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Purely skill match up. Landing q and w and using q and e to dodge skills (abilities), ganks, and escape minion aggro is what it will all come down to. If you end up outkayned (see what i did there?) it's not really that bad, because him being stronger than you won't mean that he will be able to catch you better and you can match his abilities by using q to dodge w and w to counter his q engage. Just farm and keep an eye out for his return to lane and the walls in order to not get poked down and stick to walls in order to quickly be able to walk along the wall back to turret safely in case he tries to catch you off guard.
If you're the one fed, roam into the enemy's jg and just go nuts and don't. stop. swinging.
Kennen
All ranged champions mean a harder laning phase. This one has tons of stuns which mean no casting w or q. It's hard to catch up to him if he catches you in front of your minion wave. Wait for his q and preferably w/e to be on cd before going in for poke and use E to dodge his q and w's range, after what you can just go ham while his abilities are on cooldown. Also use R and if possible bait it out while you've dealt damage to him so you can ult him during his R and negate tons of damage
Riven
Riven's skirmishes are always going to be better than yours until mid-late and late game, but if you can successfully outmaneuver her stun and 3rd Q, you can farm pretty easily and even maybe all in her our outplay her and win lane. Stay near walls when anticipating her going in on you to dodge with E and q out. Use W to poke her out or to counter her going in w 3rd Q. You can always R her if she tries to turret dive you and gain a few turret shots in your favor and possibly end up punishing her with a kill that way. The threat of your all in is what keeps you alive in this matchup. Late game she becomes not mobile enough to kill you in a 1v1 or a teamfight (late game threat lvl3 i'd say)
Darius
Darius has a way better passive than yours and he really really wants to trade aa's. Don't let him. And don't let him heal off of Q and you might just win lane, but most of the time it's unsafe to try to all-in him till you have Darkin form. If he pulls you in for a W+Q combo, immediately use Q when he starts his Q cast to dash into him making it impossible for him to land the blade on you. The more health items he buys, the more your %health scaling abilities will be stronger on him including your ult. You see the picture now of why the Darkin loading screen is the way it is, don't you >:)
Tahm Kench
Tahm Kench's Q and passive makes him not only incredibly hard to burst down, but also nearly impossible to trade with. Until late game thank him for letting you farm freely in lane whenever it feels uneventful in top lane. Once you have ult consider shoving hard and roaming to the enemies jungle to steal camps and then returning. Do not feed the catfish. Later on of course your ult will deal with him easily, but his cc can still make you fish to the cats on the enemy team.
Aatrox
who?
Akali
Pretty much a skill matchup. Make sure to stay away if she uses Shroud (the invisibility cloud) because her burst trade with autos will be better than anything you can trade back, unless she's low, then try to hit her with your aoe's and then ult her the moment she tries to fight back and finish her.
Bard
stun will hurt if you let it hit you. If it's on-hit Bard (god..), or any kind of bard, you will survive once you get your form, and either one will do fine.
Camille
Let her engage on you and take minion agro, it's what's going to win you the lane, and if she doesn't you can poke her around. Just don't stay too low or you'll get jabbed in the head with a blade shoe, those hurt.
Cho'Gath
His knock up is pretty easy to dodge/match with your q on reaction. Staying unpredictable and random helps here. Get him low and then kill him, just watch out to not get eaten. He will quickly become a problem if you become his snack.
Dr. Mundo
He may heal a ton, but you're not going to lose if you stay a safe distance away. Don't waste ult on killing him unless it's for certain a secured kill, because he'll just run to the tower and ult to get all his health back anyway.
Ekko
Bait him to really work for the 3rd hit for his passive and poke him while you kite him backwards in the process. Dodging his skills and not getting hit by W will make this lane lemon squeezy. Just use Q if you need to dodge his Q when you guys are close on melee creeps. He has insane burst but if you don't let it happen until you hit your power spike, you're fine.
Fiora
Don't let her poke you down in lane with Q in on vitals. If you do, she won't have windows to engage on you without regretting it. She can't riposte your ult ????, so ult her when se goes in on you if you can't run away and have a chance to kill her, otherwise you can always Q out and even E without a wall for the mvt speed boost. If you win lane and keep her from getting fed, you'll win the game. When fed she can outmaneuver you if you get stuck casting W at the wrong time, so watch out for that
Galio
His QEW combo is pretty devastating and especially because you're melee you have to watch out for it. Save your Q to dodge this and try not to get taunted unless you know you're going to win the trade which rarely happens unless you already have kills on him or a two level advantage. Later you can W to stun him as he dashes in to interrupt the dash, denying him a lot of burst. Also his ult is useless in lane unless you get ganked.
Gangplank
ez game, ez life, just watch-out for all-in with his ult and ult him when you really need to get away from his damage, like 2 barrels around and about to be meleed by him right under his active ulti.
Garen
Just ctr+4 the whole game to show off how well you know how to spin to win.
Gnar
You have many ways to disengage a fight against a gnar if he decides to all-out you and dodge his abilities when he's in megagnar form. It's not an easy lane, but you don't need ganks to survive.
Gragas
Care not to end up under his turret unwillingly as many gragas top laners like to use sneaky methods to add "turret shot" to their damage utility. Don't let him chain ability damage you without forcing him to be among your minions and pushed up open for ganks.
Graves
He has better damage and trading than you, but once you have form he's going to be the one struggling.
Heimerdinger
Once you have the damage, you can w and q in to take out all his turrets, leaving just a scared engineer running to mama-turret. His poke is a pretty serious problem though, make sure it doesn't kill you.
Illaoi
When she ults, you ult. The rest is a complex arcade-like minigame where you dodge tentacle porn from taking over the internet. You are Rito's only hope now!
Irelia
She has a healing passive which you don't and her ult gives her insane sustain lvl6 post. Use E to dodge her ult if she tries to kill you with it and always be ready for an all-in jump on you early game.
Jarvan IV
Don't let him knock you up with his E+Q combo when you're low (can e out of jarv ult????)
His burst and his armor pen is a very serious threat that will cost you walking into your death if not accounted for.
