Tahm Kench Build Guide by Sioncup

Introduction

My name is Sioncup, I live in the EUW server, and I started playing in mid-season 1. I fell in love with Tahm Kench right when he was teased, due to me being a Support Main, and seeing him with so much saving potencial in his kit, I knew I'd had to buy him. Well right now I have over 120k mastery points with him, so I think I know what I am talking about.

Now if you are here you are probably looking for a good guide, and let me tell you that reading this guide will not make you instantly perfect, experience is the most important thing. I know there are many like this one, but I think I should share my vision of this champion with you, So without further ado, here is my Tahm Kench guide.

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Good Sustain with Thick Skin + Tank Buster thanks to Devour + Poke with Tongue Lash + Can help in teamfights with a teammate thanks to Abyssal Voyage

Tahm Kench is probably one of the best saving supports in the game. The versatility on Devour really servers as a engaging (Devouring a tank and taking them into the frontline) as disengaging (Devouring your marksman and running for your life).His Devour also serves as tank-busting tool, due to it dealing percent health damage. His Tongue Lash has a low mana cost and a small cooldown, meaning that you can poke as hell bad positioned marksmen. His Thick Skin provides him so much lane sustain, due to it recovering health lost overtime, and also to give you a shield, so you can tank a lot more during teamfights. Lastly, his Abyssal Voyage has a ton of uses: getting to your lane faster, setting up ganks with your jungler, getting quickly to objectives etc.

Cons

- Altough versatile, Devour is hard to master - Gets destroyed by percent health damage - Ultimate can be easly interrupted - Low mobility

Tahm Kench may be the river king, but that doesn't mean his invincible, he gets completely destroyed with percent health damage, due to him building a generous amount of health, his Devour may be the most versatile ability in his kit, but he still needs to know who, what and when he should Devour. Some people use his Abyssal Voyage to escape dangerous situtations, but just an auto attack interrupt the channel, so make sure you are a safe spot to ult, not only that but Tahm Kench isn't the most agile champion in the game, and having no escapes, really reduces his mobility. Also his An Acquired Taste is pretty hard to pull it out if you are in a nightmarish situation (teamfights), and it's an essential tool for him to perform his combos

Summoner Spells

---

EXHAUST
WHAT IT DOES: Exhausts a targeted enemy champion, slowing them, reducing their attack speed by 30%, reducing armor and magic resist by 10 and reducing their damage dealt by 40% by 2.5 seconds.


WHEN TO PICK IT: Altough core exceptions, this is a must pick at all times, it has so much utility and power: catching out enemies, saving yourself and other things. You should use it everytime when your engaging, but only if you the enemies are way faster than you and/or if you fail your Tongue Lash. You can also this to slow down assasins, hard cc supports ( Leona, Nautilus...) so they can't stun, slow, snare, knock-up, w/e on you. You can also use when your being ganked on the jungler, to significantly reduce his damage output.


FLASH
WHAT IT DOES: Blinks to a targeted location. Can Pass over walls but can't be casted if silenced, stunned, snared, rooted, grounded or pacified.


WHEN TO PICK IT: Many people think this is a "god" spell, due to it's insane power: Flash to escape, Flash to engage, Flash to catch up to your enemy, Flash to dodge a lethal spell and so on... In my opinion it's the most overpowered thing in this entire game and i'm surprised that riot hasn't done anything to it, it's basicly a must pick for almost everyone. And I said "almost everyone", you'll see what I mean by this when I get to Ghost spell. As for it's synergy with Tahm Kench it's pretty good: Flash + Tongue Lash to stick to your opponnent, Flash + devour for an emergency save, or an aggresive play. It's a too versatile spell to my likings, but I guess it's life.


GHOST
WHAT IT DOES: Gain 27% movement speed and pass threw units for 10 seconds.



WHEN TO PICK IT: This is Flash's brother, when I mean brother I mean it has the same purpose: mobility, but contrary to Flash, Ghost persist threw 10 seconds, so if an enemy flashes, your Ghost speed will help you catch up very quickly, and escape quickly as well! they can flash, probably 1 or 2 autos on you, but that's it, it's almost impossible to catch up with you! And altough it doesn't go threw walls, Ghost last for 10 seconds and has a lower cooldown than Flash, so you can use it more often to help you engage. Tahm Kench work well with both spells, but I find ghost to be better, due to it's low cooldown, so you can Tongue Lash, Devour (with the speed you get, you run a bit faster) and position the enemy in a place where they just can't run away. Since he doesn't have any escapes, Flash may be considered better, but Ghost persists, so if you get hit by hard crowd control, you will just be stunned in the location you flashed, letting the enemie catch up with you, but if you use Ghost, the movement speed you'll get will help you escape (just remember to use Thick Skin, because you'll be in the same place you were before).

---

IGNITE
WHAT IT DOES: Ignites the target, dealing 70-410 over 5 seconds, grants vision and reduces healing effects.


