Welcome to my Comprehensive Kennen Guide! This guide used to only be an ADC Kennen Guide but I have revamped it to cover the champion as a whole. I am still working on the conversion so currently there is only a match ups section for ADC Kennen.

This guide was first published during Season 2 so most of the first 100 comments or so are in reference to previous editions of this guide and have become completely irrelevant.

Hopefully this guide will help the community become more knowledgeable about a less often seen AD Carry. I'd like to convince players of the viability of ADC Kennen as well as Mid and Support Kennen.

My IGN on NA is Phaetox. I was Platinum in Season 3 in Solo Queue and I am also currently in Plat this season. I also have over 2600 Normal Wins and have played LoL since beta.

I am the Head of Coaching for the DWAI Gaming community, do casting for tournaments and scrims, and am the captain of team Auxiliary.

DWAI Gaming has a community base in both NA and OCE, holds prized monthly tournaments, offers coaching, has a team of streamers and casters, sponsors teams, has weekly community events, and is overall a friendly community that strives to provide members with a comfortable environment to play League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Minecraft, and many other games.

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• Auto Attack = AA
• Attack Speed = AS
• Attack Damage = AD
• Ability Power = AP
• Health = HP
• Magic Resistance = MR
• Movement Speed = MS
• Creep Score / Creeps Slain = CS / Farm
• Crowd Control (Stuns, Snares, Silences, etc.) = CC
• Out of Mana = OOM

PROS

• 550 AA Range (better than most)
• GREAT base stats for AD and AS
• AD Carry w/ stuns / self-peeling mechanics
• High Mobility w/ Lightning Rush
• Bully in lane
• Damage steroid that scales with AD (but does magic damage) on Electrical Surge
• Burst defensive stats during Lightning Rush (decreases inevitable damage from things like Karthus ult, Caitlyn ult, incoming tower hits, etc.)
• AoE Ultimate
• Energy based champion (only ADC that will never go OOM)
• Strong pushing capability and harass-spamming potential (due to being energy-based)
• Mixed damage early game due to AD steroid doing magic damage on-hit.
• Always able to assist in early game skirmishes / invades / contesting objectives due to his resource being Energy
• Lanes well with almost any support

CONS

• No physical damage steroids (So build Infinity Edge!)
• Requires fluid communication between ADC and Support (voice communication highly recommended) and tends to be avoided in solo queue because of this
• Damage falls off late game in comparison to Vayne, Tristana, and Kog'Maw
• Lane opponents w/ strong disengages + knock backs prevent early game kills ( Tristana / Janna / Jayce)
• Requires resource micromanagement, superb positioning awareness, trade / matchup knowledge, and the ability to skillfully time and toggle aggression
• Often receives negative feedback from the community due to an extensive skill cap and generally higher difficulty than other simpler AD Carries

PROS

• Energy based
• Strong AA harass
• Great laning phase / is a lane bully
• AoE CC is amazzing for team fights
• High mobility due to Lightning Rush
• Gets relatively durable from Armor, MR, and HP on items

CONS

• Very item dependent (needs Zhonya's Hourglass for team fights)
• Weak against teams with hard disengage such as being knocked back after turning on Slicing Maelstrom
• 120 second CD on Slicing Maelstrom at all ranks
• Hard to itemize for CDR
• If your team does not snowball the fight during your ultimate's duration your DPS that follows is sub par

PROS

• Great AoE CC for team fights via Mark of the Storm
• Relatively high magic damage output
• Good Auto Attack range for harassing in lane / pushing towers faster
• Can stun-lock multiple enemies simultaneously
• Good defensive steroids on Lightning Rush
• Can transition into another AP Carry late game for your team

CONS

• Item dependent ( Zhonya's Hourglass and Talisman of Ascension are very important for your initiation potential)
• Much like Support Annie, Kennen's engagements for team fights are very reliant on Flash (this makes the Distortion Enchantment for Boots a good choice)
• Has no other utility aside from his stuns
• While the bonus Armor / MR from Lightning Rush is nice in theory, you'll often use the ability as a gap closer and won't actually have the defensive steroid on while taking damage once you're in the fight
• Relatively expensive build for a Support due to the importance of Zhonya's Hourglass

Flash is a must have. No questions.



Barrier is a good counter to damage-intensive kill lanes and burst-oriented bruisers / assassins in team fights.