Jax
Jax's counterstrike is mostly useless against you and you have way more mobility than him making any time he preps counterstrike to q in a bad trade for him, as he will take tons of minion agro while you q away or to the side out of range and w him and then go in to a very favorable trade. Later on you'll either outsustain him with Darkin or kill him even if he has counterstrike up, you don't need autos to kill him or trade.
Jayce
Skill matchup where you're at a disadvantage. His all in is way better than yours pre lvl6. Don't ever let him EQ combo you, use Q to dodge it if you have to.
Kayle
Ranged top laners are always an issue. This one can ult in response to yours and deny you the damage, so try to bait her ult with everything else and then finish off with your ult when her ult is down.
Kled
Kled's all-in with ult can be devastating and landing W is crucial for survival and trading. You still win if you're Darkin, just don't get outmaneuvered by him. His bear-trap on a rope is devastating, don't let him chain that into his damage combos. Keep Q ready if his trap is up and Q out of range to deny him the engage.
Lissandra
Don't get outplayed and she might just eventually outplay herself out of desperation. She wants to win lane, but all you have to do is not let her. If she casts her claw, Q away in order to not get hit by a combo if she does teleport in or align your W with the direction her claw is moving towards in order to make it impossible to miss the knockup if she were to go in, keeping her at a distance she can never close. If it's safe, try to peel her to the point where your all-in is threatening enough that she has to either back or use her ult on reaction, in which case you can try to bait out her ult before finishing her off if she survives. Do not underestimate her burst as she gets unusually strong in the mid-game.
Maokai
He's a tank and if you're careful, you can get away with the laning phase unscratched. Don't fight it if he pushes lane and farm under turret. Don't let him get you in a bad spot during a fight or he'll point blank cast his ult and root you down. You want him to cast ult where you can Shadow Step around it or Q away from him so he can't utilize the stun. His healing is huge and being fresh into Darkin form may not be enough to kill him in lane, so don't underestimate his sustain. If you don't let him, he can't really do anything to you.
Mordekaiser
Your W is longer than his E, so don't let him outpoke you. Always ult him if he ults you if you're not too low. If you are, you have better luck running or fighting if you're Darkin to deny the drain with healing. Getting within auto range is a dangerous game with Mordekaiser for his Q will literally kill you.
Nasus
Easy lane and you can easily shove him out of lane once you have a few items, especially once you have Darkin or even Assassin form. Lethality against Nasus can work quite well but your sustain might stay worse than his so be careful about that choice.
Nautilus
Just don't let him outplay you and don't die for pathetic reasons which can be avoided by simply paying close attention to what he's trying to do. Stupid reasons for dying include: Ulting him and him using q to get under turret forcing a fight there when you can't kill him or escape, getting rooted under turret by his passive and dying to many turret shots. Getting hit by Q and then his E (riptide shockwave slow) and then a few W enhanced autos while riptide "rips" (heh) through your nearly dead minion wave and then dying horribly because you didn't account for 3 forms of cc in a combo.
Getting locked down under turrets and getting caught out will be a big problem throughout the game as both his Q (Dredge Line) and Staggering Blow (Nautilus' passive) will not let you ult to anyone, and don't forget: his passive is a root.
Olaf
Olaf has healing and his Q (axe throw) will kill you eventually if nothing else. Be careful early game and really think before all-ining an Olaf.
Pantheon
It's quite the charm that all your abilities are AOE and it really shows in this matchup. He can't block any of your ability damage with his passive, only autos, making his only threat be endless spear tossing. Don't let him jump you with a W+E combo because if you're low enough, the Q's will start to crit you and you will NOT live through laning phase. But later on he becomes mostly a joke to fight.
Poppy
If she has vision of you when you're above the wall but near the edge, she can still cast Heroic Charge (her dash at enemies) and she will kick you out of the wall and into the edge of it, stunning you. Be careful as you have little room for error with this. Once you have Darkin, you out-sustain her.
Quinn
Quinn is just one of those champions that wins lane top no matter who you are, but is hugely vulnerable to ganks when not fed in any shape or form. In any shape or form, that means you, don't feed her or ganks will turn into double kills for her. You can farm under turret with your abilities pretty easily without falling behind in cs and use E to escape agro when she goes in. Going Assassin in this lane will make you capable of 1v1ing in the mid game, but if you have to go Darkin, just go somewhere else, ANYWHERE! gah D:
Renekton
Renekton has some of the highest AD autos and AD damage output abilities and combos in the entire game. PLUS lifesteal and effectively spell vamp on everything. Save your W stun for the most important time, like when he E's through a minion to W+Q you and then E out, just stun him on the way towards you. It's a very sweet deal if he gets under turret and you ult him while he tries to finish you off.
Rumble
Rumble simply does effectively everything you do but better and he doesn't even use mana. Your edge is mobility on him. Outmaneuver him and stay out of his seemingly endless raid of all types of obscenity. Ult to evade his ult and try your best not to die during your blade work. Your E is mostly useless except as a heal and a way to dodge a tower dive. He can cast his skillshots at you even if you're in the wall, do not rely on E to escape an all-in.
Ryze
Ryze always dealt a lot of damage and always will. Make sure you don't let him Rune Prism you where he has an opening to hit his Q without being minion ****-blocked. Try to not get marked by his Spell Flux (E) either as that will hugely multiply his damage output chain to you (similarly to how LeBlanc works). If you go into an ability casting fiesta match, you will lose. Be patient. His prison is a root just like Nautilus' which will not let you ult out of it during the effect.
Shen
Shen does tons of damage and he can easily deny creep damage while doing so. His only weakness is that his cooldowns are long and that the wave might push if he's not careful allowing for pretty head-ache free ganks. Once he has Sunfire Cape (which every Shen gets), his all in will hurt even more. Just be careful and don't get taunted under his turret, dying before you can cast ult or right after. In general ulting Shen near his turret is not going to work out for you unless he just used his taunt dash.
