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Shen Support

Ridley Prime·2/9/2016, 9:29:19 PM·1 votes·998 views

I feel like, based on my own and some others opinions, that shen's power as a support was severely diminished with the changes to his Q. Before he had poke and could actually heal his laner with coordination, which was a big part of shen support being viable.

I think now that he's much more shield based, he could have some interaction with his taunt being able to be used defensively.

Something I had in mind was "If shen passes through an ally and has an active Ki Barrier (i.e. he's got a shield from his passive still on him) he grants his ally a portion of whatever the current shield value is at."

This could apply to the first ally passed through or all allies, but I think it would be a little extra something to allow shen more options and abilities to help his lane partner without impacting his solo laning or jungling much at all, and allowing him to be just a little more useful in teamfights without needing too much gold (see: shen in the support role) to be an asset.

10 Comments

Aeolian Melodies2/10/2016, 1:03:16 AM2 votes

I feel like he's better now with the AoE dodge than the gimmicky heal on hit that most people didn't know was there.

Filgaia2/10/2016, 4:23:09 PM1 votes

Supp Shen is pretty much dead at least for me. The changes to his Q and passive killed him. He has no poke anymore in lane. His W would actually be a really nice tool for him to shield his ADC if you could control the stupid blade instead of just having it on a leash.

Unless they do some changes i don´t see the point of playing Shen for me because he´s really anti-fun since the rework.

Paroe2/10/2016, 4:32:53 PM1 votes

Current support shen is best paired with hyper aggressive ADCs like vayne and post 6 ezreal or lucian. Shen is now VERY aggressive compared to other 'supports'

EstebanElGuapo2/28/2016, 2:35:05 AM1 votes

I have a lot of new shen gripes but i'll leave them behind just to make an observation on support shen and energy recovery.

his energy pool is 2x prior at 400 vs 200. His spells are 2x more costly to make up for that vs prior shen. So net net no change, but his energy regen rate = 50 same rate as prior. which means it recovers at half the prior rate due to it being used at twice the prior amount and filling 2x the prior pool size.

2nd remark on energy. HIs passive on old shen was free cast in that it was passive on auto energy recovery. So as a support when your passive is up you go hit a minion and proc your gp5-relic shield, or if not just hit any minion and not kill it to recover energy or hit a too close enemy. But energy recovery cost nothing to access. New shen requires Q both an upfront 140-100 energy cost to access and must make use of it during an 8 second window. It costs energy to try to recover energy, by hitting stuff. As a support now to try to make use of non regen energy recovery you will be needing to Q proc 3 gp5 relic shield procs of energy. wikia says under passive for E that Q dmg recovers 20/30/40 energy. so 3 hits gets you 60-160 but requires ranking E to raise the rate. Still seems that your spending more energy to get less though must be some oddity in the way the stats are recorded vs how it actually works; because seemed to me old shen passive recovered more than what was listed as well.

If its working as listed, then your Q isn't recovering energy just refunding it until appropriate ranks in Q and E, where old passive recovered energy and did so without cost.

All of that was kind of to say, how the heck is a support shen supposed to manage his resource bar; other than stand there and wait for half speed recovery through natural regen. Or agressively taunt in and 3 hit an enemy. I guess he doesn't have anything to do anyway outside that; but he cannot just waste Q and W casts forever since he will be empty and more useless than he might otherwise be.

The P0ntiff3/9/2016, 8:10:21 PM1 votes

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I find Shen support to be really strong at the moment. I agree that he's best played with aggressive adc champs, but I have been spamming him bot and jungle since the rework regardless of what adc the other laner decides to go with and have been experiencing a good deal of success for a silver scrublord.

I like to take the new (old) Expose Weakness and spend 12 points in the Ferocity tree as opposed to Cunning. Sure, you miss out on Bandit but you don't have to waste a point in tier 2 of Cunning. I make up for the gold I miss out on by taking scuttler and taxing the lane a bit when I'm left alone in lane. Unlike a lot of tanky supports, due to shen's Q bonus dmg he has no problem last hitting under tower and thanks to taunt working on monsters you can hack down scuttlers pretty quickly.

The reason I think he is particularly good atm is that you can build Banner of Command and/or Zz'rot on him and either split push with your promoted cannon minion and ult in when the team fight breaks out, or just drop your rot and group. Works especially well in comps where the top laner may also purchase one of the aforementioned items.

He is a bit useless before lvl 3, but even at lvl 2 with Q and E you can get really solid trades off and once you have all three abilities and can do the E, Q, W combo its very difficult for the opposing bot to out trade.

I think with the additional clarity they are adding with his R - Stand United, making plays with his ult should be a heck of a lot easier (especially with the silver level players I'm with), and it already often can be pulled off on dives/counterganks as is.

TL;DR Shen rework is a solid support pick, just play it a bit more and you'll get better at manipulating the sword/shield.