League of Legends gameplay designer Phlox today addressed the highly awaited Tahm Kench rework, coming up with a rough schedule for the support champion’s re-release.
“So the TK rework is coming once preseason is (more) settled and we have time to finish up the work and allocate the resources,” Phlox said. “Really would prefer to have it out before pro starts again, but I sadly can’t just slap a timeline here.”
Even though Phlox doesn’t set a specific date for Tahm Kench’s rework, they hinted that it’s heading to the game before the next professional season, which typically starts at the end of January.
With the rework, Riot aims to shift Tahm Kench’s Devour (W) ability to its ultimate slot where it becomes “significantly more powerful as a spell cast” and thus “less dependent on allies playing around,” according to the developer’s quick gameplay thoughts in June. It would deal more damage to enemies and protect allies by granting them a shield.
In the suggested upgrade, the open W slot will then become a new engagement tool that will “similarly be less coordination reliant than” his live engage ultimate. It’s basically going to be a faster, shorter-range personal Abyssal Voyage that damages and knocks down enemies on arrival, Riot said.
Riot also testes self-healing in Tongue Last (Q), which allows it once again to stack Tahm Kench’s passive, An Acquired Taste, to “encourage” the offensive uses of Devour.
In the run-up to the 2021 preseason, Tahm Kench’s win rate dropped to 45 percent in the support role, to compare with his second-worst role. His kit, which is weak for the vast majority of solo queue players and strong in pro-play, has been requested for a rework.