LoL Inven Inven Global

Hi! I  am SirLazybones and I decided to make a guide of one of the champions I've enjoyed the most since I started playing league 5 years ago. I enjoy a lot how unique he is, as you'll see in this guide.

Finally before starting for real, I thought that maybe if I created some GIFs and recorded some videos this guide would be more enjoyable, I hope they are useful and entertaining enough for you.

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1) Picking Kayn!

The same way as Udyr can choose between maxing Q and R to become either a high dmg dealer or an annoying tank, Kayn can adapt to the enemy team and become a high mobility assassin with tons of burst dmg, or a tank-buster bruiser with high sustain.

Rhaast is the tank-buster “form”. His abilities allow him to chunk the HP of a tank with ease; if you are playing vs Cho’gath, think no more, Rhaast will do the job!

On the other side, if you get matched vs champs like yasuo/vayne/zoe you will be able to delete that from the game by installing Shadow Assassin.exe (jokes aside, we’ll later talk about this decision as it is the most important in a game when playing as Kayn).

Even without transformation he is one of the best junglers out there as his clear is fast, healthy and has a lot of gank/invade tools. That's why I would recommend him to players that want to learn the jungle role (although warwick fulfills that role better).

This adaptability paired with the fact that it is relatively easy to learn how to play him, should make you start seeing him as a  pick.

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TL;DR Kayn is a safe pick into almost any teamcomp, a great jungler even if you are new at the role. And probably most importantly, he is really fun to play.

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2) Orb Mechanics

Unlike most champions, Kayn starts the game without a virtual passive, instead he has an empty meter that represents the  fight to gain control between Rhaast, a Darkin that is imprisoned in the scythe and Kayn himself, who has the power to wield it without being possessed by Rhaast's strong will.

Every time Kayn damages or kills an enemy champion he will get some orbs to fill this said meter, the more times he deals damage to them the more orbs he gets.

There are two kind of orbs. The ones you get from ranged champions are blue orbs. The ones from melee champs are red orbs. At the end of the filling process the kind of orb that ends the process will unlock the transformation to one of the two  possible outcomes of the duo, greatly increasing his power as he gets new passives and enhanced abilities:

Rhaast is a tank-buster bruiser that has massive sustain with his passive and some utility on his kit.

Shadow Assassin is a swift assassin with great amounts of burst damage as his passive and high mobility on his kit.

There's no need to rush for this orbs as the amounts you gain increases as the game goes on, meaning that doing the same combo early on will only grant you 10% of your orb meter compared with even more than 50% of it 10 minutes later into the game.

Just remember that the more time you stay without transform, the more time you'll be without a real passive and enhanced abilities.

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TL;DR: Kayn gains orbs when damaging enemy champs:

                
From melee enemies ---- > Rhaast, a tank-buster bruiser
From ranged enemies --- > Shadow Assassin also known as S.A. the name says it all (lots of burst dmg + nice hair)

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3) Rhaast or Shadow Assassin?

Now that we know how Kayn's passive works, many will wonder which is the best form? The fastest answer: There isn't such thing as the best form. But if we specify in the enemy team's composition, possibly a preference will appear. Of course you can just always pick Rhaast, because you see him as the strong form, or because you like him more than Mr. Blue, but then you would be maining Rhaast, and this is a Kayn guide, from a Kayn main, which include both forms!

Let me show you why you should adapt depending on the game, and the process I follow to decide:

1- Because of how Rhaast's Q and R scale and how they both deal % Max HP dmg, and how his passive heals him for some of the damage dealt by his abilities. We can all agree he is more than capable of chunking a full tank Cho'gath pretty fast compared to almost any melee champion.

This means that if you are facing / / , go ahead and work on getting Rhaast, as he will outdamage and outsustain almost all of them alone, although you shouldn't be always 1v1'ing since Rhaast excels when accompanied.

He is also more forgiving for new Kayn players in low gold and below since people doesn't know how to position and errors are more common, with Rhaast you can always heal when ulting the enemy with more HP if caught in a bad spot.

Another situation that favors choosing Rhaast is in case you are behind / your team is losing, I give you the reasoning behind it in "The comeback from a bad early".

If the enemy team doesn't have any Bruiser or Tank or they have just one, and you already have another tank-buster like //proceed to the next step.

2-If you are facing a lot of squishies that either carry the game with damage and get some pentakills or just feed like there's no tomorrow. 

Or in case they are all hard outscaling your team comp, like having in your team an ezreal and the enemy team a vayne (a lategame you don't want to see at all). Shadow Assassin (S.A. a.k.a. blue Kayn) is the form that will be more useful against them.

