Newest League of Legends champion revealed to be Tahm Kench

A week or so ago, a new champion was teased for League of Legends via a short cinematic. Not much could be gleaned from the video, other than that the River King looked like one mean bloke and that he had one mean appetite. Riot have now given him a proper unveiling, and revealed his primary weapon to be his… tongue? Oh, and his stomach. He really likes eating and regurgitating enemies, minions, and even allies!

His name is Tahm Kench. Here’s what the Cajun top-hat-wearing giant cat-fish… frog… something can do:

Passive: An Acquired Taste

Tahm Kench applies a stack of An Acquired Taste to all enemy champions he hits with basic attacks or damaging abilities. Once he’s applied three stacks, he can interact with them… differently.

Q: Tongue Lash

Tahm Kench roots himself briefly while launching his tongue in a target direction. Tongue Lash stops once it hits a target, damaging and slowing whatever he hits. If Tahm Kench slathers an enemy champion with three stacks of An Acquired Taste then hits them with Tongue Lash, he stuns them instead.

W: Devour

Tahm Kench briefly swallows a nearby targeted unit. Enemies suffer a portion of their max health as magic damage. In addition:

• Minions and monsters: Once Tahm Kench Devours an enemy minion or monster, he can reactivate the ability to spit them out in a target direction. They deal damage to whoever they hit.
• Allied Champions: When Tahm Kench devours an allied champion, he renders his ally immune from damage and gains extra movement speed when he heads toward enemy champions. Both Tahm Kench and his edible ally can choose when the latter leaves.
• Enemy Champions: Tahm Kench can only Devour enemy champions once he’s applied three stacks of An Acquired Taste to them. His movement speed is drastically reduced while enemy champs – who suffer greatly reduced vision and can only see things immediately around the River King – are in his belly.

E: Thick Skin

Passive: All damage Tahm Kench takes is turned into grey health. Once he leaves combat, the grey health falls off, healing him for a portion of the amount of grey health he’s earned.

Active: Tahm Kench converts his grey health into a shield that quickly falls off.

R: Abyssal Voyage

Passive: All of Tahm Kench’s damage scales with his maximum health.

Active: Tahm Kench opens his maw, offering an ally a spot inside his belly. Once they jump in, or once Tahm Kench decides he’s diving solo, he starts channeling, conjuring a whirlpool beneath him before diving in, reappearing a few seconds later at his target location. Abyssal Voyage has a huge range, but the ability is pretty well telegraphed by its lengthy cast.

He seems like a fine chap indeed – if watery deaths are your sort of thing. Here are the roles he fulfils best, according to Riot:

Tahm Kench is a tough solo lane or support tank with a taste for… well, pretty much everything. He’ll happily munch down on an enemy champion once he’s slathered them up, stowing them in his sizeable belly – and out of a fight – while the River King’s allies leverage their advantage. But Tahm Kench’s stomach isn’t reserved solely for his enemies: after swallowing an ally, the tanky fish-man can dive into one of his signature whirlpools before throwing himself towards the enemy team.

Tahm is slightly less scary than I thought he would be. I was convinced that him being called the River King would give way to some sort of ability or bonus that interacted with the body of water that cuts the map in half. Guess I was wrong. Still, he looks like an interesting addition to the already varied League of Legends roster.

Last Updated: June 25, 2015