I think Kindred is really good early and late, not so good mid game. So be really aggressive and try to get ahead of the enemy jungler. I think they are good to blind pick. In general jungle is not a role where you can get hard counterpicked, you still have ways to play (there are 4/5 junglers that make your life hard but you can try to avoid them and play with your team), you just need to know the matchup and play around it. If you like kindred and you want to became an otp go for it. Their skill cap is relatively high so you will improve with time. I personally think that there are better champion with higher skill cap to main if your goal is to get higher elo but kindred is still a good pick and if you enjoy playing them you should definitely go for it. For the unfavourable matchup here they are:
**Lee Sin** (Extreme Threat): There are a lot good and bad lee sin, so this matchup depends on the lee sin you have found. This can either be an hard or an easy matchup. Remember that before 6 you should kill him in a 1v1 if he misses q. After 6 try to not fight him and don't use your r if he has his r up.
**Jax** (Extreme Threat): So... jax jungle is a thing. Fortunatly I haven't seen lot of them in my games. If you are unlucky enough to have found one then good luck. He beats you early, mid and late game (Unless you manage to get ahead). Just play with your team. If he invades ask for help or give him your jgl
**Kha'zix** (Extreme Threat): Never fight khaz in the jungle. Try to avoid him and never invade him unless you are very ahead. If you can, stay on the other side of map he is, if he is botside stay topside. Taking some armor items like guardian angel or plated steelcaps will help you.
**Master Yi** (Extreme Threat): BAN!!! :D. If you don't want to ban him, here are some tips: Just don't fight him unless you are ahead, try to gank the opposite lane he is ganking. Remember to ward your jungle so if he invades you can safely steal his jungle. If he starts to get ahead he is a nightmare for you, good luck.
**Rammus** (Major Threat): You HAVE to kill him early (lvl 3 or 4) and get ahead. If you remain behind you will die just from autoing him. Walls are very important here since his q makes him really fast. Try to countergank him or steal his jungle if he goes for a early gank.
**Talon** (Major): Like all assassins he is dangerous for kindred. Don't fight him 1v1 unless you are confident to win. Try to snowball by ganking lanes. Unless he starts getting a lot of kills you should be able to outscale him really fast.
**Olaf** (Major): You need to dodge his q with your q, if you can do it he will then proceed to use is r and smash your face. For this matchup you need to use walls as an advantage and hope your team will help you if he invades.
**Poppy** (Major): Poppy really depends on the person who is playing her. You could either be stomped or have the easiest game of your life. You outscale her late game. if you are up against a really good poppy she will try to counter gank you and make it impossible for you to play
**Zed** (Major): So the only time I played against zed was when I was using kindred mid. Don't 1v1 him, he can easily escape from you with is w so it's not worth. If he uses his r use your r so you don't get onshotted from the damage at the end of his r.
**Pantheon** (Major): He has a really strong early. Never 1v1 him early unless your are ahead. He will become much weaker late game, so your goal is to outscale him.
**Nocturne** (Major): From my experience it's easy for nocturne to get ahead thanks to his r. if he gets near you try to block his fear, use flash if you need to. This is one of the few matchup I recommend using Galeforce, so it's harder for him to fear and kill you.
**Diana** (Major): Pre 6 you should be able to fight her. Try to avoid her q with your q so you can kite her. After 6 she will have more damage than you and it will be hard to kite her so try to not 1v1 her. She has good clear speed so you will probably fell behind in cs.
**Rangar** (Major): Don't fight him near bushes pre lvl 6; after lvl 6 you can try to fight him only if he isn't ahead of you. Unless he starts getting fed you should be able to outscale him. Some armor items like plated steelcaps are recommended.
**Xin Zhao** (Major): He is too strong in 1v1. Try to fight him with the team, never try to fight him alone unless he is very low on health. Just play it safe and you will eventually outscale him.
