League of Legends Patch Changes Tahm Kench's Most Important Ability

The notes for League of Legends' newest patch are out, and with them come a big change for Tahm Kench's most useful ability. His Devour/Regurgitate allows him to scoop up allies and enemies alike to either save them or deal big damage, but after Patch 9.9 releases, Tahm Kench players won't be able to fulfil either one of those objectives as well as they could before the update.

According to Riot Games' patch notes, "Tahm Kench's Devour does too much for a basic ability." If you've seen an enemy ADC be swallowed up right when you're going in on them or have watched any pro games, you'd likely be inclined to agree with that. To remedy this problem, Riot is moving Tahm Kench's power around to different parts of his kit while taking it out of Devour.

The full notes for Tahm Kench's Devour changes can be seen below along with some explanations regarding what this means for the Kench.

W - Devour/Regurgitate

• [NEW] ALLY DEVOUR: Now grounds and slows Tahm Kench by 95% (same as devouring an enemy champion)
• [NEW] MANA REFUND: 50% when Tahm Kench devours an enemy champion
• COST: 60 mana ⇒ 100 mana
• COOLDOWN: 28/25/22/19/16 seconds ⇒ 20 seconds at all ranks
• BASE MINION SPIT DAMAGE: 100/150/200/250/300 ⇒ 100/135/170/205/240
• ENEMY CHAMPION DAMAGE: 20/24/28/32/36% (+0.02 per 100 ability power) target's maximum health ⇒ 100/135/170/205/240 (5/7/9/11/13% target's maximum health) (+0.02 per 100 ability power)

If you're using Tahm Kench's Devour to help allies all the time, you're the primary target that'll feel the effects of this patch. The cooldown's been flattened, but the mana is increased, so you can't spam the ability. It also Grounds Tahm Kench now and slows him considerably just as if he'd eaten an enemy, so don't expect to be Flashing away from a conflict with a teammate in tow.

It's not as bad for those who play Tahm Kench elsewhere like in the top lane and spend their time consuming enemies, but the damage nerf will be noticeable. The mana cost actually favors this gameplay since Devouring an enemy will make the ability cost 50 mana, 10 less than before.

Tahm Kench got some buffs elsewhere to compensate. His passive is stronger in the early game while weaker later, his Tongue Lash is now better in every way except for its cooldown which will impact how many spell rotations Tahm Kench can get off in one skirmish, and his shield is also now better in every way. The ultimate took a big hit though, so don't expect to be traveling as far or as frequently after the update.

Full notes for Patch 9.9's Tahm Kench changes can be seen here.

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