Greetings. My name is James, IGN: Hewer. Today, I want to share my Tahm Kench with you!

I am currently Plat 1 but that seems to bounce about at the minute.

Who is this build for?

I have included tips for complete beginners, or it can be skimmed along for high level gamers too, I’ll try to keep it interesting!

Number 1 question, why trust my build? Well it’s proven, tried and tested, and works well – don’t get me wrong, Kench has strange mechanics and high decision making integrated into him. I have tried lots of builds and some of them were unsuccessful, but I believe I’ve proverbially hit the nail on the head with my current build.

Some Pre-words:

Kench is a difficult champion to be good at the first few games, so don’t be depressed by his unusually fickle nature as a carry. Much like Shaco, you’ll find you roll or get run over for the first few matches, don’t get put off! Keep at it!

Here are some stats from lolskill.net from when I have felt most empowered as Kench, from experience and build exploration:

- Kench is an amazing tank who offers heavy damage to other tanks (especially)
- You can save any player at any time, so long as your position is right.
- You can take almost any position, if the enemy focus you it usually means you will win the fight!
- Kench’s massive HP also raises his damage, so tanking still brings about a hefty punch
- High CC and some map control



- Your team needs to be Tahm-savvi (Memories of: CLICK THE LANTERN)
- Devouring a team mate can make or break plays, you’re going to break a few
- Extremely weak against Vayne
- Weak pre-6 as anything but a meat shield

This is a fun subject. You may have realised by now that Tahm Kench REALLY thrives on raised health points and you should find yourself buying ruby crystals almost every time you back if you are building him correctly.

Absolutely definitely buy every game:

Always buy a relic...



Everything revolves around health points, so why would you not purchase the income item that also revolves around health? Late game this beauty can be giving a 500HP+ shield to an ally or yourself and is often a team-fight winner or life-saving item.

I have seen some people buying medallions, Kench already offers a 50% movement speed buff towards enemies for a chosen devoured ally and himself, and can easily flank a fleeing/alone enemy with a chosen partner using his ultimate. You don’t need a medallion.
Sightstone

This is a no-brainer, all supports should be buying this... and guess what conveniently comes with that vision? More health. Huehuehue

As soon as the sightstone is purchased you should also be trading your warding totem for a sweeping lens – you don’t need a sightstone and warding totem.

A Word on Boots:

It is suggested by Riot that we should purchase swiftness boots – this actually makes a lot of sense, and these can certainly be a good idea for certain occasions. It is difficult to guide you on boots, there is no stone-carved answer. You must look at the enemy team and gauge this for yourself.

Mercury treads are great for high crowd control or magical damage compositions, they also offer extra protection for friendlies you devour because they might decide whether your separate an ally by 300units or 600units. This is the case with swiftness boots too, which offer a greater overall speed but no tenacity.

Mobility boots are also a good option, I tend to find these most useful for rogue teams where grouping has become too cool. You can get to an ally or enemy quicker, and are generally much quicker at moving around the map. This being said, you have a strong ultimate for this exact purpose as well.

Ninja Tabi – full attack damage enemy team? Zed mid with an physical damage champ top? Take Tabi

Nailed 3, what else?

Locket of the Iron Solari.



An excellent item, offering your team a shield, magic resistance and health regeneration. This should be purchased if you are up against a strong magic damage dealing composition. OR if they have one AP champion who is currently carrying or has the most kills. This also... offers... health. Yum.

Warmog’s armour



I find myself using this increasingly often. It’s a huge health scaler, adds to your damage by quite a chunk, increases your mountain shield and your own shield. I could recommend this item for pretty much every match.

Rylai’s Sceptre



What a magnificent item for Tahm! I use this if my enemy has lots of engagers that require melee-range to destroy your carries. Characters such as Tryndamere and Darius can easily be shut out of a fight from a tongue-lash with Rylai’s. It also increase your damage from your scaling health whilst increasing general skill damage from the ability power.

