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How to Effectively Unbench the Kench
Build Guide By CactEyez
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Tahm Kench Build Guide By CactEyez
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Recommended Items
Runes: Tanky (Scaling)
1
2
3
4
5
6
Resolve
Sorcery
+10% Attack Speed
+10-180 Bonus Health
+10-180 Bonus Health
Spells:
1
2
Default
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![LoL Summoner Spell: Ghost]()
![LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport]()
Ghost
Teleport
Items
Standard Full Build
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Starter Items
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First Back Items
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Main Tank Items
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Main AP Items
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Other Tank Items
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Other AP Items
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Example Tank Build
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Threats & Synergies
Threats
Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
Show All
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Ambessa
This champion is very over-tuned, sticky, high damage and just broken. You are strong in team-fights against her if you peel, but 1v1s will be hard at all stages of the game unless you get a lead. Use R when she uses her Shield, so it times out inside your belly and can be ignored. | Start Items: - D.Shield -> Dark Seal | Tank Items: - Swifties -> Heartsteel | AP Items: - Swifties -> Heartsteel -> Riftmaker
Tahm Kench
Catfish
Synergies
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Tahm Kench
Catfish
Champion Build Guide
Introduction
Hi, I am CactEyez an Emerald 
Tahm Kench main who has been experimenting with new and unique ways to climb on many champs. Tahm Kench is a maluable champion with lots of different possible builds. You will be surprised at how much damage AP Kench does, and so will your opponents.
I have put matchup specific options at the top of the guide for quick checking before a game, but more in-depth analysis of runes and items appear further down.
Tahm Kench main who has been experimenting with new and unique ways to climb on many champs. Tahm Kench is a maluable champion with lots of different possible builds. You will be surprised at how much damage AP Kench does, and so will your opponents.I have put matchup specific options at the top of the guide for quick checking before a game, but more in-depth analysis of runes and items appear further down.
Abilities
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Your Passive gives you increased damage on-hit, and applies a stack of An Acquired Taste. At three stacks you can stun enemies with Tongue Lash or eat enemies with Devour. The AP scaling of the on-hit damage increases with HP, so building both stats helps maximise your damage.
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Your Tongue Lash deals damage to the first enemy hit and applies a stack of An Acquired Taste. The healing increases the lower health you are, helping you clutch close fights. As your Tongue Lash hits an enemy with 3 stacks, you can cast your Devour to eat them from range.
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Your Abyssal Dive has a very long wind up that can be cancelled with cc or dodged very easily. To give your enemies less time to react, cast Abyssal Dive from out of vision to partially hide the wind up animation. Casting Abyssal Dive straight after landing a Tongue Lash is almost guaranteed on any champions without a dash. You can cast this ability after devouring an ally but NOT an enemy.
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Your Thick Skin converts damage taken to 'grey health', which can be converted to a shield if the ability is cast, or partially healed back up after exiting combat. Has good synergy with Shield Bash and makes Kench feel very tanky.
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Devour is a very fun and strong ultimate. It deals max HP damage which scales with AP. With a completed AP build, your ult can do ~70% max HP damage. If you cast Tongue Lash as Devour ends, the tongue will guaranteed hit the enemy, a vital tech to learn to maximise your damage.
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Mechanics
There are only 2 main mechanics you need to know.
The first is the ranged Tongue Lash Devour combo. If an enemy has 3 stacks of An Acquired Taste and is about to be hit by your Tongue Lash, you can cast Devour and it will pull the enemy into your stomach. Note that this range increases as your Tongue Lash range increases from Heartsteel so you can kidnap people from a long distance.
The second and more important tech is the guaranteed Tongue Lash damage after casting Devour onto an enemy champion. If you wait for Devour to time out instead of manually recasting it, you can cast Tongue Lash as they automatically get spat out. This is undodgable as the enemy is still being thrown and is yet to have control over their character. This is vital to finishing lower HP targets (or full HP targets if you build AP) who could otherwise heal/shield themselves or flash/dash away.
The first is the ranged
Tongue Lash Devour combo. If an enemy has 3 stacks of An Acquired Taste and is about to be hit by your Tongue Lash, you can cast Devour and it will pull the enemy into your stomach. Note that this range increases as your Tongue Lash range increases from Heartsteel so you can kidnap people from a long distance.The second and more important tech is the guaranteed
Tongue Lash damage after casting Devour onto an enemy champion. If you wait for Devour to time out instead of manually recasting it, you can cast Tongue Lash as they automatically get spat out. This is undodgable as the enemy is still being thrown and is yet to have control over their character. This is vital to finishing lower HP targets (or full HP targets if you build AP) who could otherwise heal/shield themselves or flash/dash away.
