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Recommended Items
Runes: Default best runepage
+10% Attack Speed
+10-180 Bonus Health
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
Ghost
Teleport
Items
Ability Order
An Acquired Taste (PASSIVE)
Tahm Kench Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Warwick
[Grasp] [demolish] [bone plating] [ overgrowth] + [magical footware] [approach velocity] items : start ruby crystal -> bramble -> CORE only way you ever kill this creature is with a bramble vest and with ult undertower combo , if he is low we can try to permastun him with q stun into w for max cc so he doesnt lifesteal. !!! BE CARFUL !!! they often run barrier. after lane ww is very useless so our goal is to just not int and maybe punish him if he overextend
Kindred
Here in synergy i will give a short description if the champion has some short of combo with tahm kench Kindred is #1 synergy in the game her ult guarantees that everyone on top of it will be low hp and next to us. The combo is we stack our passive for free and spit someone outside, it always deals the remaining damage that they could not drop below , due to kindred R , effectively killing someone for free.
Kindred
Here in synergy i will give a short description if the champion has some short of combo with tahm kench Kindred is #1 synergy in the game her ult guarantees that everyone on top of it will be low hp and next to us. The combo is we stack our passive for free and spit someone outside, it always deals the remaining damage that they could not drop below , due to kindred R , effectively killing someone for free.
Champion Build Guide
β’One of the best blind picks for toplane .
β’Even worst matchup is killable solo , not many champs can do that in top.
β’Least boring tank to play in the game next to K'Sante.
β’Very unkillable in lane .
β’The best gank setup in the entire game , your ult stalls until jungler arrives , your w will cut off the enemies path so they cant run to tower its insane.
β’In teamfights you are basically malphite you can w engage in 5 ppl or turbo peel a fed carry with your ult .
β’Even if lane is bad you can always cs from away with q.
β’VERY VERY HIGH DAMAGE for a tank
β’Good mobility
β’10/10 lore
β’Is a demon (based) (literally me).
Cons :
β’Insanely weak before lvl 4.
β’Your w rarely lands without setup.
β’Gets demolished by Blade of the Ruined King
β’Mobility can be interrupted
β’Needs knowledge on how to perform the combos to reach max potential
β’0 wave clear (big problem).
β’ #2 land Tongue Lash and then instantly Abyssal Dive on top of them to guaranteed the Abyssal Dive landing
β’#3 Tahm Kench can pull an enemy with BLUETOOTHβ’ Devour , but it only works on enemies and only when they have 3 An Acquired Taste stacks on them. You can do it by pressing both Q + ULT buttons when the q is about to hit.
β’ #4 your Tongue Lash range scales with champion size ( Heartsteel Elixir of Iron etc.)
β’#5 Almost all champions are killable as long as you are in your tower range you can Devour + Ghost and then use trick #1 to guarantee ult-q and slow under tower. This will kill all champions in lane that are not Kled or Volibear since they can drop/disable aggro from tower.
β’#6 your biggest enemy are minions they block Tongue Lash and can tank tower while you use trick #4 always have in mind that if a minion blocks a couple of Tongue Lashes while you brawl someone you probably lose.
β’#7 USE BUSHES PLEASE. Your Abyssal Dive is invisible until the very end when casted from out of vision so it's a lot easier to land when we are in a bush.
β’#8 Best strategy by far is to hold a freeze near your tower this pressures the enemy and makes very possible for you to start a random trade with the enemy and before they know it they have 3 An Acquired Taste stacks we Devour them under tower do the un-dodgable Tongue Lash and they die for free and type in all chat (nice champ) it breaks their mental gives us gold and denies 3-4 waves cause they died on a frozen wave
#9 Casting w inside a terrain will make you travel extra distance to spawn on the other side of the terrain.
#10 Slow resistance (like swifties boots) DOES reduce our self slow from ult.
#11 YOU CAN ult+w an ALLY to save them / transfer them.
Managing waves is a crucial aspect of the game that can significantly impact your success in the laning phase. Proper wave management involves manipulating the minion waves to create advantages. Types of techniques below :
Freezing:
Definition: Freezing a wave means keeping the minions in a specific position on the lane.
How to freeze: Tank minions just outside your turret's range, last-hitting only when necessary.
Purpose: This denies your opponent gold and experience while keeping yourself safe near your turret.
Pushing:
Definition: Pushing involves quickly clearing minions to advance the wave toward the enemy turret.
How to push: Use area-of-effect (AoE) abilities or basic attacks to kill minions quickly.
Purpose: Pushing can create pressure, allow for turret damage, and provide opportunities to roam.
