Tahm Kench needs a nerf imo.

He is my most played champion. He is imo the reason why I was able to climb in to Plat this season. I played him mostly in the jungle with great success and a few times in top and hardly in support. Mostly only losing due to dcers or people who did not have faith in the Kench or even knew how to play with him.

As a support he has a very weak laning phase. His W cost so much mana even if its used to save a team mate. Support Kench is mostly about saving team mates or setting up cc such as eating an enemy then spitting them out in your teams cc. Later on though even as support he starts to deal good damage if he gets a good amount of hp items or simply because of his W can either cancel so many ults and not put them on refund such as or just deal way to much damage peeling your carries from champions such as darius/etc. Even as a support I've been able to solo full tanks or even carries or champs such as Darius/etc with hardly any resistant items simply because of his Q and W cc chain.

As a top laner he goal is to play safe and poke the enemy down if he can but once he hits 6 his damage increases greatly. He is great as a top laner when his jungler ganks. It makes it very easy to to get his W on. Maxing your W imo is the best option as it increases its broken damage. Playing top though is quite risky if you're not safe and if you have no wards. Its very important you buy wards as a top laner for Tahm kench. He has no escapes.

Jungle though is where its at. He easily clears the camps with his W. If his laners have any kind of decent cc/slows he can easily walk in and provide kills. By building full tank with mostly hp items he becomes a juggernaut that makes even the recent juggernauts look inferior.

His biggest counter is Vayne if he can't stay on her and normally sated devourer junglers simply because the sated devourer is to strong of an item but with a competent team Sated Devourer junglers will have hardly any impact in the game if they can't get assist or kills. Gnar top does also make the lane frustrating. He has obvious counters and is easily kited but with the right setup of champions such as /etc and items such as fixes that problem.

The biggest problem is his late game. Its way to strong. He just deals way to much damage but does have a weak laning phase. Tahm kench must be shut down early or Tahm kench's team must be losing hard for him to not have an impact. He has a very safe jungle. Tahm Kench's Devourer at max deals 32% of his targets max HP not to mention his Abyssal Voyage passive increases his damage of his abilities and auto attacks based on Tahm kench's Max Hp. Even if you have 50% reduced magic damage from magic resist, tahm kench's W at least deals 16% of the targets hp. Another issue with Tahm Kench that makes where he has less impact is when team mates have no clue about what he can do. Several times you see allies not clicking on you when you are ulting or they run away from you when you can save them from abilities such as when a ults them.

As he starts seeing more play this will become less of an issue and players will eventually realize how good he is. He is seeing world play but as a support. Where teams are able to coordinate with him where playing him as a support is honestly a very good option.

and your choice of . is a great item easily subbed for item if needed. Normally with that build in team fights you can just walk through the enemies tonguing any threatening targets to your team and eating enemy champions holding them while auto attacking targets near by providing great peel and damage simply by just going ham. If you get low you can easily just walk out and press your E if necessary. Heal up with and simply just going back in if the fight is still going on.

As a support you normally go ------ or Allows him to do great damage and provide even more peel with the CDR support builds normally net you.

His mid and late game needs to be nerf and perhaps his early get compensated a bit. Building tank should not allow you to net doubles and triple kills just because you ate a target at 30% hp netting a kill. Nailing your Q stun and nailing autos right before you eat them as the stun from your Q wears off allows Tahm kench to do way to much damage. Putting the enemy in to long of a cc chain. You can't even decrease the duration of his W with making it have hardly any counter play unless you get a Maxing You W decreases its cooldown which is greatly useful. Q does provide a stronger slow and more damage but maxing it is not worth over your W. You want the W up asap as it provides great peel and damage when needed. Q is always on a 6 second cd. Maxing it 1st is like maxing Skarners E, its best to max it second instead. The slow is already good enough if landed and chances are if you have even the slightest bit of CDR your Q will be up again shortly after the slow wears off.

I know this is quite a huge thread. I honestly did not intend to do so. But decided to show build patterns and explain about what Tahm Kench can do. Tahm Kenchs W can be just as strong if not stronger than Ultimates from Garen or even Darius on a much shorter cooldown. He is slowly starting to see more play. With the recent play in worlds. The attention of Tahm Kench will start to rise where players will realize. He is quite good and not the "useless Bard" as others have called him.