Source
r/summonerschool•
StringerLittle

Let's Talk About Kennen

Kennen

So I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the little Pikachu, but I've never gotten around to playing him seriously (in ranked). I'm trying to learn him as a situational pick (top lane) into champs that I can bully early and scale into the stupidly strong teamfighter that he is.

I'd like to just have a discussion about Kennen with anyone who has had time to play/experiment with him.

Masteries- I've always run 21/9/0 with pretty standard stuff. I did briefly try a weird setup with some investment into the utility tree to get spellvamp and lifesteal but I found the lategame damage lacking without 21 in offense. I am curious however about running 30/0/0 on him, since I would avoid picking him into most matchups that could just jump on me early (Irelia, Wukong etc), and he actually makes good use of the AD in the tree for early harass and better last hitting. Thoughts?

Runes- Actually have a few ideas about this. Reds would be either hybrid or magic pen, though I have tried AD reds and they aren't terrible. Yellows will be either scaling health or armour because I'm looking to avoid matchups with early aggression. I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on which is better. Normally I would say scaling armour but since Kennen itemizes some early armour with zhonyas rush I was thinking scaling health might be better.

Blues is where I have the biggest issue. I'm going to try to avoid most AP lanes top, and in those cases I'll rush Abyssal anyways, so I don't feel like I'll need MR. So after that I'm looking at either flat AP (more bullying), scaling AP, or even magic penetration (rarely used, but they're not that much weaker than magic pen reds and the scaling would probably be better than AP). I don't think scaling CDR is that useful because while more ults is nice I find CDR just leads to Kennen running out of energy.

Quints I'm thinking just AP, but I might experiment with 1-2 spellvamp quints.

Items- So there's the obvious items like hourglass, void, abyssal (if decent AP), sorcs. I'm more curious on people's thoughts about deathcap vs Liandrys vs Rylais. I used to definitely prefer deathcap + Rylais, but I think Liandrys is probably better than Rylais overall now for him with the increased AP to go along with the magic pen. It also allows for a really good midgame spike if you buy Guise + sorcs + Zhonyas to just wreck early fights. Curious to hear what other people are building. I've even considered gunblade but I just think it's too expensive.

Skill Max- I've pretty much always gone for WEQ, but I still see some pros and such maxing Q first. Is there any logic behind maxing Q first as a top laner? W just seems much better for early teamfighting and waveclear with E, whereas Q only seems more useful for farming from ranged in hard lanes.

Looking forward to hearing from Kennen players.

Cheers

Posted Aug 9, 2015, 4:52 PM UTC

29
sarcasm_is_love•

Masteries: I almost always take at least 7 points in utility for the reduced summoner spell CD; Kennen is so heavily gated by his flash CD.

Build: Zhonya's + Deathcap + Void + Sorcs are core. Abyssal is nice but not mandatory if the enemy team doesn't have heavy magic damage sources. You could conceivably go Rylai's + Liandry's in your last two remaining slots.

Skill max: Q max first gives you better short trades than W max; shorter cd, higher base damage + higher AP scaling than W across the board. Honestly W max is more of a luxury in lanes where the enemy laner has low trade or kill potential.

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StringerLittleOPDiamond V•

Points in Q lower the CD by 1 second and increase the base damage by 40.

Points in W lower the CD by 2 seconds and increase base damage by 30, plus 10% of your AD (not a lot but still 5-6 damage at least)

My thinking is that whenever you use Q you can also use W, cooldowns permitting, but you can also use W on its own. As such, unless you are a god at hitting Qs, provided its a matchup where you can somewhat safely harass with autos, that W max is more reliable damage.

Obviously in lanes where landing autos for W proc isn't an option, due to range or just the threat of being all inned, then I understand Q max.

W max is also so much better for early teamfighting, since it's an AoE skill that combos very nicely with your ult.

And then there's waveclear, which is teh thing I always hated about Kennen when maxing Q. It's just so annoying to have no waveclear before you get a lot of AP

Appreciate the input though. I agree that the summoner CD reduction is really nice, though I'm still playing around with maybe just earlier distortions for that

2
situationukDiamond V•

I prefer Kennen in the mid lane with ignite. BTW my points are:

Masteries: Standard AP Manaless 21/9. You need the 9 defensive tree masteries. Kennen is squishy in the early game.

