a few extra points into your W if not max it. Now I find after you max out your Q your E will definitely be a must to max since you have no range abilities and you rely too much on your E.

R: So this stays the same. Just a small note your passive does activate once you land using this ability as well as refunding your passive cooldown.

Some Thoughts: So the many games that I did play him on the PBE I had the chance to lane against someone other than Shen a few times. His melee matchups were pretty good. He was able to trade fairly well with his empowered Q while blocking some damage with his W. Against range champions.... not so much. I played against Satan twice and it was hell. I tried a few strategies. Trying my best to safe farm which turned out bad because Teemo just zones way too much against Shen. And trying to trade with him after I got my cowl. The 2 second slow from Shen's Q is not enough to stop Teemo from kiting. Whenever his reaction time was good enough and he managed to blind me right as I taunt my Q attacks would be either ignored or I'd have to wait out the duration of the blind to start trading. Also I had a game against Jayce which was also a horrible experience. A simple knockback + kiting ruins any hope I had of trading with him. The only way to "win" these matchups is by farming safely and praying your other lanes do well while your jungler camps your lane or trying to snowball other lanes with your ult.

So riot made his strengths and weaknesses very clear. Giving him no real workaround when he has a bad matchup unlike the old shen. There's no way to put points into your shield to absorb damage from poke and you have no ability to farm from range as well as your ability to farm under turret (old q helped a lot). Other melee tanks and bruisers all at least have some form of range. Champions like Maokai, Mundo, Malphite etc. So in reality top lane shen is pretty much dead unless you are playing draft pick/ranked and are able to see your matchup (I found Nasus to be a very easy match up for example).

Which brings me to Jungle Shen. Jungle Shen in my opinion will be the stronger version of Shen from now on. His clears have improved, and his ganks are very strong. Not to mention that after 6 you have constant counter gank presence giving you the ability to permafarm the jungle with devourer if that's your style. One thing riot could and should change is that his Q can be activated by hitting jungle creeps. This would make him a top tier jungler for sure. But even without that his clears are still average if not better.

I played him a couple of times as a support but found it rather ineffective. Sure his W can block auto attacks but that's 1--3 auto attacks at best in lane. He has no poke and the only other thing he can do is engage with his Shadow Dash. Anything he does is done far better by other supports. Braum blocks much more than just a few auto attacks for the ADC while still being able to engage/disengage. He's pretty much a worse Leona that can block a few auto attacks and provide a 250 health shield for the majority of the game. But I could be wrong.

Anyway I'm very excited about the new Shen update! Feel free to discuss this in the comments and vote in the Poll where you think Shen will shine.

Thanks for reading! :)

-Eddy