Hello beginner hunters! I am an NA Kindred Main, having learnt Kindred as a first champ. I mainly play Kindred ADC over jungle but playing both roles. Kindred is a high damage carry champion, giving safety, mobility, and range with one of the most unique ultimates in the game.

(this is a fairly early draft of the guide so its very unpolished, sorry in advance ^^;;)

Pros Highly Mobile Slippery High damage Able to traverse the rift easily with their dash

Cons Double-edge sword ultimate Very weak without 4 marks Struggles when not utilizing walls Needs experience playing Needs dedication of learning the mark system Requires a solid understanding of jungle fundementals

(Q) - Dance of Arrows

Ability Description ACTIVE: Lamb dashes toward the target location, gaining 25% Attack Speed (+ 5% per Mark) bonus attack speed for 4 seconds. After dashing, Lamb fires up to three arrows at nearby visible targets, each one dealing physical damage upon their arrival. Lamb's current attack target at any proximity will be prioritized by one of the arrows. Casting Wolf's Frenzy or using Dance of Arrows while inside its area will reduce this ability's cooldown to an amount. Lamb can cast any of her abilities during Dance of Arrows' dash. Dance of Arrows resets Lamb's basic attack timer.

Dance of Arrows Information & Uses

• Use it as mobility, you are very mobile with this ability
• Use it in combination with Wolf's Frenzy
• When going under tower range to finish off a kill, use Q to go under tower range and Flash to escape tower range.

(W) - Wolf's Frenzy

Ability Description PASSIVE: As Kindred move and attack, they build up to 100 stacks of Hunter's Vigor. At full stacks, Lamb's next basic attack heals her for 0% − 100% (based on Kindred's missing health) of 49 − 100 (based on level) health. ACTIVE: Wolf dashes to the target location and claims the surrounding area as his territory for the next 8.5 seconds, separating from Lamb. Wolf autonomously attacks enemies within the area, prioritizing Lamb's attack target. Wolf's basic attacks deal magic damage and scale with 25% of Kindred's bonus attack speed. Against monsters, Wolf deals 50% increased damage and his attacks slow the target by 50% for 2 seconds. Wolf's Frenzy ends immediately if Lamb leaves the area or dies.

Wolf's Frenzy Information & Uses

• You'll be using ability mainly for (Q) cooldown reduction.
• Upgrade this ability 2nd when you plan on farming more in the jungle.
• Casting (W) grants vision from wolf. Use this to gain vision over walls or bushes. Wolf has to be in the bush or beyond a wall to grant vision.
• There is a bug where wolf sometimes doesn't attack Rift Scuttler when Wolf's Frenzy is casted.

(E) - Mounting Dread

Ability Description ACTIVE: Lamb fires a shot at the target enemy that upon arrival marks them for 4 seconds and slows them by 50% for 1 second. Lamb's attacks against the marked enemy refresh the mark's duration and apply a stack, stacking up to 2 times. Her next basic attack against the target while they are at 2 stacks will direct Wolf to pounce them, consuming the mark to deal additional physical damage on-hit, capped at 300 against monsters. The additional damage will critically strike targets below 15% − 65% (based on critical strike chance) of their maximum health, increasing the missing health portion by (50% + 35%), and cannot critically strike otherwise. The base attack part of the pounce can independently critically strike.

Mounting Dread Information & Uses

• Do not build Guinsoo's Rageblade on kindred. Mounting Dread increases damage based on critical strike chance. Because Rageblade converts crit chance to AD, (E) will do less damage.
• Use (E) in the beginning of the combo against squishes or low HP targets.
• Use (E) later on during a fight to use the execute (E) provides to do more damage.

(R) - Lamb's Respite

Ability Description ACTIVE: Lamb blesses the ground under herself for 4 seconds and enters a 0.264 seconds cast time. All units inside the zone cannot be reduced below 10% of their maximum health, and will become invulnerable for the remaining duration when they reach or are at the threshold, during which they also cannot be healed, but can still regenerate health. All targetable units within the zone are healed immediately when the blessing ends.

