Shen: A discussion

Currently, as it stands, despite hovering around a 50% winrate, I find a bit....underwhelming overall and outclassed against the current meta; especially regarding damage creep. Over a few weeks, I've been mulling around ideas that I hope could bring him back up to par as a TANK, not so much the tank/duelist he's been funneled into and perhaps back to his old self.

First off, as more of a QoL change, have his passive trigger instantly on cast, rather than waiting for his q to reach his location or at the end of his e. The number of times I've died to a liandries tick, bleed, or ignite because of that sword being so slow feels more like being outplayed by clunky mechanics rather than a misplay on the part of the player. An alternative to this could just be buffing the missile speed on his q, but it seems more consistent just to have the shield activate immediately.

Next, his Q. This may sound like too much of a buff, but hear me out. From what I've heard over the years, the biggest gripe about 's rework was the loss of his old Q, Vorpal Blade; both for the poke and lane sustain it offered. So, if it would come at the cost of damage (to champions) on his non-empowered q's, what if we instead shifted some power budget to adding a debuff akin to the old q on target(s) the sword collides with, granting a HoT (likely scaling on Shen's max hp) when attacked? As an afterthought, perhaps giving a minuscule amount of health gain on minion kills, or reverting some of the past nerfs to minion damage could help a bit; I don't mind lack of waveclear being a weakness for him, but that was a bit too far. Also, if anything else, please remove the AP scaling; it's far too minimal to incentivize building differently, and kills any potential for possibly adding max health scaling if it comes at the cost of lowering the base damages to compensate.

His w, as it works, seems fine; but my only complaint also overlaps with his e, considering how teamfights usually play out. Assuming you ult into the fight, usually someone in the backline, once you arrive, you immediately w, then proceed to e into 2-3 targets, then get shredded in 2 seconds. Or, the other outcome; you ult in, e into the enemy team, q, w, then wonder why you're suddenly facing a 1v4 since your backline got demolished without the w zone under them. So here's the idea; would it really be too much for some base damage reduction on taunted targets again? I'm not asking for 50%, that would be a bit overtuned, but 25%-30% doesn't seem much with how much damage has escalated out of control recently; nevermind his base resistances being abysmal, especially for a tank. Also, I must clarify, the damage reduction would only apply on targets he collides with, not just adding a flat reduction on the dash.

And lastly, his ult; the biggest problem for his viability since the beginning. Now, again, I must reiterate how underwhelming it performs as a "hail mary" save for someone on your team and has shifted too much towards a 2nd teleport for insane map presence, again, because of damage creep. So, having heard this idea thrown around over time, what if the shield amount could scale at the cost of 's own health, through a channel akin to 's E, or 's ult? I feel this could add some much needed skill expression; as well as possibly penalizing its unintended use; perhaps the cooldown could diminish or increase based on how low the target's health was? Another time for that. Also, adding the potential health cost could work along with removing the AP scaling in favor of his own health pool, again, if this means having lower bases.

Please feel free to comment, as always, and try to be constructive; as asinine as that is to ask considering this will be on the Gameplay boards

Cheers

Edit: Melledoneus, if you're out there, would love some feedback coming from a fellow Shen enthusiast.