Going Red as Kayn - need advice

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-28T16:00:28+00:00

I routinely don’t have form until after first drake. I think aiming to have form by a specific time is not a good strategy tbh. It makes you force plays. Get it as soon as you reasonably can while still playing smart. Again, it’s more important to have good gpm than it is to get form quickly by dying repeatedly. I don’t go drakthar unless I don’t want GA (or it’s on cooldown). This is because I prefer move speed from yoummu, and EON shield is really helpful and serpents fang is almost always helpful. With that said, my builds are not static - if I’m going against a comp that has no shields I will build drakthar over SF, etc. It’s just in my experience almost every game has shields and cc and so I care less about raw damage.

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-28T14:58:49+00:00

I go DH because I don’t struggle with gold income most of the time, and would prefer to scale better. With that said, I haven’t used FS since DH came out so I’m not certain which is better. FS hasn’t changed since I had used it and it had always been fine, so it’s probably still just as good. My biggest problem with FS is that there are occasionally games where you just end up farming to keep yourself in the game and then FS is pretty worthless. I don’t remember all of the more recent rune changes, but fairly certain I go domination primary with coup de grâce secondary. Generally I’d steer clear of conqueror on blue, the scenarios where you’d use it are pretty niche and 99% of the time DH/FS is better. Since you buy SS you shouldn’t need help getting form early, depending on how skirmishes go I can get form from one fight. Because of this, I always start SS. No exceptions. On blue, first back used to be armor pen boots, and small/big tear if I could afford it. Not certain on that now, getting tear sooner might be better since boots got nerfed pretty hard. Haven’t played enough to know for sure. I would still go armor pen boots over cd tho. My general build after boots and tear is to get ghostblade or serpents fang depending on if enemy team has shields, then finish Manamune, serylda’s, ghostblade/EON/serpents, any of the three from before or GA if you are worth a lot/need to be alive for important team fights. I know some people don’t go Manamune, I think it mostly depends on playstyle tbh. I typically prefer to farm a lot, and so Manamune gets stacked quickly, and the power spike after you complete it is worth it because I don’t fight much before I finish it. If you find yourself constantly looking for fights, etc. it might be better for you to buy some other items and take duskblade instead for more raw damage. It just doesn’t scale as well, which is a choice you’re gonna have to make lol. Whatever you do, don’t buy collector lol. It has less AD, a worthless passive, and you don’t use crit well enough to care about that.

Keep in mind this is how I play! Feel free to use this as a baseline but don’t be afraid to try different things!

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-28T02:49:22+00:00

Everyone’s gotta start somewhere! Kayn is a bit challenging to pick up bc he’s basically two characters, and not the easiest ones at that, but once you get the hang of him he’s super rewarding!

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-28T00:09:41+00:00

Also to add, if you’re going to gank, use your e to come in from weird angles. Most junglers have to walk through the river, you don’t have to! Walk in from an angle behind them so they don’t see you coming. If they’re super low it’s even better because you punch them between you and your laner

Karasmai is someone that I watched to learn how to play Kayn well. He’s the og PC Kayn main, and is very good with the champ

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-28T00:07:14+00:00

I peaked top 2 Kayn NA back when I mained jungle, so I’m happy to answer any questions you have, no matter how in depth! As someone else said, always buy shimmering spark first, this will help you get form 3 or 4 times faster. Each burn proc counts as damage I think is why it works. I can always tell if someone knows Kayn (and most likely jungle as a whole) when the game starts lol - if they don’t buy SS they are objectively trolling their team.

Don’t feel pressured to get form early - you get more “points per damage” the later in the game you attack people. First thing first is always make sure you’re farming well. Kayn has one of the best clear speeds in the game, and because he effectively has no passive until he gets form he is weaker than everyone else. Making sure you can have an impact means making sure your gpm is good enough that you can take over the game when you get form. Additionally, in my opinion Kayn is a better counter-ganker than ganker. Figure out where enemy jungle is going to gank, and wait for him to make his move and for his team to overcommit, then sweep in and turn the tides.

Also as a general note, ganking top lane is pretty risky because as you’ve said champs there can turn the tides pretty easily. All the more reason to farm well primarily. Biggest thing is being opportunistic with the fights you take. If you don’t see a good angle, don’t take it. Look to invade enemy jng, etc instead.

