League Of Legends newest champion is Kayn, The Shadow Reaper, an AD melee who can transform into a bruiser or assassin depending on how you play. This is Riot Games’ first champion that can switch roles in the middle of a game, which is what makes Kayn so exciting. Do you feed the urge to become the Darkin or will you control your hunger and become the best Shadow Assassin?
Let’s take a look at Kayn’s abilities:
Passive: The Darkin Scythe- Kayn bears a powerful scythe, one that has an evil Darkin spirit inside it. Darkin, like Aatrox, are powerful god-like creatures that feed on the rage of battle and war. If Kayn feeds on ranged champion souls, he turns into the Shadow Assassin, giving him increased auto attack speed and damage for the first few seconds of combat. If he slays melee champion, the Darkin inside wins, he heals for some of the damage he deals to champions.
After you’ve collected enough of one soul type, you can change forms on the summoning platform in your base. Kayn’s abilities also change depending on what form he takes.
Q: Reaping Slash- Yasuo has been permanently banned since Riot launched the 10-ban system in ranked, so they decided to create another champion to fill his niche (/s). Kayne dashes forward, slashing in a circle around him when he reaches his destination. If you are in Darkin form, it deals percent health damage on monsters and champions. It’s a good wave clear tool to help Kayne in the jungle.
W: Blade’s Reach- The scythe slashes in a line in front of Kayn, severely slowing anyone caught in the strike. In Shadow Assassin form, a ghost image appears that then deals damage. If you’ve gone to the Darkin side of things, all enemies hit got knocked up for a brief period of time. Catching a low health target can be hard, but it’s a lot easier when you have crowd control on your side.
E: Shadow Step- Riot really likes giving assassins stupid escape tools. Kayn can activate this ability, gaining some movement speed and the ability to move through walls. If he enters terrain, Shadow Step will get extended, healing himself. If you thought Talon was annoying when he jumped over walls, imagine if he could phase through solid objects like the Vision in Avengers .
If used in Shadow Assassin form, you gain more movement speed and immunity to slows.
Since Kane has just gone up on the PBE, we haven’t gotten a chance to see how this ability interacts with other champions. Will Bard’s Magical Journey stop Kayn in his tracks or will he move through just fine? Can he move through an Anivia or Taliyah wall with impunity? It seems like it would break the game, but maybe League Of Legends spaghetti code has been improved enough to handle an ability like this.
R: Umbral Trespass- Time to live your Danny Phantom fantasies in League Of Legends—he’s going ghost. Kayn enters the body of an unsuspecting victim, becoming untargetable and dealing damage to the victim he left behind. In Shadow Assassin form, he gains increased range and deals extra damage from his passive. If the Darkin wins over Kayn’s soul, he deals percent health damage and heals a tiny bit.
You have to deal some damage to a target before entering their soul, meaning you can’t just hitch a ride on an enemy recalling back to base. You can jump on a Shen using his ultimate in a team fight or a Rakaan and Xayah going back to base together, but pulling those off can be difficult.
How do you like (Michael) Kayn? Tell us in the comments.
