League of Legends: Is Kayn OP after Patch 9.21 buffs?

Patch 9.21 hit League of Legends live servers earlier this week and it contained some generous buffs to Kayn that could see him shoot up the jungle tier list.

Lee Sin, Kha’Zix, Jarvan, Elise. We’re all bored of watching the monotonous carousel of bland jungle picks cycle in front of our eyes during champion select in League of Legends solo queue and competitive play. It’s about time something changed. Perhaps that time is now as Patch 9.21 included buffs to three jungle champions: Master Yi, Warwick, and most notably, Kayn.

Following a season of relative obscurity, Kayn has finally been handed an avenue back into the jungle roster just before the year’s end – a cruel offering by the balance team to those who main the champion, who may be wondering what their Season 9 could have looked like had this buff come sooner.

Nonetheless, there are still three long weeks to grind out wins and climb the ranked ladder before your final division is permanently marked on your op.gg profile for the rest of your League of Legends career. Before we can assess whether Kayn is the answer to your solo queue woes, we should first take a look at his Patch 9.21 changes and their effect on his kit:

"Q – Reaping SlashDamage: 60/80/100/120/140 -> 75/95/115/135/155Rhaast Modified Damage: 0.5 total Attack Damage -> 0.55 total Attack DamageBonus Damage to Monsters: 55 -> 40"

Prior to this update, Kayn hovered just above a 49% win rate in solo queue and struggled to contest the top tier junglers when it came to early game skirmishing and late game utility. The Patch 9.21 changes to his Q – Reaping Slash address his weakness in both of these stages of the game, particularly when transforming into his Rhaast form.

Increased base damage of +15 at all ranks allows Kayn to hunt down and fight enemy junglers more often in the first fifteen minutes of the game to create an early advantage. Previously, Kayn would struggle against the likes of Lee Sin, Olaf, and Xin Zhao during the laning phase due to his inferior skirmishing power, but these changes might go some way to patching up that chink in Kayn’s armor.

As for the modified damage to Rhaast’s Reaping Slash, this is targeted more towards the mid to late game, when Kayn has a few items under his belt and has increased Attack Damage. The tankier, team fight focused version of the Shadow Reaper will now hit a little harder in 5v5s as he’s able to cast multiple Qs in a single fight.

So, the question remains: Do these buffs make Kayn OP?

In short, not really.

Ultimately, there’s nothing unique enough about Kayn’s kit that separates him from alternative jungle options that also boast high win rates at the moment. He excels at clearing the jungle quickly in the early game, but so do Hecarim, Warwick, and Xin Zhao, albeit with greater skirmishing power. Kayn’s late game crowd control and survivability are great, but his utility is lacking when compared with Jarvan, Hecarim, and Olaf.

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That being said, there are opportunities to bring the Kayn out and stomp on your opponents in solo queue. Match-ups that allow you to take advantage of your fast clear speed and gank early on to build up the passive transformation bar are ideal. These include Nocturne, Sejuani, and Zac who all like to delay their ganks and invades until they’re level 6 and can offer a game-changing ultimate in a skirmish.

On top of that, Kayn prefers to be on a team that has already drafted hard engage tools, as he’s unlikely to be able to start a fight on his own. Champions like Gnar, Nautilus, or Rumble pair perfectly with Kayn as he can dive into the enemy team after a team fight has already been started.

As you can see the criteria for the ideal Kayn pick are vast and specific, but they do come along every once in a while. But it’s important to remember that drafts don’t really matter in the chaos provided by solo queue, so feel free to pick Kayn whenever you feel like it! Just don’t expect him to work wonders and see your LP skyrocket after one small buff.

All in all, Kayn’s ability in any given meta is gated by the length of time required to transform into either Rhaast or Shadow Assassin. Until this area of his kit is addressed, and the time needed shortened, it’s unlikely we’ll see Kayn taking over the solo queue ladder or professional play any time soon.

These small buffs undoubtedly make Kayn stronger, but whether they make him an overpowered jungle champion is another matter and something to keep an eye on as Patch 9.21 develops.

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What do you make of Kayn on Patch 9.21? Is he overpowered or balanced? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter!

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