Shen - Current Ult Unique Balance Idea

New Kstabs·3/8/2019, 4:45:07 AM·3 votes·2,253 views

I know from reading a few other posts that people are upset with the current state of Shen. Obliviously due to the nature of soloq vs pro play it's extremely challenging to balance a champ. In order to boost shen's laning and team fighting strength riot would have to nerf his ult. Similar to the small changes made to galio recently. I have an out of the box idea for balancing his current ult.

But first I wanted to address the obvious idea of nerfing the range on his ult. I've read several posts suggesting this. But I feel this ruins the core reason players love picking Shen. Galio and Kench already offer similar mobility and fit better into most team comps particularly in pro play. Kench allows teams to 1-3-1. And Galio can mid unlike shen. There's more value in having a half global ult in mid lane.

As most players know, the main problem playing against Shen is his ability to split bot late game while his four teammates pressure Barron. I believe the easiest solution is to remove Shen's ability to take teleport. While adding a free teleport to an ally tower while his ult is on cd. Early game he will remain exactly the same with his ability to help/save other lanes without getting punished to hard for leaving. Tower plating already makes the decision to leave lane risky. Late game in close games a smart team would prioritize removing the first tier towers in top and mid therefore the cd teleport wouldnt be as strong. Now the other team can almost match his global pressure with teleport. Some quick bull points:

  1. Restrict Shen from taking teleport
  2. Add one free teleport to an ally tower while ult is on cd.
  3. Allow ult to be cast on wards, minions, and towers (to allow his ult to still function as a teleport in backdooring scenarios)
  4. Can play around with allowing him to take one or two summoner spells (Remember the power of that second spell would come out of his stats)
  5. Riot can test out giving him a lower ult cd or faster channel speed than teleport giving his team a small advantage

Shen would still carry a unique global pressure advantage but it wouldn't be as extreme. Allowing a buff in his team fighting and dueling. Shen would more closely fit his role as a defensive global tank. Early game he can still travel around helping. Late game his second teleport isn't as extreme of an advantage if the other team has removed the first tier towers in top and mid. He could still potentially teleport to the second mid tower and beat his opponent to a Barron. Although hopefully is would significantly lower his advantage. He could now be balanced into an anti split push niche role. For example if he's playing against a Fiora splitting he can ult into a quick fight on the other side of the map and then tele back before she destroys a tower. Forcing the split pusher to group.

The hope is that these changes would move Shen into a unique anti split pushing tank role. And keeps intact a kit that differentiates him from other champs. Please let me know your thoughts and opinions below. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

10 Comments

starfoxe3/8/2019, 5:52:40 AM1 votes

terrible idea

Kazekiba3/8/2019, 7:12:12 AM1 votes

Revert the spirit sword mechanic, bring back Vorpal Blade. Give his W to Irelia, its way healthier than hers anyway and has ALWAYS been "why is this not on Irelia?" Seriously they had an entire Ionian champion themed around spirit swords and ...

Or if you really want the Galio treatment, remove the shield from Shen's R and buff the CD to 150 / 120 / 90 seconds (also a terrible idea, dont worry. I know.)

ZephyrDrake3/9/2019, 12:31:11 AM1 votes

And nothing was done. This accomplishes nothing. People don't like Shen due to his stupid "spirit blade" or whatever its supposed to be nonsense. Get rid of that garbage then you can talk about adding random restrictions to a champion

Midg3t3/18/2019, 3:20:34 PM1 votes

Bad idea.