Lamb's Respite Information & Uses

• (R) affects both allies and enemies. Be careful and use (R) situationally.
• Champions cannot life steal on other champions that are 10% health or below.
• You can use (R) when your team is ending the game to secure a victory.
• When an enemy is in your (R), get them to the 10% health threshold, use Mounting Dread, apply 2 autos. At the end of (R), auto attack them to execute the enemy. This requires careful timing.
• Unlike Bard's Ultimate Tempered Fate, Lamb's Respite does not affect turrets.
• Lamb's Respite affects all units including Rift Herald, Baron Nashor, Dragon, Elder Dragon. Use this to your advantage to win smite fights for steal objectives.
• Being able to affect Rift Herald, you can use (R) on the herald after she hits a turret, allowing another charge off.
• After a tower dive, use (R) to tank a tower shot and survive. Of course use this when your ally or yourself is low from the tower dive to be in the fatal range.

Before we get into the spells and synergies, we need to know about basic knowledge.

Dance of Arrows Auto Attack Reset
Auto attacks in league of legends have internal timers on how often you can Auto Attack (AA). Using Dance of Arrows(Q) resets that internal cooldown, letting you AA after the animation of Dance of Arrows.

Wolf's Frenzy Dance of Arrows interaction
Wolf's Frenzy lowers Dance of Arrows' cooldown to [4/3.5/3/2.5/2] based on Dance of Arrows' level. Otherwise, Dance of Arrows has a base cooldown of [8] no matter the level of Dance of Arrows. Wolf's Frenzy also slows monster camps, making the camps easier to kite.

Mark of the Kindred
Kindred features a UI above your items. Lamb and Wolf both applies marks. Lamb marks enemy champions and Wolf marks enemy jungle camps/epic monsters such as Baron Nashor.

Lamb marks champions out of combat. After selecting a champion, you are unable to select another champion after 75 seconds. When you get a takedown (kill or assist) on the marked champion, you get a mark and are unable to mark the champion for 240 seconds.

Wolf marks enemy jungle camps periodically. Wolf marks camps based on how many stacks you currently have (including lamb's acquired marks.

0: Rift Scuttler
1-3: Rift Scuttler, Crimson Raptor, Gromp
4-7: Ancient Krug, Greater Murk Wolf, Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback
8+: Rift Herald, Baron Nashor, Dragon, Elder Dragon

Helpful videos on how to predict mark spawns
Godly Polo 7mins
Forest Within 10mins

Engaging combo
(AA)> (Q)> (E)>(AA)> (W)>(AA)>(AA)

This should be the combo to use in the start of the fight. If you're jungling, you can start the combo with Challenging Smite instead of an (AA); or (Q)> > (E)

Kindred is a very flexible champion, having itemization options for every game. We will be going over the different items kindred should build in different situations.

All items should be prioritized depending on the game. Always build based the game's situation.

Notice: as of S11, most on-hit items; such as Runaan's Hurricane and Blade of the Ruined King aren't amazing on kindred, while still viable. Try to avoid on-hit builds if possible. However, build what you have fun with as a general rule of thumb.

Alternative to Kraken Slayer. This depends on your personal skill level. While, this item is great against squishies, you have to be conscious of Galeforce's execute range. However, Kraken Slayer still does amazing with squishies if paired with Mounting Dread and Press the Attack.

Your Go-To Grievous Wounds Item. With a lot of champions being played today on the rift having some sort of healing, having this item is valuable. That being said, it may always not be necessary. If the enemy healing becomes a serious problem, strongly consider this item. Examples on who to build Mortal Reminder against; Sylas, Irelia, Aatrox. This should generally be your 3rd or 4th item. In the early game; if healing is a problem, suggest your team to build Grievous Wounds and build Executioner's Calling Yourself.

Serpent's Fang is very good against shielded champions or items that gives shields. Champions including Sett, Blitzcrank, Ivern, Yuumi. Items including Immortal Shieldbow ( Bloodward), Gargoyle Stoneplate, Locket of the Iron Solari ( Locket of the Iron Solari (Masterwork)). These Items are build Mid-Late game. All shields in the game are linked here. Put this item into consideration if you have problems dealing with the enemy shields as a 4th or 5th item. However, if shielding is a major problem, consider this much sooner as 2nd or 3rd item.

Getting problems with enemies having too much CC? Do you wish to move your champ time to time? Mercurial Scimitar is an item build from Quicksilver Sash. You will face a lot of champions with a form of CC. Champions include Rammus, Morgana, Nocturne; and with this patch, we have a lot of mages building Everfrost. Quicksilver Sash should be an early item decision like Executioner's Calling. Mercurial Scimitar also counters Mordekaiser's ultimate Realm of Death, immediately getting you out of his ultimate when used. Consider building as a 3rd or 4th item item.

