Hello After a long hiatus I have returned with a Kennen guide! Since Season 3 has started that have been some pretty huge changes in the meta of the game. AD casters are going mid. The jungle once dominated by tanks is now seeing more gank heavy junglers, and now even Trundle is viable from the jungle again! What does all that have to do with Kennen? I'll tell you.....

I decided to make this guide because in the midst of all these changes there is one commom theme that kept occurring in the games I played. Teammates would get caught or singled out and blown up. Even in team fights these assassins/ad casters would just simply focus a main threat(i.e AP or ADC) and have their way with them. This is when I decided to pick up Kennen again.

Late in Season 2 Kennen fell out of favor top and mid lane for tankier picks/ roamers with high dmg output(i.e eve, orianna, TF, shen, malphite, Olaf). But now since AD casters/Assassins have been wreaking havoc, Kennen has found his way back onto the fields of Justice!

As I stated above I like to try to build my APC's like ADC's. Here is a quick run down of how a ADC builds for the newer players

1. Sustain item(Blood Thirster)
2. Boots (Berzerker's Greaves)
3. MS item(Phantom Dancer or Statikk Shiv or Zephyr)
4. Armor Penetration (Last Whisper or Black Cleaver)
5. Defensive Item (Mercurial Schemitar, Banshees Veil, Guardian Angel)
6. Big Damage Item (Infinity Edge)

AP version.

1. Will of the Ancients / Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
2. Sorc Shoes
3. Twin Shadows / Lich Bane
4. Abyssal Scepter / Liandry's Tourment, Void Staff
5. ZHonya's Hour Glass / Banshees Veil, Guardian Angel
6. Death Cap

Pretty standard rune set up for Kennen

I choose to go

1. x9 mpen reds

2. x9 scaling health yellows

3. x9 scaling AP blues

4. x3 AP quints

You can always swap in flat armor yellows and mres blues if you want to go a slightly more tanky route.

Pros

1. High Mobility

2. Dominates Melee Champs

3. Great Initiator

4. He's a flippin ninja!

Cons:

1. Squishy

2. Damage can seem ho hum at times.

3. Bad at clearing jungle camps when dirty farming with Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

4. No Legendary Skin :(

Ok...so I feel I need to explain the 1 point in Biscuiteer(especially if you didn't read the note). If you glanced over the mastery order you probably were like ok pretty standard...wait WTFBBQ a point in Biscuiteer noooob!

So here's why I put a point in Biscuiteer. I like to build my APC's as if I'm building a bot lane ADC. Meaning I like to get my sustain first ASAP!

For the newer players the most common way to build an ADC is either boots x3 red pots or long sword + 2 red pots. If you have been playing a while you know now due to the addition of the flask you can usually go flask x 5 pots + a ward or two. Kennen doesn't benefit from the flask though, and I have 3 different ways I start with him

1. Ez Pz lane NP

This is one and ONLY time I will start with Biscuit + Red Pot + tome. Basically with this start
you have counter picked the enemy top or mid and know you're going to have an easy time farming at the very least(if not get a few kills). This way you can start with a tome + pot and your biscuit to farm your hextech revolver. This is the equivalent to an ADC going long sword + 2 red pots. Although the reasoning that a ADC goes long sword + 2 pot is because he has a support that can heal him. If not they go the standard boots x3 red pots.

Your main objective with this start is to get your hextech revolver and boots by first recall. Your first recall you should have 1115 gold min to achieve this goal. If you can hold out for 70 extra gold to pick up two more pots.


2. If it ain't broke don't fix it

This is the standard boots x 3 red pot start. I will start with these items if my team wants to invade the enemies jungle. You need the extra mobility if you're going to run clear across the map and attempt to ruin the enemy junglers start.

3. Why can't I hold all these red pots?!?!

This is any non mana champs answer to an enemy likely to start flask + red pots.
You pick up x9 red pots and 2 wards. The pots are to help stay in lane against the enemy who's going to be chugging from his flask.

Note: If you go Biscuit + Red pot + Amp tome against someone who has started flask + red pots. You have already lost that lane 100%. Kennen can dish out decen't damage early game, but the flask will help counter that. You will be forced to recall early and lose out on a ton of farm as a result.

Instead of making a wall of text I decided to break up the items into individual chapters with the images of items and explanations of why and when I choose to build them.

There are only 2 spell vamp items that are useful to you as Kennen. Will of the Ancients and Spirit of the Spectral Wraith. Oddly enough the latter is a jungle item, BUT its still useful on kennen in top or mid lane.

Will of the Ancients

I grab WotA when there is another teammate that can benefit from the extra AP and spell vamp, or when I feel like i need a little extra oomphf on my spells.

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

There are 3 factors in choosing SotSW on Kennen.

1. If you are a seasoned player you know there is a thing called "Dirty Farming". If you are new to the game, this is where you push mid lane to the enemies tower and start farming the enemy junglers wraiths + your own junglers wraiths/wolves. Kennen is mobile enough to get there, but lacks the damage to clear them quickly. Once you grab SotSW you will be able to do this extremely efficiently. This also lets you take down Dragon/Baron more efficiently with your team.

