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Kindred Build Guide by

The Last Kindred Guide -in depth guide

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Kindred Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion More Kindred Guides

Spells:

Smite

Flash

Items

Start - see details

First Back

Example Core Build

Boots and enchantments

Situational

Ability Order

Kindred Passive Ability

Guide

This guide is for you to read it entirely, so make sure you are not just checking while in loadscreen (unless you are just checking item build) though I really recommend to read all of this because Kindred's build is too situational. This is not a build, this is a guide, it's for teaching you how to play Kindred and what to build on them.

IF YOU LIKE THIS GUIDE, OR IT HELPED YOU, OR IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ME, PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT, I'LL BE GLAD TO ANSWER n.n

Me

I am ASHURA379, 20 years old and playing in LAN.
Also, sorry if there is bad english, I'm not a native english speaker (or writter).

Why Kindred?

Even before the Kindred were released I was already amazed by the champ, it had everything I wanted. Constant dashes, self buffs, sustain, %friggin damage and the ult... not as good as I had expected.
Finally they came to the rift on 5.20 and at the time I was saving al my PI to buy them, but when I tried to purchase them I found that I already had them. Immediately followed by a gift receipt, my wife bught them for me with skin!!

So why them? What makes them so special?
First from now on, I'll divide the guide into 3 terms, which are for Lamb's abilities, Wolf's abilities and the combination of both.

So, why Kindred?
There is just so much to them. You have good sustain in the jungle as well as fast clear time and by the time you finish your first clear you should be at max health, with a mark, and maybe a second mark and a kill, and ready to gank.
Zoning, heals, damage, your ult... All awesome parts of the kit that sinergize so well with each other. I'll explain later.

When to play Kindred

Kindred are a very situational champion, but fairly strong. Might not be as good in late as a godyr opening the gates, but definitely stronger in early, specially fter the first clear.

They have a Malphite? No problem. They have a zed? Pff piece o' cake. Anything with finisher moves? Lets stop right there, they won't have you, or your allies.

Now, they have lots of srtong cc? An Azir? Maybe a Lee Sin? Better pick someone else.

Still, if you are plying normals and not in team builder, Ill teach you how to play against them.

Runes

When playing kindred you'll want to aplly as much damage as possible, and since your main source of damage comes from your passive apllying via auto attacks, attack speed is a must.
Also, since your passive does % health damage as Physsical damage, armor penetration is also needed.

For runes take:

x9

Now, take the AS quints, don't argue, just do. Attack speed is needed for Kindred as you need to aplly your passive's damage.

Take arpen reds, your passive deals physical damage, not true damage. So lets make it true damage!!

Armor yellows, you need to survive the jugle as well as players.

Scaling magic resist. blues, you can also take more attack speed or even flat MR, it all depends on your playstyle.

Scaling vs flat MR.
Ok, I prefer going fos scaling MR since you will not suffer much magic damage early game, and assuming you will be controlling the whole game by apllying pressure both in lanes and enemy jungle, those scaling MR Glyphs are going to scale at the same speed as your enemy AP damage dealers.

This runes will go with you perfeclty for controlling he early game. HOWEVER, if the enemy jungler is AP damage based, i'd recommend going for flat MR since you will need to survive that enemy.

Masteries

Under construction

Items

STARTING ITEMS

There are two choices here, either you go with or . Lets talk about , if you decide to start at red, you will be granted a slightly faster clearing time, but red buff doesn't give mana regen. so take it to cover that stat.

If you decide to start at blue you are bettef off starting with a to cover the dps loss of not starting at red buff.

Also you should take a as well as a if you are going to counter jungle, or a if you are planning to gank constantly.

Start making that gold shine

now, for your first back you should probably have cleared all your jungle, at least one and maybe got a second mark by killing the enemy jungler.

Buy either a or a you allways good

Skirmisher's Sabre vs Stalker's Blade

This is a simple choice. Most champions have ways of escape, and almost all AD carries have one. Lets say , , caitlin, , you get my point. If the enemy team consists mostly of champion very capable of escaping a gank, take .

All tanks build... all good tanks will build armor, too bad, that won't work.
ARPEN... close your eyes and let that sink in your mind for a moment... ready? Now open your eyes, those probably brown precios gems and let them shine in the realization of what you just read.

