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Kennen Build Guide by

✔️[10.18] Heart of the Tempest|Diamond Guide|In-depth

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Kennen Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Kennen Guides

Runes:

Sorcery

Phase Rush

Nimbus Cloak

Transcendence

Gathering Storm

Domination

Taste of Blood

Ravenous Hunter

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

Flash

Teleport

Items

Starting Item

First Back ( ANY )

Core Vs Low Magic Resist

Core Vs High HP Targets

Core VS High Magic Resist

Late Game Full Build Example

VS AP HEAVY

VS HIGH HP TANKS

Alternative Items

Ability Order

Kennen Passive Ability

Champion Build Guide

PROS

• Good Engage & CC
• High Burst Potential
• Manaless
• Good Teamfighter

is a great lane bully especially when up against melee matchups, which is often the case in the top lane, making his opponent's life a living hell. Not only this, his teamfighting is also excellent, whilst he is not the best at scaling, his Ultimate can single-handedly change the tide of a teamfight. Turning a losing game into a hard winning one. The fact that he does not require mana means that he is able to stay in lane for as long as he wants, and is able to continuously harass his lane opponent without worrying about resources like most other champions would have to.

CONS

- Hard To Comeback
- Squishy
- Dependant In Teamfights
- Ability Reliant

's way of engaging is extremely telegraphic, you literally have to run at the enemies to engage, does not have any dash abilities to immediately get on top of our enemies. He gains a movement speed and combine with the which makes it seem like he is very mobile, but in reality he can be kited out very easily. This is particular bad against champions like who is excellent at peeling, or champions that wants you to run at them, like .

Why Kennen ?

is an excellent pick if you are looking to counter-pick and bully your lane opponent. is a lane dominate champion that also has a very strong teamfight ability. Capable of changing the tide of the game in a single teamfight. He also is manaless, allowing him to constantly spam abilities to harass his opponent without having to worry about mana cost/usage.

When to pick Kennen?

has many good match-ups but at the same time can also be easily countered against some of the more difficult match-ups like , , , etc. These match-ups are inherently easy but a slip up can easily turn the lane around in favour of the enemy. It is extremely hard to poke them out, as we try to harass them, they can very easily nullify our damage with their heals/passives and then later, they will build into something magic resist then we become very useless against them. However, is excellent into melee match-ups that have low mobility and is reliant on hitting their abilities, like , , etc.

Phase Rush: This rune usually has great synergy with ability reliant champions such as Gragas, such that if you are able to hit your abilities you can gain a short burst of movement speed, either to immediately back off to continuing to chase the enemy down.

Nimbus Cloak: The extra movement speed whenever you use a summoners spell is massive, for example when you try to escape by flashing, sometimes the enemies can still catch up to you, but with nimbus cloak the extra movespeed you gain will ensure they do not catch up. Or when you are trying to flash forward to chase down enemies, it will ensure you secure the kill.

Transcendence: This is another great rune for an ability reliant champion such as Kennen, as in our build path, we may not always be able to go for full 40% CDR, in fact our build would usually let us go up to 30% and this rune is a great way to cap it out at the maximum CDR % at 40%.

Gathering Storm: An excellent scaling rune, guaranteed free ability power when the game hits the later stages. Making sure Kennen remains relevant no matter how late the game goes.

Taste of Blood: This rune is great because you will be hitting your opponenets a lot, like a lot. You can pretty much activate this rune for some free healing combing it with the Cull passive which will keep you topped up when harassing your opponents.

Ravenous Hunter: Great rune if you lack life steal, which is especially relevant on Kennen, as an AP champion there is not really any life steal items you can build so this is a great way for you to regain health after trading/engaging.

ABILITY
SEQUENCE

1

Q

2

W

3

E

4

Q

5

Q

6

R

7

Q

8

W

9

Q

10

W

11

R

12

W

13

W

14

E

15

E

16

R

17

E

18

E

PASSIVE ABILITY

Enemies hit by 's abilities receive a Mark of the Storm for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. At three stacks, the marks consume themselves to stun the target for 1.25 seconds and restore 25 energy. If the stun is applied more than once within 6 seconds, its duration is reduced to 0.5 seconds.

| RANGE: 1050 | COST: 60 / 55 / 50 / 45 / 40 ENERGY | COOLDOWN: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 |
throws a charged shuriken in the target direction, dealing Magic damage magic damage to the first enemy it hits.