Cleanse is good to have when aiming for early map pressure, facing enemies with dangerous CC, and when your team doesn't have strong peeling potential.

Ignite is great in aggressive kill lanes, when playing against healers, and when the enemy bruisers / assassins that will be attempting to reach you in team fights lack CC.

Teleport can work great for Solo Top Kennen since your AoE CC is so game changing in team fights.

Exhaust works well on Support Kennen to shut down the enemy ADC in Bottom Lane skirmishes and to help peel bruisers off of your carry in late game team fights.

Further Explanation of When to Take What

As an AD Carry, your secondary Summoner Spell will be dependent on the opposing team's composition. Every team generally has a front line that you will be focused on taking down and surviving against. AD Carries don't get the luxury of attacking one another in 90% of team fights. AD Carries will usually have to take down tanks, bruisers, and assassins first. Which spell you choose should vary from game to game depending on who you should be concerned about dealing with.

If the enemy team has any dive-oriented assassins such as Akali, Zed, Kha'Zix, Fiora, etc. OR has long range snipers such as Lux or Xerath then Barrier would be your ideal choice.

If the enemy team's front line has huge Crowd Control threats such as Amumu, Sejuani, Rammus, etc. then Cleanse will be the most useful option.

If you're up against heavy bruisers, you may want to run Ignite. This is because most bruisers rely on sustain to survive the length of a team fight while attempting to deal steady DPS to you. Dr. Mundo, Trundle, Irelia, Xin Zhao, Aatrox, Vladimir, Olaf, Renekton, Jax, and many others depend on life steal, health regeneration, burst healing, health-on-hit, and other innate sustain mechanics from their kit or itemization. If you are running Ignite you can tremendously decrease the amount of time it takes to drop them during a team fight. The ADC who kills the enemy front line the fastest generally wins the team fight for their team.

AD Carry Runes

2x Greater Quintessence of Life Steal
1x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage
9x Greater Seal of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

I prefer to run Flat AD Marks because Electrical Surge scales off AD but does magic damage so is unaffected by Armor Pen. Flat AD helps with early game harass, lane dominance, and last hitting.

AP Top/Mid Runes

Either:

3x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

OR

1x Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration
2x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

The former gives you slightly more AP while the latter gives you slightly more Magic Penetration. I tend to run the former for Mid and the latter for Top since opponents Top tend to be more tanky. You can also run Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration and/or Greater Quintessence of Hybrid Penetration.

For Seals / Glyphs:

9x Greater Seal of Armor always

and either 9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
or 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist

Support Runes

3x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
9x Greater Seal of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power

These are the standard runes for this situation. They will help you scale well after laning phase. If you're mainly concerned about being the initiator and your damage doesn't matter as much to you then you can also choose to run 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for further defensive stats.

Always max Electrical Surge first as ADC Kennen. It's your core damage. You should also max it first on Support Kennen as its CD decreases the most per rank out of your spells, allowing you to stun targets the most frequently.

As ADC Kennen, if there is an enemy Karthus, Ziggs, or Caitlyn then you should max Lightning Rush 2nd. You may not be able to escape damage from their ultimates but you can go into E to mitigate a large portion of the incoming damage. You should also max this spell second on Support Kennen as it grants you free defensive stats.

Maxing Lightning Rush second is also great if you are laning against skill shot based opponents such as Blitzcrank or Thresh to give you more mobility so that you can dodge CC + harass OR if the enemy Jungler is applying versatile map pressure and poses a constant threat to you so that you have your escape tool off cool down more frequently.

If you are playing AP Top / Mid Kennen you should always max Thundering Shuriken first.

I would max Lightning Rush second as Solo Top and Electrical Surge second as Solo Mid.

Starting Items

Starting Doran's Blade will give you the best early game. Base movement speeds got buffed at the start of Season 3 and Kennen has naturally high mobility on top of that due to Lightning Rush. This will help you gain early game dominance over your lane opponent which Kennen can capitalize so well on.

Laning Items

This is a pretty good standard purchase order for early game. They are cheap purchases that you can grab every time you back to base. It is important to steadily increase your damage for the first 10 - 15 minutes of the game to make sure that you are staying ahead or at least on par with your lane opponent's DPS potential.

If you obtain extreme early game dominance due to a First Blood or a gank from your Jungler, you might be able to maintain early game lane control without porting back to base. If you are able to stay in the lane long enough to get the 1550+ gold needed for a B. F. Sword and more Health Pots, by all means do so. Don't over commit to staying in lane long enough to do this though. If you begin to notice that you are starting to lose DPS advantage due to your opponent buying more frequently, find an opportune time to B and buy what you need to stay ahead.

