Kindred, the Eternal Hunters; and How to Tame them. An In-Depth Guide Part 2

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Phew, bloody hell. Turns out Reddit's character limit actually cut the guide a bit shorter than I was intending on having it go for. As such. I'm going to be finishing off the rest of the guide on Twitlonger. Luckily. I didn't have that much left to write about as the final aspect that I would like to discuss is; How to play Kindred. This includes when to pick them, how to play the early game, how to play the mid game and how to play the late game.

When to pick Kindred

Kindred, like any other champion, has places where they are a solid, good pick. And places where they're not a solid pick. However, I would like to preface this by saying that if you enjoy a champion or are good enough with them, you can practically always pick them outside of competitive. Whether it's a good idea, or if it will stunt your learning/growth to do so is a completely different argument entirely, that I don't intend to chime in on right now.

Kindred struggles versus team comps that can stack armour. So if you're picking them ensure that your team has some plans for AP. Be it in the mid lane, top lane or support role. It's also worth mentioning that if the enemy team can stack Randuins/Tabis that it will give you a hard time. But this can be avoided by building cleaver instead of crit. Most comps that enemy teams pick aren't a problem, you should be able to play around them just fine. Most of the problems actually arise from your own team comp. As you're picking another Marksman for your team you have to ensure that you have enough of a front line coming from top/support (occasionally mid) to deal with the enemy team. You prefer to have utility supports that can give you heals, ardents etc like any other Marksman. With that said though, if you have a carry style top laner try to ensure that your support will play more of a front line / playmaking support. Otherwise, your team comp will suffer as a result.

Kindred matches up well in the Jungle versus any tank or low-pressure Jungler. This is because she will be able to freely invade, out trade and out pressure them. However, you must remember that in any situation where it's Laner + Jungler that they will probably have more CC than you and have an advantage. Try to outmanoeuvre them in terms of ganks / pathing instead of meeting them in counter ganks. If you both do your thing separately you'll be sure to out-scale them and have a greater impact on the game. This is especially true when you consider how easily Kindred can kill Dragons/Barons. (Which is something you should be doing regularly.)

Kindred matches up sub-optimally versus any high pressure, early aggressive Jungler. However, this is not damning. Kindred only loses to them pre level 6. And before that point you just have to ensure they don't snowball your lanes and that you don't let them run over your jungle. Under no circumstance should you stick your neck out versus these champions. But also, do not be fearful. Be respectful. You can still kill them, you can still invade them, you can still punish them, you can still BEAT them. You just have to be smarter about it.

So to summarise, Kindred actually doesn't have any super weak matchups. However, Elise, Lee sin, Kha Zix etc can give them problems if you're not respecting their superior early game presence.

How to play Kindred early game.

Kindred has a really interesting early game. To preface this, I consider the early game to be anything before major grouping/skirmishes. The first thing to do in EVERY game would be to ensure you remember what camps your passive marks will spawn on at the number of stacks you have. I personally keep a picture on hand and check it whenever I'm unsure. Though, these days. I remember it off by heart.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/293163863468146708/293475011212083200/6da9e951d4d9219cb3f334f952892457.png

Once you understand where your initial stacks are going to spawn you should be thinking about it constantly, remembering both what you've cleared and predicting / tracking which jungle camps the enemy Jungler has killed. This will allow you to more effectively predict where the stacks are going to spawn, and as such adjust your pathing to consolidate this fact.

