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Kennen Build Guide by

Kennen AD/AP - Kennen! I choose you!

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73 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Duckslayer

Kennen Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (73) More Kennen Guides

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Spells:

Heal

Flash

Items

Name

Ability Order

Kennen Passive Ability

More Kennen Counters

Introduction

Hey guys, Duckslayer here with my first guide so please be considerate and as constructive with your criticism as possible. This is my guide to .

Kennen is a very versatile champion and can be played in many ways.

AP Mid
AP/AD Top
AD Bot with a support

How kennen should be played.

This video shows a player rated extremely highly for his Kennen play; Ego Ignaxio.

Now we proceed to the main section(s) of my guide, please at least test the guide before any down/upvotes.

Shout outs to:

1337GamerX and Davrockin221 for basically playing with me for my whole LoL "career" and being noobs with me.
Murloc Jonny for introducing me to LoL and helping a lot during the noob stages.
The Noobs Network for many hours of enjoyment and pre made awesomeness.

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

A quick note: Why the heck is AD Kennen viable?

So I have had some questions about why AD is viable. I am going to set things straight right here. AD is viable, I am NOT saying it is better than AP. As far as goes, AP is stronger than AD but sometimes the AP slot is taken, and an AD role is free.

So why should I pick Kennen over any other AD carry?

is a strong AD carry in my opinion, but many say he is not viable. easily outclasses many AD carries, he is not top tier but he is good. is viable because her ultimate is one of the best initiates in the game. is viable due to her AD scaling and long range.

To avoid a wall of text, i'll break this down into a list.

AD Kennen's Viability

Kennen has a great auto attack range.
Kennen is one of two AD carries with a reliable spammable stun, the other being Twisted Fate.
Kennen has a good base attack speed.
AD Kennen has a very strong laning phase, and can stop their AD carry from snowballing when played correctly.

I think Kennen works off the idea that any champion with a decent auto attack animation and range will do well with AD items, Caitlyn is a champion with extremely long range, but no reliable CC. Think of Kennen as an AD who exchanges the damage for utility in the form of stuns.

Disclaimer: I admit it, Kennen is better played AP, by far, but does that mean he is not a viable AD? No.

AD Kennen Pros and Cons

space

Pros

+Great lane harass/poke with and its active.
+Safe laner with
+Has a good auto attack range.
+Is a flippin ninja!

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Cons

-Doesn't scale as well into late game as other carries such as or
-No click to activate steroid such as
-You will get blamed by your team if you lose, because AD is not as common as AP

AP Kennen Pros and Cons

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Pros

+Great lane harass/poke
+Safe laner with
+Synergises with
+Is a flippin ninja!

spaaaaaaaaace

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Cons

-Relies on
-His main damage spell, is a skillshot, which is hard for some to land.

AD Runes

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage:I take flat AD quints for the early game boost and help with last hitting.
Greater Mark of Attack Damage:I take flat AD over ARP because the ARP just makes the last whisperer less useful.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist:Magic resists will help you against that pesku Annie trying to full combo you.
Greater Seal of Armor:You should be bottom with a support, if so then you will be versus another AD. Armour runes help you in a 1v1 situation and reduces damage from pokes such as Piltover Peacemaker

Other choices:

Greater mark of desolation
greater quintessence of desolation
Greater Glyph of Attack Speed
Greater Seal of Attack Speed

AP Runes

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power:I take flat AP to boost your early game harass.
Greater Mark of Ability Power:Same as above.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist:Reduces damage from your lane opponent.
Greater Seal of Armor:I'll be honest, I use these because I have them. Any runes are viable here.

Other choices:

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
Greater seal of vitality
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power
Greater Glyph of Ability Power

Summoner Spells

Preferred Options

: Flash is a great summoner spell, and basically a get out of jail free card.
: Heal is also a great summoner spell too, use it to heal bait or sustain in lane. Preferred mainly for AD Kennen
: My personal choice on AP Kennen, the true damage DoT is insane and can secure lots of kills.

Other viable summoner spells

: An awesome summoner spell in any game, gives dragon/baron control with the ability to teleport to wards. An underrated summoner spell, use if going solo top or mid if you like it.
: Another great summoner spell, can either completely remove or reduce CC taken while in your Slicing Maelstrom which can help a lot. Take on AD if you aren't planning on taking Quicksilver Sash
: Take this if you don't like Flash. Combined with Lightning Rush this makes you one tough yordle to catch.
: A great spell when going AD bot lane, helps in 1v1 situations and can shut down that pesky Tryndamere
: I haven't tested this much yet, but it could be useful to proc stuns on either AP or AD, and provides a boost in damage for both.

Pretty much don't use any of the other summoner spells.

Abilities

Mark of the Storm:This passive might as well BE Kennen, provides great utility as AP and is pretty much spammable as AD
Thundering Shuriken (Q):This spell is ridiculously good, as an AP Kennen it chunks enemies like crazy and is a fairly fast moving projective. As AD Kennen it is mainly used to stun, but since Kennen is an energy based champ, spam it in lane too. Either to last hit or harass.
Electrical Surge (W):This makes AD Kennen Viable. Coupled with its absolutely "stunning" passive(sorry), it has a great active that converts a percentage of your AD into magic damage...what armour?
Lightning Rush (E): Kennens "Oh no I need to get out of here" button, also used to proc a stun or follow the initiator(as AP mainly). Use it wisely early game.
Slicing Maelstrom (R):What an ability. Chunks whole teams while stunning them as AP, it's slightly less useful as AD but helps you win 1v1 situations and is a good escape ability.