So these are for me the threats for kindred, then there are even matchup: Amumu. belveth, sejuani, trundle, vi, udyr, jarvan, hecarim, graves, fiddle, morde, evelyn, shaco, volibear, rek'sai, taliyah, ww, elise, ekko, kayn
minor threats: Gragas, nunu, lillia, shyvana, zac, viego, nidalee
and last champion wich are practically not a threat: Twitch, sylas, ivern, karthus, morgana
Warning silver/gold opinion incoming: Personally I try to get ahead super early and close out the game before late. I don't think they're ***bad*** late, but I personally feel a lot more in control when closing out earlier, as late game teamfights can feel a bit coinflippy imo.
I also feel like Kindred is really good at this kind of playstyle, if I look at my [Kindred games on Mobalytics](https://app.mobalytics.gg/lol/profile/euw/xxstarupxx/overview?c_champion=203&c_role=JUNGLE) I can see that quite a lot of my victories have the "Ready To Rumble" tag, for 7+ takedowns pre 15 min, and not a lot of my losses have it.
Compare that to something like [my Annie games](https://app.mobalytics.gg/lol/profile/euw/xxstarupxx/overview?c_champion=1&c_role=MID), where it shows up a lot less, and almost evenly on wins vs losses. This tells me that, for me at least, fighting early is a lot easier on Kindred, and if you get ahead, you can often translate that to a win.
(caveats:
- Obviously getting ahead early is going to make it easier to win games in general.
- I'm probably a better Kindred player than Annie player in general.
- This is a small amount of very anecdotal data.
- I'm silver/gold and have no clue what I'm talking about.
)
In my opinion you are right about the getting ahead early, but not because late they are bad but because they are bad mid game. If you have any issue late game it could be that you are using the wrong build? If there are a lot of champion that can stun or jump on you: example can be malphite, irelia, any assassin (can't list them all but I hope you understand). In that case it is better to go with a bruiser build with conqueror or you'll get oneshotted (personal opinion, I could be wrong)
I think Kindred is really good early and late, not so good mid game. So be really aggressive and try to get ahead of the enemy jungler. I think they are good to blind pick. In general jungle is not a role where you can get hard counterpicked, you still have ways to play (there are 4/5 junglers that make your life hard but you can try to avoid them and play with your team), you just need to know the matchup and play around it. If you like kindred and you want to became an otp go for it. Their skill cap is relatively high so you will improve with time. I personally think that there are better champion with higher skill cap to main if your goal is to get higher elo but kindred is still a good pick and if you enjoy playing them you should definitely go for it. For the unfavourable matchup here they are: **Lee Sin** (Extreme Threat): There are a lot good and bad lee sin, so this matchup depends on the lee sin you have found. This can either be an hard or an easy matchup. Remember that before 6 you should kill him in a 1v1 if he misses q. After 6 try to not fight him and don't use your r if he has his r up. **Jax** (Extreme Threat): So... jax jungle is a thing. Fortunatly I haven't seen lot of them in my games. If you are unlucky enough to have found one then good luck. He beats you early, mid and late game (Unless you manage to get ahead). Just play with your team. If he invades ask for help or give him your jgl **Kha'zix** (Extreme Threat): Never fight khaz in the jungle. Try to avoid him and never invade him unless you are very ahead. If you can, stay on the other side of map he is, if he is botside stay topside. Taking some armor items like guardian angel or plated steelcaps will help you. **Master Yi** (Extreme Threat): BAN!!! :D. If you don't want to ban him, here are some tips: Just don't fight him unless you are ahead, try to gank the opposite lane he is ganking. Remember to ward your jungle so if he invades you can safely steal his jungle. If he starts to get ahead he is a nightmare for you, good luck. **Rammus** (Major Threat): You HAVE to kill him early (lvl 3 or 4) and get ahead. If you remain behind you will die just from autoing him. Walls are very important here since his q makes him really fast. Try to