Is this even a viable thing?
I saw this in a ranked match. Personally I've never seen Shen as a viable support, the taunt is nice, but other than taunt what does Shen offer as a support?
I guess he could easily peel for the ADC, but wouldn't he be weak by late-mid to late game building non tanky items?
I do it from time to time in normal games. I don't know how viable it is, but it's certainly doable.
There's his taunt, which is a strong engage tool (also, the movement of the champion backwards as opposed to stuns/roots in nice for the jungler)
He get's a free decent dmg harass/trade from his passive
He has a shield to soak up dmg
He can ult from base, which opens up a lot of opportunities for global plays, including strong counter engage, baits by "alone adc", guaranteed full health tp to lane (twice if you take tp over flash)
Despite being melee, he has a nice harass tool (his q)
Mana-less sustain champ who can practically live in lane as opposed to other supports
But what I love most about, and what people tend to overlook, is that his sustain can be shared with the ADC via the passive on his Q to marked targets. This allows ADCs to essentially farm their health back from minions and possibly ease trades into your team's favor. The passive from his q also scales with Shen's health, synergizing really well with existing support items (ie. Ruby Sightstone, Face of the Mountain, early giant's belt for Randuins/Warmogs)
i love it, its fun and personally i think its viable, although im not the highest elo so i cant say for higher elo, but just get a sight stone and build all tank, opt in for the coin if you want but not necessary. Kero listed all the benefits, when playing, i normally go for first blood with the taunt.
Viable, yes. But I don't find him very strong, he has a taunt and tankyness but not much else. Weak in lane to start with, from my experience, although I'm not the best Shen, when I played at the time.
He doesn't build sup style as a sup. He builds like a shen and shares the ward load.
