Hello all and welcome to my Season 11 Split 3 Kayn guide, my (in game) name is Louiee.
I have been a Kayn main for a long time and right now have 1.1+ million points with him across all accounts, and am of course Mastery 7.
My rank at the time of writing this is Master

*Please Note*
All of the details about Runes, Spells, Matchups and Items have been listed in the notes sections at the top of the guide.

I would also like to mention that I am new with using the guide creator, so you won't be seeing all of the fancy layouts like on some other guides; though this doesn't mean I will slack on content!

Now, on with the guide...

''So this is Kayn, or Kanye if you have dyslexia. He's an edgelord according to every f*cking person that plays this game... but in reality he's just a schizophrenic champion that's constantly peer pressured into changing his image'' - MagikarpUsedFly, 11/08/2017.

Kayn as a champion is very diverse and has a unique playstyle with 2 completely different paths of gameplay you can take with him.

Kayn also got shafted in patch 9.25a, which kinda sucks and has rendered him in very statistically weak spot while still having one of the highest banrates in the game. What's important to remember is that IT DO NOT MATTER and you can still perform with Kayn very well (just as your's truly) and to be honest, especially with hotfix buffs coming in 9.25b, he will be in a pretty good state still.
9.25b - Kayn is in a more playable spot and significantly less popular, which is a good thing

Pros
+ He has a very fast and healthy jungle clear
+ He has a very strong mid-game and still does well late game
+ His ultimate makes him untargetable (more on this later)
+ Rhaast is almost impossible to 1v1 or teamfight against
+ Shadow Assassin can literally kill you before you can do anything.
+ His kit is... some might say... quite overloaded - lots of mobility, short cooldowns, CC, healing, etc.
+ He's basically 2 and a bit champions in one, so more to learn but more fun.

Cons
- His early game is considerably weaker than that of most other junglers (more on this later)
- He is 2 different champions in 1, which means there's more to learn
- He is very easy to kite & is vulnerable to peel
- Your form decision can be tricky and cannot be changed

Kayn is a unique jungler with an interesting playstyle and innate diversity: His two forms.

His two forms are Rhaast and Shadow Assassin.

Rhaast is a bruiser/fighter with lots of healing built into his kit (mainly in his passive). You will tend to build more tank or bruiser like items, with there being a few exception such as Death's Dance

Shadow Assassin is, you guessed it, an assassin. You will want to build lethality for him. Shadow Assassin plays like Akali, in a sense: You burst in, dealing huge damage, then ult, then finish them off with another Q or W, for example. They also both have a form of hiding (Akali's shroud, Kayn's ult).

This is one of the most important things about Kayn that you will want to pick up as fast as possible

The gist of it

Rhaast is best the enemy team has a comp of tankier champions, like bruisers or tanks; say Yasuo, Zac, Veigar, Miss Fortune and Nautilus.
Looking at that hypothetical lineup,
Yasuo is a fighter
Zac is a tank
Veigar is a mage
Miss Fortune is a Marksman
and Nautilus is a tank.

This is what you want to do every single champ select: Look at the enemy champions as soon as they are picked and think about whether they will be squishy or tanky.

Shadow Assassin is best if the enemy team is mainly squishy (not tanky) champions, like Teemo, Kha'Zix, Syndra, Xayah and Rakan.
That team composition is 2 Marksmen, 1 Assassin, a Mage and a Support, so they will almost definitely be quite squishy, so Shadow Assassin will be better than Rhaast into them.

There is a general rule of thumb that many use: If you can one-shot 3 of the enemies (3 of them are squishy champs), go Shadow Assassin, otherwise go Rhaast.

