I feel like Shen
needs a rework. There isn't much he can do rather than teleporting, tanking, and taunting. His taunts cost way too much energy as well. I just feel like Shen isn't as popular anymore because he can't really do much. This is just my opinion. What do you guys think
Totally agree. He isn't very ninja-like. Akali and Zed make him look like a sissy
http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/kkNEJVW6-shen-possible-rework
His kit isn't so bad, its the AP scaling and his W that is completly useless after 10 minutes.
As for him feeling like a ninja, if he is to be reworked, I think they can still keep him in the Tank role, but give him new functionality that emphasizes his ninja-ness.
For example:
Ki Strike: Ki Strike immediately becomes charged upon entering stealth.
Feint: If the shield is broken, Shen enters stealth and gains 20 movespeed for 2 seconds. The stealth may be triggered early for an additional energy cost. (Feint is Shen's only personal survival skill aside from Vorpal Blade's regen buff. This should make it a bit stronger. Reducing the power of Shen's ult should compensate.)
Stand United: No longer Shields the target ally. Range is reduced to something akin to TF's ult or Nocturne's ult. Instead, Shen summons a massive field of smoke around ally that reduces enemy vision range. Allies in the smoke field gain armor and magic resist that scales off of Shen's own defensive stats.
"There isn't much he can do rather than teleporting, tanking, and taunting" What else should he be able to do? His problem is only that building health is discouraged, so champs that rely on building a lot of health like in this case Shen are penalized from theactual meta
I agree, Shen can't be strong when nearly his entire power budget is in his ult. They've nerfed it so many times, and yet it still makes Shen weak. It doesn't really matter how much you hit it, even if it had a 15 minute cooldown, the power to turn a 5v5 into a 4v5 will always be OP.
I think the ONLY abilities that should change on Shen is his Q and W (mostly his W).
His Q is a boring point-and-click damaging ability, though the mark he puts on enemies that heals him and allies is an interesting idea that I think could possible stay, so perhaps this ability should just get tweaked some.
His W however is as boring as champion abilities get. It's a shield. That's it. Nothing else to it. DO SOMETHING WITH IT.
His E and his R are honestly good abilities. They're impactful, they're counterable, they require skill to use properly, they have the potential to make a huge impact, and they're also iconic and unique.
I realize the power in those two abilities means Q and W can't be TOO powerful, or else Shen himself would suffer from an overloaded kit, but I think something can be done with them to just make them more exciting and provide him with more options. Maybe removing some power from his E and R would allow that (nerf the range on his W, or make it start smaller at lower levels? give his ult a limited range instead of being global? idk, something)
He also needs a vu; he doesn't look as awesome as a ninja should
Well, at least they would have to nerf his ult so they could buff the other parts of his kit. It´s really a shame that he almost only exists for his ult alone.
Yeah, his abilities and scalings are really bad right now, he just doesn't have much impact (one giant shield for one champion is only high impact early, late game the enemy just focuses the other players while the shield times out). He needs to actually be ninja-like; right now, nothing in his kit says nina except his dash, except it is a taunt. Who's genius idea was it to make a ninja who wants to get attacked? Ninjas should be stealthy, not the super obvious shen. A ninja shouldn't be a tank, but if they insist on him being a tank (hard not to make him a tank anymore, since he has been for so long) they should make him tanky by evading damage, not soaking damage.
This is what I think:
I engage with shen and get a good taunt (at least one person). I use my W and Q at the same time; I then proceed to AA and W and Q as they come off cooldown. When my E comes off CD, I guarantee you that I will not have enough energy for it; not if I have been actively engaging the enemy (even with AA's to proc the passive energy regain). This is frustrating. I'm fine with a high E cost to punish failed taunts, but even if I land a good one it seems like I can never sustain enough energy to use my E again once its off CD. This problem needs to be fixed before you can lower the CD on E.
too true :( nobody likes shen nowadays :(
Also, way too long cooldown on his E.
The short answer is yes, he should.
I don't have that much of a problem with a tanky ninja, so long as they incorporate reasons for his durability in his lore. What mostly bothers me is how boring he is to play. Low CD shield? Targeted damage ability? Free healing on damage? A dash for escapes if necessary? Lack of mana restrictions? This guy never has to do anything except sit there and farm. He offers no counterplay; diving him doesn't even work out because he can force you to autoattack him if you get too close. There's no incentive to take risks with him, there's only middling success.
