Riot testing Tahm Kench changes that would make Devour his ultimate, allow Q to self heal, and give him a knock-up gap closer

It’s time to unbench the Kench.

League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter updated fans on the current direction of Tahm Kench in today’s dev blog. Due to the huge disparity between the River King’s performance in solo queue and in pro play, the devs are experimenting on tweaking his kit.

“With a semi-global ultimate that requires him to plan map rotations ahead of time with his allies, and his marque Devour that both negates opponent playmaking and enables his allies to position in ways that would otherwise be incredibly dangerous, Tahm has a lot of power that specifically requires the highest degree of coordinated play,” game designer CaptainGameplay said.

To balance out the champion, Riot is trying out Devour as Kench’s ultimate ability. It would be buffed a bit, dealing more damage to enemies and providing more protection to allies. Devouring an ally would give them a shield and wouldn’t slow you as much as it does in its current state.

This would allow teams to capitalize on Devour since it doesn’t get unlocked until level six and would have a longer cooldown.

If Devour moves to R, Kench’s W would become a “new engage tool” that would require less coordination than his current ultimate. It would be a “faster” and “shorter range” Abyssal Voyage that damages and knocks up enemies on arrival.

A self heal is also being tested on Kench’s Tongue Lash (Q).

The timeline for Kench’s reworked ability kit is after the Worlds patch so it doesn’t affect the biggest annual League tournament.