Top laners, League of Legends patch 11.15 is an important update for you. Riot Games buffed Kennen’s bread and butter ability significantly, while Gwen received expected nerfs.
Acknowledging that Kennen has been out of the meta entirely, the game developers have instigated a comeback this patch.
Buffs to Kennen on League of Legends patch 11.15
Q – Thundering Shuriken
- Damage increased from 75/115/155195/235 (+75% AP) to 85/130/175/220/265 (+80% AP)
Yes, just one of Kennen’s abilities has been buffed, but it’s significant enough to change the way you play him.
Thundering Shuriken’s base damage has been increased by 10 at level one, and up to 30 at max level. In addition, its AP scaling has been boosted by 15%.
Instead of maxing Electrical Surge (W), the huge damage buffs to Thundering Shuriken means that you should now be maxing Q instead. With such a low cooldown to this ability, Kennen will now be better at harassing opponents out of lane as a ranged AP top lane champion.
Though he’s not been seen much in solo queue, LPL teams have been drafting him in certain matchups. FunPlus Phoenix’s star top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon for example, used him against Gnar in their match against Ultra Prime, while others picked him to go up against Gwen and Nocturne top.
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Gwen has been nerfed on League of Legends patch 11.15
E – Skip ‘N Slash
- Bonus attack speed decreased from 40/50/60/70/80% to 20/35/50/65/80%
The 20% decrease in bonus attack speed from Skip ‘N Slash at level one is huge, for it’s the equivalent of one entire item. Even though at max level she does get back the same 80% bonus attack speed, this nerf hits her early to mid game hard.
While she’ll still max Snip Snip! (Q) first and Skip ‘N Slash (E) second, the extra autos she weaves to proc Conqueror stacks won’t be as reliable in the laning phase.
Overall, this means that Gwen cannot be blind picked anymore, for she won’t be able to outtrade early game lane matchups against certain champions.
Read the full League of Legends patch 11.15 notes here.
READ MORE: A massively buffed Blitzcrank on patch 11.15 means free solo queue MMR
