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Shen Re-Rework Kit Concept

sixths·2/25/2019, 2:22:33 AM·7 votes·2,737 views

Intro I have never really “mained” Shen, but he was always an appealing character to me, mostly thematically. The idea of a tanky/bruiser ninja was neat, and the reworked theme with his spirit blade really caught me. However, I believe Riot really missed the mark with the static spirit blade that follows Shen around the map. Thematically it is just awkward, and while it may appear to offer play/counterplay around it, in reality is doesn’t offer much.

Thus the purpose of my re-rework Shen is to carry that spirit blade tanky in-your-face Ninja theme to better reality. The main difference this new kit is Shen’s Q, which instead of just pulling his otherwise stationary sword to him actually pulls it from a targeted location (think Ornn ult), then he wields it for a few seconds/hits before it returns to the “spirit realm”, where he can then re-summon it from a new location with his Q. I believe this kit will better fulfill his role, create a more interesting and interactive champion and kit, and even open more thoughts for playing around him.

I will include explanations to each ability and the entirety of the kit after the ability explanations. Note that any time/percentages/numbers are obviously subject to change/tuning, and I have not included ability level scaling but most damages/durations/cooldowns etc would scale as you would expect, with perhaps most damage scaling from bonus health with a little AP.

Passive: Ki Barrier After using an ability, Shen shields himself for 2.5 seconds. If the triggering ability successfully affected at least one champion, Ki Barrier's cooldown is reduced. While shielded by Ki Barrier, Shen's attack speed is increased by 50%.

Weakened Spirit Shen's abilities weaken enemies spirits, causing them to take double magic damage from his Twilight Assault empowered attacks and Shadow Dash. Additionally, affected units are slowed when moving away from Shen.

Explanation: Shen’s current passive is fine, giving him some tankiness and rewarding him for landing abilities instead of just using his passive to absorb incoming damage. This iteration further rewards him for using his abilities offensively, gives him windows of burst with the attack speed, and also offers counterplay as enemies can quickly burn down his shield in order to remove the bonus attack speed. The additional Weakened Spirit portion is essentially taking his old Q’s bonus of hitting champions and amplifying it, letting it enhance his taunt damage as well.

Q: Twilight Assault Active: Shen summons a powerful spectral blade at target location and draws it to him after a brief delay. Enemies (champions, minions, and monsters) it collides with take magic damage and are marked with a weakened spirit for 3 seconds.

Shen's next 3 basic attacks within 6 seconds deal bonus magic damage.

Explanation: Shen’s current Q can be awkward. It gives an appearance of counterplay and thinking during laning and fights, but ends up often ignored because of lack of power and Shen’s lack of ability to actually move the sword around strategically. This new iteration allows Shen to more easily hit opponents with his sword, but also gives them time to counter it by having a delay between the time he casts and when it actually travels towards him. Note that the sword would not do damage or mark targets until it started moving, after the initial delay. Furthermore, allowing the sword to do damage as it passes through targets gives shen a little more waveclear, and gives him the ability to proc his new passive on targets to them amplify his taunt damage and not only his empowered auto damage.

W: Spirit's Refuge Active: Shen envokes spiritual protection, blocking basic attacks made against him for 1.75 seconds.

If Shen is wielding a spirit blade, Spirit's Refuge also creates a zone around him that also blocks all basic attacks made against nearby allies for the duration.

Explanation: Shen’s current W is fairly unique, and offers some teamplay that can feel very rewarding. With the removal of the static Spirit Blade, this new iteration offers some thought as to when to use his W. Using it without first using Q will give himself protection, while saving Q to use before W will be necessary if he needs to also protect allies. This allows some decision making on when to use Q and W.

E: Shadow Dash Passive: Dealing damage with Shadow Dash or Twilight Assault recovers Energy.

Active: Shen dashes in a direction, dealing magical damage to enemy champions and neutral monsters in his path, marking them with a weakened spirit for 3 seconds, and taunting them for 1.5 seconds.

Explanation: Shen’s taunt is fairly iconic and needs little to no change in my opinion. The only difference with this iteration is that it marks them with his new passive, which allows him to do more damage with his empowered Q and a slight slow to let him stick to them for another second or two after the taunt ends.

R: Stand United Active: Shen grants a shield to a target allied champion that lasts 5 seconds and absorbs damage based on their missing health. After channeling for 3 seconds, Shen summons a spirit blade and teleports to the ally's location.

Explanation: Shen’s ultimate is probably the most iconic part of his kit, and needs no change in my opinion. The only difference here is that without the static spirit blade to come with him, I think his ult should essentially give him a free Q so that his next few autos will already be empowered. This will give him an opportunity to be a threat when he ults, as he will have a few empowered autos on arrival, which he can follow up with a Q for more pressure.

