Kayn has very high mana regen, but high mana costs. What it the reason behind this?
Usually when Riot gives a champion a weird stat quirk, it's too adress something specific. So what is it in this case?
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he starts Hunter's Talisman which gives a massive mana refill while in the Jungle. Combined with his innate mana regen, he can cast spells for free as long as he's in the Jungle, but without Talisman on (read: in lane) he can operate... but not as well and depends on autos due to the massive mana costs. Plus poor synergy with any mana items especially Sheen mean his mana costs are never mitigated by items besides Talisman
It's probably linked to his backstory. He's an Ionian, with strong ties to the ninjas of the world, especially Zed. By making his mana pool function a bit more like an energy pool (high costs, fast recharge), his kit feels very similar to the ninja's with energy while still being his own thing.
My time is now. There really isn't anything specific here other than the fact that it's one of those balance levers to keep him in the jungle. His rotations with camps consistently take multiple Q's early game, and along with the jungle item in general backing him up in Mana, you'll never really find Kayn short in mana when it comes to his main form of jungle clear.
However, and I've found this way more noticeable later in the game, constant action on the map and in lanes, frequently leaves me with very little mana on hand, especially when my only time for regen is when I'm actively using that mana to jungle clear. I kinda hoard the Blue Buff to myself sometimes, just because how much i need to be everywhere in situations like that.
He has pretty high mana regen because his health regen is particularly low.
In the jungle high mana cost aren't as big of a problem due to blue buff and talisman, and without blue buff players are expected to kite more than just rely on Q spam with no drawback. The high regen + talisman just keeps him barely at a respectable regen level so he gets some mana back for spells inbetween walking to camps.
This also keeps him out of laning since his cost are too great to wave clear with, and he'll be missing the regen of talisman + blue buff, so even tho he has high base regen, his cost will still be too high to compensate.
He's an Assassin. His job is to DELETE an enemy, then move on. Short, but strong damage, then required to rest a bit. Sure if he fed as hell, then he can stay around more, but in general he is not meant to keep fighting for long.