Hello, my name is Rustic1 and I am a jungle main. I ended last season Gold 3 (season 10). I am a gold player, yes I know, sounds bad. "why write a guide if you're barely in the upper half of the player base??". I've spent a lot of time at lowish elo, and from that I've learned a lot, especially about Kayn. I have an embarrassing amount of Kayn hours and I can assure you that by no means am I claiming to be the best. I just have info I wish I knew when I started playing Kayn that I want to share, and I thought pre- season would be a great time to do so. So, if you are rushing in champ select for kayn runes and build, you've come to the right place.

A NOTE ABOUT MY GUIDE:

I will refer to Blue Kayn as Shadow Assasin and Blue Kayn respectively, and Red Kayn as Rhaast or Red Kayn. Try not to get confused, it can be overwhelming.

Pros: - Very fun - Low skill ceiling - Satisfying to master - no in- depth combos - Good at every elo - Insane clear speed

Cons: - High skill floor - High-ish ban rate - Picked often - Frustrating to play from behind

: This is good on both Red and Blue Kayn for the simple reason of letting you chase people really well. It gives you movement speed and takes away there's. This means it's good for getaways and for chasing people. It's saved me many times. Additionally it's great for using your Umbral Trespass (which is your ultimate), which we'll get to, but it can end up being your longest range ability.

: Good on only Red Kayn. This is a decent choice against tanks or junglers you know are going to try to 1v1 you. Early game your 1v1 potential isn't that great, and having red smite to reduce their damage and having a little more damage to output is great. Also if the enemy jungler goes red smite, you can't easily 1v1 them unless you match their red smite. Try to avoid long fights as Blue Kayn, more for late game.

This item is very strong on Blue Kayn especially after the Eclipse nerfs whcih was previously better. It gives invisibilty on kill which is great for situations like these: you know when you dive in a on a lux a poppy is going to bonk you as soon as you get her.l if you're invis, she cannot bonk you.

Eclipse:

This item I have found, along with many other Kayn players, is insane. It gives you lots of burst after your w- q combo, and the shield allowed for you to be able to survive after pulling it off. It is probably going to get nerfed, it's quite over tuned.

*UPDATE*

it was over tuned, got hard nerfed, duskblade is better

Youmuu's Ghostblade

: this is now an absolute must on Blue Kayn. Remember how I said ultimate hunter is better now? With that we need speed, because Blue Kayn needs to be able to be every at once. Youmuu's gives us speed, and a lot of it. Not only helpful for getting places but also for catching people, because between your Shadow Step and this, no one gets away.

Manamune

: I don't hate this option, especially now in this patch. Kayn stacks it fast, meaning its a lot of attack damage really fast, not to mention his ult procs the Muramana passive of single target spells doing increased damage. This item becomes even better when you take presence of mind as that increases max mana. With the new patch its my go- to.

Chempunk Chainsword:

The reason I say this is for Blue Kayn, is because its much better to sit on an executioners or build a thornmail on red Kayn. This item is great if the enemy team has a lot of healing and with new Grevious wounds it is made even better. If you are really ahead I would consider it on Red Kayn

Because of how prevalent tanks are and how strong tank items are, I would put priority on Last Whisper items earlier depending, of course, on the amount of tanks the enemy team has.

The Collector:

I don't think this item is great on Blue Kayn mostly because we don't get much use out of critical strike chance on Kayn and we have a good finishing tool with our Umbral Trespass, so the passive isn't very useful.

This item has so much healing from its active, which allows you to add another damage and healing source to your spell rotation. That combined with its Ability Haste which is perfect for you, and its ramping AD based on missing health. BUILD THIS EVERY GAME ON RED KAYN. Sadly phage doesn't give you the speed bonus anymore, which was vital for many bruisers, but the healing is never something to scoff at especially on Red Kayn, where our kit is majority centered around tank shredding and healing.

Here's how the active looks:

Play Video Play Video

Black Cleaver

: This item, much like last season, is a must on Red Kayn. It gives nice stats between more ability haste, AD, and health. It gives armor shred, which is useful if not just for the base armor of any target. It also is fantastic in extended fights, which is the only thing we do on red Kayn to begin with.

