Very informative Kayn guide for beginners
ziolopro21
Best Overall Runes
Spells
Skill Priority
Q
W
E
Best Overall Build
Introduction
Hello, I am a diamond Kayn player which will introduce you to Kayn.
Basically, I will talk about EVERYTHING that a beginner Kayn player should know. We're gonna talk about weaknesses of non-form and both his forms, his builds, combos and clearing. My build is different than any other and I didn't take it from anyone, but I watched a lot of guides about Kayn's hidden mechanics and clearing which I didn't know about, which helped me climb and gather more tempo in every game.
Everything you need to know about early game (non-form) Kayn.
Red Kayn items first. So let's get started. Basically, a huge weakness of Kayn early game is his runes on non-form. You don't have much to do early game except counter-jungling and fighting anywhere before first back, where your enemy will be weaker than you (unless its an early game champ like Warwick, Nocturne or even better pre-back champ like Master Yi). What you need to know about non-form is his huge burst output and fast clearing speed which you need to focus on early game. Buy Caulfield's Warhammer to ensure your clearing speed is fast, or buy Ironspike Whip which makes your clear faster as well (not as much as Caulfield's Warhammer) but it ensures your burst damage on ganks will be huge. Remember, you're not a good DPS champ early game, and as well you don't have and hard CC, so bursting out champs on ganks is the only thing you can do. If you manage to do several good ganks, you should have form in early stage of the game, which is the biggest spike for Kayn.
Is blue different? No, you don't rush boots or whatever, you just buy Serrated Dirk first to burst squishies with your abilities, because you will need to buy Prowler's Claw instead of Goredrinker.
Red Kayn
I wanna talk about my favorite form - red Kayn. He is the hardest and as well worse than blue Kayn in most situations, but it doesn't mean you won't win with him. Red Kayn needs you to know all the limits. If you wanna learn red kayn, you should fight a lot with him and get a decent understanding of his damage and healing. I will talk about some fighting tricks with him that will ensure you will 1v9 most of your games if you get fed.
Basically, red Kayn has a lot worse mid game, but his tankiness makes him a big deal throughout the game. His damage is very low pre-Muramana so you need to avoid fighting strong bruisers and non-squishies. Very important thing on Kayn is that you get more healing from squishy and low resistance targets, like full HP bruisers, mages and ADC's. You should never focus tanks in fights unless u can fight him safely and stack Conqueror, just to turn onto other targets with Conqueror fully stacked. Basically, now Kayn is very low in resistance because of Sterak and Goredrinker huge nerf. Now, Kayn needs to go full dmg with Death's Dance which is a turbo op item on Kayn, because he gets tankiness somewhere else - from runes and healing. You don't need resistance to stay long in fights. This makes it a strong item on Kayn that ensures you wont get one-shot and makes your health greater for 30%. You heal a lot with just your abilities (not from tanks) and Goredrinker, so be sure to get a decent understanding about your healing. Healing makes u tanky because of Death's Dance interaction with Kayn.
2 rune pages on red Kayn - what you need to know about them to fully understand their power
- Outscaling
- Fast scaling
A very quick introduction to both builds.
Outscaling - after patch 12.3, all bruiser items were transformed into more damage-based items, deleting huge amount of health and making Sterak's useless 2nd item. We got Death's Dance - the most important item for Darkin Kayn, which we cannot avoid (you need to build it every game). Why do we make these small changes like inspiration into resolve, AD for AH and AR/MR into HP? Very simple - We wanna play like we need Death's Dance (without it red Kayn will mostly only deal damage and you can only skirmish with him, fights are unplayable without the item). Most of the games will end very fast, so you need to get ahead very soon, but we need to constantly scale and become stronger throughout the game. Conditioning helps gaining a small amount of power in midgame, while Revitalize greatly improves your tankiness (your tankiness is mostly healing!!!). AH is better for scaling and HP will play better with Death's Dance, although if you play against 4 AD or 4 AP you need to change it to AR and MR for a better game.
Fast scaling - This rune page got hit because Sterak's Gage 2nd item is not a thing anymore. Cosmic Insight is not the best choice now, although it still plays well with Goredrinker. I strongly recommend playing it when you need fast scaling against very strong bruisers in midgame. Otherwise, play resolve every time.
Item Builds - red Kayn
There's a lot of builds which you need to know as a Kayn player. A lot of items perform differently and red Kayn is very different.
- Red
Explaining the choice of - 1st & 2nd back items, boots, core items, both example full builds
1st & 2nd back items - It was already explained at the start in Everything you need to know about early game (non-form) Kayn.
Boots - free AH, which results in more healing. It makes you tankier than normally. Tabi/Mercury's are very situational and I would never buy them even if needed, because they dont exactly play very well in some games as Kayn.
Core items - We do not get any health, but we get strong AD items which results in healing. Mostly you will out-heal your Death's dance, which will just make you a lot tankier than with Sterak's. Going full AD means you're not scared of fights and you know your limits very well, planning and fighting fights very well will make this three items rewarding.
1st example build - A build that will mostly help u get tanky while getting a lot of HP and a lot of AD. Chempunk is a very good item and it's 10x better than Thornmail, which makes you heal less and deal less, as well some champs like Sylas can still heal and it won't proc.
2nd example build - Mostly when you need MR against a team with like 3 AP champs. Spirit visage plays perfectly with full damage champs, because you will heal a lot without buying AD. As well, you dont need to buy AR, because you are having huge amount of AR from Death's Dance.
Item Builds - blue Kayn
He has a pretty straightforward. You will play it nearly every game, with some different items coming in different situations.
- Blue
Summoner Spells
Smite and flash, self explanatory.
- Summs (Role 1)
Skill Path
Many people prefer leveling up Q double on level 3, which is an absolute mistake in every single way. It makes your clear faster ONLY if u cannot fast clear with Kayn. W makes the clear a lot faster, which you will see in my fast clear showcase, which you will find deeper into the guide (check table of contents to quickly go there).
- Skill Path
Kayn
Matchups
Hardest and hard - Matchups you can't win against.
Even - You need extreme knowledge and skills or just win by playing differently
Easy and very easy - Matchups you win with ease.
- Hardest
- Hard
- Even
- Easy
- Very easy
Non-form Kayn gameplay
Non-form as well has a different gameplay compared to both forms. Basically, you need to burst squishies to acquire stacks. NEVER focus melee's for red form or range for blue form. Ganking is not getting stacks, it's about good situation to help your laner while he's getting pressured or when it's a good time to gank and get a kill. Getting form will get fast even if you focus on easy to gank lanes, instead of going only for melee or range champs. It is a huge mistake and many beginner Kayn players do it. Okay, you get a form faster but you need to be aware of your other laners feeding hard or you not having enough gold to do decent DMG.
Red Kayn gameplay
Okay, so we have a non-form Kayn done. Lets get to the red Kayn part. So, you need to stack your Conqueror before fully commiting, or else you will lose a lot of health and you won't fully use Death's Dance power. Fight someone off fight or don't focus a lot of targets before getting your Conqueror. You should always hit your first Q or else you will lose a lot of damage output. Very important thing on Kayn is to use your E as a way of transporting and healing as well. What makes you strong is damage now in the newest Patch, but you still shouldn't avoid buying Sterak's and Chempunk Chainsword, because they are one of the strongest items on Kayn later onto the game.