Thank you Riot for the Shen rework

I just want to say thank you Riot for reworking into what he is now! I played a lot Shen before his rework, and while he was fun, I could never fully get into playing him-no matter the role. Sure he was fun and balanced, but his fun revolved around ulting onto a teammate, and dashing into a bunch of foes for that sweet save.

I actually started playing him because I wasn't the best at the game and well, when I did do good, no one noticed what I was doing in game because it wasn't god tier stuff like the perfect thresh hook or the solo triple kill... But when I played Shen and ult'd onto a near death ally, they always noticed and gave me a compliment-playing and learning made me feel like I was contributing to my team even though I wasn't the best at the game. He was also the champ that helped me get better at looking at the minimap, split pushing, and learning when to properly save and use my one engage/disengage tool.

When I heard he was getting reworked, I was pretty happy actually, because the moment I saw the spirit blade I couldn't help but smile and be like "AW YEAH THE COOL NINJA IS GETTING COOLER!", and how could I not? His two core moves that really defined him(his ult and shadow dash) were staying in his kit, and his boring Q was hitting the road. I was a bit sad that his W left at first, but then I seen it got shifted to his passive so that feeling went away...

What got me into playing stayed, but now there's even more to him, and boy, do you have a lot of tools and options at your disposal.

Management of his Spirit Blade is very fun, and Shen is a tank that cares a lot about where he needs to be at the right time, you need to worry about how close it is to you due to it having travel time and your bonus dmg and shield don't pop up till it reaches you, you need to consider managing it with your W to maximize your passive's shield, as well as getting it behind your foe to proc the slow and bonus dmg!

I have all the tools to fight and (though neither is a walk in the park), likewise there's a lot of counterplay for them as well! I've routinely had me and my team run up to low health towers and take a smack at them, to have the enemy team come over and try and AA us down... Only for me to W under the tower and allow us to ignore them completely! (I do this when I'm taking out wards sometimes too, just to be cheeky. ;P)

I've been able to turn around ganks by myself, deal with lane bullies, and fly around the whole map being an unstoppable tanky teamplayer! Not only does he feel like Shen still, he's fun, and not just when you press R! Just some of the cool stuff I've done:

Friendly adc is being killed by the enemy adc, I ult onto him, and dash onto the foe-they're almost dead so I know they're going to keep trying to chase down my low health adc... So instead of Q'ing my blade to me I keep it on my ally and W him, allowing him to just barely survive and kill the enemy! But can also protect himself! Last game(and this one play is what made me type all of this) I was doing fairly well against a but I had myself pushed in too much... On the map, I see the enemy walking through the River bush to gank me, and the almost full health starts going aggro... Now normally, this would've been the death sentence to anyone else( I was at 50% health), I had my level 6. Quickly pulling my sword to me and popping the W, I start up my ult onto the friendly mid laner, I block the shots, and barely get out right before manages to do the third part of her W, narrowly escaping with just a sliver of health.

So what I'm trying to say, is thank you for adding these cool new abilities, the old play making skills of (his dash and ult) are still there, and honestly, how well crafted he was done makes me pretty hyped for not only , the mid-year update, but also for any other touched up champions. You guys are showing that you've learned from the missteps of your other reworks and are getting us involved in what we want to see, as well as preserving the identity of the champion.

Keep up the good work! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]