AD Kennen’s struggles and successes in the top lane

Something weird is going on in the League of Legends top lane. Where the 2016 World Championship was the tournament of AP Kennen, a new build is emerging for the Heart of the Tempest.

AD/attack speed Kennen has been making his presence known throughout the world. Rather than going for the traditional burst damage AP build that typifies Kennen’s normal play pattern, teams are putting together a sustained damage, split push oriented champion designed to win lane and transition into a tower-storming threat. In theory (and occasionally in practice), it’s a great way for a team uninterested in teamfighting to secure wins.

The build hasn’t established Kennen as an S-tier pick yet, though.

Not the first time…

AD Kennen has occasionally popped up in both bottom and top lane, most notably in the hands of Fnatic AD carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson. The theory is simple: With a lot of attack speed, Kennen can rapidly stack Mark of the Storm for endless stuns and sustained damage.

At his best, Kennen is able to effectively self-peel by auto attacking three enemies at once, prepping his Electrical Storm passive and utilizing his spell actives to ensure snares. Despite his short auto attack range, AD Kennen players at the top of their game are able to keep enemies off of them or chase down a pesky straggler that managed to survive a teamfight.

For the most part, though, AP Kennen has been the de facto “proper” build for the yordle ninja. His teamfighting and flanking prowess ensured his spot as a high-tier pick in the top lane for the better part of the last year.

That is, until Patch 7.1.

Before 7.1, each tick of Kennen’s ultimate Slicing Maelstrom did the same amount of damage . Now, the first tick deals less damage than it used to, with each subsequent tick dealing more and more. While that means it deals more damage if a player can keep enemies in Kennen’s ult for the entire duration, he doesn’t have the upfront AOE burst that he had mere months ago.

Few pro players are going to be hanging out in Slicing Maelstrom long enough to feel the full brunt of the damage. As a result, Kennen aficionados have been finding a new way to play him.

The most recent wave of AD Kennen players actually came before 7.1, though. First popping up during the Demacia Cup in the hands of Shek “AmazingJ” Wai-ho and Tong “Koro1” Yang, it was initially played as a lane bully in the post-laneswap era.

Once the 7.1 nerfs came through and the new build made its way over to Korea at the beginning of the Spring Split, a new era of AD Kennen was born.

…nor the last

Conceptually, AD Kennen top is a perfect fit for this meta. He’s a lane bully capable of beating up on melee tanks, surviving in lane long enough to transition into a split pushing monster. His build path is flexible, allowing for a variety of matchups. His Teleport plays and skirmishing during the early-to-mid game are still strong. He can do just about everything a split pusher needs to do.

When Kennen works, he does one thing: Shove lane. Thanks to his range, he can abuse this meta’s omnipresent top lane tanks for much of the early game, often denying farm and forcing them to stay in lane when they’d rather be Teleporting around the map to find plays. There’s a reason why, despite his low win rate, Kennen’s CS differential at 10 minutes is +6.0. He’s kind of a jerk in lane.

And thanks to AD Kennen’s core build of Wit’s End, Runaan’s Hurricane, Frozen Mallet, and Blade of the Ruined King, his build path is incredibly flexible. Up against a magic damage dealer? Grab your first item Wit’s End (bonus: rip through their Magic Resist and let your W passive blow them up). Up against someone stacking armor? An early BotRK is there for you. Are they avoiding you entirely? Rush that Runaan’s and enjoy your free turret push.

Ideally, Kennen wants to turn his early aggression into strong split pushing. With a Hurricane in hand and max rank W, he’s able to clear waves rapidly, forcing enemies to respond to him or give up a turret or three.

He may have a small auto range, which makes him less than ideal for teamfights, but he can take small skirmishes to his heart’s content. When fighting 2v2 or 3v3, he can effectively use his ultimate and attack speed to stack stuns without worrying about getting blown up too quickly. AD Kennen thrives in situations that give him time to dish out the damage and disables.

In his first game against Samsung Galaxy, Afreeca Freecs top laner Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-Hwan showed off the ideal way to play the strategy:

Eye of the storm

For a good example of how not to play Kennen, look no further than one game later, in which MaRin got straight up demolished by the same Samsung, this time better prepared for the unique strategy. Same player, same champion, completely different result:

Note how far up the lane MaRin has to play in order to take advantage of Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin’s Maokai. Much like any lane bully, for AD Kennen to win lane, he’s got to shove his enemy under tower and stick around to force them off the wave. That leaves him open to easy ganks, particularly when matched up against a champion that can lock him down long enough to allow a carry jungler to blow him up (read: just about every meta top laner right now).

As soon as he gets far enough behind, AD Kennen struggles to catch up. If he can be stopped or killed by a single laner sent to deal with him, his options immediately become limited (much like a lot of split pushers). Without the AP to scale the damage on his ult and a short auto range, he can’t really teamfight. Without the ability to kill his lane opponent, he can’t duel. If he can’t split push, he simply can’t do much with this build outside of serving as a squishy engaging tool for his team.

To truly succeed with AD Kennen, teams need to set him up for success. He can’t be left alone in the top lane during the early stages of the game, particularly when junglers aim to punish his aggressive positioning. His early aggression may free up pressure for other players on the map, but it’s still a risky proposition to play his laning phase the way it should be.

But when he does get those strategic resources, he can take over the game through split pushing and skirmishing. Teams just haven’t quite figured out how to play him effectively yet.

When they do, we’ll be covering it right here on Yahoo Esports.

Taylor Cocke is going to have to completely change how he plays Kennen. Thanks, MaRin. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.