Don't get Zhonya's with Kennen in Solo Que

NoRefunD1·10/24/2015, 6:43:50 AM·2 votes·1,037 views

I've started playing Kennen differently (not talking about ADC kennen). Typically people recommend getting hourglass so you can dive in, hourglass, do tons of damage, carry your team right? Sounds great, but in solo que it doesn't always work out. Too often my hourglass runs up, everyone is still alive, and you just instantly get blown up. How are you going to carry your solo que teammates once you're dead? I actually found I play better when I don't get hourglass. I'm more conscious of positioning. I've been going hybrid kennen with gunblade start and build out from there what I need. I've even been running rageblade and hasn't seemed bad at all. Teamfights instead of being kamakazi kennen I'll use ult to peel for the adc and just chill back by him if its crazy. Solo que seems to be mostly a cluster of small duels and skirmishes which hybrid kennen is better at. What do you guys think?

6 Comments

GM4tL8dFsI10/24/2015, 8:49:28 AM3 votes

As I continued reading this, I realized that OP wasn't trolling. And that's what scares me the most.

VexingRaven10/24/2015, 7:33:16 AM1 votes

Que

Porque?

LithiumWednesday10/24/2015, 8:45:20 AM1 votes

Generally, Zhonya's is something you want regardless. The stats and active are helpful no matter what you're doing. Poke is something Kennen does well in small fights, and something that scales well off flat AP. Gunblade is probably the only AD item you need or want just because Kennen's AD scaling isn't great and his E passive is infrequent.

Granted, it might not be an optimal rush in some situations, but being safe is strong in SoloQ. If you're getting focused, Zhonyas. If you're not, it's still one of the best items in the game.

NoRefunD110/31/2015, 2:29:34 PM1 votes

Just wanted to lave a follow up for this post. Just made plat last night. Played almost exclusively Kennen and almost always started Gunblade first. Since I posted this I skyrocketed through gold and made plat within a week. After all those Ken games I have a few thoughts.

Zhonya does have it's place, but never rushed. The only games I got one is vs a Zed or if I was doing really bad vs a fed AD team. If I'm going straight AP Ken I'll start Luden's echo.

In conclusion I had much more success with hybrid kennen builds than AP. AP kennen felt too weak early game. If you want to know more about the playstyle feel free to ask.

I've a attached a graph of my climb showing the date before I started this playstyle.

http://i.imgur.com/XUNQM68.png

Adrian Umbra10/31/2015, 3:15:37 PM1 votes

Kennen tends to work well with Zhonya's as a general Armor/AP item. He also works well with Rylai's and Liandry's as general HP/AP items. If you're up against an AD opponent in lane, Zhonya's is simply an excellent stat item, never mind the synergy with your ultimate. If you're getting blown up, reconsider that Luden's and instead go for some of the strong hybrid defense/offense items that are so powerful on him.

That all being said, if it works for you, go ahead and keep doing it. Just remember that you'll have generally lower damage and lower teamfighting ability (I've done "kamikaze" Kennen in many games and had a lot of success with it) as well as lower resistance to burst.