It is also important to note that there are opportune times to go back to base. You should try to port back after killing the minion wave that consists of the Tank Minion so that you will be back well before the next Tank Minion wave. They give more XP and more Gold that you do not want to miss out on. It is also easy to push right before a B so that you miss very little XP and Gold while you are gone. If you get a kill, your lane is pushed, and there are no tank minions on the way to the lane / in the lane then you should go back and buy what you can.

Laning Phase Item Objective

I'm a firm believer in rushing Infinity Edge on AD Kennen. He has good base stats for AD and AS so you don't need to over-itemize early game for stats like flat AD via Bloodthirster. If you farm well and play smart this purchase order will guarantee you to be a presence during mid game.



Statikk Shiv is a very good item to have for mid game. Following IE up with SS yields high DPS output and strong pushing capabilities. If you are running an early push strat due to lane swaps or a heavy early game team composition then I would suggest rushing this ahead of IE. While Phantom Dancer provides better single target damage, Statikk Shiv can provide better turret siege power and wave clear.

Necessary Damage Purchases

Last Whisper is a necessary purchase in all of the different ADC build variations. The armor penetration ensures that you deal indiscriminate damage to targets. The majority of games are determined by which team's ADC can kill the enemy tank line faster as well as which team peels better for their ADC. This item aims to assist in that primary objective.

Blade of the Ruined King VS. The Bloodthirster

Blade of the Ruined King gives you percentage health damage to help shred the enemy tank line, better kiting due to the active slow, a burst heal on use, and more attack speed.

Bloodthirster gives you more life steal and much more flat AD. Your W and crits from IE scale best off of flat AD and it will give you much more early game dominance. Choose depending on the situation.

End Game Itemization Options

Mercurial Scimitar is a good choice if you are not running Cleanse, need MR, the enemy has suppresses, or you honestly just need another cleanse.

However, it isn't a frequent occasion that you will need this. Kennen has good CC which helps him kite effectively so most of the people who will be able to get on you will be champions with built-in tenacity. Coincidentally, these champions also do not tend to have any sort of CC that you would want to cleanse off. Irelia, Dr. Mundo, Trundle, and Olaf are all good at diving past CC but don't really have anything worth a QSS. Of course, plenty of champions with CC may just build Tenacity items and dive you which could give valid reason for purchasing this.

Phantom Dancer is a wonderful 6th item on ADC Kennen. It ensures you are getting consistent crits off, increases your single target DPS, and provides you with further movement speed for kiting / repositioning / orb-walking. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. If you can kill an enemy before they get on you then you don't have to worry about them as much. If you are running Cleanse and the enemy team doesn't have anything requiring you to get a 2nd CC removal then I would highly recommend Phantom Dancer.

Maw of Malmortius can help you out a lot versus high burst AP champions like Lux, Akali, Kassadin, LeBlanc, etc.

Another increasingly common item swap end game is to trade Boots for Zephyr. It has a +10 MS multiplier on it along with AD, AS, and Tenacity. You don't lose out on too much movement speed when doing so and you gain some important stats.

Guardian Angel has always been a go-to defensive item for AD Carries late game. I recommend this item if they have a strong dive-oriented team fight composition. This item is honestly only good on AD Carries if you are getting hardcore focused. If you are the last to die in a team fight, having a GA is near worthless since you will respawn alone without your team to help you just to be instantly killed again.

Runaan's Hurricane has an interesting mechanic for Kennen as the secondary attacks help to stack the passive on Electrical Surge.

Specifically...

Kennen's Electrical Surge (although being an "on-hit effect" & Runaan's Hurricane claiming to "apply on hit effects") ONLY applies to primary target. Neither the bonus damage nor a Mark of the Storm are applied to secondary targets. Secondary attacks DO give stacks for targets hit. Extra stacks cannot be stored. Once it's decided the next AA will apply W, no hits give stacks. When attacking w/ Electrical Surge, that attack consumes the stacks + does not give a new stack. Interestingly, secondary attacks from Runaan's on an attack that is applying Electrical Surge can grant stacks as long as they land AFTER the primary attack lands and consumes the stacks. On occasion though your secondary attacks may hit their target before your primary attack does in which case they will not grant stacks, as the game recognizes your W as being full-stacked until your primary attack hits its target + resets the counter.

