AD Kennen is one of the most fun off-meta ADCs you can play in League of Legends. This champion can easily adapt to the bot lane.
And with a few changes in the runes and items, Kennen becomes an incredibly powerful AD carry in LoL.
The AD Kennen build offers a lot of consistent and true damage thanks to items like Kraken Slayer and Runaan’s Hurricane.
Kennen already has high magic damage as well as crowd control in his kit, so this build is an excellent hybrid playstyle to try out.
In this post, I’ll talk about Kennen’s damage and the runes and items you’ll need for playing him as an ADC.
I’ll explain everything you need to know, so read on and get prepared!
Is Kennen AP or AD in League of Legends?
Kennen is an AP champion in League of Legends. He deals only magic damage and all of his abilities scale with ability power. However, the passive effect of Kennen’s W has both AP and AD ratios.
In the top lane, Kennen is usually full AP. But some players go for an off-meta AD build on Kennen for bot lane.
Even though Kennen is a ranged AP champion, his primary role is top lane. This is due to the fact that Kennen counters many melee AD top laners such as Kled, Jax, and Renekton.
Typically, Kennen’s build consists of only ability power items such as Hextech Rocketbelt, Zhonya’s Hourglass, and Void Staff. These items take advantage of Kennen’s AP ratios and boost his damage by a lot.
Additionally, this allows Kennen to do high burst damage, especially AoE burst damage in team fights. Kennen can solo carry a game if he plays the late game team fights right, so he’s one of the best mages from the top lane.
And that’s why Kennen is considered an AP champion.
Read Also: AP Zeri One-Shot Build Guide
Can You Play Kenn as an ADC?
Is Kennen a marksman in LoL?
Kennen is a mixture of a mage and a marksman in League of Legends. His playstyle depends on the items he builds. Normally, players go for an AP build on Kennen and that’s when he plays like a mage.
But Kennen can also build full AD and change his playstyle into a marksman/ADC.
Of course, AP Kennen and AD Kennen are two totally differnet builds. With ability power items, Kennen focuses on dealing damage with his abilities. But with attack damage items, the primary source of damage is Kennen’s auto-attacks.
The cool thing about this champion is that he can switch between an AP mage and an AD marksman each game. He only needs a different set of runes and items to reach the full potential, so he’s a pretty diverse pick.
Speaking of which, here are the runes and items you’re going to need for playing AD Kennen successfully!
Read Also: AP Corki One-Shot Build Guide
AD Kennen Build – Runes
- Lethal Tempo
- Triumph
- Legend: Alacrity
- Coup de Grace
- Taste of Blood
- Ultimate Hunter
Lethal Tempo
Lethal Tempo is a necessary rune for any champion that primarily deals damage through auto-attacks.
This is especially important for Kennen because none of his abilities are physical damage and he depends on his basics for almost anything.
What Lethal Tempo does is that it increases your attack speed for 6 seconds when you first hit an enemy champion. This effect stacks, so the more you’re auto-attacking the more attack speed you get.
Triumph
Triumph is a very convenient rune in League of Legends, especially for team fights. It restores a small percentage of health and energy upon a champion takedown, allowing you to live longer.
This rune can save you in clutch fights and let you outplay your opponents. So it’s a pretty important one.
Read Also: Full AP Lucian Build Guide
Legend: Alacrity
Legend: Alacrity is another rune you take for more attack speed.
Basically, Legend: Alacrity gives you more attack speed when you take down enemy champions, monsters, and even minions. It works with Legend stacks and its effects are permanent, not temporary.
Coup de Grace
Coup de Grave isn’t a must-have rune but it’s definitely a recommended one. With this rune, you’ll deal 8% more damage to enemies that are below 40% HP.
In other words, Coup de Grace allows you to secure more champion takedowns by giving you more damage to low-HP targets. You don’t want your enemies to survive on 2 HP, so definitely pick up this rune!
Taste of Blood
Taste of Blood is a fantastic rune to have, especially for the laning phase. Every 20 seconds, Taste of Blood lets you heal up when you damage an enemy champion with an ability.
The healing amount actually grows with attack damage and ability power, so the more AD you build on Kennen the bigger the heal.
Ultimate Hunter
Ultimate Hunter is probably the best rune in League of Legends for champions with a game-changing ultimate ability.
