Kennen Top Help

tyt921·10/21/2015, 10:31:09 PM·1 votes·780 views

So, I can poke a Darius, Fiora, and a few other good top laner out of their lane for early levels. However, after they just last hit they TP back and get MR and ARMOR. Then my poking days are over. I go for either usually Zonyas for Armor to counter their damage if its AD, or Abysal/Liandries for that MPEN. But neither seems to be a good solution as I usually just get out damaged by these tanks.

Question begs, is it a good blind pick? because I been countered by it many times with a Nasus, Wukong, Ryze. All those match up I tried so hard to bully them by abusing my passive stun, and my Q range.

Is it a safe blind pick? If not, are there any other good blind safe top picks you guys can recommend?

9 Comments

Mimy10/21/2015, 10:34:38 PM2 votes

I love kennen. Though after first back it's kinda hard to poke anyone in toplane if they buy any tanky item..

So I just farm.

Ruin Lance10/21/2015, 10:37:32 PM2 votes

With kennen you typically don't get any kills in your lane unless you get a gank. Just farm and harass as you please until you group pretty much or if you have tp you can just push lanes/farm until your team wants to fight edit: Also, if you want to harass your lane opponent well wait until you get your W stacks up, attack the enemy, activate W and then Q or if you know you'll be safe to E, you can E if you like. But usually you should use it as a disengage.

tyt92110/21/2015, 11:10:29 PM1 votes

I know a season or two back, it was worth while to buy a dorans blade to help sustain, and if you are losing lane get 2, 3. Is it still a trend? I am totally new to playing normals, and had a really bad generalization of what Kennen should accomplish in lane. I guess the reason for the generalization is because I been playing ranked at lower elo like Silver 3, and most top laners just allow me to bully them. They typically just build damage and allow me to continue to bully them. My trouble I ran into is when I started to do my promo series, I was laned against Gold V's so clearly they know how to play against a Kennen.

I think you guys are spot on. Just farm and make plays. Also thanks for the tip, I been using E to engage most the time <3 ty!

SaltyKracka10/21/2015, 11:15:09 PM1 votes

aww, does somebody not automatically win lane and game by abusing ranged manaless toplane cancer?

the world must be such a sad sad place for you

xl Kirito lx10/22/2015, 1:01:11 AM1 votes

Alright, so, I looked up your last few games.

First thing I noticed, you're running really agressive runes / masteries. High risk / high reward style of things. Not necessarily bad, just something to look at. I'd also suggest Expose Weakness, then Blade / Spell Weaving, but that's preference.

Next, I'd try maxing W over Q, in general. To poke with Q, you have to land a relatively small skillshot that doesn't travel through minions. To poke with W, you have to land any ability. I just feel that it's easier to poke with W, might be preference. -- It also gives you significantly better wave clear, and roaming potential since the ability is a pretty large AOE.

Top lane in general is in a really weird spot with the TP meta being so prevalent. Poke / harass where you can, but I'd put higher value on CS'ing and roaming well. Once Kennen hits 6, he has an incredibly strong teamfight presence, espc if you max W early.

Props thou, for having varying build paths and playstyles. Pretty rare to see in silver mmr.

EndlessSorcerer10/22/2015, 1:15:57 AM1 votes

Kennen typically has a weak laning phase in comparison to many champions, so you typically want to farm up for teamfights and focus on poking your enemies out.

Doran's Blades are typically purchased on Kennen for early last-hitting, sustain, all-ins, and harassment. Doran's Blades increase the damage dealt by your autoattacks and W passive while making you more bulky, which is quite nice.

I only looked at a couple of your matches, but I can see that you are maxing Q first. While that's useful when you can land shurikens, that can be difficult during the laning phase since they can just hide behind minions.

Have you tried maxing W first? The passive will deal more damage and it scales with AD (working with your early Doran's Blade(s)), it's more reliable damage (since all you need to do is get a passive mark on them using an autoattack or ability) and it can double as waveclear (E through the minions, then W) if necessary.

You could also stand to improve your runes and masteries.

For runes, I would suggest switching your Magic Pen marks to Hybrid Pen. You may also want to take MR glyphs instead of flat AP for survivability.

For masteries, I would suggest taking the AD masteries, Blade Weaving, and Spell Weaving in the offensive tree. I would suggest something like this

If it helps, I used to rank my skills in the following order:

QWEWWR, R > W > E > Q

Maxing W first is the best option for harass during laning phase unless you are able to consistently hit the enemy with Q. However, even if you can land Qs, W-max has the advantage of waveclear. This is great for teamfighting, since your ultimate will apply passive procs to everyone nearby.

Maxing E second provides more durability and mobility during teamfights and max hit multiple targets.

I max Q last because it can be difficult to hit in many situations and it's possible to body-block it. In addition, it has a high AP ratio so it's damage will increase significantly with items even without putting points into it.

Also, thank you for reminding me that this champion exists. I was trying to figure out who I wanted as my AP top laner and I completely forgot about him.