The Shen Rework is just another demonstration of Riot's obsession with novelty gameplay
I feel that Riot is obsessed with "unique" and "interesting" gameplay. I personally don't know why this is, but it has clearly made its mark on the recent champion releases and reworks.
New ideas can be healthy for games but it gets overbearing when every single champion release or rework tries to push the game's limits further and further.
It's not the end of the world because a new champion release has a dash that isn't completely and utter unique. But for some reason, Riot feels this way and continues to tack on unique stats and effects to all kinds of these new champions. The first time I felt that Riot was overstepping the game's bounds was when they released Skarner's Crystal capturing game and Mordekaiser's new kit.
I've been playing this game for a long time and I still don't completely understand Skarner and Mordekaiser's new reworks. In what conditions does he get that unnecessary dragon ghost? Does capturing this crystal actually do anything for me? The champs are so utterly underplayed nowadays that I can care less. Good reworks. Maybe cramming a champion full of "novelty gameplay" didn't really work out in the end. Skarner had a good two-week run. Mordekaiser had a good few months of fame but it seems like he and Skarner are already back to 0.1% playrates and it seems like Riot's fine with letting it stay that way.
I'm getting verbose here so let me get to it. Shen rework is just another one of these. Like I said before, I have no idea what caused Riot to get into this frenzy of making "cool and unique" abilities that seem to plague every single new champion reworks' and releases' kits. I know that by Riot's philosophy, Shen was due for a rework for a long time, which is fine. Shen had abilities that they deemed as "toxic." A prime example was his Vorpal Blade, that was basically a Vladimir Q(another ability that Riot loathes) because it was just a point-and-click ranged ability that healed and dealt damage.
But there were plenty of ways to fix his kit without adding some stupid new mechanic that doesn't even feel like part of League. It literally feels like some kind of different game that I have to play here. It's not interesting and it feels foreign to League.
I think Riot should realize that there are different ways to making new champions and champion reworks rather than pulling out a whiteboard and brainstorming the "wackiest" and "most unique" ideas they can think off and then cramming them into a champion.
On a side note, if Riot hated his Q so much, they could have just gave it the Rengar bola treatment and made it a skillshot or something. I'd take a skillshot Q anyday over some uncreative, unreliable ability that relegates Shen completely and utterly to support/jg. And what's the deal with the 400 maximum energy? wtf? Was that necessary at all??? And where did his awesome E sound effect go?
