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Kindred Build Guide by Glasletter

ADC Glasletter's guide to Kindred ADC

ADC Glasletter's guide to Kindred ADC

Updated on November 12, 2020
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Glasletter Build Guide By Glasletter 715 32 1,039,252 Views 71 Comments
715 32 1,039,252 Views 71 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Glasletter Kindred Build Guide By Glasletter Updated on November 12, 2020
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Runes:

Precision
Press the Attack
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Coup de Grace

Domination
Sudden Impact
Eyeball Collection
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Welcome to the world of Kindred!

To preface all of this, I am and always have been an avid Kindred fan, which is why I was disappointed to learn she was infrequently played because of her many "weaknesses". In this guide I will attempt to explain why she is better suited for ADC than Jungle, and how these "weaknesses" become perks!

https://www.twitch.tv/glasletter

Feel free to visit my twitch as well~!
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First off; why ADC and not Jungle???

Off-meta? *LE GASP* Here's my reasoning for a Kindred ADC:


Kindred's chosen role is naturally jungler because of the importance and nature of her marks. Unfortunately, these come with their own set of problems.

The largest issues when playing Kindred are hunting marks and unrewarding or inopportune ganks. You can only mark one enemy at a time, therefore you are often forced to choose less-than-ideal ganking situations in order to collect marks, or you gank knowing you're unable to achieve the collection of a mark.

The other issue is that Kindred can easily be caught unawares while hunting marks, even with aggressive warding. This is difficult as Kindred is known to have slow early clear, with low base stats and little early-game dueling capability. It is also difficult if not impossible to collect marks if your team is behind, as you have to go so far into enemy territory that you are likely to get caught out.


So why ADC?

First of all, you are always in lane with a marked enemy. You can potentially get 2 marks within a minute if you play smart. Assuming both are on cooldown you can mark the jungler as they are likely to pay you a visit sooner or later.

The other issue, collecting marks from the jungle, is simple: you don't touch anything in the top half of the map. Marks on Scuttle or Gromp can be simple to collect if you have the chance. You also tend to clear enemy camps during late game, so your marks become an added bonus.

There are several other reasons why Kindred makes a wonderful ADC, such as extreme mobility, attack-speed increases from Q, a targeted slow + burst damage in one, and some of the best waveclear with Runaan's. Her R also works wonders with keeping both you and your support alive.
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Pros / Cons

Pros

+ High mobility
+ Strong kite
+ Ultimate counters EVERYTHING
+ Poke outside tower range
+ Built in sustain
+ No skill shots
+ Infinite scaling and strong late-game
+ Hard tank-shred
+ Outplay capability
+ Beautiful champion design
Kindred is a lot of fun to lane with, and she is deeply underestimated. Her Dance of Arrows gives both engage and disengage, with increased attack speed and damage built in, making dealing with frequent ganks and aggressive laners simple. Mounting Dread also provides peel with burst damage if your opponent doesn't play carefully. Wolf's Frenzy also gives a healing effect in lane similar to Fleet Footwork which gives strong sustain in lane.

Cons

- Average early game(ex. Twitch)
- Squishy
- Ultimate requires team knowledge
- Can be knocked out of ult (Ban Vayne or Janna!)
- Little zoning ability
- Easy to overextend for marks
- Hate for playing off-meta
- No good skins :'( No longer true, thanks to Spirit Blossom...!
Kindred can find herself out of options if you've used your full kit and your enemies are still alive or pursuing you, and you can't do much but wait for Dance of Arrows or Wolf's Frenzy to come off of cooldown. She can also be easily killed if her ultimate is on cooldown or when caught by unexpected damage, particularly pre-4 marks with her limited range. Additionally she is one of the most timing-precise ADCs, making her similar on level to Kalista for practice required to become skilled.
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Runes



Keystones


Press the Attack
This is the keystone of choice for Kindred. Press the Attack provides greater burst damage after every third attack, which naturally works well with Mounting Dread and Dance of Arrows. It also helps increase your damage output on tanks with Wolf's Frenzy.

Lethal Tempo
After studying and number crunching the differences between Lethal Tempo and Press the Attack, this keystone begins to pull ahead after 12 auto attacks, and it is a somewhat minimal change overall. It's still a viable option against tank-heavy comps, but in general I recommend Press the Attack.

Fleet Footwork
Adds some sustain in lane, but the mobility is unnecessary. Your other keystones are generally better. Since Wolf's Frenzy now has a small heal attached to it with movement, you effectively have this keystone built in now; taking this in addition would simply be redundant.
Conqueror
Conqueror is strong particularly if you're going for the full lifesteal/1v9 build. This makes this rune specifically better on toplaners though, and the added damage and strength in teamfights with Press the Attack makes this a sub-optimal keystone.


