Hello! My name is André "ToinoEscaca" and I play League since 2018 with friends.

Started to play ranked for real in this season (11) and i'm currently Silver IV, hoping to get gold soon.

I made this guide to show you what i think it's best for Low ELO Tahm Kench Top Lane.

It's still in early development, i'll update when I think is necessary or if some questions pop up in the discussion section.

V.2.0. is out!! - Updated in 22/03/2021

Tham Kench is not a difficult champion to learn, but it's hard to master, like most of them.
It doesn't outplay that much, you'll only need Good Positioning to play well.

Let's get to some mechanics that will help you:

- Your passive An Acquired Taste is your best friend throught the whole game. It's the core of Tahm Kench, making way for unbeliveable plays.

- Trade with champions for stack on Grasp of the Undying in the early game if you think you can't win.
If you are waiting for the enemy early game on a bush or if you engage first with Grasp of the Undying ready to stack, you'll win the fight.

- Using Tongue Lash on an enemy champion will activate Approach Velocity, making it easy to stack the An Acquired Taste

- While in long fights, stack An Acquired Taste and use Devour. Let him rot in your belly :)
Once he's out, Tongue Lash to slow him down and stack passive again.

- Some champions (like Garen or Darius) have high damage abilities.
I advice to keep your Thick Skin for their ultimates ( Demacian Justice and Noxian Guillotine)

Tahm Kench has an incredible good early game: good damage and good health.

To make sure you can take advantage of this, here are some hints:

- Zone your opponent. If he's a squishy champion or he died early and you're ahead, make sure he doesn't farm or get XP. If he tries to contest, KILL HIM :)

- Don't be afraid to stay in lane if you're ahead, specially when you have red buff.

Your enemy will see you at low life, but little he knows that it doesn't matter. If you have Bami's Cinder and Bramble Vest already, you only need to tank enough to stack An Acquired Taste and eating him with Devour, after that Grasp of the Undying will grant you more life and bonus damage, resulting in him dying.
DO NOT do this if the enemy has some sort of high damage ability (like Garen).

- Take control of the River.
After all, Tahm Kench is the king of the river. Make sure you get scuttle (if jugler is playing bot-side) and ward river every opportunity you have. It is important so that you can put yourself in good position to 1v2 if you are ahead!

- 1v2?? This man is crazy
Yes, 1v2 with no problems. ONLY IF YOU ARE AHEAD, make yourself seem vunerable, like still playing on the middle of the lane instead of backing to tower (stay close to the middle bush, but not too close to the first one).
Deal the first strike, focus on the more easy to kill and try to lure them under the tower.
By doing this, you are denying the enemy jungler to gank somewhere else or to farm, with low chances of you dying.

- If you are getting behind, don't panic. Focus on farming and building the core itens, you will help your team snowballing :)

- Your lane phase ends when you reach lvl.11, when your Devour hits lvl.2, unlocking the possiblity to teleport through the map for free, with gank plays without the enemy noticing. The enemy top-laner will continue to push the lane, but you will help the team get stronger. Get back to lane to stop the push if needed.

After that magnificent early game (i hope), you change roles to "second jungler".

My advices for the rest of the game are simple guidelines:

- Spilt push while your teammates are stalling the enemy team.
Tahm Kench can split push good enough to take a tower solo with only a wave of minions with 3/4 itens. If the other team is coming , use Devour or Teleport.

- Make jungle safe for you squishy mates.

- Don't be afraid to engage solo, you are an immortal tank, your teammates will back you up (if you ping enough :) ). Even if you die, the play is already made, the enemy team are all together and without most of the abilities and your team is going all in.

- Make sure there isn't a camp in the enemy jungler, we don't need him fed.

- Take the jungler to drake with Devour if needed. Sometimes stealing the drake is possible with a 8500 range surprise


In short, help the jungler or be the jungler :).

Tahm Kench is not a crowd control champion!

If you see yourself in a 1v3 or more, RUN!!

Tahm Kench can't do anything alone late game, he's dependent on his team. If the team doesn't cooperate, do your best to make the jungle safe for them.

Check the counter list for some advices against some of the worst champions to play against.

NEVER engage on a champion with crowd control if you are on a bad position (like under a tower or in the enemy jungle). You're compromising yourself and those who are going to help you.
Only do this if you have 100% that no one is coming to help your enemy.

If you are reading this, thank you.

I hope this guide can make your normals/rankeds more enjoyable, Tahm Kench is really fun to play.

Let's get Tahm Kench to 1% pick rate?

If you are interested in watching me play, come to my twitch stream, i'll try improving my skills there (twitch.tv/toinoescaca)

See you next time :)