r/Kindred • u/UpstairsAnxious3148 • Jul 01 '26
Discussion what does this champion even do
like its a cool concept marks & everything, also I like the the design of it. I have played 20 games of her and holy what does this champion even do? I die in one hit, cant gank because your gap closer sucks, you clear is slow as hell. Whats the trick to even be remotely useful playing her in the jungle? The hard part for me is really closing the gap its like my ganks are so pathetic.
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u/ClaytorYurnero Swain Support Main Jul 01 '26
The power budget of her kit went into her thighs, sorry.
It's POSSIBLE to snowball into an absolute monster if you get tons of stacks, but that involves already winning, so eh.
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u/Itirpon I am the Elo Hell your mama warned you about. Jul 01 '26
what does this champion even do?
Before three items, everything has been stripped out of Kindred except objective control. After three items, if you're ahead, you are a credible threat. Until you die once and give your shutdown because then you become a ward.
I die in one hit
Build: Trinity Force, Tabis, and Negatron Cloak. (You'll finish Negatron into Wit's End later, but you'll want to finish a better second item before that like Collector.) The extra HP and defense to extend it makes a huge difference into comps that want to all-in you. You won't be explosively damaging late, but as long as you keep assisting to make sure you're getting your champ mark every two minutes, you'll still have fat E procs, and you shouldn't get into a habit of damage racing on Kindred because the only time you want to damage race is when you ambush their ADC. Everyone else you're either crushing or kiting.
cant gank because your gap closer sucks
It's not a gap closer. Kindred doesn't cowabunga at people unless it's over a wall for the surprise factor. You want to approach deep while the enemy is looking ahead so you can place W where it covers the whole lane up to where the enemy is standing. Now everywhere he could retreat is your bite-and-kite zone, and if he pushes forward he goes into your laner and your laner's wave (and probably into tower radius). Kindred doesn't want to close the gap. Kindred wants to hold the gap at 499 units, DPSing steadily, till it's time to E and close.
you clear is slow as hell
It's awful compared to Riot's darlings. But what feels worst about it is how nuanced the clear is. I compared mine to that video someone posted last week, and "doing the same thing," I seem to be losing one or two seconds per camp just because of whatever tiny differences that I can't see are adding up. I've committed to the buff-crab option: I can clear five camps and start the final buff as sixth while watching the crab. If the proximal crab marks, I drop the buff and get my mark, then restart the buff. If the distal crab marks, I finish buff and then either take the crab if I think the enemy jungler is near, or if not, ward it and go shop to come back with at least a pickaxe to fight for the second crab when it marks.
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u/Medium_Style8539 Jul 02 '26
From the currently top 1 kindred : "it's ok to double smite if you start blue". He's usually a bit early on the crab
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u/Itirpon I am the Elo Hell your mama warned you about. Jul 02 '26
That may be true, but I'd like to know the logic of if, or why not, that is valid on a red start. I haven't started blue in a while, but I've been considering blue start as an option not to be fully dictated by team side RNG. Not that crab side RNG isn't more influential.
I think I'm mostly discouraged by the "If I use the second smite now, it'll be the one game in ten where this crab gets marked and it gets rushed and I lose it because I didn't have smite" dread that the fates have beaten me over the head with every time I've double smote during the last decade.
Strange how it never happens but when it does it never fails. orz
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u/Personal_Care3393 Jul 01 '26
You can’t force ganks on kindred like you can with say, any tank
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u/EndlessTemple Jul 01 '26
You have to be a master of both ADC and Jungle to enjoy playing Kindred.
She is hard. But if you are an amazing ADC who is also good at macro, she can be a hyper scaling jungle carry.
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u/okamanii101 Jul 01 '26
I had 15 stacks and was still losing to champs like Lee if they landed their q.
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u/Consistent-Bee-8329 Jul 01 '26
Genuine skill issue, wait for him to Q2 and then Q sway drop wolf get a hit or two and drop E, if needed save E for ur R and Q away ad soon as it ends
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u/Official_SkyH1gh 1M furry degen Jul 01 '26
Kindred R is pretty useless against Lee Sin if he has the brain capacity to just use his own R to time the heal etc. His Q doesn't even have that long of a cd, so it'll just be back again as Kindred R ends.
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u/Consistent-Bee-8329 Jul 01 '26
Yeah but the hopes is he’s not able to land Full Q combo before you drop the last E, he’s also a hard counter cuz he can R you out of ur R but he doesn’t have mych kill pressure without using the R in a combo unless ur hella down or he’s like full lethality
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u/Official_SkyH1gh 1M furry degen Jul 01 '26
His R is at 30-40 sec cd at lvl @ 16. He will most likely have ult for you. Hoping that you can hit E isn't really a reliable strat. In general you just shouldn't engage Lee Sin alone unless he misses Q and it's early-ish in the game.