Death's Dance

: This item is great, for survivability. It makes a portion of your damage be taken as bleed, and if you get a kill, this bleed is reset and you don't take that damage.

Sterak's Gage

: Sterak's used to be good for a lot of things, and now it is good for 1 important thing. 1v1ing is great with this item and it gives a little more survivability in team fights.

Other Items:

Guardian Angel: this item is great on both Red and Blue Kayn and this is because survivability is always useful. It is an actual revive, granted with a long cooldown and a 4 second stasis that can screw you over. Regardless, it is great for the AD (attack damage), armor, and revive.

Edge Of Night: This item, once again, is for survivability. It gives a spell shield which negates the CROWD CONTROL, not the damage, from 1 ability.

Silvermere Dawn: This item is basically the old mercurial scimitar, because it can cure you from a crowd control ability. Good against Mordekaiser, Malzahar, Warwick, Zoe, Lilia, etc. Really any CC that will kill you in a teamfight.

About tank Items on Red Kayn: There are two instances where I usually build tank items
1. If im behind and my only purpose is to soak up damage
2. Im very ahead but my only threat is an AD carry (so I build Thornmail) or a mage (so I build Force of Nature or Spirit Visage)

My thoughts on Tiamat on Kayn?: My opionion has been changed on this item. I think on Blue Kayn its a good early purchase, however on Red Kayn I think its even better as a late purchase that goes right into Ravenous Hydra. To conclude, try it for yourself as I believe its personal preference.

A general note on items on Kayn:

Something I wish someone told me very early into playing Kayn was that any item that deals with auto attacks is generally a no go. Try to build to your teams strengths or your enemies strengths or weaknesses.
Also, if I didn't list an item that you are curious about, think about the logic I used for the other items, (survivability, heavy damage on Blue, Omnivamp on Red) and I assure you with practice the logistics and capabilities of the item will become clear.

Red Kayn:

This rune is absolutely amazing for Red Kayn because it allows you to excel in long fights which is what we're aiming for when we go Red Kayn. As you stack it by doing damage in a fight, you gain adaptive force (AD) and healing. This synergizes with our The Darkin Scythe just great.

Once again, great in long fighs where its very close, as that % heal is clutch in some situations. The gold is neither here nor there, but useful nonetheless.

This rune is very important on red Kyan because we are very weak to Crowd Control and this reduces the length of the CC's.

Great because it gives Attack damage based on missing health, which not only synergizes with Goredrinker, but also is good for long, close fights.

The secondary and tertiary should be self- explanatory, the reason we go domination is because we need healing and kill pressure.

Blue Kayn:

The reason we want this is because it helps us do burst damage. Despite the long cooldown, it gives us a massive, scaling burst of damage to enemies at low HP. Very useful for Blue Kayn because of this, remember we want burst damage.

I didn't explain it in the Red Kayn section but I will now. It gives us lethality when we dash or ult. Its good because we build lethality on Blue Kayn, so it only adds to our stats and comes in handy at the right time. On red Kayn it helps with early game ganks when not many targets have stacked armor, which is when lethality as a stat is the strongest.

This isn't bad now that relentless got nerfed. However with Ionian boots beins as strong as they are, we aren't running mobility boots. You still need speed, so relentless is my go to once again.

Now in season 11 this rune gives cooldown resets on kill. That's super strong for a very fast assassin like Blue Kayn, who needs his W up to engage on his target. The old choice was either Presence of Mind with Coup de Grace, or Slight Magical Boots with Cosmic Insight, but now that Cosmic insight doesn't give CDR, I think this is a better choice.

This is good for early game success. Extra 1v1 potential in the river when you're contesting crabs/ dragons.

Let me take a second to talk about Cosmic Insight. DO NOT TAKE THIS RUNE THIS SEASON. It used to give max CDR, flat CDR, item and summoner CDR. Now its just the last two, which is miserably useless unless you REALLY want Youmuu's on a low cooldown. I think maybe this would be viable if you wanted to go hybrid form with a Goredrinker and lethality because you would have 2 important item actives, but at that point why are you picking Kayn?