2. If none of your teammates will benefit from the extra AP or spell vamp go ahead and grab this for your own sustain

3. Its cheaper! Sure its only 100 gold cheaper, but if you're having a rough time and need the sustain ASAP grab SotSW.

Sorcerer's Shoes

These are a staple on any AP champ. Simply enough you get these to hit harder. If you feel like you aren't the one being focused / cc'd / are free to do damage, grab these.

Mercury's Treads

These help take the edge off of early magic damage and help reduce CC. Grab these if you are being rooted/snared/slowed alot. You can also grab boots of Swiftness, but ONLY if the enemy team only have slows/ad dmg that slows. If it does AP damage AND slows you still grab mercs. Example of slows that slow you down are Singed goop. A Slow that does physical dmg + slows would be Olaf Axe. An Ap slow(which is when you should get mercs) is Ziggs mine field.

Ninja Tabi

Grab these when the enemy team is heavy AD. They probably have something along the lines of a Darius Top, Talon / Pantheon / Wukong / or Kha'Zix mid, an ADC + support bot, and Trundle in the jungle. These + an early Zhonya's Hourglass should make you tanky enough to lane and team fight against this type of enemy team comp.

Boots of Swiftness

I rarely buy these boots, but if the enemy team has minimal CC and only slows you like Singed or Nunu & Willump then you can grab these, but it's so rare to only have one form of CC you will hardly ever be buying these boots.

Enchantment:

For Kennen the 3 most useful enchantments are

1. Enchantment: Captain

Basically this makes everyone running towards you 8% faster. So when you rush in, ult, and hourglass, the rest of your team is able to catch up to you and start dealing damage.

2. Enchantment: Furor

These speed you up every time you land a skill or auto attack by 12% thats pretty huge! This helps you kite enemies or grab that kill on the enemy thats trying to escape by the hair on his butt.

3. Enchantment: Homeguard

Basically these have 2 uses to help defend your base. Say you died and you're about to res and you want to stop them from destroying your inhib. Grab these and fly towards them like a bat out of hell and chase them off if not destroy them completely.

Alacrity is not that useful on Kennen IMO, because Furor does the job better.

In the Movement Speed department APC's have 2 AP equivalent's Twin Shadows and Lich Bane. There is a basic way to choose between the two for balance purposes.

1. Twin Shadows

You grab Twin Shadows if you bought Will of the Ancients . Why? Well WotA is the more expensive of the two spell vamp items, AND with the passive of WotA + the dmg from this item you have 130 AP total. If you pair SotSW with Twin shadows you will find yourself doing underwhelming damage with only 90 AP from both items.

2. Lich Bane

You grab this if you bought Spirit of the Spectral Wraith . Why?! Lich Bane gives mana! Kennen doesn't need mana! Well since SotSW only gives 40 AP you need to make up for the loss of AP that the WotA aura gives you. Plus it lets you get started on your MS item faster since Lich Bane cost considerably more than Twin Shadows. SotSW + Lich Bane gives 120 ap. 10 less AP and no mres but you also get the Lich Bane proc It is also completely acceptable to go WotA + Lich Bane when you are farming well/fed for maximum AP of 160.

Here are your 3 options for magic penetration on AP champs. Ill try to explain how I determine which one is right for each situation.

1. Abyssal Mask

If you need magic resist and no one on the enemy team has over 120 magic resist grab this item.

2. Liandry's Torment

Do you need a little health but not magic resist and the enemy team has less than 120 magic resist? Grab Liandry's Torment.

3. Void Staff

Does the enemy team have someone with 120 or more magic resist? Grab this item

1. Zhonya's Hourglass

This is your go to defensive item on Kennen. The active makes you invulnerable for 3secs, and your Ultimate isn't canceled by it. This is huge for team fights to negate damage while dealing full damage fromy our ultimate.

2. Banshee's Veil

Going against a poke heavy team? Does the enemy team have a Ezreal/Lux/Karthus/Cait/Ziggs? Grab banshee's, its a life saver when it comes to blocking damage from long range poke or global ults.

3. Guardian Angel

This is a rare buy on AP kennen, but if you play AD kennen its not a bad buy at all. It still has its uses on AP kennen though. if you're team just needs you as an Initiator / CC machine late instead of grabbing a Death Cap as your last item you can pick up the Guardian angel to be extra beefy in team fights.

4. Rylai's Crystal Scepter

This is a situational buy for me honestly. I buy it as a rare defensive item when I get Liandry's Torment and I wan't to maximize its damage output. Because your skills will slow the enemy Liandry's burn does 10% of the targets current HP instead of 5%. The 500 HP is nothing to snicker at either.

1. Deathfire Grasp

If you need to blow up a tanky champ(i.e Malphite, Singed, Mundo etc) This is the item you need


2. Rabadon's Deathcap

This item will allow you to do the most raw damage combined with your magic penetration item. If you are doing well early game you don't have to wait until end game to purchase this. Pick it up after your Hextech Revolver .

All in all Kennen is a very solid champ that takes some skill to play, and is deadly when mastered. Energy management is key to Kennen's success in lane and also in team fights. I hope you enjoyed the guide, and I hope it helps you win many many games against these rotten AD casters. Good luck Summoners!