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Choose Champion Build:
Spells:
Ignite
Flash
Ability Order
Mark of the Storm (PASSIVE)
Kennen Passive Ability
Intro
Now that that's aside, the purpose of this guide is to teach you how to play

Each of the builds above demonstrates a combination of runes that could be played with Kennen. The first is a balanced early game domination set, with flat hp
Greater Seal of Health for a little bulk, ap for increased damage
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power and mp for a little late game damage boost
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. The second set is for early game survivability. I KNOW most people will not like full hp runes for anyone, let alone kennen, but this is if you are truly struggling during your early game. The extra hp will keep you alive and save you from burst damage. If you are have these, you may also consider alternate starting items (see items section). The last set of runes is for when you are totally confident you can faceroll your opponents.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration makes a reappearance along with
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration for lots of magic pen. Glyphs and Seals provide early game ap to start you off.





Ahhh, items, the core of all builds. Each build here has a different path for a different situation. For almost all situations, I would recommend starting with Boots and 3
Health Potion. This gives you speed to avoid nasty pokes, as well as auto-attacks, which can be surprisingly deadly early game. The only time I would recommend a different start would be if you know you are facing an extremely strong early lane of
Garen and
Singed proportions. A good example of a mid like this would be someone like
Annie, who can hurt you bad early on. In this case, I would suggest going with
Doran's Shield: This gives more health to survive bursts.
After your first B, this gives you some options: Ask yourself these questions:
1. Did I die to get here? 2. Do I have a kill/first blood?
If you answered yes to 1, then you should probably follow the second build. It is for situations where you are outmatched, and must build bulk to be effective. Buy a
Giant's Belt if you can, or buy some more pots and head back to lane. In this situation, I would suggest
Mercury's Treads, especially if facing said
Annie or other champs heavy on cc. The rest of the items provide defenses against various threats.
Order here is by no means set, and items can be substituted in. Facing Ashe,
Master Yi and
Caitlyn? Throw in a
Thornmail before any other items. Laning against
Malzahar? Throw in a
Quicksilver Sash. (Seriously that item is awesome. Free
Cleanse AND MR? I'll take it). Flexibility is the key, and those items are just a few of the ones that can help you're situation.
If you answered yes to 2, you might consider going down the facerolling path. This build focuses more on damage output than survival. A
Rabadon's Deathcap early delivers huge damage potential, and
Lich Bane just gives you even more.
***NOTE***
I know
Lich Bane gives wasted stats on Kennen i.e. Mana. The stats still make it worthwhile however. 80ap is nothing to sniff at, and mr gives good bulk against other casters. The passive is what this item is really about though. It allows you to deal out some real hurt, as well as sustained dps due to your spammable abilities. Furthermore,
Lich Bane diversifies your damage, dealing physical damage. On a team full of ap, this can devastate a team that builds only mr to counter your damage, and it keeps the enemy honest.
***END NOTE***
Anyways, That combo gives huge dps. At this point, you'll find the other team starts to focus you really hard, due to your ninja prowess. This is why the build adds other bulk, which will keep you alive during teamfights. Feel free to put
Zhonya's Hourglass in earlier if cc has you down. The active synergizes well with your ultimate, and it provides a large ap boost.
If you answered yes to both or no to both, You should use the first build. It is a versatile build, with sufficient bulk to survive teamfights, and enough damage to stay relevant late in the game.
Note that
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is built before
Hextech Revolver. This is because Rylai's will allow you to survive the bursts so typical of mid lane champions. While
Hextech Revolver may give better sustain over long periods of time, These must be extremely long periods of time, for at low levels, the sustain at lower levels is negligible. A full combo at level 5 offers just 35 health back, even before damage reduction due to MR. Spell Vamp is excellent, don't get me wrong, but it is not useful early in the game. I almost never play a game without Rylai's it's just an awesome item. Good health bonus, good ap bonus and a nice cc (if soft) for a passive is just to good to pass up. It fits Kennen's playstyle perfectly, and I would recommend obtaining it 99999/100000 times you play him.
Remember: All these choices are not set in stone. If another item is more beneficial in the situation, don't hesitate to mix and match from different builds. There are some items however, I would caution against having. These include:
Abyssal Mask: While a good item for a caster tank or offtank to have, leave it to them. You have better items to pursue.
Archangel's Staff: Why? Why would you do this?
Anything with CDR: You don't really need this. Your
Thundering Shuriken has a low cooldown, and spamming your W+E will just leave you gasping for energy when you really need it.
Rod of Ages: While an excellent item, the main bonus on this is the mana, which Kennan does not possess. The health and AP are nice, but take to long to come to fruition.