Let me explain: every point of armor, reduces the damage (health reduction) that the user takes by 0.5, in other words, if that top has 100 armor, it will recieve 50% less damage.
Now, let's talk about arpen...

In League of Draven there are two ways of "reducing or ignoring" an enemy unit's armor.
The first one being armor penetration and the other being armor reduction.
Lets say that annoying in bot lane is lvl 3, therefore she has 24 armor, plus those 9 armor seals that she probably has in her runepage for a total of 33 armor.
Also she should have 621 health at level 3, also, she probably bought a that's 80 health, for a total 701 health

You as Kindred at lvl 3 have 57 AD, you have starting jungle items, but they offer no damage to champions, and one that is 1.25% of the target's current health asphysical damage.

if you autoattack that vayne you will fire an arrow that deals 57 damage, plus your passive that would apply 8.7625 damage, for a total of 65.7 damage (supposing she is at full health) with no health buffs or anything. Enters armor. with 33 armor vayne would recieve 48.8 damage. Now, let's say you have those sweet arpen red runes, that is 11.25 of arpen.
This means that your attacks ignore 11.52 of 's armor.
Lets simplify has 33 armor, but your attacks consider it to be 21.52, in other words, that 48.8 health reduction (damage after armor math) is now 53.7 health red. That is a 5 health difference, maybe it is not much when you look at the numbers, but it's something good. Now imagine yourself with a build full of arpen and armor reduction, as well as some good stacks of your passive. NOW THAT'S DAMAGE

And what is even better is that this damage mutipliers are not only for fragile champs, because you do the same damage to tanks. It matters not how much armor they build or how much health they have, your damage will drain the same % of health from their life bars. (as log as you have arpen)

When attacking, armor penetration and armor reduction are considered in the following order:

1.- Armor reduction, flat
2.- Armor reduction, percentage
3.- Armor penetration, percentage
4.- Armor penetration, flat

Now, armor penetration can get total armor to 0, but not lower, hoverer, armor reduction can.

Now back to Skirmisher's Sabre

If the enemy tanks have tons of armor (like they should), and I am saying that you know that those guys will be unkillable even for you and your arpen, then you take for it's active makes your next autoattacks deal true damage. If you don't fully understand why to pick this that means you skipped the text above. I know it's kinda long and boring, but it is perfectly explained.

THE GREAT WAR

There are records of a great war, long forgotten posts on the internet all arround reddit and lol boards, as well as discussions in mobafire, that date of ancient times up until now, and you can see what is formerly known as (named by me) The Great Enchantment War

people will say: "devourer is **** it got nerfed, warrior is better" "warrior is **** it got nerfed, devourer is better"

All is true, but people decide on one. DON'T DO THAT
OK, both statements are true, latest change to makes it's passive apply only every 4th attack for ranged champions, so it's a lack of damage for Kindred. But still, it is a good enchantment when youn need to apply 's damage to take down tanks. Also on latest patch rift's herald no longer gives 5 stacks of sated devourer.

As for , it is definetely better for early game, because of the damage. Yeah it no longer giver arpen, but still good.

Lets get this clear, once and for all...
is for when the opposing team has many tanks and not hyper carries. They are tanks, they dont deal that much damage (sometimes). yeah, they can kill you, but not as fast as a pressing [supr] on her keabord and dissapearing you out of the game, just to reapper on to find

What are you talking about Ashura? We don't understand your bad jokes...
OK, lemme explain. when sated devourer will award you the happiness of having a free utoattack every 4 attacks after sating it for a long time. Much like Leo's Oscar. This extra attack will aply your passive damage, plus the attack speed that you so much need to take tanks out. So it is better for taking out tanks than .

Now, this enchantment is different, it will give you 60 AD as well as 10% CDR This lets you use your abilities more often. Also, those 60 AD are good for taking out squishies fast. Take when the enemy team has many squishies and none or one tank, unless they have hyper tanks with huge shield and hard CC like or

LETS TALK CORE BUILD

So for the main items, aside from your jungle item, which should be finished as fast as possible and your tier 1 boots, here is what to build and when and why.

is an item I find buying most of the time as and aplly it's armor reduction passive as well as your autos. It also gives you %20 CDR and some life which is always good, specially when fighting tanks 1v1. AND it gives you the passive which gives you movement speed whwnever you hit something. Using this item will help you a lot when taking out AD carries, kiting, escaping as well as chasing.

