Who am I? Why listen to me?
I am Ractick, an NA player and I have been playing Kayn ever since I started the game back in season 8 with 6-7k games on him now.
I am currently hovering around Master & main Kayn/Viego/Bel'Veth and I am also Rank 2 Kayn NA. I also stream my games daily over on Twitch.
I have decided to make this guide as I think I have enough knowledge in the jungle and about Kayn to help out anyone looking into the champion or someone who is playing him already.
I will be updating this guide and will change things as the season progresses, to give you guys the most accurate information and resources on how to play Kayn.
TWITCH.TV: If you want to see me play Kayn live or ask my any questions about the guide, feel free to check out my stream: https://www.twitch.tv/ractick
SOCIALS: If you are interested in other content I create, feel free to checkout my other social platforms: https://www.beacons.ai/ractick
SUPPORT THE GUIDE WITH UPVOTE: If you would like to support my efforts it would mean a lot and be very helpful to me if you could upvote this guide, feel free to leave any questions or concerns in the comments.
Credentials: Rank 2 Kayn NA + 2 Master Accounts
Kayn's Runes
Kayn's Summoner Spells
Ability Levelling (different for each form)
This sequence for Rhaast is helpful as Reaping Slash max is especially strong against tankier targets where the Max Health damage is more valuable on Q.
Starter / Early Game Items
Red Kayn Full Build
More examples:
Blue Kayn Basics
Purple Kayn (when unsure which form to take - Go Dark Harvest)
About Kayn
Like I explained before, I believe Kayn's flexibility is his greatest asset ever, that and a bunch of other reasons. Having 2 different options to go for, 2 completely different champions basically.
KAYN'S STRONG POINTS:
One of the fastest jungle clears
2 Forms: Snowball or play for Teamfights/Tank Shred
Some sexy freakin skins hehe
Can get around map quick, gank at good angles & stay on enemies
Can do it all: Dive backline or shred frontline
Amazing mobility (E and Q)
KAYN'S WEAK POINTS:
Weak early game, can be invaded and outskrimished by many junglers
Low CC, unless you go Rhaast
On Rhaast, can get kited pretty hard
Easy to pick up, hard to master
His Blue Form/Shadow Assassin is weak late game
Tips & Tricks to remember
First thing you MUST KNOW when playing Kayn is how his passive stacks up orbs and how you get your form: Put simply if you hit a melee champion you will get red orbs building towards Rhaast. If you hit a ranged champion you will get blue orbs towards Shadow Assassin. Whichever type of orb you have more than 50% of will determine which form you will get!
Another high risk strategy here is: starting on the enemy raptors while that enemy is doing his red buffand quickly unlocking Shadow Step [E] to smite the red buff before the enemy is done taking it! BOOM you just got 2 of their camps and they're super far behind!
Perform your [Q] Reaping Slash on walls to cancel it's animation both during fights to get more dps and while farming to get your damage out faster on camps and clear faster in turn.
When your [E] Shadow Step is about to expire and you want to come out on a specific side of the wall you can always extend it with a [Q] Reaping Slash in the direction you want to go. Using [Q] Reaping Slash during your E can also allow you to go over distances that you couldn't otherwise because the E expires after 1.5s.
When teamfighting with Rhaast, try to hold your [R] Umbral Trespass to when you are lower in HP and use it on a higher health target if possible to maximize your healing from it (you get health based on the enemy's max health you R'ed).
When playing Blue Kayn, your goal is to kill the backline, often it is easy to do that from a flank then coming straight at them, use your low cooldowns on [Q] Reaping Slash and [E] Shadow Step to get into a better position and consider using an Oracle Lens to avoid visions while doing so.
Early Game:
Alright so you're in game now, you should know which form you are going for The Darkin Scythe... Now for the Kayn early game, you have 2 options:
You go for a full-clear and scuttle and then look to affect the map through ganks or invading the enemy on respawning camps. When going for the full clear you will have that LVL 4 advantage over most junglers and could look to fight in the river for scuttle . After scuttle, if you can't find any gank or invade opportunities you can look for an early back and grab yourself a Tear of the Goddess or what I prefer Long Sword and Ruby Crystal or x2 Long Sword.
