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Tahm Kench Feels Bad to Play After 6.13 Changes

Blakiepug··16 votes·1,673 views

I do not like the direction of the Tahm Kench changes after patch 6.13. I've tried him in a few games now and I just don't understand the direction of these changes. After he got gutted near the start of the season and had all of his damage sources except his Devour (W) removed, being able to catch the enemy so that you could eat them became a very vital part of his identity, at least to me. But now that he has been made squishier with very little damage compensation (seriously his new passive hardly provides any damage to his already terrible bases) it is much too challenging to catch even those who are way out of line with him.

I know it is highly unlikely that these changes will be reverted but they really don't feel like buffs to me and I've been playing the champion consistently ever since he was released. And he has never felt worse to play than he does in his current state. This is just my opinion that 6.13 really missed the mark on my favorite fatfish.

Your's truly, A Mastery 7 TahmKench

EDIT: Also for anyone wondering, I play Tahm as a support.

23 Comments

Astôlfo4 votes

Like, sure, Devour is his signature ability. But the likelihood of actually using it on enemy champs is nowhere near what one would imagine it to be, and that is fine, because it's an immensely strong ability. However, trying to push all the power into that instead of... you know, letting him actually Q poke okayishly and tank with E as he should... is... disappointing, to say the least.

Thanks Riot. /s

LatetotheRace3 votes

It seems like Riot is changing him from a tank to more of a bruiser or tanky fighter. It's a strange change for sure, but it just means you'll have to adapt some items. item 3116 or item 3110 are pretty decent on him atm and so can item 3091 item 3124 in some rare cases.

Blakiepug1 votes

{quoted}

It seems like Riot is changing him from a tank to more of a bruiser or tanky fighter. It's a strange change for sure, but it just means you'll have to adapt some items. item 3116 or item 3110 are pretty decent on him atm and so can item 3091 item 3124 in some rare cases.

Hmm, I'll give those items a try on him my next game with him. Do you run those on Tahm top or Tahm support? When he first released I remember item 3027 felt pretty good on him too.

LatetotheRace1 votes

I play him equally in both positions. The reason I suggest using those items along with rod is due to his high mana costs, and decent AP scaling. Also due to the change to his passive, being able to get and maintain stacks is essential to really putting the hurt on in longer fights.

Blakiepug1 votes

{quoted}

I play him equally in both positions. The reason I suggest using those items along with rod is due to his high mana costs, and decent AP scaling. Also due to the change to his passive, being able to get and maintain stacks is essential to really putting the hurt on in longer fights.

Ahhh, I see. I never find myself having mana problems on Tahm but I've always considered Rylai's as a part of my build path on him just because it does give him both health and ap which seem essential to his success. Hopefully I can test out a Rylai's/RoA build this weekend! ^_^

Champion Skin2 votes

item 3116 seems like a really weird choice on Tahm... with his E and R not being able to proc the slowing effect and Q already slow (and slows don't stack)

LatetotheRace1 votes

It just takes advantage of his AP scalings while also providing good health. item 3151 is also a good option.

Champion Skin9 votes

But isn't item 3027 just straight up better than item 3116 ? item 3027 (no stacks) 300 HP + 300 mana + 60 AP cost 2700 gold item 3116 400 HP + 100 AP cost 3200 gold item 3027 (fully stacked) 500 hp + 400 mana + 100 AP cost 2700 gold

item 3027 costs 500 less gold and is about as good even with no stacks (depending on how much you value the mana and the sustain) and when fully stacked item 3027 is way better (mostly because Tahm doesn't get much use out of the slow effect of item 3116 )

Sire Hippington1 votes

Rylais isn't agreat choics cause most of his skills that would applie it already cc, FH and Wit'S were strong items on him berfor, and wit's/guinsoo'S were better befor cause he had a stronger on-hit. They change him mostly into working better as low income support with less scaleing and better bases.

Hibeki3 votes

Dont worry, we hate playing against him too.

Being eaten because you ignore him since he does no damage and then get fucked because you were taken out of the game for a couple seconds and forced to move to the center of the team feels retarded

Him eating an ally as hes a bout to die from being collapsed on and then running away with him feels like shit too

The double health pool makes him obnoxiously hard to kill

And the teleport is so unfun if you are losing.

Supreme Senpai691 votes

The double HP pool, in teamfights, CC him when he's low. If he gets his shield off, just swap targets until the shield goes away. The teleport is insanely low range until max rank. Like Nocturne's ult.

I'm not saying i agree or disagree, but hopefully that'll help ya when fighting him.

