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I like the direction of Tahm Kench changes on PBE, but...

Profirix··2 votes·1,024 views

What are these changes attempting to accomplish? Keep in mind that he has a ~44% win rate as support and ~46% win rate as top laner in plat+.

"But his passive deals TOTAL health damage now!..." - Remember that you will have to auto attack someone 3 times in order to get the most out of your abilities. That means you are guaranteed to do 6% of your total health to the target before any other damage. This means more early game damage for trading, but lower overall poke damage. It seems like they are trending towards all-in engages where you soak up most of the damage and pop your shield for extra effective HP.

"His shield is stronger" - Technically, yes, but notice that it is now only 70-90% of total damage taken instead of 100%. The duration reduction doesn't bother me because the shield does not decay. You lose probably 2/3 of it to decay anyway. Maybe the idea is here that you can level it if you are against a harass lane and self-sustain a little better? The return health buff is welcome but mostly aesthetic - since this skill is usually leveled last, I never really notice the 20% health return.

I will say that I am glad they are giving him an actual, interactive passive. But that then begs the question as to how weak his ultimate will become. His ultimate is now only a very slow teleport+1. Not useful for much more than returning to lane or pushing another lane. It would be nice if they would decrease the travel time, even just a little bit, or increase the range at earlier levels to compensate for such a slow travel time. They did reduce cast time by .5 seconds. Suffice it to say, his ultimate does not 'feel' ultimate.

EDIT: I just realized that since Tahm does not convert ALL of his damage taken into grey health, the actual health returned (which is based on how much grey health Tahm has accrued) is significantly less than before, since you used to get (at level 1) 20% of all grey health (which was 100% of damage taken). Now, you get 25% of 70%, which is significantly less than before. Its actually a sizable nerf to his sustain.

7 Comments

Profirix1 votes

Updated some information above.

shamation1 votes

you got the new passive wrong, it does 1% total hp damage stacking up to 3 times up to 3%. this is a significant nerf to mid- late game. this change is literally making me quit playing this champ unless its reverted, cause his top lane power is going to be on par with aatrox (not good)

Profirix1 votes

1+2+3=6. I was referring to having 6% total health damage dealt by the time you get 3 stacks on the target.

shamation1 votes

[{quoted}](name=I Blame Adam,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=9Eg5L9Ym,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-06-16T17:15:45.956+0000)

1+2+3=6. I was referring to having 6% total health damage dealt by the time you get 3 stacks on the target.

it doesn't work like that, it's 1%+1%+1%=3%. only does 3% total hp as dmg. and on top of this, u need to stack it up on each different enemy champ (makes tahm's team fighting ability worse then before). the current one, just does 2%/4%/6% bonus hp, and u dont need to stack it up, u end up doing more dmg with the current one after 2 items and lvl 11.

Profirix1 votes

This is not correct. It stacks on the target. Meaning that each lick adds a stack up to 3 stacks. First lick is 1 stack 2 licks is 2 stacks (2%) and so on. It might be off by one, meaning the first lick doesn't get bonus damage, but the mechanism is the same.

shamation1 votes

i don't think you understand how it works, you have to stack it up on each individual enemy, which means he needs time to deal dmg instead of dealing it instantly. 1 stack of aquired taste, will deal 1% of tahms max hp as magic dmg (stacks by aa and tongue lash (Q)), this will only stack up to 3% max hp dmg (and only lasts while they have aquired taste passive on them). the current live %hp dmg passive, only needs you to hit the target to apply the full passive dmg instead of needing to stack it. also, the current passive applies to minions and monsters, instead of only champions.

i guess you could argue that tahm's 1v1 potential would be better, but id disagree, you still do more dmg with the %hp dmg on live later on in the game. the meta for league also heavily revolves around team fighting. tahms already not that good at team fighting unless you're playing with ppl with mics. the changes will hurt that small bit of team fight he has as well. just imagine having to reapply those stupid passive stacks to everyone in a fight. theres no way it can be done. you also gotta remember that if you eat an enemy champ with 3 stacks, the stacks are removed from that champ and tahms w doesnt apply the passive dmg.

rip tahm top, you will be missed

sources: http://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html#balance and the fact i play this champ religiously in the top lane

Profirix1 votes

You and I are not arguing about the same thing. I am talking about stacking on a single individual. Yes, his damage will be much lower overall against an enemy team, which is not ok. I am more concerned about what these changes mean for support Tahm Kench, which I play much more than any other champion.

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