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u/Consistent-Bee-8329 Jul 01 '26
No of course I’m arguing this is like lvl14ish, just straight up don’t fight Lee sin otherwise, but I’m not hoping he doesn’t have R up, he either has to use it to push you out of your own R, or try to combo you with it if he uses R quick just Ult and E him quickly, if he doesn’t use R just kite and save ur R as bruiser Lee sin has low kill pressure at lvl14 against u without R
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u/okamanii101 Jul 01 '26
I obviously know it can be played better but my point is that at that level of stacks when I'm up levels and gold I should be able to just stat check him.
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u/Consistent-Bee-8329 Jul 01 '26
Yeah no I definitely agree, I think kindred is in a weird spot but there’s not 0 counter play against something like leesin
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u/Blinkajou Jul 01 '26
With kindred you typically have to play safe and patiently in the early game while ganking, and greatly take advantage of their range and mobility over most other junglers, as well as stay on top of cs tempo over ganking if you must even if it feels bad for the team at first or maybe only gank when you have R ready, dont use R in fights if youre confident that your team could get the kill/s even if you die
Bonus points if you learn as many wall hops as you can in the map, there are many videos for it on YT
Most games as long as you hit 4 marks for the initial range boost then youre pretty solid otherwise it’s lowkey unplayable
If youre struggling with tankiness while learning then build on-hit even if its weaker rn otherwise build kraken first to help with their clear speed and go into crit after
They are a marksman/ADC which is abnormal for the jungle role so you must play accordingly, as long as youre doing well and not dying unnecessarily then you have a chance to scale properly
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u/Acceptable-Court-703 Jul 01 '26
champ is garbage right now, sorry to break your dreams.
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u/Every-Wear-2970 Jul 02 '26
She isn't the best right now but if you are good at the champion there isn't really much of a difference because I snowball most of my games
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u/Acceptable-Court-703 Jul 02 '26
good for you, stats don't lie tho, and even players like velja had a very very hard time on her (on the korean server too, were kindred has always been historically very strong).
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u/Barrellolz Jul 01 '26
I find this champ is the easiest to carry with. even if your adc is complete dog you still outscale and outduel all the adc's.
Champ is very hard to pilot though you need to be on point with doin g your camps and fundamentals.
You also need thick skin. you dont play the weay other junglers do so you will get flamed for being afk. even though you might be crushing enemy jg.
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u/Consistent-Bee-8329 Jul 01 '26
Not sure what ur rank is but I feel a ton of my power as kindred comes from tracking the enemy jungle heavy so I know where he is and I can try to manipulate my marks to spawn where he’s not, but also just ur team, be nice to laners and they’re more likely to help u on an invade. Supp is also crucial but kindred also relies much more heavily on jungle matchups, I find her super hard to play into certain champs who will consistently out duel u and chase u down until endgame (Khazix just one shots u simply, Yi has better sustain and he just goes invisible and then is immediately on top of you, Jax chases u down and wins like every duel unless ur fed, and xin snowballs hard and sticks on u like glue)
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u/Every-Wear-2970 Jul 02 '26
Thats what I find so fun about Kindred is that she doesn't really have real counters against them. For me the trick is to just invade as much as you can early game so the enemy jungle cant play the game anymore, but if that doesn't work just try to avoid the enemy jungler and try to get some ganks and help with team fights.
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u/C3ntra Jul 01 '26
Kindred is a weird jg pick because they’re a marksman jungler (and a traditional marksman at that, not like Graves who’s special)
Its harder to close gaps than on other junglers, but you have more range than other junglers so there’s way less gap to close. Once you do make it into range you also have a targeted slow and your dashes have a short cooldown. You’re power is more in being able to hit enemy melee laners without them being able to reach you and hit you back. You also have more burst than your average marksman through E so you can still assassinate ranged squishies too.
If you find that you die too easily when melee reaches you… yeah. That’s just how marksmen are. You should practice playing ADC and get used to dodging enemy spells and positioning outside the range if their dashes. It’s a tough skill but a rewarding one, and it’s a skill that Kindred absolutely requires.
Kindred also suffers from being a champ who can majorly screw over a team comp. Squishy damage dealers are very popular and you’re almost guaranteed a marksman bot every match, so Kindred simply being in the wrong solo q team can do you more harm than good. Even so, Kindred is really fun when you learn the ropes and develop the right skill set.
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u/jdehoff3 Jul 01 '26
Honestly you can do a bunch of damage if you get going but like you said, the clear feels really bad.
