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Kayn In-depth-ish Discussion

Recons·7/13/2017, 4:44:54 PM·2 votes·2,316 views

Greetings,

I will share my opinions on Kayn, and hopefully spark a discussion.

Lopsided Benefits? As it stands Darkin Kayn seems very strong. the gains from Darkin form completely overshadowing Shadow Kayn gains.

Comparatively, qouting @Mogarl "How is this supposed to compete?". > Shadow Assassin: 10% bonus ad ratio and 12-44% bonus magic damage, extra range. > Darkin: 26-43% spellvamp, 50% AD (+ 5% (+ 4% per 100 bonus AD) of target's maximum health)x2 (, 10% (+ 13% per 100 bonus AD) and Hard CC.

Problems: Regardless of this, I think some of the biggest problems are:

  • Inability to Flash during Q.

  • Lack of Gap closer on the back line, with the exception of a flank, which is problematic for assassins. Since he really need to save his Hidan wall walking to escape/outplay enemies.

  • Mixed damage on Darkin Scythe Shadow Assassin's renders the passive useless since it's 12-44% of post-mitigation, meaning that with no magic penetration, or AP ratios to build magic penetration items, this 12-44% is in reality way lower. While the some Spell Vamp can be negated by Grievous Wounds, you can get insane amounts of it with proper itemization.

As it stands though, I believe he is an amazing jungler, being able to full clear without leash and able to start and destroy the raptor camp in 2 Q casts is impressive.

Theory-crafting: I believe Darkin itemization is fantastic: item 1412 item 3812 item 3065 Offers 30% Damage reduction + 20% from skirmishers, and at level 18, 43% Spell Vamp + 30% from Spirit Visage (+8% more from the mastery), gives him a whopping 54.3% Spell Vamp plus 15% Spell Vamp from Death's Dance, totaling at ~69.3% Spell Vamp, even after Grievous Wounds makes it ~35% Spell Vamp.

On the other hand Shadow Assassin suffers from having his passive mitigated by Magic Resist, which he has no way to counter-act, making me think the best itemization includes Attack Speed and MR Shred.

What is your opinion of: item 1400 item 3078 item 3091

This gives him Attack speed to proc his passive multiple times, and MR shred to maximize the damage his passive deals. Additionally the MS from blue smite and trinity lets him stick to targets more. However, I fear this build doesn't have enough base damage to start.

In the end, I'm not worried about Darkin Kayn, he seems really good, his spell vamp probably nerf worthy. On the other hand, what do you guys think Shadow Assassin Kayn needs to succed? And what is the best build?

7 Comments

Sun Wu Ryuumoku7/13/2017, 9:20:10 PM1 votes

Lack of Gap closer on the back line, with the exception of a flank, which is problematic for assassins. Since he really need to save his Hidan wall walking to escape/outplay enemies.

Its not an issue... Talon is same.

Don't build item 3078 on Kayn... its not good on him. he don't aa so much and isn't tanky enough. Can work on Raast tho. And if u wan't to aa so much... go crit build for late, and lethality for early (most of assassins go like this btw).

RoadWild7/19/2017, 3:59:37 AM1 votes

I feel that Kayn is quite similar in Aatrox in play style, where you require a lot of CS and time before you can properly utilise your abilities. Simply counter-jungling or zoning him out consistently will make him almost useless except for some of the rarest situations. His ult is somewhat powerful, but it doesn't give him enough utility such as the ability to E immediately after ulting out so he can get away or to remake the ADC's face.

GBrown47/24/2017, 8:47:12 AM1 votes

i also agree that kayn should be able to flash in q animation it would be nice if in assassin form kayn didn't have to auto the enemy to ult so it makes it different from the other form and gives him another form of gap closing