| COST: 40 ENERGY | COOLDOWN: 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 |
PASSIVE: Basic attacks grant a stack of Electrical Surge on-attack. Upon reaching 4 stacks 's next basic attack against non-structures is empowered to deal bonus magic damage, apply a and consume all stacks on-hit.
ACTIVE: Kennen sends out a surge of electricity to all nearby enemies afflicted by or caught in , dealing magic damage.

| COST: 100 / 95 / 90 / 85 / 80 ENERGY | COOLDOWN: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 |
ACTIVE: transforms into a ball of electricity, becoming unable to declare basic attacks but becoming ghosted and gaining 100% bonus movement speed for 2 seconds. After a 0.5-second delay, can reactivate . deals magic damage to all enemies he passes through, halved against non-champions and restores 40 energy the first time damages an enemy. gains bonus attack speed for 4 seconds upon exiting .
RECAST: ends early.

| EFFECT RADIUS: 550 | COOLDOWN: 120 |
summons Shuriken Storm, a magical storm around himself for 3 seconds, gainingbonus armor and bonus magic resistance and striking bolts of lightning down on all enemies within range every 0.5 seconds, each dealing magic damage. Each maelstrom hit applies a , up to a maximum of 3.
deals 10% increased damage with each successive strike against a target, up to a maximum of 150% damage with one strike.

Hextech Rocketbelt is one of your core(first) item. This item is one of the most cost-efficient item in the entire game, for an item that only cost 2500g, it gives you pretty much every you need, and you will always be able to complete before your lane opponents, dominating the lane even more than you already are. The active is also a great way to assist your engage, a mini-dash that provides AOE damage.

Oblivion Orb is another one of your core item against opponents without any magic resist. The item provides flat magic penetration which will grant you true damage combining it with the Sorcerer's Shoes against opponents with little to no magic resist. Do not build this if the targets you aim to kill have already built magic resist like Mercury's Treads or Hexdrinker etc. I do not recommend completing this item into Morellonomicon as it is extremely low value. Just sit on Oblivion Orb until it is your 6th item.

Sorcerer's Shoes is an item I would try to complete as soon as possible. As soon as you get your Hextech Rocketbelt I would try to complete Sorcerer's Shoes. This item gives a lot of value because it essentially gives you the same amount of flat magic penetration you would get from Oblivion Orb, extremely useful in the early game when most players still does not have magic resist.

Void Staff is an item that will be in your build 90% of the time, unless the enemies really does not want to build magic resist, then you can skip this item and go for the other options. Otherwise you want to purchase this if there are any enemies with magic resist.

Banshee's Veil is a great item to have against AP heavy or CC heavy engage that is hard to avoid, since the blackshield you gain from Banshee's Veil will protect you from the first CC spell that hits. Good against Evelynn, Katarina, Thresh etc. However, you want to make sure to not build this with Zhonya's Hourglass as they are both defensive items, they have very poor synergy with each other and will lower your burst by a lot.

Zhonya's Hourglass's an excellent item choice against heavy AD opponents, or where the enemy team has heavy CC that makes it difficult for you to engage. You can engage onto the enemy team, then immediately activate Zhonya's Hourglass, dodging their CC spells, allowing you to get your abilities back up again to try to make a play or escape. Do not build with Banshee's Veil

Morellonomicon is not that great of an item, only turn Oblivion Orb into this item when there are heavy healing champions on the enemy team, such as Soraka, Yuumi, Sona etc.

Liandry's Torment is an item that is great against high health stacking opponents regardless of how much magic resist they have, so you may consider this item when up against Dr. Mundo, Ornn, Nasus etc. It is also great at amplifying damage dealt over time, which is something Kennen do not really care about, as we intend to one shot our targets.

Mejai's Soulstealer is an extremely snowbally item. I do not recommend this item at all, unless you are super confident in your abilities to survive and to gain stacks by killing or earning assists. You want to have Dark Seal in your inventory already before going for Mejai's Soulstealer.

Mercury's Treads is a situational item. You usually do not want to build this even if the enemies have a lot of CC. This item is mainly to reduce the duration of CC on you, so consider this item if there are multiple unavoidable heavy CC that can get you. I would also build this if the whole enemy team is ability power based.

