Tahm Kench is a typical example of a champion that excels in professional play but struggles in solo queue. This champion requires seamless teamwork and strategy to unleash its full potential, so it’s no surprise that Tahm Kench is always a safe pick for League of Legends teams, while in solo queue, where you play with four strangers, effective coordination is nearly impossible.
Currently, Tahm Kench’s status is considered acceptable; he has to compete with many other champions in the Support role, so he’s not overwhelmingly dominant in tournaments. Meanwhile, his win rate in solo queue is quite low at only 45%. However, for a unique champion like Tahm Kench, that’s acceptable. Riot Games always wants things to be “balanced” and to perform well in both tournaments and ranked play, so they have announced plans to rework this “catfish.”
Specifically, in the latest gameplay update, Riot CaptainGameplay revealed the updates they want to implement for Tahm Kench. During the recent testing phase, Riot Games has transformed the W ability – Devour into this champion’s new ultimate, which will be significantly buffed to be worthy of an ultimate, such as dealing additional damage, providing shields to allies, or reducing the slow effect on himself.
So what will happen to the W ability? Riot Games also mentioned this as they are testing out a completely new skill for Tahm Kench, which is described as being quite similar to Abyssal Voyage (the current ultimate), but with a much shorter range and an additional knock-up effect when he arrives at the destination.
These are the two skills considered “new” for Tahm Kench, with Q – Tongue Lash and E – Thick Skin remaining unchanged, but Riot is looking for ways to further enhance them. For example, the Tongue Lash skill currently being tested will provide additional healing and restore the ability to stack the passive Unique Flavor.
Of course, players are unlikely to see these updates immediately, as this is an important champion in the professional scene, and Riot Games does not want to do anything that would completely change the meta of the summer tournaments and this year’s World Championship. Therefore, they will roll out updates for Tahm Kench after the 2020 World Championship or even in the preseason at the end of the year.
This is indeed a bold change from Riot Games, but it also raises many questions about the necessity of this update. It is true that Tahm Kench is weak in solo queue, but he remains strong in tournaments; the issue lies not solely with the champion but primarily with the players themselves.
Whatever happens, let’s hope Riot doesn’t create another “monster,” like what they did with Wukong when they lightly reworked a few skills and made him dominate both the tournament and solo queue.
