Shen reimagined (LONG)

Here I'mma talk about Shen. I will talk about his theme, his skills, his animations... just about everything. TL;DR? Shen could be extremely badass. Below are suggestions and commentary. Some are spot on (in my humble opinion) and some are probably awful.

I wanted to rethink Shen in a way that promoted more choices in his kit and brought him together thematically. Shen isn't just a ninja, he's the original ninja for LoL and although I'm not opposed to him being tanky... there are some elements of his kit that fall flat, and there is, in my opinion, a yet-unfilled niche in LoL that I believe Shen could occupy: that of a supportive agility tank, mitigating damage through movement and doing best when supporting his teammates like the ninja guardian-angel he is.

First, let's take a look at his skills. What's good, what's bad, and what they could be.

Passive: Ki Strike

What's good: It gives Shen a needed additional source of damage. It synergizes a tad with his w

What's bad: It's like zigg's passive, only it will never ramp up to a level of legitimately potent poke or burst and is melee. It scales with attack speed and health. Thematically, scaling with as is great! Ninjas are fast, right? But there's one current item with health and as: triforce. Sure, it's okay on Shen, but his passive posits a strange conundrum: which half of its scaling will you ignore?

What it could be: Shen is a tank that redirects damage towards him and reduces it. Think similar to dominion's Odyn's Veil: Shen could instead store some of the mitigated damage and unleash it upon activation of another skill, a certain time, or... something

Q: Vorpal blade

The good: This spell is pretty much the entirety of the Shen lane experience, which is already a red flag for me. This is his (un-dodge-able) harass, an indirect form of sustain, and the damages minions/monsters (unlike other skills). This provides some choice, too: tag an enemy for damage and harass or tag a minion for health regen?

The bad: This skill cannot be dodged. The only way to balance this is to tweak damage and cooldown, and also creates a dichotomy of lane opponents: those that can sustain through q's and those who can't. Because this also allows Shen to regen health, these groups will turn it into a farmfest or b frequently, respectively. Normally, forcing an opponent to b is a huge advantage top, but when you can't do much more than aa minions, opponents can usually push and b without sustaining too much tower damage. Also, thematically: he throws a sword? Half his combat efficacy? And it heals you? How?

What it could be: A skillshot. They changed rengar's net to a skillshot and I think that ultimately turned out for the better; his lane got less obnoxious, and it gave Rengar more freedom to carve out a niche rather than "that guy that throws bolas at me for days". Also, picture this: Instead of throwing half of his combat weapons (one of his two swords), how about the NINJA throws KUNAI. You know, because ninja? Themes! Let's think ahead and make him throw 1/1/2/2/3 kunai or something in a fan. Also let's think about moving the sustain somewhere else...

W: Feint

The good: Over the course of a drawn out fight, this can allow Shen the health needed to fight for DAYS AND DAYS like a true ninja.

The bad: This could be one of the most boring skills in League. It's like Jarvan's W, only it scales with AP, which you'll never build, and doesn't do anything but shield you alone. This skill does nothing to promote interaction except sometimes it can reduce the cooldown of your passive if you're spamming aa's enough, which isn't useful in lane because that pushes it anyway.

What it could be: Put the health regen here maybe? Have the shield scale with something else. Jarvan's scales with nearby enemy champs, have Shen's scale with nearby ALLIED champs. This gets Shen into the fray with the intention of being in the thick of his team, and adds another reason for him to actually be present instead of afk farming: choice!

E: Shadow Dash

the good: escape, engage, light damage, cc, this is pretty much the only thing Shen brings to the teamfight table. Hitting that 4 or 5 man taunt is legendary

the bad: This is the only thing Shen brings to the teamfight table. Long cd. Thematically, he's taking all the hits. Bad form for a ninja, Shen. Bad form. I also wonder what he's saying to them to get them to attack him... at least Ahri's charm kinda makes sense...

what it could be: a jump or a blink to an enemy champ, taunting them and granting shen 50% dodge chance. This means it only affects aa damage, which is in line with live, and a dodge animation could be hella awesome. There's room for synergy with his q too, here, in that what if the q reduced the cd to almost nothing? Imagine this being like a yasuo dash in teamfights: you've tagged up to three enemies with the q, your three-man-taunt is now a quick triple-blink. Short range, of course, but TOTALLY NINJA NONETHELESS

R: Stand United

the good: gamebreaking op global teleport and shield

the bad: so op the rest of his kit kinda needs to be bad

I really don't have anything in mind for this. This is what makes Shen, Shen. Of course, he's gonna need a heck of a lot more hand motions...

Also: Riot's gotten a lot better at animating in game models in creative and engaging ways. The thing that stands out to me the most are as follows: directionally-varied skills: When casting unbreakable, Braum has a different aa animation for each direction, thresh pulls his chain after death sentence in different ways depending on what direction he's facing Out of combat animation: Yasuo sheathes his sword after being out of combat

How does this affect Shen? Glad I asked, let me explain!

Shen can finally be that double sword guy. He puts his sword away after every aa now because yasuo's combat check was a new invention for YASUO. Adding to shen... yeah. Cool stuff.

Directionally? How can dodge be made to at least appear to be having an impact? Get out of here, jax helicopter, make way for directional dodges. Just like lucian can change direction while facing his culling victim, shen could dodge perpendicular to incoming autos and really LOOK like the ninja agility tank he'd be rather than just feeling like one :P

So uh... I'll be honest. I put a bit of time into this. If no one says anything but "this is dumb" could it... at least be a riote? :P