(RANK 1 KINDRED) Kindred guide from professional league player NEW 1V9 GOD BUILD TO WIN GAMES
WHO AM I? (GAME IS WON AT 4 MARKS ALWAYS!!!!))))
Hello, I'm Cast, a Kindred main passionate about mastering every aspect of the champion. In this guide, I'll go over Kindred's core mechanics, pathing, mark management, matchups, and the builds that have worked best for me. Whether you're just picking up Kindred or looking to refine your gameplay, this guide will help you become more consistent and confident on the Rift. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out or stop by my stream—I’m always happy to help. I am known for my aggressive playstyle and also play professionally besides OTPing Kindred on the rift ( Yes, Kindred is always banned professionally)
PART 1 KINDRED GUIDE
HERES A VIDEO OF WHAT I BUILD NOW ON KINDRED https://youtu.be/S0mhGVXateI
Build Overview
ALWAYS RUN PTA, ANYONE WHO SAYS ANYTHING ELSE IS MASTER OR BELOW
GO REDSMITE IF GIGACHAD, IF THEY HAVE 5 ASSASINS UR ALLOWED TO TAKE GREENSMITE NPNP
If u are gigachad u buy swifties for optimal enjoyment. If you are facing poke ( karthus, xerath, ziggs) you might want glutenus greaves. IF you are facing HEAVY cc, like leona, syndra, maokai you go mercs. If u are facing kha and dont want to die to 1 q you go tabis
you usually end up with 2 longswords and a dagger after first clear if its normal. then you go serrated dirk > phage and finish trinity
FINISH BERSERKER GREAVES FAST AND 5TH ITEM SHOULD BE EITHER GA OR BLOODTHIRSTER, UP TO U
Immortal shieldbow only IF they have HEAVY damage like assasins and its very hard to survive its a good option to have instead of hexoptics. PHANTOM DANCER i love this item, ITS a very good option in the LATE GAME to replace boots + collectors for g.a and phantom dancer. Kraken slayer is a very fun item, i dont consider it good at all because the value of trinity + crit is to frikking good. But its a very fun item, movement speed is so nice on kindred. Ruunans is only good when you are in lategame and lack waveclear and enemy has destroyed 2+ inhibitors.
Ghost is valid if ur gigachad
i mean, its never gonna change. This is accurate
Who do i ban?
WE SWAPPED BANS TO QIYANA / KHA. QIYANA SO DISGUSTINGLY BROKJEN RIGHT NOW RIOT WHY BUFF???? KHA SO AIDS TO PLAY AGAINST ASWELL.
BUILD AND MINDSET
I cover all the basics of the champion in the youtube video part 1- more is to come.
I always begin the game with a serrated dirk > trinity force finish. Kindred is not kindred without collectors and the serrated dirk early game enabled kindred to clear much faster. You only want to go for plays that are 99% guaranteed and if they are not you wanna continue your clearing as much as possible. If you have information with the help of your allies you can always coordinate a "mark invade" in enemy jungle if you know a mark will spawn on a camp. It is not worth to put alot of weight on to to marks after 4. This is the most important part, i see alot of kindred players continue to GREED for marks after 4, this is not needed. You wanna focus on becoming as strong as possible rather than chasing marks after 4. Going back to the build, i almost always every game go from serrated dirk > trinity > finish collectors > ARMOR PEN if they start to stack armor or if its later into the game or IE 3rd. (Almost always go armor pen > hexoptics > IE.
MARKSMAXXING - HOW TO GET MARKS
in my opinion, this is the most fun part about Kindred, to obtain those marks. i dont care about losing or winning, when i obtain a mark its like a juicer pressing juice or getting a perfect dart thrown. In other words, its so satisfying and makes Kindred very fun. You can always use marks as a way of "scaring your opponent" and i do this ALOT. What i mean by that is if you are heading towards top > bot and you see intense fighting top where enemy toplaner is LOW. You can mark that individual for him to be scared and run away for the SAFETY of your toplaner xDDDD.
Who to MARK in ur game?
First second of the game i always mark enemy jungler, if there is anyone that will invade your jungle or makes a stupid mistake the first clear is usually 99% the jungler. But this is very rare and not important. But always mark the jungler ur first possible mark. Next. Who do i mark during the game? In the first stages of the laning phase you usually always wanna mark towards the path you are heading. Lets say you start from top > bot in ur jungle clearing. Then you might wanna consider marking enemy support or ad carry because that is where you will end up. Its always important to note during the game which players play more aggresively and which players are more passive. This is also very important in knowing who to mark. Sometimes enemy support is a lulu who is standing under tower, then i wont be marking that individual but if its an ad carry who is playing vayne and perma limittets, thats a perfect target to mark. During the game when you enter mid or lategame, this is the more easier part. You should press tab and look at 2 things, who is melee and who has the most deaths. Usually in a game state the melees are the ones that jump in the most often and rack up the most deaths. And by statistics, if you mark the person with the most deaths he is also likely to die next. These are 2 rules i look for when marking during mid / lategame. I hope you understood and if you have any further questions, let me know and i will answer them. Very important, when you go for a gank and the kill is 100% certain. Delay the kill and wait upon your mark. This is very important that you ping away ur teammates if you can recieve a mark at this point.
