In my opinion, Kindred is one of the best midlaners especially with 10.8's buffs. She can be squishy but offers so much potencial throughout the entire game with her early power spikes and crit scaling. Her Q Dance of Arrows is an incredible tool for dodging skillshots, which counters mages like Lux, Xerath and Vel'Koz very well. Her ult Lamb's Respite can save your entire team and her E Mounting Dread grants them a very strong level 3 power spike.
Also,while you're in the midlane, you have better access to either parts of the enemy jungle, making it easier for you to stack marks.

Pros:

*high mobility with her Q
*counters most midlaners, both mages and assassins
*early power spike at level 3
*ult can save the entire team if used correctly
*super fun to play!

Cons:

*squishy
*AD, playable only when your team has AP
*ult can save the enemy team

For her runes I take Press the Attack for obvious reasons: her E, Mounting Dread, deals a burst of damage after 3 auto attacks. If you place your E and then then auto 3 more times, you'll proc PTA, making them vulnerable, which makes Mounting Dread Kindred's best trading tool and can grant you an easy kill at level 3/4.

Triumph for better trades late game, since it grants you extra gold and 12% of your missing health back, increasing your survivability and maybe letting you stay longer in the fight.

Legend: Alacrity increases your best stat, Attack Speed, since you'll be able to proc your E Mounting Dread faster and destroy turrets and objectives faster.

Finally, Coup de Grace deals more damage to low health enemies, once again increasing the damage on your E Mounting Dread. You can switch this to Cut Down if for some reason you wish to take Kindred to the top lane.

For the secondary tree, I always take Sudden Impact because it procs with her Q move and has a relatively low cooldown, which means you can proc it 2 or 3 times in the same fight.

Relentless Hunter because honestly you need the movement speed. I might consider chaging this due to the fact that Zeal items got buffed on the MS aspect, however I still think getting to about 474 MS in the mid game can help you rotate and get objectives faster. You might want to change this for Ultimate Hunter if you feel like you'll need to use your ult more often.

Flash

Always take flash for basicly any champion. It's the best spell in the game, everyone agrees on that and it's usefull to distract the enemy, close gaps, escape ganks and grant mobility. Flash teleports you to a short location where you your cursor is positioned.

Ignite

For Kindred I usually take Ignite for 2 reasons: to finish off enemies and to reduce the healing they get from standing in my ult. Ignite reduces healing by 50% for 5 seconds. Therefore, if you use it on an enemy that is inside your ultimate, they'll only be affected by half of the healing offered by Lamb's Respite. It makes it easier to kill enemies and deals extra damage.
Remember that ignite doesn't stack, which means if you ignite an enemy already ignited, it won't deal any extra damage or reduce their healing by 100%.

Cleanse

You might sometimes need to bring Cleanse into a game if the enemy team is CC heavy, but it's very rare and I wouldn't recommend. Bring Legend: Tenacity instead of Legend: Alacrity.

Passive (P): Mark of the Kindred

The main reason a fed Kindred is a problem in the late game, their passive is a useful tool to scale, making your gameplay very bad if you're behind but very good if you're stacked.
Their marks spawn randomly in the enemy jungle or neutral territory (river) at random points in the game. Killing them or having an assist will lead you to stack the mark, which gives you Attack Speed when using your Q, Maximum Health Damage when using your E and extra Range for your auto attacks. Having 4 marks will increase this range by 75 and every 3 marks after the first 4 will increas it by 25, making the first 4 marks essencial and these should be rushed.

Tips: The first mark will always spawn on one side of the river on the scuttle crab. By being in the midlane, you have easy access to either side. Try to push the lane so you can roam, preferably killing your opponent or making them back before it spawns. As soon as you have your E, Mounting Dread, you should be able to kill them at level 3. Ask your jungler for assistance if possible, since you only need the assist on the camp.




Q : Dance of Arrows

Their Q is simple, a dash that sends arrows that deal damage to 3 enemies. Good tool for mobility, dodging skillshots and going over walls.




W : Wolf's Frenzy

Their W creates a circle that unleashes wolf, who attacks and slows the enemies lamb is attacking. While inside the circle, your Q has reduced cooldown, making this a great escaping/chasing tool. You can place your W within a certain range, so place it wisely in the direction you intend to go through.




