Talk:Kayn/@comment-4636093-20171029004702

Honestly I think Kayn is one of the best designed champions Riot have released in a very long time.

The form changes he has are a way of embracing the issues which a certain champion he's most like suffered from and making them into a more healthy form. He's based on Ekko, and Ekko's ability to flexibly choose between a pure assassin build and a more tanky build. Only difference is Ekko's tanky build was unintended, toxic, didn't sacrifice anything to go it, and rightfully got smushed by balance patches and a mini-rework. Kayn's tanky build with Rhaast makes him sacrifice mobility and a bit of damage to do so in favor of the tankiness, so it's an actual decision instead of a no-brainer.

There's a lot of talk about Shadow Assassin Kayn being really weak and being outclassed by Rhaast, I disagree with this actually. I believe that what we're actually seeing is the obvious pattern of... Bruisers ARE more consistent than Assassins. Rhaast is easier to play as, and can get away with quite a few things which would be suicidal for Shadow Assassin Kayn to try. Rhaast has the better teamfight with AoE CC and thrives in hitting multiple targets to get more healing from them.

BUT... it's still never the only option. If you just go Rhaast reflexively at all times then you'll really struggle if the likes of Tristana gets through the ban phase and is on the enemy team, especially if she gets strong, or anyone else with self peel for that matter. You're not actually getting close to a well positioned Tristana without Shadow Assassin, or have the damage to kill her as Rhaast if she isn't.

All-in-all, I'm not bothered with the fact that Rhaast will be picked 80% of the time. Both forms were always meant to be options to spec into when they're suitable to do so, they were never meant to be picked in equal amounts each.

You get to make a lot of gameplay choices when playing as Kayn, not just for the form change but also for your general build, he's really really flexible for an assassin, possibly the most flexible one there is now that Eve's been reworked, and he's really fun to play I find.