I am an ADC main in the BR server, who plays Xayah and Kai'Sa the most. I also often play Jinx, Aphelios, Sivir, Miss Fortune and Samira.

Occasionally I play Kindred ADC and I have a lot of fun with it! Kindred was my first main (in the jungle), I got to mastery 5 in my first year of LoL, stopped playing her because I became an ADC main, and after a year and a half (more or less) I started playing her again as a botlane marksmen and got to Mastery 7 with her (playing only bot lane!).

Kindred is definately an off meta pick and not an ADC you should pick up in any matchup, but she is really strong against squishy bot lanes especially, and she does really well with supports that can keep her alive and set her up for her shenanigans.

The goal of this guide is NOT to teach you all there is about Kindred.

This guide is more directed to players who are already a bit familiar with her and wanting to play her bot lane. I put a section explaining all her abilities but the focus of this content is more to help you navigate Kindred in bot lane rather than teach you how to play her optimally.

FOR ITEMS, RUNES, SYNERGIES AND MATCHUPS SEE THE SECTIONS ABOVE WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE NOTES!!!

Mark of the Kindred

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. After 40 seconds of having no active jungle mark, Wolf marks an enemy jungle monster for 3 minutes. Wolf marks jungle monsters based on Kindred's current stacks: 0 Marks: Rift Scuttler 1-3 Marks: Rift Scuttler, Crimson Raptor, Gromp 4-7 Marks: Red Brambleback, Blue Sentinel, Ancient Krug, Greater Murk Wolf 8+ Marks: Rift Herald, Baron Nashor, Elemental Drakes, Elder Dragon If Kindred kills a marked target or assists in their death, they gain a mark. Kindred's basic attacks and Mounting Dread gain 75 range at 4 stacks, plus 25 range every 3 stacks thereafter. Stacks also amplify Kindred's basic abilities: Q - Dance of Arrows: Bonus attack speed increased by an additional 5% per stack. W - Wolf's Frenzy: Current health damage increased by an additional 0.5% per stack. E - Mounting Dread: Missing health damage increased by an additional 0.5% per stack. Targets successfully hunted cannot be targeted again for 240 seconds. Lamb can also change her target after 90 seconds if the target hasn't died in that time.

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Dance of Arrows

Cooldown: 8 Cost: 35 Range: 340 Lamb dashes in the target direction, gaining 25% (+5% per Mark) bonus attack speed for 4 seconds and fires up to three homing arrows on arrival upon the three nearest targets, dealing 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160 (+0.75 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to each of the targets she hits. Casting Wolf's Frenzy or dashing inside of Wolf's territory will reduce the cooldown of Dance of Arrows to 4 / 3.5 / 3 / 2.5 / 2 seconds.

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Wolf's Frenzy

Cooldown: 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 Cost: 40 Range: 500 Passive: Kindred gains stacks of Hunter's Vigor from moving and attacking. When charged, she will heal for up to 49-100 (at levels 1-18) based on her missing health %. 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. Wolf's basic attacks deal 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 (+0.2 per bonus AD) (+1.5% (+1% per Mark) of target's current health) magic damage and scale with 25% of Kindred's bonus attack speed. Wolf deals 50% bonus damage against monsters. Wolf's Frenzy ends immediately if Lamb leaves the area.

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Mounting Dread

Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 Cost: 50 Range: 500 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 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 / 160 (+0.8 per bonus AD) (+ 8% (+0.5% per Mark) of target's missing health) bonus physical damage. Percentage damage is capped at 300 vs. monsters. Jaws of Death: Wolf's' pounce critically strikes targets below 15% health for 50% (+0.5% × bonus critical damage) bonus damage. Threshold increased by 0.5% health per 1% critical strike chance (up to 65% health at 100% crit chance).

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Lamb's Respite

Cooldown: 180 / 150 / 120 Cost: 100 Range: 500 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 250 / 325 / 400.

Before playing Kindred botlane I highly suggest you become familiar with Kindred's kit as a whole and read her skills thoroughly because they will be really important. Kindred is a mechanically challenging champion!

In the bot lane, you want to play around opportunities and good trades. Kindred has a deceivingly high damage early on when compared to other marksmen in the bot lane because she was desined to be a jungler... Early trades against a Kindred usually go in her favor, unless you are against one of the ADCS listed under the Extreme/High Threat list like Draven, Lucian, Tristana and Caitlyn. If after a trade the enemy gets picked off by a Thresh hook or a Nami bubble, that's almost always a guaranteed kill for you.

Plus, if the enemy had a good trade but they lack sustain, Kindred can soon recover with her W passive - when she moves she gains stacks, and at a 100 stacks she heals the next attack she deals. So if you keep moving and autoing minions you will regain health, and with a support like Nami trades will more quickly turn in your favor.

