Hi, welcome to my Kindred guide. I'm Yamikaze, a Challenger Talon player. My peak rank is around 30 on the NA server and I ended rank 100 Challenger in Season 8.

I hope you find this guide helpful as you learn Kindred. I also study Econ/CS at Northwestern and stream / make YouTube videos in my spare time. If you have any questions or want to discuss Kindred (or League in general), I recommend checking out my Discord channel. We have a pretty cool community and I'd love for you to be a part of it :).

I would also like to thank Sir Celery for his help in writing a large part of this guide. Further, since Celery doesn't play much league anymore, I'd like to thank Forest Within (the current best Kindred in NA) for his help in updating the guide. He has over 4000 Kindred games and his highest rank is 30 on NA with 566 lp. Also, nearly every LCS player has come to him for advice on Kindred marks (see: https://clips.twitch.tv/AdventurousNaiveSandstormFutureMan), so you could say he's pretty good at Kindred. Check out his stream here.

Although Kindred has fallen out of the meta, she is still, in the right hands, one of the best junglers in the game. As one of the few viable consistent DPS junglers, Kindred offers something no other jungler can (aside from maybe a very fed Ezreal jungle): the ability to take down both tanks and squishies alike from over 600 units away. Further, when it comes to melting tanks in the current tank meta, no other jungler even comes close. Sure, some tanks have % hp damage in their kit, but none have the consistent damage provided by Kindred's crits and % hp damage on Wolf's Frenzy (which typically reaches over 10% current hp per wolf bite, whose attack speed also scales with Lamb's!). Moreover, not only can she melt tanks, but past the 20 minute mark, Kindred is also able to kill squishies in as little as 3 autos with her Mounting Dread crit.

Press the Attack - Recently buffed and now, once again, the best rune for Kindred. Procs after 3 autos so your e will do bonus damage.

Triumph - Not much to say about this one. Kindred doesn't build much lifesteal so this will keep you healthy through skirmishes and fights.

Legend: Alacrity - Although Legend: Bloodline is a tempting choice, Alacrity is much better for Kindred as she's a jungler. Thus, most of your fights will be ganks initiated by you, meaning the lifesteal from Bloodline won't really come in handy. However, the extra attack speed allows you to get more damage off quickly, securing kills in ganks and skirmishes before the rest of the enemy team arrives.

Coup de Grace - Once again, this will help finish off gank targets. Cut Down is a viable alternative versus teams with 2+ tanks.

Celerity - Kindred's insane early game trading is only limited by enemies walking out of her range. Celerity allows her to catch up in order to continue putting out damage.

Waterwalking - Same as Celerity, except this is mostly for contesting the first mark at scuttle. Also very strong for early rotations to gank or countergank lanes.

This is a MUST HAVE for Kindred. If you don't run this spell, you will die to ganks, miss out on kills, and you'll get flamed by your teammates. Also gives you the ability to reposition in teamfights or Flash --> Lamb's Respite for clutch saves.

Since Kindred is a jungler, you will probably need smite to buy your jungle item and clear.

Both Lamb and Wolf mark targets to hunt. Lamb marks an enemy champion for death (this mark activates after an 8 second delay), while Wolf periodically marks monsters in the enemy jungle. All champions can see which targets are marked.

Sir Celery: To master Kindred, one must first understand how wolf's marking system works. Quite simply, Wolf first marks the rift scuttler at 2:30, and then continues to mark another camp 50 seconds after killing the marked monster. This marking system allows for one of the most powerful passives in the game, as Kindred is able to dictate the pathing of the opposing jungler. Currently, Kindred does not require marks to be relevant. However, if she gets them, she will be able to 1v5 with ease. Therefore, the onus is on the opponent to deny your marks, while Kindred can pick and choose which mark she wants to go for. This will be explained in greater depth under the Gameplay section.

Lamb dashes in the target direction, gaining 10% (+5% per Mark) bonus attack speed for 4 seconds and fires up to three homing arrows on arrival upon the three nearest targets, dealing 55 / 75 / 95 / 115 / 135 (+0.65 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to each of the targets she hits.

Kindred's primary mobility in fights. Use this to reposition, chase targets, and kite in teamfights. Remember the cooldown decreases when Wolf's Frenzy is used (and when you're in the circle), meaning you can use q -> w and still get the reduced c ooldown.

Wolf claims an area centered on the target location as his territory for the next 8.5 seconds, separating from Lamb. Wolf attacks enemies within the area (800 unit radius) autonomously, prioritizing Lamb's attack target, ignores unit collision and ignores terrain collision.

When cast, a large circle appears around your cursor. Wolf will attack enemies in the circle with attacks prioritizing Lamb's target. Remember the circle is centered on your cursor and not yourself. Further, Dance of Arrows has a reduced cooldown when cast in the circle. In fights, try and position Wolf's Frenzy to maximize wolf's damage and your mobility.

