Kindred Jungle Guide – Season 13

Kindred is one of the most unique champions in League of Legends, and certainly one of the best jungle champions. She has a nice and appealing aesthetic, as well as well-thought-out gameplay mechanics.

Despite being a great pick, many players are put off from playing Kindred. I found this is mostly due to her having a slightly high entry barrier. This is not something you should worry about, as you will learn all ins and outs of this champion in this kindred jungle guide for season 13.

I will cover the following:

• The benefits of playing Kindred.
• The most optimal rune & item choices.
• Gameplan for winning as Kindred jungle (Teamfighting, Ganking, etc.)

Why Play Kindred?

Kindred is not played by many people, but those who play her are usually either one tricks or mains. This makes sense, as Kindred is one of the champions that has the highest returns on investment in terms of time spent playing.

She has unique mechanics that few champions can replicate. The fact that she does not show up in many games makes her especially difficult to play against. This means that she has the edge over everyone when it comes to fights.

Also, Kindred is a champion that heavily relies on dueling and invading. This makes her a major threat to enemies, especially considering that many people do not know how much damage output she can produce.

Another great thing about Kindred is that she deals a percentage of HP damage. This is quite rare among ranged champions, and it makes her a great tank shredder. The tank shredding identity is further amplified by the items Kindred is Required to build.

Kindred Jungle Items Season 13

Items for Kindred in the jungle can be split into three categories: starting, early and situational. We will go over all of these so you can be prepared for each phase of each game.

Starting Items for Kindred Jungle

Scorchclaw Pup – is the best starting jungle item for Kindred in season 13. It gives the much desirable damage as well as a 30% slow. It works so well since it’s made for dueling, and Kindred is a dueling champ.

Health potion – There is not much to say about this item. Since the season 13 jungle pets cost 350 gold, this is the only thing you can buy with the remaining 50 gold. This item should be used after clearing all camps.

Early Game Items for Kindred Jungle

Kraken Slayer – is definitely the best item for Kindred. It has components that are easy to build, and they also synergize really well with the champion. It also gives all the necessary stats for dueling and clearing the jungle. There is really no need to consider any mythic other than this one.

Mercury’s Treads – are the greatest boots pick for Kindred. She is a really squishy champion that is very susceptible to getting chain CCed and dying. This is why these boots come as a saving grace. The CC reduction they provide makes it much easier to survive and win fights.

The Collector – is great as it provides significant damage as well as a great execute passive. Another positive thing about it is its build path that contains Dirk. Dirk is a great early item and can be helpful in getting kills and snowballing games.

Blade of the Ruined King – much like Kraken slayer, BOTRK has all the necessary stats for Kindred. It also provides a nice healing which is much needed for fights.

Mid-Game Items for Kindred Jungle

Black Cleaver – is a great item to transition from early to mid-game. It provides significant amounts of HP, as well as a great tank shredding passive. Building it is also really efficient since you can get the core HP and CDR components for only 800 gold.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade – is a must-have item that synergizes exceptionally well with Kraken Slayer. Each third hit you make with this item does an extra attack, which makes Kraken’s passive active more often.

Guardian Angel – is a perfect item for transitioning from mid to late game. It has an appealing build path featuring Stopwatch as well as a great passive once fully built. The Stopwatch and the passive can essentially give 2 extra lives in team fights.

Situational Items

Stormrazor – is amazing against enemies such as Trundle and Hecarim, which rely heavily on movement speed. The passive it provides can slow them and make for a much easier fight.

Wit’s End – is a viable alternative to Guinsoo’s, and it’s built when the enemy has too much ability power. The item feels significantly worse in terms of damage, but the protection it provides can still make it a worthwhile pick.

Mortal Reminder – is a necessity when playing against champions like Soraka, Vladimir, Draven, and so on. The item does not have the greatest feel, but there is no reason not to build it against heavy heal champions.

Kindred Jungle Runes Season 13

Abilities

When it comes to Kindred’s abilities, the thing that stands out the most is her marks passive. The passive increases Kindred’s attack range, and it is stacked by killing marked enemies and jungle camps.