But remember that Kindred is still fairly squishy and vulnerable to CC, she suffers against strong laners and especially poke lanes until she starts scaling. Because of that she works best with supports that can provide her with some sort of peel, while also setting her up for kills. Thresh, Taric, Rell and Rakan can pick off enemies and peel for you, Lulu, Zilean and Nami trade really well in lane and can keep you alive for a long time, while also allowing picks every now and then. Those are the ideal supports for Kindred in my humble opinion.

Trading

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To win trades in lane you ideally want to be avoiding important enemy abilities - like a Thresh hook or a Sivir Q - with your Q, autoting the enemy inside your W zone (so that Wolf targets them), and fully stacking your E. With a strong support you can even score an early kill. You should also use your Q and W to stick to targets and chase them.

Because Kindred is so good at chasing and that is a core way she gets kills, supports that speed you up or slow enemies down synergize really well with her. I found that many people will trade and not expect the damage Kindred does. When they do, they run away often too late and you can catch up to them.

Kindred is really good at trades so I like playing her aggressively. However, if you are not very familiar with her yet you can get away with farming and playing more safe - yet remember, you need to fight to get your marks. Playing passively the whole game will not work out.

Mid-Late game

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Kindred is a snowballer. When she gets a lead she is really strong, so whenever you get a lead in bot lane (especially marks) you want to keep playing aggressive and chunking the enemy laner until you get tower and start terrorizing the rest of the map. Roam mid, go top, get picks on lonely squishy targets, bully the enemy jungler. You kind of start playing as a jungler instead of an ADC.

This is also why I favor Shieldbow over Galeforce. Kindred can be crazy and go for risky plays with her ult, when your ult is down you can still have your shieldbow to back you up. As long as you don't go too deep you can get out.

As a Kindred adc you do still have to keep farming and play relatively safe, but you can play more aggressive then other marksmen if you are ahead, so do it. In the mid game you can act as a bit of an assassin if you play your cards right.

But if you are behind you want to just keep farming as best as you can and you will have to rotate with your team to get your marks. Basically, when you see your marked target in a good position to die, you can join your team. If you die it might still be worth it. Otherwise, keep farming and getting your items.

In the late game you want to play the usual backline carry. I advise you to not go for assassinations as often as you would in the mid game because the stakes are higher and the enemy could be just around the corner to protect their teammates.

When it comes to your passive marks, it is actually pretty simple. You mark the enemy you think is the easiest to kill in lane (that's usually the melee support) and ask your support to focus on them. SOMETIMES it is worth to die and get the kill, but be very careful. Early on it is more likely you will get a Flash or Heal rather than a kill, so don't kill yourself for a mark unnecessarily. If you think you are going to die anyway, then focus on your mark.

After getting your marks on the enemy bot lane your next mark should be on the enemy jungler, and by the time you get that (if ever) the bot lane should be ready to get marked again.

If you have lane prio you and your support can roam with your jungler to get mark on Scuttle and Gromp. You don't need to take the camps, just giving an assist is enough for you to get your mark.

Kindred marks have tiers, they are not random. You can predict your marks and act accordingly by following the tiers bellow:

Tier 1 - you have 0 marks : Mark will always spawn on Scuttle. Which one is random, but after one has been taken down it will always spawn on the one that's alive.

Tier 2 - You have 1-3 marks : mark will spawn on Scuttle, Gromp OR Raptors only, whichever is alive.

Tier 3 - you have 4-7 marks : mark will spawn on Red buff, Blue buff, Krugs OR Wolves only - whichver is alive.

Tier 4 - you have 8+ marks : mark will spawn on Baron, Herald OR Drake only - whichever is alive


As Kindred ADC your main focus will be to get marks on champions as that is the easiest, but as the game goes on and laning phase ends, you should focus on tracking and getting your marks with your jungler, especially if you didn't get any early on. For laning phase, try to push the wave and rotate with your jungler for bot scuttle if your mark spanws there. Remember you don't have to (and shouldn't!) steal your jungler's camp even if it is scuttle.

To get your mark on Raptors, Wolf and Krugs you need to only kill/assist on taking down the biggest monster, the small ones won't count for your mark.

That's all I have for now. Thank you for taking interest in my guide! I hope it was helpful to you (or interesting at the very least).

If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to let me know. I will keep updating this guide and maybe I will keep adding things to it.

Last updated: patch 12.9
Last changes: Updated for current patch.

Planned updates: Maybe I will expand this guide to be more beginner-friendly and go more into detail about how to use her abilities well and mechanics, but for now it remains as a guide focused on MY Kindred botlane playstyle.

Good Luck & Have Fun playing Kindred ADC!

My other Guides!!!

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Complete Xayah Guide

Complete Kai'sa Guide

My Unbeatable Crit Sivir Guide