And by the way, who the hell throws a sword? I don't care if a vorpal blade is mentioned in "Jabberwocky", that's just dumb.
If I were going to fix Shen up, I'd make him more interactive as a laner. He gets way too much free sustain, so drop the healing from vorpal blade. Feint is also a dumb ability, because it implies a misdirection with its name, yet does nothing of the sort (the point is dodging damage, but that is so not the same thing as gaining a shield). And why does a stoic ninja want to taunt people? "Oh look, I'm going to sprint between these idiots, that'll really get them riled up!" It's like he's trying to be Master Yi and failing miserably. His ult doesn't really bother me, but I still feel like it doesn't leave a lot of room for interaction.
So, in my opinion, his kit needs a serious overhaul. You'd have to choose between having him remain a tank, or having him become something else. Personally, when I think of Shen, I think of a swordsman on par with Master Yi or Yasuo, a guy who has studied to the point that he can read any attack thrown at him and then nullify it with his own weapon. Excusing the poor quality and title, this video essentially captures what I see in him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ODTHjPE7o
He's basically the expert on Taekwondo: calculating, balanced, and forceful. He doesn't sprint around like Yi or have the graceful flow of Yasuo; he stands like the sharpest stone and dares anyone to test his resolve.
Following that, I think he fits a forceful but tempered damage-dealer best. I'm too tired tonight, but tomorrow I'll post a potential rework if I have time, something squaring him away as a legitmate AP bruiser.
lol, I don't know in other ELOs, but in silver he is pretty good. I have used him in combination with some friends while playing normals.... He requires teamwork more than anything. It is true, in the mid and early stages he depends a lot in his ult to be useful. But in late game full built, I challenge any champ to try bursting him. It takes about 5-6 secs between 2-3 champs to take him down (wasting every technique).
Rengar, TF and Shen combo is really good, just saying.
He needs... something. I don't know what. But he needs attention.
+ is hot.
Visual update?
I'd like to see more of a facelift. We've got Zed as the AD assassin ninja, we've got Akali as the hybrid duelist/assassin, kennen as the AP teamfighter.
I'd like to see a bit more focus placed on the Mysticism = Strength for Shen. Make him more interesting to play, by allowing him to use his abilities to turn fights for himself, have a fast HP turnaround and teleport around to allies.
My thoughts
Q - Mostly fine as it is W- Rework it so that in addition to shielding himself, he also shields an ally near him (potentially just lowest health ally near him if he doesn't target it on them)... Maybe make it so that if his shield is up the hp restoration from Q stacks. E- Needs a redesign. Really not sure what to do with it, costs way too much. R- Remove the shield aspect to it, and instead just have him do a teleport (like tf but a bit smaller range) after channeling for a short period. This allows other parts of shens kit to be strengthened. Maybe allow him to take a shielded ally with him on the teleport allowing for some crazy exits / entries into fights. Passive - Could use some changing but not sure what to do with it here.
DISCLAIMER: I use a fair amount in the top lane, mostly because he is a safe option I'm comfortable with due to being a support main.
That being said, I don't feel like he needs one, maybe just a little buff to give him more of a reason to draw enemy attention. I feel that his current toolkit is fine, the uniqueness of his ultimate makes him a really good split pusher, but there are a couple of problems with split pushing in general and in solo queue. First and foremost, split pushing isn't as threatening nowadays because Homeguard exists. With the preseason changes to the jungle, enhanced recall coming from other sources will also make split pushing harder. Right now in the meta, it's not seen as often and not as necessary. Second, it's hard to pull off split pushing to begin with in solo queue. I think we've all been there where either you were split pushing and your team failed to disengage, or went ham, or the times where your split pusher didn't do much and ended up costing an objective from not being there. Because of that, the split pushing that can pull off isn't in demand, especially since right now split pushers that are powerful do more damage to objectives in exchange for not having a quick way to get back to his team.
Beyond that, the main problem is the same problem that 
has: he's big and tanky, but he doesn't pose enough of an individual threat to be worth worrying about. 
latches on and never lets go,
can mitigate all the damage coming at his carry, 
is impossible to lock down or kill once he gets up next to you and is really good at initiation, 
goes where he pleases, 
isn't technically a tank, but she acts enough like it while doing plenty of mixed damage to warrant attention, , well, he looks cool, and he can run at people to dissuade them from coming closer, but he himself doesn't seem to pose enough of a threat to be worth picking. I play him because he's a very resilient option against a lot of lane bullies, with a deceptive amount of health regen and health due to his shield and daggers, but it seems like the community thinks it's not enough right now to justify it.
