@ Riot - Kayn and his forms, are they played evenly?

Oleandervine·Oct 30, 2017·4 votes·599 views

Hi Riot, I was wondering what the statistics are on Kayn and his final forms? I almost always see and play Rhaast whenever Kayn is in a game, and I could count on one finger how many times I've seen Shadow. What are the general statistics on which form is picked? I think Rhaast is still the more superior mode considering that the knock up, %HP damage, and the tankiness far outweighs that little extra damage on Shadow. What are you guys thoughts on Kayn and his two forms? Are they evenly picked, or is Rhaast more prevalent? Will you ever address Shadow if it isn't as picked as Rhaast?

8 Comments

scribbles782Oct 30, 20173 votes

Honestly thinking about it, I see like a 50/50 split. There definitely isn't one I see overwhelmingly more than the other. I think Riot did a good job on Kayn :)

JbelsOct 30, 20171 votes

I think you would expect to see more SA Kayn in the higher elos where people up there are mechanical enough to use him properly, while lower elos would see more Rhast, since his playstyle is more forgiving (cough and fun cough), and allows you to be more useful to the team as a whole instead of just making it your goal to kill as many squishies in a fight as you can before straight up dying due to your lack of escapes

HaIlMonitorOct 30, 20171 votes

They probably wont because their is another champ that has a very similar issue: Kha'zix (one evo is always first, one is never picked)

There will always be one form that is better then the other. The honest truth also is shadow is really strong also, he is just more volatile, so he probably will always be picked less.

PhearBunnyOct 30, 20171 votes

i only see Shadow Assassin. Kayn is only good for his ability to choose what fights he wants, and his ability to pick people.

Shadow Assassin plays off his strengths better. Granted its not always the best choice, but its usually the better choice.

NaalithOct 30, 20171 votes

So I've been playing Kayn since he came out and he is actually my highest XP on a champion now (I play tons of champs so my highest XP isn't that high, but I have 40 level 7 champs soooo) and I think the answer is weird.

Rhaast is better in most ranked game situations, because people actually make a team comp. Usually if I see 2 tanks of 1 tank and 2 bruisers, I'll go Rhaast. His survive ability is obscene and he still does tons of damage to carries as well most of the time. I think in a perfect world he would be a higher winrate simply because of how many unique tools he brings to the team and how hard he is to kill. You can't 1v1 Rhaast as nearly every champion in the game, however...

SA is the ultimate bad team comp check. If they only have one tank or no tanks and a couple fighters, I will always go SA. I personally think he is more fun to play, but his ability to burst down targets is amazing. Most recent assassins (see Evelynn) can't get on carries or mages because of "muh counterplay" and it makes them incredibly hard to assassinate with unless your whole team is together. Kayn doesn't have that problem. With Duskblade you can W in the wall so they don't see the indicator, come out and auto + Q and they'll either be instantly dead or you ult them and then they die. In teamfights he can come out of walls on the side of the enemy team, W the carry, go inside and burst them instantly. It's amazing. However, this only works if they don't have a ton of tanks on their team.

Soooo tl;dr I think people who only play one version of Kayn and wonder about the viability of that version are doing a disservice to themselves. If you play both well and choose the correct one for the enemy team comp, your winrate will probably be higher than nearly any other champion in the game as a whole.

TotalJerkOct 31, 20171 votes

Since which you want to go ideally depends on the enemy team comp, they probably wont ever have balanced playrates as long the concept of a meta exists.

Tank/bruiser meta? More Darkin. Squishy meta? More Shadow Assassin.

Fear the KaynOct 31, 20171 votes

People seem to think Rhaast is better all around, which is not true. That being said, Rhaast is probably chosen more.

DoozkuOct 31, 20171 votes

I don't think that the point is for them to be picked evenly. The fact of the matter is that Rhaast is going to be more useful by design. I mean, SA Kayn is an Assassin who doesn't get to be good until 10 minutes in, when jungle Assassins are often picked for their good early games. I'm not saying that SA is bad , his midgame is insane especially if he gets ahead and he's probably the strongest late game Assassin the game right now outside of maybe Kass (which isn't saying much but whatever). Also the meta is a part of it. Rhaast is way more useful in a tank/adc meta where SA would be better in an Assassin meta.