How to effectively use Shadow Assassin Kayn
So I've noticed a lot of people saying how SA is a lot weaker than Darkin mainly due to being squishy. To be fair with you he is but at the same time he makes up for it with his high burst potential.
I decided to make this with the intent of helping people who are new to Kayn and allow some insight into the true assassin he can be.
First of all let's start with the standard build, I've made two for both forms but for now we'll begin with the SA. The build should look something of the sorts of a standard jungling assassin with your core items being as such
The main core items for SA is Warrior enchant and chiling smite along with Mobi boots and Duskblade. This allows you to be fairly mobile and conceal your ways through the rift with the duskblade passive. Chilling smite is used as well to allow you to catch up when you do finally enter combat with your mobi's on CD. However, you're more then welcome to change Chilling for Challenging and take any boots of your preference if you see the situation fit to do so.
For your runes I'd personally take standard AD rune set up
This allows for a strong clear early and extra damage here and there. If you want you can swap AD quints for AS but it doesn't really do much in terms of damage as his Q does bonus damage against monsters.
And for Masteries I recommend two choices, either do 18/12/0 taking Fervor of battle or my personal favorite doing 12/18/0 and take stormraider's or Thunderlord's if you wish.
Fevor Tree: [(http://prntscr.com/fw3r8p)]
Stormraider's Tree: [(http://prntscr.com/fw3rjn)]
I must also say I take two points into vampirism as it just allows for a little bit of sustain whilst clearing the jungle.
So when you finally transform into SA you need to know how your new W works.
By leaving a shadow behind to cast Blade's Reach, Kayn can move and perform actions freely. This means that for your standard Burst combo you'll do W>Q>AA (for your passive)>R (wait the full duration for CD's and to bait out escapes.)>Q>AA This can grant you the full damage potential of SA and is able to burst down most squishy targets. Of course you may proc Stormraider's to catch up with them and you may throw a smite into the mix to deal more true damage. Your E should mainly be used as a long range engage or a short range Disengage depending on the situation however a neat trick is to use it as a mid-combat heal by fighting alongside walls and using them to your advantage, this is great with Darkin when you build items like Spirit Visage to increase healing but as SA it can really be a lifesaver if you need to quickly heal to deal with that ADC.
Thanks for reading this short guide to Shadow Assassin Kayn and I hope this allows you to have a better understanding of how Kayn can be performed at his peak.
