Talk:Shen/@comment-68.27.143.46-20121225200213/@comment-4659726-20121231054409

It has to do with another design thing. If you are forced to take certain runes to keep using your skills as a certain type of champ then you are really limiting their options rather than helping. Also, most energy champs are gated by energy and limiting them too much leaves them UP. That and if you don't play well enough you lose out on damage from having no energy for the most part. If you only hit one person with Shen taunt you don't regen as much energy and sometimes that will matter in a teamfight where that extra bit of energy to do taunt again will matter. Similar things happen if you spam skills only when playing Lee Sin and so on.

Shen was so strong in S2 because of how dominant defenses/tankyness and easy attack speed/wave clear was to get with sparks.

Now in S3 I'd say he is still a somewhat strong pick, but definitly took a hit compared to S2. Bruisers have gained a lot of power in comparison to the amount tanks have lost thanks to Black Cleaver and the overall changes to the details of the game (costs of items, stats, and so on).