Overall, If you are able to hit 3 targets each attack it basically makes Kennen's W apply on every 3rd attack: 1 2 proc, 1 2 proc, 1 2 proc, etc. Kennen's W applies on every 5th attack naturally so by decreasing that to every 3rd attack you are increasing the amount of W-proc attacks you get off in a team fight by a valuable amount.

The high amount of attack speed this item grants works well with Kennen's high base attack speed but it does not provide any Crit Chance, Movement Speed, or AD. This item is good for games where team fights will be tightly grouped such as when running AoE comps with Amumu, Sejuani, etc. but is outclassed by Phantom Dancer and Statikk Shiv as a single target DPS item.

Starting Items

Interestingly enough, even as AP Kennen you still want to start Doran's Blade as your constant Auto Attacks will allow you to sustain via the passive healing component on the item.

Early Item Objectives

These are your core items. They give you the stasis you so desperately need, good AP, Magic Penetration, and defensive stats. You can build whichever item has the defensive stats that are most relevant to your lane match up first.

Standard Full Build

This is the typical full build. I would also highly recommend buying the Captain Enchantment for your boots so that your team can best follow up on your initiation.

I find this to be the most optimal for any game. The only problem with this build in my opinion is that it lacks CDR. This isn't a problem in team fights as your Energy is much more constricting than your Cool Downs BUT it does pose an issue regarding Slicing Maelstrom. Since your ultimate is so important to team fights, you really want to avoid fighting without it.

Alternative Items

Twin Shadows can be a good item against an all AP team but this situation is extremely rare. You can also buy this item as a cheap alternative to Abyssal Mask early game when laning against an AP opponent to help you get the early MR you want while getting to Zhonya's Hourglass slightly faster afterwards. I would still recommend swapping it out of Abyssal Mask at some point since it grants more AP + MR and the MR reduction is so strong.

Banner of Command grants 20% CDR which would make Slicing Maelstrom up more frequently. I would get this item if the rest of your team composition was aimed towards a poke / siege comp since the bonus minion damage and promote active would definitely help that strategy.

Nashor's Tooth grants 20% CDR as well while giving you more AS. The CDR will help get your ultimate off CD faster and the increased AS should actually increase the frequency with which you pump out stuns since you apply a Mark of the Storm on every 5th Auto Attack. The main problem with this item is that it has a conflict of interest with Zhonya's Hourglass since the AS becomes completely irrelevant when inside of the stasis. It also provides no defensive stats which tend to be important as a front line mage. The AS could help you split push towers faster but Kennen is so strong in team fights there isn't much sense in split pushing. You could split push with Nashor's Tooth if you are running Teleport to join the fight though.

Hextech Gunblade grants AP, AD, Spell Vamp, Life Steal, and an active that deals damage and slows. It's certainly not a bad item and a lot of people like having Spell Vamp on Kennen but the item is extremely expensive and I honestly wouldn't trade any of the core items out for it.

Liandry's Torment grants HP, AP, Magic Pen, and %HP damage. It is actually a great alternative purchase to Rylai's Crystal Scepter if you need more anti-tank damage.

Deathfire Grasp grants 10% CDR, a huge amount of AP, and %HP burst damage + increases your single target damage. It is also a great alternative purchase if you are looking to blow up a specific target such as an ADC. The CDR will also help your team be able to team fight more frequently since it will bring Slicing Maelstrom off CD slightly faster.

Starting Items

Spellthief's Edge actually grants more gold generation than Ancient Coin especially since you should be hitting opponents with Auto Attacks, but Talisman of Ascension is a much better upgrade than Frost Queen's Claim for Support Kennen.

Doran's Shield is also a really popular starting item for Supports currently due to the strong sustain the item grants.

Once you choose your starting item spend the remaining gold on Wards / Potions.

Early Game Purchases

You're still a Support so you need to get a Sightstone. Once you have one, trade your Stealth Ward for a Sweeping Lens. I would also recommend upgrading whichever gold income item you chose to its 2nd tier level because it practically doubles your gold income.

Mid Game Purchases

Talisman of Ascension and Zhonya's Hourglass can pretty much be considered core items on Support Kennen. They allow you to initiate fights frequently and safely.

