Tossing Around Ideas for Shen.
Recently it seems that Riot is having a bit of an issue with Shen balancing. Because of this I wanted to make a discussion to talk about why he can be tricky to work out and changes that could possibly make him easier to balance.
The Issue:
Shen is an interesting case of being a champion that is very prominent in the competitive scene but when it comes to solo play tends to struggle (this is a fact Riot themselves acknowledge). Riot has too said more then once that the Shen rework is still missing a little something to really pull it together, so a change that could work to make Shen feel more complete as well as closing the usefulness gap between competitive and regular ranked is what we're aiming for. These are the two major factors that should be thought about when taking about Shen's balance.
Why is There a Gap Between Shen's Competitive and Solo-Queue Play?:
From what I understand It's likely due to how a lot of his kit's power is so focused in his Ult. It certainly is a extremely impactful Ultimate, being able to not only save an ally's life but as well bring you to them from anywhere on the map, but because of that, his other abilities seem slightly underwhelming at times (not bad, simply they don't provide the same level of power, outside of maybe his dash). This causes whether Shen wins or loses to sometImes be decided solely on if he can get good Ults or not. In a coordinated competitive scenario this works out OK but in solo play (bar very high elo) it can make it hard for Shen as even if he pulls off a perfectly timed Ult, the fact that there's likely less communication means there's no guarantee that the person he Ulted does proper follow-up, and seeing how high his Ult's cool down is it can be rather detrimental.
What Can be Done?:
Simple, place more power in his basic abilities and if needed take some out of his Ult.
Change Ideas:
E - Already a solid ability however I think it would be nice if he got some small damage reduction during and for a short period after he uses it. Nothing to massive as he already gets a lot of tankness but it seems fitting as the other champs with a taunt (Rammus and Galio) have it.
Q - This is a simple change but one that could be super effective. When Shen uses all three of his enhanced autos or automatically by reactivating Q he can throw his spirt sword out in a skill shot. Hitting it through a champion deals a small amount of max health damage (similar to his Q autos, to keep with the idea of him being good at dueling other tanks) as well as applying a slow when walking away from Shen as though he pulled the sword through them with the first activation of his Q. This is ment to provide Shen more control over his the placement of his sword, not only opening up more gameplay avenues and outplay potential based around consistently pulling and throwing his sword through the right targets along with better poke and wave clear, but also helping out a little thematically by making Shen feel more connected with his sword. A good Shen should be defined not only by knowing the best time/place to Ult but as well his ability to effectively position his sword, and this addition could give more opportunities for the better Shen players to show this off. It could also allow him to throw a Sprit's Refuge to another teammate, being a nice buff, especially for support Shen.
R - Given how we're suggesting nothing but buffs for his other abilities it seems only reasonable that his Ult take at least a small hit (once again, shifting the power). Admittedly I don't really have many ideas for this one beside numbers but if anyone has any ideas be free to share them.
End Note:
All this is just some quick thoughts I had about the subject so if you like/dislike them please do detail why. As well don't be shy to add your own ideas as any discussion is very welcome.