After your first B, this gives you some options: Ask yourself these questions:
1. Did I die to get here? 2. Do I have a kill/first blood?
If you answered yes to 1, then you should probably follow the second build. It is for situations where you are outmatched, and must build bulk to be effective. Buy a



Order here is by no means set, and items can be substituted in. Facing Ashe,






If you answered yes to 2, you might consider going down the facerolling path. This build focuses more on damage output than survival. A


***NOTE***
I know


***END NOTE***
Anyways, That combo gives huge dps. At this point, you'll find the other team starts to focus you really hard, due to your ninja prowess. This is why the build adds other bulk, which will keep you alive during teamfights. Feel free to put

If you answered yes to both or no to both, You should use the first build. It is a versatile build, with sufficient bulk to survive teamfights, and enough damage to stay relevant late in the game.
Note that



Remember: All these choices are not set in stone. If another item is more beneficial in the situation, don't hesitate to mix and match from different builds. There are some items however, I would caution against having. These include:


Anything with CDR: You don't really need this. Your









Laning:
Kennen is a wonderful laner due to his ability to farm effectively and stay out of trouble. His
Thundering Shuriken is an excellent farming tool, ensuring he will rarely be starved. He can also stun, even early on, allowing for good support from Junglers. He can also spar with most champions excepting annoying, high powered early laners such as
Caitlyn. He also does fairly well against lane bullies such as
Garen or
Talon because he can farm effectively from a distance, and his threat of a stun. I would suggest laning Kennen mid, but if some pub decides you don't deserve it and won't budge, Kennen can be effective in any lane.
***NOTE ON JUNGLING***
Don't do it. Please. You are wasting the laning ability of an excellent champion. PLus he kinda sucks at jungling for the most part, so just don't.
Mid Game:
Kennen's mid game is fairly good. He can show up in a lane and completely decimate the opposing team. Until he gets Lich Bane, he isn't much good for hurting towers, but once he does he can really burn them bad if left unchecked. Kennen can also often just lane right through mid game if your team has everything under control.
Late Game:
Kennen's late game is pretty fricken' awesome. He can decimate the enemy team when the team is working well together. The important part of the late game is the teamfighting.
In a teamfight, Kennan should not be the initiator: even with some bulk he is still fairly squishy. Rather, he should go in right after the initiator. This allows for him to fire off his combo early, but without the huge focus that ends up on an initiator. When comboing, pop your
Lightning Rush and charge through their squishies. activate your
Slicing Maelstrom while in their formation and use
Electrical Surge to stun them. Use your
Thundering Shuriken on the most heavily damaged squishy and keep spamming it until they die. That's pretty much all there is to it.
Lane Match-ups to avoid:
Caitlyn: It depends on the player, but a good Cait will make farming very hard. She is possibly the only champ that can starve you of farm.
Fiddlesticks: Goes for anyone really. You can stop him, but he'll do a billion damage while you try.
Galio: Just plain annoying. Builds super bulky and has a great harass.
Kassadin: Impossible to catch+silence=:(
Ryze: This *** can stop your combo outright with his snare.
Sion: Very hard to kill and has great burst. Be wary.
Swain: He has incredible sustain, and can therefore harass you hard. He also has quite a bit of CC, making him a tough matchup.
Vayne: Screw Vayne. She does way to much damage and is way to easy to play. She should have nerfs coming her way, but like Tryndamere, Riot's staff is so much in love with her that they 'nerf' her and really just make her better.
Kennen is a wonderful laner due to his ability to farm effectively and stay out of trouble. His




***NOTE ON JUNGLING***
Don't do it. Please. You are wasting the laning ability of an excellent champion. PLus he kinda sucks at jungling for the most part, so just don't.
Mid Game:
Kennen's mid game is fairly good. He can show up in a lane and completely decimate the opposing team. Until he gets Lich Bane, he isn't much good for hurting towers, but once he does he can really burn them bad if left unchecked. Kennen can also often just lane right through mid game if your team has everything under control.
Late Game:
Kennen's late game is pretty fricken' awesome. He can decimate the enemy team when the team is working well together. The important part of the late game is the teamfighting.
In a teamfight, Kennan should not be the initiator: even with some bulk he is still fairly squishy. Rather, he should go in right after the initiator. This allows for him to fire off his combo early, but without the huge focus that ends up on an initiator. When comboing, pop your




Lane Match-ups to avoid:









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