Shyvana
She's mid/late game just like you. The laning phase should be pretty chill. If you're the same amount of health as she is at lvl6, she will likely win the fight unless you can Q/walk to your turret. If she is half health and tries to dive and turn dragon form, you can easily cast a few abilities, ult her and dash out and then kill her as she doesn't have one of your worst laning champion fears: lifesteal, even when in dragon form unless she has items for it. Also, her auto range is 50 less than yours (125) unless she's in Dragon form. Keep in mind and abuse this advantage you have over her.
Singed
Try to get your passive stacked up as early as you can. His power grows and you need to gain your power spike before he can proxy farm your lane for free. Try to poke him down with W once you have Darkin but never let him trade with his poison trail unless you can all-in him for a certain kill. He can counter your ult by popping his to increase his stats and toughness, even though your ult will deal % health, it may save him if he is building tanky stats over health like Warmogs and Frozen Mallet (oh I've seen it all).
Sion
More health? More damage. You don't even need items to kill him once you're Darkin. If he charges Q and you're in it, either Q out or W knock him up. The knock up will break his channel or he'll have no choice but to end the cast short for a harmless swing.
Swain
Your Q can easily get you out of Swain's cc hell and your W is long enough to trade with without having to get too close all the time. Rushing Spirit Visage will do wonders once you have Darkin or Executioner's Calling
Teemo
Oh teemo. Don't get poked to death, really pay attention in lane early, start Doran's Shield probably, unless you anticipate super early agro and want to back 250 gold later for a quick shop during your TP right back. Pretty much only use W to farm and Q if you can get away with it. Your E is useless here except as heal and maybe a short 1.5 second walk along the edge of a turn to escape. I would honestly go Assassin in this matchup (which fighting a ranged would give you early with no wait timer), and try to kill him using your passive bonus damage and just drenching him with abilities. Blind won't save him. The only thing that can is if he has chained shrooms the direction your chasing him. Make sure to let minions go first and buy multiple control wards if not go as far as switch to sweeper to sniffle out his booby traps. If he goes camo, just use w and q to kill him. You counter Teemo super hard, but only if you survive the early laning phase.
Trundle
Buy CDR as early as you can in order to have you W slow/stun up as often as possible. It will be life and death between you having enough CDR to survive vs not. Going Assassin can be a good option in order to break through his tankiness, or just going Darkin with Black Cleaver works as well, depending on who else is in the matchup. Trundle will basically never have a problem chasing you down. If he hits you once, he hits you many many times.
Tryndamere
Whenever he engages you with his spin attack, Q away. It will scrape him and if you're just far enough from him you'll deal damage with the 2nd part of your Q and you'll be barely out of range for him to butcher out AA's. When Darkin use W to stop his engages and Q to get away. Don't let him get fed or you won't be able to stop him easily if he engages you before you can E with a full timer. Your poke is better than his, but he is dangerous.
Udyr
He has a million different ways to not care about the minion agro, just pretend the minions aren't there for you at all and you might just survive. Definitely go Darkin and every time he runs at you and he just switched to bear stance, you know he's coming to end you. W stun him as he runs at you. Keep him at an arms length and you won't feel any pain.
Urgot
(7.14) Just another ranged bully, who's gonna become a very new ranged bully very soon. For now you won't see him much or you'll just have a pretty chill laning phase.
Vayne
Stay away from walls is all, it's simple and make sure your out of vision with E far enough to not get condemned while in the wall.
Veigar
His stun is unavoidable and you basically can't touch him when he uses it or if it's up. He can place the stun anywhere, crossing over terrain, so E won't save you from it either.
Vladimir
You can't kill him early game and he probably can't force you to, so wait till you're fed enough to one shot him and keep the lane pulled as a stormraiders powered Vladimir can quickly chase you all the way to turret leaving a puddle of blood in your place by the time you make it.
Warwick
Everything he does heals him: autos, abilities, ult. Don't die, and if he's low, THE LIFE BAR IS LYING TO YOU. And if he has ult up, make sure to dodge with Q or be already in a fight in order to ult him as he jumps at you, which can prove difficult, but if it happens and he misses, it's an amazing trade for you and likely a kill. Also, he can latch with Q onto you, BEWARE THE GRIP OF DEATH.
Wukong
don't ult the clone
also he has the engage and disengage speed of lightning, so I wouldn't depend on landing W on keeping you alive
Yasuo
he's melee (thank god), but even when you get Darkin he will eventually be able to easily outduel you if he's smart or better than you, which, if you are even skill-wise, he will. Grabbing executioner's calling somewhere early can be very good.
Yorick
Executioner's calling pls. Also, you have so much aoe damage that you rip through all his gouls and as long as you don't get in a fist fight, you're fine.
Hi everyone! I'm EagleXs, I've been playing league for about a year and a half now, the first champion released during my time was Jhin. I've played Dota 2 for a year before that (my favs were Phantom Lancer and Templar Assassin <3), Strife, which was an awesome game of the same style (3 lane rpg/rts) for about half a year from when it was released to when the developers just stopped updating the game (rip Strife <3), and I have some play in HotS, the "Starcrafty" version of all the previously named games. Whenever a new champion came out, I'd always be excited to figure out the build for him, and I always explore the champion on my own whenever i decide to learn someone new, before going to say Mobafire to see what players post here.
So, for the first time, I feel like I have the experience and I'm super excited to post my very first guide on this website which I respect so much! Hope this guide helps you that one time you actually can lock Kayn top by some miracle ;) By the way, Kayn's weapon is just a kane, and the little sharp thing at the end? don't worry about it, it's not important (wink)
NOTE: This guide is under visual construction and I am constantly looking for more new content to add especially to the laning chapter. Some things I'm currently working on include video clips with demonstrations and gameplay! I have ambitions to make this a very in-depth guide covering every important relevant detail (including the scythe's moving eye, uggh!) so check back! I also intend on updating this guide regularly as the patches continue!
Don't miss my Blue Build Kayn! First ever! #EagleXs :p
summoner: nerf darkin! it's op! help! rito: mk, i guess next patch...
