Lamb and Wolf, also known as Kindred, are two of the most interesting characters in League of Legends. The dual character concept, their unique stacking passive, and their chilling yet satisfying voice is why they will always be in my opinion one of the most interesting champions in the game. In this guide, we will explore Kindred's abilities, what items you should buy on Kindred, what runes are generally taken on her, as well as some other tips and tricks that will elevate your Kindred gameplay!

The History of Kindred

Kindred has had an interesting past, and their balance has been a headache for players and Riot Games alike. When Kindred was first released in patch 5.20, they were found to be incredibly strong. Through most of 2016, Kindred saw widespread usage in professional play to a high degree of success. What was troubling about the massive success of Kindred early was that they were very successful even in matchups that should have been rather unfavorable. Kindred is a late game champion, who relies on scaling with both their passive and items to do damage. However, when Kindred was being utilized successfully, they was able to do meaningful damage with their level 3 power spike and red buff. This allowed them to usually get their first stack and quickly snowball from there, especially if they were able to successfully complete a gank afterward.

This lead to several nerfs, stretching from Patch 5.24 to the patch that essentially killed them, Patch 6.13. Through all these patches, Riot nerfed nearly every single ability in their kit, including base stats, and left them in a miserable state. Although the 7.5 buffs to their passive Mark of the Kindred helped, they didn’t finally see a revival until 7.11, where Riot made staggering changes to the champion. They changed their passive from granting Lamb's auto attacks bonus damage from each stack to instead giving Lamb increased auto range every 4 stacks and gave their abilities bonus damage instead. Riot made her Q ability give them increased attack speed for 4 seconds on cast, as well as making several small changes to their W ability and increasing their E damage. All of these changes brought Kindred to where they are today, in a fairly balanced state for one of the first times in their lengthy history. Now that you know more about the past of our character, let me take you through their abilities, and explain how you can utilize them to the fullest extent!

Kindred's Abilities

Passive: Mark of the Kindred

Kindred’s passive is called Mark of the Kindred and it is probably one of the most complex passives in the game, but it is central to her entire kit. Kindred, the Eternal Hunters, marks targets to hunt. This is player controlled, which means you select which player you are going to ‘hunt’. If you are able to kill the champion or secure an assist on them, you will gain a stack of their passive. Once you gain a stack on a champion, you will be unable to select that champion to stack for a period of time and must target someone else instead to hunt.

Additionally, marks spawn passively on enemy jungle camps, scuttle crabs, and neutral objectives throughout the game. Fortunately, you can tell or predict where the stack is going to spawn based on how many stacks you have! If you have 0-2 stacks, your passive stack will always spawn on the Rift Scuttler. If you have 1-3 stacks, your passive stack will either spawn on the Rift Scuttler, the Raptor Camp, or the Gromp. If you have 4-7 stacks, your passive stack will either spawn on the Krug Camp, the Blue Buff, the Wolf Camp, or the Red Buff. Finally, if you have 8 or more stacks, your passive stack will only be available through the neutral objectives Rift Herald, Dragon, or Baron. Keep in mind that these passive stacks will only spawn on enemy jungle camps!

The marked camp that spawns for Kindred is visible to both teams via the minimap, which makes stack collecting difficult and an objective players must play around. By gaining a stack of the passive, Kindred gains bonus stats on her abilities, and the stacks can also grant increased range at certain thresholds. The ability to collect and play around this passive is what makes or breaks a Kindred player. There will be another section dedicated to the intricacies of this passive, where I will go in depth and try to grant you an understanding of a very complex ability.

Q: Dance of Arrows

Kindred’s Q is called Dance of Arrows, which is an active ability that causes Lamb to dash in a direction. She will shoot targeted arrows at up to three different targets, and gain attack speed for a short duration after the ability. This skill is fairly simple and is a quick dash that gives her quite a bit of mobility and allows her to kill multi-target camps fairly quickly. Although it’s cooldown is 9 seconds, the ability is reduced if cast inside her W, which will be discussed in the next segment. Kindred is also able to hop over numerous walls with this ability, which can allow them to either get into the action quickly or make a hasty escape!