Play Style Change I don’t think my iteration of Shen’s kit wouldn’t significantly change his play style. The main difference it makes is having a higher skill ceiling on landing his Q by turning it into more of a skill shot, while also still retaining the ability for opponents to counter it by repositioning before they get hit. He will still likely want to taunt->Q in order to guarantee Q hits, but he is also rewarded for landing Q first because they will be slowed and his taunt will do extra damage. This kit also gives him better waveclear, removing the reliance on a hydra for his clearspeed, but could be tuned to make sure it isn’t excessive (because a hard split pushing Shen with ult and TP can be fairly obnoxious). My idea of this iteration is to also sacrifice some of his tankiness to be a little more bruiser-ish. After all, he is a ninja, and imagining a ninja that just stands there hitting you with a foam sword doesn’t really appeal to me. The tankiness of this Shen would rely more on utilizing his passive shield well (getting in a fight and landing abilities and autos) and his W to block autos.

Let me know what you guys think!

5 Comments

Wizard FYB2/25/2019, 3:34:00 AM7 votes

Lol "sacrifice some of his tankiness".

Take a peek at Shen's base stats...

noobitup2/25/2019, 11:27:54 AM2 votes

I don't know what to say , as a shen main , I would buy all his skins and start playing him again in my ranked if they do that , I really hope RIOT gives this ninja some ''ninjativity'' , great ideas.

SirTauntsALot2/25/2019, 10:21:05 AM1 votes

Let me share mine which I believe bring to the table more interesting stuff which can easily address some core problems of Shen. I mainly address the problems changing his Q and R which addresses the problems in pro play while buffing him in solo Q and keeping is identity in tact:

Passive: His passive is fine I would not change it. Leave it as it is.

Q - Twilight assault:

Problems: His Q even though it can feel rewarding when played right, has some significant problems. The main problem is that he relies on the enemy to fuck up his/ her position in order to fully utilize the Q ability. This forces Shen to sacrifice a lot of time to re-position himself (therefore putting his attack on a halt for a few seconds to re-position). Shen should have a better option. Here is my solution to his Q

Solution

The solution is rather simple. Shen's Q will have two forms:

  1. When Shen's sword is on the ground.
  2. When Shen's sword is not on the ground (aka when Shen is "holding" his sword).

When Shen is holding the sword he can throw it at a target location where it shall remain until Shen picks it up (by passing over it) or summoning it towards him with his q.

When the sword is on the ground Shen can pull it / summon it giving him the stats he gets currently on live ( when passing through champions amplified stats as in live).

These will be the two casts of his Q.

  • First cast - twilight assault (aka when Shen is holding the sword):
    Shen throws the sword at a target location where it shall remain until Shen picks it up (by passing over it) or summoning it with "twilight summoning". If the sword passes through any enemies (including minions and monsters) it will slow them and mark them for 5 seconds. While enemies are marked Shen and allied champions are healed over 3 seconds upon damaging a marked enemy, with the duration refreshing with subsequent damage.

When Shen throws his sword he has a window of 2 seconds to recast Q - "twilight call" where it recall his spirit blade (without any additional energy cost) to his hands having a different set effects as below (taken from live):

  • ** Second cast - twilight call (when sword is on the ground): ** Shen recalls his Spirit Blade to his location. Enemies the blade collides with are slowed by 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% for the next 2 seconds when moving away from Shen (stats taken from live). Once it arrives, Shen empowers his next 3 basic attacks within 8 seconds to gain 75 bonus range and deal 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (at levels 1 / 4 / 7 / 10 / 13 / 16) plus 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4% (+ 1.5% per 100 AP) of target's maximum health as bonus magic damage (stats taken from live). If the Spirit Blade collides with an enemy champion, the empowerment is enhanced, dealing 2% (+ 0.5% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health as bonus damage and Shen gains 50% bonus attack speed (stats taken from live). Twilight Assault deals double damage to monsters, up to a maximum of 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 bonus damage (stats taken from live).

  • How the Q mechanics actually work: When the sword is on the ground, Q will pull it on the first cast and you will have a window of 2 seconds to recast it and throw it again before it goes on CD. If you don't throw it before the ability goes on CD Shen will just keep the sword. When Shen is holding his sword, Q will throw it on the first cast and you will have a window of 2 seconds to recast it and pull it again before it goes on CD. If you don't throw it before the ability goes on CD the sword will remain on the ground until Shen picks it up or pulls it toward him again.

  • TL DR for Q: Shen Q will have two parts he can either throw the sword (if he is holding it) and gain healing affects, or summon it towards him (when the sword is on the ground) gaining damage affects (same as live). If Shen throws it he has a 2 second window to recast his Q without any additional cost if he does not then the q goes on cool down.

This will essentially provide Shen with healing abilities for himself and his allies. Therefore I believe R shield can be reduced slightly. I have an even more interesting idea for Shen but this is already to much info. Please ask if you don't understand everything.

ChaosReyn2/25/2019, 5:19:58 PM1 votes

I used to play him pre-rework, and just overall didn't really like the new one. Spirit Blade was just way too hard to use, and you almost had to int pre-6 (or when your ult was on cooldown) to be in a position where the blade would be useful. I agree he didn't really need a point-and-click Q that let everyone heal, but I definitely prefer your version.

My own would probably be to just summon the blade to your hand outright, empowering your attacks for the next 4 or 5s, and giving you the option before it fizzles out to throw it for a bit more damage. It would just make more aesthetic sense to me that way...but it sounds super basic, so I doubt they'd do it like that.