Starting Items

• This is the best and probably the only option you will ever use as AP Kennen.

Core Items

• Core Build, buy Sorcerer's Boots and replace them with Rylai's Crystal Scepter later in the game.
• This doesn't help you at all in keeping the enemy inside your ultimate. In fact, it sets up a kill for the enemy team and makes you less of a target. YOU DON'T WANT THAT! You are always the target. If your ADC is dead before you, you will lose the fight.

Situational Items

• Even more poke, movement speed added.
• If someone is chasing you this can be very helpful. It's not going to be as useful as it was before the old Oppressor mastery being removed and the Rylai's nerf in general, but it is still a core item for Kennen's ultimate.
• If the enemy team is really fed for example.
• It doesn't reduce a champion's magic resist by 25 anymore, but it is actually a lot better than what it used to be. 10% more damage to your ultimate is very helpful.
• If there's no tank. Dead Man's Plate can be a replacement to Luden's Echo since both passives are very similar.
• This can be of use when you're about to jump into the enemy team to land your ultimate; however, it's VERY predictable about when you're going to use it. I would stick to the traditional E + Flash engage when you land your ultimate.
• Malzahar, Urgot, and/or Cassiopeia

 Void Staff

Item Description: 80 Ability Power + 35% Magic Penetration

Whenever I play AP Kennen, I always build this as my first complete item. All and all, It will force the enemy laner to build magic resist, and if they don't they will suffer the consequences. The same goes for everyone else on the opposing team. If they don't build magic resistance, they will not know how much damage you will deal until they see it for themselves. To help you not forgot, build this item first, just do it.

 Sorcerer's Boots

Item Description: 15 Magic Penetration + 45 Movement Speed

I don't see any other reason for you to build any other type of boots. The whole point of this guide is to be able to kill other champions easier, whether if they have magic resist resist or not.

 Liandry's Torment

Item Description: 80 Ability Power + 300 Health, Dealing spell damage applies a damage-over-time effect that deals bonus magic damage equal to 2% of the target's current health per second for 3 seconds. This bonus damage is doubled to 4% of the target's current health against movement-impaired units and capped at 100 damage per second against monsters. Source

I usually build this as my third item for the same reason as why you'd buy a Void Staff. Plus it gives you 300 bonus health so you can be a little more "tanky." You will WANT this for every situation you come across. There is no better alternative damage wise.

The other thing that's pretty cool is if you sold your boots and bought a  later in the game, then it wouldn't really hurt your stats as much, considering that a  and  contain the same amount of magic penetration. Liandry's Torment would compensate for that loss of magic penetration, compared to if you didn't build this item at all but still had the Sorcerer's boots. Just keep that in mind.

 Rabadon's Deathcap

Item Description: 120 Ability Power + Increases Ability Power by 35%

This will either be your 4th, 5th, or even 6th item you build. You're going to have to fit this in your build somehow. It will make your total ability power at level 18 between 650-800 if you do. Let's be honest here, the more magic penetration and lack of ability power you have, the less useful it becomes. But if you have a lot of magic penetration, plus a lot of ability power, it scales very with AP  .

 Luden's Echo

Item Description: 100 Ability Power + 10% Movement Speed, Gains charges upon moving or casting. At 100 charges, the next instance of ability damage you deal will expend all charges to deal 100 (+ 10% AP) bonus magic damage to the first enemy hit and summon up to 3 lesser bolts that target nearby enemies, prioritizing enemies damaged by the ability and champions over minions. Source

This item is situational mainly for if you already have the items you need, this can be your last item to do a lot more "extra" damage. However, most of the time you'll be building one of these:  ,  ,  ,  in place of Luden's Echo. But if you see yourself not using any of these items, then knock yourself out with a  .

 Quicksilver Sash

Item Description: 30 Magic Resistance, Removes all crowd control debuffs from your champion. 90 second cooldown. Source

Take this when you're against a champion with hard crowd control on their ULTIMATES, and then remove it later in the game when you no longer need it. For example, these champions:  ,  ,  ,  ,  , and so on. NOT  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , and so on.

 Abyssal Skepter

Item Description: 60 Ability Power + 60 Magic Resistance + 10% Cooldown Reduction, Increases magic damage to nearby champions by 10%.