W: Wolf's Frenzy

Kindred’s W is called Wolf’s Frenzy, and it's where Wolf gets to shine! When used, Wolf dashes to a target location and creates a large circle around him for 8.5 seconds. Wolf attacks enemies in the circle autonomously, and prioritizes Lamb’s attack target. This ability is also uncomplicated but gives Kindred some powerful, hidden abilities. It reduces the cooldown of Kindred’s Q ability, down from 9 seconds to a minimum of 2 seconds! However, her Q must be cast inside of Wolf’s Frenzy to gain this reduced cooldown, which minimizes her chasing potential and overall mobility if this skill is down. Also, this ability cannot be moved once placed, and it has a rather long cooldown, so it is imperative to use this ability wisely in fights to gain the most mobility and damage possible.

E: Mounting Dread

Kindred’s E is called Mounting Dread, which is a two part ability. The first part cripples the target, slowing them by 50% for 1 second. The second part is if Lamb can successfully attack the target 3 times in the next 4 seconds, her third attack will deal a massive amount of damage. This ability used to be rather underwhelming, until Kindred got those massive changes. Now, Kindred’s E offers her a quick burst of damage, which can surprise enemies and allows Kindred to win a lot of duels many would suspect she would lose. Additionally, this ability will critically strike for 50% bonus damage against targets below 15% of their max health. This massive burst of damage synergizes incredibly well with their ultimate ability, which we will discuss shortly. Finally, don’t forget about the utility of this skill. Even if you cannot guarantee landing 3 attacks on a champion, the 1 second slow the ability gives can allow your teammates to catch a fleeing target!

R: Lamb's Respite

Kindred’s R is called Lamb’s Respite, which is one of the most interesting and impactful ultimates in the entire game. Upon casting, Kindred instantly creates a circle around her for 4 seconds. The circle does not move after it has been cast even if Kindred moves. While inside said area, every single unit in the game, including minions, monsters, and champions (both ally and enemy) cannot be reduced below 10% hp, and if this threshold is reached, they cannot be healed. After the 4 seconds, all units are healed for a small amount.

This ability is a large reason why Kindred is such a good duelist. Firstly, if Kindred finds themselves losing a trade, they can ulti and buy themselves 4 valuable seconds, which is almost always enough to catch you back up. Secondly, all champs are locked at 10% HP if they are reduced to that amount during the ultimate, which is the perfect percent to allow for Kindred’s E ability to critically strike the opponent and gives them a massive amount of damage in duels. Additionally, this also makes Kindred very useful, and very dangerous in team fights. This creates a tough situation for the Kindred player in a lot of team fights, as usually Kindred will have to decide whether it is worth it to use their ult to save an ally, but also save an enemy, or let both fall dead. Positioning is also crucial for the Kindred player because the circle forms around them! To save an ally, the Kindred player must be very close by to reach the ally, or they will die without being inside the ultimate.

This ability, like her passive, has unlimited scenarios, but there are some general guidelines to follow. It is usually worth it to use your ultimate if you can guarantee you will survive unless you would also be saving 2-3 enemies in the process. Kindred is a very valuable carry to have alive and is usually more valuable to have alive than have other enemies dead. Additionally, if you can gain a numbers advantage by using your ultimate, like losing 1 person but killing 2, it is worth using. Again, there are many different ways to use this ability and is another reason why this champion is so complex. After a few Kindred games, it becomes more and more clear when it is worth it to use your ultimate ability and when it is best to save it! Now that we've gone through Kindred's kit, we are going to analyze their skill order next.





