Kennen: Why is Slicing Maelstrom gimped at early ranks compared to other teamfight AOE ultimates?

Anthony Wastella·Aug 8, 2014·6 votes·615 views

How I used to love to play Kennen. He was my favorite champ in the game to play for the longest time. His time in the competitive scene back in years past though led to him being Nerfed hard and never really touched much since.

I'm wondering why Kennen's ult scales the way it does when similarly strong AOE ultimates are not limited in terms of who gets hit, let alone stunned by it. (Morgana for a popular example in terms of ultimate/utility from

I could live if his ult could at the least be a little more reliable when it's distributing bolts but would love to see if at any rate he could be looked at for some tlc given how the pace of the game has accelerated and hitting 16 before big 5v5 teamfights doesn't happen all too often, especially given how league is tuned right now.

8 Comments

SerBlaiseAug 8, 20144 votes

I totally agree. His lvl 6 ult is very unreliable at stunning, and the random targeting often means you stun the low priority target.

Knight SoIaire Aug 8, 20141 votes

something for something his ult has no channel and he is mobile with it, not to count that its a hard cc, it has to have a weakness

SerBlaiseAug 8, 20142 votes

I agree, but weaknesses should be clearly defined windows of opportunity for counterplay. Random intervals of applying marks is not "Clearly Defined". Give it some other weakness then.

Knight SoIaire Aug 8, 20141 votes

if he will be able to stun the guy he wants he will be op and you will se him nerfer again to a state where he is not of any use to any team

HigeRAug 9, 20142 votes

tell that to Annie... also, its not like the stun is immediate if you haven't prepared it before hand

OrinneAug 9, 20142 votes

For the sake of comparison, Slicing Maelstrom does less damage than Morgana's Soul Shackles at all levels (assuming all charges hit onto a target), has less AP scaling, has less range, and has a lower stun effect even when accounting for Kennen being able to proc his passive multiple times on a target.

Yes, different champions have different kits, and therefore, you shouldn't compare two abilities in a vacuum, but the fact that one ultimate does essentially the exact same thing as another, only better, seems problematic to me.

Earl EulrichAug 9, 20141 votes

completely agree, it´s sth. that really makes him almost unplayable currently as you either snowball hard or just watch your team lose objectives till you´re finally at least lvl 11 and can start bringing sth. to teamfights.

HigeRAug 9, 20141 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay/a2og7rRs-once-again-qol-tweaks-for-kennen here's a compendium of what I'd like to see for Kennen, if you could drop by and give your opinion would be cool