What should be fixed? I honestly don't know. I feel that you're toeing a fine line between someone who, if buffed in the wrong place, has the potential to go out of control. A range increase on his dagger would be massive, allowing him even more safety than he otherwise had, and giving him more assertion. I feel his dagger is fine, and his shield is reasonable. I think the big thing that needs to be looked at is his taunt, as it's at a cripplingly high energy cost (at least from my experience) and doesn't seem to do much. Perhaps increasing the duration of it or the damage could help, or maybe just the range of it might be enough, to ensure he can catch more targets with it. Perhaps, since that's the case, then he should get a rework, but while I would like to see get some love, I also know there is and should be a real fear of bringing back the season 2 monster split pusher that was pick or ban for a really long time.
Definitely, he's supposed to be a protector/tank/engager, but Braum and Rammus both do those aspects better, he needs to be able to still be a viable top laner and still have enough aspects to be valuable. A rework is definitely in order.
all they need to do is give him mantheon/tf treatment; make his ulti limited range (non-global). This will give him room to be shen (because the rest of his kit can be buffed) and not only be used for his ulti like the whore he is currently.
His kit is pretty useless for a tank... Base stats- they suck for a tank. His MR doesnt even go up with levels Passive- this is the only OK part Q- Shen ends with about 3500 health... how is 22 health per hit going to help when fighting someone W- Most useless shield in game. Doesnt even last E-No damage. Just taunts R- Teleport is better Sugestions: Buff passive, make q and e one spell and buff heal, make w 10% of health instead of scaling with AP, new ult or keep old but give it a new feature with reduced cdr.
Please Riot. Hes so god damn weak.
He is a bit outdated. He probably doesn't need a full fledged rework, but he definitely needs his abilities to be modernized and adapted to better suit how the game is played now.
I think that he is well balanced. He just does not match the meta right now.
He might suffer some tweaks withut ruining him. though we d not know how next season will work and he might be good in it.
Still I agree that he does not feel ninja-like. But thas is no reason for reworking complitely valid champ.
I think they need to change his ult a bit to offer utility in lane, and also his Fiend "E" should take reduced damage, and deal damage to minions and jg creeps who hit him, giving him waves clear and heightened jg potential.
I've played Shen a lot before but for awhile sense I came back to this season I've been doing poorly at the early game. I don't think this is player skill anymore but lack of foresight when balancing Shen vs other champions. It's like everything Shen can do, another champion can do it better. Zed, Shen's rival isn't countered by Shen. He just uses burst damage and shadows to avoid standing around to fight and kills shen off easily due to being burst damage focused while shen is only dps sustain focused that requires constant hitting which he can't do to a Zed or fleeing enemy.
The early game of:
As top shen, Shen get's easily pushed into his own tower at early game and can be kept there constantly defending it while minions tick away the tower due to not having any good wave clearing abilities. Shen isn't offensive enough to push back the top laner if they are more offensive like Zed, Riven Renekton, trynedamere, shen is out matched in damage dealing to be able to stop the top laner. along with his energy depleting if he try's to fight and harrass a single champion away.
Jungle Shen suffer's from the same thing of being counter jungled because of his low wave clear time but why would a player want him jungling when he only has one form of crowd control to gank with in the early game paired with a low amount of damage dealing when he's usually built as a tank.
As a Support Shen he lacks healing while it being reliant on hitting an opposing minion or champion that's hitting him or his friendly champions. The casting range of his abilities do not reach as far as AD carries or other champion abilities. His shield ability can't fully block one tower shot or stay active long enough to provide the bonus cool down for ki strike. His taunt ability takes too much energy when he hits one champion with it. His ultimate has a very long cool down and can barely shield a allied champion before they die without ability power items and with runes.
I believe this champion is no longer viable for an enjoyable experience because of how lack luster it is in early game and who ever picks it will cause a horrible experience for others around them due to the low capabilities of this champion. The only thing Shen is good at in early game is getting killed.
I'm for a rework of Shen.