Pros / Cons
Pros / Cons
Pros Playmaker Many playstyles and build paths Strong mid and late game Adaptable to particular teammate and enemy team comp New champion and most people don't know what he does/how he works Who doesn't love playing a carry top lane Super cool auto effects and passive animation
Cons Ban, First Pick, and sometimes Dodge (hard to get in queues) Difficult to master Can't Juggernaut the laning phase Heavily positioning, skillshot and timing oriented/dependent
Summoner Spells
Summoner Spells
I find that Ignite is better than anything else, as it creates a greater all-in threat from Kayn. This is especially important early game in the laning phase as that prevents an all-in from being a good idea for the opponent or giving you a free kill through outplay and your minions backing you up if they engage you first. This also allows you to secure kills and counter many champions that may out-sustain you in lane by stopping them from healing in an all-in skirmish >.>= Renekton Olaf Irelia
Kayn is a carry so farming is very important for him. His power spike comes mid-game once he has chosen a form and after he has lvl6 and a few more points in other abilities. Teleport will keep him in lane longer and if ganked a lot can still keep up with the laner. Later on Teleport becomes a big threat if you go since Kayn is an amazing split pusher, using Teleport right after backing to continue pressure is really strong.
Barrier is actually more favorable on Kayn than most other champions as most of his gameplay is around initiating a fight and the rest of the time repositioning for the ideal scenario. Barrier can be nice to pop after dishing out all your damage as you get focused. I'd say take barrier only if the other team has tons of poke and cc and you're the only chance they have for an engage during mid-game and late-game.
Flash isn't as good, as you have an incredible gank and escape ability ( Shadow Step) and a short dash in Reaping Slash on top of that. You have 3 abilities that give you mobility Reaping Slash, Shadow Step, Umbral Trespass and 1 that's an aoe slow/knock up Blade's Reach. Apart from Reaping Slash and Blade's Reach's knockup giving you time to chase, and E giving you a terrain ghosting capability, Kayn doesn't have much left for gap closing and Flash can be a great tool for additional play making. You can also use it for a great surprise play if you Shadow Step out of a wall and Flash in with a combo literally without anyone seeing you coming you would appear out of nowhere. I like to call that style "silent snipe", shhhh
Ghost isn't that good as you will be buying many mobility enhancing items anyway ( Youmuu's Ghostblade, Dead Man's Plate), adding Ghost on top of that isn't going to make that much of a difference. It might be better to either cover a weakness or increase all-in potential.[/column]
Abilities Max Order
Abilities Max Order
Always Max R Umbral Trespass at the earliest possible levels: 6, 11, 16.
Usually max Reaping Slash first (after Umbral Trespass) - it's easiest to land, plus landing both parts of it is more damage than w, and it's one of the 3 spells that give you mobility and can be used for both engage and disengage and to counter abilities like Darius's Decimate and Kled's Beartrap on a Rope. Also, you gain more %cdr each time you level it (1/7, 1/6 reduction, and so on) than your other damaging ability: Blade's Reach
Blade's Reach is your next best ability for damage and is a great poking tool if you can't afford to go in with Reaping Slash without losing the trade in lane. If you're up against a ranged champion (ex: Kennen and Ryze), it may be better to max Blade's Reach first instead in order to poke them and reach minions without putting yourself in danger.
Leveling Shadow Step after 1st level only gives an additional 1s to the effect duration and buffs the healing effect when going into a wall, so only put your left over points into this one, unless you feel you need the extra mobility and map roaming. Unfortunately leveling Shadow Step does not upgrade the time you can spend between impassable terrains without losing the effect. Really wish it did. Getting out of combat movement speed items is the only way to close those sneaky gaps like crossing river near mid and such.
Masteries
Masteries
Ferocity
I go Sorcery because so much of Kayn's damage is abilities and nothing in his kit benefits from attack speed plus everything in his kit is already an aa reset.
Fresh Blood to buff your engage damage. If you are afraid of the laning matchup, you can take Feast , but that takes away from your strength overall and I don't think that's ever worth it.
Natural Talent provides more stats which I prefer as it creates a greater kill threat. Both of Kayn's post-transformation passives benefit more depending on your damage. I would only go Vampirism if you already know you're definitely going to need to go Darkin and somewhat tanky, and that out-sustain is the key. This can be especially good if you end up going Assassin and would like the extra bit of sustain with it. You can argue as well that his Reaping Slash and Blade's Reach are very strong aoe abilities so the 2% spellvamp would make a big difference. This is very much a preferential choice.
Bounty Hunter is very good as you have one of, if not the best, ganking ability in the game and a very high all-in potential, so you will definitely not be stuck sitting top all game. Getting 3 or more stacks wouldn't be hard. Because Kayn is melee and is weak to poke in both forms, I don't think Double Edged Sword would be worth the downside. Battle Trance is nice, but I feel like the longer you stay in a fight as Kayn, unless it's a 2v2 or bigger fight, the lower your chances get of making a good impact and the less your chances of survival in most scenarios, and if you are fed and nothing scratches you without losing an eye or a leg, then you might as well have went Bounty Hunter .
Cunning
Savagery - Given the weaker laning phase, I'd go this over Wanderer . Aside from Kayn alone, this is pretty standard for a Top laner.
Assassin - the name implies it, but even if you are Darkin, you are usually stronger when alone fighting someone, and you want this slight edge on your opponent. This is also pretty standard for a Top laner.
Merciless - Since mana sustain is in one of Kayn's Core items, you won't need Meditation , at least from all the games I've played having tear, I've barely ever run into an issue of running out.
Dangerous Game - This is often a life saver for carry champions which I consider Kayn to be one. You could argue that Greenfather's Gift is good, because catching someone out using Shadow Step and getting out of a wall where there is a bush would give you even more burst, and in laning you can use this passive to harass better. But especially if you're going Darkin, that 5% missing HP will be a huge heal if you get kills in a skirmish or teamfight, adding to your fighter/carry potential throughout the game.
