League of Legends - Tahm Kench Champion Strategy and Item Build Guide

Tahm Kench

Basic Information

Champion Stats

Lore

Skills

Icon	Description
	An Acquired Taste INNATE: Tahm Kench puts the heft of his immense body behind his attacks and abilities, gaining extra damage based on his total health. Damaging enemy champions builds stacks of An Acquired Taste. At three stacks, he can use Devour on an enemy champion.
	Tongue Lash (Target Range: 800, Collision Radius: 35, Cost: 50 Mana, Cooldown: 6)ACTIVE: Damage the first enemy hit for 80/130/180/230/280 (+70% Ability Power) magic damage and slow them by 30/40/50/60/70% for 2s. Champions with 3 stacks of An Acquired Taste will additionally be stunned for 1.5s. Activate Devour while your tongue is in midair to devour monsters/minions from a distance.
	Devour/Regurgitate (Target Range: 250, Cost: 90 Mana, Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10) ACTIVE: Devour a target for 4/4.5/5/5.5/6s (half that for enemy champions.) Enemies are dealt 20/23/26/29/32% (+[2% Ability Power]%) of their maximum health as magic damage (maximum of 400/450/500/550/600 against neutral monsters).Enemy Champions: Requires 3 stacks of An Acquired Taste to be devoured. While holding an enemy champion, Tahm Kench is slowed by 95%.Allied Champions: While holding an allied champion, Tahm Kench gains 30/35/40/45/50% movement speed toward enemy champions.Minions and Monsters: Reactivate to spit them, dealing 100/150/200/250/300 (+60% Ability Power) magic damage to targets hit.
	Thick Skin (Cost: 50 Mana, Cooldown: 6) PASSIVE: 70/75/80/85/90% of the Damage taken while this ability is not cooling down is converted to gray health. If allowed to decay, 25/30/35/40/45% of gray health will turn back into health.ACTIVE: Convert all of your gray health into a shield that lasts 3 seconds.
	Abyssal Voyage (Target Range: 4500/5500/6500, Cost: 100 Mana, Cooldown: 120/110/100)ACTIVE: Begin to channel for up to 6 seconds. During this time, one ally champion can right click Tahm Kench to join in. Alternatively, reactivate this ability to travel alone. On reactivation or once an ally has opted in, Tahm travels to the target location. Incoming champion damage breaks the channel.

Strategy

• Activate (E) Thick Skin when you are in 50-40% health in a teamfight. Activating it early will be useless. On the other hand, activating it late is risky since it only lasts 3 seconds.
• Tahm Kench can devour enemies who are far away and has three stacks by activating (W) Devour while (Q) Tongue Lash is in mid-air.
• When you think that you lack the killing power to finish off an enemy, do not use (W) Devour, instead use (Q) Tongue Lash to stun the enemy and let your team finish the job.
• Tanks and bruisers are usually the ones who are viable to engage an enemy with (R) Abyssal Voyage since they can take a lot of damage and not die early in a team fight.
• Save your ally carries by (W) Devouring them even if you are playing Tahm Kench as a top laner.

Runes & Masteries

COMING SOON

Summoner Spells

Top Lane		Support
Flash	Teleport	Exhaust	Teleport

Item builds

Top Lane

Starter Items Option 1
Doran’s Shield	Health Potion	Warding Totem

Starter Items Option 2
Corrupting Potion

Core Items
Dead Man’s Plate	Spirit Visage	Warmog’s Armor
Titanic Hydra

Dead Man’s Plate – Dead Man’s Plate increases the armor and health of Tahm Kench while also giving him a passive that increases his movement speed. It is a very strong first item for Tahm Kench as it gives him an offensive and defensive power spike early on in the game.

Spirit Visage – Spirit Visage, along with Warmog’s Armor, gives him a lot of health regeneration. This item increases the effectiveness of all healings. This allows Tahm Kench to soak damage and act as the front line of the team. It also increases his damage because of the passive.

Warmog’s Armor – Warmog’s Armor is a very strong health item that fits really well with Tahm Kench. The massive health and regeneration it gives scales well with his passive and tankiness, making him even more of a threat in the front lines.

Titanic Hydra – Tahm Kench is a strong health-focused champion. The higher his health his, the stronger his passive become. Titanic Hydra is also an item that scales well the more health you have, making you a strong top laner with ample defensive and offensive stats.

