How to win lane as Gwen against Kennen · 48.13% win rate over 160 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Kennen | No mist, no E, just a cone Q — Kennen sits at range and pokes me with Thundering Shuriken while his autos stack Mark of the Storm and I'm forced to walk up for every last-hit. |
| Level 2 | Kennen | He keeps Q poke and auto-empowered W (Electrical Surge) up and keeps kiting; I still have no untargetability and can't punish his spacing, so the chip and Mark stacks keep building. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | With Q and E online I can poke-and-reset and threaten a trade if he steps up, but his ranged Thundering Shuriken still trades even — it's a coin flip on who commits first. |
| Levels 4-5 | Kennen | Pre-6 I'm a mist-less melee against a kiter who can stack three Marks for a stun — his Q into W (Electrical Surge) into R is the worst burst window for me. |
| Level 6 | Gwen | Needlework plus my kit lets me E-in, drop Hallowed Mist as his stun lands so I go untargetable through the follow-up, and Snip Snip him down in the melee fight he can't escape. |
| First item | Even / skill | My Riftmaker/Nashor's spike wins the extended duel, but he can match it and Lightning-Rush away — so it's even unless I land a clean E-gap with Grievous up. |
| Two+ items | Kennen | His R (Slicing Maelstrom) AOE stun and passive move speed let him peel me and reset the kite in teamfights — he out-spaces my dueling once the game goes 5v5. |
Kennen owns these levels and it's pure damage control, not trading. His Q (Thundering Shuriken) outranges everything I have, and his autos stack Mark of the Storm toward a stun while I have no W untargetability and no E dash at 1 — I'm just a melee eating poke every time I step for a creep. Don't throw my cone Q (Snip Snip!) at a kiter who'll never sit in it; last-hit at the tip and accept the chip. My out is that Thousand Cuts plus my ability healing means his energy poke can't actually out-DPS my sustain if I bank levels, so I farm to 6 and refuse to int into a three-stack stun.
The full Gwen vs Kennen report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Kennen vs Gwen guide →
All Gwen top lane matchups →