K'Sante, The Pride of Nazumah: Champion Summary and Review
Updated: Jun 15
League of Legends Patch 12.21 arrives this week just ahead of the Worlds 2022 finals and with it comes the newest champion to hit the Rift! In this blog we will look at all we know about K'Sante so far and once he releases during this Patch we will review and look at what we think of the initial release of the Nazuma's monster hunter.
K'Sante Lore:
K'Sante is the first champion to hail from Nazumah, a desert oasis teeming with monsters that were fought against by the settlers escaping the Ascended. The settlers constructed a society and continue to thrive by hunting the monsters for rare materials that they use for infrastructure and armaments. Nazumah is the only area of Shurima that rejects the rule of Azir and the other ascended. K'Sante is one of the monster hunters who fights off the monsters of the oasis to protect and fortify his home. He formed a relationship with another hunter who he fought alongside until they had a falling out that stemmed from K'Sante's pride and ambition. He is now known as being the Pride of Nazumah, their greatest monster hunter, but promises to never become so heavily wrapped in his ego that he may lose those he loves again. (K'sante Biography, and League of Legends Wiki)
K'Sante Role:
K'Sante is a tank of a new type in League of Legends. '“Everyone asks, ‘Where is the tank?’ No one asks, ‘How is the tank?’ And we wanted to sort of answer that question by giving them a tank that addresses some of the pain points of the role with a new fantasy,” explains game designer Buike “AzuBK” Ndefo-Dahl' (Champion Insights: K'Sante). K'Sante has a much more mobile and aggressive kit than most tanks but still relies on defensive stats and soaking damage most of the time. He has one ability that truly shows how different he is from other tanks, his ultimate. After activating this skill he turns into a damage machine and his stats and skills change to make his a 1v1 machine for the duration of the form change. Riot categorizes K'Sante's play style as "dual warden/skirmisher" (Champion Insights: K'Sante)
K'Sante Abilities:
Passive - Dauntless Instinct:
"K’Sante’s damaging abilities mark enemies hit for a short duration. Attacking a marked enemy consumes the mark to deal damage plus max health physical damage.
All Out: Attacking a marked enemy instead deals physical damage and additional max health true damage."
Q - Ntofo Strikes:
"K’Sante slams his weapon, dealing physical damage in a small area around him and briefly Slowing targets hit.
If an enemy is hit, K’Sante gains a stack for a short duration. At 2 stacks, K’Sante instead fires a shockwave that Pulls enemies
All Out: This ability’s cooldown is reduced and no longer slows targets hit."
W - Path Maker:
"Begin Charging: K’Sante raises his weapons defensively for a short duration, becoming Unstoppable, and reducing incoming damage.
Release: K’Sante rams forward, dealing a percentage of max health physical damage, Knocking Back, and Stunning enemies he passes through for a short duration based on charge time.
All Out: This ability’s cooldown is refreshed, the damage reduction is increased, it deals an additional amount of physical damage based on charge time, and the charge and dash speed are doubled."
E - Footwork:
"K’Sante dashes, gaining a shield for a short duration. If dashing to an ally, the distance is significantly increased and they are also Shielded. Other spells can be cast during this ability.
All Out: This ability’s dash speed is increased. Dashing to a targeted location has increased range and can go over walls."
R - All Out:
"K’Sante shatters his ntofos, dealing physical damage and Knocking Back an enemy champion. Enemies that hit a wall will take a greater amount of physical damage, are Knocked Back over the wall, and are briefly Stunned. K’Sante then dashes after the enemy and goes All Out for an extended duration. All Out K’sante loses a percentage of max health, bonus armor, and bonus magic resistance. K’Sante gains attack damage, omnivamp, and transforms his abilities."
(Ability descriptions and videos from: K'Sante Abilities Rundown)
K'Sante Skins:
K'Sante will release with a normal skin and prestige version of the same skin: Empyrean K'Sante and Prestige Empyrean K'Sante. The most interesting thing here is that Prestige Empyrean K'Sante was designed with the help of performing artist Lil Nas X and boasts a unique appearance that reflects the artist.
Empyrean K'Sante:
Prestige Empyrean K'Sante:
K'Sante Review and Analysis:
After the first few games of K'Sante on the live server as well as some games previously on the PBE, there are definitely some first thoughts about the champion that come to mind. The Champion is very tanky and is able to take a lot of hits and pushes early waves somewhat inherently but is fairly vulnerable to ganks in the beginning of the game. Once K'Sante hits level 6 and goes All Out he starts showing his damage, omnivamp, and fighting potential in 1v1s but if overwhelmed by a team the resistance and health shred can spell his doom. K'Sante ends up being a champ that relies heavily on positioning in lane as well as in team fights.
I personally have now racked up about 20 games on the champ and have found that he ends up being strong early, tapers off around mid-game, and then is able to have some more impact and power in the late game if positioning is done correctly in fights. He isn't a high kill-pressure champ but he is a threat and works best when you get ganks and have team-mates that you can shield and support with crowd control in fights. The main question people ask when a new champ comes out is "Are they overpowered?" as Riot has released a fair amount of champions that are very very strong on release and have to be degraded in following patches to balance the game.
From the time I have had with K'Sante, I think I can comfortably say that he can be strong but has a high skill cap and is also fairly situational and has counter picks which is a positive thing to have exist when the goal is for the game to be balanced. The way that K'Sante's ultimate works allows for champions that have executes to be strong against him once he has shed his tankiness so there is a fair amount of counter picks that can make him have to be very picky on when and how he uses his ultimate skill. Overall, there isn't enough data yet to confirm if K'Sante is in a balanced state with it only being the first week of his release but from what has been seen so far he sits in a fairly comfortable spot and has a solid and defined role that takes a fair amount of knowledge and skill to execute. Below will be some gameplay that I have pulled from my K'Sante games, enjoy and leave a comment about what you think about the new monster-hunting top laner!
Sources:
Champion Insights https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/news/dev/champion-insights-k-sante/
K'Sante Abilities Rundown https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/event/k-sante-abilities-rundown/
League of Legends Wiki https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/K%27Sante and https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Nazumah
Blog Fully Updated as of 11/7/2022