Runes: I prefer full AP Runes, Magic Pen Marks, Armor (Against AD) o HPxlvl Seals (Against AP), APxlvl (Against AD) or MR (Against AP) Blues and AP Quints. CDR is not viable on energy champs I think.

Build: Magic Pen Boots (Rush Distortion enchantment) + Zhonya's + Abyssal Scepter. Hugh power spike. After that, more AP and Magic Pen (Rabadon, Void Staff, Liandry's, some defensive item, etc.)

Rabadon if you want more burst and damage, one shot people.

Liandry's + Rylai's gives more utility for 5v5.

Skill max: W, massive burst in lane and helps to farm out. E secondly and Q the last one. Base damage for Q is enough.

1
ryukasun•

I play quite a bit of kennen. I think two things each kennen player should experiment with is the double pen rush and early lucidity boots and distortion.

The double pen build is extremely powerful vs squishies who won't be itemizing mr early and if the enemy team won't be getting an aegis in the early game. It gives you an explosive amount of burst.

Lucidity boots+distortion is all about your ult uptime and tp plays. While I wouldn't go it the majority of the time, some games can be carried because your ulti is up every fight.

1
StringerLittleOPDiamond V•

What do you mean by double pen? Sorcs + Abyssal? Sorcs + Guise? Abyssal + Guise?

I'd love to find a way to get some CDR on Kennen, but I feel I just run out of energy so easily so it's really just about a lower ult CD, and I'm not sure that outweighs sorcs.

I do need to experiment with getting distortion earlier. I still don't value them highly enough, but the lower CDs and the bonuses to flash and TP warrant an earlier rush some games for sure.

Thanks for your input!

1
ryukasun•

Usually the sorcs + haunting guise rush but abyssal is generally the better option vs ap champions. I generally won't get all 3 pen items (guise, abyssal, void) because there's generally items that prioritize those but just any sort of early double pen can be crazy.

Yeah I agree, it feels awful to be out of energy in a core teamfight due to energy mismanagement. You also lose on the sorc shoes spike which is pretty nice vs people who won't be itemizing early mr. It's worth trying though because kennen's reliance on ult is pretty ridiculous and you'll win/lose games off your ult cd.

Early distortion is great. For alot of lanes I've found myself going double dorans into tier 2 boots + distortion. While I'm not sure if that's optimal, if your bot lane is willing to work with you you can really have some global pressure.

1
StringerLittleOPDiamond V•

I'm surprised you still go double dorans, I thought that pretty much died on Kennen when they changed Dblade to lifesteal from life on hit.

And ya after doing the math earlier I think getting all 3 pen items is overkill and a Rylais would probably be the better bet.

I'll definitely give very early distortion a go.

Since you're here and not many others are likely to see this thread... have you experimented at all with spell vamp on Kennen? I was thinking 1-2 quints might provide some noticeable sustain once you get a few points in W and EW a wave. I've done some weird utility setups where I get the 3 points in spell vamp and I definitely noticed a difference, just not sure if it's at all worth losing the early AP.

There's also the option of gunblade or WOTA, but I don't think Kennen really has any item spots to spare and any early spellvamp itemization just delays Zhonyas+Pen

1
ryukasun•

I think the double dorans is a crutch for me. When I first played kennen I used ad runes with the double dorans set up (and more so before his ad nerf). I'm trying to adapt to hybrid pen runes so I always need that extra ad as a bit of help for last hitting. Outside of that I just do it to keep up auto harass vs champs who will be itemizing mr.

Back when I spammed kennen in late season 4 i used to get a hextech revolver in some match ups (notably vlad). I really see it as pure lane itemization. It gives you the sustain needed to survive/win those match ups that can potentially outrade you through the laning phase like Vlad, Teemo, Cass, etc. I generally don't like it though for obvious reasons...it delays core items and it loses alot of its potency outside of lane.

I haven't tried it recently though because I've mainly used the haunting guise+sorcs or abyssal+sorcs rush for heavy 6-11 damage.

1