Hey, this is my first guide on mobafire. I am bringing to you today Kennen, the Heart of the Tempest a.k.a the lightning raccoon ninja. Kennen, in my opinion, is among one of the best AP mid lane champions in the game. He is definitely worth the 6300 IP (or 975 RP) in the store. His gameplay is very rewarding. If you want to play mid with sustain and team stomping combos, pick Kennen. :D

Pros

He uses energy :D
Can farm very easily
Can harass like crazy in lane
Able to carry a team
A lot of utiliy with his Lightning Rush
A freakin ninja. Who doesn't love ninjas.

Cons

Squishy.
Focused, especially when you use your ult
A bit item dependent

is just an amazing all around skill that can be used offensively in conjunction with for position or defensively to escape from those threatening situations.

can add that extra "bamf" to your combo early game and can secure kills in lane. Real question is, why not?

gives brilliant map control. Period. Especially useful if you're soloing.

After the Flash nerfs, ghost has started to become more useful. Ghost gives a lengthy movespeed buff and can also be used offensively and defensively like Flash. Ghost and makes it so then no one will be able to run away or catch up to you =]

I have no seen this spell picked very often but it grants attack speed and ability power on activation which is both useful to Kennen. This isn't a bad choice

To keep your enemies from running away and ensuring you win a 1v1 lane fight! But really, you have a bunch of stuns with Kennen, they shouldnt be able to run away as easily.

Kennen tends to get focused a lot in team fights. You know what to do.

Lolwut.

No.

For runes, I take the usual AP Runes leaving out the mana regen. (because you use energy. duh)
I take the Greater Mark of Magic Penetration because magic pen is just beautiful on just about every ap carry.

I take Greater Seal of Armor for stronger durability against those annoying auto attack champions early game. These can easily be switched out with Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power if you prefer the ap/level instead.

For glyphs, I chose Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power or Greater Glyph of Potentcy because that extra AP in the laning phase will boost your effectiveness tremendously.
And for quints, Greater Quintessence of Ability Power is just the way to go for just about every AP carry.

As for masteries, 21/0/9 is my way of playing him. You will be using auto attacks for passive so a little bit of AD will boost it a bit. The 21 points in offense will give you maximum damage output with these masteries throughout all stages of the game. The 9 points in utility will give you a little bit of extra energy, flash cooldown reduction, move speed, and a little bit of spell vamp for lane sustain. You can take 9/0/21 for cooldown reduction and experience increase and extra gold.

Kennen's passive is

and is the most vital thing to playing Kennen. Each of Kennen's skills apply a mark of the storm debuff and when a target gains 3 marks, they are stunned for a period of time. The key to playing Kennen is landing these stun combos off. Pay attention to how many marks are on your enemy!

is a skill shot that scales with AP and applies a mark of the storm if it hits an enemy. This is his main source of damage output throughout the game and is very spammable at rank 5 because of it's relatively low cooldown. So go ahead and max it first. I highly recommend you smartcast this skill.

has a passive ability that after every 4th basic attack, the next basic attack will deal extra damage and will apply a mark of the storm. It's active ability will damage all enemies that have a mark of the storm debuff on them around him and add another mark of storm. I max this second. This skill is not as useful as in harassing but I use it to proc stuns because it's easy activation.

is basically a miniature ghost that allows you to pass through enemy units and apply kennen's passive to all. This can be used to run away or run towards someone. For example, see the enemy jungle come rushing at you with Bear? Get a good distance away from him then away and you're done. =] I max this last. It has the highest energy cost and a high cooldown compared to his other skills. It's not really useful as a damage source but mainly as a utility skill and for Kennen's passive. Don't waste this ability in lane.

is an AOE (Area of effect) skill that hits a random enemy champion every .5/.4/.33 seconds and applies a mark of the storm for each hit. It hits enemies very quickly and cannot hit a target more than 3 times and it can hit up to 6/10/15 times. His ultimate is in my opinion, one of the best in the game. This skill will win team fights for you. If used correctly, you can basically stun the entire enemy team and score an ace. Use it wisely, it's cooldown is kinda long. Use it in harmony with

As Kennen, you usually want to go mid and carry your team. At the start of the game, assess your lane. If you have a support with CV, have them check the enemy platform to see who you're up against.