Now see ''Runes'' chapter

Using this information and having made a confident decision for which form you will almost definitely want to take in game, go to your rune page and change your runes accordingly (also see top of guide):

For Rhaast:

Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity
Last Stand

Transcendence
Gathering Storm

As of now (around patch 11.6), Conqueror is by far the best keystone to take on Rhaast: it gives lots of healing to add to your passive and excels in long fights, just like Rhaast.
Triumph is a no-brainer, Presence of Mind could work, but it's not about personal preference and whether giving up Triumph is worth it for the increased long-term sustain.
Legend: Tenacity is once again a no-brainer, neither of the other Legend: 's are useful for Kayn.
Last Stand or Coup de Grace are both very viable, but I prefer Last Stand just for those clutch fights!
Eyeball Collection... Sudden Impact... take your pick, this Domination secondary rune isn't too important, but I prefer Sudden Impact for the linear early game boost it gives you.
Rhaast can make any of the secondary trees work at the moment - Sorcery and Resolve are currently my favourite. Transcendence and Gathering Storm give you so much mid-late game agency while not feeling like you give up much early. Conditioning and Revitalise also feels similar, though I would usually go Sorcery.
For the Flex Stats, Attack Speed is what I prefer, though many take Adaptive Force.
For the second one, Adaptive Force is best, you want the small amount of extra damage it gives in the early game.
For the last one, HP, Armour or Magic Resist is fine, pick Armour or MR into Physical/Magic damage heavy comps.

For Shadow Assassin

Dark Harvest
Sudden Impact
Eyeball Collection
Relentless Hunter

Magical Footwear
Future's Market

If you are still very unsure of which form is best to take, or simply want to easily be able to adapt to how the game goes, take

Dark Harvest
Sudden Impact
Eyeball Collection
Ravenous Hunter

Triumph
Legend: Tenacity

Dark Harvest is what I find best for Shadow Assassin. Electrocute is also good and a common pick, but it becomes less useful late game when your 3 ability combo either lasts more than 3 seconds or you don't even need 3 things to kill the enemy (if you're really fed), but more on combos later.
Sudden Impact is good as your Q procs it, though you won't make much use of any of the 3 runes to pick here.
Eyeball Collection is once again best as I find it's easiest to consistently stack up quickly.
Relentless Hunter is a must have on Blue form, you become so fast out of combat you can make plays all around the map very quickly. Ultimate Hunter and Ravenous Hunter are both viable, but not as good as Relentless Hunter.
Inspiration is currently my secondary rune page of choice as, especially with Future's Market, you get tons of early game agency as well as being able to buy key item spikes faster.
Magical Footwear is interchangeable with Cosmic Insight, however I prefer that Magical Footwear allows me to get first item/tear/boots in a more fluid fashion and helps you take over the early game even harder and snowball into the late game where Blue form begins to become less impactful (unless you are really fed or they are a perfect comp).
For the Flex Stats, Attack Speed is what I prefer, though many take Adaptive Force.
For the second one, Adaptive Force is best, you want the small amount of extra damage it gives in the early game.
For the last one, HP, Armour or Magic Resist is fine, pick Armour or MR into Physical/Magic damage heavy comps.

My bread & butter pathing for Kayn is the following.

Start Q
Red Brambleback
Take E
Krugs - use the large/Ancient Krug to bodyblock the medium one
(Use E to get to Raptors)
Raptors
Take a second point in Q
Wolves - Auto the Large Wolf, Q through them all, Smite the large wolf, Auto it 2 more times, use E to walk to Blue buff, auto Blue buff twice while kiting towards the Wolves and then Q through all of them (this takes a bit of practice to get right and can still go wrong but is by far the best clear for Kayn).
Blue Sentinel (Save your Smite still)
If you are comfortable with it, you can do Gromp and Blue Sentinel at the same time (focus one at a time though, just hit them both with abilities) - just make sure you don't overextend and make a camp reset because then you look like a fool...

and here is where it gets a bit more personal/situational...

You have a few options...

1) Take the Rift Scuttler and look for a gank
2) Use your E to go into the enemy's Redside and look to invade the camps, normally either or both Raptors and Krugs will be alive.

Tip

Think about the enemy jungler, what is their clear like? Do they have good AoE
damage and if so, does that mean they will take Krugs and Raptors? (Yes, it
probably does). If not then you can probably invade their Redside after your Blue.
When they show up on the map, look at their CS count...
-If it is *not* a multiple of 4, they have left part of a camp alive
-If it is 4, they have taken 1 full camp
-If it is 8, they have taken 2 full camps (or half of 2 camps and 1 full camp)
-If it is 12, they have taken 3 full camps (or 2 halves and 2 full camps, etc.)
-If it is 16, they have taken 4 full camps (' ')
-If it is 20, they have taken 5 full camps. If it is past 3:25 or so and they have
a decent amount of HP left, you can assume that they have recently taken a
Rift Scuttler too.