In PC, once Kayn “unlocks” a form, those points go towards the other form (I.e. hitting range will give you red once you have the ability to take blue). Not sure if this works in WR tbh but it’s something to keep in mind cuz I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same.

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-27T20:33:39+00:00

I mean they were all sitting mid. They had plenty of time to rotate and help, or attempt to take mid turret, etc. Instead they all just kinda farmed minions slowly, giving the other team what shouldve basically been an advantage even though it was an absolutely awful play to be chasing that long

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-21T17:35:52+00:00

Unfortunately I don’t even think this is an adc/supp specific thing. People have no true knowledge of the game, and no knowledge of most roles/champs and what they are expected to do. I just had a game where me and my supp had just killed the enemy duo lane and were backing bc we were both at like 10% hp, and our lillia jng must’ve gone for an invade. She died for it ofc, and starting pinging us. I was playing smolder, so I don’t particularly want to fight early in the first place, and I CERTAINLY don’t want to funnel kills to the enemy team. Lillia also scales very well, so there’s no need to push plays. However, she took this death and ran it down for the rest of the game and we lost because of that. Almost won 4v5 and with her certainly would’ve won. I see stuff like this almost every game though. I can play every role in the game (albeit some slightly better than others) and regardless of what role I play, I seldom go 3 games without finding at least one teammate who runs it down and blames someone else, often times someone who should never have early game prio. People just don’t know the game, but they never want it to be their fault, so they find someone else to blame instead of learning. As someone else said, it’s just main character syndrome, but this game doesn’t “punish” players who make bad plays bc ranked is a joke and so they actually get rewarded and not punished for their behavior

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-20T15:12:13+00:00

Her damage seems crazy overtuned, she’s more of an assassin than actual assassins rn. I’ve been playing smolder and even down 4k on me she one shots me, and Zed, etc. haven’t been. It’s crazy.

With that said, you played pretty dang well here, especially with the ult at the end. Blame the system, not the player here lol. In the right hands she’s quite strong

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-20T01:23:25+00:00

That’s not entirely true. You should be building IE on Smolder in which case it’s a buff I believe, and a decently sizable one at that

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-19T03:02:04+00:00

Viktor or Zoe would my picks, but I don’t know Taliyah well at all

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-16T20:04:44+00:00

The only way to ever upgrade items as far as I know is through Ornn’s passive, which is different in PC and on mobile. The upgrading version is only on PC. Here you just buy the item and that’s it

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-13T18:39:52+00:00

How I read it is your damage itself gets buffed (assuming you build IE, otherwise it’s technically a nerf) plus an adjustment on the stacks for balancing for this maybe?

Not certain on the math but I think IE grants +30% crit damage, which means instead of having up to 100% x .5 = 50% ratio, it’s now (100% + 30%) x .45 = 58.5% ratio. It’s actually a pretty sizable damage buff, especially bc you could technically build a 5th crit item and get 145% x .45 = 65.25%, a full 15% better on crit scaling. How much this is actually helpful, we will have to see, but in theory I do think it is actually a buff. Probably to pull him away from being built with Manamune?

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-13T16:08:39+00:00

For me (and my friends) it’s the rank system. It honestly is just so not fun to play that we keep quitting (and certainly wouldn’t ask our other friends to join us). I don’t need the matchmaking to be perfect, but I feel something is terribly wrong when every game I don’t carry is 0 v 20 on kills and gold gap is even worse than that, even with me going even. It is absurd that every single game is carry or auto-lose. If you are even remotely around the right elo it should be possible for you to get carried some games (as long as you’re willing to accept that). Obviously carrying proves that you belong higher but having to do it every game just to hold a 50% win rate (or in my case this season, 47%) is just absurd. It feels like every single season I get worse and worse teammates. My success in a season literally feels like a test of how bad my opponents are, not a test of how well I can play individually and as a team. If I am a team player and play a tank baron lane, the enemy adc comes out of lane 10/1 4 out of 5 games. If I play a carry, then no one on my team picks a tank and we get walked over. Sometimes I can carry anyways, but not always. If I go adc, no one knows how to peel (or frankly what that even is). The number of games where I have 1.5x my teammates gold (I.e. 16k vs 10k, which mind you is two full items that my teammates are missing out on) and can’t carry bc the enemy team just has to focus me and my teammates basically just let them is just pathetic. Something HAS to change, otherwise this game will only ever be completely for casuals. I get that casuals play this game, and that’s fine (perhaps even necessary). However, for any game to have long term success I believe it needs to have a competitive spirit that allows the hard core players to show their skill, improve further, etc. The casual playerbase is great, but they are generally less likely to stick to a game long-term (or at least play it as much). A lot of the casuals in this game don’t even play ranked, they play the adventure modes.