Ability sequence AD

> > >

Maxing on AD is the only viable option, it is the only AD scaling ability and the active helps farming. Obviously taking ult over everything is the thing to do, maxing after for the cooldown seems to work best for me, I use to harass in lane and later in the game, to proc stuns.

AP Ability Sequences

> > >

This is the way I skill AP , maxing gives great harass, great poke and a good finisher.

Ability Sequence 2

> > > lightning

This is another way to skill AP . The offers great harass and another good finisher, it also improves farming over maxing but falls behind in poke damage.

Ad Build One explanation

Item Sequence

Build one is an m5 influenced ad build.

: Standard attack damage carry boots.
: Gives a great armour bonus as well as some sustain and damage. Also provides dragon and baron control.
:Once you have wriggles lantern, three dorans blades and AD runes you have enough AD to get some attack speed and crit chance.
:Standard carry item, provides crit, damage and gives your crits some more "oomph"
:Sell a dorans blade here and get this, it provides a hefty AD bonus and some lovely lifesteal.
:Provides massive armour pen, and is the reason I don't get greater mark of desolations.
:A great item, one of my favourites, a "better that cleanse" cleanse and a decent amount of MR, what's not to like?

AD Build Two Explanation

Item Sequence

Build 2 is a standard AD carry build, and works just as well as build one.

:Exact same as build one, standard boots.
:In this build, we go Infinity Edge first. This provides a massive boost in DPS.
:Adding a Phantom Dancer improves our DPS loads, it builds on the crit provided by Infinity Edge and adss attack speed.

What changes between build one and two is, we lose the wriggles lantern and a dorans blade. Then switch the Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer around, it's all personal preference.

AP Build Explanation

Item Sequence

:I used to go hextech into Will of the Ancients straight away, but with the new nerf to Will of the Ancients I wait untill later to upgrade. It provides insane lane sustain with Thundering Shuriken and Electrical Surge.
:An insane item on Kennen, provides the tankyness needed to Slicing Maelstrom without blowing up instantly and adds utility with a great slow.
:This item spikes your power to over 9000! When you get this you will be at a peak, so try to push your advantage.
:Want to know why you get this? You can use the active while in Slicing Maelstrom.
:This is your magic penetration item, basically an AP last whisperer. You can get this earlier if you are pushing an advantage or need more damage.

Alternate Items

Alternate AD items

:A great item for setting up stuns, adds some survivability too. (Thanks to freezeflames for suggesting it)
:Imo, an overpriced item, but when against HP stacking teams it does help alot.
:I love this item, but it is often outshone by Infinity Edge and other items which incorporate crit. Buy this if the enemy team have alot of armour.
:A very nice item if you need a bit more MR, if you are getting insta-burst then this is a good buy.
:Oh how I love this item, I do think it's more usefull on a bruiser but buy if you are in the same situation as above. The shield can save lives.
:This used to be, and probably still is, a defensive staple on AD Carries. I think this is less useful than Quicksilver Sash because the shield is so easily popped.
:This is another fantastic item. A great buy if you are getting focused as it can put them off focusing you and if they do focus you they need to kill you 1.5 times

Alternate AP items

:This provides AOE MPen which is fantastic for Kennen because his Slicing Maelstrom involves getting in close
:I could see this being useful for a Thundering Shuriken auto attack combo but it just seems so lacklustre on Kennen because he doesn't spam his skills that much compared to other champions.
:I could see this working, but it's too expensive for the stats to me. Buy if you want to be evil and stack spellvamp.

Farming and Teamfighting

Farming

Try and last hit as much as possible, if you are getting harassed out of lane then last hit with , you are impossible to remove from lane.

Teamfights

Contrary to popular belief your role is NOT to initiate, I repeat do NOT initiate fill 5v5 fights. You have to wait until your initiator goes in. Here is a scenario to help you understand.

Your team involves an alistar. Do not go in before him, let alistar go in first and do his pulverise THEN you go in, and blow them up.

Now, as AD you must keep your positioning good. Stay behind the tanks and dish out your damage. Your role should be to decimate the squishies, kill the support, AD or AP on their team. Try to avoid full on focusing the tank but if you can kill him then do it.

Stun Rotations

The Easiest stun

This stun is useful if the opponent is hiding behind minions

Electrical Surge Passive > Lightning Rush> Electrical Surge Active

The Jungle Stun

An easily landed stun if chasing through the jungle

Lightning Rush in range > Thundering Shuriken > Electrical Surge passive > Electrical Surge active

The kill combo

The easiest way to gain a possible kill or AOE stun in a teamfight. This should secure 2 stuns.

Lightning Rush > Electrical Surge Active > Slicing Maelstrom > Thundering Shuriken

The Ultimate Stun Combo

Used to chain stun champions this stuns the enemy 3 times.

Electrical Surge Passive > Thundering Shuriken > Electrical Surge Active > Lightning Rush > Slicing Maelstrom > Thundering Shuriken > Electrical Surge Active

There are of course other ways to stun but these are the most useful ways imo.

Conclusion

is a fantastic champion, both AD and AP. I must be honest here, he is a better AP than AD but that should not dissuade you from playing him AD. If you main AD carries but want to try him then play him AD, it is very strong. Have fun playing and any criticism is appreciated.

DuckslayerCFC-EUW. And again, thanks to everyone who has helped me in my LoL career and thanks to Ego Ignaxio for letting me use his video.

Sorry I haven't been able to update this often, I have to study for school and stuffs.

Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here. Thank you very much