3) Go straight for a gank after Blue buff, consider using Smite on it for the extra HP.

After any of these options your next move should be taking a (or the other) Rift Scuttler or trying to gank a lane.

Regardless, after taking Rift Scuttler you should have 28CS and around 1000 gold.

You can recall here and buy a Ruby Crystal and Long Sword as (if you haven't got any kills/assists yet) you will have just over 900 gold. Ideally you would want to try and gank or farm enemy camps so you can reset with 1050 gold, allowing you to buy Boots as well.

If you choose not to recall, your best bet is to try and force a very free gank or keep invading - many junglers still skip Krugs, but this depends on a champ to champ bases (AoE clear champs are likely to do Krugs, single clear champs are not). After recalling, you can head on over to your Redside again (where you started), look for a gank there, take the other Rift Scuttler if it's still alive, or farm your Raptors and Krugs if you have the HP to do so.

After clearing 3 camps (be it Raptors and Rift Scuttler or Raptors and Krugs etc.), you will have about 600 gold. This is where I would say you must recall, as you can buy a Phage and Boots. You will also be level 4.

After recalling, head back into the jungle, where the rest of your camps will be respawning soon (bar the Blue Sentinel).
From now on stick to farming in the jungle, unless there are easy ganks to go for, until you get to level 6.
Once you get your ultimate, Umbral Trespass, try to force a gank or dive, but only if you are sure you can get something good out of it.
If that gank was botside and you are still alive, consider taking the drake as it will be alive now.

After you reach level 6 it is more down to your preference, your playstyle and how the game is panning out to determine what to do.
Do remember that in the mid-game, Kayn is strongest, with either form.

Kayn's passive, The Darkin Scythe, allows him to transform into 1 of 2 forms, Rhaast or Shadow Assassin, once he has collected a certain amount of 'orbs', or 'ora'.
He gets these orbs from damaging champions. Damaging melee champions give him red orbs, damaging ranged champions gives him blue orbs.
Once Kayn has collected enough orbs (this is visible as a roundall that fills up in the UI), he will be able to immediately transform into either Rhaast or Shadow Assassin, but never can both be 'unlocked' immediately. You can choose to wait 4 minutes to choose the other form; this timer can be decreased by collecting orbs of the other type to the form you have unlocked.

For example

I am playing Kayn, at 4 minutes I have my first fight. I am fighting 2 melee champions with my toplaner. We kill both of the enemies.
From this, my orb bar fills up 3/4 of the way, and is red.
After 2 minutes, I gank the enemy botlane and we kill both of the enemy champions. They are both ranged.
My orb bar is full, and I unlock Shadow Assassin.
The problem is that I want to go Rhaast this game.
I can wait 4 minutes to then be able to transform to Rhaast.
2 minutes pass and I fight their toplaner and jungler, both of whom are melee, and collect orbs so my timer decreases. Now it is only at 20 seconds.
I can then recall and wait the 20 seconds to be able to transform into Rhaast instead of Shadow Assassin.

Here is a copy from the Wiki

INNATE: Kayn wields an ancient, sentient weapon, that battles with him for control. Each instance of damage Kayn deals against champions (excluding damage over time) and Damage rating takedowns causes them to drop orbs, red by Melee role melee champions and blue by Ranged role ranged champions, that are automatically collected upon leaving combat, filling a bar around Kayn's portrait.

Once the bar is filled, Kayn can return to the summoning platform to interact with his portrait to either be overwhelmed by Rhaast or expel him to become the Shadow Assassin, or wait 4 minutes until the other form becomes available, reduced by 5 seconds for each collected orb of their type after that.

The transformation type is decided based on the highest amount of damage dealt to the respective range type. If the two forms are within 8% of each other, the last champion range type hit will determine the transformation. If both types are hit at the same time the trasformation will default to Rhaast. The transformation will permanently change Kayn's abilities and grant him Homeguard.

