Tahm Kench Balance Suggestions
Tahm Kench currently has issues top lane because his all in is too strong. He has giant shield, CC, health regen, and a lot of dmg from his scaling health on hit.
The main reason top Kench is strong right now is that he is too sticky for how much damage and defensive options he has. His weakness is that he has no way to actually get to the opponent unless he hits his Q slow, but this skillshot is easy to dodge from far away. Vs melee top laners however, this weakness is obsolete.
On the other hand, in the support role, now more than ever after the nerfs on his W when swallowing an ally, Tahm is honestly pretty weak. Supports like Zyra or galio, or ad carries like caitlyn trist or vayne that can just kite him out make support tahm very situational. One unique thing I really like about support tahm is he provides defensive options to ADC that would otherwise not have any (jinx, twitch, miss fortune). Tahm kench support being strong gives bot lane a lot more diversity in terms of which ad carries you can pick. Right now though, he offers so little unless the AD carry has a way of locking down enemies (varus, ashe), or the enemy support is something which is always trying to get in ur face (nautilus leona alistar).
These strenghts and weaknesses in mind, I would like to propose some changes that would make tahm kench more viable in support role, and less oppresive top lane.
First, his top lane duel potential is just way too strong. Tahm Kench eating an opponent is just not fun to play around, for both the enemy and allies. The ability does way too much damage, when its on your team, it just creates an awkward situation where everyone is waiting for tahm to spit out the enemy and dps. When Tahm Kench eats an enemy, it shouldnt be a dueling tool, it should be to remove that enemy from the fight in order to protect team.
To work around this, I think his W should have its damage greatly reduced, or even do zero damage, however Tahm is able to eat an enemy without stacking them three times. This allows Tahm to take a priority target out of the fight in order to protect his team (anivia, talon, master yi). This would hurt his dueling potential, but give him a lot more ability as support, as he has the threat of being able to eat and transport an enemy without having to be around them for a long while; aka harder to kite.
Second, his W ability should also be able to eat and hurt ally minions. This is just a small suggestion, but I think Tahm kench being able to eat ally minions adds a unique mechanic that allows him to deny enemy cannon minions at the expense of high CD a peeling and all in tool. This would help Tahm Kench exert pressure on the lane as a support in lanes where he cant really get close to the enemy.
OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
Depending on his state after these changes, I have a few other possible changes.
If his dueling is still too strong top lane, a possible change would be to remove his Q stun but to increase its damage. This makes the ability stronger in duels when he hits it and when he gets close to someone, but it reduces his all in dueling strength because he cant lock them down for more dmg.
Another possible change is: make his E not start going on cooldown until the shield is destroyed, or expires. Sometimes tahm kench is just so good at dueling cause he has so much effective HP. One thing that exacerbates this is the fact that he can sometimes start generating his E shield as soon as the one before it runs out. Tahm players should have to think more carefully when using a spell that gives such a large shield, instead of being able to use it every trade in order to get the last word.
