@ Riot Meddler regarding Kindred thematic and balance changes

Hello, a while back there was a mentioning of some upcoming tweaks to Kindred later on in the season. I wanted to offer some input and some suggestions for Kindred that would help her thematically, and some small changes that might help her some gameplay wise

I'm not the highest ranked Kindred player, but I'm definitely one of the better ones, and I've played her to diamond across multiple accounts. My peak with her was D3 just to give an idea of where I'm at with her.

When you look at champions like Jhin/Warwick and even Eve their theme is really strong, whereas Kindred's is only sort of there . . . So, two of my suggestions for thematics would be:

1. make it so that upon reaching crit threshold with Kindred E some form of visual/sound effect happens. Champions of similar nature already have this.

A high skilled Zed player knows exactly when to get out because the symbol over the enemies head will change if the kill is guaranteed, and Fizz's know how to delay their W for a "crit." I feel regarding Kindred this is something that you can play around with to give additional visuals for "theme purposes." It doesn't necessarily have to be over their head for a symbol, maybe their body turns a different color from being "scared of Death," or something or other.

**2. If a target is marked and are low health, make it so that they can hear Kindred. **

All three of those champs have similar interactions, and I feel Kindred would be an excellent champ to "update" it with.

For example: Upon reaching 30-40% life League Music will cease playing/ Kindred's song starts playing/ no music at all and you'll hear Kindred humming/laughing/ Wolf growling/snarling. I feel this will greatly enhance the thematics of Kindred + add psychological gameplay without actually "buffing" her.

I don't think these changes would be too hard to implement.

Actual balance changes:

The D+ Kindred players all have general opinions + different builds etc, but one of the things a lot of us agree on is it's pretty rare to pull off ten marks in higher elo + It's also unrealistic ((unless you're smurfing)) to consistently pull 10 marks, and the games that you do . . . you usually end up with 12-15 marks, but the actual impact feels overkill after 10 ((At 10 marks you're equivalent to a fed Twitch.)) . With that said, Kindred has the problem of having an excessive amount of power budgeted around the idea of "infinite scaling." My idea is to remove the "infinite scaling" potential that frankly almost never happens in diamond + elo and budget it into her other stats to make her actually feel crisp.

**Marks: Capped at 10. ** 1. Mounting Dread:

65 / 85 / 105 / 125 / 145 (+ 80% bonus AD) (+ 8% (+ 0.5% per Mark of the Kindred Mark) of target's missing health)

**Changed to 70/90/110/130/150 (+ 80% bonus AD) (+ 8% (+ 0.75% per Mark of the Kindred Mark) ** Wolf's pounce will Critical strike icon critically strike for 50% (+ Infinity Edge item 25%) bonus damage against targets ~~below 15% ~~ 20%(+ 50% critical strike chance) of their maximum health.

I know you set it to critcally strike at 15% because it's similar to Pantheon, but the difference between Pantheon and Kindred is that Pantheon's AUTOS + Spear shot critcally strike, whereas Kindred only her E critically strikes, and it's on a really long cool down.

After doing basic math by switching it to 20% life threshold vs 15% it will net a kill at almost exact HP instead of over killing.

Over-all I feel this will feel more comfortable compared to the 15% threshold because due to the current nature of a lot of meta champions + fleetfootwork/sustain runes/brief heals it's actually a lot more difficult to actually net the crit because people will save their heals/sustain procs for when E is flying through the air, and without the crit Kindred's E does significantly less damage, and by significantly less . . . I'm talking roughly 80-100 damage lost at level 3.

2.Wolf's Frenzy:

25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 (+ 20% bonus AD) (+ 1.5% (+ 1% per Mark of the Kindred Mark) of target's current health)

** Changed to**

** 25/35/40/45/50 ((+20% bonus AD) (+ 1.5% (+ 1.2% per Mark of the Kindred Mark) of target's current health) ((level 1 W buff would be too strong, so leave as is.))**

3. Dance of Arrows **60/80/100/120/140 (+65% bonus AD) ACTIVE: Lamb dashes in the target direction, gaining 10% (+ 5% per Mark of the Kindred Mark) bonus attack speed for 4 seconds ** **Changed to **

Dance of Arrows 65/85/105/125/145 (+65% bonus AD) ACTIVE: Lamb dashes in the target direction, gaining 10% (7% per Mark of the Kindred Mark)

((This is a quality of life buff because Kindred's Q at wolves/birds will leave them with 2 hp and you waste a couple seconds/another Q just to kill them. With 5 extra damage she'll actually clear them more efficiently. To give you an idea of how frustrating this is some times, look at Eve and her problems with stoner brothers pre E buff.))

Also with this 5 extra damage the needs for her to have 1 second off of her Q ((Which all of us Kindred players want)) won't actually be needed because It will equal up to roughly half of an extra Q we might have gotten on the first clear.

I know these changes are going to look very slight and "weak" to most in compensation for being capped at 10 marks, but it will be reasonably noticeable to anyone who takes the time to be really good with her because most of these changes are designed to polish clearing inconsistencies + reward intelligent mark hunting.

The E buff is specifically placed to make ganks just a tad easier, and to make Kindred's ability mechanics more realistic. As it is, Kindred's E is more or less a slow with a small loan of 60 damage instead of the execute it wishes it was. The extra 5 damage + 5% bonus crit threshold will make it so if played at an optimal level a skilled Kindred player will crit more readily. Currently, against most champs ((save for a few mid laners)), even if you chase them all the way across the lane they'll almost never reach the crit threshold in the first 8-10 mins of the game. The notable exceptions are the ones that would have died to virtually any gank in the game + were sitting in front of your turret with 30% life. Let's face it though, that's not Kindred being skillful, that's just an enemy being a silly goose.

With all of that said, I hope you guys consider some of these changes to Kindred for the future. The ones I am most concerned about are the thematic changes. The stat balance changes are just my opinion on what would make Kindred a solid + fun champ for us like 1,000 Kindred players, though they are not needed. The thematic changes however would add a lot of fun interacting gameplay for everyone involved though, and I feel that that is something you guys can realistically incorporate into Kindred wthout much fuss.

I hope to hear from you Rioters, and your opinions on these changes =).