Kindred is supposed to be a jungler, right? It's really hard to say, but Kindred mid has some glaring advantages over jungle. You're an exceptional duelist, but so are most junglers. Given that jungle is an extremely snowball-based role, and Kindred suffers the most when falling behind, it's almost counter-intuitive to play Kindred in the jungle.

Jungle more than any other role is extremely unforgiving. Kindred's midgame is already their weakest point in the game, and they naturally fall behind going into midgame because of pacing. Other junglers farm faster than Kindred, have higher movespeed for rotations, and have stronger gank potential.

Kindred mid covers some of these weaknesses more than jungle by far:

- You don't get penalized for the lack of base movespeed in midlane, since you're not rotating around the map as much. Yes you're roaming, but ~10-20 movement speed is not the difference between rotations if you rotate first.

- You almost guarantee that you can get lane priority for jungle in any given game. Kindred suffers heavily from lack of lane priority. If you can't get lane prio, then become lane prio.

- Kindred's ult makes them an exceptional duelist in lane and gives them gank protection that they normally wouldn't have. Ulting under or near a tower is going to put a lot more pressure on the enemy than somewhere in the jungle.

- Almost unfair lane sustain, Kindred's W is one of the sole reasons that lane Kindred is playable. It gives immense lane sustain for free, and makes most poke you take in lane negligible. Something I'll emphasize later, taking seemingly bad trades is more beneficial to Kindred due to this.

- You only need to assist on marks, so helping your jungler secure enemy camps or scuttle crabs nets a huge advantage to jungle while simultaneously getting you to 4 marks.

- Being an exceptional duelist, you're also extremely strong in the early 2v2 with mid/jungle. You provide burst, a bit of soft cc, and sustained dps.

Flash + Ignite always.

Flash is standard. Don't try to be different and take Ghost because you have your Dance of Arrows. You will regret it.

Ignite always for synergy and executes out of Lamb's Respite. It also provides vision, which is extremely useful.

Teleport loses your lane prio. You don't have kill threat on an enemy so they won't respect you or your 500 range.

Exhaust is a longer cooldown than ignite, and it always feels underwhelming when I use it. I prefer Ignite although I think Exhaust can be used versus assassins.

All other summoners suck and should never be used.

There aren't many combos to know on Kindred.

Standard Auto/Q/Auto followed by your Wolf's Frenzy. Save your Mounting Dread for when you will execute them off the third auto.

The most useful combo is comboing your Lamb's Respite with your Mounting Dread and Ignite. This can net you kills from seemingly impossible situations. Just force yourself onto them with Dance of Arrows, and drop your Wolf's Frenzy when they're in melee range. Drop Lamb's Respite when low, and bring them to 10% hp. Drop Mounting Dread and prime it with 2 autos, ignite, then Dance of Arrows and auto to execute almost anyone out of your ultimate.

Be careful of an enemy using invulnerability such as Stopwatch, Zhonya's Hourglass, or other effects such as Tryndamere's Undying Rage.

I take one primary rune setup every game -

Conqueror + Triumph + Legend: Tenacity / Legend: Bloodline + Last Stand |

Conqueror outclasses Press the Attack in almost every single scenario - it's a placebo rune used by inexperienced players. There are only 3 matchups I will ever take Press the Attack in - those being Lucian, Tristana, and Teemo. That's because these are extreme duel-heavy marksmen and a lot of the lane can be decided very early. It's better to play it safe and not put yourself far behind because of a weak levels 1-3.

Triumph gaps every game. Presence of Mind isn't necessary because you will never go oom once you get Essence Reaver. Overheal is placebo unless you build a ton of healing - which you don't.

Legend: Tenacity is extremely strong, since one of your biggest inherent weaknesses is getting CC'd and not being able to ult. You're an ADC with a no-die ultimate. You're squishy, and if you get CC'd before being able to ult, it can be game changing. If the enemy team doesn't have any hard CC, Legend: Bloodline is my preferred substitute since you don't build much of any healing aside from 10% on Immortal Shieldbow.

Last Stand is one of the strongest minor runes on Kindred, and oftentimes gives ridiculous numbers on it, even outdamaging many keystones some games. If you're low, you will always get the 11% damage bonus so it synergizes extremely well with Lamb's Respite. Coup de Grace is horrible, don't ever take it. Cut Down is meh, but the HP difference comes into play so late in the game that I don't find it worth it - the numbers are never high on this rune, so I don't see much benefit from it.

For the secondary page take:
Conditioning + Unflinching/Overgrowth

As of season 12, I've been running the resolve tree secondary for one simple reason: it's just better in every way lol. Conditioning provides immense late game power syngergizing well with the current build and unflinching prevents you from getting merked by cc.

Always start Doran's Blade except for high range mages - this includes but is not limited to Syndra, Azir, or Xerath. Against these champion, take you MAY take Doran's shield.

Kindred possesses extreme early game duel potential. With ignite, you can duel almost any champion in the entire game at level 2-3. This means you're guaranteed to get lane prio for crab at 3:15. Typically, both junglers will full clear towards one side of the map - although some don't. Depending on enemy mid/jungle and your jungle, you need to manage the wave differently.

There's a few different ways to manage the wave that I follow each game.

If your jungler is full clearing and the enemy jungler is as well -

- You can last hit the first two waves and slow push the third/fourth wave in while fighting your laner if they contest the wave. This goes for enemy junglers such as Udyr, Fiddlesticks, Evelynn, Morgana, Kayn, etc.

If you're prone to early ganks, you can either -

1 - Don't fight your laner. Using your Q will indirectly push the wave early, which will make it difficult to dodge early ganks since you'll be pushing to their tower.

2 - Ward the enemy jungle early and hover the side of the lane you have warded. In this case, you can trade your laner, but always keep in mind that you'll likely get ganked and do not overextend on trades.