Kindred's Skill Order

This is currently the skill order that most people take on Kindred. You will always max Q first as it gives you the most damage as well as plenty of mobility. Additionally, you should always take your ultimate ability when you can at level 6, 11, and 16. Although most people are currently maxing W second, it is viable to max E second. If you are going an attack speed/on-hit build, W max second is generally better because it scales based on Kindred’s attack speed. Alternatively, if you are building a more crit oriented build, E max second is better as your E can crit and also scales more off damage items. One final thing to note is the W start first. Many new Kindred players think Q start is better, but W actually gives you more damage, and Wolf makes the target weaker after every auto attack passively, which makes clearing the first camp with W much easier than Q.





Summoner Spells

Smite - Smite is taken on all jungle champions for multiple reasons. If you’re going to jungle Kindred (as you should), Smite is a must!

Flash - Flash is taken on almost every champion in the game due to its large versatility and outplay potential. Flash is also a must!

Ghost? - Some Kindred players before their rework (myself included) experimented with Ghost due to them already having a lot of mobility with Q. Ghost made their ganks really oppressive with the increased movement speed, and was available for use much more often than Flash. Although it was decent, it isn’t viable enough to replace either Smite or Flash because Smite is essential and Flash offers too much power and outplay potential in comparison to Ghost.



Kindred's Build Path

There are essentially two different build paths that one can go on Kindred: an on-hit/attack speed build or a critical strike/damage build. Building either is currently viable and mostly depends on your playstyle. Let’s first talk about my personal favorite: the critical strike build.

Build Number 1: The Crit Build

The crit build has 4 major items that are built virtually every single game in order to give Kindred the maximum amount of damage possible.

Warrior Enchantment. Getting your jungle item first on Kindred is recommended, and if you are going the crit build, Warrior Enchantment is the way to go as it gives much-needed damage as well as cooldown reduction. Additionally, Kindred should usually take red Smite as they need the damage from Smite to duel most characters. However, in higher Elo, some players opt for the warding enchantment to assist their team with vision.

Statikk Shiv. Statikk Shiv is the second item you will build in the crit build. It grants Kindred attack speed, increased movement speed, as well as 30% critical strike chance. Additionally, the passive component of this item assists with wave clear as well as making it easier to farm the jungle.

Infinity Edge. Arguably one of the most important items in the build, Infinity Edge grants Kindred both attack damage as well as 20% crit chance. On top of the stats, the passive component that allows Kindred’s critical strikes to deal more damage means that after completing Infinity edge, Kindred will gain a large damage spike.

Rapid Firecannon. Similarly to Statikk Shiv, this item grants Kindred attack speed, increased movement speed, and 30% critical strike chance. This item also has a passive that grants the user increased range for their energized attack once it has charged fully. This gives Kindred the ability to poke players down due to the large increase of range that usually catches players off-guard.

The On-Hit Build

The on-hit build is not as strict as the critical strike build, but there are still a few items that are very crucial to its success.

Bloodrazor Enchantment. In this build, Kindred opts for red Smite again for dueling power, but instead goes for the Bloodrazor Enchantment, as it gives a large amount of attack speed, and deals 4% of an enemy's max health every auto attack. This item synergizes perfectly with the build, as its goal is to do on-hit damage and attack incredibly quickly.

Runaan’s Hurricane. Runaan’s is another important item as it grants the user attack speed and crit, but its passive is what is key for this build. Every auto attack, up to two bolts fire at two different enemies, which can crit and apply on-hit effects. This means that the 4% of an enemies max health damage dealt by the Bloodrazor Enchantment will apply to every bolt! This results in massive AoE damage and can allow Kindred to easily carry a team fight.

The Black Cleaver. This item grants Kindred attack damage and cooldown reduction, as well as health which turns out to be extremely helpful as Kindred is an incredibly low health champion. Additionally, this item grants a passive that can shred an enemies armor, as well as grants Kindred movement speed when they damage a target. The extra mobility, coupled with the fact that Black Cleaver synergizes so well with Runaan’s Hurricane, makes this item extremely valuable in the build.



Rounding out the build

There are still a few item slots left to fill, and you may be wondering what to fill them with? Finalizing your build should vary every game depending on the situation and the enemies composition, but here are a few items that are most likely going to assist you!

