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Kennen Build Guide by

Psi of the Storm

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Kennen Build Guide By Updated on

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Guide Discussion (49) More Kennen Guides

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(1) |

How can I import this build?

(1497) |

I don't have an item set link for this build on hand, sorry. You can build an item set to your liking in the game client by going to Collection -> Items.

(1) |

Sorry(
Guide very good)

(2) |

pretty good guide. just bought kennen and this guide helped me a lot.

(5) |

Helped me not to feed when first timing kennen, very good guide :3

(78) |

Nice guide as alway, PsiGuard. has always been on of those champions I've found interesting because of the huge teamfight AoE. However, I've never really understood the best way to apply marks and proper harassment around the marks. It seems like in lane you basically need hit them with 2 Qs? Or do you favor other patterns. Or do you even angle for stuns oustside of all-ins? I guess what I'm looking for are what are the basic trading patterns that you use to manage your AA harass as well as stuns? And is are there any considerations that you use around energy management?

(1497) |

Q W and the W empowered attack gives you a stun. If it's a melee champion who engages on you (or you're all-inning), you can use E Q and W. You'll win trades against basically any champion if you can stun them and disengage before they can return damage.

It's very rare to hit two Qs in a row (people will play around the minion wave and won't give you the chance). When your W-empowered attack is up and you don't have to last-hit immediately, that's a good time to look for a trade.

Early game (esp against melees) you can just chip away at their health bars with auto attacks. You don't necessarily have to hit abilities, but any Qs or Ws you can hit obviously helps.

Energy management shouldn't be much of an issue unless you use E and don't hit anything to get the energy refund. You can't really oom yourself with just Q and W. Try to tag something with E when you can. If you can't tag anyone with E (like you used it to escape a gank or something), you'll just have to wait a bit and play safely until you get the energy and cooldown back.

Lmk if you have any other questions.

(78) |

Okay, I'm blind. XD

I have completely missed that the empowered autoattack adds a mark of the storm. That ties everything together nicely.

Thank you very much!

(55) |

Hey there Psi!

Well, it was already expected, but you made a really great guide. You explain very well how to play as in ANY situation, a valuable guide to most players!
Do you have any tips for playing against ? I struggle most of the time due to his stunlock whenever he starts to trade.

Anyway, great guide as always Psi!
See ya!

(1497) |

It really depends on the champion you're playing. are a good early buy against him as any champion. If you can trade with him when his Q is on cooldown, when you're behind minions and/or when he doesn't have his W empowered autoattack ready, you're less likely to be stunned for free. If you run at him when he has everything up, you're pretty much guaranteed to get stunned.

As a tank, you mostly just need to focus on getting some early magic resist and going even in farm. You aren't going to solo-kill a as unless he makes some huge mistakes, but you can probably kill him with the help of a jungle gank. Otherwise, just going even in lane should be fine.

As a ranged champion like or , you'll want to get a minion advantage and slow-push the wave. Trade with him when you have minions to block his Q and you should win if you have the minion advantage since Kennen's basic attack trades aren't as strong on their own. Kennen has kind of ****py waveclear early so you can often push him in if you're ranged.

As a fighter with mobility like , check out this video from SkillCapped. The whole video is worth watching, but the important part is at the 5:00 mark where they show a window where the melee champion can fight the ranged one when they're being pushed in. You want to fight when the wave is closer to your tower and there are only a few enemy minions.

(55) |

Thanks, I mainly play as , so the video will really help me research trade windows.

(5) |

Awesome Kennen guide Psi! Never dissapoints

(1497) |

Thank you Prizm. <3

Hello at first I want to say that this is a really nice guide. I have one question how aggressive do you think kennen can take trades in early game. Because I am a pretty aggressiv player

(1497) |

Depends on matchup. has a pretty strong early game, especially into melee champions, but a few like and will out-trade you really hard if they can get to you and hit their abilities. Ideally you should be harassing a lot and only taking a bit of damage from enemy minions.

Against ranged matchups, you can trade when your empowered W basic attack is up or when you can land a Q, otherwise you'll usually lose trades or go even at best. If you have more minions than the enemy, it becomes a lot safer to trade, so look for more aggressive trades when you're pushing. Just remember to ward and watch for the enemy jungler.

Against squishy enemies keep in mind you have a lot of kill threat with your ultimate, so if you're against a or something and have trouble harassing her, you can just farm and wait for your jungler to gank and/or wait for 6 and all-in her with your ultimate.

(1497) |

Hey guys, thanks for your patience if you've been waiting for an update for this guide. This is the last of my guides that I needed to update from midseason 8 as most of my games this season went to practicing jungle and bot lane. I recently found some time to play and theorycraft Kennen to get this guide up to date and with the new builder, I can finally show alternative runes/summoners in the cheatsheet! :)

Much of the runes section has been overhauled and the items were tweaked a bit as well (took out and added to situational items). Hope you guys find the guide useful.

(1) |

is viable on ?

(1497) |

Yep, it's pretty good into squishy champions that are difficult to trade autos with, like and . Basically if the only thing you'll be doing is farming safely (with maybe an occasional trade) and then all-ining with your ultimate, is the best keystone for that.

