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Recommended Items
Spells:
Smite
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Mark of the Kindred (PASSIVE)
Kindred Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Lee Sin
Marksmen are weak early game and Lee destroys the early game, he crushes Kindred until extremely late in the game. His ultimate also completely counters Kindred's because it knocks champions out of the immunity circle.
Introduction
Hey everyone, I am CardinalDuality and this is my Kindred champion guide, I would appreciate any and all feedback on this guide. Rep and votes are also huge in helping this guide move forward as it helps me know how this guide is being perceived. I have been playing League of Legends since February of 2011, which is the middle of season 1 and still enjoy playing today. Kindred is an incredibly fun champion to play with their unique Mark of the Kindred mechanic. They combine the role of the jungler and the marksman into one creating a unique gameplay experience of swiftly hunting down marked target, dangerously stealing from the enemy, and completely controlling death on the battlefield. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide and provide feedback and votes, and without further delay, let's begin the hunt! |
* Insane Damage * Infinite Scaling from Mark of the Kindred * Lamb's Respite can save entire allied team |
* No hard crowd control or engage tool * Mark of the Kindred is visible to all enemies * Lamb's Respite can kill entire allied team |
Offensive
Each tier should have a fairly obvious choice over the others:1. Attack Speed is Kindred's favorite 2. Kindred is ranged so the damage modifier isn't actually an upgrade 3. AP is worthless 4. Actually a choice, but because of the hunt mechanic the unique champion kills shouldn't be an issue 5. Armor penetration vs magic penetration... Kindred is physical damage based 6. Fervor of Battle stacks quickly thanks to high attack speed and adds a lot of damage over the course of a fight |
Defensive
1. Junglers are almost always in combat so better clear speed means getting to the gank faster anyways2. Jungle buffs for jungler, already have infinite potion sustain 3. % damage increase is huge for kill potential, mana isn't 4. Kindred isn't a support |
- greater mark of armor penetration: Chosen in order to enhance the early game jungle clear as well as the highest overall damage output due to the amplification of the damage from Mark of the Kindred later on, rivaled only by armor penetration. Alternative marks would be Greater Mark of Attack Damage and greater mark of armor penetration, they are not chosen because they aren't as useful early on, and although armor penetration outscales attack speed slightly, the early clear speed is huge.
- Greater Seal of Armor: Standard runes for any jungler. Kindred needs these to survive the jungle and remain healthy enough to gank and invade often to acquire stacks for Mark of the Kindred. Alternative seals would be Greater Seal of Health, but they leave Kindred slightly weaker.
- Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Standard runes for any jungler. Kindred doesn't need attack speed or cooldown reduction in these slots, so the most beneficial choice is the survival one of magic resistance. Flat is chosen to help with any early game skirmishes against mages. Alternative glyphs would be Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist, Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction, and Greater Glyph of Attack Speed, these are more preference than necessity.
- Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed: Attack speed is what Kindred's damage scales from. Taking these quintessences ensures the highest possible damage output from Kindred. There are no substitutes here, but the closest would be Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage, and greater quintessence of armor penetration.
When jungling Smite is a necessity, there's just no way around it. This is required to jungle, this can't be overstated, and there's simply no alternative. |
Flash is the "get out of jail free" summoner spell. The mobility offered shouldn't be passed up, even though Kindred already has a small dash in Dance of Arrows, instead they should be used in conjunction with each other for the most effective results. While other summoner spells can replace Flash none of them are as versatile and they won't be listed here. |
First Lamb's Respite is maxed out. This is Kindred's ultimate ability and as with every champion maxing out the ultimate ability first will always be the best option. Next Dance of Arrows is leveled up completely. This ability provides the most early game damage of any of Kindred's abilities and maxing it out will give the most damage early on, leading to higher success rates in ganks, meaning more stacks of Mark of the Kindred. Next could be a choice of preference in a way, however, the fact that Wolf's Frenzy's cooldown gets lowered by leveling it, this means Dance of Arrows will also be off cooldown more often due to the cooldown reduction Wolf's Frenzy provides in tandem with Dance of Arrows. For this reason as well as the fact the percent health damage doesn't increase upon leveling only the monster damage cap, Mounting Dread is maxed last. |
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Item Sequence
Kindred doesn't need survivability from their boots because of Lamb's Respite, they merely need the mobility to control staying or leaving the invulnerability zone. This leaves the most valuable stat from boots to be offensive, the most valuable offensive stat to Kindred being attack speed. |
While the other jungle items may be taken for increased combat capabilities, vision control literally wins games. Any other enchantment shouldn't be considered, armor penetration and attack speed are the stats Kindred wants and none of the other enchantments offer these. |
Very similar to the item Phantom Dancer, but instead of a damage reduction on a single target, there's a large area of effect damage to multiple targets. This item combination covers the weaknesses of each component. |
This is the ultimate duelist item. The attack speed is great, the crit chance is alright, but the passives on this item are insane for Kindred. The ability to duel with a 12% damage reduction is insane in a 1v1, and teamfight scenario. |
Core item for Kindred, attack speed, attack damage, lifesteal, crowd control, insane synergy with passive, only downside is the price. |
Pretty self explanatory, the armor penetration only works on bonus armor, but is still essential for taking out huge tanks, if enemies have tons of self-sustain get Mortal Reminder instead. |
Start by getting a leash from some allies on a small jungle camp then go and take the nearest buff. Game time should be roughly 2:30 at this point which is when scuttle crab spawns, most likely one of them will become marked on spawn. Hunt it. Proceed along a standard jungle path, taking buffs when available.
Mid Game
Now is the time to start marking enemy champions and invading the enemy jungle for marked camps. This becomes incredibly situational but a general rule of thumb is that if the enemy jungle is missing and nobody knows where they are, don't cross the river under any circumstances. Once the enemy jungler is visible through wards or ganks, it is safe to mark and hunt targets. Kindred is also perfectly happy to keep farming. Taking dragon is very easy because of the amount of percent health damage in Kindred's kit, and this should be done any time the enemy team won't be able to react, for example, the enemy bottom lane both just recalled and their mid laner is dead for another 10 seconds.
Late Game
Kindred excels at killing monsters and champions, but is terrible at sieging towers as they use mostly on-hit effects to hunt their targets. Because of this Kindred wants to teamfight over objectives in order to win the game. Lamb's Respite is extremely powerful in this regard as well, mark targets carefully before a teamfight and even if the outcome of the fight is even at first glance, it can be considered a win because Kindred will always come to the next fight stronger than the last.
Finally I would like to extend my special thanks to jhoijhoi for her guide making help. She has really given so much inspiration into formatting and coding a guide to be fun, interesting, and helpful. I can't thank her enough.
With this conclusion, I must begin a different hunt. Good luck and have fun everyone!
Wolf: "It thinks it can best us!"
Lamb: "This is called... denial."
10/19/2015 - Changes to:
- Cheat Sheet
- Items
- Frequently Asked Questions
10/16/2015 - Additions to:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Special Thanks
- Champion Abilities
10/15/2015 - Guide First Started - Completed:
- Cheat sheet
- Introduction
- Summary
- Pros and Cons
- Masteries
- Runes
- Summoner Spells
- Items
- Champion Abilities
- Gameplay
- Special Thanks
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