The players at Worlds 2020 have proven that Hail of Blades on Braum and Tahm Kench is extremely strong.
The Worlds 2020 meta revolves around jungle champions getting an early advantage to steal camps, secure objectives, and gank enemies’ lanes. However, Top and Mid players are not always able to roam when the fight begins, therefore, Support players need to roam in the early stage to ensure their teammates have the best advantage possible. The images of support players who appeared in the jungle or anywhere beside bot lane before 10 minutes are not so uncommon in Worlds 2020. Beryl and Mykix were the ones who started this trend.
However, support champions have a big problem that is they are really struggling to effectively deal damage in the early game because their skill sets are designed towards protecting teammates and crowd control. If you do not have enough damage to take down your opponent, you will be extremely behind due to experience lost compared to the traditional laning way. Professional players came up with a solution called Hail of Blades on Braum and Tahm Kench to solve the lack of damage problems.
Contents
Why Hail of Blades?
Firstly, the reason why Hail of Blades is used is that these two champions both have auto-attack that apply Passive Stack. It gives: “Gain a large amount of attack speed for the first 3 attacks made against enemy champions”.
For example, Tahm Kench by stacking Unique Taste, his Q – Devour applies stun, even Braum only needs to hit 4 times with his passive in order to create a stun. With the Hell of blades, the two mentioned champions can extremely easily complete their Passive Stack, creating surprisingly burst damage output and crowd control in the early game.
It is that sudden power that makes Braum and Tahm Kench create a break-through situation every time that roam and flank their enemies. With the already high HP that they own plus the damage is also increased by Hail of Blades, these two champions suddenly became a slaughter machine in the first 10 minutes of the game. That was more than enough to create a snowball on opponents.
In order to utilize this monstrous style in regular matches, your Marksman should be the one who can safely play under the 1v2 situation while their support is roaming other lanes, Jhin and Ezreal with long-range skills are some pretty great options.
Build
In terms of building Hail of Blades for Tahm Kench and Braum, Cheap Shot and Relentless are essential. The aim of Hail of Blades on these 2 champions is to activate the fastest passive and open up the opportunity to snowball opponents. Cheap Shot will compensate for the lack of damage a Support is supposed to be and Relentless Hunter helps you roam much faster. Don’t forget to bring Offense: +10% Attack Speed to… attack quicker.
In terms of equipment, you should still be loyal to the traditional tanky build such as the Gargoyle Stoneplate, Locket of the Iron Solari, etc. You will still have enough damage in the early game but remain tanky in big 5v5 team fights.
In conclusion, the gameplay of Braum and Tahm Kench Hail of Blades will help you roam and attack more effectively in the early game. By getting early kills and create a snowball situation, it’s will be a guaranteed win for anyone who maximizes this strategy.