Tahm Kench - His strengths and why you're playing him wrong!

So if you take a look at Tahm's stats so far, he's doing pretty shitty.

Like... crazy shitty.

Upsettingly so.

But trust me, it's not because he's bad - it's because he's new and you probably haven't figured out what to do with him yet. Now, if you're wondering why as a Plat V I'm making this post at all, it's because I'm tired of people raging about me going Tahm Kench, saying that he sucks, and then just refusing to work with me ever simply because "Tahm Kench". Then blaming me for the loss because... looooooooogic?

So let's first go over Tahm's strengths so we have an idea what we're dealing with:

• Tahm can soak up a ton of damage even early. In fact, laning as him is generally pretty safe so long as you don't push out at all. So... don't push out at all with him in a solo-lane. As support: his W offers a speed boost when he eats his allies - and despite what the spotlight said, it actually gives half the bonus while running away from champs. So entirely viable escape. Push away!

• Tahm's Q is very much spammable and can turn him into a nice lane bully if you can nail that bad boy. It's also not too high of mana cost, so use that shit all the time! You know, unless you're trying to conserve mana for a devour.

• Not sure if it's a bug, but you can use Q/W to apply Q's mana cost to your W on minions - this way, while you're putting two abilities on cooldown, you're only using half the cost to spit minions. Use this for nice AoE harass, or for if you want to guarantee killing minions while conserving mana. Chomp chomp! Please note that the minion grab with your tongue is not a bug - it's the reduced cost to mana for it that I'm not sure about. Maybe entirely intended, which I say is a nice tradeoff and should be kept.

• You can gain the highest amount of "health" total in a single teamfight out of any champ in the game, making you one of the most efficient tanks. Let's see those enemies drop you quickly now! (You know, unless you're stunned and unable to E)

• You're a pretty big guy, so body-blocking isn't too hard to do. Rush up behind enemies' escape routes and stand there like a big ol' brick wall.

• You've got some really good CC with Tahm, including the game's longest CC - a multiple second "suppress" (not sure what we're going to refer to it as) that can't be canceled by cleanse or other effects (as far as I can tell). You can legitimately remove enemies from teamfights if you want. Shyvana dove your ADC again? Not for long!

• For a tank, Tahm also packs some ridiculous single-target damage. Don't look to him for AoE too much - he's a fantastic duelist, but I wouldn't place my money on him blowing up all 5 of the enemy team.

So we've covered his own strengths, which can be seen just by reading up on his kit. So how should you build Tahm?

• First and foremost - go straight tank. Do it. Do it do it do it. Screw RoA and screw that AP BS - your R's passive gives you a mighty nice damage boost based upon your health, so going any non-health-scaling AP item is among the stupidest thing you'll ever do. While he doesn't have the worst ratios, you'd be putting far better use towards some nice utility and bulk items - Warmog's and Righteous Glory, for example. You already pack some of the best bases in the game, so trying to go AP is first of all going to be overkill to your damage and second of all going to leave you wondering why you just got your ass dropped before you could even do that damage. And while RoA gives you some pretty nice health for the buy with some nice damage, it means you're going to be knocking off one of your other items - and while having Warmog's, Righteous, either Frozen Heart or Thornmail (do not go both unless the enemy team is packing absolutely nothing but AD), Spirit Visage, and boots will leave you saying, "that sixth item slot is perfect for RoA, so why not grab it", the second rule of building Tahm will answer that.

• Go smite if you can stand it. Yes, yes, scumbag move, failure of Riot to really make a meaningful thing for just junglers, laners abusing the items once again, cry cry cry. Fact is, you're going to find yourself incredibly lacking if you don't grab it and Cinderhulk, regardless of where you go. Even if you're support - if you gotta drop flash in bot, I've done it twice now and won both times. Cinderhulk is just too good not to put on Tahm. Reason: upwards of 9000 total effective health in combat with activation of your E. You are now basically a raid boss - have fun. That, and skirmisher's smite works well in lane to give you a definite edge, as well as exasperating your dueling potential later. Get that shit! If you're going support and going against an enemy team you'd struggle against in lane, yeah, skip the smite and try your best - but if your lane is a bully lane, grab that thing and bully away. With your E giving you some of the best bulk in the game to survive sticky situations, you can stand to skip flash. Top, always bring smite. Jungle, well, no shit.

• For your abilities, max your Q first generally, then your W - your Q is your main form of lane harass and spammable, long-ranged CC, which when maxed applies a 60% slow. Das niiiiiiice. Grab this first and you should do a good job of catching out unwary folks!