Now, I don't find much use in this item as it gives you the same as your passive. HOWEVER it gives you attack speed, doubles your passive at 5 stacks, and an awesome active that helps you kite and catch. I'd recommend it only for tanks, as you can melt any squishy in a matter of seconds without this item, but for tanks, it gives you sustain for their damage.

Rock you like a hurricane. This item gives you a HUGE attack speed steroid, the crit is really a wasted stat unless you have 40 marks in your passive and a 100% crit chance as well as tons of arpen. Also there is the passive which does apply your passive's % health damage to multiple targets. Take this against tanks.

Survival survival, survival. This item increases your base AD which is nice, but the most important things in this are the health and shield. If you combine this with a you will be nearly unkillable while dealing tons of damage, zize increase is irrelevant, but the shield that scales with 30% of your max HP will let you survive moments when you thought you were dead as well as assassins, and while the shield is up, you gain an adittional 25% increase in your base damage so it's a really nice item for trading with anyone and kiting.

You shouldn't really get this item at all (for MR check malmortius), the only time when it is viable is when the enemy team has a suppressor champion such as or , and only if your support doesn't get a (which he should) or is a potato and doesn't use it.

blood thirster Lifesteal, not an awesome item, sustain shield, yeah, stuff. Buy against someone that deals damage over time or built a against fed you.

Holy mother of bacon. There are 3 items that make an excellent synergy just by themselves. and . They have a super fed zed that is 5 levels higer than you and is selling and buying the same items because he can't spend more gold in the shop? you can survive his ult without even using your ult. You see, this item makes 15% od the damage dealt tou you to stop and become damage over time. Lets say that Zed ulted you, life from , life and shield from and the DoT from you will survive zed's mark going off and have time to get a shield or a heal. nice item vs assassins. Also reaches 40% CDR at this moment you will be spamming skills.

Attack speed, arpen, kiting active, almost a part of Kindred's core. this lets you win a 1v1 ttrade with an enemy carry who is going better than you.

Life, AD and a kiting passive, pretty nice if you are falling behind, or they have a bruiser that is not very mobile.

This items are beautiful. They ignore up to 45% of the enemy's armor BEFORE arpen if you hit a 100 armor with this item and a , a and a you will leave him with -5 armor, which will be 0 armor since none of this items reduce armor, they just ignore it........ WAIT WHAT? That is dealing true damage!!! Yes it is.

Don't build this ****, if the enemy team was full of squishies, and you bought a for the incresed base damage and your rune and mastery pages was full of AD buffs this would be viable.

ALSO YOUR PASSIVE IS NOT BASE DAMAGE

Boots

core item, no more to say. attack speed. nice. go kill someone.

even after the nerf, theese are still OP. Put your greaves in the trash can and take this if the enemyy team has little to no CC.

Skill Sequence

About when you clear half your jungle, Wolf will mark a random enemy jungle camp, this can be Wraiths, Wolfs, Small golems, or Grump. it can also happen in the rift scuttlers. once you reach 6 marks, wolf will feel so OP that he will mark the Rift's Herald, or Baron.
Tip. if you kill or get an assist on a marked enemy champion and get your 6th mark, the jungle marked camp will not go unmarked, so you can take that for a 7th mark before it dissappears.

Q this is your main damage skill, you are going to spamm it six days to sunday. Use this for engaging, escaping, jumping through walls, kiting, moving, drinking a cup of tea... Also, the CD of this spell is reduced from 9 secs to 2 secs if you ae inside wolf's frenzy MAX THIS FIRST SINCE IT IS YOUR MAIN DAMAGE OUTPUT

W Wolf decides to do something and marks a circle around Lamb. This circle is Wolf's territory and the circle will not move, but you can move inside of it. As long as you stay inside the circle your will be on a 2 second cooldown. If you have 9 or less seconds till you can use your Q again, entering (creating) the circle will reduce it to 2 secs instantly, also, if you use your Q to leave the circle, the 2sec CDR still apllies. While inside the circle, Wolf will attack the last unit you autoattacked constantly, untill you change target. If you had no target Wolf will attack at random, and sometimes not attack at all. Wolf's damage is equal to a ****ty scale of your AD and half your passive damage, he also gets Lamb's attack speed. Wolf's attacks apply stacks of the armor reduction debuff. MAX THIS SECOND FOR HE DAMAGE, ALSO, START WITH THIS

This skill does pretty damage, it lacks AD scalling, but the 5% mas HP damage is nice. You want to use this spell for slowing enemies as well to finish them. MAX THIS LAST

This skil is both the greatest spell in Lamb's arsenal, and her strongest weakness. I'll explain later

Ganking

Wel, I'm not here to teach you how to play League of Legends, but a champion. So you should know the basics of jungling and ganking, ward placement, counter vision, etc.

