Why did you do this to Tahm?
http://champion.gg/champion/TahmKench
http://champions.pickban.com/l/129/Tahm-Kench (Small sample size on 6.13, numbers aren't reliable)
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-613-notes
> “HOW CAN YOU BUFF TAHM KENCH?!?” We hear you, Imaginary Straw Stallion. Do not worry, we're actually nerfing him.
Let me preface this by saying that Tahm has been in a bad spot for a while now (the first two links are for reference). In fact, pickban rated him as TRASH TIER for 6.12 and hasn't rated him above WEAK since 6.2. He currently only counters one champion with a positive average win rate as a support (Sona), and squeaks by with 3 barely positive matchups at top. He's also rocked a sub 47% win rate overall for 4 complete patches. I can agree, he did need a buff, but I've had him since 7800 release and currently have ~200k mastery with him. I'll admit to always wanting buffs.
I'm not making a rage post to say how awsome the buff is though, I'm here to give my salty professional opinion on why these "changes" are in need of a touch up, to put it lightly. Keep in mind, I play jungle Kench, so I get a touch different experience than support or top Kench.
> Passive - An Acquired Taste NEW: IT USED TO BE ON HIS ULT: Basic attacks and abilities deal 1/1.25/1.5% (at levels 1/11/16) of Tahm Kench's maximum health as bonus magic damage. Stacks 3 times vs champions.
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Tooltip is confusing. I had to check and see if the ratio stacks per hit on champions. I'm pretty sure it does, but it's hard to gather that information from your first read.
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Even with the stacking taken into account, it's another damage nerf. The ratio used to go 4/6/8%, which was almost questionable, but I really think those numbers could have stayed. Now I can definitively say it is too low. At level one each stack does ~9 damage a hit, which isn't that fantastic. You could argue that at 3 stacks it's ~27 extra damage per auto at level one, but that assumes you keep autoing instead of using devour, which cleanses stacks anyway. An extra 54 damage at level one sounds cool, but it's usefulness ends quickly and is very situational.
"But his early is better now? Isn't that a buff?"
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Everything that isn't a champion cannot build stacks, monsters take 1 stack damage only (Jungle Tahm says hi.)
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The ratio usually stays lower than the 3 stacks rating because if you land 3 stacks, your next move is devour.
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Even at ideal conditions this is another straight numbers nerf starting at level 11.
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Because of devour's stack cleanse, it might not do any passive damage.
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+20 flat damage removed (although that's not listed)
These are just things from gameplay experience, so no it doesn't feel like an overall buff at all.
> Q - Tongue Lash DAMAGE 80/125/170/215/260 ⇒ 80/130/180/230/280
0/5/10/15/20 damage buff, barely covers +20 passive removal at level 5. No real gameplay change.
> E - Thick Skin DAMAGE TO GREY HEALTH CONVERSION 100% of damage taken ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90% of damage taken GREY HEALTH TO HEALING CONVERSION 20/26/32/38/44% ⇒ 25/30/35/40/45% SHIELD DURATION 6 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds COOLDOWN 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds NEW: LESS THICC: Shield no longer decays over the duration
Although it's awkward this has effectively NO COOLDOWN at 45% CDR, I personally don't like this change. This ability used to be a one point wonder, but now you have to make a notable investment to make this feel like a good ability. The new double percentage bottlenecks the regen making this a tangible nerf. In order for this skill to be good in the laning phase, you must feed it your precious points and give up almost all damage. It's not a bad ability now, it's just too much of a trade off to be anything other than a nice QoL skill late game when you normally have a Warmog's anyway, making it null for regen.
The shield is nice, I guess? It's hard to tell because the decay on the old shield "hid" how much damage was actually being blocked.
> R - Abyssal Voyage REMOVED: IT'S ON THE PASSIVE: No longer deals 2/4/6% of Tahm Kench's bonus health as damage on attacks and abilities CHANNEL DURATION 15 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds CAST DELAY 1 second ⇒ 0.25 seconds ENEMY WARNING TIME 1.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second RANGE 4000/5000/6000 ⇒ 4500/5500/6500
Only change I like. It mostly removes an unnecessary "teamplay enforcing" nerf designed solely to force him to wait for a hypothetical teammate that usually doesn't even know what's happening to begin with, a nerf that's gotten me killed more than once.
Hoping for a red response on this one because I'm sort of demanding an explanation. Otherwise, I'll listen to advice on how to get by in the benched Kench world. Even though Riot keeps beating the snot out of him, I'm just not ready to let go of my main.
[quotes broke for some reason, sorry.]