Kindred will start off by clearing a buff, typically you will want to start bot side. The reason for this is simple, you get a better leash and put yourself toward top side, which is more commonly the area that will have jungle pressure towards the first few minutes. Whilst full clearing is still viable, you'll lose control of your first stacks. As such doing this is a good idea when you don't want to run into the enemy Jungler at your initial scuttle stack. However, typically you'll want to clear your blue buff, gromp, and red buff before heading to the scuttle. If cleared correctly you'll be at full hp and be ready for scuttle to spawn, a little early. At this point, you hope that the scuttle stack spawns on the right side of the jungle. If not, simply clear the scuttle and begin pathing towards the other scuttle crab. Usually, you'll be able to get them as the other Jungler shouldn't want to match your pathing, assuming that you're stronger than they are. Almost always rotate BEHIND the mid lane. It takes a bit longer, but you don't reveal yourself and lose Jungle pressure. On top of this if the enemy team sees you and rotates into the scuttle there is a good chance you lose your stack and pressure. Hitting four stacks is a huge spike for Kindred, gaining +75 range on all of their abilities and autos is really big, let alone the rest of the benefits that are included. Once you have your first stack, and river vision using scuttle. It's time to look at the lanes and decide if you're going to gank them, or head back into the jungle and clear it out. If you're ganking, it's an idea to mark the champion you're about to gank. But not too early as it will deter them and ruin the gank. This is a skill which will come with time, I cant really teach you how to mark a champion correctly as it's subjective. Deciding on if a lane is gank-able depends on your laners CC, pressure, wave and the opposing Junglers supposed position. I can't stress this enough. Understanding where the enemy Jungler is likely to be is incredibly important, especially on Kindred. Use wards and your laners to help you obtain this information.I also cant teach you how to gank in a guide. Typically opening with your E to slow them is a good idea, however, you could also hold it until after CC is applied. But again, I cant actually teach you how to gank in a written guide.

Okay... So with your first clear and first few stacks out of the way (1 on scuttle, potentially another from the enemy champions) head back to base and assuming that you had a successful gank or have cleared out the entirety of your jungle. You should have enough for Skirmishers smite and perhaps boots. Get these items and start to push towards where the stack will spawn in the enemy jungle. If you're lucky, it'll spawn in the river and you can get another scuttle stack for free, if not. You should at this point be able to win any 1v1 with Skirmishers smite, so go ahead and start applying pressure to the enemy jungle. However, please don't invade if your laners do not have pressure or the position to support the decision. This is a mistake a lot of players make. Don't forget to collect camps on the way towards the enemies jungle, clearing inefficiently is a sin.

Assuming all goes well it's time to start pressuring dragons once you have your 4th stack and are progressing towards warrior and the mid-game.

At this point, you're going to start entering into some skirmishes and fights. At this point in time, you're going to want to focus on your micro more than ever. Winning the initial skirmishes decides if you start to snowball as a carry Jungler, or fall behind and start to struggle. You don't always have to take dragons super early. However, if your bot side has pressure it's an idea to go ahead and get a control ward and solo it. Ready for it to respawn around your 8th stack. (At which point marks will begin to spawn on dragons / heralds.) Once you're at your 8th stack let your team know and start getting ready to take herald / dragon based on where your stack spawns. This will typically not go uncontested, at which point you have to start focusing on your micro. Things such as target prioritisation, positioning, actual micro with your champion (dodging with Q, etc.) If played correctly you should be getting towards peaking with your champion, finishing off warrior and deciding if you're going crit, or not. As explained before, this will change every game and is an important decision to make. During these dragon/herald fights using your ultimate will start to become super important. Make sure to have good use of your ultimate and be positioned correctly for this fact.

As you head towards the later phases of the game, the emphasis on good micro just becomes more and more important. You should still be collecting your stacks and placing your passive proactively, whilst still pathing efficiently until you reach 6 items. However, at this point, you can start to focus more on macro positioning, trying to collect objectives and finish up the game. Ensuring at this point that you're building efficiently is super important. Every game your build will change. And every game you should be building efficiently making the best use out of your gold as is possible. Gold is only worth the stats it buys you, remember this and don't waste your gold on stupid stuff. Assuming you carry on playing macro/micro correctly you should be winning the game.

Writing up this section is difficult, as it's all subjective... Trying to tell someone how to play every game in one written anecdote is not possible, simply. I could write more in-depth guides on each part of the game for Junglers. However, for now, I'm trying to just keep tips for Kindred in particular in mind. So I hope this has helped. Bare in mind that everything that applies to normal Junglers / Marksman champions applies to Kindred. Including ganking, pathing, vision control, objective control, etc...

Well, that's about it for the guide. I hope this has helped anyone who was interested in getting into Kindred, and this is the first time I've actually written up anything like this on Reddit. I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of feedback, both positive and negative. And I'm amped to hear from you. So please let me know your thoughts.

With that said, thanks for reading. And I do truly hope this has helped you out if you're looking to understand Kindred better. Check me out on twitch where I stream most days if you want to come in and say hi, or ask me anything. I'll also be releasing more condensed, easy to swallow video content for each of these topics. And already have one uploaded (Runes).

Thanks for reading. Chay Kun.

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