Kindred Jungle Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities

Kindred is one of the best snowballing champs in the game, along with Draven and Rengar, it can adapt to the team's needs, scales really well in late aswell as being super strong early.

Kindred is not particularly hard mechanically, 10-15 games of practice should be enough to understand your skillshots and combos, but it is harder to learn the positioning, trading, and general role in fights. Kindred AD's main role is to be an aggressive marksman with built-in survivability, and mobility, that melts both frontlines and backlines.

1. Pros

• Good early and late game
• High tempo
• High skill ceiling
• Good damage and utility for your team

2. Cons

• Very situational
• Countered by most of the jungle champs
• Useless when behind
• Hard to master

• W + Q + E + AA + AA + AA + Q + AA: Your mid range Standard Gank Combo is W Q E AA one after another as quickly as you can, followed by some AAs until your Q is up again.
• E + AA + W + Q + AA + AA + AA + Q + AA: To quickly proc your E lead with E AA instantly then W Q AA. Follow up with two AAs and Q AA right after.
• W + AA + Q + AA + E + AA + AA + Q + AA: Your standard melee range Gank Combo W AA instantly then Q AA E. Follow with two AAs and Q AA right afterwards to execute.
• W + E + Q + AA + AA + AA + Q + AA: When you want to combo quicker W then E Q instantly followed by three AA's. Q AA to finish up.
• Q + FLASH + R: When saving an ally who is far away Q, then right at the end of your jump Flash and instantly R.
• FLASH + Q + W + E + AA + AA + AA + Q + AA: To quickly engage Flash then instantly Q W E AA as quickly as you can. Follow up with two more AAs and Q AA.
• W + E + FLASH + AA + Q + AA + AA + AA + Q + AA: To ensure people can't escape after you hard engage W then E Flash instantly to AA Q. Continue to AA until your Q is up, then AA again.
• R + AA + E + AA + AA + Q + AA: To execute someone after you ult R AA then E, followed by exactly two AA's. As your R ends Q AA to execute.

The marks is what makes Kindred unique compared to other junglers. These are very valuable to play for and will help you snowball alot. Your powerspike is at 4 marks since it provides 75 attack range which has the most value. When marking a champion it takes 8 seconds for it to apply before you can claim it so keep that in mind when going for a gank(mark if you have 8 seconds to kill the laner).

Just always mark jungler at the start of the game until you find another target.

• Q is an AA reset
• Use your E on enemies below 50% hp for the execute damage
• Your W slows camps making it easier to kite them
• Can jump over small walls with your Q
• Your R can be used to try steal drakes and barons by R'ing at the smite threshold to make the enemy jungler waste smite so you can steal it after the ult runs out.
• Can place your W inside bushes and over walls for vision.
• Think ahead of time when placing your W meaning think where the enemies will walk towards to get the most amount of wolf bites as possible and allowing you to get more Q uptime since using Q inside your W will half the CD.

1. Early game

Early game has to be your full-focus concentration point.

First thing you do when you arrive in-game: mark their ADC. Each time you get a successful hunt or you think the support is more vulnerable because he has no flash or is more squishy, mark him. Alternate your two targets in lane, if you get two successful hunts in a row, mark the jungler, until you reach mid-game and can go back to normal hunting. As botlane is a very active lane, you should be getting at least 2/3 marks in the first 10 minutes from the enemy botlane.

Kindred's level 1 is rather weak compared to most ADCs. His range is short and even with his Q and good AA resets, he often loses short trades taken early on. His level 3 however, beats any other ADC's level 3. That being said, you do have a range disadvantage and supports and waves exist so, it's really game dependent whether you want to engage into extended fights (3 autos in your case) or keep it safe. You can also harass the support if he comes too close of their ADC when he's going for a minion. It's important you get some experience in to know exactly how much damage you deal at every point of the game.

With the korean hardcore setup, you want to be really aggressive, engaging in a trade every 8 seconds once you've past your level 3, you'll be winning as long as you respect the 3-golden rules of ADC trading: MINIONS (your positioning and you target's in relation to minions) -JUNGLER (consider the enemy jungler's last position and if the enemies could be trying to bait you here) - COOLDOWNS (What are your cooldowns, your support's and your enemies'? How long should you trade for?). Once you begin thinking about these things in laning phase, you'll win a lot more lanes and games.