Passive, The Darkin Scythe - Okay, this is the big one. Doing damage to enemy champions gives you stacks. Ranged champions give you blue, melee red. (Thresh, Rakan, and Urgot are annoying) Once you fill the bar, the color with more stacks, regardless of the last type collected, becomes available to transform into. If you got more red Stacks, you can become the Darkin, or Red Kayn. More Blue stacks, you can become The Shadow Assassin, or Blue Kayn. If you didn't get the one you want, you can wait 4 minutes to transform into the other one. Getting stacks after your bar is full will only affect the other type if you get the corresponding stack. Now I know that sounds very complicated, but its not. Hit Garen to become the Darkin, hit Caitlyn to become Shadow Assassin. When you transform you have a new passive. As Blue Kayn: It allows you to deal an additional percent of magic damage in the first 3 seconds of combat. This is what makes him an assassin as it does great burst damage. AsRed Kayn:[ color=#ffcccb] It allows you to heal for a percentage of the damage you deal with your abilities. This is great for extended trades and 1v1's, which is what makes Rhaast a great dueler.[/color]

Q - Reaping Slash: This is half of what makes Kayn, well Kayn. He dashes in a direction and then spins in a circle, dealing damage twice. Once on the dash, once on the slash. As Red Kayn/ Darkin: It deals % max health damage.

W - Blade's Reach: This is other half of kayn being Kayn. He sends out his scythe to cut someone in front of you in a line. As Red Kayn/ Darkin: It airbornes enemies and monsters As Blue Kayn/ Shadow Assassin: it has a longer range and can be activated in a place, and then kayn can leave. Basically a shadow W's for you, and you yourself can walk away and the damage will be done where you originally casted.

E - Shadow Step: This is an awesome ability. You gain some movement speed and are able to walk through walls, and being in walls extends the duration. As Blue Kayn/ Shadow Assassin: It gives you more speed, and is on lower cooldown. It's the whole reason we are able to go so fast.

this is Kayns Ultimate. It allows you to enter someone and do damage after a delay, making you untargetable for the duration. It is very useful for a pseudo stasis, or a heavy source of healing/ damage depending on form. This is why I said we go Blue Smite because it has range, and because blue smite does direct damage, we can ult after smiting someone. As Red Kayn/ Darkin: It heals A LOT and does %Percent HP damage. As Blue Kayn/ Shadow Assassin : It deals extra damage.

Remember, playing Kayn is rewarding but frustrating at times. You can fall really behind early game and still come back once you have your mythic and form. Another thing I put in the pros and cons section is that your teammates can hate you. This is because Kayn functions off of both buffs, and your laners tend to want your blue or red. Late game definitely give your adc red buff. But you will notice your mana problems ESPECIALLY on red Kayn (used to be worse on blue Kayn, hence POM). Therefore I believe its okay to tell your Syndra to back off for a few minutes.

Kayn's playstyle mostly revolves around ganking as much as possible to get form and then farming and waiting for teamfights on objectives. Try to gank based off of wha form you want, but don't let a free gank go because it doesn't line up with form. Because of his insane clear speed, it's very simple to clear into ganks that help get the form you chose. Speaking of which

Choosing a form:

I chose form usually based off of how many enemies I'll have to fight in long fights that WON'T kite me easily. For example, even thought urgot gives blue stacks, he is a brawler that cant really kite me. If there are 3 or above of these type of champions, I go red


I go Blue when they have 3 or more squishies that I can reliably one shot. Fellow assasins do make this difficult to decipher but let me try to make it easier. Evelynn has a free escape and she dives my backline, so I usually don't really chose form around her anyway, but worst comes to worst i will go red for her because she'll dodge my one shot combo on blue. Whereas Zed cannot easily dodge my one shot combo and I can one shot him, so he is a blue Kayn champion.

Rustic, what would you go here?

Well I would go Red form because Alistar and Trundle are obviously red form champs, and graves is someone who is tanky enough to survive Blue Kayn combo and likes to duel, so therefore the 2 squishies dont matter and I pick Red.

Our power spikes are as follows:

Once we get our first item and we have our form, every game. You don't have a lane opponent, so no spiking at Seeker's Armguard, and you lack a lot of power before form, so form and 1 item is where we spike.