Matchups
Matchup Difficulty
Primary Runes
Secondary Resolve Runes
Starter Items
Early Rushes
First Item
Primary Runes
Secondary Resolve Runes
Starter Items
Early Rushes
First Item
Summoner Spells
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A very strong summoner spell for Tahm Kench. It allows you to stick on slippery mages and adcs and also escape from inescapabale situations. I take Ghost every game.
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Despite the changes to Teleport, it is still an great summoner spell to take. It allows you recall at bad times and it can stop you getting punished for large mistakes. It also allows you to split-push and still be available for teamfights.
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This can replace Ghost if you prefer, however I find in general it provides less value than Ghost or Teleport. Flash cannot be cast during Devour.
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I do not take this much, but if you really struggle with matchups like Aatrox, Gwen or Warwick in the early game, it can be viable.
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Runes
Resolve
Sorcery
Domination
Precision
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Tahm Kench's bread and butter. Gives sustain, damage based on your HP and permanent health increase. Unless you are in a matchup where this cannot be procced (i.e, ranged or hard counters) take Grasp of the Undying every game.
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Such an OP mini rune. Tower damage scaling with HP?!?! Allows you to get a plate with every proc, and can do 2/3 of a tower's HP late game. Makes you a threat on the sidelane. |
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Can be taken in matchups where you think you cannot proc Demolish. Gives good damage and can be used for tougher melee matchups. Shield Bash is strong, but does not replace Demolish in my books.
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Weaker early game than the other options, but it is useful when both Second Wind and Bone Plating are not effective.
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Allows you to semi-ignore ranged and burn champions and their poke. Makes you feel very tanky in lane with Second Wind and Doran's Shield.
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Good against all in champions who cannot proc your Bone Plating easily, for example Renekton.
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Beautiful rune for Tahm Kench. Infinite HP makes you tankier and do more damage.
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Can replace Overgrowth if against 4+ melee champions and you are building Unending Despair, Spirit Visage and rarely Fimbulwinter. It is less reliable but can make you entirely unkillable in 1 vs 4s if fed.
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Sorcery
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Allows you to kidnap enemies with Devour from the middle of lane to underneath your tower, especially once you have bought Boots of Swiftness. Will guaranteed catch enemies off guard. Also makes you very hard to catch out with your speed, cc and Abyssal Dive. Can also be useful for sticking on especially fast ranged threats like Kennen.
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A great new addition to the rune page for Tahm Kench. Devour has a fairly long cooldown, and when you have it available enemies have to respect you. Using Devour on both allies and enemies gets the boost too. All round great new rune.
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Celerity gives you a lot of extra speed, making you stickier and making your kidnap with Devour further.
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Helps prevent you falling off, and makes your abilities do a lot of damage late game, especially if you have Rabadon's Deathcap.
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Domination
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3 quick autos allows for a guaranteed stun with Tongue Lash or Devour. Allows you to 1 shot people with AP build if you cant them with Abyssal Dive. Has been recently buffed as well by an extra 30% Attack Speed.
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Gives decent damage increase as 3 of your 4 abilities can proc this. |
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Gives you a bit of extra healing at the cost of damage. |
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Your Ultimate Devour if your life, you want it ready as much as possible.
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Precision
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A viable option versus ranged lanes, gives you decent sustain and a bit of speed. |
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With Tahm Kench's massive health pool, Triumph heals quite a lot.
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A bit of extra Attack Speed is nice and doesnt sacrifice an item slot to get. Legend: Haste could be used instead, but your Tongue Lash cooldown is already quite low.
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With your Thick Skin and your Tongue Lash healing more at lower health, Last Stand will get a lot of use.
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Itemization
Starter Items
Boots
Early Buys
Core Items
Situational Tank Items
Situational AP Items
BAIT items to AVOID
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Very reliable, makes you very tanky and you don't lose damage because of your HP scaling on An Acquired Taste. You could build this every game.
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Good for lanes against champions that will kill you for immediately stepping up to the wave, where you want to farm exclusively with Tongue Lash, but not against range champions where you need the Doran's Shield passive.
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This used to be viable to get a quicker Heartsteel, however the Doran items have been buffed enough that you will almost always be at a disadvantage.
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Boots
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These boots are super OP on pretty much everyone, but especially on Tahm Kench. The slow resist counteracts the self slow given from Devour. Movement speed is really useful for catching squishies and for dodging skillshots despite your size.
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Can be very useful when laning against an auto heavy champion like tryndamre, Trundle, Quinn or Riven. Although I often prefer Boots of Swiftness against adcs in lane to catch them and kill them. Also useful vs 4+ AD champions.