HOW TO MANIPULATE THE MARKS
First Mark can ONLY spawn on the scuttle crab. That is why no matter what, in ur first clear the mark spawn on the 2 scuttle crabs will ALWAYS be 50/50. If you are unlucky with this spawn and it spawned on the other side and the enemy jungler takes it, you have 3 choices. A: you can either stay and wait for your mark to spawn and then base and then repeat. B: You can base, come back with items and hope enemy jungler doesnt notice you never took the crab. 3: You can kill the crab and repeat the process of fullclearing. A sucks, because it delays ur scuttle but i do this anyways cause it 100% guarantees my mark. And im a markaholic. During the game and i will only do the example of 1-4 marks. This is when your mark can spawn on raptors, gromp and scuttlecrab. You can manipulate the spawning of your mark by choosing what to kill and what not to kill. Let me explain. IF enemy raptors, gromp and crab is up and nothing is marked there is a 33% chance of any of those getting marked as. Hypothetically, if you kill crab and raptors there is a 100% chance of ur mark spawning on gromp. What does this mean? Well it means we can manipulate the spawning of marks by choosing what to kill. If i see his raptor camp spawning and there hasnt been a mark spawned in 45+seconds then i know by maths that my mark will spawn there next. It takes 45 seconds for a mark to spawn on a camp after it has been killed. What i can usually do if i have control on enemy raptors is that i make up a gameplan where i can be at the raptors spawn. This is the easiest camp to steal from enemy jungler because its very close to safety whilst gromp is extremely difficult. You always want to be on time knowing your mark will spawn on a certain camp. Riot even helped us by adding timers to camps and made it 10x easier. I do this trick alot where i camp a camp in order to 100% guarantee a mark. If this was confusing i explain it better in the youtube video.
How to play Kindred:
Now we're to the point where everyone has waited for. How to actually play Kindred. This will not be easy and i will upload youtube videos explaining how to play Kindred and i cover it alot during my streams. Kindred is a very hard champion, for those who play Kindred know that you die to everything. Legit you breath air and assasin jumps out of the thin are and suddenly ur gone. Its not easy, dont be frustrated, trust me i UNDERSTAND. As Kindred you are not as strong as people think you are. Many see you as this craazy 1v9 machine gun but that is not true. That is only true once you get there but it is VERY HARD to get there. And those who play Kindred alot knows about this. There is a term we high elos use alot called "RESPECT." Respect means you have to respect enemy teams timers, enemy team jungler, items, everything. Knowing someone is out of vision means you cant play stupidly to just "invade" or "gank" someone knowingly they could be behind them. Alot of people reading this has probably been invaded by enemy jungler 20 times and just cant do anything about it. THIS IS NORMAL AND FINE. Alot of people reading this probably have 20 people sitting at their mark when you arrive and thats also NORMAL. xD. Kindred has taught me alot about how invading actually works and how weak you are early game fighting a kha'zix or lee sin's strong fighting power. Kindred is a POWERHOUSE lategame, we want to get there before we start the FF'vote.
Early game:
We wanna focus on farming, the biggest spike comes when you recieve your magical footwear, 4 marks and upgraded smite. This is when you start coming online as a Kindred player. We only wanna survive early to come to this point. I always ward enemy raptors, or the entrance to my jungle to minimize the chances of some random shenanigans. It is very important you tell ur midlaner or support to ward the entrance of your jungle at all times before a bug (kha'zix) comes jumping out of a bush and one shots you. Always use your wards in a defensive matter unless you can get information on enemy jungler through warding his camps. I see this mistake alot when people hold on to their trinket for too long where they dont abuse the "free ward." This is OP for us Kindred players, USE IT! I have also noticed that clearing from redbuff > bluebuff is actually alot faster than bluebuff > redbuff. This has enabled me to be earlier on the scuttle and increase my chances of getting it / winning a fight. This has been huge for some games and i highly recommend doing this path if you dont know where to path. As ive previously said, you want to be FIRST at an objective. Doesnt matter if it is dragon, scuttlecrab, raptors, herald. If you are first you skip the part where you have to facecheck the evil forces of enemy team. And if you cant be first, always use ur W or ur trinket to facecheck bushes. You have a much higher percentage of WINNING a fight if you engage first rather than if you facecheck the enemy. This should be "obvious" but isnt always easy to apply. SO, avoid facechecking not knowing where enemy team is or jungler etc. And try to be first at an objective. This is why i love the new jungle timers, should help out us Kindred mains ALOT.