When you are ganking you want to run as close as possible to the enemy you want to kill. Once you are close, start with be sure to use this gap closer, not to get into reach of the enemy, but to get between them and their tower, cast and immediately after . All of this can be done in mid-air after you cast Q and before landing. This way you will place an area of doom from which the enemy can't escape. Start spamming your to keep sticked to the enemy. this way you will enseure to apply the 3 attacks to apply the damage from your E as well as making the enemy take full damage of your W. Kill for sure.
OH, counter ganked? Easy stuff.
Kindred are one of the strongest if not the strongest champion at lvl 3, because you can do so much damage to a single target and a strong damage to multiple enemies. Disgusting.
I will upload a video of a gank, whenever I can record a match.
Once you hit level 6, you will (should) have available. This skill can make you gank bot lane 1v2 and towerdive and get one or two kills, even if the enemy jungler counter ganks you.

Ability usage teamfights and escaping/ chasing

is one of the most powerfull skills in the game (when used correctly) Lets say an assassin tried to 100-0 you, someone like or . Most people when playing assassins will try to delete a champ and then run, actually this way of playing helps you a lot. They go all in on you, use your ult, save yourself. By the time you get to 10% HP, you won't go ny lower, so you won't die to the burst, and the enemy should have wasted all their mobility. now you are inside your ult, and the enemy is not. attack them from inside your ult, you won't die, but they can, and they can't get inside of it because all mobility skills have been wasted, also, they can't escape once you follow your attacks, with a full combo.

puts down an area of detruction, chaos and mayhem, much like highschool. You see, Wolf will attack constantly, and without suffering any damage.
just placing the circle will start dealing a lot of damage over time. Enemies don't relize this, but when wolf comes down to play, you are now 2 champions. Wolf has his own damage and attack speed, and even when he cannot cast skills, he does damage depending on you, think of Wolf as a well farmed, but not fed AD carry who is intargetable and keeps DPSing all over the enemy's face. Oh really? wow, it is like having two good carries in the game!!
Wolf deals a little more than half Lamb's damage.

Now, let's talk movement. you main source of movement while in a fight is kiting, and your main source of kiting is your it is not only a dash, but also an attack that applies damage.

In a teamfight get close with followed up by and get back to your backline with another , from there keep yourself within range of wolf's frensy and spam danc of arrows, you don't need to cast since you shouldn't kill anyone there. IN TEAMFIGHTS YOU ARE NOT AN ASSASSIN, BUT AN AD CARRY, so stay back and deal damage as you can without exposing yourself too much since your range is kinda ****py... If the enemy gets close to you remember that you have two dance of arroows on low cooldown. Dont ever doubt to leave your wolf's frenxy when thing get tight. use your to jump away from and use it again as needed.

When escaping or chasing keep always in mind that has a low cooldown when inside so cast Q and in mid air cast W so the low CD apllies to Q, Q again to get closer, or make distance, after the second Q you should still be inside your W, so use Q once more to get out of W and one more to go even farther. after this it will go on a 9 sec CD so be carefull. Also, dont waste time to cast E since the slow is not of much help as you have a cast animation that stops you and leaves you open to the enemy to catch up.

When to ult?
When you tower dive and you know you can get to safety. If you tower dive, try to place your between the tower and the opposing wall since the enemy is most likely to be there. Once you recieve enouh damage use your ult. However, use your ult only when you know you can escape without recieving a tower hit after the heal applies, or even before it. the important part of your ult is that it works much like 's ult, he heal is not that important. So make sure that after killing or deciding to retreat, the tower hits you and immediately after use Q to get out of tower range, even if the heal has not applied. If you are towerdiving like this, that means you are not in lategame, so you won't be able to stand one tower hit at 10% HP.
Now, when ulting teammmates, ult one ONLY when you know they will survive after the heal.
If dives one of your allies, wait untill your teammate is out of the enemy's reach and then ult, it is better to save one ally than to use it on the entire ally team on a teamfight, since the enemy team can use it for their advantage.
Also, when you are 1v1 or 1v2 carries, use your ult to survie the damage. Carries will most of the time not get inside of your ukt, since they are ranged, fragile, and are afraid of you casting .

