Kayn, The Newest League of Legends Champion Revealed…Again!

Earlier today we got our first glimpse of the League’s next champion, Kayn, and he was unlike anything that we’ve seen before. While he fits the mold of a transform champion, it was immediately obvious that his ability to transform had a more strategic edge to it, unlike his fellow shapeshifters. The short reveal video made it clear that Kayn is designed to jungle, that he’s a Darkin, and that he has a frontal AOE cone ability that looked much like Sion’s Decimating Slash. Apart from that, however, we learned precious little.

As it turns out, Riot can’t stand someone else stealing their thunder, so they staged a reveal of their own! Considering how bare bones it is compared to their usual champion reveals, it’s not impossible that it’s release is a direct response to the leaked video from earlier in the day, but there’s no evidence to suppose or deny that.

What there is, however, is a wealth of information about the new champion. Our initial suppositions were largely correct.Kayn is a Darkin champion who’s intended for the jungle and has a strategic transformation ability. What we didn’t expect, however, is that the transformation is permanent. Kayn either triumphs over Rhaast and becomes the ultimate Shadow Assassin or fails and succumbs to its influence forever. Once the player chooses which form they want to assume, there’s no going back.

It’s not as simple as a click of a button, however. Kayn’s transformation is influenced by the way he’s played and what targets he seeks out. Kayn enters the game in neither form and thus gains none of his passive’s bonuses until he earns his way to the point of transformation. How does he power his transformation? Blood, of course. The kills that Kayn earns determine which form he’ll assume later on in the game. Killing melee champions help Rhaast assume control over Kayn, while killing ranged champions will tip the scale in Kayn’s favor.

Kayn’s passive isn’t the only interesting thing he has going on, though. Some of his abilities pulled straight from the “generic melee champion” playbook — his Q, Reaping Slash, is just a button that you press to dash in a direction and do some damage — he also has some real tricks up his sleeve with his ultimate, Umbral Tresspass, and his E, Shadow Walk.

The latter of the two is one of most versatile — and terrifying — abilities to ever grace a potential jungler. Upon activation, it grants Kayn a brief burst of movement speed and allows him to walk through walls. If Kayn enters a wall its duration is greatly extended if he’s out of combat, and he’ll even get a small burst of healing. Depending on its duration, it may open up gank paths that have never been possible in the past for any champion, even Rek’sai.

His ultimate, Umbral Tresspass, is also no slouch, though it’s a bit less obvious how it will be useful. Upon activation, Umbral Trespass allows Kayn to hop into the body of any champion he’s dealt damage to recently. Kayn is untargetable as long as he’s within another champion, and he can choose to exit at any time and in any direction. When he does, he either reset the bonus magic damage from his passive if he’s in Ghost Assassin form, or deals percent health damage and heals if he’s in Darkin form. What’s most interesting is that Kayn remains inside his host no matter how far they try to flee. Flashing away won’t do anything, and he’ll even take a free ride if his host casts Teleport or Stand United.

All in all, Kayn is an at least interesting champion. How viable he’ll be is impossible to speculate on until we see numbers for his abilitiies, but it’s pretty hard to imagine a champion with the ability to walk through walls and who has built in bonus damage to monsters not making it as a jungler, at least in the casual scene.