With the regular setup, you want to apply the same golden rule, take trades when the possibility shows: their positioning mistakes or wave opportunities. However, you don't want to force anything which could put you in danger. You're aiming for a more secure, controlled scaling through minions and pressure. Of course, like any ADC, you should react to your support or jungler's actions and act accordingly. You are a super strong champ which makes any lane you're in a kill lane. After all, kindred's real name is Death.

Your back timing is quite vague: Between 875 and 1300 gold. This can depend on a number of factors such as kills, minions and also depend on which setup you're going. For the aggressive setup, you'd ideally want a 1300 gold to buy Noonquiver, whereas you only want a Caulfield's Warhammer for the regular setup. Pay attention to that and don't stay in lane with too much gold. You have enough waveclear to not be pushed in even against a sivir or trist. Make sure you concentrate on farming throughout laning phase as a priority.

If you can grab the scuttle crab, with your jungler or just before backing, get it. The faster you get your 4 marks-powerspike, the faster you'll carry the game. Gromps and golems are a bit more risky but if you see a window to grab them when you're ahead, go for it too.

Your first powerspike happens after you complete your first item ( Essence Reaver or Kraken Slayer. Use it to take trades and win fights, don't let it go to waste. You may be able to 2v1 any botlane if you've completed your item and they didn't back in a while.

Every mark you get is worth dying for. This is an important concept and quite hard to grasp. But unless you've got a bounty, a huge wave or a drake coming up, taking down someone you marked is always worth it. Even more so if the enemy you've taken down had a bounty himself. Kindred is especially talented at trading 1 for 1 with his R to pick up those bounties on fed midlaners, for example. Stay reasonable of course with this rule, i'm not asking you to run it down, just take risks. It'll pay off. Laning phase ends when a tower is destroyed in a side-lane, the third drake is spawning or until you get your Infinity Edge completed. Then it goes into phase 2: mid-game.

2. Mid game

Gather those marks, objectives and minion

Kindred's midgame is where he gets strong. Getting out of laning phase in an even gold with your opponent is a win for Kindred because of how much he scales.

It's like you're picking up the fruits of your hard labor in early-game. You are getting stronger every minute, even more so if you focus on marks, objectives and minions, in that order. You want to get successful chases by marking the right champs such as the jungler on an upcoming drake, or the support who keeps dying because of his trash engages or greedy wards. It's up to you to adapt to the game.

Concentrate on your macro: minions are super important. Never share a lane with your jungler, mid or top unless you're shoving before an objective. Always look at the map and make sure you're not overextended or wasting time.

Kindred's biggest powerspike is for his third item, the Infinity Edge. Upon completing it, he will be granted almost 40% more of the power he had before. This is figurative ofc but it's really this big of a powerspike. Make sure you use it.

If you're behind as Kindred ADC, you can either try and help the team to slowly get marks and build a gold advantage through kills, or you can focus on farm, put pressure on sidelanes and try and catch up to enemy's gold through superior macro. That's up to you and the state of the game and the enemies you're playing against.

3. Late game

As of late-game Kindred ADC, you should be the strongest champion in the game. There are two ways you can win the game. You can either try and poke, possibly bait for enemies to waste everything on you while you R and backup arrives and smashes opponents. You can also try and be a backline specialist, with great peel and engages on your team making you the actual damage dealer for the team.

You have an amazing amount of damage by late-game and it will only keep growing, so enemies will often make mistakes to try and take you down first or upon taking objectives. It's the most fun part of play but also the most stressful because of how much pressure is on you. Focus, keep your head straight and use everything you've ever learned in league to beat your opponents consistently.

For teamfighting, you are an ADC but don't necessarily play like one always. You should not be afraid to jump in melee range ready to use your ultimate. A good way to play teamfights is to either kill a priority target then use Lamb's Respite so that you outnumber the enemy team OR force a priority target to stay in your Lamb's Respite and then execute them with Ignite and Mounting Dread.