Summary

Over-all, Kindred are a very strong champion, with one of the best early games, and one of the strongest champions at low level because of their level 3 huge power spike. They are a champion with high mobility who can outtrade anyone in the game. However They are very susceptible to CC if the enmy has one hard CC champ such as you will be fine if you save your ult for that, but if they have more, then Kindred is not such a good option.

Ranked Play

I am writting this guide at work, so I don't have my match history at hand, but will upload it soon. The "strong" champions right now have no way to beat Kindred, since their kit is so unique. Play safe, max your map awareness skills, ward, and go agressive when you can do it and return to safety without any problems. Don't try to outsmart the enemy and don't pripritize the passive marks. I finish most of my games with 6-10 marks. Don't risk yourself for a mark.
One mor thing, DO NOT engage 1v2 pre level 6, specially at lvl 3 or before, you can't 1v2 w/o your ult and you can't 1v1 without lvl 3.
By following this rules I win 3-4/5 of my games.

Jungling / controlling the map

I recomend you start at small golems > red > wolves > blue > gank, but don't over extend since you do little damage and provide no utility. Just go and apply pressure, and if the enemy is a potato, get a kill.

The first mark will often appear in a , like 5/7 games, go for it after your first large camp if you know the enemy jungler is on the other side of the mid lane, if not, or not sure, finish your jungle, and if it is still available, go for it.

Always mark the enemy jungler at the begining of the game. Why?
1.- The mark will tell him you are coming for his rear, so he will be less likely to invade your jungle.
2.- He will be afraid to die to you so you can take a free if it is marked, and probably take them both, even if they are not marked, because the enemy jungler doesn't want to give you your first mark.
3.- Hope that the first mark is on a if the enemy thinks he is god, he will go for your mark, and try to kill you. But you are a lvl 3 Kindred, so smite the at the right moment and go all-in on the enemy jungler. HOWEVER if you see the midlaner, or the lane you are closest to to have enmies missing, get out. Try to finish quick and get out, it normally takes like 5 seconds since the MIA for the enemy to arrive at your location.
4.- The first mark is soooo important, since This will be half your damage output at the early game, but don't risk yourself. If the enemy jungler takes a marked camp, you will know where he is as the mark will dissappear, just measure half a side of the river in distance from the mark when it dissapears, using the radius, trace a circle, that is where he is. Use this to your advantage instead of going for marks that require you to go near the enemy base. You will die.
5.- If you see the enemy jungler gank top, get dragon or a mark that is far away from him. Same goes for botlane.

If you want easy marks, mark the enemy squishies and whoever is having a bad day, make that one player your ***** and farm farm farm. (your marks)

Mind controlling marks

Riot said that the is useful for playing with your enemies minds. This is only true if you are fed, controlling the map, and ganking two lanes at the same time.

And please, when you teamfight, dont do and try to kill the one that has your mark. You will die and do nothing and probably waste your mark aiding the enemy team.
Just play like an ordinary AD carry and hit anythng you can from behind your tank(s)

Get some friggin gwards for god's sake, and place them in the enemy jungle, also smite his wolves whenever you can.

Tip, if you go and kill the herald for your 7th mark or something, take 2v1, ask the top laner to help you, and give it to him. YOU GET YOUR MARK, SO GIVE IT TO YOUR TOP LANER, DON'T BE A DOUCHE, YOU DON'T EVEN NEED IT. Attack the herald from behind when its eye is opened. This does true damage... a lot of true damage to it.

Vision

The most important thing in the game, and even more for the jungler.
Vision in the enemy jungle will tell you when you can risk diving that duo bot without dying to a counter gank.
Vision in the enemy jungle will let you have as many marks of as you wish, thanks to the enemy jungler dying to you.
Vision of the enemy jungle, secures dragon even more than just warding the dragon pit.
Since there are now warding limits and no more green wards and pinks can be found... get the the vision is always good.