Spirit Visage



Conditional item again, if the enemy have a lot of magic damage this can be a great item. I find it is not generally necessary just for its impact on Tahm’s regeneration from grey shield.

Trinity force (wait, what?)



If you find yourself in an extremely long game this can actually be a nice 6th item to improve your damage and overall ability to slay, protect and conquer. Late game Kench becomes quite the deadly champion and a trinity force is a beautiful slap in the face for enemies thinking they can 1v1 you.

Consider old-school Alistar, I find this item works rather like this build.
Sunfire cape

Bit of a ‘bread and butter’ item and can certainly be useful. I never really use it myself but the concept should definitely work well. The drawback is that you can save an ally with devour and then find towers blasting your face because the area of effect damages an enemy hero, which will then end up being the reason you’re both dead.

Just remember, items are not only objective to the situation, but are also subjective to you and how you play. Your opinion and gut instinct when you look at the opposing team will actually tell you more than I can beyond the first 3 items.

Runes can be toyed with and tweaked for your own playstyle, but I find that the listed ones are great for increasing ‘tankiness,’ damage and resistances on a rather perfect level. You will not take too much damage, whilst steal fishing out some severe blows and retaining the high HP that is required on Kench.

2x Quintessence of AP
1x Quin Armour
7x Seal Scaling HP
2x Seal of Armour

4x Glyph Scaling Magic Resist
5x Glyph of Ability Power
9x Mark of Magic Penetration

Oh fun. I actually scrap my masteries and rebuild them before EVERY match. How can I possibly know what my enemy will bring and equip myself against it otherwise? Once the enemy have picked you should choose the final tweaks to your masteries. Are you facing a Trynd? Will 10% reduction to critical damage help? Are they all physical damage dealers? Do you need to scrap resistance? I could go on for hours tweaking defensive masteries for every build ever made. You have loads of time to manage a strong tweak before a match, base everything on what your enemy is bringing along.

Below is an EXAMPLE to follow. Note I don’t build highly in utility and actually avoid any extra income masteries, I have found that I am far more successful on tank supports if I place at least 21 in defence.

Failing on income? Then you are not killing the right minions with your relic. SEE BELOW

1 During the laning stage your relic should NEVER EVER have full charges. If it has full charges you are not ‘regenerating’ potential money, and thus that time is wasted. As long as one charge is always used you are making the most out of it.

2 Always kill siege minions with your relic. It is worth double the others, and sometimes triple.

3 Target the frontline minions, not the casters. There is often a 5 gold difference between the two.

4 Charges of relic have a substantial heal, if your ADC is struggling don’t waste relic kills while he has full health. This being said, rule #1 overrules this concept, you need money.

5 I always upgrade my relic before anything else; it halves the income recharge and the healing recharge. Build a sightstone immediately after this first upgrade.

Tongue lash (Q) – This is your harassment skill, which also conveniently comes with a ~70% slow which will allow your adc (or team) to damage your chosen target easily afterwards.

Devour (W) – This is Tahm’s most important skill and makes Tahm a high-level decision maker. Do you devour an enemy or an ally? When do you do this?

Simple, Devour any ally that looks as if they are going to die, this is especially important if they are a carry or are otherwise needed for an important objective. BEWARE, devouring a dieing ally will often put you in trouble too, don’t be overconfident.

Enemies can be devoured if your allies have a chance to get away without your assistance. Devouring enemies is also far more effective if you have a group of allies taking damage.
Unfortunately this is another issue where I cannot tell you everything, you have to decide for yourself when the time comes and this is something you will improve at with experience.

Thick skin (E) – Should be activated if you think fatal damage will be taken, the later you activate it the better, but beware the obvious implication that the longer you hold off using it the more likely you are to die.

Abyssal Voyage (R) – Use it to displace yourself and (optionally) a team mate to save allies, kill enemies or secure objectives.

Thank you for reading my first guide!

I hope you have found something useful out of it. I would appreciate any feedback/favs/likes etc and I will regularly update this build accordingly!