Slow Pushing:
Definition: Slow pushing involves last-hitting minions at a slow pace, allowing your wave to accumulate.
How to slow push: Only last-hit minions, letting your wave grow in size.
Purpose: Slow pushes can create a large minion wave that puts pressure on the enemy turret and allows you to roam or set up a dive.
Resetting:
Definition: Resetting the wave means pushing it into the enemy turret to have it bounce back toward your side.
How to reset: Push the wave into the enemy turret so it resets to the center of the lane.
Purpose: Resets can be used to recall, buy items, and return to lane with a fresh wave.
Fast Pushing:
Definition: Fast pushing involves quickly clearing waves to reset the wave position.
How to fast push: Use abilities and auto-attacks to clear minions rapidly.
Purpose: Fast pushing is often done before recalling or roaming to minimize the number of minions lost to the turret.
Proxy Farming:
Definition: Proxy farming involves farming between the enemy turrets to disrupt the normal lane equilibrium.
How to proxy farm: Move behind the enemy turret and farm between turrets.
Purpose: Proxy farming can be used to draw enemy attention, create pressure, and deny the opponent farm under the turret.
Roaming:
Definition: Roaming involves leaving your lane to influence other parts of the map.
When to roam: After pushing or resetting the wave, creating an opportunity to roam without losing much in your own lane.
Purpose: Roaming can secure kills, help other lanes, and control objectives.
Split pushing is a strategy where a player focuses on pushing a lane and drawing enemy attention away from team fights or objectives. This tactic can create map pressure, force enemies to respond, and potentially open up opportunities for your team. Here are some key tips on how to split push effectively with tahm kench:
β’TAKE DEMOLISH RUNE:
This rune is our only way to threaten towers when split pushing and should be an auto include.
β’Ward and Maintain Map Awareness:
Place wards in the enemy jungle to spot incoming threats. Keep an eye on the minimap and use the F-keys to quickly check on your teammates and the overall state of the game.
β’Understand Wave Management:
Utilize wave management techniques to control the positioning of minion waves. Slow push or fast push waves as needed to create pressure in your desired lane.
β’Pressure Objectives:
As you split push, focus on taking down turrets. If the enemy sends multiple champions to deal with you, your team can capitalize on the numbers advantage elsewhere on the map.
β’Watch the Map and Respond Quickly:
Pay attention to the enemy team's movements. If you see multiple enemies coming towards you, be ready to retreat. Knowing when to back off is crucial to avoid giving the enemy team an advantage.
β’Teleport:
Teleport is prefered over ignite when going for split push angle (always take ghost regardless). This summoner is very broken and almost all high elo toplaners take it. When having teleport we are allowed to splitpush !!!ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CURRENT OBJECTIVE!!! For example if drake is alive we can split top , if baron is alive we can split bot. This forces the enemy team into a LOSE - LOSE situation! They respond to your split push and risk losing objective or they contest objective and you take towers for free.
β’Adapt Your Strategy:
Assess the game situation and adapt your split-pushing strategy accordingly. Sometimes, it might be more beneficial to group with your team for a team fight or objective.
Remember that successful split pushing requires good decision-making and map awareness. Be aware of the enemy team's composition, your team's situation, and adapt.
β’Tahm kench is WEAK levels 1-3 and unless you know you can win your matchup early i would advise to play safe and chill.
β’ Levels 4 Is often the break point in which we have 2 points in q and can actually fight many champions.
β’ Level 6 is one of our biggest power spikes since our ultimate is very strong especially if you can perform the undodgable q combo undertower (if you missed it go up to must know tahm kench combos section)
β’After 20 mins you have ONLY 2 OPTIONS split push or group up with team . Use red trinket and try to play like a zac aka look for w from fog of war to engage if you are going for teamfights more and blue/yellow trinket if splitpush angle. Often you can tell if it is the right call to split or group based on these :
β’does the enemy toplaner beat me 1v1? if yes we want to avoid split push and play for teamfights.
β’is my team strong? If yes we want to group up with them instead of splitpushing.
β’GENERAL PRIORITY FOR ULT :
#1 if you have fed teammate and your ult would save them
#2 the enemy carry is fed and you manage to stack 3 passive marks on them
#3 anyone got caught by some big cc ability (morgana q etc) and you need them to dps so you ult them and spit them out to help them deal dmg
#4 you have a fat engage champ like amumu so you ult w him inside the enemy team.
