FOTM Report: ADC Kennen - Viable or Gimmick?

Hey everyone, as requested here's a quick write-up on AD Kennen! A champion that's typically played as an AP mage, Kennen's performance on the world stage as an AD carry earned him quite a reputation on the rift.

Despite the fact that he only has one move that scales off AD, Kennen still finds a way to succeed in a big way bot lane. Check out the full details below!

Introduction

Hey everyone, as requested here's a quick write-up on AD Kennen! A champion that's typically played as an AP mage, Kennen's performance on the world stage as an AD carry earned him quite a reputation on the rift.

Despite the fact that he only has one move that scales off AD, Kennen still finds a way to succeed in a big way bot lane. Check out the full details below!

How to Play

Runes: 3 Attack Speed Quints, Attack Damage Reds, Flat Armor Yellows, Flat Magic Resist Blues
Masteries: 21-9-0, Standard AD Laner Masteries
Abilities: W, Q, E, then prioritize  R > W > E > Q
Core Items: Blade of the Ruined King, Runaan's Hurricane, Infinity Edge, Statikk Shiv/Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper, Bloodthirster, Banshee's Veil

Why It Works

Magic Damage Every 5 Attacks
Kennen's Electrical Surge [W] allows him to deal bonus magic damage once every 5 attacks via Mark of the Storm on a regular auto attack. This damage surprisingly scales off Attack Damage, meaning that building AD items does scale with him well at 80% max level.

Meanwhile, the 5 proc means that like Vayne, building attack speed on him works best by allowing the proc to occur more often.

Manaless Escape Mechanism
As an AD champion, Kennen won't be spamming his Shuriken [Q] quite as often for the damage. This means he'll always have plenty of energy to use his lightning rush as an escape mechanism if he hasn't already used it offensively.

Excellent 1v1 Ability
Unlike most other champions that require some sort of skillshot to CC other champions, Kennen has a definite 1.25 second stun if the fight goes on long enough. By stacking attack speed, he can also get his marks up extremely quickly, resulting in guaranteed stuns even without his ultimate. Meanwhile, if his ultimate is up, it's almost a sure win in a fair duel vs most match-ups.

Great Self-Peel With Hard CC
Although the damage on his ultimate will be very low compared to an AP Kennen, AD Kennen's ultimate procs its CC just as often. This combined with AD Kennen's lifesteal and increased stun number allows him to easily kite back otherwise dangerous melee champions bent on taking him down.

Potential Downsides

No Steroid

Most of Kennen's burst damage occurs from melee range, which means that he has no true ranged steroids to boost his damage during extended teamfights, something most other AD carries are well equipped with.

CCs Require Skillshot or Melee Range Early Game

Kennen's late game CC power is extremely high once he stacks enough attack speed. However, early in the game his CC is very reliant on either landing his Q and/or being close enough in melee range to hit them with lightning rush. However, by using his escape offensively, he no longer has a way out. In contrast, someone like Tristana can still get out if she manages to kill an enemy champion after her jump.

Only One Scaling Ability

The main reason that's been pointed out as to why he's more of a gimmick than a meta AD carry is of course the fact that he has three AP scaling abilities and one AP + AD scaling ability. This makes AD Kennen on some levels even stranger than AP Miss Fortune, who has three AP scaling abilities and two AD scaling abilities.

Maybe AP Miss Fortune is sleeper OP?

Conclusions

AD Kennen is certainly a viable AD carry in arranged team matches as shown by Fnatic on the world stage. His main strengths as an AD carry lie in the fact that he has self-peel and is able to deal sustained damage by kiting extremely hard during teamfights.

Overall however, he deals considerably less damage in the course of a game compared to the rest of the marksman world (third lowest ahead of Kindred and Tristana). This means he may have trouble fulfilling the glass cannon damage role expected of him if his allies aren't prepared to play to his strengths.

Suggested Solo Queue Rating: Upper Tier 3

What do you think? Is AD Kennen still rated too low? Comment below!