Kennen/Strategy

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Skill usage

• Thundering Shuriken can be used to detect enemies hiding in the brush, as a sound effect will play if it impacts a target.
• Thundering Shuriken is very effective for harassment. Taking more than one point in it early game allows you to harass the enemy really hard while not being in range to take damage.
• Using Electrical Surge after players have 2 stacks of Mark of the Storm is an easy way to stun.
• Don't forget that Electrical Surge has a passive component, try to save the passive mark applying attack for combos or harass.
• Kennen is a great farmer if you use Lightning Rush combined with Electrical Surge.
• Using Lightning Rush to dodge skillshots and run away is a good idea.
• Lightning Rush can be used to initiate fights with its energy return component, allowing him to use other abilities afterward.
• While in Lightning Rush form, Kennen cannot perform normal attacks, but can use all of his abilities.
• Lightning Rush can be coupled with the summoner spell Ghost to move at very high speeds, with Kennen's stun this is excellent for chasing.
  • Lightning Rush can be used to get back to lane quicker.
• After a team fight has initiated, use Lightning Rush to apply marks to as many enemies as possible, followed by Electrical Surge and Slicing Maelstrom. This combo adds two marks initially, followed by one mark for the stun, and then adds an additional two marks, leaving any runners ready to be stunned with Thundering Shuriken . Alternatively, saving energy and waiting for a second Electrical Surge will result in a second AoE stun.
• A good skill sequence to harass an enemy or to scare them off is Lightning Rush, Electrical Surge, and Thundering Shuriken(if possible). The reason why this combo can scare enemy's is because it can stun or get ready to stun.
• Kennen is a champion who relies heavily on combos. Some simple combos are: Lightning Rush + Electrical Surge + Electrical Surge(passive) + Thundering Shuriken - this combo works extremely well from levels 3-5 (i.e. before Slicing Maelstrom is learned). At level 2, Kennen can do a Electrical Surge + Electrical Surge(passive) + Thundering Shuriken combo to result in a highly damaging stun and a few auto attacks during the stun.
• Once reaching level 6, Kennen gains the ability to stun an opponent twice using a Lightning Rush + Electrical Surge + Electrical Surge(passive) + Slicing Maelstrom + Thundering Shuriken combo.
  • For this combo, wait the longest time possible between the Electrical Surge (passive) (which completes the 1st stun) and your Slicing Maelstrom (which completes the second stun) to regenerate Energy, land free auto attacks, and position yourself behind the enemy.
• The key to playing well is learning how to chain his combos together to be able to land free damage on the enemy while keeping them in a disadvantageous position.
• A good way to build Kennen is a balanced build, which focus on building tankiness as well as damage. With all three skills at rank 2, Kennen becomes a powerful enemy.
• Kennen's Slicing Maelstrom is amazing for turning team fights around. It is key that his R is used as much as possible against multiple opponents, but only at the right time.
• Kennen tends to be an initiator or to follow immediately behind an initiator thanks to Slicing Maelstrom. Using Slicing Maelstrom wisely in a team fight, in conjunction with Lightning Rush and Electrical Surge, nearly guarantees a viable amount of energy gained from Mark of the Storm because Kennen's cooldowns tend to end more quickly than Kennen's energy regenerates.
• Remember that Lightning Rush also provides you with a great boost of your armor and magic resistance meaning it can save you from fatal situations like Karthus' Requiem or skills that do damage over time, notice however that it won't reduce true damage.
• One of Kennen's biggest strengths is his flexibility of item builds in any given situation. Kennen can easily be built either as an attack damage carry or an ability power based carry. He's also a very powerful top laner in both attack damage and ability power based builds due to his decent attack damage scaling and Electrical Surge passive and split pushing ability because his Lightning Rush can serve as a good escape mechanism in sticky situations as well as serving a good pushing skill in conjunction to his Electrical Surge active.
  • Ability Power build strongly utilizes his Thundering Shuriken, Electrical Surge's active, and Slicing Maelstrom. The ability power build brings more teamfight presence and large crowd control stuns on the enemy teams who tend to be grouped together. Because Kennen needs to be in the frontlines to utilize his ultimate, he needs to build a bit tanky in addition to ability power since he will most likely be focused on. The ability power build synergizes well with champions who have heavy area of effect damage (i.e. Ezreal, Ziggs, Amumu, and Nunu) or dive heavy team compositions.
  • Attack damage builds are almost similar to an attack damage carry where he puts more emphasis on autoattacking because of his Electrical Surge passive scales in attack damage and his strong self-crowd control and utility ability with his Mark of the Storm, something that most attack damage carries lack with a few exceptions like Ashe and Varus. Because Kennen uses Energy rather than mana, he has better sustain than many other attack damage carries except Sivir. Building Kennen as an attack damage carry is recommended for those who have difficulty landing his Thundering Shuriken, laning with supports who lack any forms of healing or sustaining the attack damage carry like Lulu, Blitzcrank, Leona, and Thresh, or team compositions who tend to focus on a single target. Keep in note that attack damage carry Kennen tends to fall flat late game against other late game oriented attack damage carries like ( Tristana and Kog'Maw) because he is really reliant on autoattacking where his range is equivalent to Vayne and lacks good attack speed/damage steroid unless he is fed early.