I would take away his sustain from Vorpal Blade that made Riot nerf him to death and replace it with a slow and movement buffs. Changing Vorpal Blade into a poking Skill Shot that reaches as far as Sion's minion hit range of roar of the slayer. Making it not go through minions but go through walls. When it hits a minion or champion they are slowed, take magic damage, and marked to increase any allied champion or Shen to run faster to them. If the Vorpal Blade misses it sticks to the ground and still gives movement speed buff to any allied champion or Shen running toward it. If Shen touches the vorpal blade on ground or on a enemy he picks it up regaining energy and can do a Ki Strike after but costs energy to do and the chance to do the Ki strike will remove itself after a certain time if not done.
Passive changes to Ki Strike:
Ki Strike no longer regains energy but costs energy to do. Ki Strike is now a Small AOE Magic Damage twin sword attack around Shen and does not proc without using it at the end of shens abilities.
Upon using Ki Strike Shen also dodges all damage taken for the duration of Ki Strike when used. Or momentarily increases movement speed, or momentarily adds attack speed to shen's attacks.
Shadow Dash would have energy and cool down lowered a bit. Shadow Dash will do AOE magic damage to all types of enemies it passes through, taunts them and applies damage reduction to shen. After this ability is used Shen gains the option to use Ki strike at the cost of energy.
Feint name changed to Vorpal Feint. Vorpal Feint puts up a magic shield around Shen absorbing damage but while active Shen regains energy and has the option to end the shield with a Ki Strike after a duration and with a cost of energy. If the full duration goes by he'll heal himself like kayle but will also heal nearby allied champions.
Ulti-Stand United changes to not only shielding a ally before he arrives instead Shen throws a vorpal blade across the map to form the shield around his ally and then shadow dashes(with old stand united sound) across the map pushing aside everything he comes into contact with to grab the vorpal blade exactly as he gets to the shielded allied champion to perform a big AOE sonic boom like Ki Strike pushing away enemy champions and monsters.
It's all movement based to favor a Ninja that can't be caught by light and directly targets the weaknesses I've found while playing him as any of the role's I discussed.
A Kiting tank play style should work with these ideas and make Shen more supportive at the same time.
Here are my thoughts: Shen could use some minor tweaks to put him up to snuff with other top laners in the current meta. My thoughts don't change anything about his playstyle, but add synergy to his kit as a whole and makes the scaling more thematic for a tank character. Let me know what you think.
Passive: Ki Strike
Leave it as is, except:
As Shen levels, the time between Ki strikes reduces, (10 seconds at level 1, 9 seconds at level 6, 8 seconds at level 11 and 7 seconds at level 16.
And Energy restored is 20 at all ranks.
Q: Vorpal Blade--------------------------Energy Cost: 60/55/50/45/40------------------------------Cooldown: 6/5.5/5/4.5/4 seconds.
Damage: 60/120/180/240/300(+20%AD)
Target is marked for 5 seconds. While marked, Shen or allied champions that attack the target are healed for 5/10/15/20/25(+1.5% Shen's Maximum health) Shen is healed for the NORMAL AMOUNT if he kills his target with Vorpal Blade.
Ki-Strike Synergy: If Shen strikes a marked target with Ki-Strike, he deals 10% increased Ki-Strike damage and heals for 6/12/18/24/30(+2.5% Shen's Maximum Health) and the mark is consumed.
W: Feint--------------------------Energy Cost: 70/65/60/55/50------------------------------Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6
Shen Shields himself for 3 seconds.
Shield Strength: 50/100/150/200/250(+15% Bonus Health)(+10%AP)
Ki-Strike Synergy: While the shield persists, Shen's auto attacks reduce the cooldown of his Ki-Strike by an additional 1 second.
E: Shadow Dash--------------------------Energy Cost: 120/110/100/90/80------------------------------Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10
Deals magic damage along his path taunting enemies he hits. While taunted, enemies are forced to attack Shen and their basic attacks deal 50% damage.
Magic Damage: 50/75/100/125/150(+50%AP)
Taunt Duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds
Ki-Strike Synergy: ENEMY CHAMPIONS struck by Shen's Shadow Dash take additional damage as if Shen had struck them with Ki Strike. (100%AD plus Ki-Strike damage) This attack does not apply other on-hit effects, however. (so no lifesteal, bonus on hit damage from things like Wit's End, Ruined King, etc) As is normal with Ki-Strike attacks, Shen will restore 20 Energy per enemy champion hit.
R: Stand United--------------------------Energy Cost: 0 at all ranks
Shield Strength: 200/500/800(+20%Bonus Health)(+50%AP)