Take it against any AP majority competition. If you're against  , which should be a fairly easy matchup, get a  first and then build it into an Abyssal Skepter after you've finished building a Void Staff. The reason why you do this is because if you so happen to step into one of his traps and then you activate your E, it won't deal as hardly as much damage than if you didn't have an Abyssal Skepter.

 Zhonya's Hourglass

Item Description: Become untargetable for the next couple of seconds.

Take it against any AD majority competition. Especially against early game advantage champions such as  ,  ,  ,  , and so on. It can also be used to not get hit by "certain" aoe/single target spell champions, like Zed's ultimate, Morgana's ultimate, Lee Sin's Resonating Strike, Zigg's ultimate, Darius's and Garen's execute, and many others.

 Rylai's Crystal Scepter

And last but not least, Rylai's Crystal Scepter. It keeps the enemy inside your ultimate. It also makes kiting the enemy super easy. You need this in every single match up.

• 

  Aatrox

  Easy
• 

  Akali

  Medium
• 

  Amumu

  Hard
• 

  Aurelion Sol

  Easy
• 

  Bard

  Medium
• 

  Blitzcrank

  Medium
• 

  Brand

  Hard
• 

  Camille

  Hard
• 

  Cho'Gath

  Hard
• 

  Corki

  Medium
• 

  Darius

  Medium
• 

  Ekko

  Easy
• 

  Fizz

  Medium
• 

  Galio

  Hard
• 

  Garen

  Medium
• 

  Gnar

  Hard
• 

  Heimerdinger

  Easy
• 

  Illaoi

  Medium
• 

  Jax

  Medium
• 

  Jayce

  Hard
• 

  Kassadin

  Medium
• 

  Kayle

  Hard
• 

  Kha'Zix

  Medium
• 

  Kindred

  Hard
• 

  Kled

  Medium
• 

  Lee Sin

  Hard
• 

  Lucian

  Easy
• 

  Malzahar

  Medium
• 

  Maokai

  Medium
• 

  Master Yi

  Medium
• 

  Mordekaiser

  Easy
• 

  Nasus

  Medium
• 

  Nautilus

  Easy
• 

  Nidalee

  Easy
• 

  Nocturne

  Hard
• 

  Rengar

  Medium
• 

  Riven

  Easy
• 

  Rumble

  Medium
• 

  Ryze

  Hard
• 

  Shyvana

  Easy
• 

  Singed

  Easy
• 

  Swain

  Hard
• 

  Tahm Kench

  Medium
• 

  Teemo

  Easy
• 

  Trundle

  Medium
• 

  Tryndamere

  Hard
• 

  Vi

  Medium
• 

  Volibear

  Medium
• 

  Wukong

  Hard
• 

  Yasuo

  Easy
• 

  Yorick

  Medium
• 

  Zed

  Medium

VS

Aatrox

Easy

He's very squishy the whole game, he relies mostly on life steal so if he tries to all-in on you, you can ult him and he will die either way.

VS

Akali

Medium

In her early games, she's not a threat to you at all so feel free to poke her down and force her to farm under turret. However, once she gets her ultimate she will be a monster if you don't use your ultimate faster then she can kill you.

An  is very helpful in this matchup.

VS

Amumu

Hard

Most Amumus will be way too tanky to even kill in the first place. Your best bet is to kill everyone else in a team fight then focus him. Especially when you can't get out of a good gank.

VS

Aurelion Sol

Easy

If you didn't already know, Aurelion Sol is useless if you get in his melee range. You can easily out trade him by using your  to dodge his  .

VS

Bard

Medium

The good news is he's very defenseless early on, you can flash over his  , and kill him easily. The bad news is his ultimate can make your ultimate do absolutely nothing to everyone inside of it for almost the entire duration of both ultimates. This means once you and everyone inside your ultimate is no longer untargettable, you are done for. Try to dodge his ultimate or use your ultimate when he already used his, or should I say it's ultimate.

VS

Blitzcrank

Medium

Most Blitzcranks aren't going to build AP, thankfully, but he can pull you out of everyone else on your team and the other team will completely obliterate you. But that doesn't necessarily mean you'll instantly die. Try and use your ultimate as soon as possible and activate  as soon as you can, if you even have it.