• Build Furor on your boots. I can't stress this enough - this enchantment is usually reserved just for super mobile ADC's, but it's crazy under-appreciated when it comes to making immobile champs crazy sticky. Since all but your W's minion spit is single target damage, you benefit magnificently from this enchantment. Not to mention your Q has 800 range - this means if you nail that puppy, you'll find it pretty easy to work your way quickly up to the enemy when you apply a 60% slow while you move 12% faster. And since your passive stacks still rely largely on your auto-attacks (very rarely will you get to full stacks using only your Q), this just ensures that you're able to stick to your enemy no matter what and will actually be able to finally W them when you get all the stacks on them rather than finding yourself hungry as they run away with the final stack. Not much sadder moments than that, huh?

Nice! Now we're rolling - we know what to do with Tahm! But, now this is the hard part and generally where people will go wrong - When should I take Tahm Kench?

• In general: Check out the enemy team - if they're a team of lots of AA-based champs, pick up Tahm. You honestly couldn't grab a better champ, and the reason is because, as I said before, you can get upwards of 9000 effective health in combat. Now throw that in with Thornmail and say, "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". Rammus may still compete with you, but Tahm can do a bit better job of soaking up a lot of other stray types of damage as well - they still got two ability-based champs? Don't worry, you'll live.

• Safe time to go jungle: Generally, I wouldn't recommend going jungle in solo-queue - you can't really trust your teams to do well in their lanes. However, if you feel confident in them, going jungle can be a safe way to pack smite and flash and not have your team get pissy with you. As long as your lanes are pretty strong, you're free to just hang out and help when needed while farming up for some of your nice items. If you're doing this, take Ranger's Hatchet over Skirmisher's, though, since you'll need help farming - the reason this spot is risky is that Tahm's clears are really, really bad. You'll generally be able to survive a full jungle clear, but it'll take you a while. Do not go Tahm jungle if your team is lacking reasonable CC to gank with or if you're facing a strong, early game jungler - you'll get your ass handed to you on the second, and the first will mean that your ganks will be very spotty since it'll be reliant upon you nailing your Q. You have shit mobility and can only really waddle into an enemy lane - if an enemy is caught by this, well, they must really be stupid.

• Must to top lane: Tahm excels laning against AP tanky champs since it allows him to just go for his first major health item (other than Cinderhulk, which you should be fucking building every time all the time), Spirit Visage - if laning isn't over by the time you grab this item, you're going to basically just win trades now since the item works wonders on your E's passive regen. Combine that with your bulk and base damage and you're free to start wrecking havoc. Now don't think this doesn't mean you can't also go against AD champs - you certainly can, and do it all the time. If the enemy team has a Nasus, you just won lane - in this rare instance, max out your W first and every time Susan comes close to minions, gobble him up for tons of damage. If he tries to fight back, you always have your E on back-up to give you that extra bulk - plus, devouring him in his ult can burn down that timer, as well as if he withers you - now you have a free way to wait out his wither. Fun fun! And if you go Thornmail second on top of this, he'll get punished for trying to fight you. Talk about Susan's worst nightmare.

• Must to support: If you have a Vayne or any other major duelist ADC, grab Tahm and play as such: go in on the enemy, eat the support, and allow your ADC to have a free go at the other ADC. It is far easier to win a duel if you're not CC'd, so taking out the primary form of CC just allows your ADC to go haywire as they please. You should especially do this if you're already ahead, and if you're looking at an easy lane, max your W first just to maximize the amount of time you can keep the enemy support incapacitated. Stand away from your ADC during this time and drop an exhaust on the enemy ADC if you can as well because devouring an enemy also limits their visibility, meaning they won't see your ADC to exhaust them unless you're standing right on top of your ADC. This basically guarantees a free kill if the enemy ADC has no escape since now they can't fight back effectively at all.