After this, You can generally just start building AP items. Twin Shadows is an extremely cheap option for this and the active will help your team catch enemies out of position, chase down people for an engage, or disengage a fight that you don't want. Abyssal Mask and Rylai's Crystal Scepter are good AP items for Support Kennen because they provide defensive stats to help you front line in addition to utility to help support your team via the MR Reduction and the Slow.

If the game goes on long enough you can further expand your AP items into Rabadon's Deathcap, Void Staff, Liandry's Torment, etc.

You should upgrade your trinket to Oracle's Lens and your boots to Enchantment: Distortion so that your Flash is up more frequently for engages.

Kennen + Leona

This is probably my favorite lane to run. The amount of CC and damage potential is very high. It is important that your Leona knows to wait to go in until your passive Electrical Surge is stacked and ready. Don't hold off on using skills because you are too concerned about stacking CC properly. Let the support player worry about stacking CC because YOU should be focused on dealing the most damage possible. If Leona can land a Zenith Blade after you are both Level 6 and have both of your ultimates ready, the kill should practically be guaranteed.


Kennen + Soraka

Since Kennen can technically stay in lane as long as he wants provided his health does not drop too low, Soraka's heals are very welcome. Kill potential is lower in this lane though so try to be more farm-oriented. Soraka also has strong pushing capabilities with Starcall and this meshes well with Kennen when running a push strat. She can also decrease the enemies' MR, allowing your mixed damage to shine.


Kennen + Janna

Janna provides you with a strong AD steroid via Eye of the Storm. The bonus movement speed from her passive Tailwind is also good for any ADC. She is able to assist in initiating engages during laning phase with Kennen via her slow and knock-up on Zephyr and Howling Gale. She also has disengage on Monsoon which allows for versatile reactionary play.


Kennen + Sona

Sona has heavy poke that has synergy with aggressive play. She also provides an AD / AP steroid that enhances Kennen's mixed damage. Another important note is that she brings a heal to the lane as well as an AoE stun via Crescendo which can be chained with Slicing Maelstrom to keep opponents completely locked down.


Kennen + Lulu

Lulu has massive poke in lane, good CC, and can protect Kennen very efficiently in team fights. This lane combo also has a very strong level 6, as Lulu's ultimate Wild Growth can put an AoE slow on Kennen to make sure enemies do not escape his Slicing Maelstrom. Lulu is also a very strong peeler when it comes to late game team fights, allowing Kennen to focus offensive itemization.


Kennen + Taric

Taric toggles aggression on and off very well. He brings a heal and armor buff to the lane while also providing another stun for both defensive and aggressive situations. This lane is safe and easy to dominate with.


Kennen + Nunu & Willump

Nunu & Willump's AS buff on Blood Boil goes well with Kennen's high base stats. Ice Blast is always a dominating factor and Absolute Zero increases this lane's potential AoE damage. Kennen can stun opponents within Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero to get abnormally long channeled ults for huge damage. Due to the AS debuff on Ice Blast, Nunu & Willump is favored when playing against AS heavy opponents such as Vayne or Kog'Maw but less useful versus ability-spamming carries like Urgot, Ezreal, and Corki.


Kennen + Orianna

Rare to see but works well. Command: Shockwave combined with Slicing Maelstrom is pretty dangerous. Command: Attack grants undeniable vision in lane bushes, Command: Dissonance can be used aggressively and defensively to slow enemies / speed you up. Command: Protect is also one of the strongest shields in the game as it grants Health, Armor, and MR. It is even possible to have her leave the ball on you so that you maintain the bonus Armor and MR portion indefinitely.


Kennen + Blitzcrank

Blitzcrank provides good CC and a silence to make sure opponents are finished off before they are able to use cool downs to escape. Commonly banned but worth using when available in conjunction with Kennen if you are looking to zone an enemy from farm and XP


Kennen + Alistar

Similar to Taric. Brings a heal to lane and can toggle kit between aggressive and defensive play styles.


Kennen + Zyra

Support Zyra is pretty strong both harass and CC wise. Her plants tend to push the lane / take kills coincidentally though. The AoE knock-up on Zyra's Stranglethorns is huge and works amazing with Kennen's Slicing Maelstrom.


Kennen + Nami

I have not had much personal experience with this lane combination but in theory it should work fine. Nami has good poke, engage, disengage, and CC. If you try this lane feel free to give me feedback on it!


Kennen + Thresh

To be honest, Thresh is OP for now. Everything in his kit works great with Kennen. This lane works well regardless of your strategy or who your lane opponents are.



