Champion Guide

Kennen Guide

By LoLSuggest

Top

Kennen is a mobile, safe lane bully with lots of burst: poke and deny the enemy in lane, all-in with Lightning Rush, Flash and Slicing Maelstrom when they're low or your jungler arrives, then flank backlines in teamfights or split-push when there's nothing to contest.

Recommended Setup

Our recommended Kennen build

Our recommended runes, summoner spells and items. Compare build win rates on the stats page.

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Situational Items

Electrocute with Taste of Blood, Grisly Mementos and Ultimate Hunter, plus Axiom Arcanist and Scorch (or Cash Back and Cosmic Insight). Take Flash and Ignite, or Teleport situationally. Into most melee lanes start E with Doran's Blade; against ranged mages a Q start with Doran's Ring works. Hextech Rocketbelt is the usual first item, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes, Shadowflame, Zhonya's Hourglass, Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap. Hextech Gunblade works against some bruisers but should be sold for Rocketbelt late; Banshee's Veil, Morellonomicon and Liandry's Torment are situational.

Runes

Primary Tree

Secondary Tree

Summoner Spells

Strengths

Mobile, safe laner and lane bully with lots of burst.
Great teamfighter whose ultimate can stun several enemies.
Strong split-pusher once his attack speed comes online.

Weaknesses

Bad into tanks and teams with lots of shields.
All-ins can be denied by Zhonya's, extra mobility or good enemy vision; Mercury's Treads counter him.
Needs teammates' cooperation to get the most value.

Laning Phase

Focus on denying the enemy's CS and XP while poking them and farming your own wave. When the wave is pushed, hit the turret with your fifth auto — Mark of the Storm isn't consumed on turrets, so you can take plates. From level 3, Thundering Shuriken plus a charged auto and Electrodrain give an instant stun and Electrocute proc. Track the enemy jungler, and when your jungler ganks, all-in with E, Flash and R (or E, Flash, Q and W before 6).

Mid & Late Game

Play around vision and flank the enemy backline for objectives. With nothing to contest, split-push and farm; you can also wait in brush for enemies to walk past. From around level 14 maxing E gives great attack speed for split-pushing. Late game everyone is strong, so your job is to peel for your carries or jump onto squishy backliners.

Key Tips

Rocketbelt enables an E, Rocketbelt, Flash, R engage into the backline.
Your ultimate keeps working while you're in Zhonya's stasis.
Shadowflame is where your damage spikes, thanks to its synergy with your ultimate.
Consider banning Nasus, Orianna, Yorick or Viktor based on the matchup you want to avoid.

Matchups