Tahm Kench: Best Overall Champion Since Braum

EkkoFroffles·Jul 10, 2015·89 votes·8,243 views

has the whole package. He's:

(Relatively) simple to play, unlike other recent champions.
Arguably the most balanced (upon release) champion since .
Unique without tossing in every ability imaginable (cough cough).
Consistent, with his look, kit, and personality all gelling perfectly together without any random, unnecessary crap thrown in.
Able to perform well in 3 out of 5 roles (top, jungle, support).
Really fun to play.
The best character since . With his absurd amount of VO, and his large personality, he can't help but stand out
Wearing a top hat, and has a chef skin.
Full of possibilities. Despite the (relative) simplicity of his kit, there's so much you can potentially do with it.

Literally, my only complaint is I'm not a fan of his name. Other than that, I can't point to one thing about him I find less than stellar.

108 Comments

Arsenic SulfurJul 10, 20158 votes

You know, except he can Tootsie Pop you for half of your health with only tank items... It's not THAT hard to get 3 autos in if you have an easy to land stun ;-;

Tis a nice dayJul 10, 201513 votes

But you need to get 3 autos in before you have an easy to land stun.

Epic Blue ToastJul 10, 20158 votes

I disagree 100%, in my last game i played i was a fed vlad. in less than 4 seconds i was killed by him and ryze when i had a full build. i had 80 mr at the time and he did over 1400 dmg according to me. he literally had no damage items built aside from a sunfire cape. he was literally a full tank build and and he did so much dmg it didnt seem fair. not to mention he was level 15 at the time and i was lvl 18. my build with deathcap, will of the anceints, GA, CDR boots, void staff, ludens ekko. just to put it in perspective he did 734 dmg with his ability that allows him to eat me. thats near the dmg of a garen ult on a low health champ with a suppression style of ability.

sreggadJul 10, 201516 votes

I haven't got to play him yet. but Dude... He is a tank killer. He does % max health. Of coarse he is gonna rip a ton of HP off of a Vlad. And a ryze with him. That means your "80 magic resist" was reduced by ryze. So your magic resist really didn't stop much of the magic damage and you having so much health being a Vlad means he would obviously rip off a ton of health from you. And then you had ryze who is a burst champion. Together I would expect them to kill you in less than 4 seconds.

Now don't get me wrong is he strong yeah. but he honestly from what I see from his abilities and what I've seen from him on videos he really is a burst champion. If he goes damage he bursts hard. he goes tank he bursts tanks hard.

ahferroin7Jul 10, 20152 votes

Did you read the passive from his ult? He get's bonus damage on EVERYTHING scaled off of his max health.

GallowgrimJul 10, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Did you read the passive from his ult? He get's bonus damage on EVERYTHING scaled off of his max health.

Not a huge amount. Noticeable boost,but hardly game-breaking.

GorgiolioJul 10, 20155 votes

So you couldn't 1v2 against a burst mage and a tank? So that makes him OP? Get off your drugs mate.

FadedpfJul 10, 20157 votes

U wot m8? Bard

EkkoFrofflesJul 10, 20152 votes

Bard is, admittedly, the only other recently released champion who was even close to balanced on release. He's also fun to play, from the couple co-ops I played with him last time he was free-to-play. Aside from that, though, nothing else stands out about him for me. He's just some Studio Ghibli looking guy with an ult that's the easiest to mess up and troll with in the game.

If I were to list my personal runner-ups, they'd be Gnar and Azir . Both are fun to play, interesting characters, and have kits that make thematic sense. They were also both overtuned upon release, if I remember correctly, and each have more of a learning curve than Tahm, I'd say. Oh, and they're both really only suited to one role. Azir to mid and Gnar to top. I mean, you could take Azir top, or Gnar jungle/mid, but... those are more niche picks.

MohawkBirdJul 10, 20152 votes

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EkkoFrofflesJul 10, 20153 votes

He needed to be buffed a little, but better slightly underpowered than OP. Plus, he was closer to balanced than just about every other recently released champ was on release, and most of the difficulty people had with him was not knowing how to play as or with him. It's why the LCS uses him so much and you barely see him played by anyone else. He's not an easy champ to play well with.