I just wanted to make a quick sub- section to abilities just to talk about combos. On paper, and if you saw the champion in a vacuum, he looks like he has complicated combos. I can assure you, they are not hard at all but they are still very effective.

Blue Kayn: This combo is very easy, its Reaping Slash into Blade's Reach in quick secession into ultimate. Don't worry about missing it, it's very hard to react to if you do it right. If your target dashes away *cough cough Galeforce*, you can blue smite into ult to catch up but on blue Kayn your ult range is increased. Example: Play Video
Red Kayn: Here it becomes tricky for me, because generally speaking, Red Kayn just kind of goes ham and kills people. However if I had to say something to help out it would be try to ult a tankier target and DO NOT ULT IF YOU ARE FULL HP.

Lee sin: The thing with Lee is how he can really ruin your early game, and this goes for both forms. He is way more annoying on blue because he can hit you away from the person you are diving, but on red Kayn he can slow your start, which is very annoying



Rengar isn't that bad on Red Kayn, you can counter jungle him pretty well because he doesn't focus on clearing as much as you do, but otherwise, he can duel better than you can on Blue Kayn, so be careful for that.



Hecarim is hard to play against only on Blue form really and this is because he can run you down and ult through walls you try to get away into with Onslaught of Shadows.



Skarner is tough on blue form aswell. He is a very good 1v1er and tends to kill you when you underestimate him. Just buy Quicksilver Sash and you should be fine from his late game. Still be careful early - mid game as you are very squishy and therefore an easy target for him.



Kha'zix is a little hard because, like rengar, he is a good duelist that can also one shot your backline. Play around his invis and for early scuttle crabs only contest if you have a laner with prio because he can 1v1 well.



Graves is a very hard stomper at high elo, he can kite really well for when you're red, so dont try to chase him unless you hit a nice w, and on blue he can one shot you if you don't play it well, so do play carefully around him.

CONCLUSION:

That about covers it for jungle matchups, you should know what to do for most junglers. For matchups you're having trouble with that I didn't list, try to use the same logic for similar junglers. The main role I didn't cover are tank junglers and that's because they are pushovers when you go red, so just play confidently and feel out unconfident matchups before you hop into ranked.

If this is hard to understand, my clear path is Red Brambleback > Krugs > raptors > wolves > blue sentinel > gromp > scuttle crab.

Few things to remember:

1. Gromp regens your health and mana

2. Weave ganks in whenever possible, but try to only gank after level 3, hard to
engage without Blade's Reach AND Shadow Step.

3. Scuttle Crab spawns at 3:15, be ready to contest one of those. Make sure you
have at least 1 lane with priority (your teammate can rotate faster) to hard
contest a crab, meaning fight and chase if you are winning. Sometimes its better
to fight a crab, and if you are winning the fight and get a flash, to take it
and leave.

4. Try to track the enemy jungler, due to Kayn's fast clear of raptors and single
target camps, he can counter jungle very well, meaning take objectives, gank, or
take enemy camps on the side of the map that the enemy jungler isn't.

5. In terms of starting raptors, I would say the best time to do it is if you are going blue kayn and you intend on ganking really early (lvl 3) at a ranged lane that way you can path right to them and be done in time for the crab that will be spawning around that time.

If you've made it this far, I wanted to say thank you, and I appreciate you reading my guide on my favorite character. If you disagree with me and want to recommend another item/ rune, let me know and I'd be happy to listen. This was a lot of fun to make and even if I'm just a gold player I feel like there is some stuff here that can be useful, especially to a beginner Kayn player. I know when I started playing jungle I ran to Mobafire and hid in the endless forums about Amumu and Rammus until I felt confident to mess around with my own builds on Kayn and other, harder junglers.

I love this character and I hope that in reading this guide you all can love the character too. To both returning, new, and veteran players, I hope there is something here you can use to learn or grow your knowledge of Kayn. Throughout Quarantine I have been slowing trying to perfect my knowdledge and tactics on Kayn. Despite the fact i feel far from perfection I'm more than elated to share my thoughts. But let me know in the comments what you think!