MIDGAME:
Now we have entered the midgame stage, this is usually when we are getting 2-3 items + and becoming really strong. Combined with our stacks and jungle item and movement speed we are very fast around the map and take objectives incredibly fast aswell. At this phase depending on who the champions are during the game its also much easier to get oneshot as Kindred. As a Kindred in this situation you need to be very patient. You cant afford to just Q in to enemies not knowing who lies around the corner or what threats are available. For example, you will get destroyed by champions like kha'zix and zed whilst i find it easier to play vs bruisers like Lee sin, jarvan, volibear at this stage since we have our extra range and mobility from marks and items. Your goal is still to farm alot at this stage and continue growing, fighting as much as possible to gain a lead on the opponent. I always upkeep my farming camps and try to get as many objectives like the herald or drake. I try to play sides with my strong carries like midlaner alot or run around with my support. Kindred can do solo activities but preferably with someone else. What i usually do is i use them as bait knowing i can kill them. You Kindred players can probably relate to this when you team doesnt engage you are the first one to fall and ur team loses. But when your team takes the first bullet where you can "free hit" the teamfight usually ends in a victory. This is not random, this is because at this point Kindred is insanely powerful its just very hard to use it. You wanna use your teammates as bodyguards. You are after all, a ranged character but with the most powerful ability in the game. But to conclude midgame is that i usually upkeep all camps still, dont stop doing camps only because there are alot of fighting. These camps are still very important for sufficient gold and xp. Be careful when you walk around the map knowing even tho you do alot of damage your champ requires bodyguards because you are very easily oneshot. So you wanna play through pockets where you know you have vision and enemy dont. Its much easier said than done but we can jump over walls people never expect us to be. I use this to my advantage alot knowing enemy support hasnt walked through here. This is also a good timing when you can change your trinket to LENS to bypass enemy vision.
LATEGAME:
How should you play kindred lategame? Its not easy to play Kindred lategame, this is when you oneshot everyone and everyone oneshots YOU. But this is also dependant on where you are in the game, Kindred is lowkey one of the best supports in the game because of his ultimate. If you can use this tool, even when behind it will become godly useful. I sometimes build cdr, (blackcleaver + cdr boots) if i know i am going to be incredibly useless because i inted early and midgame. THIS IS FINE, DO THIS IF UR GONNA SUCK ANYWAYS. But if you are the 1v9 carry, you need to use ur teammates as dummies infront of you so you can hit more often and harder. You need to play in an extremely selfish manner where you only see you. At this point, because of your q i usually look behind enemy lines and try to find a very deep and scary position where enemy has to respect. I usually win all 1 on 1s etc and because of your q Kindred can even look for flanking position because we 3 hit ppl. Buy G.A if ur a coward or buy 100% crit cause u want that oneshot. U dont need to use E in this late of a game either because u kill them before the E even hits lol. Try to play with ur team if low vision, use them as tools and you will be able to 1v9 games. IF VERY LATE, SELL BOOTS AND COLLECTORS FOR PD AND G.A THIS IS ALSO GIGACHAD MOVE.
Kindred ultimate, Lambs Respite - Mostpowerful ultimate in the game.
This Ultimate is what makes Kindred, Kindred... If used correctly this ultimate can bypass all laws, rules and fundamentals you have ever been told. A bad play can turn into a good play and a teamfight can be gamewinning. But that comes with 2 sides, you can also be the gameloser. Now lets get in to the good part, and why im the best Kindred in the world and uses my ultimate very different to others. Long story short i can use my ultimate in a bait kind of fashion. I can bait enemy team to think that they are taking a good fight by surprising them with my ultimate which puts them in a bad spot. So what do i mean by this? I can dash in to 5 enemies knowing they will probably turn and use abilities and try and kill me. But them turning on me will put them in a bad spot where my team can "finish them off." This is much easier said than done, and is not easy to execute. It requires timing and patience to pull this off, its not easy. This requires that you are aware where your own teammates are and where enemy is which doesnt present itself very easily. But in an aram standoff in easier terms having 4 teammates behind me and facing 5 people i can dash in, do as much damage as i can in those seconds. The second they "TURN" on me thats the same second i press ultimate. This disables them from "finishing" me off and we can all damage them and put them in a very bad spot ( inside my ultimate ). This is not the only way i use Kindred ult. I also use it alot as a supportive tool for my teammates. Many people say that Kindred is weak when behind but i am also a support for my allies, especially if i have a carry that is stronger than myself in the game. What you can do with Kindred is that you stand behind your strongest carry in the game and if they ever initiate a fight on to him is where you come in with Kindred ult and completely disables their entire engage. Same thing there, they used ALL their tools for 1 individual where you guys can now turn around and win the fight. Even though ur carry will probably die, knowing 5 people jumped on top of him it enables the rest of the gang to step in and do some magic. ONE obvious mechanic for Kindred ultimate is to secure objectives. I cover this better in the example video where i talk about knowing enemy jungler is trying to contest or you are trying to steal, you can use Kindred ultimate to secure objectives. When the objective is dying you use your ultimate in the last second knowing the enemy jungler will make an effort of stealing it you use your ultimate in the last second to deny his smite and prevent the objective from DYING. Then after your ultimate ends, you smite it afterwards and your team walks away with a free objective happily ever after.