Runes


Tier 1
Overheal

If you plan on building more lifesteal, Overheal can be a strong survival tool that can counteract Kindred's natural squishiness. It also works well with healing supports like Soraka and Sona.
Triumph

Triumph can help you more easily outplay after fights with multiple people inside Lamb's Respite. The added gold is a nice bonus as well.
Presence of Mind

Presence of Mind was changed to add ultimate cooldown in addition to mana. If you rely heavily on your ultimate to outplay or win fights it could be an option, but in team fights it falls behind Triumph.

Tier 2
Legend: Alacrity

This is the rune of choice for almost any ADC for good reason. Your kit revolves around your auto attacks, meaning the more you have the better you are.
Legend: Tenacity

Tenacity is more relevant for tanks who are easily hit by a lot of CC and need to walk it off. If you're facing a CC heavy team build a Quicksilver Sash.
Legend: Bloodline

If you need lifesteal build it. The added attack speed will be more relevant to both your damage output and your healing.

Tier 3
Coup de Grace

The natural choice for an ADC with an execute ability, Coup de Grace also provides extra damage in team-fight situations.
Cut Down

Your focus in fights should generally be on the enemy ADC or damage-dealers, so this rune is more counter-intuitive. It's a potentially viable pick, but only against a tank-heavy comp. It can also be a comfort pick for new Kindred players as you may not be familiar with your ultimate timing and usage.
Last Stand

Last Stand is potentially a viable alternative to Coup de Grace, although it's only really helpful whilst standing in your ult and shooting outside of it, which is unlikely. A Kindred doesn't tend to stay at low life for long.










To summarize the sub-tree, your runes of choice are Sudden Impact and Eyeball Collection.


Sudden Impact has a cooldown of 4 seconds, giving lethality for 5 seconds every time it is activated. With a 9 second cooldown on Dance of Arrows, you can have more than 50% uptime on the buff.


Eyeball Collection provides a decent amount of AD and allows Kindred to more easily snowball into her devastating late game.


Runes of note:

Taste of Blood provides a heal similar to Fleet Footwork. With the sustain built into Wolf's Frenzy it is simply a more dangerous and redundant method of sustaining in lane.

Ravenous Hunter provides a large amount of healing, as you do execute and % health damage constantly. This is a decent rune for players unfamiliar with Kindred as it is a bit more forgiving.

The other Hunter runes are useless, as you don't use active items and you already have mobility. The ward runes could potentially be helpful, but you have a support, don't you?
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Summoner Spells

Yes, heal is the usual choice for ADC's, but it had added meaning on Kindred: using heal just after your ultimate ends puts you and your support in a perfect position to either escape or kill whomever you happen to be fighting. Barrier is also acceptable in this regard.

Everybody loves a good flash! You may change this for teleport if it suits your playstyle better, but I don't recommend it.


Alternate options:

Ignite can be vital against certain healing supports such as Soraka, Nami and Sona. Additionally, you can ignite someone inside your ultimate to reduce the healing they receive from it and put you at a bigger advantage.

Take Barrier if your support uses heal. Additionally, you can use barrier before your ultimate ends, as it is not a heal, therefore giving you more room for error if you're unfamiliar with the timing.

Smite is actually alright to take for securing jungle marks and objectives, but as you'll already have the damage to quickly clear them by the time you hit the contested points I'd recommend something else.
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Skills

PASSIVE
ABILITY
Mark of the Kindred (Passive): The most unique part of Kindred's kit, this is a bounty-hunting mechanic. While playing Kindred you have an extra icon bar above your regular UI, which you use to mark enemy champions. It takes a moment to apply the mark, and killing the marked target or any marked monster gives you one stack, which increases your basic abilities. In addition, after your first 4 stacks you gain 75 attack range, with another 25 every 3 stacks after to a max of 250 bonus range at 25 stacks. Enemies can see marks on allies and on jungle monsters.

Q
Dance of Arrows (Q): Dance of Arrows is a short dash that causes you to fire three arrows at the nearest target(s) within range. It also provides a base 25% bonus attack speed for four seconds, with an additional 5% for every mark. You can use this to get over several walls in the jungle, although be aware it's a shorter dash than many, so you won't make it across every wall that you would on another champion.

W
Wolf's Frenzy (W): Wolf's Frenzy marks a fairly large area for Wolf to hunt in. Wolf automatically targets either the closest target or the last target Lamb hit. The primary use of this ability is the cooldown reduction it provides for Dance of Arrows, bringing it from 9 seconds to 4-2 seconds, depending on the rank of Dance of Arrows. It can also be used to damage enemy champions from outside tower range. Wolf does % health damage and scales with both AD and attack speed. Leaving the circle cancels the ability. As a passive effect Wolf's Frenzy also provides a small heal upon auto after moving or attacking enough based on your missing health. This is effectively Fleet Footwork, and makes movement between autos incredibly important for outsustaining your enemy laners.
Note that this heal is not used unless you are missing health.