Summoners will build Armor when playing against an AD team. If this the case, you will need armor penetration. The best choice is Lord Dominik's Regards, giving you 35 armor pen. Typical champions you should build against should be Amumu, Leona, Zac. Consider building this item as a 4th or 5th item.

The enemy team is pretty AP heavy. Wit's End is good at chasing/kiting enemies granting 20 move speed when attacking. This item is great for champions such as Fiddlesticks, Nunu & Willump, Viktor. Do note; there is only a handful of champs that DOESN'T deal magic damage. Many champions deal a certain percentage of magic damage, like Kindred's Wolf's Frenzy. This is a very situational item; this shouldn't be considered every game. Think about building this as a 5th item if magic damage or kiting is a problem.

The enemy team is pretty AP heavy. Maw of Malmortius is good at allowing you to survive heavy magic burst damage. This is great against champions such as Diana, Akali, and Katarina. This is a great alternative to Shieldbow for magic damage. Consider this as a 3rd or 4th item if there is a high burst magic damage champion.

If you're going lethality kindred, this is a great choice as a first item before Duskblade of Draktharr or Youmuu's Ghostblade. If you are going lethality but you're behind, consider building Umbral Glaive before any of those items being a cheap lethality item. While giving less lethality then Ghostblade, it gives more ability haste and have a great passive to lower your Lamb's Respite by 25% for each takedown which is great if you know how to use Lamb's Repite]R correctly.

You can carry the game. Build Guardian Angel to be able to survive risky situations. This item builds from Stopwatch. You can build Stopwatch with its active, stasis, first as a weaker Guardian Angel. Consider this as a 5th item. When Guardian Angel has been proced; if you can afford it, build Death's Dance as a replacement until Guardian Angel's cooldown is up.

This is a great sustain item. For long fights, this item gives you an edge added on if you took Ravenous Hunter.

With its execute potential, this is a really good item against squishies, pairing well with kindred in general.

This is a must take on kindred as well as all crit builds. This item gives you 35% crit damage. Build this as your 3rd item if possible. Note: Never build this as your first or second item.

While not the best item for kindred, its "viable" as it gives a 75% slow on the affected champion.

Same with Stormrazor, its not the best item on kindred. However, that extra range can be great.

If you took Triumph instead of Presence of Mind as ADC, consider going this item. Its an amazing item to have as kindred, especially if you personally face mana problems when you play kindred. This item should be build as a 2nd item. Note: When you are going to build this item, build Sheen first.

This item makes kiting easier with attack speed and move speed. This is a safe choice for an item. However, prioritize situational items before building Phantom Dancer unless you are considerably ahead.

Your Attack Speed Boots. This is a solid choice. The enemy team isnt really a problem. Go Berserker's Greaves if the enemy team isnt heavy Magic Damage or Physical Damage.

Your Magic Resist Boots. Consider these boots if the enemy team is CC heavy and/or is majorly Magic Damage.

Your Armor Boots. These boots are good against Physical Damage. A solid choice as boots.

The main advantage of these boots is the slow reduction. These boots are great against Nasus, Ashe, Stormrazor, Glacial Augment.

This is a great alternative to the other boots. However, a bit troll because kindred has low enough CD for it to not be necessary. However, still a solid choice.

Precision Primary

A common keystone for kindred. Synergizes well with Mounting Dread and Kraken Slayer. Highly recommended Keystone.

A common keystone for kindred. This keystone is great for sustained duels. Conqueror has the advantage of dealing consistent damage in a fight over Press the Attack as PTA deals more burst damage to a single target. Highly recommended keystone in the jungle.

Take this in the jungle over Presence of Mind as being in the jungle provides enough mana for kindred. You will not have mana problems as kindred when you're in the jungle with Smite.

Consider taking presence of mind in lane over Triumph as you do not gain enough passively in lane. However, is still a great pick in lane.

Overheal is a waste as Triumph and Presence of Mind are better choices.

Incredibly recommended both in jungle and in lane. Having that extra attack speed feels amazing with kindred. Helps with jungle clears and trades. Highly recommended to take.

Recommended to take for the lifesteal. Pairs well with Conqueror and a better late game rune. Choose Bloodline or Alacrity based on your personal playstyle.

This is highly situational. If the enemy team is heavily CC heavy, consider taking Legend: Tenacity. However, consider taking Mercury's Treads over this rune.

These runes are highly situational. We will go over when to take these.

This rune synergizes well with Lamb's Respite. This is a generally safe choice of a rune.

Take Cut Down when they have more tanky/bruiser type enemies. Cut down does more damage to champions who have more Max Health than you do, scaling based on how much Max Health they have.

