This is my Kennen Build. I play a lot of ranked, and am at a super low ELO so take this as you will and any good feedback is wanted. I always play him mid, and I dont think that Ive really seen him played elsewhere. The great thing about Kennen is his ability to repeatedly stun, so even if you are not good with Kennen, or you feed a LeBlanc/Annie/Kassadin, you can build a Zhonya's and still contribute to the team fights endgame. Another thing that I like about Kennen just on a more personal note is that it takes a skill to be great with him. His skill shots make it a challenge and the fact that his ult is only really good in the middle of a team fight throws in a lot of strategy. I'm not the kind of guy that looks to choose a kass or leblanc just because choosing a skill and then clicking on someone in order for it to hit just isn't fun for me(maybe too much MMORPG). Off subject though, anyways he's a great champ, and while it takes some serious practice to become great with him, he's a ton of fun and a huge contributor

This is my first build on mobafire and yes it's long, but that's because it is very detailed.

This is the rune setup that I use, merely because it helps out so much in the beginning of the game, especially playing against an annie/leblanc/kass. The amount of damage that the Q does with the magic pen and ap runes at the begging of the game is ridiculous. Some people choose health, but meh... Not me.

Here it can vary a lot so I'm not going to put anything in here. Choose the way that you want to play and use it to your advantage, especially at the beginning of the game

Item's!!! extremely important here. I've read a lot of Kennen builds and it seems like we all use pretty much the same items, the only question is what order in which to buy them. I start out with the tome/hpot just because it gives me that much more AP for my Q and the health pot helps stay in lane against leblanc/annie/kass.

From here its very important to make sure and get the boots first thing. It helps dodge skill shots (lux, morgana) and get out of ganks. A lot of people dont worry about it because you have the E to get out of ganks, but if your pushing hard and sion comes out with his stun then it doesn't matter... You're in trouble.

From here if I have extra money I always get health pots and wards for 2 reasons.
1. Health pots save you against the auto spells
2. In my ELO nobody buys enough wards, and it's always good to have that heads up on a gank

Before I finish my boots I get the will of the ancients, because spell vamp on her maxed Q in lane keeps you there a long time.

From here finishing off the boots is important because that added magic pen is extremely important if you want to be an AP threat as far as damage is concerned. Kennen can always stun but if you get the damage up as well... Thats when you really become a threat to the enemy team

Here is where a lot of controversy comes into play as to what major item to get next. I go for the zhonyas because in beginning team fights when everyone is still pretty squishy, once you hit 6 and ult in you're going to get focused like crazy, and thats where it comes in handy. Because it happens really fast a lot of people are dumbfounded wondering why their spells aren't working, or if the game is lagging (get that one alot). Since going into stasis doesn't stop your ult, it still marks and stuns. I also like to get this first because the added armor is nice as well as the amount of AP from the rod. I try to save up for the rod first but, meh, the world isn't perfect.

From there I get the rylais for the added health and slow. The slow on the enemy team matched with your ult is outstanding late game

From there it's all about how much ap you can get. So I match the void staff and the deathcap.

Always start with the Q. Some people argue to start with the W since it's passive gives you a crit shuriken with a mark of storm. That's not a bad idea. It's just extremely hard to make work at the very beginning of a game against a leblanc/kass/annie since you have to be within spell range to get it off.

What's important about this is that you have to be patient with it. Use it to last shot minions as often as you can beginning game, but also remember that unless you're playing against a complete nub, he's going to know that you can't really do anything against him if he's behind his minions. Keep this in mind so that as soon as a minion dies you can Q right behind it to hit your enemy champ. A lot of times they'll see it coming but hey it's something to think about

Go with the W next, because every once in a while when you do mark your enemy champ, its another automatic mark when within range, and one step closer to a stun.

Take E next so that you're bursty and then max the Q.

I always say max the Q because that's really where the damage comes from. You're not gunna get a lot of kills without maxing it early game. It does an extreme amount of damage and early game once you've pushed him to the turret. You can get minions on turret, shoot the enemy champ and be out before the turret has a shot at you if you time it right. This will keep your enemy heading back to base quite often.