MohawkBirdJul 10, 20151 votes

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EkkoFrofflesJul 10, 20154 votes

No. I'm not. As I said, Bard was somewhat underpowered, but not "below trash tier." He's possibly the hardest support to play effectively in the game because of how easy to mess up. He got buffed slightly, but all that really changed between his release and where he is now is people learned to play him. The LCS has proven that he's difficult, not trash.

LuggJul 10, 20156 votes

I agree that he is great except for his ult. The range on it is way too low. Especially at Rank 1. You can almost walk there as quick.

EDIT: Talking about RANK 1 people. Pay attention.

EkkoFrofflesJul 10, 20154 votes

It's more about the element of surprise than the speed factor. Say you go to ward dragon, the enemy bot lane pushes, and your jungler's nearby. Ult behind them with your jungler in tow and wreck face. There's no knowing when you're just going to ward and when you have something else in mind. Much like with how Thresh can lantern a jungler in, or Kalista can ult one in, when the enemy least expects it. I wouldn't necessarily be against increasing the range, but I'm okay enough with it as is.

DengedenJul 10, 20151 votes

It's honestly the ideal mobility spell. Good for traversing terrain and flanking unsuspecting enemies, meh otherwise.

EkkoFrofflesJul 10, 20155 votes

Precisely. You use it to surprise enemies and get places faster than you would normally, such as to defend a turret. For that, its range is adequate. If they made it have any wider a range it'd be OP.

High5Jul 10, 20153 votes

{quoted}

I agree that he is great except for his ult. The range on it is way too low. Especially at Rank 1. You can almost walk there as quick.

... but, can you walk there with a friend? ... doh.

LuggJul 10, 20152 votes

If one of us has a item 3800 , we will get there quicker walking.

Sozan5Jul 10, 20158 votes

You would need 2666 movement speed to get there faster.

It's not gonna happen. Stop spreading misinformation.

BorigradJul 10, 201532 votes

{quoted}

I agree that he is great except for his ult. The range on it is way too low. Especially at Rank 1. You can almost walk there as quick.

It's a 4000 range teleport with a 1.5 second delay, the fuck are you talking about you can walk faster.

DengedenJul 10, 20152 votes

It's very awkward to use at first. You generally want to click where you want to go so you don't see yourself completing the channel.

LuggJul 10, 20152 votes

I was referring to the rank one which is~~ 2000~~ 4000. That is about 2 screens.

Edit: corrected range

Sightless66Jul 10, 20156 votes

It starts at 4,000 range and goes up to 6,000 at level 3.

LuggJul 10, 20156 votes

I stand corrected. I looked at a site that had it wrong. Still the range is very low. At Rank 1, you can barely leave base with it.

Sightless66Jul 10, 20152 votes

4,000 is plenty. It's more than enough to get you from one lane to another or to get you across the jungle to an ally, and that is what it needs to do. You don't need to leave base with it to get work done. It ends up being longer than TF's ult. That's good enough in my book.

LuggJul 11, 20152 votes

It isn't even close to being about to go from one lane to the other where the river intersects each lane. You can MAYBE make it 2/3 of the way at best. Only at max rank can you actually make it.

The EcdysiastJul 11, 20151 votes

That just goes to show TF needs his ultimate back, since he doesn't even get to bring an ally with him.

Puri Puri TaricJul 10, 20155 votes

he deals way to much dmg as a support for my taste (hue hue taste) and yea he is alot stronger than many other supports making him almost thresh tier in my eyes

ModAcademy KaynJul 10, 20154 votes

Damage for a support eh? Karma Annie Zyra

LordGeovanniJul 11, 20152 votes

i think you mean you stand one place and get hit too much even though standing in or behind minions can block most of his poke

Puri Puri TaricJul 12, 20151 votes

{quoted}

i think you mean you stand one place and get hit too much even though standing in or behind minions can block most of his poke

well ask bard about that he qus hits 2 minions and poof he is useless for a few seconds tahm can disengage by just w on his adc and runs like a mofo cuz of the movespeed boost. he gets when he eats an allie.