This lane has a ton of AoE damage and amazing engage potential in a 2v2. Kennen and Annie both have pretty long range poke to zone out opponents. This duo lane also pushes towers incredibly fast as they both have ranged auto attacks, Kennen never runs out of Mana since he has Energy, and Annie's Tibbers helps to further mow down structures. This lane is also extremely mobile and can roam quickly towards Mid / Dragon / Jungle Invade due to Lightning Rush for Kennen and Mobility Boots for Annie.

KENNEN VS. TRISTANA

Tristana can be a bit annoying to face as Kennen since her disengage is strong via Buster Shot and can occasionally cause you to waste your ult, miss out on kills, or expend too many cool downs during engages. She also out ranges you late game and has stronger repositioning in team fights than you do.


KENNEN VS. GRAVES

Graves is not very good against Kennen. Due to Lightning Rush ignoring unit collision, you can often avoid 100% of Buckshot's damage by going straight through Graves during the cast animation before the damage goes off. Kennen out ranges him and has stronger right click damage due to Electrical Surge. You can also push heavily against him thanks to only being limited by energy while you watch him burn through his mana to clear minion waves.


KENNEN VS. VAYNE

Vayne tends to get destroyed by Kennen in lane but if miscommunication occurs between you and your lane partner, Vayne can snowball out of control. It is important to keep yourself ahead of her DPS potential at all stages early game.


KENNEN VS. KOG'MAW

Kog'Maw outranges Kennen via Bio-Arcane Barrage but he has no repositioning or disengage tool to stop you from going all in on him w/ an aggressive support.


KENNEN VS. DRAVEN

Draven has one of the highest early game damage potentials in the game and you need to be careful of it. Theoretically, Kennen can irritate Draven by stunning him when a Spinning Axe is falling, disabling Draven from being able to catch it. It is important to take note of his cool downs and it is best to go for kills on him when you know he missed catching a Spinning Axe or JUST got the first one going.


KENNEN VS. VARUS

Varus has long range and very strong poke. The thing Varus hates most though is the same thing Kennen excels at. Varus hates to be full engaged on up close and personal. Run an aggressive support against him and make sure to freeze the lane so that he can't just sit safely under his tower. Use Lightning Rush to dodge Piercing Arrow and play smart.


KENNEN VS. ASHE

Ashe can be dangerous if you let her get off the level 1 free crit on you. Try to deny her farm so that she doesn't abuse her gold steroid. Use Lightning Rush to dodge Volley and Enchanted Crystal Arrow if possible. This lane shouldn't be too hard as your right click damage tends to outclass hers.


KENNEN VS. CORKI

Corki has shorter range than you and is mana reliant. Bringing a support with a heal to lane will almost guarantee you lane dominance against him. You will force him to back to base due to going OOM every time since you are Energy based and can spam at his level without restraints.


KENNEN VS. EZREAL

Ezreal can be elusive and hard to catch with stuns thanks to his Arcane Shift. Don't get hit by Mystic Shot for free and try to keep the pressure on him so that he doesn't just sit back last hitting to conserve his mana.


KENNEN VS. URGOT

Urgot brings a lot of early game damage to lane but Kennen does very well against him. You can use Lightning Rush to almost always dodge Noxian Corrosive Charge, preventing his signature damage from Acid Hunter from even coming into play. He's one of the few ADC champs who can be tankier than you so be careful if you try to engage on him. Try to make sure you have a well established advantage before making any high-risk-high-reward plays against him.


KENNEN VS. SIVIR

Sivir can be annoying as her Spell Shield can mess up your stun combos. She has strong AoE damage and pushing capabilities as well via Ricochet and Boomerang Blade. Other than these noteworthy features, you should out damage her as long as you are not taking free boomerangs to the face.


KENNEN VS. TWITCH

Twitch is scary and snowballs very fast and very hard. You have the tools to shut him down and prevent him from getting fed. Your AoE damage can still hit him while he is invisible but be careful about when you engage on him. He gets an AS buff post-stealth when coming out of Ambush and you have a right-click damage steroid that is not always up. Try to coordinate with your support about when the most opportune time is to go in. His Spray and Pray works best when he is the aggressive one. If you force him to retreat between Auto Attacks, he will not get damage off as quickly. Another noteworthy fact is that while his attack projections have long range, he needs a target within a much shorter AA range to click on before being able to shoot them. Many Twitch players will note that you are out of the click range and will click on a closer target in line with you so as to shoot the projectile towards your direction. You can utilize Lightning Rush to dodge his auto attacks when he is in Spray and Pray because of this.