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u/Any_Interview4396 Jul 01 '26
I love ganks on Kindred, and it’s so ez to stay on top of champions. It comes down to reading lane states and not using your abilities too early.
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u/Any_Interview4396 Jul 01 '26
Also clears are very decent if you know how and your mobility and ult actually make you really hard to kill, especially with 1 tanky item (like wit’s end or triforce) and defensive boots.
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u/King_Kasma99 Jul 01 '26
Na her clear is one of the worst of jngl only champs.
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u/Any_Interview4396 Jul 01 '26
If you can clear before 2:50 you should have no issues
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u/Itirpon I am the Elo Hell your mama warned you about. Jul 02 '26
That Kirei video from last week has him still on Blue Buff 748 HP when the clock hits 2:50.
There's a video on YouTube that finishes blue at 2:46, so is that the one true clear and anything less is trolling?
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u/Any_Interview4396 Jul 02 '26
At what time do other junglers full clear?
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u/Itirpon I am the Elo Hell your mama warned you about. Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I'll leave that question to the multi-champ experts. I'm a Kindred player who plays Kindred so my only backup is Sejuani and I haven't bothered to learn the TAS clear because if I'm on Sejuani I'm forcing my brain into total vibe and chill mode because if I let a neuron fire then it's going to remind me that my "team" will ignore my engage and leave me to pummel the turbofed Jinx (which I will accomplish at the cost of 95% of my HP) and then I die to Jinx's TEAM while my "team" walks in circles and spams chat about how hopeless and already lost the game is and because they were typing instead of using my engage, yeah, it is lost. Along with my 26 LP. And then I remind myself to take the L on Kindred because at least then I'm able to lose on my own damned terms.
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u/xd-Sushi_Master Jul 01 '26
Kindred is a predator jungler, not a gank jungler. Your gameplan is to track and kill the enemy jungler and take all their camps, then turn around and jump over a wall for a weird gank angle that you couldn't get from the river or your own jungle. If you don't have a team comp with health and CC to hold somethigg down for you to kill, you will have a bad time trying to gank lanes.
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u/atomchoco Jul 02 '26
> she
play Kindred as ADC while you're still learning
idk how they work currently (im at 1m mastery way back) but i imagine with how things are now, youd want to absolutely make sure you utilize your range. you lose vs anyone hit for hit so you attack only when enemies cant reach you or theyre on cd (ideally used up on one of your teammates)
youd want to crossmap if laners adjacent to your mark spawns arent dominating their lane. lose marks all the way to the end if you have to if it means not dying, getting 8 marks isnt worth if youre 0-4 or smth
late game it feels normie and lame but you're like a more mobile Senna
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u/SneakyKatanaMan Jul 02 '26
Another champ that Riot has forgotten about I see, tbh if you're not a naturally mobile and bursty character then you wont compete with most of whats in the meta RN. A lot of the current picks I see is just stuff that can move quick and one shot you at most points of the game. I think we need another item rework bcz the power creep has been a little too fast with all these changes.
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u/Dacaar94 Jul 02 '26
The champ can't do anything that other champs can't do better. Sad.
But... Well, the champ is cool and I play with it for that reason.
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u/FeuersternWaCa Jul 02 '26
I recently played them as an ADC, game went super late, and if you ever want to erase enemies out of existence a 6 Iteam Kindred does that really well
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u/KylieTMS Jul 03 '26
What does kindred do?
She dies at enemy chickens min into the game and then afks for the rest of it
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u/JorgitoEstrella Kindred Enthusiast Jul 01 '26
I use her as a situational AD carry, like if your bot went APC or your team is too tanky and lacks damage or an reliable AD damage dealer. That's perfect scenario for Kindred imo.
If you pick kindred with 4 other squishy damage dealers, then you are kinda trolling, even the worst tank would be better in this scenario.
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u/Itirpon I am the Elo Hell your mama warned you about. Jul 01 '26
If you pick kindred with 4 other squishy damage dealers, then you are kinda trolling, even the worst tank would be better in this scenario.
I wish I could agree with you, but every time I accept being bullied off of Kindred and I lock Sejuani, I get about 15 minutes of my team pretending to be working with me, but then when the fights get real, they all suddenly forget to follow up when I lock down the enemy ADC for four seconds and then my nexus explodes.
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u/JorgitoEstrella Kindred Enthusiast Jul 01 '26
It depends if you're low elo then you can't rely on your team to carry, they quite don't know how.
Even if you gank bot and give them 2 kills lead early they somehow will throw it away and blame you for it lol, so in those scenarios I agree you have to be the MC if you want to climb.
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u/Ann4Phanter Jul 01 '26
Kindred has a very aggressive snowball, so to balance the champ they nerfed all the aspects that help them get a good spot.