Swaid3 votes

I'm not a seasoned Tahm player, but in my opinion, Tahm just doesn't do things very well. I think Sion actually does Tahm's job better and is in fact, just a better version of Tahm Kench. Sion's Q doesn't need to build up three stacks to stun and it does it to enemies in an area rather then just one target that could block Tahm's Q by hiding behind minions. Sion's shield doesn't require him to get his ass beat to work, its just there and if he still has it, he can activated for AoE damage. Sion can't eat people, but his shout is far more effective at launching minions for harass and it shreds armor, slows, has a good range. Sion's ultimate I would also say is objectively better then Tahm's merely because it works at long range, point blank, when ever where ever. I just think Tahm is already due for some sort of minor rework, because as it is, I'd pick Sion as a support over Tahm any day.

Blakiepug2 votes

{quoted}

I'm not a seasoned Tahm player, but in my opinion, Tahm just doesn't do things very well. I think Sion actually does Tahm's job better and is in fact, just a better version of Tahm Kench. Sion's Q doesn't need to build up three stacks to stun and it does it to enemies in an area rather then just one target that could block Tahm's Q by hiding behind minions. Sion's shield doesn't require him to get his ass beat to work, its just there and if he still has it, he can activated for AoE damage. Sion can't eat people, but his shout is far more effective at launching minions for harass and it shreds armor, slows, has a good range. Sion's ultimate I would also say is objectively better then Tahm's merely because it works at long range, point blank, when ever where ever. I just think Tahm is already due for some sort of minor rework, because as it is, I'd pick Sion as a support over Tahm any day.

Yeah, what you say is true. It is very hard to pull off good plays with Tahm Kench currently and even when you do, they often have little impact in helping your team win the game. After this last set of changes I would almost have to agree with you in that Tahm may need some sort of minor rework, but to be perfectly honest he felt useful before his first set of nerfs and even still before 6.13. I think the problem is that Riot went a bit overboard in nerfing him and then when they tried to "buff him" as they said in 6.13, they clearly do not understand what it is like to play Tahm Kench. They need to stop changing the champion through the viewpoint of players who HATE Tahm and still continue to ban him every game and start changing Tahm for the people that play him, because how can you make Tahm into a worthwhile and fun champion to play when you are only catering to the audience that doesn't give a damn about him.

Lord Galvatron2 votes

I have lv 7 mast. on him and I used to play him Top, Jungle, and Support. The problem with the changes was that they made his E more interactable for no reason. So what the CD of his E was lower, that did nothing to help him. That health/shield scaling on his E also did jack because it used to be flat %100 of the grey health and it used to last 6 sec to the now 3 sec. Furthermore they took a ton of damage away from his R and put it on his passive which made absolutely 0 sense. Also they added 20 damage to his Q at max rank, whoopee. The ONLY thing that was good was the R changes which means you can escape sticky situations with your R easier and gave it some more range.

Blakiepug1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Goon Platoon,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=P4a8YpAI,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2016-07-14T05:05:51.405+0000)

I have lv 7 mast. on him and I used to play him Top, Jungle, and Support. The problem with the changes was that they made his E more interactable for no reason. So what the CD of his E was lower, that did nothing to help him. That health/shield scaling on his E also did jack because it used to be flat %100 of the grey health and it used to last 6 sec to the now 3 sec. Furthermore they took a ton of damage away from his R and put it on his passive which made absolutely 0 sense. Also they added 20 damage to his Q at max rank, whoopee. The ONLY thing that was good was the R changes which means you can escape sticky situations with your R easier and gave it some more range.

I have the exact same thoughts about the changes as you. :( I just don't even understand what they are trying to accomplish with this set of changes. They're making him work really hard to get access to his bonus damage from his passive which now requires 3 stacks to get the full amount and at the same time making it harder for him to survive. Like, can someone explain to me how these are buffs in anyway, other than the fact that you got his now very VERY small magic bonus at level 1 instead of level 6?

Sire Hippington2 votes

The worst thing is that he still feels horrible to play against(exept that's it easier to win vs him), so nothing solved there while makeing him worse to play in the process

DontBanMeImDrunk1 votes

he is pretty insane top lane now though.

Latex Choker1 votes

A big problem I have with the changes (Mastery 7, 135K Points) is that Tahm Kench's lackluster late game was made even worse. Even in a build fully dedicated to defense you still get melted in late game fights, especially since your E is much much weaker, and it's impossible to use his new passive to any extended capacity.

Tahm Kench is basically a quasi-nunu, your job is to snowball early and try to put the enemy laner as far behind as possible before your lack of scaling catches up, then transition to playing support for your ADC/Star player. It doesn't matter how fed you get early, you WILL be a walking liability in late game fights.

