Tahm Kench
Hello everyone!
I wanted to discuss Tahm Kench current state in top lane, as I've started seeing him there more often. Now, I've played my share of Tahm Kench (mostly on bot lane) and against him (with multiple champion "types") - and by now I am able to sum up the lane in just few words:
>"Playing against Tahm Kench on top is the most miserable experience you can get out of League of Legends." - Myself
At least in current state.
#1. Why nobody complained when Tahm was played mainly on bot lane?
There are a few reasons for that. First of all - Tahm Kench biggest weakness (being kited) is much easier to abuse on bot lane than it is on top. Usually it's because one or even both of his opponents are ranged. One of them is also usually a support which usually have a lot of CC (and adcs have either an escape or another form of CC).
Second of all - his kit is generally much better in 1v1 scenario. He have to stack his passive (it's harder to stack it on multiple players at once) and he have 2 single target spells (and his AA are also single target, obviously). Also, his W stops both him and his enemy from doing anything (also safeguards the enemy from Tahm's allies) which makes it much weaker ability in 2v2 scenario (as the second enemy can still attack Tahm and/or Tahm's adc cannot attack enemy that is devoured by him).
#2. Why is playing against him on top feels so bad?
Again, there are multiple reasons for that. I will try to list all the things:
- All his abilities start really strong since rank 1. By that I mean they get most of the utility right of the bat:
- Q already have minimum cooldown (6s) and max slow duration.
- W gets 20% max health damage right off the bat (62,5% of ability full damage at max rank) and 2 seconds duration (66% of max rank).
- E gets 100% of damage received as grey health right off the bat (which he can transform into a shield or regeneration a portion of it).
- His mana costs for Q and E are low (also don't scale up with ranks on none of his spells), while his mana pool is rather high (certainly in the top half of champions' mana pool). That said, his mana regen is nothing to write home about.
- His stacks last a very long time (7s +0,5s per stack), which makes it hard to find a window of opportunity to go in (along with Tahm's generally low-ish cooldowns).
- His attack range is higher than most of melee champions (which are quite popular on top lane).
- His W deals a lot of damage without any stats at all.
- His R passive adds decent damage based on his health.
- His Q hitbox doesn't match the animation (it's significantly wider).
Now, his E and W make Tahm Kench a guy that can outtrade most other champions if he can catch them. Which important in top lane where most champions have actually lower range than him (and 75 range is as much of difference as between Varus and Caitlyn, so it is significant) and have to get into his zone of control to even try to last hit. Escaping him is hard as well, due to his good CC potential (Slow/Stun/Suppress). Tahm Kench also tends to scale well into late game - with his damage being based on enemies %health and his %bonus health.
#3. Do you have any solutions?
Well, some rough ideas, yes. Generally, I would like his power to be focused more into bot lane and late game. For example something like this:
Passive: Stack duration reduced to 4/5/6 (at levels 1/8/15) +1 second per stack (from 7 seconds +0,5 per stack).
Q Mana cost increased to 45/50/55/60/65 (from 50 at all ranks) Cooldown increased to 9/8/7/6/5 seconds (from 6 at all ranks)
W Mana cost changed to 80/85/90/95/100 (from 90 at all ranks) Cooldown decreased to 11/10,5/10/9,5/9 seconds (from 14/13/12/11/10) Damage on enemy units decreased to 14/18/22/26/30 +3% per 100 AP target's max health as magic damage (from 20/23/26/29/32% +2% per 100 AP) Damage from projectile increased to 100/150/200/250/300 +70% AP (from 100/150/200/250/300 +60% AP) Projectile minions apply a 20/25/30/35/40% slow for 1 second (from 0%) Eating allied champions expends 15% of Tahm's current Grey Health per second and heals both of them for 50% of that amount (from 0%).
E Passive: Stores 45/55/65/75/85% of damage taken as Grey Health (from 100% at all ranks) Heals 50% of Grey Health at all ranks (from 20/26/32/38/44%)
This should make his solo laning at least a bit weaker, especially early (later he might be even stronger than he is now), while not hitting support Tahm as much (with lower cd on W, added heal and slow on throwing minions). His E healing is also mostly unaffected (even a bit stronger early).
Anyway, regardless if those changes are fine or not - I believe that Tahm needs some changes.
PS. Do not start with the "Hur dur, I can write some other champs strengths and make him look OP too!" because this isn't about Tahm being OP or not. It's about how terrible it feels to play against him in top lane (as most of weaknesses are nearly no factors in solo lane).
