Kayn: The Shadow Reaper — Analysis
Riot continues to surprise us with each champion they release onto the Rift. It seems that they are now obsessed with breaking boundaries and barriers and introducing mechanics and concepts for the new champions. With Kayn, Riot meets expectations yet again with the Shadow Reaper. Kayn is a man who wields a deadly scythe. In this weapon however, is an even more sinister creature: A Darkin. This spawn from hell lives inside the weapon and seeks blood. When playing Kayn, it’s up to you to decide who you decide to play. Whether it’s the Shadow Assassin himself, or his counterpart: Rhaast, the Darkin.
Let’s look at what makes him so special with a look over his kit:
Passive: The Darkin Scythe
Kayn wields an ancient weapon and fights the Darkin within it, Rhaast, for control. During each game, one will consume the other. Kayn hones his shadow skills by hunting ranged opponents, while Rhaast fuels his bloodlust by going toe-to-toe with melee enemies. If Kayn wins the struggle, he ascends to become he shadow assassin. If Rhaast is the victor, the Darkin consumes his host and takes center stage.- Shadow Assassin: Deal bonus magic damage during the first few seconds of combat with champions.
- Darkin: Heal for a chunk of all spell damage dealt to champions.
Analysis: This is the most important part of his kit. It provides tons of versatility for the player when they pick Kayn. The Shadow Assassin is a quick assassin capable of diving the back line and incapacitating the squishy carries. This is good if you are confident in your ability to prevent the enemy team from snowballing through mechanical prowess and skillful jukes.
For the less mechanically adept (or for those looking to win through raw damage), the Darkin path is perfect for you. The Darkin is for the players who appreciate playing a fighter-type champion such as Xin Zhao or Wukong. By embracing the Darkin, players would instead look to build tankier and be able to survive throughout teamfights and skirmishes while dealing damage with Rhaast’s skills.
Q: Reaping Slash
Kayn dashes forward, striking nearby enemies at the end of the dash. Both the dash and the strike itself deal physical damage. Reaping Slash deals bonus damage to monsters.- Darkin: This ability deals bonus percent-health damage against all enemies except minions.
Analysis: This skill isn’t anything too special or different. Every champion needs a skill like this in their kit. It’s a pretty simple skill; it’s basically an auto attack on a longer cooldown. It will be used to combo with an auto attack by animation canceling, similar to Hecarim’s Q.
The Darkin add-on is interesting though, since it allows the Darkin to deal bonus percent-health damage. This makes it much harder to build against him.
W: Blade’s Reach
Deal damage in a line that significantly slows all enemies hit.- Shadow Assassin: Leaves behind a living shadow that casts Blade’s Reach in Kayn’s stead. The living shadow’s Blade has increased range.
- Darkin: Blade’s Reach briefly knocks up struck enemies.
Analysis: This is one of the special parts of Kayn’s kit. It’s quite a simple ability; in Kayn’s regular form it’s just a skillshot that’s similar to Illaoi’s Q. It has no special effects making it quite bland and easy to dodge too. Furthermore, during the spell cast, he’s unable to move, which makes him an easy target as well.
But, Blade’s Reach is one of the abilities that changes into something different depending on Kayn’s class. (the other one being his ultimate). Ultimately making Blade’s Reach very unique.
As the Shadow Assassin, he is much more more elusive because he is able to cast Blade’s Reach and still move. This forces the enemy to focus on more than just one thing at once: Both the Blade’s Reach and the incoming Shadow Assassin.
As the Darkin, his Blade’s Reach will knock up struck enemies instead of stunning them. This would provide the only possible hard crowd control on either path that Kayn decides to take.
E: Shadow Step
Kayn gains a burst of movement speed and the ability to walk through walls for a few moments. When he first enters a wall, he’ll heal for a small amount and the duration of Shadow Step will be greatly extended. Kayn won’t get the duration extension if he’s in combat with enemy champions.- Shadow Assassin: Gain additional movement speed and immunity to slows when activating Shadow Step.