KENNEN VS. MISS FORTUNE

Miss Fortune can be a bully in lane but Kennen has the strength to put her in her place. You can interrupt her when she channels Bullet Time w/ a stun to shut down a lot of the damage she relies on. You should be able to hard enage better than she does.


KENNEN VS. JAYCE

Not something you see often but Jayce can be potent bot lane. His knock-back on Thundering Blow helps to deny Kennen potential kills and he has a lot of utility in his kit for versatile laning. Thankfully, he is quite dependent on mana. Try to just out last him in the lane. After awhile he will start running low on mana and will know that it will prevent him from trading evenly. Abuse this time period to pressure him hard and punish him if he tries to back by denying him farm, taking his tower, or organizing a dragon.


KENNEN VS. JINX

Jinx has strong poke and good range but you can win this match up pretty easily for two reasons. The first reason being that you have Energy and she relies on Mana. Simply out sustain her and she won't be able to trade with you as efficiently. The second reason is that she has no innate form of escape so if you engage onto her with Slicing Maelstrom you should be able to lock her up and out damage her. Of course, the Supports will play a huge role in this match up and may change the outcome.


KENNEN VS. LUCIAN

Lucian is strong but is extremely Mana reliant for his harass. You can out sustain him in lane but more than likely if he starts to get low on Mana he will just use The Culling to shove the lane real quick and port back to base. This makes it harder to force him to over stay his welcome in the lane. Luckily, Lightning Rush grants you a lot of benefits in this match up. You can use it to dodge Lucian's Piercing Light and The Culling pretty easily. Ardent Blaze is slightly harder to dodge due to a fast projectile speed but he shouldn't use it very often for harass as it has a longer CD and most players will try to conserve Mana to spam Piercing Light with. Your CC should help win this lane for you as long as your Support can properly engage skirmishes.

This area will include clarifications and detailed math for whatever disputes readers bring up. I have made this section because this guide has a very long comments section. There seem to be some common arguments and I know it can be difficult to search through a long thread of posts when looking for key information. In order to solve this problem, I will attempt to organize such information in this section so that it is in a more presentable fashion.

The first common argument is that Kennen's nerf to his auto attack range removed him from viability as an AD Carry.

His AA Range was nerfed from 575 to 550.

Kennen's AA Range is better than that of:
Urgot, Sivir, Teemo, Jayce (Cannon Stance), Kog'Maw (without Bio-Arcane Barrage activated), Graves, Kayle and Twisted Fate.

Kennen has equal Auto Attack Range to that of:
Corki, Draven, Ezreal, Miss Fortune, Twitch, and Vayne.

In this context, Kennen's AA Range seems fine and is certainly not a reason to disqualify his potential as an AD Carry.

Another frequent claim is that Kennen's base AD has been nerfed beyond what made him viable.

The first time Kennen has ever had his base AD nerfed was in the 3.9 patch of 7/11/2013.

"Base Attack Damage at level 1 reduced to 50.5 from 54.6"

I believe he still has the same AD at Level 18, they just nerfed the early values due to the OP Auto Attack harass that Solo Top and Mid Kennen players were abusing.

In addition to this, there seems to be a claim that Kennen's base AD is too low to allow him to be a viable AD Carry.

At Level 18, Kennen's base AD is higher than:

Ashe, Kog'Maw, Miss Fortune, Tristana, Caitlyn, Ezreal, Sivir, Corki, Twitch, Kayle, Twisted Fate, Graves, Vayne, Draven, and Jayce (in order of decreasingly large difference).

The only champion semi-popular as a bot lane AD Carry that has higher base AD at level 18 than Kennen is Urgot.

So Kennen actually has really good Base AD stats.

Kennen used to have the highest base AS @ level 18 in the game

Riot recently buffed the attack speeds of Ashe and Tristana but Kennen is right behind them with superb natural attack speed. He does not have an AS steroid on ability use like a few AD Carries but is able to itemize more offensively due to his kit in order to compensate.

I hope this guide helps everyone in some way shape or form. I will be trying to keep it updated to the best of my abilities in between work and school. Comments / Feedback is welcome and I hope you have enjoyed the guide.