VS

Brand

Hard

You're going to need  , no doubt about it. His abilities are very easy to land because of your short mobility when not using your  . Almost all champions with large diameter AOE skill shots are very easy to land on Kennen.

VS

Camille

Hard

In the laning phase, or perhaps the jungle, if you know Camille's movements she will most likely jump on you whilst stunning you at the same time. If you can recognize these movements, you can land your  and she can't really do anything to compensate for that. However,  is her strongest item, she will most likely become tanky enough to the point where you won't be able to kill her by yourself. Let alone her  , once she has that up, you won't be going anywhere.

Build  , and hope for the best.

VS

Cho'Gath

Hard

Try and kill his early game before he gets his full stacks, or you'll no longer be able to survive being near him. He's just like Garen. You can poke him down and he can't do a thing about it, and if he gets too close to you just use your  to get away.

VS

Corki

Medium

He's very easy to kill with some CC, so your ultimate will probably do the trick. If that's not up, he will easily chase you down and try to kill you while being 200 feet away

VS

Darius

Medium

VS

Ekko

Easy

VS

Fizz

Medium

He can't really do much because he's melee and if he tries to use  Tidal Trickster on you just use your E to block out some of the damage or just to get away. You should really build  because if he gets his fishy on you, you are pretty much dead. Yes the same goes for Kennen.

VS

Galio

Hard

By default, Galio gains ability power equal to 50% of his total magic resist. He's most likely going to build magic resist one way or another so here's what you need to do.

1. Build an  .

2. If you wan't to ult him, make sure he used his  first.

3. If you ult him and he uses his  in the process, it will do no damage, you're basically just healing him.

You could go AD Kennen with this build:       but I highly do NOT recommend it. Kennen's usefulness relies on his ultimate in team fights and if you can't team fight like you're used to, you're going to have a really hard time pulling this off.

VS

Garen

Medium

Poke him down. Do NOT use your E to farm directly in the middle of the lane or else he will use his silence on you, spin spin spin, and all he has to do is wait for his ult to be up to instantly kill you. If he does try to  you, use your  to run away from him. Both have about the same cool-down timer, so you shouldn't have a problem.

If all else fails, build a  . Or if his ultimate is your only problem, this MIGHT help but just not as much:  .

VS

Gnar

Hard

You need to destroy his early game or else you won't be able to kill him at all. And that task can truly be an annoyance. His  will slow you down and the Q itself will do more % damage to you as getting one  on him. You have the early game advantage though, if you manage to kill him before he transforms into Mega Gnar you will be able to kill him every time he shows up to lane. Even in Mega Gnar form. But if you aren't able to kill him, then the exact opposite will happen.

To make this match-up a little easier for you, you can try going   or   to give you that little extra 'oomph' to be able to shut down Gnar at any given point in the early stages of the game.

VS

Heimerdinger

Easy

His s can be a huge pain, but Heimerdinger himself is not, the only case where he can kill you is if he s his  and then uses a Zhonya's Hourglass, or in rare cases hes really good at skill shooting his .

VS

Illaoi

Medium

VS

Jax

Medium

Poke him down in the early phases of the game. If you see his  twirling around, get away with your escape. However, it may so happen that he manages to stun you. Like with Garen, do NOT farm in the middle of the lane with your  , always save it for that one occasion. Unless, of course, you're under turret then fine use it.

VS

Jayce

Hard

If you dodge his ranged E+Q he shouldn't be a problem for you. His melee form is what's scary, he can easily one shot you with just his Q if he has  . Once you see his melee form pop out, don't harass him, run away like there's no tomorrow. But for him, there's always a tomorrow.

VS

Kassadin

Medium

VS

Kayle

Hard

She is very annoying to lane against. Like with most champions, wait for her to use her  before you  . The only way you can do that is by getting her health so low that one Q will kill her. But then again, she also has a heal. You're either going to be very lucky and win the lane, or you're aren't going to win the laning phase at all.

 will help with her chasing you.

 will help if she uses her ult so she doesn't burst you down.

