Picking or banning Kayn: reading the draft
When Kayn is worth a pick, when it is worth a ban, and what its kit commits your team to.
What the pick commits you to
Locking Kayn commits your team to a fight pattern: trade repeatedly, survive the return damage, and win the third exchange rather than the first. A draft that cannot support that pattern does not improve because you play well.
At 175 attack range Kayn has to walk into damage to deal it, so every trade begins with a decision about whether you can afford the walk.
What the kit brings to a team
The Darkin Scythe
Kayn wields an ancient weapon and fights Rhaast, the darkin within it, for control. Either the Darkin will triumph, or Kayn will master Rhaast and become the Shadow Assassin. Darkin: Heal for a percentage of spell damage dealt to champions. Shadow Assassin: For the first few seconds in combat with enemy champions, deal bonus damage.
Reaping Slash
Kayn dashes, then slashes. Both deal damage.
Blade's Reach
Kayn damages and slows targets in a line.
Shadow Step
Kayn can walk through terrain.
Umbral Trespass
Kayn hides in an enemy's body, dealing massive damage when he bursts out.
Blind-pick risk
Difficulty 8 of 3, melee, fighter. Those three facts decide how safe this is to pick first, and the melee ones are almost always the riskier blind.
Riot's own notes on playing against Kayn
Worth reading even when you are the one playing Kayn: it is the list of what your opponent is being told to do to you.
- Umbral Trespass requires Kayn to damage a target first. Try to dodge Blade's Reach to deny him a long range cast of Umbral Trespass.
- When Kayn is in terrain near you, you will get a visual warning on the edge of the terrain he's in.
- Damage Kayn while he's in Shadow Step to shorten its duration, or apply hard crowd control (stun, charm, knockup, etc) to end Shadow Step immediately.
Who Kayn is
A peerless practitioner of lethal shadow magic, Shieda Kayn battles to achieve his true destiny—to one day lead the Order of Shadow into a new era of Ionian supremacy. He wields the sentient darkin weapon Rhaast, undeterred by its creeping corruption of his body and mind. There are only two possible outcomes: either Kayn bends the weapon to his will... or the malevolent blade consumes him completely, paving the way for the destruction of all Runeterra.
Full Kayn page — abilities, stats and every skin →