Blah, blah, blah peaked at Gold 2 in Season 7. Ended up in Gold 5 in Season 8. Flirting with like a 48% win rate in Season 9 even though I've got a pretty good win rate on a handful of champions, though some of those are ADCs as I got so frustrated with my Bot lanes getting stomped that I switched to that role for a while. Climbed a bit and then realized that it was such a **** shoot as to they quality of your support that it wasn't worth maining the role in Silver.

Season 7 I mostly played Shyvana and she isn't sitting in a horrible spot at the moment. Around a 50% winrate IIRC. Before the Kindred spam, I tried a couple of games with Shy using the Press the Attack rune path. Ran over one game and lost the next two when none of my laners managed to get a lead on their own. Having about 0 gank potential feels like a rather big liability at the moment.

And I realized that I really should try the advice of just sticking with one champion and learning all their ins and outs come what may. My goal is Platinum 4, but the main point of this exercise is giving an honest go at seeing if I can improve my ability to climb by focusing on one champion exclusively.

Why Kindred?
    Good but not so good that they are drawing bans
    Hate dealing with their marks when I'm playing vs. them, so if I'm playng them I only have to worry about obtaining the marks.
    1v9 potential if you can get a lead
    ADC so if you get one of those wonky comps with no ranged champions at least you are playing a ranged character
    Potenially third highest range in the game (okay, that is extremely unlikely, but the potential is there)
    Execute built into kit
    Ability to dodge skill shots if you are aware and savvy with your Q usage.
    Marks are a built in get on the other team's nerves taunt.
    Pretty darn good at chasing if you use your abilities correctly.
    Ranged so it is safer to defend/hold turrets than it is with a melee champion
    Ability to go through thinner walls (terrain scaling)

I'm still monkeying around with rune pages. Conqueror seems to be the preferred keystone at the moment. I've tried a little Press the Attack and lately I've been trying Phase Rush. Not sure which one is truly better or if I need to tailor my runes to the particular game as Credenda (high ELO Jayce main) suggests is a requirement for playing at a high level this season.

Item path is also in question.

But that I think is one of the interesting thing. Can I get the point where I know what is going to work in a particular game?

E.g.
    All squishies with high mobility?
Phase Rush + Enchantment: Warrior.
    Tank AF?
Conqueror + Enchantment: Bloodrazor
    Mixed comp where I think we'll be teamfighting a lot?
Press the Attack + ???


Champions that I've had some trouble with
Ryze - point and click + Q spam no bueno (but looks like this may be getting changed)
Nocturne - hard to duel pre-ult
Jax - dunno, because he is who I've been banning
Rammus - I've seen Kindred's take the dillo down in the early game, but I failed when I tried it. Forest Within suggests Legend: Tenacity + Black Cleaver, which I've tried and it does make this matchup more manageable because you can walk away from the taunt before you kill yourself AAing him.
Vi - Depends on if she tries to Q you or just ults you. You can dodge the Q, but you can't dodge the ult.
Tristana - Has the tools she needs to peel you off of herself and can knock you out of your ult.
Zed - I think I need to ult just before their mark pops and this will work out better, because if you ult too soon it will time out before the mark pops. Good Zed's will try to combo you to force you to ult and only ult you in turn toward the end of of your ultimate. Ninja Tabi and Challenging Smite and possibly Phantom Dancer are you friends when dealing with him.
Kled - Honestly just think i was playing this wrong, but I had some trouble when I tried ganking him so will put him on the list
Teemo - You pretty much have to have Quicksilver Sash to kill him and if you can't burst him quickly he'll just run away and try to path you through shrooms to slow you down.
Hecarim - probably will just maul your entire team if he gets a lead. If he is running Ignite he will win every trade after his first back. Try to kill him early as he does get low in the jungle unless he uses the raptor + Hunter's Talisman interaction and if he is trying to juggle that and Red Buff he is vulnerable.
Urgot - Hard to deal with if they have a lead. And he can pull you out of your ult.
Diana - If fed can blow you up even if you have a Maw of Malmortius. But you should be able to nullify her with Maw of Malmortius and Challenging Smite and kiting her out. #getgoodXD Tried this match-up again and she just overkills you until you get enough items to deal with her burst. Don't facecheck her and dodge her Q.
Amumu - Maybe need to try to brutalize him early. He is strong enough at my ELO right now that he is problematic. He farms your raptors and krugs faster than you do early game so if you go for a gank on the opposite side of the map while they are up be mindful that you could end up behind overall. Oh you also have to watch what you are standing next to when playing him as you may dodge his Q, Bandage Toss, but if he hits something nearby and you are close enough he can still ult you.
Nasus - Wither is brutal, especially given the single target damage that the dogge can put out if he gets on top of you. Best to tackle him in a group with some CC, but if you have to try to kill him before you are itemized to the hilt put your W, Wolf's Frenzy, behind you so you can kite away from him. #getgoodXD
Yasuo - Wind Wall, need I say more? It really depends on how fed they are if there are minions around. Since you can Q dash through his Windwall you have some options, but his kit just lends itself to a high level of frustration when playing against it.
Olaf - Specifically don't try to facetank Olaf. You want to keep him at range at all times in order to kite him and dodge his Qs. If he gets on top of you before you can stat check him in the late game you are dead. Some Olaf's get themselves really low on their first jungle clear in order to clear faster. He is vulnerable if he does that, however remember that he has crazy attack speed so try to catch him when he is on a camp and has his abilities on cooldown. Executioner's Calling can be helpful vs him and is an excellent and likely required choice if they have any other champs with strong healing on their team.


Well that is all for now. If I get far enough into this experiment, perhaps I will create a guide. There is at least one decent one on the site for jungle Kindred, but I feel like some important thought processes in the usage of their abilities are lacking even in that guide.

Or maybe I just end up spamming Hecarim. We'll see. XD