Tahm Kench has never been the most popular champion in League of Legends. In fact, he has one of the lowest pick rates across all servers and elos despite his obvious strengths. Tahm Kench is often a mysterious champion for newer players too. And it’s tough to even determine if Tahm Kench is an AP or an AD champion in LoL only by looking at his gameplay.
Rest assured, I’ll answer that question in no time. But in this post, I’ll also answer these questions: Is Tahm Kench magic or physical? Can you play Tahm Kench AP? And how do you build Tahm Kench full AP?
Here are the answers!
The Best AP Tahm Kench Build in Season 13
If you’re looking to try the AP Tahm Kench build in season 13 of League of Legends, these are the runes and items you should take.
The best runes for playing AP Tahm Kench in season 13:
- Dark Harvest
- Cheap Shot
- Eyeball Collection
- Ultimate Hunter
- Shield Bash
- Bone Plating
Some players enjoy Hail of Blades on AP Tahm Kench, but Dark Harvest is just overall better. However, even keystones such as Aftershock will work well with this build.
The best items for playing AP Tahm Kench in season 13:
- Mercury’s Treads
- Riftmaker
- Nashor’s Tooth
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
There are many AP mythic items that work well on Tahm Kench. Everfrost is one of the best ones since it synergizes with his kit. But Crown of the Shattered Queen can also be a good item, especially if you want to keep that tankiness of the champion.
As for the other optional items, you can always buy Cosmic Drive, Morellonomicon, or Demonic Embrace. All three items work great on Tahm Kench.
Read Also: Full AP Nautilus Build Guide
AP Tahm Kench – How Does it Work?
Building Tahm Kench full AP can be really powerful. All of his abilities scale with high AP ratios and deal magic damage. That’s why buying ability power items on Tahm Kench often results in one-shotting squishy enemies. AP Tahm Kench is a viable build for Summoner’s Rift, ARAM, and URF.
Here’s how each ability in Tahm’s kit benefits from building more AP.
Tahm’s passive – An Acquired Taste is a simple buff that allows Tahm Kench to deal bonus magic damage with his basic attacks and Q. So, items with on-hit and AP effects (Nashor’s Tooth, Void Staff) benefit him a lot.
The Q – Tongue Lash is a powerful ranged attack that deals magic damage and scales with 90% AP and 3% of Tahm’s bonus health.
On the other hand, Tahm’s W – Abyssal Dive has a 125% bonus AP ratio. Its actual damage in-game is bonkers, especially if your AP is high enough.
Tahm Kench’s E – Thick Skin is a defensive spell only, so it’s not affected by AP or AD.
When Tahm Kench uses his R – Devour on an ally champion, the shield is increased by 150% of his AP. And when he spits out an enemy champion, he deals 5% more damage per 100 AP.
As an AP Tahm Kench, your W and Q will do a lot of damage. And depending on your build, your auto-attack can really hurt too. That’s why I always recommend building Nashor’s Tooth on this champion, simply because of how well it synergizes with the passive.
AP Tahm Kench will definitely feel squishier than tank Kench. However, if you pick your battles right and engage with W only when you know you can get a kill, this build is absolutely awesome.
Read Also: Sion AP Build Guide
Is Tahm Kench AP or AD?
Tahm Kench is an AP tank champion in League of Legends. He only deals magic damage and all of his abilities scale with ability power. Some of Tahm Kench’s abilities deal more damage the more health he has. And Tahm’s ultimate even does 15% bonus magic damage based on the target’s max HP.
Tahm Kench is one of the few champions in LoL that people rarely build offensively. In most games, Tahm has a full tank build regardless of whether he’s top or support.
In the top lane, most players purchase items like Frostfire Gauntlet, Thornmail, Randuin’s Omen, and Spirit Visage. Occasionally, you could see something like Titanic Hydra, but that was more common with the old pre-reworked Tahm Kench.
As a support, Tahm always builds items like Locket of the Iron Solari, Knight’s Vow, and even Anathema’s Chains.
But why is this the case? Why isn’t recommended for Tahm Kench to build AP items?
Well, a part of the reason is that Tahm Kench doesn’t really need too much damage. His base damaging numbers are pretty high on their own. And as a bonus, his ultimate does more damage to targets with more HP.
Because of this, Tahm Kench can comfortably build full tank and keep good damage on demand. His Q and R actually do a lot of damage nowadays, so he doesn’t need to sacrifice armor, magic resist, and HP for more AP.
However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t play Tahm Kench full AP and deal even more damage. And in the next section, I’ll explain why it works so well this season.
But for now, keep in mind that Tahm Kench is an AP-based tank champion that mostly deals magic damage.
Read Also: Full AP Alistar Build Guide
Conclusion
That was all on Tahm Kench AP or AD. Remember, if you want to seriously climb with this champion in League of Legends, you’re better off with the tank build. If you aren’t sure what to build, you can always check Tahm’s OPGG page for the statistically best items on the current patch.
However, if you want to have some fun, I’d definitely suggest you try AP Tahm Kench.
Good luck and I hope you found this post informative and helpful!