Here is how many stacks you can gain per camp killed:

• 1-3 for Scuttle, Raptors, and Gromp.
• 4-7 for Blue, Wolves, Red, and Krugs.
• 8+ for Baron, Herald, and Dragons.

It is important to note that these stacks can be collected by assisting too. Also, the targets will not be markable in the following 240 seconds.

Q – Dance of Arrows

Kindred’s Q is a dash. It is a super effective spell for invading, dodging, and mobility overall. It makes Kindred dash forward, and it increases her attack speed by 25% + 5% for each mark. It also fires three arrows in the enemies’ direction dealing a considerable amount of damage.

W – Wolfs Frenzy

Kindred’s second spell is called “Wolf’s Frenzy.” The spell has both passive and active abilities. The passive is charged by moving and attacking, when sufficiently stacked, it heals Kindred for up to 40-95 health, based on level and her missing health percentage.

The active displaces her wolf and puts it in a location of your choosing. The wolf gets its own radius from which it attacks the enemies. It is important to place this spell correctly as it is a big source of damage for Kindred.

E – Mounting Dread

Kindred’s E, Mounting Dread, is the key damage spell. It deals missing health damage, and it can critically strike. It does the most damage to enemies below 15% HP

R – Lamb’s Respite

Kindred’s R is the bread and butter of her kit and is one of the most unique spells in the game. It creates a circle of invulnerability that protects anyone from going below 10% HP. After 4 seconds, the invulnerability ends, and people within the range get healed.

How Kindred Marks Work (Selecting the Right Targets)

When it comes to marking enemies, it is important to consistently select appropriate ones. The more efficient your marking skills become, the more snowball potential you will unlock. It is always wise to mark enemies opposite of your starting location.

To have the most success, it is best to ask your laners to freeze their lanes. This way, you will have a much easier time ganking marked opponents.

In times when you struggle to identify the most markable enemies, the best course of action is to mark the mid laner.

Another important thing to remember is that marks are not worth dying for. It is true that they are worth a lot, but Kindred can easily work without them too. Dying for marks is really hard to justify.

Gameplan (Early, Mid, and Late Game)

The best way to have the most success with Kindred in season 13 is by having a solid game plan. This includes knowing what to do in the early, mid, and late game. So that is exactly what this section will focus on.

How to Play the Early Game With Kindred in Season 13

Since Kindred is a scaling champion, the most important thing in the early game will be remaining safe. This means going for a standard clear and looking to get the most lead possible.

The reason why I suggest playing it safe is that failing early can be detrimental, especially for new Kindred players or those playing against highly skilled opponents. This is not to say that you should not be looking to seize every advantage you get.

You should always try to push your limits, and sometimes it will come at a small cost. Anyhow, the more you play, the more experienced you will get, and you will be more likely to have more consistent plays. This, in turn, will allow you to play more aggressively.

How to Play the Mid and Late Game With Kindred in Season 13

Mid-game is where things start getting interesting, as Kindred. If you have farmed up properly and collected a decent amount of marks, you will feel very powerful. The items will lower your CD, and you will have enough damage and attack speed to melt the enemies.

The thing that will determine your success the most is how you play the team fights. You will want to develop an intuition for marking the correct enemies. Sometimes the right one should be an enemy carry, but sometimes it will be a frontline champion.

Always focusing on carries might sound like a good decision, but that is not quite the case. The carries will often be protected, and since Kindred is squishy, it can be really hard to get to them.

Focusing frontline champions is often the correct choice. They are the easiest ones to get to, and there is little risk involved. You can always wait for your team to empty out their spells and then get to the action.

The ideal play will take some experience. You will need to learn when to go in and when to back out. This will allow you to make the best choices and target the correct enemies at all times.

Now, after knowing what to do in the midgame, I think it is equally valuable to know what not to do. I am talking about split pushing here. Many junglers will find themselves playing in the sidelanes when the midgame approaches, but that is not quite optimal with Kindred.

I much prefer invading the enemy jungle, and setting up objectives. These kinds of things just synergize with Kindred much better.

Conclusion

Kindred is one of the best champions to main in League of Legends. The return on time invested reflected in rank can not be replicated by many champions. To succeed as Kindred, the most important thing to focus on is the early game. Doing well in the early translates extremely great to the later stages of the game, which makes winning games relatively easy.