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Shen... Ninja... What?

Dreegan·3/23/2014, 9:15:56 PM·6 votes·923 views

(This post is pulled from the GD Forum post I made. Feel free to check out the comments there too! http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4380792 )

I'm really conflicted on Shen right now. For a few reason. So let me explain them in little categories to better separate my thoughts.

Abilities! -The healing factor on Shen's Vorpal Blade always feels like it's trying to tell me to do one thing, but it's also my harass and damage. In teamfights, I'm always at a loss at who I should hit with it, and the heal itself feels pointless outside of the laning phase.

-Feint is almost never fun to use, and I barely even notice it, since I want to save all my energy for more Vorpal Blades and Shadow Dashes. The shield it provides is really small, and it's passive effect to help proc Ki Strike more is just kinda meh..

-Shadow Dash is pretty good. I don't really have many complaints about it. Other than the fact that this is the only ability that Shen has that makes me feel like a Ninja... sorta of.. kinda...

-Stand United. This feels like the only real reason to play Shen. And as awesome as it can be, for the most part it actually hurts to use it. Global Teleports can be awesome, especially one that saves a friend. But those "cool play" moments feel so few and far between. And a lot of the time I'm afraid to ult, because I'm paranoid about it being a total waste. Especially with that long cooldown. Further more, it feels like this Ultimate is promoting me to Split-Push exclusively, and not just be there, guarding my allies, or scoping out the fight like a Ninja. So I split-push and wait for something to happen, Ult in, hope they live, Shadow Dash into the fight and then.... ?

-Ki Strike! His passive makes me laugh at myself. I want Attack Speed to get that energy back, and that burst. I want to build health to deal more damage. But all my regular abilities are AP ratio... But I don't want to build AP because I need to be tanky, since I have a taunt and will be attracting auto attacks.... WHAT DO I DO!?

That's my general thoughts on Shen's abilities.. but there's one special thing that I touched on during those thoughts you might've picked up on. Shen doesn't feel like a Ninja.

In fact.. out of the 4 of them, Shen's the only one that doesn't have anything really NINJA about him.

-Akali can zip in a fight, and lay down some smoke cover for herself while she manuevers around waiting for the perfect time to strike.... TOTALLY NINJA!

-Kennen throws Shurikens and doesn't afraid of anything. He can also dash like a mad man, striking like lightning.. literally! AMAZINGLY NINJA!

-Zed... Zed is the most Ninja. He uses his Shadows to trick you, striking at you from all angles, diving in on you and attacking in a flurry, and as you walk away, thinking you lived, your heart explodes Kill-Bill style. SO ****ING NINJA IT HURTS!

So when/how does Shen ever get to be the Ninja Leader he was born/made/lorebased to be?

UPDATE~! : Created a new Kit for Shen on Page 5. Let me know what you guys think.

Guinsoo! Stand with us, United!

EDIT FOR KIT UPDATE ON FIRS POST!

Okay, I got some ideas for a new kit for Shen. Let me know what you guys think.

Passive - Ki Strike - Shen's next basic attack deals bonus magic damage equal to 4 + (4 × Shen's level) + (10% of Shen's bonus health) and restores 10 / 20 / 30 energy. Cooldown reduction does not affect Ki Strike, but Shen's basic attacks will reduce the cooldown of Ki Strike by 1 second each.

Think I think can stay, as it's pretty simple, and a decent form of Energy Regeneration.

Q Ability - Vorpal Slash - Shen draws his sword, slashing swiftly at a target area. After a brief delay, his slash takes effect, dealing X/X/X/X/X (AD) Damage) and slowing enemies in the area by X/X/X/X/X%. Enemies hit are marked and will deal reduced damage.

The purpose of this is to give Shen a little something to help peel for his team, or help him initate with his Shadow Dash more easily, but not so easily that enemies can't avoid the attack.

W Ability - Feint/Pursue - Shen Dashes to nearby allied or enemy unit. Cannot be used on Wards. If used on Ally - Shen covers his allies retreat, granting them a shield based on % of Shen's Maximum Health. If the shield breaks, Shen recovers X Energy. If used on Enemy - Shen Warps behind target Enemy, dealing damage based on Shen's Maximum Health and marking them. Allies that attack this Target are granted health regenration based on Shen's Maximum Health

Probably a bit overloaded and CertainlyT'd, but I like having Shen have some more options of being able to go into a fight, or be more mobile to protect his allies. Remember, he is supposed to be a Ninja Leader, so having the ability to dive back to protect a friend, or go in on an enemy I feel is extremely important.

E - Shadow Dash/Shadow Slash - Shen draws his sword, dashing swiftly and attacking and briefly Taunting all enemies in a line for 1.5 seconds, dealing damage based on his (Can't decide if this is only AD, or Max Health, or maybe a bit of both?) and recieving 50% damage reduction. Shen can activate this ability again within 3 seconds to deal True Damage to all enemies hit based on how much damage he recieved during the buff timer.