Mercurial Scimitar. This item is basically essential against champions with suppression abilities such as Malzahar and Warwick and is also extremely good if you are worried about getting CCd down. This item removes all crowd control debuffs, and grants a small burst of speed, allowing you to escape from negative situations! The item also grants attack damage and life steal, two very good stats for Kindred.

Guardian Angel. This item, upon taking lethal damage, brings you back to life after four seconds. The passive is extremely useful against assassins like Zed or Talon whose goal is to blow you up instantly. This item isn’t as useful due to Kindred's ultimate ability, but is never a bad choice against those pesky assassins.

Mortal Reminder. This item grants attack damage and also grants a ton of armor penetration due to its component of Last Whisper. This item is very useful against tanky compositions that build lots of armor and should be built when you find yourself not being able to do much damage to tanks.

Blade of the Ruined King. The final item I will recommend being purchased on Kindred is Blade of the Ruined King. This item is very useful in the on-hit build as its passive grants basic attacks bonus percent current health damage on-hit. This item also grants a large amount of life steal and attack speed, which are all essential to Kindred.



Boots

What boots you purchase should vary on a game by game basis. Although most people end up buying Berserker's Greaves for the attack speed, there are other viable boot options. If the enemy team has lots of crowd control or magic damage, Mercury Treads are usually the best buy. As well, Ninja Tabi is also seeing a lot of play due to its extreme effectiveness against AD champions.





Runes

Although there is still a lot of experimentation occurring, these are currently the best runes for Kindred.

Precision

Press the Attack - The current best keystone for Kindred is Press the Attack because they are able to easily proc the keystone, and they are also able to utilize the increased damage for 6 seconds after the proc. Lethal Tempo cannot be utilized as effectively and Fleet Footwork isn’t worth taking currently.

Triumph - The amount of health one restores and the extra gold gained from takedowns is currently ridiculously good and should be taken over anything else.

Legend: Alacrity - Being a marksman, Kindred benefits greatly from the attack speed gained more so than tenacity or life steal.

Coup de Grace- This option proves to be the best out of the three because it synergizes well with their ultimate ability, and ends up dealing the most damage compared to the other options.

Domination

Sudden Impact - Kindred benefits greatly from Sudden Impact as their Q synergizes well with the rune. After every leap, Kindred will gain lethality, which provides them with a lot of hidden damage.

Relentless Hunter- Being a jungler, Kindred benefits greatly from out of combat movement speed to help them navigate around the map, and is currently the best option out of the remaining runes.





Who Counters Kindred

You should see a trend in the main champions that counter Kindred. Strong, aggressive early game junglers are Kindred's worst nightmare, as they are able to deny Kindred their passive stacks and are able to easily abuse Kindred's weak early game. For all of these champions, you should avoid going for risky passive stacks if you don't know where they are because you will almost always lose a 1v1 duel against these champions. To beat these champions, you want to play for the late game by farming your jungle and looking for easy, not risky, ganks.





Who Kindred Counters

Kindred is able to counter Rengar and Kayn because they are assassins that take a while to come online. This allows Kindred to be able to usually get off free ganks and obtain passive stacks with relative ease while scaling towards their powerful late game. By the time Kayn and Rengar scale to become powerful champions, Kindred can negate their burst with the use of her ultimate, and effectively neutralize the ability for these champions to quickly kill someone.

Additionally, Kindred also counters slow, supportive junglers like Ivern, because they are unable to do very much to stop Kindred from getting to her late game and usually have to give over passive stacks as they are unable to duel Kindred in the early game.





Advanced Kindred Passive Tips

As I spoke about earlier, there are a few tricks that you can use with your passive, which I will explain now!

Passive Part 1: Champion Stacks

Let’s talk about champion stacking. When you choose to hunt a champion, they will be able to see that they are being hunted by a giant mark that appears above their head, accompanied by a sound effect. There are a few games you can play with this mechanic.

