Hi, my name is KudØs and I'm a player from the EUW server, actually ranked at Platinum V (~25 games) who has been playing almost since season 3. This is my second guide and you all can see my first guide here: Vi's guide.

I also want to say that english is not my native language (I'm Spanish) so feel free to comment or let me know every spelling mistake, formatting problems or whatever you want, I will appreciate the support.

This is my second guide and it's about a champion i love so i think that i can help a lot of players that would like to test her, because she is not like a conventional jungler. In this guide you will find info both about how to play kindred and how to play as a jungler in general.

I've already said the same in my other guide but this guide is not focused on high elo(master/challenger) player tips but i think the rest would find it usefull because you can learn some things about smart pathing/tempo or even tips about kindred's mechanics.

In this section of the guide i will start saying that kindred has tons of differents playstyles including different combinations of runes and builds. In the whole guide including this current section i will explain in deepth the runes i'm actually playing and i like the most but also will explain quickly another viable combinations.

In my favorite setup, i find like Precision is the best main path providing attack speed as a passive stat and provide the best keystone for kindred Press the Attack.


Keystone: Press the attack

Press the attack is best damage focus rune for a DPS based champion specially if u are ranged. It deals a small amount of damage when u land ur 3 autoaatack on a champion, helping with the burst in early levels and amplifies the damage that you and your partners deal to that objective by a 8-12%. As kindred you will build a lot of attack speed so you normally are going to land a lot of autoattacks on a champion and this is the best keystone for that. Fleet Footwork is just viable as a laner, Conqueror doesn't work well as a ranged champ and i feel like Lethal Tempo is simply not a good keystone.


1st secondary rune: Triumph

The typical rune everyone use when you choose Precision as a path. It grants when u achieve a takedown a little extra gold and heals you a % of your missing health, that is the reason why everyone use it. It's excellent for taking extra risks in teamfights, dives or being aggresive in the early skirmishes.


2nd Secondary rune: Legend: Bloodline

The 3 in this tier are simply the same. One grants extra attack speed, one some life steal and the other one some tenacity. Legend: Alacrity is the most common of the 3 but as a kindred you will have enough attack speed with your Q + Items so the extra life steal is going to be our way to go.


3rd Secondary rune: Last stand

When i started playing kindred i used to play with Coup de Grace the more typical rune in this tier, and probably the best if you are going to play with the typical adc build i showed you in the building section. But the fighter playstyle im playing right now, is about more specific conditions and here is why Last Stand is our choice.
Coup de Grace helps ending enemies but adcs normally don't have problems with that isntead of that last stand increase the damage we deal to all the enemies(not just the almost dead ones) when you are low hp. As kindred you have an ultimate that helps you survivng low hp so this rune is excellent for that, you will have a lot of times the extra damage this rune provides.

Now we have to choose the secondary path. Domination would be a great choice specially because Sudden Impact but im playing right now with Resolve.


1st Secondary rune: Chrysalis

I'm gonna be honest with you, i feel like this rune is pretty weird but it isn't as bad as it looks. It gives a small amount of hp for being healthier in the pathing or surviving a gank. When you get 4 takedowns it turns into 9 AD with is a simply stat but it isnt'bad at all.


2nd Secondary rune: Revitalize

This rune is the main reason of why we are using Resolve. It amplifies all our life steal (rune+items) and the healing of Lamb's Respite for you and your allies. It's a support rune but it's incredible.

To end this section we will talk a bit about the changes. Going into Domination + Precision would be the other interesting setup with Dark Harvest as the keystone. Inspiration is just bad as kindred for either main or secundary path and Sorcery isn't bad for a secondary path combined with Domination or Precision is just a matter of what you like the most.

Passive: Mark of the Kindred

One of the funniest passives in the game because a lot of kindred's gameplay is based on it. You earn marks when u kill the objectives randomly marked by your wolf or the enemy you mark and the more mark you have the more range you and your abilities will have(like tristana) and the more damage your abilities will deal. It's simply but you would need a good planification and tons of games to excel on that, but don't make this minigame is the only thing you do in the game! You shouldn't break your pathing and walk half the map for trying to get one mark.See further information in the pathing/playstyle section.


Q: Dance of Arrows

The main ability in her kit, and the funnier one. The ability is pretty simple, dashes in a direction, gifts extra attack speed and deals damage to 3 objectives. This ability is great mainly because the combo it has with Kindred's W Wolf's Frenzy that reduces the ability cooldown to almost nothing. See further info in the Combo's section.


W: Wolf's frenzy

The best ability for a quick pathing and jungle clearing, because it deals damage in an area for 8.5 seconds, halves damage/attack speed of monsters and halves the Dance of Arrows cooldown.


E: Mounting Dread

Mark and enemy and deal damage when u manage to land ur 3 attack to the marked enemy, it also slows briefly the objective. The most usefull tool for ganks, letting u catch and burst the objectives and good for 1vs1 granting a nice amount of extra damage.


R: Lamb's Respite

The game changing ability in kindred's kit. It doesn't allow to be below 10% hp for anyone in the area and all units in there are healed for a small amount of health. Usefull for keeping u alive and outplay the enemies in 1vs1 or skirmishes and also great to help ur allies to not vanish. The bad part of it is that it also save enemies so you have a powerfull tool but you need to use it wisely.

