Champion Update: Shen

First things first: Shen’s staying largely faithful to his original design. He’s still a tanky energy-based champ, and his E and R are pretty much identical. You’ll still be able to pull off your last-second ults to save a teammate from death, and still surprise your enemies with those fancy-pants taunt -> flash -> taunt moves. Or y’know, accidentally flash -> taunt absolutely nothing -> spill drink over keyboard, if we’re being real.

Then there are Shen’s other abilities. We wanted to put into effect a pretty fundamental change to his combat patterns by giving Shen and his opponent more things to do and think about during each game. His old Q had some neat interactions with other champions, but ultimately it was basically a point-and-click damage ability with some bells and whistles attached. Feint - his old W - had aged even worse, and was basically a pretty bland shield (because practically no-one built AP on Shen) that just interfered with his otherwise precious energy pool. We quickly identified both abilities as prime candidates for the champion update team’s efforts. Basically, we’re fine with Shen engaging in extended one-on-one duels, but we want those fights to be a bunch more engaging and skill-based than they were.

So how’re his new abilities different? Well, his new Q - Twilight Assault - completely changes how and when Shen wants to fight. He’s purely melee now, obviously, so can’t bully or last-hit from range. Instead, he’s all about positioning, maneuvering around his opponent so his Q casts pull his spirit blade through his enemy. His opponent wants that to not happen, obviously, resulting in the two tangoing around their lane for positional advantage. Shen can force the issue by Shadow Dashing in, landing the taunt, then pulling the spirit blade through. This gives him a pretty big boost to his damage, and opens up Spirit's Refuge to parry his opponent’s reply. His new W has serious implications in teamfights, too, giving his entire team the means to dodge incoming basic attacks. Again, this all requires positional smarts, and the ability’s cooldown means he’ll only really get one shot with it per late-game fight. It’s a strong ability, basically, but only when it’s used properly. Finally, Shen’s new passive shield is a key part of the big man’s repertoire, particularly come late game. Past level 16, his shield literally has no cooldown when he lands his abilities on other champions, meaning smart and dextrous Shen players get to morph into mighty unkillable supertanks.

That’s about it for Shen’s changes. We’re kicking out a couple of his old abilities and replacing them with more interesting tools that should give him clearer goals during each game. At the same time, we’re brushing up his visuals, refitting him with a new model and better particle effects across the board. So jump onto the PBE now and let us know your thoughts on Shen’s new kit. We’ll shadow dash back in a couple of weeks for the big guy’s release!