The current state of Kennen and some possible improvements (top/mid)

Looking at League's favorite shuriken-throwing electrified hamster, I am saddened by the lack of play. There's a good reason for it though, as Kennen has always been an odd in-betweener - having a massive aoe potential, yet being extremely squishy and short-ranged. On top of that, Kennen is pushed out of mid lane purely because his waveclear is clunky at best. He is forced to use his only defensive ability (on top of engage/disengage) to mark the minions, typically moving towards enemy laner, opening himself up for harass and ganks and not really having an option to return the poke. The lack of sustain and lowish base stats make this type of behaviour totally invalid for most match-ups and to top it all off, being a non-mana champion makes loads of items subpar for him. Suitable items, that provide the much needed damage yet don't offer mana, all also limited by the hextech-line (I would personally love to have both and for Kennen, but unfortunately it's not good just for the stats). Also (the old version) used to be very good for him, as it provided magic resist shred without you buying any stats you didn't want, but it's long gone with the introduction of into the build path (Spending energy doesn't give you health back... which is probably very healthy.)

Therefore Kennen is better suited for top lane (where waveclear isn't that great of an issue and most champions cannot poke from far away), although there his prefences (being in the middle of teamfights with your ult) are limited by the cooldown of .

The last major change to Kennen hit him hard - his ultimate no longer provides lots of damage up-front, but rather ramps up over the duration. The problem with this is that if Kennen wants to deal damage he has to build ap (base damages of his abilities are quite low - rank 1 ult deals 40 magic damage with the first bolt and +10% with each additional bolt) and if he does, he won't live long enough to see those last lightning bolts deal damage. Also, for top lane especially, Kennen has never been a great duelist - preferring to fight multiple enemies at the same time to provide aoe damage and stuns, but since most toplaners are quite good at dueling, Kennen is forced into a binary role. He can duel, but if the fight continues for a long time, Kennen loses a lot from the dimishing return of his passive - the first stun being 1,25 seconds and the second (within 6 seconds) only 0.5 seconds. And then there's ...

Possible changes that would bring Kennen back in play - for both mid and top:

A new way to mark minions to provide waveclear, preferably from non-melee range. For example, having a short window when autoattacks mark targets, yet cannot apply marks after the first one - so that you can mark multiple targets, yet cannot stun a target with this alone. It could be tied to either hitting a shuriken or possibly giving his W a new mechanic, where upon the first cast you are given this window, after which you can cast W a second time, dealing damage as it is now.

Making 1v1 feel better, possibly by providing some form of "isolation" damage - making his ult deal more damage if only one target is hit by the thunder or adding damage for the third passive mark if no other targets are marked. After all, this is a fellow who can bring a goddamn storm with him and if a crocodile can go through a maelstrom without even noticing it, something is wrong.

Tweaks to base stats, either by providing a little more defense to survive in the middle of the fight or opening tanky builds more by allowing abilities to pack a little more punch. Possibly Shen aside, I would say that ninjas are meant to be sneaky and hit hard under the right circumstances - yet those circumstances are a mystery to Kennen himself.

Kennen has always been a very adaptible champion, having been played in all roles of professional play but jungle (atleast I cannot remember seeing that ever happen) and as such, could be possibly made into a champion whose damage is adaptible. All of his abilities deal magic damage, yet he has been played as an adc in many occasions. I know his shurikens are magical, but having more strength to throw them should count for something, right?

These were my thoughts on and it's very possible (even likely), that there are some things that I grossly overestimated or undervalued - feel free to point out your views on the champion and the possible problems/solutions that come to mind.