Ty! n.n *Hopeful about Kindred's cautious buff*

So astonishingly right after 7.11 Kindred fans and pleas have been graciously heard by the teams at Riot. DON'T EVER say they don't listen to or hear us. This is not the league of yesteryear that faced understaffed challenges, less experience than what they have now, and so on - they do hear us!

The buff that's coming is a small adjustment - its not nearly as adaptive as perhaps Kindred's balance as a champion would benefit, however I have strong hopes that these small changes might be enough to bring back the early game just enough for Kindred's rework to finally shine -without being so overpowered people over pick Kindred, ban them, etc.

So Wolf is a major part of Kindred's kit, there's even this wonderful part of their W that allows Kindred to kind of use it like a skillshot on a fleeing, near dead champion, which is perfect for Wolf's personality.

To aid in this and also give Kindred a little more vision (I think) - about a split second more to respond - Wolf travels faster when the W is used, and the duration of the W is extended for long range casts. This makes perfect sense! Will the numbers, duration - all the fine tuning numbers be enough when Kindred is further play tested? We'll have to see.

Mounting Dread E's mana cost being lowered is a solid help - though I'm not entirely sure about leaving its cooldown. Kindred needs to slow enemy champs a lot less in later game than in mid and early, particularly as a form of self protection to help escape as every jungler needs to be able to.
But I am the LAST person to complain about a standard mana cost for this E as Kindred relies heavily on Q and W, so having their E available to slow ambush champions or fleeing targets helps make their rework kit actually *work*

Kindred is a tightly precise, high performance champion to me - like a formula one car, though perhaps not quite as much as say Gnar - but as a jungler, Kindred is actually quite high risk-reward particularly on teams that don't use vision or where vision is highly contested, and the high early game cooldowns easily slow down a Kindred player. 

 The additional range has been somewhat of a breathe of relief when attained - I'm used to much higher stress levels pre-rework having to dance almost right in front of the enemy team dealing damage while trying to stay alive. 
 The new rework in just less than half my games (I'd say around 35%) has given me chances to actually take advantage of a wall in the jungle to continue applying damage when in previous years I'd have to constantly find a sliver of wall to jump back and forth over - the new range also allows Kindred's attack speed Q to function whereas the vault literally cuts out several auto attacks.
^This last detail is key!^

Should the new buff work out pretty ok, I can see one last potential hurdle for Kindred before their rework is balanced and polished, and that's matching their vault or movement speed in a way that is symbiotic to their new range.

 Kindred's primary "kite dancing" comes from their Q, and its best used when vaulting around or alongside enemy champions in a fight, but ironically, the new rework's extended range  and increased attack speed has made it so that an efficient Kindred has become less mobile, pausing for a few seconds to apply the Q's attack speed attacks, and then keeping up with the extra range by moving more or less forward or back than around. 

 This is not at all a dealbreaker nor a massive issue, however it does present the rather weird moments in a fight when attempting to apply damage to specific targets in a teamfight while avoiding enemy attacks and changing up as in the role of an ADC. 

 I'm also still curious and fairly insistent about Kindred having a very brief hard CC effect - .5 seconds of fear to their E or even their W on the target attacked. 

 Why? Other successful jungle champions that also lack a hard CC make up for it by having hard CC like utility - Lee Sin can literally juggle an enemy by leaping to them from over a wall, kick the enemy over the wall, and then jump back to a preprepared ward, isolating said champion and going to town on them.

 Kindred's primary design is to either chase or run away, and this can lead to some very awkward situations in the jungle. While yes, they can use their ultimate when near a potential escape vault or plant to reach it, they are still vulnerable to hard CC themselves while invulnerable to lethal damage, making it so that they actually may waste their ult performing a normal mechanic of the jungle role.

 BUT, because Kindred is meant to be mobile - though anything that would shut down their q wrecks this - they wouldn't need an oppressive amount, just half a second is all the time a Kindred would need to try and escape or stop a gank or so on. 

Plus, I'm pretty serious and set about The Eternal Hunters having Fear in their kit, even in the TINIEST way. 

There is no way anyone could argue that a little being scared in some way - maybe for stealing a marked jungle camp? - is not integral to the Grim Reaper of League.

So Riot, Thank you.  The upcoming buffs are very cautious, yet fairly rounded, and I hope that Kindred will shine as a truly balanced jungle champion that is immeasurably fun to play for those of us who have never lost their love for this champion.

Deeply looking forward to this and perhaps future small tweaks/adjustments to fill out the jungler role,

• Jesse "Phoenix Incite" Lee