WHEN TO PICK IT: This is the most aggresive spell for supports, as it deals Pure True Damage, you can get vision of them and reduce their healing (using Health Potions, Heal, etc. It's just mainly used for harass, you can often use it when the enemy marksman is using a Health Potion so it becomes pretty much useless, use during trades... It's vvery versatile, but do not use it to secure kills (unless your an *******). With Tahm Kench you can use it while a person is stunned, when you are going to devour, or when they also have an enemy Tahm Kench and he uses Thick Skin, you put it in him to shred his shield in an instant. Be sure to use it wisely though, as you may end up leaving you opponent with 1 hp (when your alone in lane, of course)

Items

---

RELIC SHIELD
WHAT IT DOES: This is standard item for for tank support, no doubt about that, it gives 75 health and 2 gold regeneration, and has the Spoils Of War passive. It holds 2 charges, it consumes a charge everytime you execute a minion that is below 200 health, giving you and the nearest ally 40 health back.


HOW TO USE IT: Use it to give a hand to your marksman when laning, as it gives the creep you killed to you and him/her. Try always to make the creeps you kill worth, as the stacks take a while to recharge, You should use it when: Your laner is being poked a lot and to help your laner farming. You should always keepone stack for the cannon minions, as they give the most amount of gold.


HEALTH POTION
WHAT IT DOES: Self Explanatory, it heals you for 150 health and 20 mana over 15 seconds and at activation gives 20 health and 10 mana immediatly


HOW TO USE IT: When you start up the game, after you bought Relic Shield you can also buy three Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation (or 1 and a Vision Ward). They are tremendous help to when for example Thresh lands his Death Sentence on you, he and his marksman do a lot of damage, you can use one of these badboys to not return to base so early and give them a chance to push your lane or even to kill your marksman while you are returning to base from all that burst. Not only that, but they also help you to stay in lane after you killed an opponent. It basicly has an infinite amount of usages.


VISION WARD
WHAT IT DOES: The Vision Ward places a pink ward that has 4 health points, has True Sight, has an infinite duration but is visible to the enemies as well. You can have 2 in your inventory, but only 1 can be placed at a time.

HOW TO USE IT: I reccomend buying this item early if they have a ealy invader ( Shaco) so you can warn your jungler everytime he passes threw it so he can go defend his camps and maybe you can help him out as well. It's also great to protect your life and your marksman for example Rengar's Thrill of the Hunt, but don't place it when is perfectly visible for the enemy team.


WARDING TOTEM "-A true meal requires foresight to manifest"
WHAT IT DOES: Similar to the Vision Ward, the warding totem place a ward that has 3 health points, is invisible (except against true sight) and it last 60 seconds.


HOW TO USE IT: This is super useful in the early game, when you don't have Sightstone yet, it is excedingly useful to predict enemy movement, ganks and so much more... I could help you with ward tips but I am saving that for a later chapther.

---

FACE OF THE MOUNTAIN
WHAT IT DOES: Similar to Relic Shield this item also has the Spoils Of War passive, but instead of holding 2 charges, it hold 4. It provides 450 health, 10% Cooldown Reduction, 100% health regeneration 2 gold generation Deadly Phalanx active: Shield the targeted ally for 3 seconds, after the duration ends, the shield explodes, dealing damage around it.

HOW TO USE IT: This is perhaps one of my favourite items in the game, only because of it's active. I can deny so much damage that could have been fatal otherwise, you can use this when your Devour is on cooldown so your ally has more survival chances while it's recharching. The damage part isn't much or a deal, due to it being so little, but besides, it's a good item in the mid/late game, specially if they have Super Minions, because your passive can give you and another ally the gold for it, not only that but you can share a minion with one of your allies when you are all in the same lane, waiting for you (most likely) to engage.

Synergys (Marksmans)

Jhin - The Virtuoso Marksman, Assassin, Ranged Synergy: Good Jungler ganking potential: Medium Speciality: Executions, Burst Damage Explanation: Jhin is an ok adc to go with Tahm Kench, if both of you are smart you can use your Devour followed by Deadly Flourish to make their enemy marksman fall into a Captive Audience, because is snared he has no chances of getting away from the damage taken (except if they have an enemy Tahm Kench as well). Tahm Kench also makes up Jhin's low mobility in the early game due to his saving potencial with Devour. While Jhin is using Curtain Call you can help him, by being in the front line, applying An Acquired Taste to the opponents so you can stun them with Tongue Lash to make it easier for him to land the shots. They aren't exactly the best at recieving allied ganks because Tahm Kench needs to have An Acquired Taste on the enemy to apply meaningful crowd control so it's easier to your jungler to come by, but you can also use Tongue Lash to slow and Deadly Flourish to snare so your jungler can catch up.

Kog'Maw - The Mouth Of The Abyss Marksman, Mage, Ranged Synergy: Very Good Jungler ganking potential: Bad Speciality: Quick Cleans, Burst Damage Explanation: Kog'Maw is almost a perfect match to Tahm Kench, due to him covering his wearknesses, Devour makes up for his lack of escapes, his stun makes it easier for him to land his Living Artillery and get easier executes, his Void Ooze makes it easier for you to catch up and get your An Acquired Taste followed by Devour. Make sure you have good coordination, for example for him to land his Caustic Spittle before you engage on them. Altough they make a good pair togheter, they aren't exatcly the best at recieving allied ganks. Kog'Maw only has a slow for his crowd control part, so it's bit hard to keep them in place so your jungler can gank. In teamfights, you should be in the space between the back line and the front line (except when you have no tanks, in that case you are olbigated to be a front-liner) Why is this? Imagine a Zed coming from behind and using Death Mark on Kog'Maw, it's your job to negate most (if not all) damage he deals and making sure he stays safe.