Shen's signature ability should feel good, and fun to use, as well as be useful for some damage. Shen players I think should feel self-rewarded from hitting with this ability, and building tanky will reward them with some extra damage to boot when they successfully end up Shadow Dashing an entire team to save his team, or help initiate a fight.

Ultimate - Shroud of the Twilight - Shen shrouds a fellow ally, protecting them from damage based on Shen's Maximum Health (Or granting them % Damage reduction... haven't figured out which would be better). After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen appears at his Ally's Side with a 1.5 Second Stealth and 30% Movement speed bonus for 2 seconds. Shen can cancel the channel at anytime, but will not teleport, or be granted any buffs.

What the ever-living ****, Dreegan? Did you just buff Stand-United? Why yes, yes I did. It might be too much, but that's why we experiment with this stuff. My thoughts behind this ridiculous changes, aside from making Shen WAY MORE NINJA, is that I feel that a teleport and shield just wasn't enough to justify that massive cooldown on this ability. Even if it is global, it still relies a lot on so many variables that it doesn't feel great to use Liberally, which is what you want from an Ultimate for a tank. Maybe not liberally... but definitely not have to sit there and debate with yourself while a fight's going on if it's worth you using it or not. The Stealth/Movement Speed boost granted on successfully teleporting to your ally is to help Shen get back into the action a bit easily after sacrificing whatever he was doing to go help his teammates when they're in need.

All-round though.... these are probably huge, game-breakingly awesome buffs to everyone's favorite Ninja tank, but I feel it kinda gives an idea of where he should be. It'll give him some build options, and reward players for actually building tanky besides the, "Hey... you can live longer now" argument. And it takes away any AP nonsense which is something he doesn't need to deal with. It also increases his mobility (Maybe by too much, but he's not exactly a damage dealer so I feel it's okay) so he can be more flippin' Ninja and give him opportunities to actually be more active in a game for play-making.

These are all beginning ideas, and I might think of something new, but right now, tell me what you guys think?

9 Comments

BattleOoze3/24/2014, 1:14:37 AM4 votes

Haha yea, I agree with the idea. Shen just feels so boring and pointless of a champion to play other than for his dash and ult. It's just so bland...

GwingMaster3/28/2014, 8:52:21 AM2 votes

Logged in just to say how much I agree with everything here. I was actually JUST thinking about writing a post about shen today because his kit/thematics bother me so much. I totally agree with you that nothing about his kit, nor his role in teamfights, really says "ninja" to me. Actually, as far as i'm concerned, the only way Shen makes sense thematically is when he's using the heavily armored samurai skin (the name of which escapes me).

I don't think Shen's actual gameplay is awful, but I like the concept behind this rework. He should feel like a ninja while retaining that tanky feel that distinguishes him from the others. I think a visual rework on him would be nice to accompany a kit change like this one - nothing major, but a tanky character like him should look the part. Maybe add a little more armor, give him a tougher look so that when we view his splash we immediately get a good sense for what this guy is about.

good stuff!

Sire Hippington3/26/2014, 1:18:05 AM1 votes

U CertainlyT'd went to far with those buffs. First, As long as the ult remains global, shen can not realy recive any buffs as the potential in highlvl play is way to strong.

Second, dash on Q, W and E, Lee and Yasuo have not enough mobillity? get new shen!
The W is nice, but a bit close on Lees W, so how about a shield that lets shen mark all enemies he deals dmg to with the current Q mark as long as the shield is up
The Q needs to loose the dash if W stays as a dash, otherwise he would have to much mobillity
The E doesn't need good dmg scalings, it's his utillity tool, and CertainlyT'd no truedmg.

But as said in the beginningm the main prob is his Ult that has way to much potential if used right, so buffing the rest of his kit is very dangerous for high elo also, don't use to much tank->dmg ratios, they tend to snowball insanly hard(just as dmg->tankiness ratios), as u can get more tankiness and more dmg from one stat.

Phoneixflare3/27/2014, 1:24:16 AM1 votes

dude this is awesome. I love the new kit you designed. +1 for sure. Riot should use this. I completely agree that Shen is lacking the 'ninja' feel. His ratios and scaling are all weird as heck and just as you pointed out, his whole kit feels confused and all over the place.

I had an idea for his feint awhile back. Basically would make it more like Sion's shield, however, that the shield scaled with his maximum health and could not be detonated early. Still allowed it to be used for absorbing burst damage while allowing for an offensive use as well.

I actually REALLY like what you did with his e and r. They both make sense with his lore and his name...I just love it. I mean...looking at e it just looks so cool when I read your description. Good job man. Also, the scaling on his ultimate makes so much sense. I mean, AP shen just doesnt work so why even have ap scaling on most of his abilities? He isnt the best candidate for triforce/frozen fist either.

Dreegan6/25/2014, 7:12:17 AM1 votes

Old school bump Shen