Analysis: This is an example of the boundary Riot crosses. Walls are supposed to be solid… Impassable. With Aurelian Sol and Talon, their E abilities go above the wall, which makes me feel a little better. But now Riot takes it a step further and Kayn goes straight through the wall instead. Insane!!
At first I thought this ability wouldn’t be that game changing but upon closer inspection I realized how ridiculous this ability could be. Unlike Talon’s E, there is no cooldown on the walls Kayn crosses. This means that the only cooldown he must wait for is from Shadow Step .
It’s not like he only crosses one wall either. Shadow Step’s duration seems really long and there’s no wall he can’t cross. It seems that he could literally walk through the thickest wall in the game and it would be completely fine.
Furthermore, the additional movement speed and immunity to slows for the Shadow Assassin would be a really good addition for his kit as well. It allows Shadow Assassin players to use Shadow Step for both a “gap closer” as well as a defense against slows: the crowd control that most squishy carries have.
R: Umbral Trespass Kayn may infest any nearby enemy champion who he has recently damaged. Trespassing into a champion makes Kayn untargetable for a few seconds. Reactivating the ability during this period ends the effect early. Kayn then wrenches himself free from his victim’s body, dealing a burst of damage.
- Shadow Assassin: Umbral Trespass can be cast from further away and resets the bonus magic damage from The Darkin Scythe after Kayn’s exits his victim.
- Darkin: Umbral Trespass deals extra damage as a percentage of the victim’s maximum health, healing the Darkin in the process.
Analysis: Talking about insane… This is absolutely bonkers!! The possibilities of this ability is endless. A good comparison for this would be Tahm Kench’s W. The major differences would be that the player who is playing Kayn:
1) gets to choose who he joins bodies with
2) only needs to damage an enemy champion once to join them
3) gets to join bodies with an enemy
The first two are strong in their own right, and they’re also pretty self-explanatory. However, the biggest game-changer is the third one. Think about all the possibilities that this could entail. Let me just name a few:
1) Trespass into Shen while he uses Stand United to join a teamfight
2) Trespass into Zac while he jumps into a teamfight
3) Trespass a Zed after he Death Marks you, negating his damage
4) Trespass into a teleporting top laner (similar to Shen)
5) Trespass into a Kled while he’s using his Chaaaaaaaarge!!!
6) Trespass into a Nocturne during his Paranoia
The possibilities are endless!
Obviously, I’m excited to see this champion come out! I’m excited to see the possible build paths, roles, summoner spells, and keystones that Kayn will use.
However, I would predict Youmuu’s Ghostblade builds to be strong for Shadow Assassin Kayn. While Black Cleaver builds will be strong for Darkin Kayn builds. He seems to be a champion made for the jungle and top lane. Shadow Assassin Kayn would build very similarly to how a usual assassin would. He could build items such as the Youmuu’s Ghostblade (stated above) and Duskblade of Draktharr. While Darkin Kayn would probably opt for a tankier build and go Black Cleaver into tanky items.
As for summoner spells, I imagine he could take a plethora of them. He could swap out ‘Flash’ (a usual staple of any champion) for ‘Ghost’ for more mobility. On the other summoner spell slot, he could take ‘Smite’ (if he is a jungler) or ‘Teleport’ (for top lane). Then again, he could surprise us all and go ‘Ignite’ + ‘Exhaust’ or some other crazy combination.
As for keystones… This also depends on the state of Kayn and the playstyle of the players. With Shadow Assassin Kayn, I predict the three possible keystones to be Fervor of Battle (for prolonged fighting), Stormraider’s Surge (to get in and out of fights quickly), and Thunderlord’s Decree (like every other assassin). With Darkin Kayn, I predict that Grasp of the Undying would be a go-to for him. Mostly because the other two tankier keystones don’t work too well for him. Courage of the Colossus could work but he only has one stun, but it’s a viable pick. Stoneborn Pact could also be a niche pick if he’s building lots of health.
All in all, Riot’s doing an amazing job with the unique champions that are coming out. Even though some turn out to be too special to be good, they’ve been turning out well. Good luck and your games and I hope to see you on the Fields of Justice!