With his mobility and broken damage he is able to force an early win or to simply snowball out of control oneshotting squishies. There are some thing you should always be sure to do as both forms, but that is more noticeable and easier with S.A. I'll cover them in "Abusing your early lead".

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TL;DR: When facing Bruisers and Tanks that may be hard to kill mid-to-late picking Rhaast is a win-win situation. He is also better for new Kayn players in low gold and below.

When facing enemy comps with squishy champions that are a threat to your team, picking Shadow Assassin and keeping them zoned or just killing them can win you a game.

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It is good to know when to choose a form, you have a plan and you execute it; but sometimes things go wrong...  

You get invaded early on and the enemy jungler clears your jgl camps, you get counterganked really badly and both you and your laner get killed, or you simply underperform while the enemy jungler is a god with lee sin and appears on every lane getting more and more kills while you get blamed by your crying teammates...

Yeah it happens to everyone every now and then, and even if some of those game look impossible to win you shouldn't get that mentality when playing the Scyte Boy, you can make a comeback 80% of the times and be relevant.

The "trick" for a comeback is pretty simple: were you going to pick S.A.?

DON'T

-"Me too, but hear me out, I'll give you a couple reasons on why you should prioritize Rhaast over S.A. when you are having a bad early":

-First of all, when you are behind, the gold and level difference are the biggest problem, and while you can still farm pretty well with S.A., the clear speed that Rhaast gains from his Q is unmatched.

More jungle CS means more experience & gold that you'll be getting, furthermore, since you are behind the enemy jungler will probably be free to invade you, but as you'll be clearing the jungle really fast, the enemy won't get almost anything from the invade.

-Secondly, Rhaast is way more "forgiving" and has more utility than S.A., with this I am refering to the big heals Rhaast gets from his abilities, compared to S.A.'s extra damage. Since you are behind and you need to go into melee range to deal damage, the damage you'll receive will be less of a problem if you are able to heal it.
And even if Rhaast heals off the damage you deal, meaning the less items you have less you heal, the healing you'll be getting even from having almost nothing is noticeable.

Adding to this, having an AOE knockup to initiate/peel your carry/disrupt the enemy makes you really useful: even when being behind, you will be able to help.

-Another argument that should discourage you from picking S.A.: since he is an assassin he follows the same rule as all of them: you want items, without them you cannot do your job, and it will be harder the more behind you are, since if you are not deleting squishies, they'll keep growing stronger to the point you will be the one getting oneshot, rendering you useless.

For example, take into account that by the time you finish your second item, their ADC will be starting to build their Stopwatch, Zhonyas (yes Zhonyas on ADCs, not cool), Guardian Angel... And you may be even more unlucky and have an enemy support properly building to peel their carry!

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You get first blood on your first gank top, then you enter the enemy jungle and steal all the camps, then you find the enemy jungler really low clearing scuttle, you steal it and kill him aswell.
After this you get 3 more kills while not dying once and farming all your jungle, but what now?

If you are this far ahead, you may aswell make sure the enemy team doesn't make a comeback and try as much as you can to create a larger gap between your lead and the enemie's hope of coming back into the game, while also looking to close the game as soon as possible.

People tend to make mistakes when a situation they thought to be safe at first becomes a "run for your life" kind of situation, for example if you kill someone that was pressuring the map bottomside, the enemy that was being helped by such pressure to push will probably want to back off to a place they think is "safer" in order to then restart another strategy, you can punish this predictable patterns easily with Kayn's mobility:

-Although Rhaast is really strong on any scenario and better at coming back from a bad early, Shadow Assassin shines when ahead, so choosing him over Rhaast is recommended.

-Both Rhaast and S.A. clear the jungle really fast, that paired with his E make him a great counterjungler. An although S.A. may purchase more lethality items than Rhaast, both benefit from them, all this together scream one item when ahead:

This item transforms into a Serrated Dirk after clearing 4 enemy jungle camps; wich is the same as getting for free 600 Gold, as Poacher's costs 500 G while Serrated requires 1100 G.
Paired with the fact that you will be stealing at least 4 camps from the enemy jungler.

Just remember to invade safely (//)  and keep track of the jungler's nearby allies, you don't want to get collapsed on after being spotted by a good ward.

-There's an objective you should always take when ahead, Rift Herald, with it's reward, if you are able to kill a laner you'll be able to take 1st tower gold if avaiable and maybe even a second one, which is a huge advantage and will start opening the map for your team.

