TahmKench
Master Tier Champion Guide
Why you should play Tahm Kench
Tahm Kench is a top-tier blind pick for top lane, offering high damage for a tank and supreme utility. His identity revolves around gank setup with his ultimate and W, and teamfight versatility, where he can either engage or peel for carries. He's incredibly durable in lane and can farm safely with his Q, even in tough matchups.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Exceptional Blind Pick Utility: Tahm Kench is one of the best blind picks for the top lane.
Best Gank Setup: He possesses the best gank setup in the entire game due to his ability to stall with R and cut off paths with W.
Lane Unkillability & Peel: He is very unkillable in lane and can turbo peel fed allies in team fights using his ultimate.
Weaknesses
Early Game Vulnerability: He is insanely weak before Level 4.
Poor Wave Clear: Tahm Kench has zero wave clear, which is noted as a big problem.
Vulnerable to Item Counters: He gets demolished by Blade of the Ruined King.
Laning Phase
Early Levels (1-3)
Power Spikes
Strategy
Team Fighting & Macro
After 20 minutes, Tahm Kench must choose between split pushing or grouping.
Split Pushing
Team Fighting
Single Summary Runes
Default Runepage
The Default best runepage is centered on sustaining and scaling damage in Resolve: Grasp of the Undying, Demolish (highly recommended for side lane threat), Second Wind (or Bone Plating/Conditioning depending on matchup), and Overgrowth. The secondary tree is Inspiration with Magical Footwear and Approach Velocity.
Alternative Runepage
The alternative, crucial rune page is Phase Rush, which is picked in hard lanes like Olaf where you need an escape tool to kite the enemy ultimate. Phase Rush is valuable because it removes a large portion of the self-slow applied by your ultimate, Devour (R).
Key Combos
Un-dodgable Q Kill Combo
R
QDevour (R) an enemy, wait for the last possible second before Devour runs out (do not manually spit them out), and then cast Tongue Lash (Q) immediately. This Q will be un-dodgable, even if the enemy uses Flash.
Guaranteed Abyssal Dive (W)
Q
WLand Tongue Lash (Q) on the enemy (to slow or stun them) and then instantly cast Abyssal Dive (W) on top of them to ensure W lands.
'Bluetooth' Devour Pull
QRWhen an enemy has 3 stacks of An Acquired Taste (Passive), you can press both the Q + R buttons simultaneously as the Q is about to hit. This pulls the enemy into your Devour.
Tips & Tricks
Abilities
QThe range of Q scales with champion size (affected by items like Heartsteel or Elixir of Iron).
WAlways use bushes when possible. W is invisible until the very end when cast from out of vision, making it much easier to land. Casting W inside a terrain will cause you to travel extra distance to spawn on the other side.
RYou can ult + W an ally to save them or transfer them across the map. Also, remember that slow resistance (such as from Boots of Swiftness) reduces the self-slow applied when you use Devour.