GrandMaster/Master Kench Top/Support - How to fix Kench
As one of the most played/highest elo Kench enthusiasts in the world this last patch 9.14 which moved Kench into the unplayable field just sparked a fire in me about how Riot handles champions players don't understand. I am not going to go on a rant about how he has been gutted in this post, if you want to find that rant you can go here -
Rather - I would like to share my thoughts about bugs/balance/ and my thoughts about how he can be fixed for pro play/high elo/ and low elo play.
A little about myself - This is my smurf account and I prefer to post on here since I have noticed retaliation against players who share their opinion which doesn't align with some Riot Employee's views which result in a ban - I am sure they can dig up my IP address and find me out but w/e. I started playing league at the end of S6 - I main a few champs and play mainly top/support. I started playing a lot of Kench around the start of S7. Across all my accounts I would say between S6-S9 I have accumulated 5K-10k+ games on Kench, I don't really keep track. I have played almost every matchup top/support and vs a variety of different players - professionals/duo's/tournaments/low elo (ranked solo que)/ high elo (ranked solo que)/ low elo (ranked flex) / high elo (ranked flex).
Kench Bugs/Balance Fixes - What kind of ticks me off is known bugs which have been prevalent since I started S6 - who knows.. they might of been around longer....
#1 - W interaction with minion - eating a minion with low health which is about to acquire a killing blow by tower/Ally spell/Minion attack etc etc - consumes the spell at MAX cd and does not grant gold/enemy kill.
This seems to be a spanning issue that has been never fully addressed although in multiple patch note posts through the years they have attempted to correct this. MY OPINION on correction and why it has not been changed - bottom line why it has not been changed = more complex code which someone does not want to implement. Generally, Ally/Enemy Devour work in the same fashion in terms of interaction ( yes timing conditions have recently been added to make both a little different from that aspect ) - HOW to FIX make W fully immune on spell cast animation for ENEMY Devour which would allow for MAX timer never to be triggered when an ability as mentioned above would kill the champ/minion. The downside here is your Allies spell would not trigger prior to devour as it does today and that damage would be negated while their spells also put on CD. DOT spells and those of the same nature will still work as they do today and tick inside of Kench. W - Devour for Ally champs should stay the same today in which spells will still trigger until an Ally is fully devoured.
#2 - R interaction with W - I am not sure if this is a design intent or not maybe someone who knows the background can comment - when casting R with an Ally it consumes W for MAX cd ( I am not certain if this happens ALL the time or not, ill have to check ) . HOW to FIX - Make W not be consumed when using R with an Ally, make that specific Ally un-devourable for 3-4 seconds. This will lead to more complex gameplay for Kench while using R and make him not so useless late game when his damage is pretty much neglectable.
#3 - Introduced 9.14 - W devour on Enemy champ spits Enemy underneath Kench. So... this occurs when an Enemy has been devoured and is clicking on/behind you to cast their spells/attack. Since there is no stun on regurgitation anymore Enemy player can sometimes click fast enough which results in Kench spitting them out underneath himself which causes the W-Q combo Kench used to be able to land most of the time not available while also auto attacking is also blocked for 1/2 seconds. HOW to FIX - add the stun back... make it super short if the intent is to allow some type of counter play... I shouldn't be having to take 1/2 seconds of free damage from my enemy in a fight because he was regurgitated under me.
#4 - Add Q stack back - this is Kench's bread and butter - this is like teemo not having mushrooms or Braum not being able to add a stack with his Q. Better yet.... lets get rid of Braum's Q stack spell.. its the same spell and ability pretty much (sarcasm)..... But no really, this just needs to be reverted. From talking to other players (kench players), this nerf might have been fine pre-S5 when not every champ had a dash/escape/CC, but its hard enough for Kench to even get two autos off better yet three. I would even be okay with the stack consumption on Q stun if Q added a stack back. HOW to FIX - the correct way to fix this would be... Q adds stacks... but on 3 stacks Q consumes stacks leaving only 1 stack on an enemy champion. This is my personal opinion but I would also not be against all stacks being consumed and Kench starting at 0, I guess I would need some game play/time to figure this out.