Intelligence - One of the most important stats that Kayn can buy and use is cdr. The more often you can cast your combo and the more often you can roam and maneuver with Shadow Step, the stronger you are in every way. The 5% cdr has helped me in fights and saved me in tight scenarios so many times. I think the cdr is more important than the lethality from Precision.
Stormraider's Surge / Thunderlord's Decree - I argue that Stormraider's Surge is better as Thunderlord's Decree 's cooldown first of all is way longer, and mobility during a fight where you can't take advantage of Shadow Step easily is very strong (as Shadow Step's duration drops to 1.5s if you don't go into a wall or become in combat after cast), plus the 75% slow resistance with the 40% movement speed can be enough to get away from retaliation after a big blow and give you that much needed boost to run to a wall and Shadow Step out of danger.
Other options and why Kayn Kan't Kane that: Fervor of Battle - most of Kayn's damage lies in his abilities and, unlike some other top laners, Kayn doesn't have anything insane about his autos other than that he can weave them into his combo. When considering Kayn fighting a teemo punching bag top, yes, Fervor of Battle seems amazing, but when considering he'll be going up against another top laner going horrid nightmares like Darius, Riven, Rumble, Teemo (a real one), and Quinn, Fervor of Battle becomes more like a shopping stats perk than anything actually game changing or helpful.
Warlord's Bloodlust - This is slightly better than Fervor of Battle , and is actually very strong in the laning phase, but it becomes pretty cosmetic in comparison to other options in the mid and late game, not to mention that you would be losing out on Intelligence in the Cunning branch, giving up 5% cdr early game and through late game.
Runes
Runes
AD is really important for Kayn as he relies a lot on the threat of the maximum damage output he is holding onto throughout the laning phase. Kayn's kit is built around out-maneuvering and then over-maneuvering your opponent in order to deal more and more damage, so AD Quints and AD marks are best. Taking lethality marks would take away from Kayn's already (imo) questionable laning phase, I wouldn't do it, not in top. Seal of Armor is pretty standard for top. Because you have so much mobility and juking potential, the only thing you can't out-maneuver is an auto attack if you're in range of one and this is especially relevant later in the game when the adc will start trying to gun you down in fights and skirmishes.
I take all CD glyphs: 6 flat, 3 scaling. This is in order to have 10% from runes and then 5% from masteries ( Intelligence ). CDR is literally Kayn's biggest power generator. I can't tell you the amount of times I'm staring at the timer in fights on my abilities lusting for it to hit almost 0 where I can jump back into a fight or finish someone off. The 10% at the start of the game will make a huge difference and the build should provide you the missing 30% which can be done favorably in many ways described in the items section. 45% cdr at lvl 18 not only gives you tons of sustain and continuous damage with mobility, but it makes Shadow Step have such a low cooldown you can one-man farm 3 lanes and the jungle fast enough to barely miss any creeps.
Kane Dress Up Closet (Core Items)
Kane Dress Up Closet (Core Items)
I've played a lot of dress up with Kayn and here are some important things to keep in mind.
(TEAR? LET ME EXPLAIN!! D:)
Building Manamune can be a game saver and a game changer in special cases and matchups. This is not something to do every game as your vanilla go-to, but it is a viable path and an option I would sometimes consider taking:
Spoiler: Click to view
Because you're so reliant on abilities, it can be very beneficial to rush Tear of the Goddess before anything else. Extra AD is great, but if you're in a bad matchup (looking at you ) and you need to use W a lot, not running out of mana and staying in lane will be more important than anything else. You can spam Blade's Reach and even Reaping Slash sometimes without retaliation and it doesn't attract minion agro, so you won't be aa trading much in laning unless you're going all in or you're getting all-ined.
p.s. Corrupting Potion is nice, but none of your abilities are single target, so I don't find it worth the investment. Kayn strives in mid/late game if he doesn't in the laning phase, so investing in Manamune can really patch up your match I've found.
Starting Sapphire Crystal with a Faerie Charm gives that extra mana and regen to help with the laning early and provides something easy to buy if lane goes horribly wrong.
Manamune Is Bae:
It will provide you the sustain which you lose out on by going Kayn Top instead of Jungle where you have an available Blue Buff and jungle item to help with mana sustain. I find Kayn to be just like Ezreal in this case earlygame-wise. You need Pickaxe for both Death's Dance (which is definitely a core for Kayn) and Manamune, so there's nothing apart from Tear of the Goddess that you are buying that is disrupting your build path flexibility or restricting your backing options. Once it upgrades to Muramana, it provides more strength to your autos and uses your mana to give you more AD and later empowers your autos using your mana which you will have plenty of. It may not be as good as it is on Ezreal (with him having a long ranged auto-effects applying ability), but it hugely solidifies your laning phase and your sustain to the point where mid game you can be pushing multiple lanes and stealing jungle camps constantly without needing to back and without worrying about having a blue buff or ocean drake. Another example of a mana dependent champion is Jayce, but he has a passive from ( Lightning Field) that gives him mana when he is in melee form. Kayn simply doesn't have anything in his kit helping his sustain in lane apart from Darkin providing spell vamp during fights, which is only health sustain, not mana. This is one of the reasons he is often picked in the jungle over top lane, but Manamune I believe is Kayn's best friend in laning. In addition to this, being able to engage more often on your laner will stack your passive faster, so spamming abilities in order to get your passive up will give you the power spike earlier, but that's something you can't do safely if you have to conserve mana for using Reaping Slash to escape and Blade's Reach to counter-engage.
Here are some stats on Muramana for late game: Flat - 25AD, 1000max mana Bonus from Awe - 1000 + 1022(at lvl18) = 2022. Then 2022*.02 = 40.44 bonus AD. Maximum bonus damage on auto from Shock - 2022*.06 = 121.32 bonus physical damage. If you go Frozen Heart (which provides an additional 400 mana) this bonus will increase to 48.44 bonus AD and 145.32 maximum bonus physical damage on autos.
