Welcome to my Kayn "guide". I am not a Kayn master nor an objectively good player so I wouldn't really call this a guide. It is more of a sum of my opinions on the champ, open for constructive feedback etc., so that it finally reaches a quality level high enough to be worthy of the title "guide". So if you came here looking for the ultimate kayn manual, then by all means leave :P

Anyway, I prefer Rhaast, mainly cause he is a demon and apparently I am still a "dark" emo edgy teen at heart and secondarily because I am a tank/offtank/bruiser player. This guide will be covering only the rhaast side from champion select all the way to items.

There is also the possibility that I will add info on shadow assassin in the future.

Kayn is a guy straight outta anime, muscular body, no armor cause he 3 good 5 dat ****, with a B.F. scythe n all that follows the cliche story of a student who wants to surpass his master. He is edgy, arrogant, bipolar and has big nipples. Kayn't say that he won't have a huge fan base pretty much like that dork Yasuo.

He is not the first champion to be ... 2 different champions, but he is the first one to not be able to switch between the two kits freely. You pick one and that's it. As I've already said, this "guide" will only cover his Rhaast side.

But what is "his Rhaast side" you may ask my fellow scrub.
I will explain this assuming you haven't played Kayn yet. Also assuming that you are a lazy pile of fat that won't click a few things to read what the champ does. Anyway fatty, when ma homeboi Kayn deals damage to them *****ez, drops are orbed that are automatically collected when you're outta combat. These orbs fill up a meter. When the meter is fulled you have the option (when you go B for the first time after the meter is filled) to acquire the form corresponding to how u filled the meter. Once again, this "guide" only examines what you do as Rhaast (red orbs 'n' all).

According to this, Rhaast and the way I play him right now belongs somewhere between the fighter and the slayer class. In particular, he is something between a diver and a skirmisher. He is there to deal some sustained damage with his low cooldown spells while locking target's down them down (look at Blade's Reach and Umbral Trespass) and surviving using also his ultimate and of course his passive.


So let's make a pros and cons list:

Pros
Good mobility
High effective health
Has an AoE hard CC
Scales well into the late game(%hp damage, good ratios)
Low cooldown's with CDR
Good outplay potential
Big nipples

Cons
Kinda high mana costs
Really bad laning phase and early game in general
Seriously pre-transformation u kayn't do ****
His target lockdown potential is not the greatest (Look Vi and Xin Zhao)
Needs a lot of practice
Meh base stats (bad for today's meta)
His edge is 12yo level

Marks
Run flat AD, helps with trades, last hitting and scaling
Can also run a mix of lethality and AD since lethality is fookin broken
At this point you gotta ask yourself a question. "Do I feel lucky?"
Well? DO you, punk? If you do, run 1 crit chance for them funny youtube outplay moments.

Seals
Run flat armor, helps with trades, AA poke from ranged champs, minion aggro etc.

Glyphs
Flat mr vs ap opponent or jungler
Scaling mr if there is magic dmg in the enemy team but not in your lane
CDR scaling if the enemy team is full AD.

Quintessences
Flat AD.

Masteries are really a subjective matter.

Find out what works best for you and use it. As far as keystones are concerned, I think only fervor and colossus are the ones that are worth.

Fervor because extra AD and colossus cause having a shield when you throw someone to the sky in the middle of the fight, is really nice.

The rest of the masteries are stuff that generally help with early sustain.

A point into R whenever possible. That's obvious.
An early point in to E early on (level 2-4) depending on enemy laner's kill potential on you, and the enemy jungler.

Max Q or W first?

I go with W max first because it lowers the CD by 4 seconds. It is also CC, has better base and damage in general early on (pre-transformation) and it is nice poke to collect orbs.

Flash is flash. Your Q and E and R (and W) do not provide you already with enough outplay potential so you need some more.

Teleport for nice plays in bot or wherever you may roam (upvote me for this). Also chances are you gonna suck n swallow lane phase so you need to return fast back to lane to farm and stay relevant.

Ignite is a meh alternative to tp.

Haven't tested Ghost and Exhaust yet.

What you start with depends on the enemy laner.

In the "you get ****ed" match-ups, you go Doran's Shield or Cloth Armor + 4 Health Potions
In more calm match-ups you can go Corrupting Potion
In match-ups where the enemy has 0 kill potential vs you, you can go long sword 3 pot so that with an early gank you can land a kill and get a bit ahead.

As for the core items, Black Cleaver is amazing. It gives you health and cdr and AD and you cut through armor too. It has been a staple item for AD casters, from the tankiest (ex. Darius, Renekton) to the most fragile (ex. Jayce), for 4 seasons now, ever since its rework back in season 3. Before that it was **** :P

Believe me I tried a Juggernaut build (Cleaver, boots, 4 tank items) on Rhaast Kayn and it simply didn't work. I believe that is due to his mediocre base stats and base damages as well as the fact that he scales mostly of bonus AD.

So I needed another damage item.

First thought was Death's Dance to self-heal as if there was a Soraka on your team. It also gives some cdr and a lot of AD for your spells. But something was off. His damage wasn't quite right so I searched for another item.

At this point I was like w8 a fookin second m8, this is lethality era. So it was either Youmuu's Ghostblade or Duskblade of Draktharr.

The stats they give are the exact same for the exact same price but the passive is different. You already got move speed buff and mobility in general and you can trigger Duskblade's passive twice with your Umbral Trespass as long as you're in there for 1 second so it is even more damage. Draktharr also sounds like a darkin name which is extra cool cause it adds more edg... errrr ... swag points.

But damn I hoped they could name it Ghostblade of Draktharr. That sounds even more cool.

As for the rest of the items, they are according to what the enemy is, what your team needs you to do etc.

Remember, I am not telling you what to do, I am telling you what I am doing with this champion, could be right, could be wrong. Probably wrong since I am hard stuck s2 for 4 seasons now but ... yeah. Correct me where you think that I am wrong and you will be credited.

My ultimate goal is to make this the Absolute Kayn encyclopedia.

More content to be added as I learn new stuff.
Guide will be refined visually as well.