The thing that was seriously useful was Google Listen that took podcasts from Reader. I have found nothing that does podcasts as well as Listen did.
I currently use Pocket Casts and it is adequate.
I tried Feedly but found it very demanding. If I left it, I would be told about the number of new things and it was just too much hassle. I will probably go back from time to time and clear the huge amount of "new" items and see how it goes for a while.
Dropping Reader was not a great thing for us "users" out here but I'm sure it made sense to someone at Google. However, I have No Agenda...