Hello! My name is n00bzilla99, and I've been playing Tahm since he was released in 5.11.

What appealed to me about Tahm was that he comes off as a big tank that does a lot of damage to back up his incredible staying power. I've used Tahm in every sensible role possible including Support, Top, Mid, and Jungle. By far and large I have had the most success in the Jungle with Tahm, and with the recent buffs, I think that he is stronger than ever.

In this guide I'll share my Jungle Tahm build, which I've had good success with.

"Boy, the world's one river, and I'm its king. Ain't no place I ain't been; ain't no place I can't go again."

Do you want to be able to have your cake and eat it too?

Pros

• Tahm is one of the tankiest champions in the game.
• He deals insane amounts of damage, even though he is a tank.
• Incredibly durable, and tough to burst.
• Not only does he provide a good front liner, but he also has peel with his W and Q
• Tahm has some of the best chasing potential in the game because of his Q.
• His E basically gives him a second health bar for team fights.
• He has a built in Teleport that allows him to bring someone else with. This is an insane split pushing advantage come mid - late game.

However, Tahm, while awesome, does have some drawbacks.

Cons

• His pre-level 6 ganks leave a lot to be desired if the enemy is clever enough to flash your Q.
• He struggles mightily against champs that use Blade of the Ruined King as a core item.
• All of his CC requires three stacks, so it cannot be applied instantly.

In my opinion, good player skill and knowledge of his mechanics will minimize the impact of his drawbacks while emphasizing his strengths.

For Tahm in the jungle, there are really only two viable summoner spells to take.

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You are a Jungler, if you do not take Smite then you have just shot yourself and your team in the foot, you shouldn't expect to win that game. Smite is necessary for your clears and for the Bloodrazor that makes this build work so well.

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Flash is your standard escape summoner spell. I prefer to play aggressively with my Flash and use it to catch people out and secure kills; only because Tahm is usually survivable enough to live through an unexpected 1v1.

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Other Options

• Ghost instead of Flash is an incredibly risky choice, but if you feel that you can use it to manuever Tahm into a good gank position for your first gank and secure the kill for that lane, then it could perhaps be a good pick for you.
• Ignite. I would never recommend taking this instead of Flash/ Ghost but if you really desire to, then I could see it potentially working in an early gank or two.

Again, I do not recommend either of the above two Summoner Spells, but I acknowledge that other people might have different play styles that call for the use of them. Never take Teleport with Tahm, because it is a wasted summoner spell after level 6.

In my experience, one of the most important things for Tahm is that his runes need to provide him is some early speed for clears, followed by runes that will scale well into the late game.

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I take Attack Speed reds to clear camps faster for the first few times through the jungle. Later in the game they help to apply your passive and bloodrazor damage.

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I use Scaling Health yellows, it provides Tahm with 216 health which scales well with his passive. It also provides some mid game damage as well.

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Tahm doesn't need a lot of early game magic resist because he isn't laning, so using scaling glyphs is a way to get some significant MR for the late game.

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I took two of these because you need about 8-9 armor to clear in the early game, and my seals are taken up by Scaling Health.

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I could have opted for a third armor quint, but instead, I went with a Move Speed quint to help me stick to enemies a little better.

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Other Options

I've had success with another set up of runes that is similar to this one, but instead trades any sort of attack speed buff for pure armor.

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Alternatively you can sub out the Attack Speed reds for Armor reds, it helps with early game tankiness, but your clears will take longer.

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If you feel that you will be going into a heavy AP team and want some Magic Resist for early ganks, sub out the scaling blues for flat Magic Resist.

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In addition to the Armor reds, also take Armor quints to enhance your tankiness.

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I do a 6-6-18 mastery tree for Tahm. The resolve tree is by far the most important, and I don't see a need to take either of the other trees to twelve when their most important Jungle masteries are level 1's.

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Fury grants you needed early game Attack Speed, and still scales well into the late game.

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Feast grants you a little bit of extra sustain per camp, which I find helps immensely early game. Alternatively, you can go for expose weakness.

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Savagery is very helpful for clearing your first camps.

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Not only does this extend blue and red buffs for early game, but during the late game, it also extends Baron, its a great mastery.

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Anything that gives you more Health Regen is great!

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Well I mean, he is Tahm Kench...

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Not only does this improve the strength of your already great E shield, but it also makes the grey health heal you for more. Great mastery for Tahm.

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More health regen? Yep, we'll take that!

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Taking this in addition to Boots of Swiftness or Merc's Treads makes you very hard to keep off the targets you need to be on.

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This mastery is perfect for Tahm. We get free health for clearing our camps? It's by far the superb choice here.

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With TK, you most definitely want to max your Devour first. Devour is Tahm's main source of damage, so max it first for better clears and more damage.

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Tongue Lash would the second skill to max, as it applies a stun that is long enough to use as good peel.

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As you level Tahm's ultimate, his teleport range gets bigger and bigger, which, when combined with the ability to teleport 2 champs at once, is a massive advantage in the late game.

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I max Thick Skin last because while it is a good skill, the others are just more important damage wise. You will notice that as you level this up fights get easier, but that only happens when you've already maxed your other skills.

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I prefer to clear in the following way. Which way you specifically clear is up to you, but I've found that completing the camps in the way below will get you your Stalker's Blade on your first back, and set you up to gank by about 4 to 4:30 minutes with both buffs.

Clear Paths

1. I prefer to start Krugs without using Smite My reasoning is that Tahm's W will do a lot of damage to the camp, and if you get a good leash, you can then use your W in place of smiting to save it for a later camp.
2. I then go to Raptors and use my first Smite here for quickness of clearing the camp.
3. Then I proceed to Wolves and do not use Smite here.
4. Next, I head to Blue Buff and use Smite here because of how tanky the camp is other wise.
5. Once done, you finish off with Gromp, and then back for Stalker's Blade.
6. Head to Red Buff to finish off your first clear, then either gank Mid or Bot.