E : Mounting Dread

The usual triple auto attack ability riot loves. Lamb places a mark around her enemy that slows them for 0.5 seconds. Each following auto attack will fill the mark, which detonates at 3 auto attacks. The third sends wolf to strike, dealing increased damage if the enemy is below a certain Health. This Health scales with Critical Strike Chance.




R : Lamb's Respite

Their R is the most notorious ability in their kit and the ability that makes them a hard champion to master. It creates a circle on the ground that prevents all living things from dying and heals them for a certain amount of health. (this includes allies, enemies, minions and jungle monsters.)
It's good to turn around a fight, to save low health team mates and yourself and perhaps for a nifty baron steal where you deny the enemy's smite. Be careful not to save the enemy though, you need time to learn when to use this ability and mistakes will naturally happen throughout the whole journey.

Starting Items

Doran's Blade will grant you a lot of sustain during laning phase, since it gives you life steal, health and good early damage. This allows you to all in as soon as you unlock Mounting Dread at level 3 if you managed to lower the enemy's health during previous levels.

The Cull will give you a more passive start, you'll focus on farming instead of dealing damage. I wouldn't recommend this since it takes a long time to stack and offers little benefit.

Bringing a Health Potion might save your fur if the enemy is being aggressive. Your W Wolf's Frenzy will regen some health too, so be sure to keep moving, but it doesn't compare to the healing a Health Potion grants you.

Midgame

Infinity Edge is a core item to Kindred in the mid lane. It gives you crit, which helps you dealing damage not only with your autos but also with your E Mounting Dread, which scales off with Critical Strike. Increasing the damage of your autos is crucial for Kindred, since you'll most of the time reach 100% Critical Strike. Usually your first item if you're fed. If not, start I´d recommend starting Phantom Dancer.

Another core item for this champion, Phantom Dancer gives you Critical Strike, Attack Speed and Movement Speed. Its first passive, Spectral Waltz, helps you chase your prey more easly and Lifeline gives you a shield when you'd go below 30% health.

Rapid Firecannon grants you more range, so if you have, say, 10 marks by the time you buy this, you will outrange any champion in the game and slow them once you hit them. This, combined with Phantom Dancer and Press the Attack allows you to kill squishy champs in about 4 auto attacks.
This item can be swapped by Statikk Shiv or any other Zeal item you see fit.

If you're against a mage in the mid lane, I'd recommend, in most cases, that you buy Hexdrinker. It grants you a magic damage shield, so it's good against magic damage. Keep this item as you finish Infinity Edge, your biggest source of damage. After that, finish Maw of Malmortius since its passive is insanely good and allows you to turn around teamfights. The only time I´d finish Maw of Malmortius before Infinity Edge is if the enemy jungler is AP and ganking your lane a lot.

These are the preferable boots for Kindred, since they grant you attack speed. If the team is heavy on CC, I'd rather buy Mercury's Treads, that give you tenacity, reducing the time you're CC'ed. Remember you can't use your summoner spells and abilities while hard CC'ed, so prioritize these if that's the case.

Endgame

Buy this in the late game for one extra life. Combined with your ult, it might save your life twice, giving you room for some smart plays. If they have a lot of squishies, you shouldn't build this item since going full crit will be more rewarding.




Build this in your late game for more sustain, since you'll probably be squishy as hell. Either build this or Guardian Angel so you can have a chance of having 100% critical strike chance.

Other Viable Options

I sometimes build this for first item. Doesn't grant you crit but gives you more movement speed to chase your prey, and lethality is always a good stat to have. I'd advise building this against mages with low mobility.




I rarely build BORK but I know it's a good item for Kindred. Although it doesn't grant crit, it does give life steal for more sustain, attack speed, which is a great stat for your E, and a passive that allows you to chase. I'd probably build this instead of Youmuu's Ghostblade if you think it's proper for the matchup.

For me, Kindred mid is one of the best picks for low elo, since the enemy isn't expecting Kindred to go mid and probably won't know very well how to counter.
Their kit is absolutely amazing, mobility, damage, an ult that turns team fights and so much outplay potencial! It's super fun to play but you're probably going to get flamed for picking it on ranked since it isn't meta.

I hope this guide helps you main Kindred and have fun in your games. If you think something is missing, please comment/DM, this is my first ever guide on this forum.