Build usage

• Getting double Doran's Blade early game allows Kennen to be a strong lane bully with the passive of Electrical Surge as well as give a little survivability.
• Sheen and Lich Bane are effective items on Kennen. If Kennen is played as a caster, Lich Bane is useful for increasing the amount of damage he does, especially since his Thundering Shuriken can be used every 4 seconds at rank 5.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter can be very good with his Lightning Rush, since you can get very fast to any opponent and slow him this way, and once slowed your target can be comboed easily.
• Since Kennen usually relies on being in the middle of their team an Abyssal Scepter can provide you with more damage and survivability while the negative aura will also boost the damage of your allied magic damage dealers.
• Since Kennen does sustained damage using energy, building an early Hextech Revolver is a good idea for him, particularly if you are facing a champion who has their own built-in sustain like Renekton, Vladimir, and Yorick.
  • When upgrading Hextech Revolver, a Hextech Gunblade is far superior item than Will of the Ancients despite being more expensive for several reasons. First, the spell vamp procs in all of his abilities, including his Electrical Surge's passive. Second, Hextech Gunblade grants attack damage and life steal, which greatly enhances his sustain when autoattacks with Electrical Surge passive.
• Because most of the foes will be stunned, Liandry's Torment is a good item to build on Kennen for the item's passive.
  • Liandry's Torment also procs with Kennen's Electrical Surge passive as well.
• It's recommended to build AP along with defensive items as Kennen's full combo requires getting close to enemy champions and therefore survivability will be a must during teamfights.
  • As Slicing Maelstrom is not a channeled ability, you can use it in conjunction with Zhonya's Hourglass or Wooglet's Witchcap for a powerful combo.
• Giving Kennen Nashor's Tooth is good for the passive effect of his Electrical Surge as it gives him some AP to deal more damage with spells.
  • Other attack speed items such as Wit's End, Blade of the Ruined King, Statikk Shiv, and Runaan's Hurricane are good items to build in his kit. Much like Lulu, Fizz, Kayle, Kassadin, Nidalee, Orianna, and Teemo, Kennen is one of the few champions that greatly benefits by mixing attack speed with AP. Statikk Shiv and Runaan's Hurricane greatly increases Kennen's wave clearing capacity, particularly the later where he can quickly gain Electrical Surge stacks for his passive.
• While a niche option, because of Kennen's high attack speed growth, a decent attack damage growth, and the utilization of his Electrical Surge; Kennen can effectively be built as an attack damage carry in a similar sense like Ezreal. Items like  Phantom Dancer, Trinity Force, Statikk Shiv, Blade of the Ruined King, Wit's End, Runaan's Hurricane, and Nashor's Tooth can allow his Electrical Surge passive's Mark of the Storm trigger more quickly. Because his Electrical Surge's passive damage is scaled in attack damage. items like Infinity Edge, The Black Cleaver, Last Whisper, and The Bloodthirster are good items to utilize. The attack damage carry build path is recommended to players who are new in playing Kennen, or those who have difficulty landing his Thundering Shuriken skill.

Recommended builds

Countering

• When you have two stacks of Mark of the Storm, move away from Kennen until the debuff wears off to avoid his stun.
• Moving erratically or taking cover behind minions can hinder you from getting hit by his Thundering Shuriken.
• Do not overextend when chasing him as Lightning Rush also boosts his armor and magic resistance.
  • If Kennen chases you and fails to hit with his  Lightning Rush, he won't gain energy. Use this as your advantage since  Lightning Rush consumes a lot of energy.
• Quickly using a knockback on Kennen while Slicing Maelstrom is active can cause him to waste the ability. Be aware Zhonya's Hourglass is a common item on Kennen to avoid such a possibility.
• Kennen primarily deals magic damage. Investing in magic resistance items will reduce his damage output.
  • That said, Kennen can also be built as attack damage carry. Pay attention to his build to counter him properly. For example, reducing his attack speed will lower his damage and stun output.

Champion spotlight

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