If against another AP carry, take

and .

If against an AD carry, take .
Farm as much as you can in lane to earn the $gold$.

On your first time back, get for the lane sustain. If you max first, it's cooldown will allow you to last hit and spell vamp any missing health back quickly.

After, rush for for the ginormous load of AP. Nuff said.

Finish your boots, take either if your lane has a ton of CC or for the magic pen combined with your magic pen runes and masteries for a bunch of extra early damage.

Get as the active combines very well with your in a team fight and gives 100 AP and 50 armor for durability and damage output. Truly is an AP carry's best friend.

--This finishes my core build on Kennen--

If your team has a lot of AP champions, finish for the AP and spell vamp aura.

for the durability, slow, and decent AP.

for later game AP and magic resist and it has an aura that reduces all enemy champion's magic resist by 20. It gives you more durability and a good amount of AP to boost your already high damage output.

Kennen can snowball pretty well. Mejai's would be a nice pick if you're getting fed early on.

is a beautiful item for Late game damage output. It gives you already 70 AP and 40% magic pen! Combined with runes and masteries and Sorcerer's boots, you should have around 50& magic pen and a decent amount of AP.

I have seen this on some Kennens. It can work on him because you should be using his auto attack a good amount for that Mark of the Storm proc and the cooldowns on Kennen are pretty low late game.

can substitute a clease and gives magic resist. Pretty useful if you're getting focused a lot. Not to mention, it also has a lower cooldown than cleanse!

From early levels 1-6, use Electrical Shurikento last hit as many minions as you can with its short cooldown. The fastest way to farm a minion wave is to all, Electrial Surge, and then finish them off one by one with . Once you have enough AP and experience, into Electrial Surge will instantly fry all minions. Get as many creeps as possible. Farming is very vital on any carry.

Farm. Farm. Farm. There is nothing more important than farming here as the first twenty minutes of a game is usually the only time when you can focus on farming. Harass with Electrical Shuriken. Abuse the cooldowns on it!. Try to harass with his early stun combo. Make sure you have your proc up. Electrical Shuriken then auto attack the proc then land the stun with . If you successfully land the stun, the cooldown for Electrical Shuriken should be up and you can use that to deal some additional damage. When your enemy has about 1/2 to 1/4 health left, wait for them to over extend a little bit then into then and finish the kill with Electrical Shuriken and . I can almost guarantee you a kill there.

This is when teams will start pushing. Smaller team fights in this phase can turn around any early game advantage you have had if you aren't careful enough. You need to be smart with your aggression. Only be aggressive when you know you can survive. Support your team as best as you can in this phase.

The final stages of the game are most crucial. There will be team fights everywhere. Your main role in this phase is to support your team and help kill everyone. An ace can turn a game around and end a game completely. A baron win can also turn around a game as well. Sight Wards are very important to have. Ward everywhere.These are the most important traffic spots on the map to ward. Definitely spend that extra 75g or 125g for the wards.

As Kennen, you should be taking Mid lane as much as possible. Here's a list of people you may encounter in lane and how to combat them.