The crab at 3:15 -

- If the Mark of the Kindred spawns on the side of your jungler, walk over and help him kill the Rift Scuttler , making sure you tag it within 6 seconds of it dying.

- If the Mark of the Kindred spawns on the opposite side, see if your jungler needs help at their Rift Scuttler first. If they do, help them because they'll be able to rotate to the opposite side after. If not, just go up and prevent the enemy jungler from taking your Mark of the Kindred if possible. If you can't stop it, then just stay mid.

Your objective is to keep lane prio and pressure your laner. Poke with Dance of Arrows by Auto/Q/Auto since your Q is an auto reset. Try to save your Wolf's Frenzy for extended trades, as that is the main source of dps from Kindred. Fighting without Wolf's Frenzy will almost always lose you the fight. Sustain any damage taken in trades with Wolf's Frenzy passive.

Keep in mind, Wolf's Frenzy passive heals based on Kindred's missing HP, so often times a trade that seems bad will be better for Kindred than the enemy. If you take 40% of an enemies HP in lane from a trade and they take 60% of yours - you'll have much more sustain than them with your Wolf's Frenzy passive. Just sustain back up and trade again.

Kindred destroys objectives like Dragon or Rift Herald extremely fast, so try your best to ping your jungler to do objectives early. With a few marks, it's even faster and you can solo it if necessary. Once you get Essence Reaver, you melt turrets extremely fast. Keep your Dance of Arrows attack speed buff up and abuse Sheen procs with your Dance of Arrows.

Matchup-specific lane strategies are explained in the matchups section. Different strategies exist for different matchups, so understand what each matchup entails before thinking about what to do.

Mark of the Kindred can be obtained both through champion takedowns and camp takedowns. Keep in mind, you only EVER need 4 Mark of the Kindred on Kindred. That goes for any role, since at 4 Mark of the Kindred you get +75 bonus range. Every succeeding 3 marks (7, 10, 13, etc.) only give 25 bonus range. The risk is not worth the reward from 4 onwards - free marks are free, but never risk a play for them post 4 mark.

Mark predicting is a strategy that I use extremely often to obtain marks - which pretty much boils down to understanding what camps can spawn marks at any given time along with jungle tracking. I won't go in depth with tracking the enemy jungler, since that's not something that's champion-specific to Kindred.

Mark of the Kindred has a 45 second respawn timer once a mark is killed. This means if, for example, a mark on Gromp is killed, you can almost guarantee that the next Mark of the Kindred will spawn as a 50/50 on either Crimson Raptor or Rift Scuttler . If one of them dies, then the mark is guaranteed to spawn on the other. Typically, once the mark disappears on the map, I add 1 minute to the timer and subtract 10 seconds.

At 0 Marks, Mark of the Kindred can only spawn on Rift Scuttler .

At 1-3 Marks, Mark of the Kindred can spawn on Rift Scuttler , Gromp , or Crimson Raptor .

At 4-7 Marks, Mark of the Kindred can spawn on Blue Sentinel , Red Brambleback , Ancient Krug , or Murk Wolf

At 8 or more Marks Mark of the Kindred spawns on Dragon , Rift Herald , or Baron Nashor .

Typically, you will obtain Mark of the Kindred through champion takedowns in early skirmishes, solo kills, or Rift Scuttler . Sometimes, you will get a mark on Crimson Raptor if your jungler invades, but not often. I hardly ever recommend invading Gromp for a mark unless you're following your jungler for other reasons, you'll always always lose a wave of minions since it's far from mid.

There's almost never a game I don't get 4 marks, I get marks much more frequently than I ever did in jungle - and when I don't get marks in jungle it feels infinitely worse to play than mid.

Like other mid laners, you'll wind up side laning to push waves and rotate for teamfights. Depending on the matchup and situation, you could opt to continue split pushing and attempt to pressure that way. Typically, you should shove a wave and then rotate to group with your team.

If the enemy mid is still clearing a wave bottom-side, try to force a fight while you outnumber them - but be careful is the enemy mid laner has Teleport.

I also like to use Oracle Lens after pushing a wave to see where the enemy team has a Stealth Ward. A good strategy is to catch an enemy on rotation where they don't have vision - sitting in their jungle where they don't have vision to catch them rotating can often net you a free kill.

For teamfighting, you are an ADC but don't necessarily play like one always. You should not be afraid to jump in melee range ready to use your ultimate. A good way to play teamfights is to either kill a priority target then use Lamb's Respite so that you outnumber the enemy team OR force a priority target to stay in your Lamb's Respite and then execute them with Ignite and Mounting Dread.

You shouldn't be afraid to play up on Kindred or the enemy will capitalize on it and bait your Lamb's Respite out easily. Lamb's Respite is an offensive tool more than a defensive tool. Keep that in mind and use it.

It's hard to really say how to play teamfights since it depends on the enemy team comp and a ton of other variables. You shouldn't ever play teamfights the same way, but keep in mind that you don't want to play where you're just running away and using your ult to survive only.

Welcome to Kindred Mid where your jungler will likely not sympathize with your struggles and the enemy support will gank you from topside (XD). Often times when you're getting camped you'll have to rely on your team getting ahead, but if you get the opportunity you can actually 1v2 or 1v3. Despite how it may seem, your jungler will likely show up if you ult and it seems possible that you may win so take advantage of that and don't be afraid to play aggressive. I've won games numerous times because of the enemy team sacrificing resources to camp me and kill them anyways. If you snowball off getting ganked repeatedly, the game is as good as won because your team is already ahead from the ****** jungler sitting in your bush all game. Follow up with a L + ratio + bozo in that chat and you'll feel so good trust me. Nothing feels better than this.