• Do not pick Tahm if: The enemy is packing a lot of slows, knockbacks, and/or snares - generally building the super important Boots of Swiftness will see you still viable despite slows, but if the enemy is packing a whole lot of them, you're going to find yourself being easily kited. An excess of snares and knockbacks will just basically render you borderline worthless since the only way to counter those are with Mercury Treads' tenacity, and that means you'll be sitting at a low 380 MS on a champ with some pretty lackluster sticking power to begin with. While your slow still helps you catch champs, you're going to find it hard if that's what you're relying on. Also, Tahm does not perform well against teams with multiple APC's. Luden's will make them almost impossible for you to catch, and generally those mages have ways of simply whittling you down to nothing from afar, making your E's shield weaker if you manage to engage on them. While Righteous Glory gives you a small glimmer of hope in approaching these enemies, any APC with hard CC will more than likely just whap you on the nose and leave you blue-balled before you could even get close. Generally, Tahm works great in all forms of comps but simply has champion counters that can ensure he can't do his job. Don't take him against poke comps for the love of god please.

The rest of playing Tahm Kench are your teamfights, and generally there are some important rules:

• Unless you're packing somebody with absurdly strong AoE CC and tank, don't use your W to rush in an engage - just use your Righteous Glory and run up. The reason for this is that your W always has a pretty meh cooldown (at max level, 10 seconds and 6 seconds if you have 40% cooldown). If you screw up your engage with this, you have officially committed and have no way out or no way to remove enemy damage to yourself - only engage in this way if you are absolutely sure that the fight won't - or can't - go sour. Otherwise, reserve your W for catching, saving, or peeling - if you use this baby when you didn't actually need it, you're just going to learn to regret. And if you're in a game going Thornmail over Frozen Heart, then absolutely make sure you're using this for safety and disabling rather than as your form of engaging. I can list more ways to use your W, but most of the time you're going to just have to play it by ear and by practice - things like extending your teammate's cooldowns and saving your ADC sound good, but if you're just seeking to do that always, you may sooner find yourself mitigating your own team's damage or saving an enemy instead by keeping your teammate from securing a kill. It's also not always good to devour an enemy with three stacks as doing this on champs like an enemy Swain or Vlad will see damage done to them, but eating them gives them time to wait for cooldowns as well - you'll have to learn when to keep an enemy on lockdown or just do some crazy damage to them by spitting them out as quickly as possible.

• Your job is to ensure the enemy tank/assassin doesn't do their job by zoning/killing your carries. If it's the former, use your W on the enemy to remove them from the fight and give your ally breathing room - if it's the latter, consume your ally to save them from damage and to basically deny the enemy assassin. Usually they're going to start burning things just to get the hell away at this point, which when it comes to assassins tends to be skills used for damaging as well - good job, you've successfully just mitigated some damage.

• You should be trying at all times to force enemies to pay attention to you and address you as an issue. Try to be in the middle of fights rather than just babysitting your ADC if you can - if nobody else can peel for your primary damage, then that becomes your job now. Tahm can't do it all unfortunately, so if your team doesn't have a second form of bulk/CC packing champ to take up the mantle of one of those jobs, you're going to find at least one of your teammates raging at you at all time. Sorry. If you are packing another one of these kinds of champs, then by all means, you should be the primary tank - you do it better than most anyone, save maybe Rammus against certain comps and Galio when he flash-ults.

• Your ult is overrated for its active - while it has great ganking potential, you'll find this really only ever does you any good if you can successfully coordinate your team. This is basically useless in solo-queue since trying to get people to do exactly what you want when you want is next to impossible. Besides that, since Tahm is a great duelist, he lacks heavily early in team-fighting until he gets some actual decent bulk quickly - you'll actually want to try and steer away from going into an all-out brawl early due to this and stick to catching/1v1'ing champs.

As a general rule at all times: If you are losing in a solo-role, do not lose hope. If you've packed smite, acquiring Cinderhulk can turn the tides in your favor very quickly. Tahm is also extremely meh before level 6 anyway - the reason for this is that, again, your R gives you a sizeable damage boost based on your health to all autos and abilities. You'll find yourself hitting a very big power spike come this point - so if you're 0/2 and under turret, fear not because hitting 6 generally puts you in a very strong spot. And if you get Cinderhulk with Skirmisher's, there's hardly anybody that can fight you 1v1 early and decisively win. And again, if you're in a solo-lane, do not push out your lane - you do not have a reliable escape and you'll basically be hoping that your E's shield will see you home safely.

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So to sum up the most important gameplay points:

1. Take smite, build Cinderhulk.

2. Do not push, just play safe early.

3. Your power-spike is at 6 - once you hit it, feel free to go further with trades than usual, or even just all in.

4. Don't pick him against AP carry-heavy/poke comps.

5. Be smart with your W; use it when you need to. Don't go in planning on who to devour before you're even presented with the situation.

6. Be dapper as fuck; speak with a southern gentleman's accent.

Have fun!