is pretty annoying. Her passive gives her spell vamp and her can clear a minion wave and harass you pretty hard if you're not careful. The best way to counter her to dodge her skill shots. If I see I'm up against her in lane, I grab to dodge around her abilities. Wait for her to blow her cooldowns on then jump in and beat her. :D

is always pretty tough to beat. Her passive is basically a Guardian Angel with a 5 minute cooldown. She is definitely among the most squishy champions in this game. However, her biggest weakness is her mobility. She has really low move speed. Take advantage of that. Her damage combo relies on landing her which is also a skill shot. It is a pretty slow moving skill shot so pay attention and see when the right time to dodge is. As soon as she blows this move off, jump in at her and push her out of her egg and kill her. =]

can be a pain in the butt. She has her which allows her to last hit minions with ease. Pay attention to her passive which will give her a stun proc after every 5 spell casts. A ring of smoke will appear around Annie when that stun is up. Wait for her to lose her passive and use a skill then jump straight into her. You will win

is tough to lane against. His has pretty far range and can harass you from any position. When against Brand, I take to dodge around his and . It's very important to dodge around if he gives you the debuff. Brand is very skill shot reliant so dodge around him and you will be fine.

is really scary. If you get hit by any poison, she can just spam on you and drop your health before you can even react to her. Not to mention her ultimate as well . However, all of her skills are skill shots. Get early to dodge her abilities. If you can dodge successfully, you should have no problem against her.

is a spammer. Grab and dodge his . The best way to dodge is to run in erratic patterns that will confuse the enemy. If he can't predict where you're going to move, he cant land his skill =] Don't let him harrass you, you need to out harass him.

As a Kassadin player as well, I find Kassadin to be one of the most difficult mid champions in the game. Kassadin can harass you with and prevent you from harassing him back. However, Kassadin is weakest from levels 1-5. Take advantage of this and drop him right away. He relies on two skills to deal damage and one of them requires charges from abilities used in an area nearby him. So basically, if you jump on him, he won't be able to fight back against you. Allow him to land his but then punish him afterwards with your entire spell combo.

If you go against another Kennen, then you need to out harass him. I would suggest and for the lane sustain against him. Harass him with , proc and then seal the stun with . This can be done very quickly if you land your . Do this enough times until he's about 1/2 health then drop your entire combo on him with an to seal the kill.

can burst you down very quickly. Like , she relies on a few abilities to deal damage and she is weakest from levels 1-5. Destroy her early game. If she comes in to harass you with Sigil of Silence, punish her right away. Guarantee you Kennen's full combo is stronger than hers. Try to deny her from her farm as much as possible.

relies heavily on skill shots. Just like all the other skill shot champs, grab and dodge and wait for the right time to blow her up.

He is very tricky to beat in lane. His allows him to regen mana quickly and destroy an entire minion wave. The best time to kill him is from levels 1-5 when he doesn't have . After he drops his malefic visions on a minion, jump on him RIGHT AWAY. Destroy his early game laning this way.

can be a sustain monster after level 6. A good Swain will be able to land and drop your health quickly. You need to out harass him. If he harasses you with , drop your and stun combo on him. Your combo > than his.

can be beaten very easily. He relies on his to deal damage and sustain in lane for a long time. Although he can harass you with that, you can out harass him with your own combo. Use it to zone Vlad out from his farm and keep him from healing back all his health.


Conclusion-
What you want to do against all enemy laners is to shut down their early game right away which is very easy to do as Kennen. The energy system will give you an advantage in lane to these mana-users except for Vlad. and is one of the best ways to go against any AP carry because most of them are skill shot reliant. Countering is all about knowing when the right time to attack is and what your opponents are capable of. If you know both, use it to your advantage in lane.

Teamfighting with Kennen is fairly simple. As a carry, you ALWAYS want to show up to a fight LAST. Never initiate, allow your initiators or enemies to initiate. Once the fight starts, watch out for all the dangerous enemy skills to strike your tanks down and then into then for a stun comob. Finish off stragglers with Electrical Shuriken Pop your if you're started to get targetted. Keep in mind that the zhonya's active can be used in combonation with . Don't overtextend and allow your tanks to lead. You want to be one of the largest sources of damage in a team fight.

If played correctly, Kennen can carry your team extremely hard and can eat up everyone else on the enemy team. Remember, practice makes perfect. :) Please leave feedback for me and thank you for reading!

Send me any snapshots of successful games with Kennen using my build and I will post them here! :)