I say max the W next because that applies damage to everyone with a mark, and sometimes great for that final touch you need to get the stun and therefore the kill.

Max E last just because I don't find myself really needing the lower cooldown and the ap doesn't really skale extremely well there. really just good for escaping and farming.

I go exhaust ignite

You can go flash ignite, a lot of people do that just because its a fast way to get into the middle of a fight and start the ult (fiddlestick style) but I think that the E does a pretty good job of that.

I go exhaust for two reasons
1. Early game it helps ensure that you can make a good shot with the Q as the enemy is slowed and will have a much harder time dodging
2. late game once zhonyas wears off you are going to be getting focused by there melee/ranged ad hard. That exhaust helps prevent them from causing too much damage and giving you enough time to hopefully stun them again.

I go ignite because it is great for that final touch on a kill throughout the game, and defeating champs like sion and vollibear with their ults/passive life regen

Kennen is the ultimate team player.

Early game great at getting kills and getting fed if you play him right. Late game sometimes it's hard to keep up with the damage output, so you don't get as many kills but you help your teammates out with a ton of assists. It is a team game after all.

Play with the team, by yourself you are only so good. Before too long you will be screaming for energy and your auto attacks just aren't enough to finish the job.

Pros

-Great at CC, especially with the added slow in rylais, use that to you'r advantage as much as possible
-Great teamplaying capabilities
-Extreme damage out put early game
-Extreme creep killing capabilities

Cons
-Q doesn't go through creeps
-Takes a lot of skill to master
-Hard to keep up against leblanc/annie/kass

Creeping

This is huge especially while midding against leblanc/annie/kass
Kennen is amazing at racking up the creep score, his E mixed with W will score huge points. You need to make sure you stay on top of this especially early game. If you can stay out of range and keep them from getting you killed and keep your creepsore up, then you'll be fine. Extremely important though... Like words cannot describe how screwed you are without a giant creep score

The biggest part of this game, and what makes kennen so important.

This gets kind of long so im gunna break it up into two parts

Offense.
When you're on the offense wait for that perfect moment to ult. If you do it too soon you're screwed, and same for too late. Make sure and stay on top of the tempo of the team fights and gauge your enemies trends to find the perfect time to go in. (after someone has already silenced or stunned) it's extremely important while playing against a talon. because he will come out of nowhere and if you're silenced you're useless to your team. Even though it's a short period of time its enough to change the tide of a team fight to their favor.

Defense.
Map awareness is extremely important here. If you see your jungler getting ambushed, go help. If you see anyone getting ambushed go help. Especially after rylais. You come out of the bushes to help your running lee sin and throw a nice solid Q into one of the enemy players and they are not going to want to keep coming. Or they won't be able to in the case you have rylais. Chasing a kennen in some cases is worse then chasing a singed. If they are chasing, all you have to do is occasionally throw that Q. With my build it will do enough damage to start the counterattack in your favor. It's also good it you can get an enemy melee champ to chase. At one point coming out of a team fight with less then a quarter health I had a full health Kat chasing me. My Q mixed with my spell vamp drained her below a quarter health after a few shots, and brought me back to above half. This set a fellow player up for the kill and left me able to stick around and keep in the fight.

Another important aspect to kennen is to stay back until the team fight is in full flow. The occasional well thrown Q before the battle starts will give you the edge while keeping you out of harms way.

Also, while the team is pushing a turret in a lot of cases if there is an enemy champ defending, you can hit him through the bush with the Q and give him a good enough reason to leave and hand over the turret.

Last thing in team work.
This is crucial. Do not worry about who gets the kills, just make sure that they happen. Don't get mad cause you got ksed on your ult. Late game it will pay off when you get the people around you a ton of kills. Their base damage will put the icing on the cake of your stuns and AP damage.

Alright, here we get into the real meat and potatoes of my style of playing Kennen.

