Boards›Gameplay

A Tahm Kench Main's Thoughts on Current Tahm Kench

Da Pi Guy 3·8/17/2019, 5:06:36 PM·7 votes·6,595 views

Ok, bois, this is like, my second post, ever, so I believe that alone should carry some weight, as I've been playing league consistently for almost 6 years. Here's my thesis statement: Most Tahm Kench players in draft and lower elos (50%-75% of players) use him (as far as i'm aware) as a support, and I think nerfing everything that made him a good support in hopes of balancing him in competitive play is a bad idea.

Allow me to explain. In season 9, riot has made 32 adjustments to Tahm Kench. 10 of those were buffs; the other 22 were nerfs. Let that sink in. Let's go over the biggest hindrances to Tahm Kench's support kit.

1: TK's q no longer applies a stack of acquired taste. Before, TK's biggest zoning ability came from landing a q on a squishy, forcing them to back up lest TK come and auto auto-reset for an easy w, and thus, and easy kill. Now, it's just a little bit of poke that slows, an ability that many other supports possess.

2: When TK eats an ally he is slowed by 95%. since TK isn't particularly fast, it's basically a root that lets you MAYBE dodge some skillshots. The only viable uses for it are snagging allies from over thin walls to escape a jungler, grabbing them from behind anivia and j4 walls, and removing longer duration cc, like Morg q.

3: E duration nerfed. Although it gives more hp, the only way TK could defensively help his adc was to eat them and run, popping e to avoid too much burst damage. Now that he's so slow when eating an ally, the 2 seconds runs out long before he can do anything with it.

4: R range nerfed early-mid game. This hinder's TK's roam greatly and makes moves on dragon and mid lane more difficult.

I'm not saying TK is bad. I think he's a little overpowered at the moment, actually. HOWEVER, tk doesn't really fit the support role very well anymore, especially with the reworks to support items last year.

This is just from my perspective. Please don't bash me in the comments. Instead, provide insight into why I may be right/wrong.

17 Comments

Tahminatrix 8/17/2019, 5:12:40 PM4 votes

Problem is, tk was completely balanced and even unused and called useless in competitive play back in season 7, its not his fault riot made the damage so high that an assassin can burst an adc through their supports shield. Tahms W is the only way to ensure your adc lives now.

Positioning is so strict now that even if you enable 1 person on the enemy team to be able to dive you/combo you, youre dead.

(AS FOR WHY TAHM KENCH IS SO AKWARDLY STRONG NOW)

The compensation buff to tahms ground + slow on ally W was stupid, increasing tahms slow on his q was what made him overpowered / oppressive against immobile champs and it was a huge mistake for riot to even think about doing that, hes was not struggling against immobile champs, before the slow buff he was perfectly fair against them.

When they took away his q stacking mechanic in 9.14 all they did was make him weaker against mobile champs since he no longer had a way to stack on them before getting in range to auto, nobody is gonna stand still and let you auto them 3 times as tahm kench...

Also riot gave tahm kench ANOTHER COMPENSATION BUFF TO HIS q POST 9.14 MINIPATCH.

Pre 9.14 slow duration 2 seconds, stun duration 1.5, cd 4 Post 9.14 minipatch slow duration 3 , stun duration 2, cd 5

That's a 1/3rd increase to cc duration with only a 1/4th increase to cooldown its easier than ever to just close the gap and auto immobile champs to death still and riot should have never enforced this crap onto this champ.

They need to revert him back to before they buffed his q because tahm should have never been this way, nobody wants him to bully immobile champs and be useless against everything else, league shouldn't be a rock paper scissors pile of shit.

Clapper of Asses8/18/2019, 5:00:28 PM3 votes

As a tahm kench supp main (2nd main after thresh), he is now my go to jungler. I cant stand supporting with him anymore he is garbo in that role ):<

Ragnaveil8/17/2019, 5:38:29 PM2 votes

He just needs changes like LS proposed so then hes fixed without being broken in lanes due to certain changes (the Q change for top). As much as I hated fighting TK top, the nerfs hes gotten are just overkill.

SettDownShutUp8/17/2019, 7:29:40 PM2 votes

They made him clunkier for the sake of proplay and I find that inexcusable. if they found that eating people was too powerful they could have done so many different things than this. They could have placed a longer personal cooldown on each Ally champion akin to sylas' ultimate and enemies.

xDogMeatx8/17/2019, 5:13:43 PM2 votes

balancing due to pro play is bad altogether instead of balancing due to pro play why not keep him fun without all these super mobility buffs on his ult while also nerfing everything why not ask the kench mains what they want and they can get rid of or reduce as a cost??? before pro play started dominating the balancing problems thats how a game should be played instead the elite decide the buffs/nerfs they should have their own client imo.

Naalith8/18/2019, 3:30:42 AM2 votes

Yeah, the entire game being balanced around pro play has basically fucked a ton of people out of their mains and has led to some of the shittiest feeling roles when Riot slashes the heels of an entire role at once (jungle still feels ass). It used to be a bit of a meme back in the day that Ryze and Azir were off limits due to pro play. Then this honor extended to Kalista. Then this honor extended to Rek'sai to the point they annihilated her whole concept and gave her a boring damage ult. Here we are 4 years later and there are arguably 20+ champions that suck because of pro play, and the list is only going to increase because Riot seems to have zero clue as to what makes a champion in pro play.

I've also seen a lot of people say champions like Tahm aren't even that bad. Sure there is a range of usefulness for characters who have gotten slapped with nerfs, but I also think people overlook what sucks most about a lot of these changes: fantasy. People don't like Tahm Kench because he's a high damage fish, they like him because he was an armored car support and that fantasy is essentially dead. Rek'sai wasn't enjoyed because she was a bruiser with bruiser abilities, she was enjoyed because her burrow sense made her feel like a predator and building out a network of tunnels you teleport to anytime solidified that fantasy. Even in cases where the characters make a comeback, all their unique flair is replaced with boring damage and the gameplay promise Riot made to mains of that champion has vanished.

VelvetCrotch8/18/2019, 4:12:43 PM2 votes

TK was meant to be a supp but some Rioters fucked up and put this broken champ like every garbage they can’t handle to toplane. There he was obviously broken OP and annoying garbage and so they ofc need to nerf him which also nerfed unfortunately his supp role it seems which is sad cause that’s the role and lane he belongs

Dasdi968/19/2019, 3:57:58 PM1 votes

Good, fuck that champion. I might actually start watching comp play when he finally stops being picked.

Nea1048/17/2019, 6:18:10 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Da Pi Guy 3,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m5bkdx5r,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-08-17T17:06:36.315+0000)

I'm not saying TK is bad. I think he's a little overpowered at the moment, actually. HOWEVER, tk doesn't really fit the support role very well anymore, especially with the reworks to support items last year.

I don't understand. You mean, Tahm is OP as a Toplaner? How?

Tsuko8/17/2019, 5:54:03 PM1 votes

The Tahm kench problem is simply this:

Riot will keep his W nerfed to the point where he can't viably be a support again because it was a "get out of jail free card" every 10 seconds, so it was impossible for the ADC to die in lane.