(3) |

How do you feel about Phase Rush?

(1497) |

Definitely not worth it on Kennen. If you want a keystone with better all-in, try .

Edit: I totally changed my mind on this later, haha.

(24) |

PsiGuard did you ever tried sorcery on kennen i never tried by myself but i think its not that bad and your guide looks pretty good i will try it out but do you think its posible sorcery on kennen maybe sounds weird. Anyway you do pretty good job keep doing it i gave you rep every week i think your guides are great and you need to do other admin stuff or whatever and keep doing guides i cant believe i dont have time to make guides when i get day off.

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(1497) |

Hey NDarKnight, thanks for the support. I have played some games with primary on Kennen but unfortunately I haven't had as much practice with him as some of my jungle picks. I do want to get this guide updated but I've been busy with other responsibilities.

Right now I'd recommend the following runes: , , , , , .

(2) |

I think kennen is a really good champ to play by,and he is freaking awesome with his ult in team fights He can stun the whole enemy team in no time,Thanks for your guide It is really good and It helped me to improve my skills by kennene and to master him more and do more tricks by him
I have one more question how the hell do you get all those mobafire points man You are definetly getting the giveaway man

(1497) |

You can get a lot of points by keeping guides updates and reaching high guide scores. Commenting on guides (and replying to comments like this one) also nets you some tickets. Don't worry though, I'm not actually eligible to win the giveaway, haha.

Thanks for your comment, I'm glad you're having success with Kennen. I agree that he's a terrific team fighter! :)

(2) |

Sometimes I update new guides but I don't get new points,I don't get it
And why are you not eligible to win the giveaway ?

Load more comments (5 more replies) →

(1497) |

Guide updates only offer points once per guide, per month. There's also a cap to how many points you can earn through most types of activities. You can check out the raffle post for more details on the caps.

I'm not eligible because I'm a staff member. :P

(2) |

Srry I have one more question
Do I have to be at the top 25 to get the giveaway

(1497) |

Nope. Earning more tickets gives you more entries in the giveaway (so you have more chances to win) but all you need to win is to get the minimum of 50 tickets to be entered. The draw is random, weighted according to your number of tickets, so the top 25 earners just have a higher chance to win, but it's far from guaranteed.

(2) |

Oh Alright Thnk you for answering all my questions

(2) |

Oh,I forgot about that
Thanks for helping me

(569) |

I'll just type out my mind here:

Your cheat sheet is really narrow (not that it's a bad thing) meaning that you really give a very tiny palette of alternatives for the items that you suggest. Something like deserves at least a mention despite it falling out a little bit. I also dislike the fact that you have as a whole item when is more than enough for you to do what you want while being really cost-efficient.

I think you could mention as a starting item. Some people take it in matchups where you can just abuse the enemy laner really easily.

What do you think about maxing W > E > Q? Some people seem to run it to push waves and then proceed to split push like the AD did while still being useful for the team in teamfights by using ultimate and hitting your keyboard with your head.

You could consider splitting your masteries and taking 1x and 4x. I also think that is inferior to , since your fights are usually prolonged and because means you are also taking extra damage from ALL targets hitting you.

I also prefer instead of because benefits so much from it in the early game but that's just me

Make one more pun in a title of your guides and you need to stay away from dark alleys.

sorry for bad grammar and punctuation and whatnot im finish

(1497) |

I'm going to disagree in this reply a lot, not because I don't appreciate the criticism (I do) but because I, well, disagree.

I'm aware that some people buy Rylai's and Cull. I personally don't think either are good picks and don't build them. I generally don't mention things not to take in my guides which is why they aren't mentioned at all.

Why I dont like Rylais / Cull

I get and before I have a full . If I simply bought Guise and delayed Liandry's, I'd be moving on to Zhonya's, which is less gold efficient than Liandry's (92.73% vs 100% from Liandry's, not including passives/actives ofc). Liandry's is more damage and more gold efficiency. I'd only delay it for Zhonya's or Void if absolutely necessary.

I honestly expected to talk about / use W max more but after playtesting I almost never used it. The chip damage is nice early but ultimately I feel you have a lot more threat with Q max since it's more spammable. Even if you can't poke with it a ton, it's insurance if your opponent leaves the safety of their minion wave.

I think 1 point in Vamp is utterly pointless (Vapora made a reddit thread about this at some point as well), and even if it wasn't, I'm starting with or most games.

You have a decent point about DES vs , though I feel Kennen honestly doesn't take much damage throughout the game. In lane you usually have a range advantage and in team fights you have and stuns. Trance is probably better if you're behind but you can definitely kill someone in a short period of time if you're ahead. DES is maybe a bit riskier but I wouldn't say it's worse.

Scaling AP glyphs break even at level 7, so I guess the question is whether a few more AP is going to make or break your early game. Ultimately I feel Kennen's a team fighter and don't stake too much of my success on the early game. This one's preference imo.

Again I appreciate the comment even if I disagree with your points. It's always good to have people challenge my views on things. Sometimes it just makes me think more about what I do and why, and sometimes I end up changing my mind in the future. This is what I think right now though.

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