As for option 2, this is a hyper aggressive playstyle where you look to clear 3 camps on one side or 4 camps and start ganking around the map if you laners have that kill pressure, CC or better match-up.
Now another thing you can do is go for invades on weaker early game junglers, clearing 3 camps and looking to invade and kill them on their second buff, or steal some of their camps (careful here, watch your lane states - if you have pressure - before invading and if you are stronger than the enemy junglers).
Honorable Mention: Starting on the enemy's 2nd buff and stealing that side of their jungler before quickly going to your own and clearing that as well (most effective in lower elos, where jungle is defended very well at the start).
Another high risk strategy mentioned in Tips & Tricks is: starting on the enemy raptors while that enemy is doing his red buff and quickly unlocking Shadow Step to smite the red buff before the enemy is done taking it! BOOM you just got 2 of their camps and they're super far behind!
After your first back look to start clearing those respawning camps and actively watch your lanes for gank opportunities to get your form If you watch my gameplay I sometimes keep my stealth wards to setup invades on the enemy jungler.
Mid to Late Game
Alright by now you should have gotten your form or you're stuck with the timer because you got the wrong form!
Now that you have your form, you will be so much stronger and able to fight all over the map assuming you are not very much behind! Now, like I said before: leads are built in the early game and snowballed through the mid game!
So right now you want to keep ganking any lane that you find opportunity on and look to secure every objective on the map.
Your playstyle will differ a lot depending on which form you are playing but always keeping an eye on your laners and looking for objectives is a good start. Now let's go into each forms detailed game plan in the Mid to late game!
For Shadow Assassin, it's your time to shine you want to gank as much as possible, any time you see opportunity, go one shot someone! You can look for dives pretty easily with Kayn too, don't be scared but don't take unnecessary risk especially if you're ahead! Keep pushing your lead, through ganks, objectives and clearing your jungle. Always prioritize ganking over farming! Look to end the game as soon as possible, hopefully by taking baron, as Shadow Assassin falls off in the late game.
If you do make it into the late game with Blue Kayn, you can still win, you will need to use your E [Shadow Step: Shadow Assassin] and Q [Blade's Reach: Shadow Assassin] to poke before teammfights, you can also use E [Shadow Step: Shadow Assassin] for temporary vision. Whenever a fight breaks out your goal is always to kill the back line, the carrys!
For Rhaast if you got some early kills you will be huge, you can take big fights 3v3, 4v4 and destroy everyone! Rhaast is a teamfighting monster with his AOE airborne on W and huge healing from Q , make sure to use your Tiamat too, you can put it inside your Q. Use your R on Rhaast, to either avoid important skill shot or better heal yourself after you become low hp. You can also push leads very hard with Rhaast picks everywhere, anytime an enemy is out of position you can reach them with E and airborne quickly!
Thank you!
Thank you for reading our guide and making it all the way down here!
Kayn is an absolutely lovely champion, extremely fun to play and hard to get bored of...I hope you guys get awesome at him and enjoy playing him!
Feel free to leave me any comments on thoughts you have on the guide or how you feel about Kayn himself :)
TWITCH.TV: If you want to see me play Kayn live or ask my any questions about the guide, feel free to check out my stream: https://www.twitch.tv/ractick
SOCIALS: If you are interested in other content I create, feel free to checkout my other social platforms: https://www.beacons.ai/ractick
SUPPORT THE GUIDE WITH UPVOTE: If you would like to support my efforts it would mean a lot and be very helpful to me if you could upvote this guide, feel free to leave any questions or concerns in the comments.
PATREON: For weekly jungle tips and tricks as well as best champions to play, guides & access to all my coaching sessions or to get coaching yourself, visit my patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/ractic