1. Start Gromp without using Smite. Again, your W will make up for any lost damage if you get a good leash.
2. I then go to Wolves and use my first Smite here for quickness of clearing the camp.
3. Then I proceed to Raptors and do not use Smite here.
4. Next, I head to Red Buff and use Smite here for the health restore.
5. Once done, you finish off with Krugs, and then back for Stalker's Blade.
6. Head to Blue Buff to finish off your first clear, then either gank Mid or Bot.

How to Clear as Tahm

Tahm is a unique Jungler in my opinion because he basically has a built in Smite with his Devour skill. Not only does his W do a ton of damage, but it puts the big monsters of the camps (except the buff camps) in stasis and makes them unable to attack you. That's huge in terms of sustain.

To maximize efficiency at each camp, I like to do the following.

Camp Order

1. Gromp / Krugs: With a good leash, when Gromp has 40-50% health left, use your Devour and spit him back out, 2 or 3 more auto's should kill him. If you are at Krugs, when you Devour the big Krug, attack the little krug, and aim your spit at the little Krug as it causes damage when they collide.
2. Wolves / Raptors: Use your Smite here to enhance the clear speed of this camp. As soon as you smite use Devour on the biggest monster, and then auto each of the little monsters once or so. Then spit the big monster out. If you do this correctly, all of the monsters should die at the same time.
3. Red / Blue Buff: Use Devour to eat one of the cinderlings. While it is in your belly, auto the Brambleback and use your Tongue Lash as extra damage and as an auto attack reset. Spit the cinderling at the other monsters in the camp, and continue to focus on the Brambleback. Use Smite around 50% health or so and then finish off the Brambleback, then eat the other Cinderling and spit it out to quick clear.
4. Rift Scuttler: Tahm can actually clear this little bugger pretty fast. All you have to do is Devour the Scuttler, spit it back out, and use your Q to keep it perma slowed for Autos. Your Devour counts as hard CC which will drop its resistances. If you're looking to clear with speed or steal, you can use Smite here too.

Tahm's itemization prioritizes damage at first but then focuses exclusively on building tank items that have health as well. These are the most common items that I build.

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This is your first core item. Chilling smite is essential for chasing down your snacks, err... I mean enemies. It adds to Tahm's chasing potential.

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Boots of Swiftness give you an extra 10 Move Speed which can make all the difference during chases and team fights. I like Swiftness boots over Merc's Treads in most cases because of that extra movespeed, and if the enemy team lacks hard CC, the slow resist makes Tahm incredibly hard to peel. If the enemy does have a lot of hard CC, then swap out for the Merc's Treads.

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Spirit Visage and Sunfire Cape can be built in any order, but I think that if you can delay building Sunfire Cape, then you should build Spirit Visage first for the extra healing you get from your E.

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Following up on the Spirit Visage / Sunfire Cape is the latter half. Sunfire gives an incredible amount of health and armor for its cost. Add in the immolate passive and it couldn't be a better fit for Tahm. I take Sunfire over Cinderhulk because I use Bloodrazor to keep high damage on Tahm, and I find the combo of armor and health is just fine.

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My next usual buy is Dead Man's Plate, not only does it have the same raw stats as Sunfire (so it is a double up) but it gives Tahm extra movespeed and ANOTHER slow that you can apply instantly to start stacking your passive for your Devour. It's a great buy.

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Your last item buy is really a toss up that should adapt to the other team's strengths. If your opponent has incredibly fed AP champs, then buy a Banshee's Veil, but if you are facing mainly AD Champs or a mix without having fed the AP Champs, then Warmog's becomes the better buy. Especially with it's extra Cooldown Reduction now.

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For the end of the game, the Elixir of Iron is a ridiculously good buy if you can afford it. It gives you extra tenacity (heck yes!) and health, which of course you always want. It's Path of Iron effect is very useful for your teammates to follow up on your engages.

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Other Options

• Sterak's Gage is a good option if the enemy team has a lot of bursting potential (like a fed Zed. I will say that I regard this item as a niche pick, but it still works well with Tahm. If the enemy team is behind, this is a good buy instead of Warmog's Armor.
• Titanic Hydra is another potential buy on Tahm Kench. It is not a bad buy, but in my opinion it is sub-optimal because it trades needed tankiness for damage. If you are ahead but your team doesn't have the damage output to keep up with the enemy team, then this might be a good buy. In all other cases, it's better to just tank up.
• Randuin's Omen is another solid buy, and if your facing an ADC whose damage is coming by Crits (a fed Draven for example) than it is a better buy than Dead Man's Plate. I think of it as more of a counter item rather than the standard build item.
• If the other team has a Morgana, Lux, or Annie, then Banshee's Veil is probably the best buy for your last slot since you can shrug off that initial CC which will stop you from getting caught out.
• Farsight Alteration is a good upgrade if your team has not been warding well and you've seen your vision disappear as the game goes on. While warding is a team effort, you can certainly do your part with Stealth Ward's or you can switch to this if you prefer.

In closing, Tahm Kench is a solid jungler who with the new Bloodrazor item and recent buffs to his Thick Skin, makes a solid frontline monstrosity with a ton of utility and damage.

If you are looking for a champion who has the ability to move around the map insanely quick (thanks to a buffed Devour) with another champion, can peel for your damage champions in a pinch, and who can still take a ton of damage, then you should look no further than Tahm Kench.

Get out there and eat some monsters. Then eat some champs for dessert.

Thanks for reading!
-n00bzilla99. If you have any ideas or if you play the build, let me know your results!