It’s time to unbench the Kench.
League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter updated fans on the current direction of Tahm Kench in today’s dev blog. Due to the huge disparity between the River King’s performance in solo queue and in pro play, the devs are experimenting on tweaking his kit.
“With a semi-global ultimate that requires him to plan map rotations ahead of time with his allies, and his marque Devour that both negates opponent playmaking and enables his allies to position in ways that would otherwise be incredibly dangerous, Tahm has a lot of power that specifically requires the highest degree of coordinated play,” game designer CaptainGameplay said.
To balance out the champion, Riot is trying out Devour as Kench’s ultimate ability. It would be buffed a bit, dealing more damage to enemies and providing more protection to allies. Devouring an ally would give them a shield and wouldn’t slow you as much as it does in its current state.
This would allow teams to capitalize on Devour since it doesn’t get unlocked until level six and would have a longer cooldown.
If Devour moves to R, Kench’s W would become a “new engage tool” that would require less coordination than his current ultimate. It would be a “faster” and “shorter range” Abyssal Voyage that damages and knocks up enemies on arrival.
A self heal is also being tested on Kench’s Tongue Lash (Q).
The timeline for Kench’s reworked ability kit is after the Worlds patch so it doesn’t affect the biggest annual League tournament.
Another day, another set of balance changes heading to League of Legends. This time, League gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter has unveiled five champions who have been the focus of a small mechanics project created by Riot Games’ developer team.
Pyke will be getting some changes to his kit in order to buff his support playstyle, while preventing his solo lane abilities from reaching broken levels. The Bloodharbor Ripper has terrorized the top lane once before, but has fallen in priority due to the extensive nerfs he’s received to his Q and E abilities.
Similarly, Karthus will be getting some changes to increase his viability in the mid lane, while also giving the team more room to tune both his mid and jungle builds more easily in the future. Karthus had originally been a mid laner, but his great clear and global ultimate made him a perfect candidate to enter the jungle.
Riot also wants to shift some power with Swain’s kit, so that he can stay viable at higher levels of play, while keeping him balanced at lower ranks as well. Tahm Kench is also getting a shift in his power in order, but it’s to make him a bit more viable in solo queue, instead of just at the professional levels of play.
The River King has always been a big pick in pro play, due to his great playmaking abilities. With a coordinated lineup, Tahm Kench’s global ultimate can help shift a fight in your team’s favor—he could also save a teammate from certain death with a well-timed Devour.
