Patch 4.21 is Legendary xD

With the energy changes made to Shen's Kit in patch 4.21, (Love you Riot I was waiting forever for that buff!)' he's merely a few steps away from attaining true balance!

I got some not so big impact changes for Riot right here that will slightly increase his play at all stages of the game, making him a viable pick, yet, still not over-powered and retaining the same weaknesses:

1. Increase the range on Vorpal Blade and Auto- Attacks by 25 units. Shen's 1 nuke Vorpal Blade is essential for last hitting minions, harassing enemies, sustaining lane and Ocassionally giving the Killing Blow to champs who are out of Range. Normally throwing a blade to scave your enemies life is not a bad thing, the mad thing is the minor damage paired with Small Range. So although he can harass without taking minion aggro, doing so put's him in harm of Toplane champs who have exceptional gap closers like (Xin Zhao and Irelia)' puts him in harm of champs who have excellent poke paired with mobility in their kit like (Shyvanna, Vladmir, Teemo and Gnar) and puts him in harm of melee champs who have dashes and AoE Damage like ( Renekton and Yasuo). As for his Melee Range I thought this would greatly increase his chase, farming and a bit more leverage to regular 125 range champs has the extra auto on engaging an them escaping his a slight increase that would be very satisfying and a little wow factor about him making toe to toe on range with Diana, who is another AP fighter :) (I also thought that 125 units melee range should be exclusive to champion who have dagger like weapon's e.g. (Katarina) and Hand to Hand combat champs like (Udyr and Lee Sin). I mean (Riven and Aatrox) have ultimates that increase their attack range. Giving Shen a little 25+ units is not gonna break him, I mean he has Dual Ninjato for crying out loud, I don't care if they have to change up the attack animation, that would just raise appeal to him. They should at least make it 140 units melee range so it can better fit his current attack animation.

2. Increase base movement speed to 340 from 335. (Logically speaking, Shen doesn't look as heavy as Rek'Sai or other tanks, why make him so slow, and extra 5 units is not that big of a difference unless your running a marathon with someone below the 340 and it will take a matter of seconds to get a good lead, not to mention all the gap closers, Crow Control (which is pretty common Top Lane) and the few speed steroids like Lady Wek'Sai, Sir Volibear and BabyBratts Gnar and Teemo. He still won't be as faster than Yasuo, Shyvanna or Yi at lvl 1 who have 345, 350 and 355 movement speed respectively. I find 340 is a good place to put him for a slight advantage against top landers who are more tanky and crowd controlling.

3. Increase taunt duration to 1.75 seconds from 1.5 seconds. Too many times a kill has gotten away or an enemy has over-powered me because the taunt was just a split second to short (or a quad-second in this situation) and although waiting for the right moment to taunt can change a lot, most enemies won't allow you to take their life below half before they use either an escape tool they have built in kit, CC, flash or a mixture or the 2/3, so without knowing what the enemy has up their sleeves I usually taunt right away for a guaranteed grab. But it's still not enough 1v1 to intimidate your enemies and because it's too short you really don't benefit much from the 50% Reduced damage.But with the energy changes they made in patch 4.21, (Love you Riot I was waiting forever for that buff!)' he's merely a few steps away from attaining true balance!

For some more drastic changes:

1. Increase Vorpal Blade's base magic damage and Ability Power Scaling to 65/110/155/200/245 +65% AP.

2. Increase Heal on Vorpal Blade to 4/11/18/25/32 +2% Maximum Health.

3. Have Feint Scale with 1.5% Bonus Hp as well as the current 60% AP. (Highly Recommend this one for toplane viability as AP is not a favorable item on toplane Shen and is often bought last if not bought at all, leaving him with no ability scaling because full tank shen better suits the toplane meta.

Increasing his base stats will make him not AP reliant Top Lane and make AP shen more of a threat, as dedicated mages can thrash him mid so building a mixture offense and defense will not be as difficult on him :)

I Main Shen