In summary Muramana provides: 65.44AD (73.44AD with Frozen Heart) and up to 121.32 bonus damage on autos from Awe, when combined with the bonus AD from this item for a max of 181.32 damage burst on an auto at full mana (with Frozen Heart that becomes 145.32 bonus on autos, and when combined burst of 218.76 maximum damage) It's a good goal to have your tear stacked fully by 25minutes. At lvl 11 you have base 726 mana and if you already got Manamune or think about buying it, it would give you on rough estimate if you stacked say (4*10stack/min*10min) of (726+250+400)*.02 = ~27 bonus AD off of the Awe passive. Upgrading from Tear of the Goddess and Pickaxe costs 775 gold, so you are essentially paying 775 gold for 27AD at lvl 11, which will grow throughout the game as you continue stacking. Basically, it becomes worth it or better to buy Manamune as soon as you have at least 1200 maximum mana.
It's very easy to hold onto the components for Manamune or even use them when you need space and buy the components again later ( Pickaxe is required for Death's Dance and Edge of Night) The cost of buying Manamune and spending on Tear of the Goddess isn't very significant or gets much in the way of buying other items and going different build paths.
But Black Cleaver?
Here's my opinion on it if you'd like to read on:
Spoiler: Click to view
I do have black cleaver as an option, but I find that it's not as good of an option in most matchups and team vs team situations.
Against most top lane champions getting in a fist fight for Kayn doesn't work out very well as the nature of his abilities don't give him any advantage in that sort of fight. Similarly to Jayce, Kayn benefits from timely positioning and burst. One of Kayn's biggest weaknesses is disengage, making a fist fight usually a fight to the death, as Shadow Step becomes a small heal and a poor QSS when recently in combat, Reaping Slash (Q) is a dash, but is effectively a snare after for the 2nd part of the ability, leaving you vulnerable to all kinds of skill-shots (we're talking disengage). In an easier and the right lane and matchup on the map, it can be quite overwhelming for the opponent for Kayn to rush BC and can snowball him insanely. Kayn is has every tool for engaging and this is where Phage becomes very handy at kiting low enemies, but it feels like overkill for me and money spent on redundancy. You have to auto in order to proc Phage's passive, which forces Kayn to use autos and is money spent on enhancing what inevitably leads to fist fights, and Phage feeds off of champions that want to fist fight. On top of this, health items early on make Kayn and underwhelming presence in lane where you're sacrificing spending gold on the many long swords you need that make your W poke stronger, your Q wave clear better, allowing you to hit the threshold of Kayn's god-tier wave clear with your W+Q combo which the sooner you hit that, the sooner you can begin to roam, steal jungle camps from the enemy jungle. Nothing in Kayn's kit scales with health, which is already a big reason I don't have Black Cleaver as a core item and way more often than not, what's keeping Kayn alive is his return damage on an engage and his burst, than his health bar. Stormraider's Surge already gives you huge kiting boost in order to finish off enemies you dive or burst down, giving you plenty of mobility. I'd rather have that available to me from level 1 and skip Phage and go straight to sweet, sweet damage.
Moving on into more familiar places:
Kayn's Core items work on both Darkin and Assassin: the Death's Dance. Death's Dance builds from Caulfield's Warhammer, the best early first back item you can get, and a Vampiric Scepter, an amazing lane sustain item on Kayn. Its first passive provides lifesteal for 3 of your abilities and has the highest flat AD stats in the game (tied 1st with Bloodthirster) and it provides some defensiveness especially against burst damage giving him a chance to use his abilities to lifesteal and "dance away" to evade dying. Did I mention it has one of the most important stats for Kayn: CDR?
By the time this one is finished, you should know which path you're going.
The Darkin Path
The Darkin Path
For Darkin Path, the staple finish is: Titanic Hydra, Dead Man's Plate, and Spirit Visage.
The Darkin path usually guarantees that once you have 2 of these items, you can 1v1 and win against pretty much anyone you were laning against that match.
Titanic Hydra gives you a very nice health bar and Tiamat's effect, giving even more burst damage potential with auto's scaling with your maximum health, which you will be building up as you get to your FINAL FORM. This item helps you farm EVEN FASTER than your normal god-tier level wave clear of Q+W.
Get Dead Man's Plate if you're struggling to trade or are getting shut down or if your team is a bit behind where you need to be able disengage more effectively and the armor makes a big difference with the health. The only thing you're really losing out on is cdr, but this will keep you alive well enough to farm safely in most matchups. Later on, this item becomes devastating when you're flanking or chasing down enemies. Spirit Visage can be great to rush against heavy AP comps or if you're laning against an AP top in order to out-sustain them. This one provides cdr on top of everything and the +30% healing (oh the healing <3) buffs your passive to maximum of 55.9% healing from abilities, and then buffs Death's Dance healing to 19.5% (granted the aoe is 1/3 per enemy hit, but still, holy moly healing). Your Blade's Reach gets to healing levels on a comparable level to Darius's Decimate, which is insane to think about as your Blade's Reach is a lifesteal knock up.
Other Darkin Options:
With Darkin there are many options. It all depends on what you want to be able to do and what your team will do for you. Ravenous Hydra doesn't give you as much health but can be a big difference in finishing off enemies and dealing more damage in team fights. Warmog's Armor really gives you the health and can be great for helping your team siege and staying alive from moderately strong poke and can sometimes save you from what would have been many backs when you have the pressure simply because their Ziggs or someone won't let you stand there and take hits. Black Cleaver isn't as good as the staple items because it doesn't work as well together with your core items. Darkin does excel at continuous fights, but I find that building him with more tank items, lifesteal, and burst is more important than the famous armor shredding passive. Plus, Phage is overkill when you already have a knockup with lifesteal and walking through walls to catch anyone you want. If you are able to kite and utilize with Rage ( Phage's passive), they are already dead anyway, so you might as well replace it with more tanky-ness or burst. But sometimes it can be very strong if your comp is AD heavy and no one else is building armor shred and they don't have much CC. The cdr will also make you a monster if your lane isn't too tough. I'd say also that Black Cleaver is amazing if you're dominating lane and want the best Snowballing item money can buy. Randuin's Omen works well for heavy diving AD comps and slowing everyone in order to land multiple Blade's Reach's. This item has been buffed giving 400hp, so it's nothing to glance over. Frozen Mallet provides amazing health and is often a better choice than Warmog's if you're not sieging/fighting a 4v4/5v5 all the time. Catching enemies out with this in hand makes it really difficult for anyone you're after to escape. The health on this will really buff the Titanic Hydra's effectiveness as well. Frozen Heart is not at all that helpful for Darkin overall, but it can be very necessary and can make your presence quite a significant problem for the enemy team if your team is being heavily tower dove. The cdr helps you cast Blade's Reach more often and be more mobile to keep up with defending objectives (cast Shadow Step more often) and the mana will boost your Muramana's effectiveness as well. 20% cdr in one item really gives you more options on going tanky without having to worry about getting that last bit of cdr for maxing out.