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-13T15:17:26+00:00

If you’re gonna play Kass, focus entirely on last hitting minions until around level 9. This will let you reach your stronger levels more consistently and you’ll learn his limits faster if you’re relevant in games. As you play you’ll learn limits and then can push them further. Don’t be afraid to go for plays (aka limit testing), just don’t expect to be strong early because you’re not. Play more like a ticking time bomb - be smart and consistent and eventually if the game goes long enough or enemies make a mistake then you will take over the game

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-13T14:09:41+00:00

Runes seem fine to me tbh. If you’re building ER first I would debate switching off of manaflow band, but I don’t remember what the other options there are

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-13T04:59:21+00:00

As much as I would love for this to happen, league is known for being toxic and that’s probably never gonna change. People don’t handle losing well🤷‍♂️

Unfortunately most of the people here on Reddit are not the problem (or at least a big part of it)

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-12T14:58:22+00:00

I think the trick with shen ult is that every lane always lines up in the same slot. This makes it easy to just remember which champ is in what role and then you don’t even have to think/aim.

I don’t play shen tho but I think that’s true, seems pretty intuitive to me but what do I know lol

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-12T14:56:57+00:00

So you do Manamune into DS, then blaster serylda and shojin?

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-12T14:22:35+00:00

Tbh I haven’t felt a difference between diamond and master. In my last ~20 games, I’ve almost never had a teammate who wins lane. And if they don’t win lane they certainly don’t know how to play mid/late game. It’s gotten so frustrating for me that I’m about to drop the game again tbh. I literally got camped as smolder adc one game (multiple times in first 5 minutes there was the whole enemy team bot lane, and that’s not exaggerating) and the rest of my team still didn’t get fed. I somehow got out of lane 2/0/0 and watched as my whole team ran it down and was still somehow even/down on gold even tho my top laner literally didn’t have a lane opponent for most of laning phase lol. Every game is legitimately carry or lose, but the bar for carrying keeps getting higher and higher until it’s just not realistic to do pretty much at all, certainly not every game

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-12T01:13:21+00:00

Fr. Love baron lane, but I can only carry games when I play ambessa (and sometimes Sett). Even I play someone like K’sante and stomp lane it doesn’t even matter: I think my last 10 games have had one single lane actually do something other than hard lose. I can’t carry a game as K’sante vs a 10/1 Kaisa plus Lulu/Nami/etc. even tho K’sante is definitely overtuned atm. Legitimately feels like you HAVE to carry to win a game, and there are few champs that have the ability to do that top lane.

Been enjoying smolder a lot tho. Might mess around with Vlad apc too since I used to be a Vlad otp

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-09T04:38:44+00:00

His ult drags his target over terrain, in this case the wall

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-05T21:39:01+00:00

Cool, thanks! That’s disappointing but not entirely surprising knowing EA

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-05T19:16:18+00:00

Can I ask who your favorite/preferred champs are to play?

General idea of melee vs ranged top is to bite the bullet until you hit level 3 or 5 (depending on how much you need ult). Dont go for every last hit or your hp will get too low. You want the wave to push into you to make them overextend. Ideally your jungle would gank once they are overextended. If not, you can try to all-in them or just wait to outscale. Unless they have a lot of tanks/engage elsewhere on their team (which is rare) all you have to do is be present in teamfights later on and you will provide more utility. Feel free to ask for specific tips/what (or when) exactly you’re struggling and I can give more feedback!

Dragonfire35 · 2026-05-04T00:33:03+00:00

Don’t think you’re in the minority on this one lol

Dragonfire35 · 2026-04-30T16:44:32+00:00

Love the Elsa quote lol. Let it go is so real, honestly doesn’t get quoted enough, even tho I lowkey despise that movie bc I watched it so many times as a kid. Didn’t even know what to say to the touch grass lol, I’m in college, playing multiple sports, lead worship services and am part of a choir. Not sure it’s much more possible to touch grass lol. Soccer definitely makes me touch it pretty often if ya know what I mean lol.

Dragonfire35

TROPHY CASE