Lamb cripples the target unit, slowing them by 50% for 1 second and applying Dread for 4 seconds. Lamb's next two attacks mounts the Dread and refreshes the duration. On the third attack, Lamb signals Wolf to pounce on the target, dealing 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 (+0.8 per bonus AD) (+ 8% (+0.5% per Mark) of target's missing health) bonus magic damage. Percentage damage is capped at 300 vs. monsters.

A classic three-hit mark that does % missing health damage. After Mounting Dread is cast, the target will be slowed for one second. This will give you time to land three autos. After the third hit, wolf strikes out and deals % missing health damage. This means that you will want to use this as an execute (similar to Riven's Blade of the Exile) by getting your target low before you cast Mounting Dread.

Lamb blesses the ground under herself for 4 seconds, creating an area in which no living things, ally or enemy, can die. Upon reaching 10% of their maximum health, units become immune to further damage or healing. When the blessing ends, all living things inside the area heal for 200 / 250 / 300.

Kindred's ultimate ability. However, unlike Wolf's Frenzy, this ability can only cast around yourself. Use this when you are low in a skirmish (to bring enemies down to a similar health), to save an ally, or even to stop baron from dying. A cool trick is, during a baron fight, to wait for baron to drop near smite range and ult. The enemy jungler will likely panic and smite but baron won't die as nothing dies in Kindred's ult. Then, after your ult ends, simply secure baron.

> > >

Kindred maxes Lamb's Respite first as it is her ultimate ability and the cooldown is significantly reduced (160/130/100 from levels 1 to 3). Second, max Dance of Arrows as it will allow for more mobility. Then, max Wolf's Frenzy for the reduced cooldown, as it allows for a greater uptime and thus higher mobility from the lower cooldown on Dance of Arrows. Last, max Mounting Dread.

Starting Items

Due to Kindred's attack-based clear, you will want to start Hunter's Machete every game.

Start refillable with Hunter's Machete as you it's much more cost-effective than 3x Health Potion and Kindred has a healthy early clear.

Early Game

If you back with less than 1100 gold, buy two Long Swords and possibly red smite. This will be built into Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior. Scroll down for an explanation for this :).

If you have more than 1100 gold on your first recall (but less than enough for full warrior), Berserker's Greaves is the best buy. It allows for higher mobility and as you are already snowballing will allow you to apply more pressure on the map, while still giving you an increase in dps to enable you to 1v1 junglers and hunt them down.

Since you already have plenty of attack speed, you will want to run the warrior enchantment for extra damage. Further, red smite is the optimal choice for its dueling potential.

A good item to buy early when snowballing. Builds into Infinity Edge.

Core Items

After B. F. Sword, this should be your next buy. Offers excellent waveclear, burst, sustained damage, and crit.

After Statikk Shiv, upgrade your B. F. Sword to Infinity Edge. This will boost your crits from Statikk Shiv and allow you to quickly shred both tanks and squishies alike.

After late Season 7 buffs to shiv passive stacking, RFC is the best buy after Shiv and Infinity Edge. This will further your already increased range from your passive, allowing you to sit in the back of lategame teamfights to shred enemies.

Lategame Items

Usually your next item after your three core items (Shiv, IE, RFC). This item has a nice build path that, once again, allows you to be a bit more tanky. However, the most important part of this item is the revive passive. The revive passive isn't JUST a revive. It also gives you time for your cooldowns to come up and, most importantly, acts as a deterrent for enemies. Why would they waste their burst on you if you're just going to revive?

Buy this instead of Guardian Angel if the enemy has lots of armor items and has healing you need to reduce. Champions you will want to buy this against would include, Aatrox Soraka Sona Kayn Dr. Mundo and Swain.

Buy this if you don't need to reduce healing but enemies have lots of health and health stacking tanks that you need to shred.

Situational Items

Will be upgraded to Mortal Reminder. Buy this early but sit on it if enemies have lots of healing and you don't want to upgrade because they don't have much armor.

A situational item that you usually buy early game (around when you finish your warrior upgrade) against burst AP mages such as Syndra Fizz or LeBlanc. Make sure not to skip this item, even if they're behind, as Kindred is extremely squishy and you will need this to stay alive. Oh, and did I mention this is literally one of the most cost effective items in the game?

Buy this after your core items (IE, Shiv, RFC) against hard cc like Malzahar's ult.

Once again, massive thanks to Sir Celery for his help on this guide. The remainder of this gameplay section is written by him. I made some minor edits and and comments (which are in brackets).

NOTE: The information in this section is designed for players who understand the jungle role but are new to Kindred. If you are new to the jungle role, I strongly recommend the excellent jungle section in PsiGuard's Warwick guide here!


