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Can we make Tahm Kench slightly usable again?

Miss Lilianae·2/21/2020, 4:03:41 AM·1 votes·2,185 views

Just played a game with Kench months after his latest nerf (sometime before worlds 2019) and I have to say he feels like a completely different style of champion.

He's labelled as a support but I just don't see what his use is anymore: He can't peel He can't save his ADC He can't save himself

After the game I got to talking to one of the enemy players and they told me the only time Kench appears is in high competitive play where he helps Sennas and Aphelioses outscale, but I don't even see how he does that when the only good thing about him is his damage and tankiness.

Is it possible to at least remove the slow or reduce it when he eats an ally? It feels weird to punish teamwork behavior. I'm saving my ADC from being killed, why is my speed reduced to 1 when I do it?

I used to like playing Kench, he was fun and his ability to pull your ADC out of dangerous situations was one of the reasons he was so good. Now he's useless as a protector support because the only thing he can do is stun enemies with his Q after hitting them three times.

His Q doesn't even apply stacks anymore. He can't flash with anyone inside him like he used to either, that part makes sense for enemies, but again if you're going to reduce speed by 95% when you eat anyone why remove his ability to at least flash over a wall or something? Like that's his one escape tool, otherwise I don't see why he'd eat anything other than to execute an enemy champion.

8 Comments

GriseldauJtKt2/21/2020, 4:23:09 AM3 votes

Nope, if Tahm Kench were usable then assassins would be less good and we can't have that. We need unfed Diana jungle clearing jungle faster than anyone while one shotting entire teams with just jungle item. If Tahm Kench were usable then champions like her would only be able to AOE one shot four people and would then have to actually work for the fifth kill.

VonCesaw2/21/2020, 5:29:44 AM2 votes

You're clearly playing him wrong. .01% of players decided he was a top lane fighter, so Riot reworked him as such Don't worry, you can still get your sick minion Q-W grabs And you get to build your core of Spirit Visage > Titanic > Wits End

Redesignated2/21/2020, 10:07:35 AM2 votes

He can save his lane partner, you're just supposed to save them by grabbing them and then having them pop right back out to turn, or at least safely get away. That's the extent of his ability to function as a support right now. You're not meant to be aggressive, you're not meant to look to eat your opponents or do anything except devour allies or bring them in for a gank with your ult — you have two relevant skills for the majority of the game.

The ability to mitigate pick CC or otherwise deny engage attempts on key allies is incredibly powerful when it's not significantly limited, especially when you also have an ultimate like he does, and a self-shielding ability like he does — there's too much going on that lets him dominate in high-tier and competitive in particular, thus he doesn't get to exist anywhere else without having something taken away. Same situation faced historically by champions like Azir, Kalista, Ryze…

And it's been confirmed that he's on the list for an eventual rework/gameplay update to try to shift him away from this state.

Nea1042/21/2020, 4:50:42 AM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Miss Lilianae,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=VEaAzrIn,comment-id=,timestamp=2020-02-21T04:03:41.484+0000)

Just played a game with Kench months after his latest nerf (sometime before worlds 2019) and I have to say he feels like a completely different style of champion.

He's labelled as a support but I just don't see what his use is anymore: He can't peel He can't save his ADC He can't save himself

Indeed. Sadly this is a depressing example of how these people "work" here. Not in order to balance their game, not in order to make it fun, but... Well, in short, for money; which would be excusable, for a whatever company. But fair and honorable companies aim to make their products the best possible, and to make profit out of them. This company, however... Goes for more shady ways.

Tham has been killed for the same reason why Lee got an unecessary buff (and never nerfed back): LC$, along with the id absurd neverending one-shot meta. Apparently, turning a strategic Moba game into a cheap Mortal Kombat one seemed smart, and profitable. So competent people out there.

:o)

Pieceofcandy2/21/2020, 8:12:04 AM1 votes

I'd be nice if he could stack his passive on multiple champions, I don't see anything wrong with that.

Lazypeon1002/21/2020, 8:25:26 AM1 votes

I miss him, I'd love to unbench the kench.

I'm under the impression Riot will probably want to rework him at some point, which is a bit sad. Went from a beefy support who could peel and counter engage well to.. whatever he is now :(