Kennen Feedback

First of all, the new zhonya changes are pretty good for kennen, but they will not correct all of his current problems (actual design flaws and problems, not simple complaints) I have about 2k kennen games played, and have played him since release (back when haunting guise had spell vamp, where he was arguably the most powerful).

Here is the TLDR for riot on what buffs I think he needs that am POSITIVE would NOT make him overpowered or cancerous.

**W - 7.5% CD reduction at max rank (no less), Gain an empowered auto after 8 seconds not in combat

E- larger AOE, so it is easier to tag champions and land a Q after OR Q- Easier to hit at extremely close ranges

E- -5 to 10 energy at early levels**

Reasons-

W- He needs to be able to double proc W. Currently, Kennen should run flat 7.5% cdr runes (or 6.67 and 1.67 at level 18 ), since it allows him to continuously cast W if he is chasing down a target. This in essence gives him a semi targeted stun (since you need to land an intial skill shot or at the very least empowered auto). This allows him to buy sorc boots. Although kenen loves lucidity boots for the flash and tp reduction, the damage you lose is really disheartening.

The changes to zhonya will weaken his relative power overall, since as an energy champion, kennen does not naturally scale well with CDR. This is why the runes were such a good pick on kennen, because he needs exactly 7.5 cdr for an important threshold (not 10%). Allow kennen to use AP runes without punishing the effectiveness he got before from CDR runes, since the new items will lower his power a bit when compared to other champions (2.5 of the cdr will essentially be wasted after zhonya finishes, along with the early game power lost from the 7.5 cdr runes where kennen scales with AD rather than ap (meaning losing the CDR runes is an even larger nerf, due to base damage scaling).

The not in combat mark gain is really just to reduce RNG. Currently, kennen suffers from an RNG problem of if he has a mark up and needs to roam immediately or teleport immediately. I feel kennen does not need to needlessly suffer for not having a mark up since it is relatively RNG if kennen has happened to auto 4 times in a row at any given time. He would still suffer slightly and could be punished, however, a skillful kennen should be allowed to gank with a relaible stun and not have to auto the rift scuttler on the way to a gank, or just be SOL.

Gnar suffers a similar problem in this regard, however, I feel it is MUCH more punishing to kennen, since Gnar's kit is inherently designed to deal with RNG, while kennen's was not.

Although this would give him a slight boost in damage, It shiouldn't effect too much in pre 9 laning phase, considering his damage is already slightly underwhelming (the sustain and survivability on many tanks top lane causes some kennens such as myself to prefer to max Q first on certain MUs, since it is easier to farm with, and you realistically wont accomplish much. Its not really fun to know you can't damage some melee tanks, but it is the reality none the less)

Q/E change - This skill is pretty antiquated, considering kennen is an old champion. A very small aoe around Kennen should proc his E, simply because his Q is very narrow and hard to hit at close ranges. A good kennen MUST use his E to deal damage when he can, however, it is quite an unreliable and pain in the ass skill to use. This is because you must be literally on top of someone to hit them. Once you hit them, you need to land your Q, which is extremely hard and extremely unsafe, since missing it means you will most likely not get the kill or die. The Q is one of kennens best scaling damage skills, and it is very unreliable currently.

I believe this was one of the unintended consequences of a width nerf on his Q that happened a long time ago when kennen was considered an "overpowered" top lane.

E - Simply put, his energy costs on his E are wrong. While they are intended to prevent him from being too ungankable early, this is not the case. he is actually a fairly safe champion at levels 2-3, since the jungler and enemy champions are fairly WEAK compared to kennen at this level. It is every level after this which is unfair to kennen.

A 100 energy cost usually makes the skill nearly unusable, since kennen MUST use his Q's to farm. This is due to the nature of thunderlords decree, which is by far his best mastery (his empowerd autos count as two, and W gives a proc. A luden proc'd Q and W also activate TLD). Using deathfires is viable on kennen, but it is not preferred, since kennen's kit is burst. Q does not have a sustainable energy cost, and can be easily outclassed by other poke champions, meaning kennen must rely on close range to deal damage eventually (hence the burst).

To add to this, here is a quote from the topic about the mastery changes - before he could deal more damage at any time he wanted due to masteries being linear, but now opponent can dictate when he can attack, which kennen inherently suffers from since energy costs dont replenish well. So for example, say you land a nice TLD proc on the enemy champion, and then he pushes the lane. There is not much you can do against this situation besides use your Qs and autos to farm or miss farm), since your TLD is not up, and it will most likely not even be worth it to land an empowered W (depending on the lane matchup). This is why I think he needs lower energy costs on his E, since it is his E skill which is almost unuseable at certain early game times, through no fault of the kennen player

This does not mean that poke kennen should never be used, but the point is that his having so much damage tied to landing every mark he can when TLD is up, kennen has suffered tremendously from having too high of energy costs. I believe lowering the cost on his E will be best, since it is clear that riot wants to reward kennen players who use LR as an offensive tool effectively. Currently, it is simply too hard to use this tool.

thanks for the time