When you start off the game, it's extremely important that you get as much AP as possible. In games mid against leblanc/kass/annie, you can come out on top easy. You just have to be careful and patient. The next little bit is my strategy on how to play against them.

At the beginning they will hide behind their creep waves and sneak up occasionally to use their auto spells. Be aware of that. Like I said before try to time it so that once the minion right in front of them dies, your shuriken is slapping them in the face. Against the right champs two of those early games will drop them to half health easy. That is where you proclaim your dominance. They might not have to skill shot you to damage you, but they are going to have to come out and expose themselves to do it. And if you land that shuriken, they are going to be hesitant to do that.

While playing kass, you need to kill him as many times as you can before he reaches six, because after that hes hard to hold down, and he has a nasty silence.

Against leblanc same thing. Just kill as much as you can while avoiding her little tether.

Against annie, go at your own risk. But avoid her when her stun is up, her burst will anhilate you, especially after 6

If you're having a rough time I suggest waiting till level three. By then, if you are building this build. You will have enough burst to get your stun. At lvl 3 wait for one of your shurikens to hit. At that point in time immediately E towards the target. If you are too far away to get the second mark then exhaust and throw another shuriken. After this use the W for the stun, and if they still arent dead ignite will finish them off, it works everytime (at least in my ELO)

Remember though that you arent invincible and extremely open to stuns and silence. Make sure you are warding your bushes.

Another reason that I like to go with the Zhonyas fist
After reaching 6-8 with a couple kills, i will gank either bot or top. And on occasion, so will their jungler. I will meet them and end up in a 2v1 against myself. usually not a good thing. However It is not too hard to get on top. In this situation I usually have my exhaust and ignite up(don't ever waste it(if you cant get the kills, dont use these great things)). If you get attacked by two people there is a plethora of options. Usually one will be an AD champ (if not both since its a gank). When they converge on you

1. exhaust the melee damage, this will keep him from doing too much,
2. ignite the other. Get some damage going on them so that they know they wont come out with out a scratch
3. Immediately ult, this will mark your targets and get them ready for the stun you have so nicely prepared for them
4. E towards the ignited one, I do this usually because this one is ranged and will try to get away. Your ignite will keep damaging and keeping healing low, along with your ult, this will also add another mark and get some more damage going.
5. Once the range is stunned Q, this usually finishes off the job, in cases that it doesnt W will usually stun them again
6. Most melee AD champs don't mind getting exhausted if they arent getting focused. Since you aren't focusing him in most cases they still think they have a chance to finish you off. However the damage from your ult and W will definitely be a good portion of his health, that mixed with at least one stun and the exhaust and he's not going to be getting very much lifesteal to gain it back either.
7. Once the range is dead focus the melee and he will soon follow

This sounds complicated because it is, but it works so ridiculously well its just... Well I know people cry themselves to sleep when this happens to them.

Another important thing is that once you ult in the team fight I try and go focus their AD range, I do this because in most cases they don't have much health and little to no armor. Also in most cases your other team mates dont have the range to pick her off. With your stuns and Q damage she shouldnt be a problem. Just make sure not to die in the process.

When playing Karthus mid. You can rule his world, and another way to stay on top and put seal that last nail in his coffin shut, save your zhonyas if you don't need to use it. Wait for his ult. Once you use it, and His ult does no damage well... yeah they cry themselves to sleep at night too.

It's getting long now I know

But, just a heads up make sure to stay on the move. Getting caught in an enemy midders skill shot sucks, predict it and dodge it when possible.

Just so you know, there are a lot of anti kennen players.
Lux
Morganna
Kass
Annie
Talon
Lee Sin (the Kick... Oh dear God the Kick)
In some cases Viktor
Rhyze
LeBlanc
Gangplank (his cleanse)
Just to name a few

And that's why you don't see very many great kennen players. He can master any one of those players. He just has to be smart (which I guess can really go for anyone). And don't count yourself out if you dont have a lot of kills or you're feeding. You will be focused a lot, you can always fall back on Zhonyas and the ult.

Good luck and Screw SOPA