Which is better on kindred jg? PTA or hail of blades?

Dewott610·Jun 20, 2018·1 votes·4,414 views

I was wondering since hail gets your E off quickly and PTA is just more damage overall, The top rated guide i looked at recommended hail of blades, but what do you guys think?

5 Comments

ThePiBoyJun 22, 20182 votes

If you are talking about ADC Kindred, then definitely Press the Attack, but if you, like most other players, play Kindred Jungle, well, let me list the pros and cons of both so you can pick which one fits your play style:

Jungler Kindred:

PTA Pros: Very very hard snowballing once you get ahead, there is no stopping you, tanks will melt like they have no armor, just like playing Vayne, awesome in team fights as well, but the cons might make you reconsider...

PTA Cons: Very risky, if you meet highly aggressive or tanky junglers such as Kha Zix or Warwick, and unfortunately forced to duel 1v1 (assuming your HP bars are the same), you will mostly likely lose and I personally think that it is significantly harder to come back from being behind. If you get into a team fight while being considerably behind, your ult is your only hope.

HOB Pros: An easier comeback even from being behind, and higher kill potential while ganking, while Hail of Blades does not do as much damage as PTA overall, the first 3-4 seconds after the activation of HOB does do more damage than PTA, which often is just what you need in a short-period gank, and to gain the upper hand in the early game, but of course, watch out for enemy wards or you'll get nowhere. Also the comeback potential from being behind is greater than PTA. The best thing about HOB is that even when you're behind, in a team fight, you can easily catch a small fry off guard and kill him within a second as your HOB will usually be at least 100% attack speed when team fights start.

HOB Cons: Less snowballing potential compared to PTA, no advantage in drawn out team fights.

Personally I find the juicy rewards of PTA much more appealing, but since I'm not a highly aggressive player, also I know well that my skills do not allow me to duel with fighters, I go safe and go with HOB, it's actually pretty fun when you're used to it. The only time I ever used PTA on Kindred again (after the HOB buff), was when some stupid guys on my team wanted to go 2 guys in top lane (and not winning at all, ffs = =), and I had to take care of bot lane all the time while the support defend as much as he can, and like what I listed above, I was fortunate enough to get fed and snowballed my way to victory, but I must admit that it was risky. TLDR, with all that's said and done, it all comes down to your play style: aggressive = PTA, safe = HOB, I went with HOB.

Dewott610Jun 23, 20181 votes

Thanks for the well thought out answer, with hail of blades, I just seem to have trouble with tanks, so would it be like PTA for a 2+ tank carrys and HOB for everything else?

ThePiBoyJun 24, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Thanks for the well thought out answer, with hail of blades, I just seem to have trouble with tanks, so would it be like PTA for a 2+ tank carrys and HOB for everything else?

I personally do not have that much experience with fighting teams with 2+ tanks, but I would think that:

If my team has a similar number of tanks as well, I would not run the risk and stick back to Hail of Blades (unless like I said in the previous post, you are an aggressive player, this is why challenger players build PTA Kindred all the time), because you can gank a lane non-stop early game (when the tanks are not tanky yet), and it doesn't matter if you don't get the kill because you are burning their summoner spells, and your lane will gain an advantage in cs, this can usually flip the table as long as they don't do something stupid or reckless to feed the opponent. Which means melting tanks would be your teammates' responsibility instead of yours (i.e. Teemo vs Darius, Teemo definitely has a lot more armour penetration than Kindred by default, so leave the job to him). Dangerous tanks such as Darius should not be ganked after Lv 6-8 (variable) (<-- This here is just my opinion, not a fact, I have seen people prove me wrong), as he can easily get a double kill if you play recklessly, if unfortunately despite all that you've done, the lane is still losing, people ARE going to flame you for not ganking, but against dangerous FED tank champs (Illaoi, Darius, etc.), I would avoid them unless I'm fed myself, instead I would help the winning lanes push, this would increase your chances of winning a lot more than trying to defend a losing lane. Grab Black Cleaver if you want more armour penetration.
If my team only as one or even no tanks, and there are 2+ tanks on the enemy team, I would say run the risk of going PTA. At this point everyone is responsible for melting tanks, this time ganking is your priority throughout the game, just gank crazy, avoid their jungler unless 2 v 1, your only chance of snowballing is by getting kills and not your farm. Gank all lanes before they get to Lvl 6-8, after that, go for the less tanky ones (but don't get too reckless around assassins like Zed or Katarina), usually mid laners and adcs. You will know once you get fed, cuz you'll feel like everyone are small potatoes, but just to be safe, grab Lord Dominik's Regards no matter what, with the addition of Press the Attack, and your fed damage, the tanks will melt a lot faster. This is the most important: Kindred's ult is game-changing, don't just activate your ult when a team fight starts because the enemy team has a higher chance of winning, in fact don't use it in every team fight, just use it when absolutely necessary, only your experience with playing Kindred will let you know when the best time is to use your ult.

Playing Kindred requires smart jungling since of course, you are disadvantaged by default until you have a certain amount of marks and kills. TLDR, go Hail of Blades if you think your team is tanky enough, go PTA if your team has one to no tanks and that you know the other team is significantly tankier. The use of common sense would be important as well (Yes, I have seen 3 guys with less than half HP run into a full health Illaoi, and of course, I do not need to illustrate the outcome). *People out there claim that electrocute Kindred melts tanks fast and I have also tried it, and I do agree with them, but of course, electrocute has quite a number of downsides, and also extremely situational, but that's another topic of discussion, so to keep it concise, we'll just stick between PTA and Hail of blades.