The point of this build is to abuse phase rush as much as possible. Use this rune to force early game skirmishes, collects lots of orbs, and disengage once phase procs. Later into the game, proccing phase is super easy and will let you juke skillshots.

With your trusty tiamat and smite, there are many combos that allows you to proc phase rush almost instantly on Kayn.Blue smite counts as one stack.
Red smite after you smite and damage enemy counts as two stack since the initial damage from AA, Q, W, or R counts as one stack, and the DOT from red smite counts as the second damage instance.


Ways to proc phase rush:
Q+W+AA
Smite+Q+W
Smite+Q+Tiamat
Smite+Q+AA
R+Smite+Auto
R+Q+Tiamat
R+AA+Tiamat
R+Smite(as about to exit ult)+Q
R+Smite(as about to exit ult)+W

You might be wondering why tiamat?

Two reasons.
1) Allows you to power farm as Kayn.
Kayn's kit allows you to clear the Jungle pretty well. Well what if you add Tiamat to the mix? After rushing a tiamat as first big item, you can delete jungle camps with ease. Raptors and Krugs are no match for a tiamat Kayn and they give you a lot of gold. And since with the AoE damage, you can generally snag all the Krug pieces. You might be thinking isn't tiamat a over kill on Kayn, and especially on Rhaast that wants to build Death's Dance? Well you might be right, but tiamat works in this build also because of reason 2.

2) Tiamat synergizes with Phase Rush
Tiamat active counts towards one stack damage for the three stacks needed to proc Phase Rush. In case you didn't know, you can activate the tiamat active while in your Q animation. After the Q+tiamat combo, either perform an AA or smite and you instantly proc phase rush. All three of this damage (Smite+Q+Tiamat) can be done simultaneously, meaning you can proc phase rush instantly!!! This allows you to stick on to ranged champs (like Lucian or Vayne) as well as champs with high mobility (think Zed or Riven). Think of phase rush as a built in mini ghost that can proc every 15 seconds.

Although Conqueror is great on Rhaast, Phase Rush is better against most use cases in realistic games.

1)Types of champions running rampant right now.
It is not possible to fully stack conqueror stacks on most meta champions. Do you think you can stack it on champs like Ekko, Wukong, Kha'Zix, Ezreal, Lulu, Lee Sin, and so on? By the time conqueror is stacked up, you already won the fight anyway or you would have died without having a chance to stack it.

2)Enemy team won't let you fully stack conqueror and fight you.
Do you really think that you can stack all 12 stacks on champions? Unless the enemy is dumb, there is no way they will let you fully stack conqueror and let you keep fighting them. For example in mid lane, Ekko will just proc his passive or W, then will just run away. Or top lane, Ornn just E's away and not even bother to fight you. Also, because of this, having phase rush early game will let you collect more orbs since you can extend the fight with the move speed buff.

3) Without conqueror, Rhaast doesn't do enough damage?
Realistically, Rhaast only needs at most 3 damage items to do enough damage throughout the entire game. Also purchasing Skirmisher Sabre helps compensate for lowered dueling potential on Phase Rush. You are not building to be able to duel scary top lane champs like Fiora or Darius. You are building to win the game, and having additional mobility to navigate team fights properly is the key to victory. With tiamat, you can clear a side lane then flank the enemy team. If you need conqueror to barely win a play/fight, you probably shouldn't be taking those fights.

The beauty of this build is that you don't need to know the form to transform into! Since phase rush works on both forms, and because up to Warrior + Tiamat + boots + one long sword (4600 gold) is a common build path for either forms. You have a decent buffer time to transform into the first form you get without having to worry about what items to buy until after you transformed! You would need to pick the right smite upgrade but either smite works on either forms *shrug*.

I do agree Death's Dance is op on Rhaast. But there is few problems with the items in most realistic games.

1) Death's Dance is expensive.
Unless you are already winning extremely hard, there is no way you can finish a Death's Dance after a Warrior and Black Cleaver before a game is decided. And for the low elo games where a game can drag on, having tiamat for extra pushing power is much more beneficial than in-combat sustain from Death's Dance. Even if you were to pick a 1 v 1 with the enemy jungler or top laner, more often then not, they will have allies with them and it will never be a 1 v 1. So Death's Dance's purpose, which is to allow you to duel anyone essentially is a waste of 3600 gold in a real game.

2) 800 Gold item makes this item worthless.
Executioner's calling makes this 3600 gold investment pitiful.

3) Makes you super squishy and easy to burst.

4)Death Dance will almost always overcap your CDR.
Warrio + Black Cleaver + Spirit Visage + Death Dance is 50% cdr

Kayn is one of the most useless champions without mana. It is better to have some mana and be lower health than have a bit more health with 0 mana. Trust me, having infinite mana pool on Kayn is amazing.

Generally games should not require you be full build or upgrade your tiamat. But if games do last long, upgrade tiamat last! On Shadow Assassin, you should always go for the ravenous hydra for a smoother combo. On Rhaast, ravenous hydra is also good and allows for a smoother combo as well as the needed damage late game to still be threatening to the back line. If you really need the flat HP instead, you can opt for titanic hydra instead.

This is an alternative way to play Kayn. This can help you collect lots of gold and control the map more effectively. The one rune page fits all approach helps your stress less about the build and more about the game play and macro decisions. After you master the tiamat + smite combos on Kayn, you can proc those juicy phase rush procs and dash across the finish line all the way to victory :)

Hope you liked my first guide and I am always open to feedback or questions regarding this guide.

Cheers (∩_∩)