Is my rear shifter broken? Ultegra 6800 shifter, 11 speeds, 9 clicks, only 8 causing cable tension change I was riding and noticed that I wasn't getting to the two or three smallest gears. Shifting along the eight or nine largest gears were fine though.

I checked the limiters and the cable tension and that was fine. After a lot of adjustment, I still couldn't get the full range. I then realized that I was only getting 9 clicks out of the shifter when instead I was expecting 10 clicks. Additionally, the first click (from no tension) didn't add any tension to the cable at all. I tried this with the cable off the derailleur and using a pair of pliers to manually pull on the cable.

Is my shifter fried?
You’ve taken the derailleur out of the system and still see the problem, next thing I would do is replace the cable. They have a bad habit of getting chewed up by the shifter and misbehaving, but you can’t see the damage. Very rusty cables give issues too but you’re unlikely to have a low quality cable, and would be able to see the poor condition. 

Give it a try and update the question if there’s no improvement... which would only leave the shifter as a culprit.