VS

Kha'Zix

Medium

VS

Kindred

Hard

VS

Kled

Medium

Kill him, kill him, his early game, kill him. I swear, you only need two W+Thunderlords procs to melt Skarl's health bar. Kled's base health is less than 400, and if you can kill him before he hits level 6 you're going to have a really hard time.

 is in your favor my friend.

VS

Lee Sin

Hard

VS

Lucian

Easy

You'll probably never see him in the top lane. But regardless of where he is, he is very vulnerable to crowd control spells. And because Kennen's entire kit is a stun you shouldn't have any problems with this match up. However he can easily escape your  with his  , just be aware of that

VS

Malzahar

Medium

Grab a  as your first item, and poke his shield with your auto attacks. Make sure you poke his shield or else your ultimate will do no damage to him. A  will cancel his  . Malzahar is the main counter to Kennen since his DOT spells deal a lot of damage without Malzahar having to move a lot.

An  will be very helpful to you, you might not survive without it.

VS

Maokai

Medium

VS

Master Yi

Medium

VS

Mordekaiser

Easy

VS

Nasus

Medium

VS

Nautilus

Easy

VS

Nidalee

Easy

VS

Nocturne

Hard

VS

Rengar

Medium

The new rengar is super scary. Your ultimate can still one shot him if you build him correctly, but if Rengar builds magic resist you're a dead man.

VS

Riven

Easy

Riven is just as easy to kill as Gnar, only she's melee. If she tries to get close to you, you can stun her and very much kill her without even using your ultimate. Her  does a knock up on the third press so make sure you pay attention about when she's going to use it. She might be waiting to use it until you walk up to the minions, but it will go on cool-down after not using it for about ~6 seconds? I assume. And believe me, her cool-downs are LONG. Poke her down in the early stages of the game before she builds enough magic resist to make you not able to kill her. If you use that W+Thunderlord's proc I mentioned above while she has her shield up, don't press W until after the shield expires. Don't let her get within melee range of you, she has a stun.

VS

Rumble

Medium

VS

Ryze

Hard

VS

Shyvana

Easy

VS

Singed

Easy

VS

Swain

Hard

VS

Tahm Kench

Medium

VS

Teemo

Easy

VS

Trundle

Medium

VS

Tryndamere

Hard

VS

Vi

Medium

VS

Volibear

Medium

VS

Wukong

Hard

VS

Yasuo

Easy

This matchup requires knowledge of Yasuo himself. All you really need to know is his critical strikes are doubled and it penetrates 50% of bonus armor when his ultimate critical strikes.

First of all, don't ever get in his melee range, EVER. I learned that the hard way. The trick to playing against Yasuo as Kennen is similar to how Jayce is played against Yasuo. You need to keep his passive shield down at ALL TIMES, let him waste his  just keep it down at all times. On top of that, when you see his  about to release that tornado skill shot, try your best to not get hit by it. It won't hurt if you do get hit by it, but try and not get hit by it. Why? If you're in the middle of the lane and he so happens to gap close you while his  is up he can ult you with just a point and click.

But enough about how he plays him. All you really need to do is constantly stun him and harass him without getting caught in his  . You can honestly ult him at any time if he's below 50% health, just NOT when his shield is up. If his shield is up when you ult him it will do next to no damage similar to how Galio's  blocks it.

This match-up sounds a lot more difficult than it really is. You just need some common sense. If he's chasing you, you have your  . You can kite him away from you with a  if you feel like you need to.

VS

Yorick

Medium

VS

Zed

Medium

Build a  , I think that's pretty obvious. If he throws a  at you, try your best to dodge his incoming attacks, but if he uses them right away you can try to use your  to block MOST of the damage. If he somehow messes up a combo and uses  twice, punish him and use your ultimate. He may chase you down, and instead of him getting close to you with his  you can turn around and ult him. He might also ult once you used yours but that's what  is for. Once again, it's common sense whether you choose to ult or not.