Synergizes alright with Lamb's Respite. The damage you deal scales based on your current HP; dealing the most when below 30% HP. Take this when they have heavy damage, carry champions.

Domination Secondary

This item synergizes really well with Immortal Shieldbow and Galeforce. Having this rune at max stacks reduces Galeforce's and Shieldbow's cooldown to 60 seconds.

Sustain in team fights and laning phase.

Get your ultimate faster. Great for fights and laning.

Domination Primary

I'm not an expert in Hail of Blades Kindred. I will link other guides if you're interested in this build.

A great laning keystone for short trades.

Precision Secondary

This chapter will talk about kindred's support synergies in the bot lane.

We will mainly see 3 types of support champions.

Enchanters
Enchanters keep the ADC safe with heals/shields/movement speed.

Pokers
These supports keep you safe while farming. They should poke the enemy to keep them a safe distance away from you while you farm.

Engagers
They will use a form of CC to get you a good trade. When they hit a CC, you should engage and trade with the enemy or go for all-ins.

While some supports are better than others, every support is playable with kindred with their self-peel. Its mainly knowing when to take fights and not.

A great Engager. When thresh uses Death Sentence, he will normally Flay to misposition the enemy. His Dark Passage is an amazing engage and a disengage tool. Just remember to click on the lantern. A great support choice for kindred.

Synergizes extremely well with kindred. Taric can engage from a safe distance and can get you safe with a well timed R. Taric's Cosmic Radiance also synergizes very well with kindred's Lamb's Respite if well timed, keeping you and Taric alive longer. When Taric casts his Dazzle, it will stun the enemy. This is the perfect moment to cast e on the stunned enemy and use 3 autos to proc Mounting Dread, and Press the Attack. dealing a lot of damage. However, your Taric should know the timing of Kindred's Lamb's Respite for his Cosmic Radiance to be fully effective, giving a total of 6.5 seconds of invulnerability.

An absolutely amazing support to play with. Pyke offers mispositioning with Bone Skewer and Phantom Undertow to stun the enemy. Best played as a duo for better communication. Be careful as Pyke's Death from Below anti-synergizes with Lamb's Respite.

Expect to see these champions often as they are popular picks as supports. They have great poke, peeling, and shielding. Engage when Morgana hits a Dark Binding or Soul Shackles, Lux hits a Light Binding, Lulu polymorphs and enemy with Whimsy and Glitterlance for the slow. She should use Wild Growth knocking them up and slowing them. They can negate any poke dont with healing or shielding. Generally, these are not preferred but there are really good Morganas who can decide bot lane.

A great sustainer and poker. A good early game support and can heal you with her Piercing Darkness and your Wolf's Frenzy. However, always not preferred. However, Last Embrace can be really good with its large radius, safely getting you away with Curse of the Black Mist, and securing missed kills with Dawning Shadow. With a lot of Sennas building with Glacial Augment, it makes it easier to chase down enemies in combination with Dance of Arrows. However, because senna is a marksman, she's generally better off playing with her better synergies like tanks and bruisers.

As a jungler, you should always be taking Smite. We will go over the necessities of Flash. You should always be thinking about taking Flash Smite. As an alternative, Ignite Smite; though should be rarely used.

As an ADC, you have more of a variety of options. However, you should be thinking about taking Flash Heal as your default summs.

A highly recommended Summoner Spell, the best engage/disengage Spell. Use it to chase down enemies to secure kills or escape deadly situations. You are trolling if you dont take this spell. Always think about taking this spell.

A highly recommended Summoner Spell as an ADC. Its a very safe choice in terms of Spells as it affects the closest ally, lowest HP ally, or targeted ally with a heal and speed boost. Strong consideration in general as an ADC if the support doesn't take Heal.

Recommended when against heavy CC like Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow, Morgana's Dark Binding, or Annie's Pyromania. Often unneeded but a great Spell to be safe. Consider this spell when facing Heavy CC or Undodgeable CC. Alternative to Quick SilverSash

Recommended to take when going against assassins. This Spell is meant to counter bursts. Consider this spell when support takes Heal.

A questionable Spell for Kindred. Ignite provides 60% Grievous Wounds and damage over time. When you have this spell, use this when the enemy heals. Use this spell as an alternative to Flash when jungling.

