How to win the jungle race as Maokai against Kindred · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Maokai's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Kindred.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Respect Kindred | Dance of Arrows kiting means you never actually touch her while she shreds you — Maokai has no answer to that at level 1. Wolf's Frenzy plus Q resets let them skirmish from untouchable range on their half of the map too, so skip the level-1 crossing and answer the pressure cross-map. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Respect Kindred | Wolf's Frenzy plus Q resets let them skirmish from untouchable range, and Maokai has no clean answer to it on the second camp — Dance of Arrows kiting means you never actually touch her while she shreds you. Commit only with a hard gap-close ready — chasing her through camps is a lost race, and give up the second buff rather than the kill. |
| Level 3 Route | Respect Kindred | The window at the opening scuttle belongs to Kindred: with three dashes banked they kite backwards and win every disengage fight. Your own line is real — Bramble Smash knock-back plus the W root is a solid pick kit, not a stat-check — but it arrives second here. Commit only with a hard gap-close ready — chasing her through camps is a lost race, then give up the level-3 river fight. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Respect Kindred — Path Opposite | You lose the 4-5 duel. They spend 4-5 chasing marks, so the side of the map with a live mark is where they will be — so let them have that half of the map and cash the other half faster. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Respect Kindred's R | The six-spike belongs to Kindred, and Maokai's does not bridge the gap: Lamb's Respite denies your kill at the last second and flips the reset fight. Hold your finishing damage until the Respite expires, or step outside its circle. Your own ultimate is a tool here, not a trump card — spend it to escape or equalize, not to start fights. |
| First Item Spike | Sunfire Aegis Spike | Completing Sunfire Aegis gives you a constant area burn plus health, so camps melt while you stand in them and every extended fight with a brawler has free damage ticking on your side. Kindred's first item plus a few stacks is where the ranged trade stops being poke and starts being a duel they win. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Danger — Kindred Outscales | The clock is your enemy. A stacked Kindred kites for free and Lamb’s Respite un-loses the fight you thought you won, so close the game on the first two objectives you actually win. |
Start your clear at the Raptors or Wolves camp utilizing your stacked E saplings to maximize early AoE clear speed without a leash. Kindred clears fast at range with Dance of Arrows and Wolf's Frenzy, and takes almost no damage doing it.
Ranked by the race windows in Maokai's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Maokai vs Kindred report continues with scuttle & dragon rules, invade windows and safety boundaries, the top-side objective fight, macro rotations and the win condition — plus the live enemy-jungle tracker that shows their start, clear and gank timers in game.
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Kindred pressures 6 of the 7 windows in this race — survive the early game and scale into your windows.
Not exactly — Kindred pressures 6 of the 7 windows, so Maokai is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Kindred vs Maokai guide →
All Maokai jungle matchups →
More Maokai jungle matchups: vs Karthus · vs Kayn · vs Kha'Zix · vs Lee Sin · vs Lillia · vs Locke