Champion	Difficulty	Notes
Aatrox		Author Notes
He's very squishy the whole game, he relies mostly on life steal so if he tries to all-in on you, you can ult him and he will die either way.
Akali		Author Notes
In her early games, she's not a threat to you at all so feel free to poke her down and force her to farm under turret. However, once she gets her ultimate she will be a monster if you don't use your ultimate faster then she can kill you. An  is very helpful in this matchup.
Amumu		Author Notes
Most Amumus will be way too tanky to even kill in the first place. Your best bet is to kill everyone else in a team fight then focus him. Especially when you can't get out of a good gank.
Aurelion Sol		Author Notes
If you didn't already know, Aurelion Sol is useless if you get in his melee range. You can easily out trade him by using your  to dodge his  .
Bard		Author Notes
The good news is he's very defenseless early on, you can flash over his  , and kill him easily. The bad news is his ultimate can make your ultimate do absolutely nothing to everyone inside of it for almost the entire duration of both ultimates. This means once you and everyone inside your ultimate is no longer untargettable, you are done for. Try to dodge his ultimate or use your ultimate when he already used his, or should I say it's ultimate.
Blitzcrank		Author Notes
Most Blitzcranks aren't going to build AP, thankfully, but he can pull you out of everyone else on your team and the other team will completely obliterate you. But that doesn't necessarily mean you'll instantly die. Try and use your ultimate as soon as possible and activate  as soon as you can, if you even have it.
Brand		Author Notes
You're going to need  , no doubt about it. His abilities are very easy to land because of your short mobility when not using your  . Almost all champions with large diameter AOE skill shots are very easy to land on Kennen.
Camille		Author Notes
In the laning phase, or perhaps the jungle, if you know Camille's movements she will most likely jump on you whilst stunning you at the same time. If you can recognize these movements, you can land your  and she can't really do anything to compensate for that. However,  is her strongest item, she will most likely become tanky enough to the point where you won't be able to kill her by yourself. Let alone her  , once she has that up, you won't be going anywhere. Build  , and hope for the best.
Cho'Gath		Author Notes
Try and kill his early game before he gets his full stacks, or you'll no longer be able to survive being near him. He's just like Garen. You can poke him down and he can't do a thing about it, and if he gets too close to you just use your  to get away.
Corki		Author Notes
He's very easy to kill with some CC, so your ultimate will probably do the trick. If that's not up, he will easily chase you down and try to kill you while being 200 feet away
Darius
Ekko
Fizz		Author Notes
He can't really do much because he's melee and if he tries to use  Tidal Trickster on you just use your E to block out some of the damage or just to get away. You should really build  because if he gets his fishy on you, you are pretty much dead. Yes the same goes for Kennen.
Galio		Author Notes
By default, Galio gains ability power equal to 50% of his total magic resist. He's most likely going to build magic resist one way or another so here's what you need to do. 1. Build an  . 2. If you wan't to ult him, make sure he used his  first. 3. If you ult him and he uses his  in the process, it will do no damage, you're basically just healing him. You could go AD Kennen with this build:       but I highly do NOT recommend it. Kennen's usefulness relies on his ultimate in team fights and if you can't team fight like you're used to, you're going to have a really hard time pulling this off.
Garen		Author Notes
Poke him down. Do NOT use your E to farm directly in the middle of the lane or else he will use his silence on you, spin spin spin, and all he has to do is wait for his ult to be up to instantly kill you. If he does try to  you, use your  to run away from him. Both have about the same cool-down timer, so you shouldn't have a problem. If all else fails, build a  . Or if his ultimate is your only problem, this MIGHT help but just not as much:  .
Gnar		Author Notes
You need to destroy his early game or else you won't be able to kill him at all. And that task can truly be an annoyance. His  will slow you down and the Q itself will do more % damage to you as getting one  on him. You have the early game advantage though, if you manage to kill him before he transforms into Mega Gnar you will be able to kill him every time he shows up to lane. Even in Mega Gnar form. But if you aren't able to kill him, then the exact opposite will happen. To make this match-up a little easier for you, you can try going   or   to give you that little extra 'oomph' to be able to shut down Gnar at any given point in the early stages of the game.
Heimerdinger		Author Notes
His s can be a huge pain, but Heimerdinger himself is not, the only case where he can kill you is if he s his  and then uses a Zhonya's Hourglass, or in rare cases hes really good at skill shooting his .