β’win rate
β’play rate
β’value
β’practicality
Keystones first
β’ Phase Rush Personally i do not play this rune , but a large portion of the tahm kench community does pick it sometimes. It is very useful for an escape tool in hard lanes like olaf where you need to kite his ultimate in order for it to run out. Worthy to note here that Phase Rush removes a large portion of slows and that includes the self-slow from our ult Devour. 7/10 (loses win rate since it is picked vs bad matchups and the sorcery tree is not great).
Smaller runes
β’ Triumph is the definition of noob trap so i will have to give it a 0 / 10 . Triumph is useful when an enemy dies so for toplane (most of the early game you are 1v1) it does nothing, but even when you kill your laner VERY often you couldnt care less for some extra hp (unless you get ganked right after, but what are the chances). Where this rune shines is in teamfights, but it is not worth in my opinion to have a rune that only saves you a death every 5 games on average.
β’ Legend: Alacrity This rune is great, nothing to say here :D like it more than other options in this row 9/10
β’ Last Stand This rune should be your only option in the precision third row ,very often you can be intentionally on low hp and stay there for a while with your Thick Skin and healing from Tongue Lash. 9/10
β’We dont mess with Domination tree so ill skip to Sorcery for Phase Rush rune set.
Nimbus Cloak or Nullifying Orb should be your choice for the first row. Both are fine , the win rate for nullifying is higher but i personally like nimbus for the Ghost + nimbus combo 6/10 for both.
β’ Transcendence or Celerity for second row. Stats say transcendence has a very small edge over celerity but both have ok synergy with Tahm Kench 5/10.
β’Time for the gigachad Resolve tree
Demolish should be renamed to demolish me daddy with the amount of work it is pulling every game! I cant stress this enough how much this rune enables our champion. EXTRA GOLD + TOWER DAMAGE SCALING WITH HP i could not design a better rune . Lastly it makes you a threat on sidelane since you can take tower anytime instead of tickling it. β / 10 honestly it should have been a keystone.
β’ Shield Bash Here comes the juice of the guide , this is the BIGGEST NOOB BAIT IN THE ENTIRE GAME 0/10 , WHAT am i saying you should be instantly DEMOTED the second you pick it over Demolish or Font of Life in 95% OF CHAMPIONS. The reason it is such a bait for tahm kench is : you would assume that since we have a MASSIVE shield with Thick Skin this rune will be great right ?! Yea, no the numbers on this rune are honestly so bad that you could double the damage it deals and it wouldnβt matter NEVER PICK IT UNLESS INCREDIBLY BUFFED
β’ Font of Life This rune is great and my rune of choice when playing either support or adc tahm kench (with senna) it provides a heal that scales with hp and our champion stacks hp so donβt need to say anything else 9/10.
β’ Second Wind INCREDIBLE RUNE all 3 runes in this row are amazing it doesnβt matter what you pick 10/10 . Best vs poke or in general if you donβt like waiting 12 mins for conditioning
β’ Bone Plating INCREDIBLE RUNE all 3 runes in this row are amazing it doesnβt matter what you pick 10/10 . Best vs all in champions
β’ Conditioning INCREDIBLE RUNE all 3 runes in this row are amazing it doesnβt matter what you pick 10/10 Best of general value
β’ Overgrowth 10/10 gives hp we scale with hp end of story
β’ Revitalize another great rune in Resolve helps with our shield and heal from q and e but slightly weaker than the rest 9/10
β’ Unflinching Amazing rune take it over Overgrowth vs a lot of cc 10/10
β’ Lastly the MONEY RUNE TREE $$$ Inspiration
β’ Magical Footwear Should be the better choice in this row and even if it had better runes as rivals i would still pick it , gives more speed and free gold 10/10 free is love free is life.
β’ Cash Back Is decent , long term it gives more gold than magical footwear but it takes a bit too long to do anything and we like the free movementspeed from boots. Get cashback only when we need early boots and can't afford running magical footwear vs things like trynda olaf darius etc
β’ Biscuit Delivery Biscuits heal you for a lot of hp when you are already low hp ( i am going to ignore the mana they give cause i almost never have mana issues). That being said the problem with biscuits is that only once every 3-4 games do you find yourself in a situation where not recalling and resetting is better cause you can bait a fight with biscuits. For this reason i prefer Approach Velocity cause it activates on every q that lands, providing value throughout the entire game , every game.
β’ Approach Velocity This should be the only option in last row it gives you speed when you hit q , w or even when HAVING REDBUFF and the redbuff thing actually matters alot, for example if you have redbuff , you attack them once and they flash you can catch them still since they lose speed from slow and we gain speed from their slow. We never say no to free speed β/10.
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