Spoilered old OP is miserably out of date. Check the latest discussion in thread for something more relevant.

(Real men play CDR boots Kennen with a page full of energy runes.)

+ Show Spoiler +

STOP.

Before you spend any time in this thread, I suggest reading Salce's guide. He's widely regarded as the best Kennen in the game.

...

Did you get all that? OK. Let's continue. There's a lot of good stuff in that guide, but I don't mirror it completely. My guide is for Summoner's Rift, I don't play the treeline.

Summoner Spells: Flash/Ghost

I'll be swapping in Teleport after Flash gets the shaft.

Masteries: 9/0/21

Runes
Quints: Movespeed
Red: Magic Penetration
Yellow: Energy Per 5 Per Level
Blue: Magic Resistance Per level

Ep5plvl yellows are a must. They noticeably boost your skill spam, even moreso with blue buff. (Kennen is a monster with blue, by the way. Hog it). There's some leeway with the Quints. Salce runs flat HP. Mogwai swears by flat AP. I was using flat EP5 up until I heard about them pulling flash out of the game, so I'm experimenting with movespeed to compensate my positioning. It'll depend on how good the flash replacement is.

Skill Order: QWWEQR / R>Q>W>E

The sign of a well designed champ: All 4 of Kennen's skills, and his passive, are brilliant. You'd love to have them all maxed, but you have to choose. Q makes laning a breeze, (as long as you can land it) which is why I prioritize it.

You want that early second point in W so it'll come off CD before your marks wear off. The harassing fun never stops!

note on items:
This progression is no longer valid. There's been some major item nerfs/buffs in the last few patches: Randuin's nerf, Zhonya's is out, CDR boots are in, etc.. I quit LoL before these changes happened so I have no real say anymore. From pure common sense theorycrafting, Rylais and Deathcap should be your go-to items.

Item Build:
Doran's Shield + Health Potion
Heart of Gold
Sorc Boots
Rylais
Zhonyas / Abyssal Sceptrer / Randuin's Omen (in some order as dictated by the game.)

Need mres? Go Abyssal. Is there a snowballing enemy Twitch? Finish Omen. Want to call down the thunder? Zhonyas. The HoG is easy for me to rationalize: I'm not a fan of Haunting Guise, while Omen is pretty much my favorite item, and it has amazing synergy with Kennen's ult. Kennen loves survivability.

If you end up in late late game, get a void staff and sell your sorc boots for mercs or tabi.

Playstyle
I don't have much to add beyond what Salce said. Be really aggressive in lane as soon as you're level 3 - force them to zone themselves or eat a second W + stun, and a few more autoattacks. While being virtually ungankable with flash, ghost, and E up. It's kind of unfair tbh. Learn when to rice and when to hang with the team.

Laning
Kennen is one of the strongest 1v1 champs in the game. He thrives in mid. However, there are a few champs that you should avoid laning against, if you can help it.

Kassadin: His passive laughs in your face, his Q eats you alive. You will not win. I have no idea why Salce doesn't warn people about this guy.

Nidalee: Spammable heal, ranged harass. She will eventually wear you down.

Miss Fortune/Morgana: If you can't dodge skillshots, you will lose. Good luck trying to force Morg out of the lane (let alone kill her) but a farming stalemate is doable.

Kat: Last time I went mid against a tank setup, I got owned. Maybe I'm just bad. Her daggers are pretty annoying.

Synthesis

Canada167 Posts

November 05 2010 01:05 GMT

I really want to get Kennen but I keep buying random runes and champions and shit and never hit 6k. =(

symbolic

254 Posts

November 05 2010 02:15 GMT

HoG rush? That's interesting.

What's your reasoning behind stalling boots/rylai's for it?

myopia

United States2928 Posts

November 05 2010 02:23 GMT

it's not much of a stall (I don't even get Guise like Salce does) and I'm a sucker for the early tankiness, free gold, and Randuin's is best item ever.

obviously if you were up against some weird all magic damage team skip the HoG/Randuins altogether.

NeoIllusions

United States37500 Posts

November 05 2010 02:28 GMT

Need Guise.
Need Magic Pen.
Omen would be nice after Guise, Rylai's, Zhonyas I guess. But any delay on those 3, your ulti tends to tickle, rather than omgrape.

:[[[[

sRapers_ValkS

United States644 Posts

November 05 2010 02:44 GMT

On November 05 2010 11:28 NeoIllusions wrote:
Need Guise.
Need Magic Pen.
Omen would be nice after Guise, Rylai's, Zhonyas I guess. But any delay on those 3, your ulti tends to tickle, rather than omgrape.

:[[[[

oh my grape!

I agree with Neo, and just one question for OP, what are EP5 quints?

Darkchylde

United States473 Posts

November 05 2010 02:49 GMT

Energy per 5 but those are only available on yellow. You can get quints to have a bigger energy pool though which a few people like.

Mogwai

United States13274 Posts

November 05 2010 02:56 GMT

it's bad to delay that rylais for HoG. you also need z-ring first if the game is leading to early teamfights.

Pandonetho

Canada321 Posts

November 05 2010 03:32 GMT

I don't play Kennen but I was just wondering, can someone explain to me the advantages of being AP over DPS?

Is it the fact that his Ult makes that much of the difference in a team fight as opposed to if he went DPS? I was always under the impression that his stun passive made him a great DPS champ.

myopia

United States2928 Posts

November 05 2010 04:08 GMT

#10

I have this irrational hatred of Haunting Guise, it feels too much like a dead end item to me.

On November 05 2010 11:49 Darkchylde wrote:
Energy per 5 but those are only available on yellow. You can get quints to have a bigger energy pool though which a few people like.