Illaoi
Jax		Author Notes
Poke him down in the early phases of the game. If you see his  twirling around, get away with your escape. However, it may so happen that he manages to stun you. Like with Garen, do NOT farm in the middle of the lane with your  , always save it for that one occasion. Unless, of course, you're under turret then fine use it.
Jayce		Author Notes
If you dodge his ranged E+Q he shouldn't be a problem for you. His melee form is what's scary, he can easily one shot you with just his Q if he has  . Once you see his melee form pop out, don't harass him, run away like there's no tomorrow. But for him, there's always a tomorrow.
Kassadin
Kayle		Author Notes
She is very annoying to lane against. Like with most champions, wait for her to use her  before you  . The only way you can do that is by getting her health so low that one Q will kill her. But then again, she also has a heal. You're either going to be very lucky and win the lane, or you're aren't going to win the laning phase at all.  will help with her chasing you.  will help if she uses her ult so she doesn't burst you down.
Kha'Zix
Kindred
Kled		Author Notes
Kill him, kill him, his early game, kill him. I swear, you only need two W+Thunderlords procs to melt Skarl's health bar. Kled's base health is less than 400, and if you can kill him before he hits level 6 you're going to have a really hard time.  is in your favor my friend.
Lee Sin
Lucian		Author Notes
You'll probably never see him in the top lane. But regardless of where he is, he is very vulnerable to crowd control spells. And because Kennen's entire kit is a stun you shouldn't have any problems with this match up. However he can easily escape your  with his  , just be aware of that
Malzahar		Author Notes
Grab a  as your first item, and poke his shield with your auto attacks. Make sure you poke his shield or else your ultimate will do no damage to him. A  will cancel his  . Malzahar is the main counter to Kennen since his DOT spells deal a lot of damage without Malzahar having to move a lot. An  will be very helpful to you, you might not survive without it.
Maokai
Master Yi
Mordekaiser
Nasus
Nautilus
Nidalee
Nocturne
Rengar		Author Notes
The new rengar is super scary. Your ultimate can still one shot him if you build him correctly, but if Rengar builds magic resist you're a dead man.
Riven		Author Notes
Riven is just as easy to kill as Gnar, only she's melee. If she tries to get close to you, you can stun her and very much kill her without even using your ultimate. Her  does a knock up on the third press so make sure you pay attention about when she's going to use it. She might be waiting to use it until you walk up to the minions, but it will go on cool-down after not using it for about ~6 seconds? I assume. And believe me, her cool-downs are LONG. Poke her down in the early stages of the game before she builds enough magic resist to make you not able to kill her. If you use that W+Thunderlord's proc I mentioned above while she has her shield up, don't press W until after the shield expires. Don't let her get within melee range of you, she has a stun.
Rumble
Ryze
Shyvana
Singed
Swain
Tahm Kench
Teemo
Trundle
Tryndamere
Vi
Volibear
Wukong
Yasuo		Author Notes
This matchup requires knowledge of Yasuo himself. All you really need to know is his critical strikes are doubled and it penetrates 50% of bonus armor when his ultimate critical strikes. First of all, don't ever get in his melee range, EVER. I learned that the hard way. The trick to playing against Yasuo as Kennen is similar to how Jayce is played against Yasuo. You need to keep his passive shield down at ALL TIMES, let him waste his  just keep it down at all times. On top of that, when you see his  about to release that tornado skill shot, try your best to not get hit by it. It won't hurt if you do get hit by it, but try and not get hit by it. Why? If you're in the middle of the lane and he so happens to gap close you while his  is up he can ult you with just a point and click. But enough about how he plays him. All you really need to do is constantly stun him and harass him without getting caught in his  . You can honestly ult him at any time if he's below 50% health, just NOT when his shield is up. If his shield is up when you ult him it will do next to no damage similar to how Galio's  blocks it. This match-up sounds a lot more difficult than it really is. You just need some common sense. If he's chasing you, you have your  . You can kite him away from you with a  if you feel like you need to.
Yorick
Zed		Author Notes
Build a  , I think that's pretty obvious. If he throws a  at you, try your best to dodge his incoming attacks, but if he uses them right away you can try to use your  to block MOST of the damage. If he somehow messes up a combo and uses  twice, punish him and use your ultimate. He may chase you down, and instead of him getting close to you with his  you can turn around and ult him. He might also ult once you used yours but that's what  is for. Once again, it's common sense whether you choose to ult or not.