The Assassin Path
The Assassin Path
Going the Assassin Path limits your role to roaming flanks, one-shots, and cleanup most of the time, but you are amazing at this role. I would not strafe from having 3 lethality items as it multiplies the effectiveness of your passive and considering how strong lethality is this patch, these are your best bet:
Youmuu's Ghostblade is great at chases, escapes, allowing your E to give better positioning both to engage and disengage, and it provides a 10% cdr which is hugely important for damage output on Kayn. Overall Youmuu's Ghostblade is the best first item of the 3 as it provides a great powerspike and threat to the enemy squishy's.
The Duskblade of Draktharr is insane, as it makes wards not a concern when roaming with Shadow Step, and it nails down a mobile champion for that split moment in order to get a practically guaranteed Reaping Slash in, also making it more difficult for them to blink/dash far enough away to get out of your ult's range. Lord Dominik's Regards will add up to 20% more damage from abilities and autos, which this bonus is then multiplied by Kayn's passive bonus on engage, making this item extremely strong on Kayn.
Other Assassin Options:
There aren't many other options if you've chosen the assassin path. Blade of the Ruined King can be very good to protect you when you've went into a cluster fight, got a kill or bruised someone hard and need to get out as you can use passive to boost your mobility when you most need it. After the engage you can Shadow Step away, get some health off of a jungle camp near by to get some health back and then come back in. The passive on autos shreds the particularly max hp loving champions as well, though you mostly won't be going for them as Assassin. Mortal Reminder is for peeling for your team and taming the heavily lifesteal reliant champions. Edge of Night no longer provides the magic resist (sadly), but it now does provide health which can make a huge difference depending on who you're up against and provides an ability shield to save you from the burst that will inevitably be shot at you as soon as you appear, especially on flanks and initiating fights by trying to pick off the backlines.
Lastly, about elixirs. Elixir of Wrath is pretty much always the one you're going to get, unless you're Darkin and you have to frontline for your team and you just cannot survive the burst long enough to be able to cast enough abilities in order to stay alive, in which case going Elixir of Iron can be very helpful as the lifesteal off of Wrath is only good if you're alive ;)
The Blue Build Special _*.*/)
The Blue Build Special _*.*/)
Sometimes this build can work very effectively but it won't work in every situation. This build will give you an edge in situations that the standard build won't and cover weaknesses that Kayn would normally be exploited for in certain team vs team comps and allow Kayn to play roles he usually is unable to fill or just become outright unstoppable and untouchable.
The most usual reason to go this would be if you're up against a heavily snowballing top laner (especially an AD heavy one) and the enemy team has a lot of sustain and has very strong sieging/split pushing power or is very strong late game. Here's the breakdown:
First of all, you always go Darkin when going this build, (hence the mixing red and blue).
Starting: If you can safely invest right away towards your early items, do it and there are a few option for this and you can always replace Fearie Charm with potions if you like. I prefer the mana regen as you have TP and you can rely on Shadow Step to heal you in lane, mana regen giving you effectively health regen as well.
First Backs: Tear of the Goddess if you want more poke Glacial Shroud if you don't need the mana that badly and want stats. Sheen for a mini power spike and better trading in lane. Pickaxe raw damage is good if you like how tear is stacking up (but only get after tear, and most of the time Sheen is better imo). This is a great gamble/steal if buying it will get you kills you feel otherwise are barely out of reach.
Core: Icy Gauntlet is the cheaper final item of the set and gives you 45 armor for just 750 gold with an enhancement to Sheen helping with kiting, pinging down, and running away.
Final Build has 5 items that are blue (in case you didn't know).
MATH:
Spoiler: Click to view
The stats that you get from the items together is:
Armor - 65+90=155
Health - 700
Mana - 500+400+1000(full stacked tear)=1900
CDR - 40%
AD - 25+57+(current base max mana * .03) = 82 + (12.3 > 30.7 depending on level) maxing at 112.7AD.
The idea behind this build is to exploit Kayn's incredible sustain in Darkin form by going tank and CC on both autos and aoe, making him capable of diving and taking tons of AD damage poke and harass while providing CC and enough disruption to allow the team to engage safely and dish. This also allows Kayn to fight a 1v2 and disrupt any siege attempts. Because you take so many items that provide a big amount of bonus mana, your Muramana will provide a huge amount of AD, plus you can double that number, because Frozen Gauntlet builds from Sheen. Your burst will be just as insane as a normal hybrid Kayn build, but you will only need one slot for an AD item when that much AD would normally take 2 slots to gain. Of course you don't get the perks of some of the standard items, but that's just the trade-off of going Blue Build Kayn.
You can replace boots with items like Titanic Hydra (which will benefit from the 700hp bonus Frozen Mallet gives you) for more aoe damage tagged to your auotos, Spirit Visage for more healing, Death's Dance for more damage and a less tanky build but more lethal presence. Trinity Force can be great as well as it provides more mobility, more skirmish auto weaving and room to micro with Phage's passive and +250 mana towards Manamune.
Another very interesting item to consider is Zeke's Convergence which will greatly benefit your team when you go in, damage someone, and then ult them, your team can follow up, shredding whatever juggernaut is up front, after what you effectively execute their health bar and continue the fight with an advantage. Binding with your carry or anyone around has no cooldown so there is no downside in this way. This item also grants +250 mana which will feed your Manamune even more. (more on this coming soon!)