Full Item Build

Full Item Build
Dead Man’s Plate	Spirit Visage	Warmog’s Armor
Thornmail	Titanic Hydra	Mercury’s Treads

Thornmail – Thornmail adds more flare to a Tahm Kench top, making him even more dangerous to the enemy’s ADC. It can also give off grievous wounds to the enemies which reduces the enemy’s healing.

Mercury’s Treads – Since a top lane Tahm Kench relies on getting close to his enemies to deal damage, Mercury’s Treads helps him in the aspect by reducing any forms of crowd controls on him.

Situational Items Items
Sunfire Cape	Zz’Rot Portal	Righteous Glory
Banshee’s Veil	Iceborn Gauntlet

Sunfire Cape – Sunfire Cape can be a substitute for Dead Man’s Plate if you are having a hard time last hitting creeps in the laning phase. This gives off an aura that constantly deals damage to nearby enemies.

Zz’Rot Portal – Another good option for Tahm Kench if you want to split push. This item is very strong if you are dominating your lane and opt to split push in order to create pressure to the enemy. He can also use his ultimate to jump from lane to lane while activating this item to ensure pressure from all lanes whenever possible.

Righteous Glory – Righteous Glory is an aggressive item that act as an initiation tool. It is a good item if your team is aggressive and want to initiate team fights as often as possible. This can also coincide well with Devour, as he can just swallow an ally and use this to surprise enemies.

Banshee’s Veil – Build Banshee’s Veil if the enemy team has an AP caster or an initiator. It can block the first instance of an ability, making you more secure in positioning and trying to survive in a team fight as long as possible.

Iceborn Gauntlet – Iceborn Gauntlet is a great offensive item that synergize well with (Q) Tongue Lash since it adds another slow to the ability. This also gives Tahm Kench a little defense and utility in the game.

Support

Starter Items
Relic Shield	Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation x3	Warding Totem

Core Items

Core Items
Face of the Mountain	Locket of the Iron Solari	Redemption

Face of the Mountain – Face of the Mountain is the best support item for Tahm Kench as it allows him to have more shield aside from his (E) Thick Skin. It also grants him extra health and health regeneration which improves the abilities of Tahm Kench.

Locket of the Iron Solari – Locket of the Iron Solari adds another shield to the arsenal of Tahm Kench, making him and his team mates survive longer in team fights. This can also stack with Face of the Mountain, allowing him to dive deep in team fights and even help team mates in surviving ganks.

Redemption – Redemption is the go-to item for any support right now because of its usefulness and versatility. The active on this item heals your team mates while damaging your enemies. This is a great item to get in team fights as it can be a game changer in situations.

Full Item Build

Full Item Build
Face of the Mountain	Locket of the Iron Solari	Redemption
Spirit Visage	Dead Man’s Plate	Randuin’s Omen

Situational Items

Situational Items
Thornmail	Knight’s Vow	Warmog’s Armor
Frozen Mallet

Frozen Mallet – Frozen Mallet is a offensive item that can be great for enemy team composition with high mobility. Get this if you opt to have a more offensive build and if you’re ahead in the game.

Playing Against

• Tahm Kench is a very tanky champion, but he lacks mobility and hard engage.
• Focus on Tahm Kench when he uses (W) Devour on an ally champion because he loses 95% movement speed during the skill, so he will be very susceptible to hard  crowd controls and bursts.
• Save your abilities after the duration of (E) Thick Skin because some of his health will restore after the duration of the skill, giving Tahm Kench more chance to fall back in a losing team fight.
• You can cancel (R) Abyssal Voyage by attacking Tahm Kench.
• Stuns and knockups can also prevent Tahm Kench from activating his (E) Thick Skin. So, it is better to use your hard crowd controls when Tahm Kench is in critical health and haven’t used his (E) Thick Skin. 

Hard Counters

• Gnar – Gnar can easily kite  Tahm Kench since Gnar is a long range champion that has a kiting ability with Hyper. Aside from that, Gnar also has a disengage with Hop that can get him out when Tahm Kench has successfully activated his passive thrice.
• Braum – Braum is a nightmare to a Tahm Kench support because of how he can disrupt Tahm Kench. Braum’s kit allows him to stop Tahm Kench with his ultimate or even help his team mates kill him with Winter’s Bite. 
• Vayne – an experienced Vayne can Tumble away from the Tongue Lash of Tahm Kench, giving Tahm a hard time to proc his passive and swallow his prey. Tahm Kench is also a fairly slow champion that can easily be kited by Vayne.

Strategy Video

COMING SOON

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