Rift has like 600-800 health. It’s not Ambra sunspot level. You put it in your base behind the wall and minion wave melts. No AoE will destroy that early game. You can’t push a Kleese team at level 1 to 5 so his early weakness isn’t an issue because it becomes a “Level and outscale” situation.
Add in Ambra or any other support who can heal early game and the shield penetration idea goes POOF because the team now has the missing healer and after 5, has twice as much healer that the wohle team will regen to full after 5-7 seconds, assuming you can penetrate his shop to begin with.
I mained him in Beta and abused Ambra-Kleese so much. Even after nerfs, it’s still ridiculous. Now, I’m starting to see some premade abusing it and hey, it’s as annoying and strong as pre-nerf Galilea comp. It needs to be toned down and fortunately, Gearbox is looking at Kleese anyway.