First, you want to gank people who you have chosen to ‘hunt’ because if you are able to take them down, you gain bonus damage and are put ahead of the game! However, most players are smart about this, and if you choose to mark them right before a gank they will immediately run away and will usually continue to play safe until either the mark is gone or they know for a fact they are safe from you. This can be utilized in a few ways.

If you see a lane getting abused quite hard, you can choose to target them with your passive. Even if you are not close to them or the lane, most players will immediately run away and play defensively out of fear of getting ganked. This alleviates lane pressure for your team and allows your laner to catch back up without you even showing up in lane. Additionally, when the enemy laner regains their confidence and begins playing aggressively again, you can finally choose to gank them and secure that stack!

Another way your passive can be utilized is to fake players out. Say you want to gank bot lane, but you believe they have information on your location either by vision or intuition. A way to counter this is to hunt the enemy top laner, which will cause the enemy top laner to back off and notify their team that they have been marked and you’re most likely in the vicinity. This information will likely cause their bottom lane to play more aggressive because they believe you are not there, which will then allow you to come for an easy gank. Although you might not get a stack, you will have just executed a successful gank!

Most Kindred players start the game by marking the enemy jungler, as it is the character one is most likely to come into contact with first, and then you can choose to mark whoever you think will benefit you the most; whether you try and camp a lane to farm them for stacks, or to play those mind games that I talked about above. Like I said, Kindred’s passive is extremely complicated, and this is only the first half of it.

Passive Part 2: Jungle Stacks

Now, let’s talk about Kindred’s passive marks on the map. As stated above, you can tell where each of your stacks is going to spawn based on how many you currently have. This, fortunately, makes the strategy of stacking a little easier, but unfortunately the enemies have the exact same information if they’ve played Kindred.

The first thing you should be worried about is “how do I get my first stack?” The first stack spawns on Rift Scuttler, and it is random whether it spawns in the top or bottom river. This causes your playstyle and jungle path to alter drastically every single game and is another reason why this champion is so complicated. A good general guideline to follow is to first view the enemy jungler. How fast is their clear speed? How strong are they in the early game? The next thing to look at is your laners. If the stack spawns top side, and your top laner is getting pushed in or is generally a weaker champion in the early game such as a Nasus, it makes going for that stack a lot riskier as it is that much easier to get collapsed on by the enemy. The standard Kindred clear is to start on the buff that your bot lane can leash, go to wolves, finish the second buff, and then look at the Scuttle. If the enemy has an aggressive early jungler like Nidalee or Lee Sin, it is best just to avoid going for the first stack, unless you have a very clear lane advantage in mid and/or bot/top that would sway a losing 1v1 fight into a winning 2v2 or even 3v3 fight. If the enemy has a slower clearing jungle, like a Rengar who sometimes goes for a full clear or an Amumu who usually has to base after their first clear, you can usually get away with going for the first stack immediately even with losing laners.

If you do lose your first stack, don’t panic! You will have plenty of opportunities to collect more stacks in the future, so it is NEVER worth trading your life over a stack of your passive. This leads to the next part to discuss, “when should I go for my passive stacks?” Obviously, going for your passive stacks is a dangerous task, as aside from the Scuttler, the stacks are either going to spawn on powerful neutral objectives or inside the enemy jungle. However, there are times that allow you to get them. For example, if the enemy is ganking a lane, and your stack is on the opposite side of the map, you are usually free to take that stack, just be careful of stepping over any wards and getting collapsed on by one or more laners! Since your stack spawns are visible to everyone, a lot of the time you can get a successful gank off by ganking the lane on the opposite side of your stack, as you can usually assure the enemy jungler isn’t there because he should be taking away your stack.

There are so many more niche examples and scenarios that I cannot possibly explain every single one, but after a couple Kindred games, it becomes a lot clearer as to when you should be going for stacks, and when you should be playing it safe.





Conclusion

In conclusion, Kindred is a very interesting and complicated champion that requires some mastery but is extremely rewarding once mastered. A marksman in the jungle is quite rare and is something that can add an interesting twist to many team compositions. Hopefully, you learned something from this guide, and thank you so much for reading!