Kindred/Strategy

Gameplay
A marksman designed for a life in the jungle, prowls through camps, marking enemy champions for death and permanently growing in strength if they’re able to carry out the promised sentence. But just as Kindred brings death, so can they delay it. Should their allies meet deadly force, Lamb - one of Kindred’s two spirits - can create a large blessed zone that, for a few valuable seconds, denies the ever-creeping and inevitable clutches of death.

Jungle
Kindred makes short work of most jungle camps thanks to, which gives the twin spirits plenty of supporting damage as they chip away with their basic attacks. Crucially, by greatly reducing cooldown,  allows Lamb to constantly dart around the camp all while it whittles down multiple targets. Their movement isn’t just for show, though - repeated leaps with quickly builds up  passive, which, in turn, tops up their health as they head from camp to camp. Kindred might be a fragile champion, but by keeping on the move and attacking whenever their passive is ready, they’ll stay healthy enough to continue their hunt. Larger monsters prove the biggest challenge, and that’s where Kindred can turn to. The ability is too mana-hungry to use on small monsters, but by applying it to hard-hitting and tanky beasts, Kindred can kite its targets a little easier and deal a chunk of percent max health damage once the ability hits max stacks. And once Kindred has purged their jungle, they’ll be ready to start hunting bigger prey.

Ganking
is a powerful tool, and not just for the buff it grants Kindred when they butcher a marked target. It has immense psychological value, too: knowing that they’ve been marked for death may force an enemy to play more passively, pulling back from their pushed lane for fear of an approaching gank. But marking prey doesn’t force Kindred to their lane; the mark’s global range means they can mark the enemy team’s mid for death before ganking top, for example. They won’t get a permanent boost, sure, but Kindred’s time is sometimes better spent helping allies than scrambling to kill targets who know they’re being hunted.

But when Kindred sets it sights on a target, how does it actually hunt? provides a solid start, slowing their enemy as they close in to create a well-positioned. Once the lair’s live, Kindred’s all set to whittle their prey down with Dance of Arrows and basic attacks. But while Lamb and Wolf hit hard, they lack traditional hard crowd control effects, making them most effective when they gank wounded targets or attack alongside allies who can keep the enemy locked down.

Kindred should always keep an eye on the enemy team’s jungle, too, because while the twin beasts choose the champions they apply Mark of the Kindred to, the enemy jungle camps that suffer the same mark are picked at random. Kindred doesn’t gain vision of marked targets, but they do know that, by being marked, the camp at least lives. This is where Kindred uses their smarts: knowledge of live camps tell it where the enemy jungler is not, or at least where they may be headed, giving them the chance to plan their ganks or jungle routes accordingly. The mark’s also visible to the enemy jungler, too, who suddenly has to decide between killing off the marked camp to deny Kindred passive stats, or ganking. This isn’t an easy choice: choosing the latter, particularly in a lane well away from the marked camp, pretty much provides Kindred with a free invitation for extra stats. Otherwise, the enemy jungler can simply ward the marked buff and stay close enough to turn the tables on Kindred should they decide to kill the camp. As nimble and powerful as they are, Kindred still struggles against a number of strong dueling junglers.

Skirmishing
, when timed or used correctly, is an absolutely momentous ability. It can stall epic monster kills - even bait out the enemy team’s smite - and, when Kindred’s team is on the wrong end of a beating, prolong their lives as they bring the enemy team to the same brink. The ability makes for a perfect tower-diving tool, too, only safeguarding the lives of the living, so offering no protection to the game’s towers. Even against unfavourable odds, Kindred’s team can often claim objectives by casting before pummelling the enemy team’s structures down. The ability’s heal gives them options, too: keeping them on the offensive if the enemy team dares a base race, or propping them up for long enough to finish off any enemy stragglers who attempted to save their doomed defenses.

Teamfights
In full-scale fights, Kindred fights best behind their team’s frontline, pouncing around inside Wolf's Frenzy with as many attacks as possible, while throwing  on frontline enemies who manage to break through to their team’s delicate innards. If their team’s winning the fight, Kindred is best off saving to make sure their team’s heaviest damage dealers survive incoming damage. If they’re losing, on the other hand, Kindred can use to safeguard their entire team. The precious few seconds of immortality will help balance the playing field, leaving both team’s key players teetering on the precipice. And once the ult ends, the heal granted by will soon give way under the brutal few seconds that inevitably follow.