Rhaast's passive heales him for between 34.5% and 43% (depending on level) of the post-mitigation physical damage that he deals to champions. This passive is widely regarded as incredibly strong and, it is: You can turn fights easily and pull off amazing 1v5s with the healing.

Shadow Assassin's passive deals between 12% and 44% (depending on level) of the post-mitigation damage dealt to champions as bonus magic damage. It is only active for the first 3 seconds in combat. It is reset after 8 seconds out of combat or after casting Umbral Trespass (it also applies to Umbral Trespass's damage when it is reset and the first instance of damage dealt in combat).



Kayn's Q, Reaping Slash, is a quick dash forward and then a spin.
It has 2 different damaging parts, so hitting both parts is key to dealing more damage.
The first dash can be used to get over many small wall gaps.

Below is a basic diagram of all the useful places Reaping Slash's dash can be used to cross walls




As Rhaast, Reaping Slash is unchanged in how it is casted, but instead deals some % health damage with a small base physical damage.
As Shadow Assassin, Reaping Slash is completely unchanged.

Hitting both parts of Reaping Slash is the best way to deal consistent damage, and can deal a lot more than you might expect.
Reaping Slash also does 45 bonus damage to monsters, which can be very useful.


Scaling: 75 / 95 / 115 / 135 / 155 (+ 65% bonus AD) (Physical)




Kayn's W, Blade's Reach, is an ability which damages everything in a line in front of Kayn.
As base Kayn or Rhaast, you cannot move while casting Blade's Reach for a short amount of time.
As Shadow Assassin, you may move while casting Blade's Reach as it is a 'shadow' which casts it for you (when you press W of course); the range of Blade's Reach is also extended.
As Rhaast, you still cannot move while casting Blade's Reach, but instead you knock people up for 1 second if you hit them.

Hitting Blade's Reach is a key part of all of Kayn's combos and can change the outcome of a fight.

Scaling: 90 / 135 / 180 / 225 / 270 (+ 130% bonus AD) (Physical)




Kayn's E, Shadow Step, is a very unique ability which literally allows Kayn to walk through walls for 7/7.5/8/8.5/9 seconds.
Shadow Step gives base Kayn, Rhaast and Shadow Assassin a 40% movement speed bonus.
Shadow Step also gives Shadow Assassin a bonus 40% movement speed when entering a wall.
Kayn heals for 100 / 115 / 130 / 145 / 160 (+ 40% bonus AD) upon entering a wall too.

If Kayn is not in a wall for over 1.5 seconds, Shadow Step is immediately cancelled.
If Kayn is hard crowd-controlled at all, Shadow Step is also immediately cancelled.

Shadow Step is great at ganking from very unique angles and surprising the enemy!
If you look at a wall and see a glowing orb next to it, it means that Kayn is in that wall and that is the spot he will 'pop out' of if Shadow Step ends.
Shadow Step also grants Kayn vision of all his surroundings, so is great when invading, scouting or stealing an objective.




Umbral Trespass is Kayn's ultimate, and is a very interesting ability which can be used to your advantage in many situations.

To use Umbral Trespass on a champion, you must have damaged them no more than 3.15 seconds ago!

Things like damage from Thornmail, smite and other spells and burns also apply the mark you need to ult a champion.

When you cast Umbral Trespass on a champion, you become untargetable and 'go inside' them for up to 2 seconds (more on this later).
You can recast Umbral Trespass in this 2 seconds to exit the target champion earlier.

Scaling: 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 175% bonus AD) (Physical)

Umbral Trespass can be used to dodge enemy crowd-control or give your team time to follow up after you engage a teamfight.


With Shadow Assassin, your basic one-shot combo is...
W --> Q --> R
If you don't think this will be enough to kill an enemy, you can try
W --> Auto (For Duskblade Proc) --> Q --> R
If even that isn't enough, you can try
Auto --> W --> Q --> Auto --> R

[iI thank you a lot for reading this all and getting this far in my guide, I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't really get anywhere, but it was somewhat enjoyable for me to create it and compose all of my thoughts about this champion. If you have any questions, something you would like me to add or something you think is wrong/a mistake, please please do comment what you think, as I would very much like feedback on this to improve it over time. (I feel like I may have rushed the last chapter or so a bit as I have lost enthusiasm for writing this)[/i]