Further information of how to use this kit properlly will be explained in the combos' section.

Kindred is a simple character because most of the adcs are designed this way but there are different ways of using your abilities based on the situation.

Simple combo (Cleaning Jungle)

Dance of Arrows + Wolf's Frenzy + Dance of Arrows...

This is the usual and simplier combo of Kindred and the one you are using to clean properly the jungle (normally using Mounting Dread in camps is kinda odd). You use your Dance of Arrows to dash towards an enemy then you use Wolf's Frenzy to deal damage to the enemy and lowering your Dance of Arrows cooldown, using it almost when you have it to kite the enemy and deal more damage + attack speed steroid.
Normally try to land the first Q to an enemy but you sometimes need to dash + Mounting Dread to just be able to catch the enemy.

Gank combo

Simple combo + Mounting Dread + Mark of the Kindred

The combo is almost the same but u use Mounting Dread to amplify the damage dealt and slow the target. Normally you have to mark the enemy before the gank to gain a free stack.

Using Lamb's Respite

The use of Lamb's Respite is probably a difficult part of playing kindred. You have to decide quickly when u don't need to use it risking your own life or your teammates' or when you should use it saving an enemy but without taking risks. Also when you got caught the easiest way to escape is walking near a wall using the ultimate there and when it's almost gone using Dance of Arrows or Flash to escape through the wall.

Starting items

+

Our everygame start. Provides a good among of sustain in the jungle and Hunter's Machete is the best option for champions that clear the camps in early with a lot of auto attacks and attack speed. The Refillable Potion without upgrading it will be enough to keep us in the jungle in the early game so we dont have to spend any money in buying potions.

Core Items and their possibles replacements



Here we start with the differents setups available as kindred but i'm going to explain why i prefer some and then the replacements. Bloodrazor is the way to go when u play kindred with the Press the Attack keystone, because helps activating it and the same with Mounting Dread. If you are playing with Dark Harvest you should build Warrior. Skirmisher's sabre is the best item for duelist as kindred cause helps in 1vs1 amplifying your damage and reducing the income.



In this build as a second item you need a life steal one, helping with the 1vs1 and adding survavility and that's all you need as kindred. The one i like the most is Death's dance because it gives a lot of ad and reduce the income of burst specially vs assassins(I have never seen one in SoloQ). If the enemy team have hard cc build Mercurial Scimitar instead or Blade of the Ruined King if they have 2 stacking hp tanks.



The most powerful boots right now, and a must if they have one AA oriented champion on top of their ADC (Yi, Jax, Irelia, Corki/Lucian mid...). In other cases I almost everytime go for Mercury's Treads. Berserker's Greaves also can be an option in specific situations when you are ahead and want to deal more damage but reducing survavility.



The other must item in kindred's build because is the better attack speed items for 1vs1 or skirmishes. It simple gives you AS, some crit chance and reducing again the damage income so it fits perfect in our build. If you go for the critical build instead of it you will build Statikk Shiv + Rapid Firecannon.

Deffensive items



When you have built the core items you will probably need one of this to help with the surviving in mid/late game fights. I almost always go for Maw of Malmortius, because it helps insanely to survive vs heavy ap damage dealers or tank's burst. Guardian angel are a better choice if u are the winning condition of your team.

Other usefull items



You can build almost everything in kindred because the builds are totally up to you. If you feel like you want to deal more damage Infinity Edge is the perfect final item for your build (Core item in the critical setup) and Lord Dominik's Regards is perfect when they have tanks that have stacked tons of armor. Other items like Bloodthirster or even the Frozen Mallet are usefull items for more specific games.

As a summary the best way of building kindred properly is knowing what you need next in the specific game you are playing. To be honest i change my builds a lot based on the game.

Kindred is a jungler that follow the standard pathing but you need to improvise a bit due to Mark of the Kindred.

My way to go is doing Blue>Wolves>Red without using smite and saving it for crab fighting. If the crab in the redside is the one with the mark it's perfect if not at least take it. Then you have strong ganks due to the fact that an adc with red in early game is totally deadly adn maybe you can get a takedown for free or at least a Flash. If your aim is ganking try to mark quickly in the game one of the victims you can reach after taking the crab. If you don't find an easy gank then is acting like a normal jungler with a clean pathing and invading the enemy jungler when you see the other jungler ganking. Kindred has decent 1vs1 when u master her so try to abuse that fact.

After the first levels is just doing the same, marking the enemies you think you can shutdown before the gank, and trying to get all the marks you can but without destroying your pathing. It's better to clean 2 campaments and maybe invading one of the enemies instead of just walking half of the map for a one mark possibility.

In my other guide I also explain some typical jungler tips and ways to do a decent pathing so check it if you are interested in it (Or comment in the guide/PM me).

If you reached here I'm really glad you liked my guide and I hope it can help everyone of you a bit either in how to play kindred or how to be a jungler. I would appreciate all teh feedback you can give me so feel free to comment/PM for my fails or questions you want to ask me. Also if you think i forgot any section or you want me to explain something more in deep let me know.

I think i have said it but you can also add me if u play in EUW adding Kudos. I can answer all of you want and maybe playing some games with you, I'm almost everyday online.