Quintessence of Meditation: +1.5 Energy Regen Per 5 seconds.

Mogwai

United States13274 Posts

November 05 2010 04:18 GMT

#11

he's a highly underestimated DPS, but he's probably a slightly better caster. they play really differently, AP Kennen is a monster initiator and chaser/burster and AD Kennen is one of the lower damage ranged carries, but is really resilient and packs a lot of utility with an escape and a ton of stuns.

NeoIllusions

United States37500 Posts

November 05 2010 04:29 GMT

#12

His W and R are why he's so great as AP than DPS.
He's super pokey.

STS17

United States1817 Posts

November 05 2010 05:03 GMT

#13

On November 05 2010 13:29 NeoIllusions wrote:
His W and R are why he's so great as AP than DPS.
He's super pokey.

I think you mean Q not W, his W is why he can DPS.

Juicyfruit

Canada5484 Posts

November 05 2010 05:11 GMT

#14

Randuin first used to be my Kennen build, but that was before his buff. Nowadays I just rush zhonya most of the time because Slicing Maestrom + Flash + Zhonya is probably one of the strongest ways of starting a fight, especially if you land right on top of their carry.

LightRailCoyote

United States982 Posts

November 05 2010 11:00 GMT

#15

why would you only start playng aggressive with kennen at 5? At 2, you can play the "count to 5" game, and that harass is only limited by CD. I actually max W first, considering that unlike Q, it's guaranteed to land with an autoattack. It also does more AOE damage during Teamfights.

Also Haunting Guise is good people. 20 mpen, ap and hp is damn legit.

myopia

United States2928 Posts

November 05 2010 14:26 GMT

#16

On November 05 2010 20:00 LightRailCoyote wrote:
why would you only start playng aggressive with kennen at 5? At 2, you can play the "count to 5" game, and that harass is only limited by CD. I actually max W first, considering that unlike Q, it's guaranteed to land with an autoattack. It also does more AOE damage during Teamfights.

Also Haunting Guise is good people. 20 mpen, ap and hp is damn legit.

I play passive unless I'm confident I will deal more damage to them than they will to me. If I'm in an evenly match lane, this usually means I'm only poking here and there until I hit 4-5.

I used to max W first but Salce made a Q believer out of me.

Mogwai

United States13274 Posts

November 05 2010 14:43 GMT

#17

you should probably be more aggressive in certain matchups. Kennen can (and should) really boss some people around starting at level 2.

W > Q is something you can pull off vs. Melee heroes who tend to be amongst their creep when they're last hitting, but in general, being able to poke for larger amounts and easily last hit from far away are more valuable things in lane. I do actually switch it up depending on lane (W > Q vs. Pantheon, herpdederp), but if you're just going to stick to one, you should stick to Q > W as it's generally better.

the problem with haunting guise is that it delays z-ring and/or rylai's by 1400 gold. it's a great generic caster item, but Kennen's skill set really needs those 2 items and as such, I can never justify a mid-range item that will delay them (same reason I object to myopia's suggested HoG before rylai's build). on less item dependant casters... yea, HG + Sorc shoes is great, but on Kennen, I don't think you can afford to slow that first item by that much.

LightRailCoyote

United States982 Posts

November 06 2010 15:34 GMT

#18

I used to skill Q harder, but I found that against kennen, people just stand in their creepwave, which made my Q harder to land consistently. Q is better for solo top,where there are heroes who like to abuse things like bushes (lol Pantheon).

I see your point on HGuise, though. I'll have to reconsider. Usually when i buy it, it's when i B with like 1800 Gold and i can snatch it + boots.

oberon

United States1320 Posts

November 06 2010 15:49 GMT

#19

My build on Kennen is currently sorc boots -> zring. E -> R -> zring can almost win a teamfight on its own, and delaying that for rylai's/guise has never felt right to me. Also, there's video on loco's stream of me abusing some more Kassadin mid. If loco hadn't stumbled on a half health WW in jungle (as full health Olaf) I would've had first blood. I agree that it's a hard matchup, but if you commit (either to staying back and farming with shuriken, or staying close and fighting back) it feels doable. There were a couple times where he'd Q me, but the ball moved so slow that I could Q him back, AND land a W before I was silenced.

Therealdevil

Netherlands1021 Posts

November 08 2010 12:42 GMT

#20

If you have blue CDR runes + the masteries you mentioned and skill like this:

QWEWQR then mass R>Q>W>E

Your W cooldown will be down before your oponent's MOTS will be gone. Quite helpfull at early laning.

furthermore I find that rushing rylai is a must. It makes getting away from you nearly impossible in combination with boots of swiftness (movement speed 3) instead of using something like movement speed quints I prefer these, because I don't feel like I truely need any of the other boots.
If i need magic penetration I'll grab void staff. If i want pure ap I go zhonya. If you get zhonya just for the active you are doing something wrong, during your ulti you should use W and spam shurikens and the very least, not hide in your gold bubble of invulnerability. Unless you get focussed ofcourse.

I use CDR blue, energyregperlvl yellow, magic penetration red and energy per 5 quints. I have been experimenting with AP quints and am still not sure what I prefer most. AP is better early whilst energy is better late. (you don't get to use your skills to the point where you use all your energy till you hit lvl 9~ ish anyway.)

Also I find that positioning is one of the most important things of Kennen, if you propperly position yourself during creep waves so you can hit your shurikens or can atleast make him fear them you are at a huge advantage. And against heroes that tend to walk inbetween the creeps you can pull the "My W can stun you even if my shurikens can't hit".