Additionally the passive just feels really bad. It made his level 1-5 MUCH better (Seriously, Tahm is actually a solid lane bully pre-6 now), but it runs completely contrary to his kit, since you can't stack it on minions or monsters, it's only stronger than his old ult passive when fully stacked, and using devour resets your stacks, losing you damage. To make matters WORSE, your passive doesn't upgrade until LEVEL 11. That's 10 whole levels without a powerspike of any kind.

These changes were a step in the right direction for making Tahm healthy to play against, but they removed any agency from the Tahm Kench player himself, leaving him in a worse spot overall just to spare his opponent's a headache.

Blakiepug1 votes

[{quoted}](name=007 James Bard,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=P4a8YpAI,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2016-07-14T05:29:30.197+0000)

A big problem I have with the changes (Mastery 7, 135K Points) is that Tahm Kench's lackluster late game was made even worse. Even in a build fully dedicated to defense you still get melted in late game fights, especially since your E is much much weaker, and it's impossible to use his new passive to any extended capacity.

Tahm Kench is basically a quasi-nunu, your job is to snowball early and try to put the enemy laner as far behind as possible before your lack of scaling catches up, then transition to playing support for your ADC/Star player. It doesn't matter how fed you get early, you WILL be a walking liability in late game fights.

Additionally the passive just feels really bad. It made his level 1-5 MUCH better (Seriously, Tahm is actually a solid lane bully pre-6 now), but it runs completely contrary to his kit, since you can't stack it on minions or monsters, it's only stronger than his old ult passive when fully stacked, and using devour resets your stacks, losing you damage. To make matters WORSE, your passive doesn't upgrade until LEVEL 11. That's 10 whole levels without a powerspike of any kind.

These changes were a step in the right direction for making Tahm healthy to play against, but they removed any agency from the Tahm Kench player himself, leaving him in a worse spot overall just to spare his opponent's a headache.

See my problem with his passive is they added the new mechanic where to get full access to the bonus damage, you have to have 3 stacks in order to deal the full damage of his bonus damage (something that was not a requirement on his ult before where it just gave you the full bonus damage value right off the bat). And in the same patch, they also nerfed his tankiness. So my problem is his passive literally helps jack-squat early game when I can't go in to get 3 stacks off in the first place. Pretty much every other support has a way of locking Tahm down and making him utterly useless in the laning phase: Braum, Brand, Leona, Nautilus, Blitzcrank, Zyra, etc.

Saianna1 votes

Tahm Cench repents for a crime he commited.

What crime you ask?

"Being too powerfull on relase to boost skin/champion sales".

Don't worry. He'll get some solid buffs once Riot will relase new skin.

The Letter H1 votes

Are you kidding? I love these changes. Tahm Kench top is strong af now. (I go titanic into tank, bringing ignite and get first blood at around 2-4 minutes every game) His early game is a beast. The increased q damage is useful for poking in lanes lanes. The increased ult range is great. The new shield that lasts 3 seconds but no longer decays may sound like a nerf, but listen. You mostly only use your shield if you got bursted, and that shield THAT DOESN'T DECAY makes sure while you're being bursted or done being bursted you can either continue to take damage and get away or just plainly get away. Stacking passive damage is a bet meh, its less than before but honestly i have no problem with it.

Blakiepug1 votes

[{quoted}](name=I UnbenchedKench,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=P4a8YpAI,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2016-07-14T21:28:05.230+0000)

Are you kidding? I love these changes. Tahm Kench top is strong af now. (I go titanic into tank, bringing ignite and get first blood at around 2-4 minutes every game) His early game is a beast. The increased q damage is useful for poking in lanes lanes. The increased ult range is great. The new shield that lasts 3 seconds but no longer decays may sound like a nerf, but listen. You mostly only use your shield if you got bursted, and that shield THAT DOESN'T DECAY makes sure while you're being bursted or done being bursted you can either continue to take damage and get away or just plainly get away. Stacking passive damage is a bet meh, its less than before but honestly i have no problem with it.

The decay on the shield before I never really thought was a problem but the e changes really hurt him in that now only 70% of his damage taken is converted to grey health as opposed to 100%. So the e shield is smaller from the moment you press it than it was in the past. And yeah the stacking passive I don't really like either. I'd prefer it to be back on his ult and work without stacks. The new passive really hurts his poke potential post level 6 or at least that's how I feel.

The q buffs and increased ult range are great, but to be honest I don't think they are worth it at the cost of the e and passive changes. Also that's an amazing username. :D

Leblancs Boob1 votes

Don't worry he feels equally bad to play against as well.

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