Boards›Gameplay

Lets address tahm kench

º Naddition º·5/13/2016, 6:50:58 AM·15 votes·1,354 views

Tahm Kench currently has 2nd lowest win-rate in normals (44.7%) 4th lowest win-rate in bronze (45.0%) 2nd lowest win-rate in silver (44.4%) 2nd lowest win-rate in gold (43.7%) 3rd lowest win-rate in plat (44.5%) 5th lowest win-rate in diamond (44.6%) (i cant find stats for him in Master+) And overall 2nd lowest win-rate in ranked (44.5%)

The above win rates were used from LOLKing In Champion.gg he has a win rate of (46.04%)

Now, i know that some champions will always have to be at the bottom but the fact that tahm kench has consistent low win rates in pretty much all elo's + normals shows that he is seriously struggling.

(The average win rate from bronze-diamond is 44.4% if you do the math)

Now i know that on release he was a pretty annoying champ to go up against. And riot decided to give him some nerfs but i think that the stats above show that he needs some buffs or some nerfs reverted to bring him up to speed again.

I have some suggestions that could improve his win-rates but keep in mind that i don't work on the balance team so don't take my suggestions to heart.

(Speed up the animation of his ult) I think we can all agree that it takes forever for tahm kench to actually use his ult. The animation takes pretty long even if he instantly activates it and the enemy team gets a huge and long lasting indicator that tells the enemy he is on his way. Its pretty much a worse version of twisted fates ult except that he can take a buddy with him.

(Give him movement speed when carrying a team mate AWAY from enemies) I find it pretty weird that he only gets a movement speed bonus if he is carrying a team mate towards an enemy instead of away. I, and many others, usually only use his W to run away and save your adc instead of going towards them (If you're support).

I don't have many more suggestions besides maybe some stat changes. Let me know what you think!

36 Comments

Wind Whistler5/13/2016, 7:29:50 AM7 votes

He was fine on release. Actually, he was slightly weak on release. They overbuffed him just a tiny bit, and everyone raged and raged and raged, so they nerfed him. Still, they raged and raged and raged, so they nerfed him again. He got three or four big nerfs, I think. This is the community's fault. They got what they wanted. A gutted champ.

Borror5/13/2016, 9:32:31 PM3 votes

There are lots of ways you can buff tahm. A few of my favorites are: buffing his base regen which is very low for a tank like him, increasing size of w so that you can actually use it over walls since it takes a lot of effort for both kench and his ally to do so right now, decreasing wind up/ wind down on q since it is really easy to dodge and hit him back with skill shots as he cant move the entire time and is a lot more noticeable after the q hit box nerf, adding an additional base shield on his e so that you can use it when low one shot able, reverting movement speed nerf on w, allow tahm to use w on allies with his q like he can with minions, increase base damage on tahm ult ( 20 is really low), add a period of damage reduction/ tenacity after ulting( so that ult is more useable) or during w, and finally, they could reduce the time period to spit on w so that it is better at repositioning allies rather than taking them out of the battle. Been playing tahm for a good while and been thinking of these buffs for tahm for a long time. Give me your thoughts if you think any of these are any good.

Mazariamonti5/13/2016, 10:03:25 PM2 votes

I don't care, he's annoying and I don't like him.

Pika Fox5/13/2016, 9:12:08 AM2 votes

He is capable of entirely saving someone wholly out of position. Of course hes going to have (generally) low winrates; hes a champ built around high end team play. Its hard to adapt to the mindset of being able to W your carry to complete safety when theyre CCd.

Teridax685/13/2016, 11:02:47 AM2 votes

Tahm actually did receive a change where moving away from enemies with an ally in his mouth sped him up, but that led to him rendering the marksmen on his team almost completely unkillable. If you watch 2015 Worlds, you'll see Tahm being pick or ban because he kept being paired up with Jinx and made her far too slippery, in some cases saving her from death even as literally the entire enemy team, which was built specifically to counter the two, dived them and unleashed all the CC and burst they had on her. If anything, Tahm needs more reasons to enter fights and stay there, not run away from combat or constantly hang back next to the carries in case they get caught.

I also think his ult animation is fine as is. Its long duration is healthy as it lets the enemy team plan a response or avoid him, which is particularly good considering he can stick to targets pretty well if he lands a Q on them.

Personally, if I were to buff Tahm, I'd reduce his self-slow when devouring enemy champions, and perhaps buff his Grey Health-to-healing ratio. Making him a little more mobile when carrying around opponents could let him do more stuff with them, and buffing his E passive could make him more combat-ready in most situations, particularly since right now it almost always gets ignored in the late-game in favor of his shield active.