General Early Game Information

Kindred thrives at level 3. You should always look for a fight when you reach level 3. When jungling, do a three camp clear of Red Brambleback, Blue Sentinel, Gromp. This should result a clear time before 3:15. During this time, look for a gank, or invade. If you're invading, try to utilize Wolf's Frenzy's vision over walls and use Dance of Arrows to hop over walls.

With laning, always try to get level 3 before the enemy. Get the level advantage over the enemy and go all in at level 3, doing the combo in the earlier chapter. If coordinated well, this could lead to an easy kill or a really good trade.

Playing ADC

You have to stay mana conscious in lane. Try to use (Q) conservatively, only using it to disengage in trades and stay safe in lane. If your xp is close to level 3, clear your current wave and get level 3 before your enemy. You are the strongest at this stage of the laning phase.

Playing Jungle

This guide assumes you know the basics to jungling. A great jungling guide can be found here. The guide will be updated with an image of kindred's pathing this stage of the game. Kindred doesn't require a leash, but is still highly preferred. You want to start with red buff normally first, beginners can start with a bot leash, meaning you will start on the buff on the bot side. If you're starting on red buff, kite towards but not losing camp patience. If you're getting a leash, try not to kite to keep the leasher's health topped up. When they leave to farm their lane, start kiting towards blue side jungle ( Blue Buff), smiting when the buff is at or less than 450hp. You should get level 2 off of that camp. After completing the buff, go towards Blue buff, using the blast cone. Do the combo (AA)> (Q)>(AA)> (W) and then clear the camp as normal. Use the wall in the Blue buff camp and kite around the wall to stay as healthy as possible, clearing Gromp after clearing the Blue buff, which should result in a clear time before 3:15. Use this time to decide to invade, gank, or clear Greater Murk Wolf. Rift Scuttle will spawn at 3:15. There is a 50/50% chance for your mark to spawn on Top scuttle or Bot scuttle. There is No way to predict which crab the mark is going to spawn on.

Playing ADC

Keep playing safe in lane unless you're really fed. While your main source of marks are from champions, you can grab a mark from a Scuttle Crab in the bot side, Ancient Krug, Red Buff, Greater Murk Wolf, Gromp, Blue Buff by earning a takedown on that camp within 6 seconds before death to an ally. Be careful of your state of the lane, enemy laners' wave clear, and jungler position to ***es whether or not it's safe to take a mark. While your auto attack range is not bad at this stage of the game, having 4 marks is highly preferable.

Playing jungle

This is the part where most kindred players get undetermined. It's arguably the hardest part to learn on kindred. Skills required to play at this stage of the game is to:

• Track Jungle times
• Track which Enemy Jungle camps are alive and which are dead
• Track Enemy Jungler's Position
• Track Enemy Jungler's Cleared Camps
• Track Enemy Laners' Positions
• Track when your mark will spawn
• Learn which camps will be marked

While none of this is "required to know", it's still very helpful to know and dedicate learning if you want to play kindred seriously. Based on these information, you'll figure out which camps are safe to take to earn marks from. This takes a lot of practice and time to get down as second nature.

At this stage of the game, its expected that towers have fallen. Its at this stage where its decided if you've won or lost lane. As a jungler, you should keep following Early-Mid game chapter.

Playing ADC

Play like a normal ADC at this stage of the game. Roam to help your jungler or mid laner to help influence the other lanes. With your relatively high mobility, you can quickly leave and get back to lane.

At this stage, you'll be getting into more team fights. It's very important to know when to ult or not to. This takes time to learn but the best way to decide when or when not to ult is to think if you win the fight, or not.

At this stage of the game, kindred both ADC and jungle play similar, if not the same.

Go to marked camps (making sure its safe to clear) to get easy marks. You can always ask your team to help secure a mark safely. Play safe in the back line. You have the ability to save teammates or turn teamfights with Lamb's Respite. However, its a double edge sword; as it works on the enemy as well. Learning how to use (R) correctly takes experience to learn. It's not easily explainable in a guide form. Play normals and learn to make your own judgements on when to use (R).

This guide will be updated as its being worked on! Please hang in there with me! If you have any question on our eternal hunters, feel free to reach out to me! Kindred is a hard champ to get into, but can pull some rewarding plays. If you ever feel stuck, my best advice is to VOD review. Makes notes on your mistakes and best plays, see how you can improve your plays as you can always improve at any level. If you want more guides or just want Kindred Personalities, check out Forest Within (200 years guy, informational), Godly Polo(more chill, fun to watch and interact with) both NA English players.

Kindred Hail of Blades guide here

Different shields in LoL Shields