This new Shen rework looks like it's going to set a new standard for dreadful.
So... he loses his bonus damage on his passive, he loses his ranged harass and ability to ranged last hit, the ONLY damage built into his kit is Shadow Dash (trivial) and the on-hit damage from his new Q. Which, if you tag an enemy champion with the Q, is 3x5% of their max HP for 3 on-hits, or 3x3% if you don't. Also, Shen can only reposition his Spirit Blade by moving somewhere and using his Q, so the only real chance he has of hitting an enemy with it in 1v1 is if he Shadow Dashes onto an enemy and immediately Qs, meaning he has to go all-in to do any damage AT ALL unless his opponent is a cretin who just wanders between him and his blade (leading to a 100% predictable automatic "Q whack whack whack"). So he now has absolute no damage options at all except all-in, leaning on the strength of max HP damage. This reeks of CertainlyT.
As well as all his damage options he also loses his sustain, completely. Yes, being a manaless champ with considerable built-in healing made him something of an immovable object in lane, but he was never a particularly strong laner and didn't scale that well so it wasn't that much of a problem. Of course, now support Shen (one of my favourites) is absolutely dead and I'm pretty sure jungle Shen is going to be completely and utterly unplayable as well (he was always a glacially slow clear, now with massive damage nerfs and the total removal of his sustain he's going to be even slower and not even going to be safe any more). So now he HAS to sit in top lane, only he can't farm nearly as well as he used to (he lost his ranged last hit with Vorpal Blade and his bonus damage from Ki Strike), he can't sustain whatever damage gets between his passive shield, and if you believe 1.75 seconds of dodge every 18 seconds is going to let him stand up to other top laners I have a bridge I'd like to sell you in the middle of Sydney Harbour.
I know this is still early stages, but the numbers aren't the issue. This new kit is godawful. It's limiting, it cuts Shen's potential options down to almost nothing (top lane or bust, and that's only if it isn't top lane and bust) it doesn't sound a fraction as interesting as Riot apparently think it is and it's going to be an absolute balance nightmare. Some of Riot's reworks have been good, but some of them have been absolutely abysmal, and when they're abysmal we can usually tell so right up. We knew the Mordekaiser juggernaut rework was going to be a disaster, we told Riot it was, they didn't listen and shoved it out anyway and it WAS a disaster that they still haven't fixed, with Morde only being playable because he was nauseatingly overpowered in the role they'd crudely forced him into, like a square peg hammered through a round hole (the "gets full exp in a duo lane" rubbish being the kind of amateurish nonsense that should have set off alarm bells instantly), making him permanent pick/ban until they nerfed him, resulting in him once again being useless. The Garen rework was less of a catastrophe but still an outright failure, resulting in Garen seeing a lot of bans in bronze (because it reminded people he existed, not because it made him any better, he was ALWAYS a noobstomper) but still absolutely no high level play because he still fundamentally sucks and all the stupid "let's buff what he already does and make his weaknesses even worse" changes Riot made were going to help that. This Shen rework just stinks of disaster. You can tell me to wait and see, but I don't want to wait and see. I take once look at this kit and I just don't even want to try it. It's gimmicky, nonsensical, strongly looks like it promotes unhealthy, "all or nothing" play patterns and gives me a horrible feeling that it's going to take Shen from "slightly under par" to "unplayable crap", resulting in another half-year or so of Riot tinkering with him, overbuffing him, knee-jerk nerfing him, messing around this way and that. Remember Cassiopeia? Yeah.
Riot. Cut. It. Out.