-After you get your 1st item and 1/2, you should start looking for assassinations, for that, try to "read" the enemy carry's patterns so you can predict easily when an assassination will be possible.

Always try to target the ones that would be a threat for your team while they are taking an objective:

-If you want to contest an important Drake you may as well kill the enemy Yi so his team doesn't try to contest it.

-If you are pushing mid, keep track of the enemy ADC, if he is farming bot and suddenly dissapears, there's 3 different things he may be going to do:

1. He may have backed to spend his gold, then head toward mid to defend.                                                        
2. He may be heading toward mid directly through the jungle, ignoring any lack of  vision/security he may need, just to get there as fast as possible.
3. He may be heading mid but taking a safer path so he doesn't get 1shotted by the fed Kayn.
   

Even if 2 is the choice you can exploit the most in order to kill the enemy ADC, all 3 are about the same; knowing where the ADC is, knowing where he wants to be, and not letting him get there. With the mobility that Kayn's kit grants you, with just the information given by your vision you should be able to get anywhere you need to be to assassinate said carry.

Finally if you have chosen what I think is the strongest of all runes with Kayn, Dark Harvest, do not forget to farm as much souls as possible. Even if you reach a full build lategame, you can take the camps for the souls or just follow a teammate and get the soul of the camp they clear as it is just required for the user to be near to spawn the soul. Also remember that you gain more stacks from the souls of lane minions than from jungle monster's.

If you manage to get around 300 stacks lategame, the job of deleting squishies becomes a lot easier, allowing you to miss your W+Q combo and 1 shot with just half your Q and an AA:

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Shadow Assassin is brutal when ahead.

In order to abuse you early game advantage you should look to invade making use of Poacher's Dirk, look for the habits of the enemy and punish the bad ones.

Take as much objectives as possible, prioritize Herald, towers, then drakes, all while killing the ones that may defend/steal them.

Dark Harvest stacking mustn't be forgotten, as with every stack you get closer to the "perfect oneshot".

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6) Tips and tricks while jungling

At the time of clearing the jungle, always try to clear from one side of the map to the other, so when the camps respawn they do always in the same order.

Clearing Raptors---- >Red--- >Going to the other side is the common route, although if you can get leashed in your Red you can go for the maximum XP route: Red--- >Krugs--- >Scuttle/Raptors/Blue(if you invaded their Red + Krugs)

There are 3 tips I can give you while jungling:

The first one, clear normally but when Qing use it to get away from the monster/s so you regain more HP using Hunter's Talisman's passive, you can also use E to kite the monsters while you regain cooldowns and HP.
This way of clearing is WAY healthier but also slower:

The second tip also involves Q, use it while really close to terrain so Kayn performs the two instances of damage almost instantly, this may seem insignificant but every milisecond matters and adds up:

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I am not going to just write down or copy-paste the info of every ability in Kayn's kit since that seems very impractical. Instead I'll be talking about some facts for each ability that you may not notice when playing Kayn, or you may forget, while that knowledge can be useful in many situations:

Reaping Slash: 

-Since it is a dash it can be stopped by most CCs in the game, for example if Kayn Qs through Veigar's  E, Q's animation will stop as soon as Kayn reaches the wall, not doing the second instance of damage.

-You can go through Terrain with it, so you should learn every wall you can jump in case you need to escape/pursue someone and have E on it's long cooldown.

Blade's Reach:

-When you are Rhaast it will not only knockup opponents struck by it, but after recovering from the knockup it automatically slows them for less than 1 second.

-When you are Shadow Assassin it allows you to perform any action without locking you in place, sometimes instead of just Q'ing instantly, landing an AA right after W'ing is a way to maximize your damage output. This is more efficient when you get your Duskblade, since it slown on your 1st AA for a ton, allowing you to land your Q entirely.

Shadow Step:

-When Shadow Assassin is chosen, it doen't just double the bonus movement speed while on terrain, it also gives you an automatic cleanse for any kind of slow, wich means that after being slowed, if you use E, even when not entering terrain it will automatically cancel the slow affecting you. Any kind of slow can be cleansed, even Attackspeed slows.

-The indicator that appears when being near an enemy champion while being inside of the terrain doesn't only give you a counterplay for them to play against it. You can as well use it as it will tell you if someone has invaded you or if an enemy is camping on a bush!

Umbral Trespass

-Any kind of damage will allow you to R into the enemy, meaning that you can ult someone by just      smiting them  with Stalker's Blade' Smite.

-Sometimes it is better to cancel your ult beforehand in order to surprise the enemy, if you are about to die to an Ignite as Rhaast, you should cancel you ult right away to regain HP to save you.