What this rune does is that it lowers the cooldown of your ulti based on your Bounty stacks. You collect Bounty stacks from champion takedowns and can have a maximum of 5 stacks (1 for each enemy champion).
When you stack it fully, your ultimate will reach a 30 or 40 seconds cooldown, so you definitely need it!
Read Also: Lethality Miss Fortune Build Guide
AD Kennen Build – Items
- Sorcerer’s Shoes
- Kraken Slayer
- Blade of the Ruined Kings
- Guinsoo’s Rageblade
- Runaan’s Hurricane
- Lord Dominik’s Regard
Sorcerer’s Shoes
Despite going for an all-AD build here, Kennen is still a magic damage champion. Because of that, the best boots to go for are Sorcerer’s Shoes.
Sorcerer’s Shoes will give you enough magic penetration for the early and mid game just so your abilities hurt as much as your auto-attacks.
Kraken Slayer
Kraken Slayer is the best mythic item for AD Kennen. It gives you the highest amount of damage and it’s the most offensive mythic you can get.
With Kraken Slayer, your 3rd basic attack will do bonus true damage. This synergizes well with all the attack speed you get from runes and other items.
So the idea is to auto-attack as much as possible and proc the bonus effect of Kraken Slayer.
Besides this, the item grants more AD and critical strike, so it’s a great item overall.
Read Also: AD Soraka Build Guide
Blade of the Ruined Kings
Blade of the Ruined Kings is one of the best dueling items in the game. It also has an effect that procs after you strike an enemy champion with 3 auto-attacks.
But instead of true damage, Blade of the Ruined Kings deals bonus magic damage and gives you more movement speed.
This item also grants lifesteal, so it’s a great way to increase your survivability.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is an underrated item in LoL. What it does is that it converts all of your critical strike chance into bonus on-hit damage. On top of that, it makes every 3rd auto-attack apply your on-hit effect twice.
You get critical strike from Kraken Slayer and Runnan’s Hurricane. But having more on-hit damage is actually much better for AD Kennen, so it’s a pretty good deal to get Guinsoo’s Rageblade.
Runaan’s Hurricane
Runaan’s Hurricane is another marksman item that’s pretty much forgotten nowadays, However, it works perfectly well with AD Kennen.
What Runaan’s Hurricane does is that it allows your basic attacks to spread to 2 additional enemies. And this means that with each auto-attack, you’ll strike 3 targets instead of 2.
But what’s great about Hurricane is that your additional basic attack can also crit and apply your on-hit effects. So the synergy with your other items is already high!
Lord Dominik’s Regard
Lord Dominik’s Regard is the item you’ll need for the late game. It significantly increases your armor penetration and allows you to counter tanks.
It also lets you deal more damage to tanks or enemies with more health than you, so it’s a good item to have.
Of course, you can sometimes switch Lord Dominik’s Regard with some of the situational items below.
Situational and Optional Items for AD Kennen
When it comes to optional items for AD Kennen, you have a great deal of variety.
First of all, you can try experimenting with Immortal Shieldbow as a mythic item. It’s more defensive than Kraken Slayer and can help you learn how to play ADC Kennen.
Items like Wit’s End and Bloodthirster can be valuable because they give you more survivability. But the best defensive item is Guardian Angel.
Lastly, you can also go for Phantom Dancer instead of Blade of the Ruined Kings if that’s what you prefer.
Skill Order and Summoner’s Spells for ADC Kennen
Normally, the first ability you max out on Kennen is Q. However, it’s better to max out W first on AD Kennen because it’s the only ability in his kit that has an AD ratio. After that, you can continue leveling up Q and then E.
Here’s how to level up abilities on AD Kennen:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| R | R | R |
For Summoner’s Spells, the best combination is Flash + Heal if you’re a regular ADC Kennen in the bot lane. Flash + Exhaust can also work well, especially against bursty champions and assassins.
Conclusion
That was all on how AD Kennen works in League of Legends! I hope this guide informed you and helped you with ADC Kennen. And I hope that you’ll try this awesome off-meta build in your games!
And if you to see the power of AD Kennen, you can check this YouTube video of Rekkles. He’s amazing with ADC Kennen!
If you’re interested in more builds like this, I’d recommend you check my off-meta mid laners list and off-meta supports list too. I’m sure you’ll find something that you like!