You shouldn't be afraid to play up on Kindred or the enemy will capitalize on it and bait your Lamb's Respite out easily. Lamb's Respite is an offensive tool more than a defensive tool. Keep that in mind and use it.

It's hard to really say how to play teamfights since it depends on the enemy team comp and a ton of other variables. You shouldn't ever play teamfights the same way, but keep in mind that you don't want to play where you're just running away and using your ult to survive only.

1. Pathing

• 1st pathing: To start you should do 4 camp clear and mostly start from red brambleback and head to greater murk wolf to gromp which you use your Smite on. And then take blue sentinel. This is the most consistent clear, because you will have your wolves and gromp Tier 2, instead of just gromp.
• 2nd pathing: You can also skip wolves and go for 3 camp clear red brambleback, blue sentinel, gromp and look for gank at mid and side lane.
• 3rd pathing: There is also cheesy pathing that is your red brambleback and look to steal opponents blue sentinel and maybe, gromp if you know your opponents pathing. Watch out for agressive junglers, who might go from buff to buff, like Lee Sin.

2. Remember to Ward

Try to remember to drop a Stealth Ward on river before 50 seconds, so you can recall and get your Oracle's Lens.

All of the pathings above are viable. But remember to react to whats going on the map. Full clear is also an option, but I do not recommend, because Kindred's lvl 3 powerspike is huge and with the help of red buff your ganks are deadly. The earlier you are able to impact the game state. Better you laners will succeed (atleast I hope).

At your first clear you should mostly Smite gromp, because gromp deals a lot of damage.

3. Ganking

Ganking can be hard for starting junglers as Kindred. You don't have cc and you are squishy, so you have to synchronize with your laners.

Kindred is terrifying with early on with red buff. So try to gank as much as you can with your first red buff. You can use Dance of Arrows as gap closer which helps you to apply slow on your enemies from your red buff earlier. They have to burn Flash most of the time, because of that.

For example if you are ganking top after your 3-4 camps that you have already taken. You will have red buff. You can walk behind them and use Mark of the Kindred just before you gank, so you can get your first stack from first gank. If you ganked top the enemy should probably have Teleport try to stick around and be aware if enemy tries to teleport back to lane. If he uses teleport try to regank the lane again.

You can hop over walls with Dance of Arrows to avoid wards. So you can make gank that enemy laners don't have any idea about. For example hopping over Dragon pits wall to get into better position to walk to lanes.

Try to use your Mounting Dread when opponents are around 50% of hp or you will be missing a lot of damage. I have seen many people lose many kills, because they use Mounting Dread too early.

Learning how to dive as Kindred is very important. You can get so many free kills if you know how to use Lamb's Respite during dives. You can for example take the tower aggro attack till you are something like half hp. Walk back to towers max attack range cast your Lamb's Respite. So your teammates can finish of the dive. I really do not recommend this tactic, because it's hard to do in lower elo and you shouldn't trust your teammates too much. But if you have learned the art of diving use it with your duo, if he knows how to dive aswell.

4. Invading

As Kindred you have to invade to get stacks. You should track enemy jungler to know what camps are up. So you can do process of elimination to find out where your mark will spawn. You are really mobile, because you can jump over walls with your Dance of Arrows. You can be in and out from enemy jungle in an instant. Remember to be at the stack before it actually shows in the map.

When you are invading you should always leave one small monster to the camp so it stays on cooldown. For example leave one of the small Murk Wolf to the camp so opposite jungler just finds one and he needs to kill it before jungle camp goes on timer. You need to be very careful about invading champions like Lee Sin, because he is mobile and is very strong early on.

Invading immobile champion like Karthus can get you really easy kills if you catch him by surprise. Remember to dodge Karthuses q's or you don't win against him. If you are able to dodge them make that power farming jungler cry his eyes out. Remember to use Oracle's Lens when invading that you are not standing on a ward. You need to get out of their jungle as soon as possible if you see laners leaving their lanes.

I really didn't think you would read this far. Hope I was helpful.

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Good luck to you! – Cheng