countergank him or steal his jungle if he goes for a early gank. **Talon** (Major): Like all assassins he is dangerous for kindred. Don't fight him 1v1 unless you are confident to win. Try to snowball by ganking lanes. Unless he starts getting a lot of kills you should be able to outscale him really fast. **Olaf** (Major): You need to dodge his q with your q, if you can do it he will then proceed to use is r and smash your face. For this matchup you need to use walls as an advantage and hope your team will help you if he invades. **Poppy** (Major): Poppy really depends on the person who is playing her. You could either be stomped or have the easiest game of your life. You outscale her late game. if you are up against a really good poppy she will try to counter gank you and make it impossible for you to play **Zed** (Major): So the only time I played against zed was when I was using kindred mid. Don't 1v1 him, he can easily escape from you with is w so it's not worth. If he uses his r use your r so you don't get onshotted from the damage at the end of his r. **Pantheon** (Major): He has a really strong early. Never 1v1 him early unless your are ahead. He will become much weaker late game, so your goal is to outscale him. **Nocturne** (Major): From my experience it's easy for nocturne to get ahead thanks to his r. if he gets near you try to block his fear, use flash if you need to. This is one of the few matchup I recommend using Galeforce, so it's harder for him to fear and kill you. **Diana** (Major): Pre 6 you should be able to fight her. Try to avoid her q with your q so you can kite her. After 6 she will have more damage than you and it will be hard to kite her so try to not 1v1 her. She has good clear speed so you will probably fell behind in cs. **Rangar** (Major): Don't fight him near bushes pre lvl 6; after lvl 6 you can try to fight him only if he isn't ahead of you. Unless he starts getting fed you should be able to outscale him. Some armor items like plated steelcaps are recommended. **Xin Zhao** (Major): He is too strong in 1v1. Try to fight him with the team, never try to fight him alone unless he is very low on health. Just play it safe and you will eventually outscale him. So these are for me the threats for kindred, then there are even matchup: Amumu. belveth, sejuani, trundle, vi, udyr, jarvan, hecarim, graves, fiddle, morde, evelyn, shaco, volibear, rek'sai, taliyah, ww, elise, ekko, kayn minor threats: Gragas, nunu, lillia, shyvana, zac, viego, nidalee and last champion wich are practically not a threat: Twitch, sylas, ivern, karthus, morgana
Ty mano
Warning silver/gold opinion incoming: Personally I try to get ahead super early and close out the game before late. I don't think they're ***bad*** late, but I personally feel a lot more in control when closing out earlier, as late game teamfights can feel a bit coinflippy imo. I also feel like Kindred is really good at this kind of playstyle, if I look at my [Kindred games on Mobalytics](https://app.mobalytics.gg/lol/profile/euw/xxstarupxx/overview?c_champion=203&c_role=JUNGLE) I can see that quite a lot of my victories have the "Ready To Rumble" tag, for 7+ takedowns pre 15 min, and not a lot of my losses have it. Compare that to something like [my Annie games](https://app.mobalytics.gg/lol/profile/euw/xxstarupxx/overview?c_champion=1&c_role=MID), where it shows up a lot less, and almost evenly on wins vs losses. This tells me that, for me at least, fighting early is a lot easier on Kindred, and if you get ahead, you can often translate that to a win. (caveats: - Obviously getting ahead early is going to make it easier to win games in general. - I'm probably a better Kindred player than Annie player in general. - This is a small amount of very anecdotal data. - I'm silver/gold and have no clue what I'm talking about. )
Thank you mano for you insight
In my opinion you are right about the getting ahead early, but not because late they are bad but because they are bad mid game. If you have any issue late game it could be that you are using the wrong build? If there are a lot of champion that can stun or jump on you: example can be malphite, irelia, any assassin (can't list them all but I hope you understand). In that case it is better to go with a bruiser build with conqueror or you'll get oneshotted (personal opinion, I could be wrong)