E
Mounting Dread (E): Mounting Dread is a targeted slow that applies dread on the champion, indicated by a mark underneath them. The third auto that Lamb fires at this target causes Wolf to attack, dealing execute or missing health % damage. This also critically strikes enemies with lower health, with a higher damage based on your marks and a higher crit threshold based on your critical strike %. Mounting Dread also gains increased range for every four and three marks. This is often your killing blow. Be careful when using this to slow pursuers; it does have a short cast time.

R
Lamb's Respite (R): Lamb's Respite can be a double edged sword, and all the more deadly to those who are unaware of how it works, teammate and enemy alike. Whilst inside the circle, nothing can die. This includes ally, enemy, minions, jungle monsters, even Baron and Dragon. Whenever anyone inside the circle hits 10% or less health their HP can no longer change, whether by healing or damage, but shields still apply. At the end of the ability, everything inside the circle heals for an amount based on the rank of the ability. This ability is best placed in a difficult position for your enemies to reach or under a tower, as it doesn't stop enemies from being targeted by turret.


More details of Kindred's passive:
Spoiler: Click to view
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Bringing it all together: Gameplay

Laning Phase



Arriving in lane post leash, a single Q will kill the front 3 minions and give you increased attack speed.
---> FOR PLAYERS UNFAMILIAR WITH KINDRED: Use this and every opportunity to shove your lane hard into tower, as you and your support will be well enough equipped to deal with ganks easily, and will force your enemy ADC to miss out on early CS. As Kindred has a somewhat weak early game, you need to establish your lead early as well, just be careful to keep up vision and remember who the enemy jungler/midlaners are.
---> FOR PLAYERS EXPERIENCED WITH KINDRED AND ADC: Allow the enemy to push into you and freeze the wave; Kindred has strong chasing potential and unexpected damage, and if you're confident enough you can turn almost every encounter in your favor easily just by waiting on enemy cooldowns and playing aggressively.

Your most used ability while laning is your Q, as you can use it for poke, dodge, engage, disengage and regular CSing. Be aware that Kindred can drop low on mana extremely quickly. Use your E when either the support or ADC moves past a minion wave and immediately engage with Q. The increased attack speed will help activate the Dread proc, bringing them low extremely quickly. Place a Wolf's Frenzy for the reduced cooldown on Q if you need to either catch up to them for a kill or for a disengage if you've taken too much damage. There is no pressing need to stay in the circle, just stay alive.

Always keep the river warded, and in the case of a gank, Q towards tower, W, Q, then Q a third time and you're out. If your support is in danger of being caught out, use E to slow and try and put some shots into them to scare them off. If it's a choice of you or your support dying, though, let them die-it's their job.



Whenever you get the chance, such as when you've killed one or both of your enemies, or they've just backed, check for marks on Gromp, Scuttle or their bottom buff. If there is one, ask your support to follow you and take the mark. It is generally dangerous to go alone, but the two of you could potentially get another kill if you catch the jungler unaware. You can also go alone if you know where the enemy jungler is and you have enough aggressive vision.

When damaging towers with no enemies nearby, make sure to Q once to get the increased attack speed to bring the tower down faster.


Mid-to-late Game

As a natural jungler with high mobility, you want to catch people in the jungle as much as possible. This requires well-placed wards and a responsive team. It also gets easier as you become more familiar with which walls you can dash over when trying to catch up to or escape from someone. In team fights coming in from the side or front both work. Kindred deals a large amount of burst damage, so it is easy to pull off assassinations whilst your opponent's attention is elsewhere, but coming from the front works just as well. Your mobility lets you easily keep up to put damage into their team, and being in the front also provides for better ult placement to keep both you and your teammates alive.

For better ultimate usage:
Spoiler: Click to view

Kindred also has a really solid waveclear, and combining that with her mobility makes split-pushing extremely easy to do as well. Keep tabs on your team and your objectives, and take a wave or two in each lane as often as possible. During team fights you'll have minions pushing down towers while your enemy is busy. When a wave is pushed to tower, make your way down, Q and bring it down as quickly as possible. Don't forget to place a ward or two in the nearby jungle for safety.



Don't forget to clear marks in your enemy jungle during this late game phase. Normally when you play jungle your enemy expects you to regularly go for marks, but since an ADC Kindred doesn't, they don't check marks regularly. This makes for easy collection. On average I end my games with around 10-13 marks.
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In Conclusion

Kindred is a wonderful ADC, with a lot of growth potential the more you practice with her. She works well against tanks, assassins, heavy CC, basically any comp. She has slows, sustain, burst and sustained DPS, and most importantly she is the most "flavorful" champion I have ever played.



Just fall in love with their story and you'll see what I mean.


Thanks everyone for reading, feel free to leave a comment and ask any questions you might have as I tend to reply within a day or two. Have a great time with the build, and I'll see you on the Rift!
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