Shen Rework Anyone?
Hey guys, let me preface this by saying that I love 
. I like his potentially infinite sustain in lane, as well as his ability to assist his team from mid to late game. I would agree with many of you that he CAN be viable in the right hands, but in the current meta against skilled opponents, he just doesn't offer much of a package to work with. Let me preface this for a few reasons:
-
Laning Phase = Weak, and susceptible to all-ins. His Q makes laning possible but still very unsubstantial. It has weak base stats in addition to scaling off a low AP ratio. His W also suffers from low base stats with a low AP ratio. Its only come-back is resetting his passive. Unfortunately, his passive is also lackluster in comparison to the damage that comes from other full-tank champions. His E is alright. Like the rest of his abilities, it does very low damage, but it provides him with a 1.5 second taunt. But, this is also his only CC (and, being a tank without damage, one would think that he would make up for it in CC). It also costs him half of his energy (should he miss) and has a pretty long cooldown through all levels (early game especially). You could try taunting an enemy champion to take turret fire in lane, but this is about all that it's good for in lane. Unless your an expert
, this ability is also pretty easy to miss. -
Mid-Game Once he hits 6, his ult provides global pressure (pretty much the sole reason why people pick Shen). It's basically a free TP (and shield, if you build AP unto
), but its cooldown is LONG. Maybe I'll get hated on for saying this, but if a champs basic abilities are so terribly underwhelming, shouldn't his ult at LEAST have a low cooldown? (Looking at you, 
). Ulting to a situational problem in another lane also leaves a couple of problems, the main one being that you're leaving your lane exposed (yes, I get that you have to judge each situation accordingly, but the shield makes me think that the ability is meant to be used defensively in another lane, something that a top laner can't always control.) If your against a bruiser/splitpusher like 
or 
, you can say goodbye to that turret you spent all laning phase huddling under. By this time, the damage from Q is completely ignorable, and your W is a joke. -
Late Game Well, you probably built full tank, and are pretty much unkillable at this point. Which is awesome, right? Right? Well, except that the other team can pretty much ignore you in teamfights due to your 1 cc ability coming up every 8 seconds, and your pathetic attempts of dealing damage. But can't you build CDR to mitigate some of the cooldown problems? I guess, but you're GOING to run out of energy in the middle of the fight anyway, so why bother?
Yeah, I like . But he really needs some love right now. Especially since %damage on tanks is the standard now, or at least a ludicrous amount of CC. Anyone else agree that he needs either CC or damage now? A slow, at least?
Please call me out if I don't know what I'm talking about, but the way I see it, is just wasted potential.
