Control The Lightning: A Guide to Kennen, the Heart of the Tempest

I've been playing Kennen for about 6 months now, and easily my best and most favorite champion to play. Kennen can be played in all three lanes, but this guide will overview his capabilities as the AP Mid. First of all, Kennen brings great utility for his team because of his ability to "stun lock" enemy champions as well as dealing severe damage if not focused. Also, he is one of the safest laners in the game because of his ability, Lightning Rush (E).

Runes

9x Flat Magic Penetration Marks

9x Energy Regeneration Per Level Seals

9x Flat Magic Resist Glyphs

3x Flat Ability Power Quintessences

Other alternates to these are Flat Armor Seals (considering how expensive the Energy Regeneration ones are) and Flat Health Quintessences.

This Rune set up allows me to deal decent damage while still being somewhat tanky.

Masteries

 

Fairly straightforward Mastery page. I only get Summoner's Insight because the utility tree isn't very useful for Kennen.

Ability Breakdown

Mark of the Storm (Passive) - Kennen's abilities add Marks of the Storm to opponents which last for 8 seconds. An opponent is stunned for 1 second upon receiving 3 Marks of the Storm, and Kennen receives 25 energy. The stun has a diminished effect, and will only stun for approx 0.5 seconds if applied more than once within 7 seconds.

This is what Kennen is all about. When combo'd correctly, you can stun enemies 2 or 3 times in a row, which is why he is called a, "stun lock" champion. Always know how many marks are on the enemy.

Thundering Shuriken (Q) - (Active): Kennen throws a charged shuriken in a line in front of him, dealing magic damage and adding a Mark of the Storm to the first opponent that it hits.

Cost: 65 / 60 / 55 / 50 / 45 energy

Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds

Magic Damage: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+0.75 per ability power)

This has great range, and it is good for harassment and last hitting. It's also good in poke wars. This also goes through walls, so experienced Kennen Players will be able to pull off impressive kills through walls.

Electrical Surge (W) - (Passive): Every 5 attacks, Kennen will deal extra magic damage equal to a percentage of his attack damage and add a Mark of the Storm to his target.

Magic Damage: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% of his attack damage

(Active): Surges electricity through all nearby targets afflicted by Mark of the Storm, dealing magic damage and adding another mark.

Cost: 45 energy

Radius: 900

Cooldown: 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 seconds

Magic Damage: 65 / 95 / 125 / 155 / 185 (+0.55 per ability power)

This ability also has good range and harassment utility. Its passive is greatly underutilized by new Kennen players, but is necessary to pull of some of his bread n' butter combos. This ability can also be activated if the target is in range, but isn't in vision of Kennen.

Lightning Rush (E) - (Active): For 3 seconds Kennen's base movement speed is doubled. He also gains the ability to pass through units, dealing magic damage to all enemy units in the process, and restoring 40 energy from the first enemy he hits. This ability only deals 50% damage to minions. Additionally, for 4 seconds Kennen's armor and magic resistance are increased. While Lightning Rush is active, he can activate it again, to cancel the first part of the ability.

Cost: 100 / 95 / 90 / 85 / 80 energy

Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 seconds

Magic Damage: 85 / 125 / 165 / 205 / 245 (+0.6 per ability power)

Armor and Magic Resistance Bonus: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50

This ability makes Kennen such a strong laner. It basically acts a reset button if you get caught out of position. While you are a ball of lightning, you cannot autoattack, but you can activate your abilities. This is a good way to feign aggression.

Slicing Maelstrom (R) - (Active): Kennen summons a magical storm that deals magic damage to a random enemy champion near Kennen every 0.5/0.4/0.33 seconds. The storm hits several times, increasing with level, and cannot hit the same target more than 3 times. A Mark of the Storm is applied to enemies each time they are hit.

Cooldown: 120 seconds

Radius: 550 (estimate)

Cost: 50 / 45 / 40 energy

Magic Damage Per Bolt: 80 / 145 / 210 (+0.4 per ability power)

Number of Bolts: 6 / 10 / 15

Max Magic Damage to the Same Target: 240 / 435 / 630 (+1.2 per ability power)

Time Between Bolts: 0.5 / 0.4 / 0.33 seconds

This is Kennen's ultimate. It deals massive AoE damage and CC. Pretty self-explanatory.

Leveling Your Abilities

I start with Q at level 1, then W at level 2, and E at level 3. There are also two main ways to prioritize your abilities; maxing either Q or W first. I will explain how I level up Kennen because I do it a bit differently. It all depends on your preference, so play a bunch of games and see how you prefer to level him up.

If I don't have a difficult lane, I will max W first because it lets me more agressive and my harass will do more damage. Even though I max E last, I will take a second point in it quite early at level 7 because the energy reduction will allow me to use it more often, considering that I will be pushing the lane hard.

If I'm playing a laner that pushes hard, or I am losing the lane, I will take Q first so that I can last hit easier under the tower. I also do not take a second point in E because I won't be aggressive at all.

Tips and Tricks for Harassment and Laning

If your lane opponent is behind the creep wave, don't bother using Q to harass. An easy way to harass an opponent positioned in this manner is to autoattack them when your W passive is up and then activate W right afterwards for easy damage. You can also follow this up with a stun if you E towards them. If they run away when you do this, you can line up a Q quite easily. Another bread n' butter combo is W passive > Q > W. This will stun them, do good damage, and will not use a lot of your energy.

Kennen is such a safe laner because of his E. However, you should not be using E to push the lane because it will make you vulnerable with its high cooldown and energy cost.

Items

My usual endgame build with Kennen is:

I always start   + 3. On my first trip back, I try to get my tier 2 boots and a . After that, everything is situational and  SHOULD NOT be followed with strict order. You must play Kennen a lot to get a feel for what and when you should be building certain items.

Playstyle

Kennen is a safe laner, not a super aggressive one. He can be very aggressive because of his long range and E ability, but this does not mean you can bully any champion in lane. Farm, farm, farm, and harass every now and then, just to put some type of pressure on the other laner. Also, Kennen's ganks are quite strong because of his E, so raoming the map isn't a bad idea if your lane opponent doesn't push very hard.

Summary

Kennen is a unique champion that not many people know how to play. However, once you master him he is extremely versatile, doesn't get boring, and actually quite strong. Remember! Don't overuse E, harras, farm, and most importantly, HAVE FUN.