Laning
Laning
Kayn has one of the most unique laning phases compared to most champions that go top. His Shadow Step creates tons of poke opportunities and outplay windows especially when combined with his other abilities and there are many very important details about how Kayn works that can help you win lane and outwit your opponents.
Wall Hop - One technique that is incredibly useful for disengage and mitigating damage is the wall hop. Even though Shadow Step is shortened in its remaining time when hit by something or in combat, you still have 1.5 seconds to be on the wall and that can be enough time to move far enough over the wall so that when the ability runs out, you'll be pushed to the other side, because you only need to make the jump half way in order to make it, allowing you to effectively " Flash" over walls using Shadow Step. This can be done at either turn of the lane towards river.
Wall Run - Here you're using Shadow Step to sneak around vision in order to surprise opponents or make sneaky escapes in tight scenarios. One way is to go deep in the wall and ride to the nearest bush, and other is to go from one bush to the adjacent one. The second Wall Run can be done both with full length Shadow Step and the quick Shadow Step while still in combat (the demonstration is right after fighting Ryze and it only gave me 1.5 seconds to make the turn and I was able to hide the dot trail because the ability ran out as i walked out to the side into the bush 8)
Gameplay
Gameplay
Oh, does Kayn have tons of interactions that are crucial to utilize in order to maximize his potential.
Important things to know about how Kayn's Kane Kanes (how his abilities work dummy, did I really have to spell it out? ;)
- Your ult makes you untargetable, which is pretty much the same effect as Zhonya's Hourglass's active, meaning you counter Zed's ult Death Mark (sorry Zed <3, it's another one of THOSE champions), Veigar's ult Primordial Burst, Vladimir's ult Hemoplague, etc. This includes another Kayn's ult, in which case (take a breath for this one) if #2 ults you (#1) and then you as #1 attack say a Zac and then ult him (the Zac), later #2 will run out of time on his ult and will jump out of where both you and Zac are, and you (#1) will take no damage from #2. Got it? :D
- In addition to being able to go on walls and there being a 1.5s timeframe for doing so between being on normal ground and being in combat after the enhanced cast, knocks you out within 1.5s, there is more.
If anyone has vision of you while you are on a wall, if they are in range to aa or cast a targeted ability on you, they will be able to do so even though you're on the wall because Shadow Step is only a mobility spell, it does not make you immune to damage or untargetable. This is especially relevant when facing for example Poppy. She can knock you into the edge of the wall between her and Kayn being on the wall. What will happen is she will dash to you and it will instantly place you at the nearest exist out of the wall or terrain, ending Shadow Step and stunning you as if you were just next to the wall. This works the same on Vayne's Condemn, Ryze's Rune Prison, and other champions with targeted abilities of such.
- You may use your Q, W and R while Shadow Stepping in either form, but as soon as you're on normal terrain for 1.5 seconds or you've made an AA, or if you ulted, your Shadow Step goes on cooldown.
- The previous point means that you (unfortunately) can't do this combo: use Shadow Step, Blade's Reach someone, Umbral Trespass and then walk right back into the wall. You will lose E as soon as you ult someone and will need to recast it, which is unfortunate, but this is how this works.
- You cannot ult while rooted, so beware of champions like Ryze and Nautilus who have roots during which you cannot escape to dodge their damage by blinking to them.
- There's a trick you can do, I call it the Shadow Leap - Some gaps on Summoners Rift and on Twisted Treeline and just barely too large to walk over, making you lose Shadow Step right before you make it over as the 1.5s timer runs out just when you get to the other side. Kayn can use his all his other abilities while Shadow Stepping, so you can actually make that gap by casting Q, Reaping Slash timed so that Shadow Step runs out right as you finish the first half of the Q which is the dash. The moment you begin the dash, if your Shadow Step is still active, the dash will get you on top of the wall's edge just a bit sooner, allowing you to travel a slightly larger distance between walls/impassible terrains without losing the Shadow Step early.
Mobility
Kayn's Shadow Step can be used to cross most gaps on the map, some require using reaping's slash in order to close larger gaps and are easier to make with higher mobility provided with boots and things like Youmuu's Ghostblade.
Here's a summary of the map with all gap pathings that will not cause you to lose Shadow Step: blue for walking over, green for Shadow Leap crossing
Animation details on Shadow Stepping (advanced)
One of the hardest Shadow Leap's to pull off is across the river from one wall to the other next to the mid lane. The key to not losing Shadow Step and what is the real determining factor of when the ~1.5 seconds not on a wall runs out is the animation. Kayn takes a step every ~.5 seconds so 3 steps is ~1.5 seconds (this may fluctuate as your movement speed goes beyond tier 2 boots to levels of ghostblade and deadman's bonuses).
The thing is that the rhythm of his walk stays constant whether he is on a wall or not, even though when he's on a wall, it does not show him stepping on the ground.
Leaving a wall right at the start of the ~.5 second step having the step happen and then be instantly out of the wall will delay the step on the ground by up to ~.4s giving you technically more time on the ground than if you came off and a foot would instantly land on the ground.
Getting back on a wall doesn't have as much leeway. As soon as you've made the 3rd step, the foot that is about to make a 4th must reach the highest point above the wall, otherwise on the way down it will count as though you will be walking onto the ground anyway, and will deny you a little distance. Kayn's foot must be on it's way down already above the wall and land beyond it, not step/land onto the edge, so the animations fools you into thinking you have more distance a little than you actually do.
So, how is knowing all this helping? Well, when you Shadow Step, try to feel the rhythm of his steps while he's on land and keep track as he's on walls. This way, with practice and patience, you can learn to get off walls with a little extra distance before the 1st step giving more time to spend on the ground between wall walking.
If you nail this down, you can cross the mid lane river wall to wall without any boots at level 2 onward without losing Shadow Step and be able to then keep walking straight to raptors or wherever you want with the ability effect still going. (video coming soon for this!)
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