-Kayn can get to use Duskblade of Draktharr's two times in a fight since R counts as making him unseen by the enemy. This is very important to take into account when playing as S.A. as his passive will also reset, increasing your damage incredibly if you are able to AA before & after ulting your target.



Combos:

Flash + W:

This is the most important combo to be able to perform as Kayn, mainly with Rhaast as this is the best initiation he can perform, it reminds me of Malphite's R, it can surprise anyone and let you dish out a ton of damage.

Q --> AA--> W--> AA-->Q:

The basic combo of kayn, first Q to get as near as possible to the target and AA while they decide where to run, W as soon as they start getting away from you and AA, you should have your Q again so use it to finish them off. This combo is way more effective when used as Rhaast.

Here's a video of me using both combos one after the other to close the game:

Flash + Q:

Kayn can also use Q faster while queueing it with Flash to surprise/close large distances with the target.

And as Shadow Assassin you will be able to do the same combo but while also using W, resulting in a  Flash +  W -->Q combo:

Stalker's Blade's  Blue Smite + Ult from long range/ holding ult for a big disengage then R the target.

This combo will be almost only used by S.A. since he gets a bigger range with his ult. The reason why you want to wait until the enemy blows their disengage tool before ulting is because after you are in R, you will be more predictable and probably the enemy will blow you up while you can't finish off your target because of his disengage, like Alistar's  Headbutt, Janna's Monsoon, Azir's Emperor's Divide etc.

In the next video I use both of this combos to get more than 2 kills:

Q while on wall because of  E:

Since Kayn is free of using his abilities while on terrain and not in combat, he can use Q to move further in order to place himself as close as possible to the other side of a wall so when E's duration ends, he is "expelled" from the wall to the closest side to the non-terrain ground. This may prove useful when you are traveling large distances with Shadow Step.

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8) Specific Matchups

I talked about some matchups at the beginning of this guide, but now that it is ending I think it is better to extend more the information of certain matchups, particularly the hard ones:

Master Yi

He is yi.

But as with any other champion in this game, if he underperforms he can become really useless, and it is up to you and your team to close the game ASAp as you won't like to face a full built Yi.A good one will farm up and will be able to tank S.A.'s burst with his W. Or dodge Rhaast's W with his Q.

Tip: Win ASAP, Rhaast > S.A. if you see he has good timings with his Q and W.

Kai'Sa

Tempting to go S.A. right? but you forget she's got an R that gives hes a super shield, a support to shield/heal/stunlock you in place, invisivility, a monster level lategame, and she is Kai'sa, she has more a's in her name than you.

-"Oh but Sir Lazybones, Rhaast has two A's too!"-

-"WRONG!!!"-he said, dissapointed- "She just deleted your whole team and your 2 A's, you are now Rhst."

Tip: Win ASAP/ Gank bot until she is really behind (care with this because if it goes wrong and she gets kills...), even with all that I've said before, I still think S.A. > Rhaast. Stack your Dark Harvest as much as you can, you'll need it.

Kindred

A good Kindred will know when to use her Lamb's Respite (ult) to avoid your dmg as it is very predictable.

You could go S.A. if confident in your skills, but after they get a Black Cleaver and a Guardian Angel you are done. If you go S.A. follow the recommendations, if you go Rhaast peel for your carries and let someone of your team deal with her in teamfights; remember, she cannot ult if CC'd, so if you see her getting low, W her so she cannot R and let your team finish her.

Tips:

-No matter what, ignore the first mark on the scuttle crab if you haven't taken your first blue AND red, or she will trade that mark for one of your buffs.

-Avoid ulting her before she ults, if you do so you win, if she manages to make you ult before she does she wins. This means DO NOT fight her if you are behind/she is ahead; do it if you can Q, W, AA x2, Q, and with this she believes you are about to ult her to finish the assassination.

-The more the game goes on the stronger she gets, end before teamfights, or she will get too much marks to handle that absurd range, att.speed and damage.

Nami

Nami as a support can counter really hard Kayn, she will always know where to buble as you have a really predictable dash and his W in base and Rhaast form have a cast time that makes you vulnerable for her to stop you.

Even if with S.A. she could be a sushi roll, do not underestimate her peel potential when you are trying to assassinate her adc, as the game goes on she will make it harder for you to do your job as S.A.

Just imagine Kai'sa + Nami on the enemy team... that can't be fun to play against.

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The End

Thank you very much for reading to the end ^^

I hope this guide has helped you on improving your knowledge in a way that the next time you play Kayn you can perform to the maximum level!

Have fun and get better with every game! GL HF!