CoronaGulp5/15/2016, 8:56:43 AM2 votes

The problem with Tahm is that he's forced to be an all in Champ. His 3 hit passive doesn't stack long enough to be useful unless you are going all in, and it's not effect like it used to be because not only was the stack timing significantly lowered, but Tahm's range was lowered from 175 to 125. His "w" is suppose to make up for these weaknesses by being his high AP ratio ability, however the mana cost on his w is insufficient for him to use to stack his passive, or for him to use it as damage. Tahm's ult has a (theoretical) longer cast time than Pantheon's ult. It's Theoretical because pantheon's ult has an automatic slow radius upon landing, and pantheon's kit has an automatic stun. The range of panth's ult makes up for the 1 second longer delay that it has, however this isn't always the case, considering that tahm's ult is only 1 second quicker if you're traveling alone. Usually you have to wait until your adc clicks on you (and is in range) for tahm's ult to be used, yet the indications of his coming are still shown. Keep in mind of all these weaknesses, which is why his ult has his damage % health passive, and is useless to his kit, yet it's there as a "balance" option to his clear weaknesses. Recently that % damage has been nerfed too. His "E" is another story. The weaknesses of his kit force him to be an all in champ, yet this ultimately makes his E useless. You get some health back, which is great but you have to disengage, typical of a poke champ. And your E only gives you the illusion of utility because the grey health bar goes down way too quickly. In a sense, you're just warning the enemy team that you and your adc/team is going to disengage, so as you spend your time walking away, you watch your health bar disappear too quickly and you don't get use of it because the enemy team knows it's time to attack and will catch up to you and kill you. Tahm's "stun" from q is harder to land than braum's q, and braum's ult is a stun. Braum blocks projectiles (usually the only thing that can harm your ranged adc) which is like tahm eating your adc for protection, (and or your entire team get projectile protection). Tahm's kit is just unfitting and has mixed signals. The intentions are clear, (play him as disengage, kite back champ) however the practical use of them as a support tank aren't. Tahm is forced to be the Janna tank. An all in Janna with low mobility that is.

Sir Hammerlock5/13/2016, 6:54:01 AM1 votes

Wait, don't Swain, Vladimir and Cassiopeia all have like ~36-40% win rates right now?

ZT Xperimentor5/18/2016, 12:23:20 AM1 votes

The first round of nerfs they did to him seemed fair, since he was barely buffed after release; but the second batch of nerfs on him was what made him too weak. That as well as burst damage & mobile champions beating him (and other classic tanks) down too easily.

LankPants5/13/2016, 8:03:29 AM1 votes

Tahm needs his allied W nerfed so he can actually have power on his other abilities. Right now allied W is one of the most ridiculous spells in the game, it's like a longer Zohnya's that doesn't leave you stranded when it ends and can be used to shoot an ally over a wall. That's way too much power in a single, non-ult ability.

I'd make two changes to Tahms W. I'd make him incur what ever CC is on the ally he eats, ie. if his ally is 1 second into a 2 second stun Tahm gets stunned for 1 second. I'd also make it so that if Tahm losses more than 30/35/40/45/50% of his current HP after eating an ally he spits them in front of himself. With these changes to his W he'd have actual counters to his W, allowing more power onto his other abilities.

I'm not 100% what you'd do with his other abilities after this, my guess would be overall lower mana costs with damage increases on his ult and Q and maybe a CD reduction on W. I don't think buffing his ult active is a great idea due to the shear power that ability already brings.

MLDzXnRRR5/13/2016, 8:06:07 AM1 votes

He gets kited and is useless in teamfights. It's 4v5 with Tahm in the team, unless he is super fed.

Calabok5/13/2016, 10:15:35 PM1 votes

Nerf his greasy ass-sets

MunchCrunchLunch5/14/2016, 2:14:47 AM1 votes

people wanted him nerfed because when he was strong and was picked top lane even after the first nerf there isn't much you can do after a cpl levels. hes too tanky and he does too much damage. hes a mundo with a lot of utility

Profirix5/15/2016, 5:16:23 AM1 votes

They spent all this effort nerfing top lane Tahm Kench but never considered what it would do to support Tahm Kench. I've been saying it for months now that if they are going to nerf top lane Kench that they need to buff support Kench in some way. Lets be real, his E was absurdly annoying as a top laner but without the gold to buy tankier items as a support, its not nearly as effective. On top of that, I have never considered his ultimate to really be that effective, aside from the passive, which they nerfed now. They originally buffed the passive because they believed he wasnt doing enough damage. I used to play the champion religiously, but often as a support I feel like a detriment to my team because I am only good for swallowing up my carry when he gets targeted, only to take all the damage myself and die because all my tools to scram have been removed. There are just better tank supports out there now. He is almost exclusively a defensive support and unless they speed up his ult he will never be good for initiation.