Wolf first marks the rift scuttler at 2:30, and then continues to mark another camp 50 seconds after killing the marked monster. Each mark lasts 3 minutes. Depending on how many marks Kindred has claimed, new marks spawn in different possible locations:




DO NOT DIE FOR MARKS. ONCE AGAIN, DO NOT DIE FOR MARKS. Marks have been heavily nerfed in the rework and are no longer required to be strong on Kindred. However, they will guarantee a snowball. If Kindred is ahead and collects marks, she is unstoppable. Similarly, if Kindred is BEHIND and has marks, she's still irrelevant. If Kindred is ahead without marks, then she's still dishing out loads of damage. The goal is to focus on gold and experience rather than marks. The best way to collect marks and take over games is to simply go for the easy scuttle crabs, raptors, or gromps you see when the jungler is not on your side of the map.

The general rule is to always mark the guy with the most deaths (often a Draven or Yasuo Player) since he's clearly very easy to kill. Also, note that junglers tend to contest your marks, so if you see a mark on bot side, don't hesitate to mark their top laner and kill him cause chances are the jungler is bot clearing out your mark (mark the champion on the side of the map that is opposite to wolf's mark). Once you get strong, you can mark the champion closest to the mark, and then collect 2 marks for the price of 1 (after you kill the champion, you now have numbers advantage to move into the jungle and take what's rightfully yours). This is the most common situation for me, so I tend to avoid dangerous marks early game, get items, and then mark champ closest to wolf's target and grab 2 marks, which is a very easy way to get back on track for marks.

If you ARE behind on marks, you shouldn't worry. In the vast majority of my games, as soon as a fight is won I am able to go and collect the mark from their jungle, which enables Kindred to essentially collect 2 marks in 1 hunt. For example, if there is a bot side fight and Kindred is at 2 marks, she can kill the marked target, then move onwards to collect the mark at the scuttle crab because of map advantage. From what might appear to be a simple 1 for 0, or even a 1 for 1, Kindred actually obtained 2 marks. And then the snowball has begun and the game is done. And once again, NEVER die for the marks.


Early Game

Jungle Pathing: Generally, you want to clear Red --> Krugs --> Scuttle for level 3. When not ganking clear as much of your jg as possible, if you spot jungler on the other side of the map go invade and grab his camps.

Further, if you're vs a weak early game jg like Zac, Sejuani, or Amumu, just walk in and take his stuff without fear. However, make sure that at least one of your 2 closest laners isn't shoved to tower. If both are shoved to tower, then the enemy laners will reach a skirmish before your teammates, usually leading to a death. When kindred gets a single mark/kill she can just invade anyone and take over the game, so adjust your pathing and aggressiveness according to your marks/items


Ganking, aka "The Hop"

Okay, so you want to gank someone. If your mark is up, you'll want to mark them either as you show or way before you decide to gank. That way, you don't scare them off with a mark from fog of war. Once the enemy laner sees you and starts running, you will want to hop. Since Kindred can cancel all of her other animations by casting them in her q, you'll want to use initiate the gank always with the following abilities:

So the way this works is, as you jump forward with Dance of Arrows, both Wolf's Frenzy and Mounting Dread can be cast with no animations. Thus, simply walk into range, hop, and press w and e at the same time. Then, you'll want to auto and q as necessary to secure the kill. Pretty simple!


Proper Usage of Lamb's Respite

Okay, so you're dualing an enemy. You're low and you throw your ult down. What next? Well, we must analyze the situation.

If the enemy is also low health, simply use Mounting Dread and auto them twice (make sure the autos go off AFTER wolf hits, or else they won't count towards the execute). Then, as your ult is ending, auto the enemy so your auto and execute will hit just as the ult ends. This way, you'll never lose a 1v1 in your ult.

If the enemy is medum health and you're low health, auto them a few times before using Mounting Dread so the auto and execute will finish them off.


Teamfighting

In teamfights. there are 2 different ways to play:

• If you are fed, make sure to stand AWAY from your carries. This then forces the other team to make a choice: "Should I jump on kindred, or should I jump on their ADC?" The answer is obvious. Why would they ever jump on Kindred with her ult up when there's a juicy ADC 800 units to the side? This works in EVERY single teamfight, as killing easy targets is an instinctive part of virtually player's playstyle. [Celery calls this the "Celery Special"]
• Now on the other hand, if you are NOT fed, then play like "every other non Sir Celery Kindred player," and stand on top of your carries. When they get jumped on, simply pop ult and win the fight.

Thank you for reading. If you're interested in checking out Kindred (or other jungle) game play, check out his stream here. Special thanks to missMaw for banners and coding. Lastly, if you enjoyed this guide, feel free to check out my other guides by clicking the icons below!

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