Ninja Tabi is a situational item. It reduces auto attack damage by 12%. You would ideally want to build this if there are multiple heavy autoattackers on the enemy team, such as Fiora, Yasuo, Yone, Ashe etc. You can also consider this item if the whole enemy team is attack damage.

Rabadon's Deathcap is an excellent item to finish off your build, usually as a 5th or 6th item to amplify all the ability power you have built up already, it is a must have late game item for any AP damage dealer. You can even consider building this earlier if you are super fed and feel extremely confident.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is very much a situational item, it has great synergy with both Liandry's Torment & Morellonomicon, these 3 items combined with constantly reapply their passive, dealing huge burn damage overtime even when you stop attacking them. Build this if you are against a lot of tanks, and will need to kite.

Quicksilver Sash is an item you may want to consider if you are against someone like Mordekaiser or Malzahar where using this item can clear you out from their ultimate. However, since this item is mainly for AD champions you may not want to purchase this at all.

Trading Pattern

Empowered Auto, + Thundering Shuriken + Electrical Surge. This is your bread and butter way of trading in lane. By first making sure you are on your 5th autoattack so that it becomes an empowered autoattack from your Passive. Once you have the empowered auto, hit the enemy and follow it up with , if you are able to land this then immediately activate to get 3 stack off to stun them and deal bonus damage. You are also able to cancel the animation of your autoattack if you cast immediately. This the basic combo that you should know by heart, and the main way you harass your opponents.

Chase Down Combo

Empowered Auto + Lightning Rush + Electrical Surge + Thundering Shuriken. This is another combo you can use, if the enemies has no way of stopping you, to maximise your damage without the need of our Ultimate . Wait until you are on your 5th autoattack to have an empowered autoattack, then auto your opponent, follow it up with , make sure you run into them and hit them with it, once you hit them with it immediately follow it up with to stun them in place to guarantee a hit. Then you want to back off because you have used all your abilities, unless they are low enough to die to your basic attack.

Ultimate Damage Combo

Lightning Rush + Slicing Maelstrom + With or Without Flash + Hextech Rocketbelt + Electrical Surge + Thundering Shuriken + Basic Attack. Well, this is the highest damaging combo you can do on , especially as a way to open up a teamfight, engaging onto the enemy backline. You want to start off with to gain the extra movement speed, then pop your ultimate , next you want to make sure you are in a good position already, if not you can to readjust. Then use to cover the extra distance and give extra damage. You want to make sure to use your before your gets off 3 stacks of passive, otherwise you will not be able to activate for extra damage. Then you can finish it off with and basic attacks.

One thing you must master in order to harass and bully your lane opponent as is the trading stance. You must pay attention to both ally minions and enemy minions health, whenever it is close to dying the enemy would want to last hit it, this is an opportunity of window for your to punish them, attempt to use the trading pattern we have mentioned previously, or simply basic attacking them. It is also important the other way around because they can easily do the same, and engage onto you, if they manage to get on top of you it will be hard not to take a lot of damage. Especially against someone like & who can gap close very easily if you misplay. Other than that you would want to focus on harassing whenever you can whilst maintaining high CS. You should prioritise getting your own CS over harassing your opponent, unless there is a kill opportunity. As a lane range bully, you are also very prone to enemy junglers focusing you down, so be mindful of where the enemy jungler can be at all times. This is particularly important, if the enemy jungler is missing on the map for a long time, you probably want to hold onto your , do not waste it and only use it when you see the jungler show up else where, as you can use it as a quick escape if he does appear, wasting his time for a fail jungle gank.

Outside of laning, you may want to switch over to a red trinket, as this will deny and allow you to remove any vision around you when activated. Meaning that you can get potential flank off before a teamfight starts, so that you can get off a massive , hitting all the key targets and single-handedly winning a teamfight. Without red trinket it would be risky to go for a flank, when the enemy spots you, they may all turn around and make it a quick 5v1, getting rid of you from the start. For the most part you would want to remain in a side lane, pushing and creating pressure since we will be taking . You want to be split pushing on the opposite side of the objective, for example, we are playing for dragon soon, you want to split push in the top lane. You want to make sure you do not go too deep and push without any vision in enemy jungle. You want to push the lane to create pressure, and then hide in the lane push to drop temporary aggro, so the enemies think you back but you are still there, wait for the next waves and keep pushing. Only push, if you know you can get away and escape, or push hard when your teammates are also pushing, so that if the enemy teams decide to go to you or your team, either of you can steal an objective.