LordGeovanniJul 14, 20151 votes

thats his kit its not like he jumps on you and chunks you in 2 seconds too people mad because they have to learn to play differently against different champions. idk where you come from with bard when we were talking about avoiding tahm's skills

OmiwomJul 10, 20154 votes

The best part is that he's fun to play against as well!

Confron7a7ion7Jul 10, 20152 votes

I only see some small balance changes being needed on his health regen and the damage on his W. but only by MAYBE 3% or 4 %, probably closer to 2%. he is by no means broken and works well in a large number of team comps. Hes also got multiple ways of play. For example I played against Darius once I realized I could't fight him I just spat minions at him. Which you can get at range buy using your Q and W at the same time. Riot did well here.

KING OF MASKSJul 10, 20152 votes

How can you not like the name Tammy Kench?

nomeensnoJul 10, 20152 votes

+1 pretty much the first time in ages I've seen not only a balanced, but fun, and pretty simple champion get released. Definately an excellent job by Riot on this one.

rdiddy1551Jul 10, 20152 votes

Love his ult, so many possiblities. Favorite use so far. A gank showed up bot, I used exhaust and my tongue and a body block to get the adc some breathing room and then used the shield to stay alive and flash back toward their tower. They gave up on adc when they realized they would need to tower dive and I was behind them with 10hp. Waited till the hook set and then ulted back to my tower in 2 seconds. Whee!

Earl EulrichJul 11, 20152 votes

yea, absolutly love it - finally they once again went for one topic (devouring) and designed a champ around it without just mashing in everything they could think of (hi, ekko)...clean and simple amd incr-edible fun

ZonkmanJul 11, 20152 votes

Midlane tahm op just bring a rod and end peoples lives TahmKench item 3027

JasiwelJul 11, 20152 votes

He's a balanced champion with clear parameters and doesn't really have any WTF situations like recent champions have. It's easy to understand when he's most effective and what happens when you get stacks. Meanwhile, he has to risk to reward and has some cushion abilities when he wants to risk a lot. He's a good champion that isn't overloaded, but rather carrying many unique traits that players can comprehend immediately in the moment.

SaiannaJul 10, 20151 votes

tbh i expected Kahm would have some MS boost or very, very, very small dash.

Because catching prey might be difficult for him

EkkoFrofflesJul 10, 20152 votes

Oh, it is difficult. Just played my first normal match with him and used my devour almost exclusively as a defensive, rather than offensive, tool for this very reason. His Q suffers from the same problems Blitzcrank's does, in that people can just stand behind minions to avoid it, and he's so slow that you're not gonna have much luck getting your full stacks on someone very often.

PhifeJul 11, 20151 votes

No, this champion is the worst fucking thing to have come out ot league in the whole world.

No one should be able to give his allies zhonyas for 6 whole fucking seconds while moving.......... Are you kidding me? you better bookmark this fucking comment and put this shit on your homepage because next week when they nerf his fatass im going to be laughing at all the frogfans while they complain about tahm nerfs.

Stupid champ, scales with health + AP, and can zhonyas allies....

Urgonnalearn2dayJul 11, 20153 votes

{quoted}

No, this champion is the worst fucking thing to have come out ot league in the whole world.

No one should be able to give his allies zhonyas for 6 whole fucking seconds while moving.......... Are you kidding me? you better bookmark this fucking comment and put this shit on your homepage because next week when they nerf his fatass im going to be laughing at all the frogfans while they complain about tahm nerfs.

Stupid champ, scales with health + AP, and can zhonyas allies....

Someone got their butt hurt by a catfish. Not a frog btw.

LordGeovanniJul 14, 20151 votes

not to mention that the ally cant fight while tahm's belly

PhifeJul 15, 20151 votes

Thats a really stupid thing to argue...

LordGeovanniJul 15, 20151 votes

being out of the fight is being out of the fight no matter how you try to spin it

PhifeJul 15, 20151 votes