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I rarely buy these, against crazy high cc comps they could be useful, but Boots of Swiftness allow you to dodge this cc. Besides, you aren't going to get one shot after being cced like some bruisers or assassins.
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Viable on the AP build for a damage increase, but I still prefer Boots of Swiftness usually, I find that you need the survivability provided by the extra speed instead of more damage.
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Don't get these. |
Early Buys
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I buy this almost every game, it is very cheap and can really help snowball early leads. Since you gain damage through HP stats, the item is more effective on you than most. I do not upgrade this to Mejai's Soulstealer, that item is too risky.
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Depending on the matchup, buying your Boots early is very strong.
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Against high healing champions like Aatrox, Warwick and Olaf, buy antiheal can completely flip the matchup to your favour.
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In heavy auto attack lanes like Tryndamere or Gangplank, I like to buy Warden's Mail after Plated Steelcaps. You will lose damage with these items but deny a LOT of the enemy damage.
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If you have no specific items that you need to buy to counter the enemy, a Giant's Belt will give you good damage and make you a lot tankier, with it later building into Heartsteel
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Core Items
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This is the best Tahm Kench item, gives you lots of health and most importantly size, which your Tongue Lash scales off of. Buy this every game 1st or 2nd whether you are building Tank or AP.
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A very strong core item for you. It gives both armor and magic resist so can be built in every matchup. Makes you very survivable and a big problem for the enemy team.
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Has great synergy with your Tongue Lash healing, your Thick Skin shielding and healing, and your Unending Despair healing. Great all round.
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Gives you very good damage as it converts all of your HP into AP, and gives 10% omnivamp. Even on full tank builds, Riftmaker is viable. It allows you 1 shot enemy carries without needing to invest into full AP. I would generally slot this into most builds, tank or ap.
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A great item to rush against ranged lane opponents who will not expect you to dash onto them. It is very cheap and I build this on every AP build. Very versatile item. |
Situational Tank Items
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My 5th or 6th item on tank builds, rounds out the build by making you very tanky. |
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Very strong against enemy adcs and Yone/ Yasuo players. I build this most tank games unless the enemy team instead has an on-hit adc or a mage botlane instead. Always build against Tryndamere
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Build against high healing teams like Warwick, Aatrox, Soraka, etc.
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I dislike the lack of HP that this item has, but it is useful versus on-hit champions or high Attack Speed AP champions that Randuin's Omen doesn't work on.
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If you don't need Randuin's Omen, Thornmail or Frozen Heart, this gives good speed to make you super sticky.
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Gives you good waveclear which you would otherwise lack, however Riftmaker also gives this waveclear and is more reliable in general. I only build this as a first item against certain AP champions like Gwen.
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Very strong against burn champions. I rush this into Heimerdinger only, but it is useful later against high AP enemy teams.
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Gives good damage, but is less tanky than other tank items. If I wanted more damage I would go AP. |
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Only useful versus full AP teams. The other magic resist items are just more reliable.
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Situational AP Items
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Mandatory on AP build, gives so much damage. Synergises well with Heartsteel's infinite HP and the conversion from Riftmaker, also synergises well with Gathering Storm
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A very common item for the AP build. Only don't build this if only one person builds magic resist on the enemy team.
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Gives nice damage once you get big enough with Heartsteel that your Tongue Lash can proc Horizon Focus's passive
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Gives good stats and movespeed. All round pretty decent, but lower damage than other items. |
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Not mandatory but gives very good damage versus squishy teams if you are ahead. I prefer to start with items that give HP and AP, and you need Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff for late game damage.
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Useful against high healing teamslike Soraka, Sona or Aatrox. I prefer to let another teammate build antiheal, but if they are useless you have to build it instead.
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BAIT items to AVOID
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So much worse than Hollow Radiance. You don't need the damage from it, and Riftmaker outstats it and gives similar waveclear.
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The AP build focuses more on ability damage and not auto attack damage, so the attack speed and on-hit damage are not necessary.
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There are much better waveclear items like Riftmaker and Hollow Radiance, and no one wants AD on Tahm Kench.
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I prefer the damage of Void Staff on the full AP build, however there could be a small niche on more tanky builds?
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You do not need the slow to stick on people, and you don't need the damage. |
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So risky, gives the enemy team a win-con if you are ahead. The item is also cursed, I swear you also die immediately after buying tis item. |
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You do not need the Attack Speed and it doesnt give enough damage or resistance to be useful, you want either HP or AP items.
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You do not want AD!!!
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Twitch
How to Effectively Unbench the Kench
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