#5 - Kench W for pro play concerns/general play - I understand the strengths for competitive play and understand how strong his W - Ally Devour can be. HOW to FIX - currently Kench is grounded - meaning no movement, no flash enabled when eating an Ally also. Which makes Kench a free standing Zhonyas. I do not feel this is healthy as most Kench players only devour their Ally when they are low or to prevent assassins from jumping on them during ults/invis etc etc. In team fights this leaves Kench super vulnerable and takes away from any counter play in team-fights. I feel like an expansion on his W should be re-visited on the below options or some other ideas could even be put into place so that he can actually be viable to play.
#5.1 - Revert Kench to S9 start (ungrounded) - Half the movement speed it was at when eating an Ally but allow shared damage/ %
damage/ etc etc to occur between Ally Devoured and Kench, damage is split between both when Ally is
devoured. I understand that not much time may be allowed for enemy to do damage to Kench to be effective so maybe
setting a time limit for spitting out Ally may be put into place. 2-3 seconds?
#5.2 - Revert Kench to S9 start (ungrounded) - Half the movement speed it was at when eating an Ally but add ability to where Kench
gains stats similar but less than Steraks gage, any damage taken at this point heals Devoured Ally for a % of that if Ally is
below 40% health.
#5.3 - This could be applied to both options above- its just an idea and it may be a bad one but just a thought - If Ally dies while
being devoured or actually devoured - create a skeleton on ally death ( similar to KogMaws passive ) which would do % damage
taken from the last spell or attack which caused the Ally to die with a minimum amount of damage in the case the killing blow
was very low.
#6 - Top lane aggressiveness - Yes, I understand his top lane dominance is very difficult to deal with for players who do not understand how to beat Kench early game. HOW to FIX - tone down early game passive while buffing his late game damage as he does not scale in either top/support 25+ min into the game.
Passive - lvl 1-10 - Tahm Kench's basic attacks deal 4% of his maximum health Magic damage bonus magic damage. Against enemy champions they also apply An Acquired Taste stack for 5 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. The stacks decay once every 0.67 seconds after the stacks reach the full duration.
!!!!!!!Kench's farming ability lacks immensely for top/jungle my suggestion is adding the below which will not effect support!!!!!! After level 3 if no jungle item is worn, if jungle item is worn these effects occur immediately - Kench gains 8-10% damage towards Monsters/Minions Tongue Lash Tongue Lash and Devour Devour gain additional effects against enemies with three stacks.
Passive - lvl 10-14 - Tahm Kench's basic attacks deal 5% of his maximum health Magic damage bonus magic damage. Against enemy champions they also apply An Acquired Taste stack for 5 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. The stacks decay once every 0.67 seconds after the stacks reach the full duration.
After level 3 if no jungle item is worn, if jungle item is worn these effects occur immediately - Kench gains 8-10% damage towards Monsters/Minions Tongue Lash Tongue Lash and Devour Devour gain additional effects against enemies with three stacks.
Passive - lvl 14-18 - Tahm Kench's basic attacks deal 6% of his maximum health Magic damage bonus magic damage. Against enemy champions they also apply An Acquired Taste stack for 5 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. The stacks decay once every 0.67 seconds after the stacks reach the full duration.
After level 3 if no jungle item is worn, if jungle item is worn these effects occur immediately - Kench gains 8-10% damage towards Monsters/Minions Tongue Lash Tongue Lash and Devour Devour gain additional effects against enemies with three stacks.
There is much more to discuss which I am not going to write about here as I just wanted to touch on some of the key areas I felt were not understood by the designers, so I am willing to discuss further my ideas about Kench E , R, and CC potential on spells through discord if a Riot employee or anyone else would like to discuss. In summary in his current state I do not believe Kench is playable in a high-elo/professional form top or support. I do believe he is somewhat playable for low-elo top/support. I just don't understand how such a hard gutting of a champ can occur without him being fully understood from a gameplay standpoint. I hope these issues can be looked at and revisited so that the few of us who enjoy this champ can see him back on the rift in a healthy form.
Yours truly ,
a Kench enthusiast