Guide · Top

Kennen Guide

the Heart of the Tempest

Mage

Tier C Top

Kennen, the Heart of the Tempest, is a mage champion of medium difficulty. Across our 343 analysed ranked games, Kennen is mostly played in Top (83% of its games), and more rarely in Mid (17%), with a 50.7% win rate in that role: tier C among Top champions (#46 of 48, ranked by win rate). Kennen's damage is mostly magic (83%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate stays steady whatever the game length (50.0% to 53.1%): a reliable pick in every phase of the game.

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Average KDA

5.4 / 5.8 / 5.8

ratio 1.9

Damage / min

835

CS / min

7.1

Gold / min

406

Kill participation

36%

Vision / min

0.94

Averages measured over 286 Top games played with Kennen, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Kennen is an energy mage whose passive stuns enemies hit 3 times by his abilities. Thundering Shuriken adds a Mark of the Storm, Electrical Surge passively adds some, Lightning Rush turns him into a ball of electricity, and Slicing Maelstrom hits nearby enemy champions.

Kennen's strengths

Stuns enemies hit three times by his abilities (Mark of the Storm).
Lightning Rush gives him speed and lets him pass through units while applying marks.
Slicing Maelstrom hits all nearby enemy champions with magic damage.

Kennen's weaknesses

Limited by his energy: his abilities repeat less quickly than a mana mage's.
Has to get close to use Slicing Maelstrom.
Fragile when he has no stun ready.

Role in team fights

Kennen enters with Lightning Rush to apply marks on several enemies at once, completes with Shuriken and Electrical Surge to trigger the stuns, then casts Maelstrom to finish. His role is to control several targets with a single series of marks.

The stun

When: An enemy is within range.

Thundering Shuriken adds a mark, Electrical Surge another, Lightning Rush a third: at 3 marks, the enemy is stunned.

The team engage

When: Several enemies are close.

Lightning Rush lets you pass through units while applying marks; Slicing Maelstrom summons a storm that hits nearby enemy champions.

See all 4 Kennen combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Hit three times to stun: Shuriken, Electrical Surge, Lightning Rush apply marks. Your energy limits your abilities: do not overuse them.

Common mistakes

Using your abilities without counting the marks.
Casting the ultimate without several enemies nearby.
Neglecting your energy.

Riot's official tips for playing Kennen

You can stun your opponents by inflicting 3 Marks of the Storm upon them.
Lightning Rush can be used to initiate fights with its Energy return component, allowing him to use other abilities afterward.
You can land an initial Mark of the Storm debuff on an opponent with Thundering Shuriken, and then add to it with Electrical Surge.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Hextech Rocketbelt, Zhonya's Hourglass, and Shadowflame (45 games, 71.1% win rate).

Hextech Rocketbelt

Zhonya's Hourglass

Shadowflame

45 games · 71.1%

Rabadon's Deathcap

Hextech Rocketbelt

Shadowflame

25 games · 56.0%

Rabadon's Deathcap

Hextech Gunblade

Shadowflame

14 games · 42.9%

Skill order

Max order : Q > W > E47.2% · 36 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●			●	●		●		●
W		●						●		●		●	●
E			●											●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 43 games).

Starting items

Doran's Blade

Health Potion31.6% · 19 games

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3528 gold, 70 CS, 4737 XP. At 15 min: 5559 gold, 106 CS, 8191 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Ignite50.5% · 188 games

Flash + Teleport49.4% · 87 games

Most-played runes

Electrocute + Sorcery

47.7% · 128 games

Primary tree · Domination

Taste of Blood92%

Grisly Mementos71%

Ultimate Hunter98%

Secondary tree · Sorcery

Scorch84%

Absolute Focus70%

Shards

Attack speed91%

Adaptive force99%

Health scaling63%

Electrocute + Inspiration

52.7% · 55 games

Primary tree · Domination

Taste of Blood98%

Sixth Sense51%

Ultimate Hunter100%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Triple Tonic89%

Cosmic Insight86%

Shards

Attack speed94%

Adaptive force96%

Health74%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Kennen's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team55.7% · 88 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Hextech Rocketbelt 57.1% ▲

Shadowflame 66.0% ▲

Zhonya's Hourglass 57.1%

Hextech Gunblade 55.6% ▲

Rabadon's Deathcap 55.6%

Void Staff 30.8%

The item that stands out most is Shadowflame: 66.0% win rate, +12 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team53.3% · 75 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Hextech Rocketbelt 54.2%

Shadowflame 56.5%

Hextech Gunblade 52.0% ▲

Zhonya's Hourglass 57.1%

Void Staff 50.0%

Rabadon's Deathcap 70.0%

The item that stands out most is Hextech Gunblade: 52.0% win rate, +6 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team45.5% · 123 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Hextech Rocketbelt 47.3% ▼

Shadowflame 45.1% ▼

Zhonya's Hourglass 63.2% ▲

Hextech Gunblade 31.0% ▼

Rabadon's Deathcap 40.0% ▼

Stormsurge 47.6%

The item that stands out most is Zhonya's Hourglass: 63.2% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Kennen in Top

Jax Kennen: 45.0%20 games

Jax has the edge in 55% of the 20 Top duels against Kennen. See the Jax guide.

Who Kennen is strong against

Jax45.0% · 20 games

How to play against Kennen

Consider playing a bit more cautiously around Kennen when you have a Mark of the Storm debuff. If he hits you with 3 Marks of the Storm, you will get stunned.
Kennen is flimsy by nature - turn and attack him if he gets careless with Lightning Rush.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Kennen's matchups.

Kennen Top: what our games say

Laning phase against the Top average

Measure	Kennen	Top average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3528	3580	−52
CS at 10 min	70	71	−1
XP at 10 min	4737	4754	−17
Gold at 15 min	5559	5655	−96
CS at 15 min	106	111	−6
XP at 15 min	8191	8297	−106

Measured over 43 Kennen games with a timeline; the average covers 82 champions played Top in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min50.0 %94 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min50.6 %160 games

long over 35 min53.1 %32 games

Best result: long (over 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Kennen in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Mid	57	57.9 %	6.8	422

Roles where we have at least 40 Kennen games.

Abilities

PassiveMark of the Storm

Kennen stuns enemies he hits 3 times with his abilities.

QThundering Shuriken

Kennen throws a fast moving shuriken towards a location, causing damage and adding a Mark of the Storm to any opponent that it hits.

WElectrical Surge

Kennen passively deals extra damage and adds a Mark of the Storm to his target every few attacks, and he can activate this ability to damage and add another Mark of the Storm to targets who are already marked.

ELightning Rush

Kennen morphs into a lightning form, enabling him to pass through units and apply a Mark of the Storm. Kennen gains Move Speed when entering this form, and attack speed when leaving it.

RSlicing Maelstrom

Kennen summons a storm that strikes at nearby enemy champions for magical damage.