Kindred rework/update?

Im that DUCK··3 votes·4,349 views

This is more of a question for Riot, as to whether or not Kindred could be receiving a rework or update in the near future, or at least relatively soon, or at least if there are discussions and thoughts on Kindred's current position in the game. I would also like to know how other players feel about the current Kindred... do you think they're well designed, balanced, op/up, etc? What could be done for the champ?

Personally, I think Kindred needs some updates or a rework or something of the sort. Kindred is an extremely fun champ, for me. I love playing Kindred in the jungle and I've tried laning with them before too. Some games I've done pretty damn good, others not so much. Really, though, it depends on the enemy team. A team who knows the basics of Kindred and their kit can honestly quite easily shut them down, generally just by having the closest lane and maybe the jungler get to a marked camp and take it. This makes it extremely difficult to do much, as Kindred's passive is one of the strongest things about them. It's also usually quite difficult to try and get your team to help you, as usually the mark ends up in the enemy jungle, so unless all of your lanes are doing well there is a very, very slight chance of you being able to actually make it to the camp and take the mark. Even scuttler can be difficult if your lanes are just going even, not to mention the enemy jungler. Another problem is when Kindred's passive lands on something like the Rift Herald or Baron... especially earlier on in the game. It takes a long time to reset and can potentially severely slow your progress. Of course, you can still get marks from ganking lanes, but it still leaves you, as Kindred, extremely vulnerable. Aside from just their passive and marks, I think their abilities may need some reworks as well, namely their ult. The idea of the ult in itself isn't so bad, but when it actually comes into play it's often quite useless, honestly. It's good for saving players as long as they know what they're doing, but the problem with it is that it makes EVERYTHING, both friend and foe, immortal at 10% HP, AND heals them after. Often times when you use this, the enemy will just charge in rather than back off, like an ult should help you do. So, I personally think Kindred does need a bit of an update/rework to become a more viable champ against teams who actually have some idea what they're doing.

I've heard other people say Kindred is lacking, or a weak pick, so I think others can agree with at least some of this, or maybe other points of Kindred.

Thoughts, opinions?

20 Comments

Veraska4 votes

Kindreds in a pretty good spot right now, they're pretty rare but have a really high winrate with experienced players, part of why they feel so weak is because the people who picked them up on release played them for their early game power which needed to be reduced (they're actually really strong mid/late game now)

I dunno I just don't wanna see kindred become the gods of the early game jungler duelist club again, when ur ranged, highly mobile and have one of the most impactful utility ults in the game, you don't also need to be able to 1v1 everyone to be worth picking

Spârky2 votes

The problem with your statement is the fact that they are only strong mid/late game if they get enough passive stacks. While i personally love their passive i think too much of their power lies in it. If they don't get enough stacks then they are so useless late game. Also the other problem with them being good mid/late game is the game length. Unless they get fed and get their power spikes sooner they won't reach their power spikes. If they just stay on track with the rest of the champs and don't get a lead other champs are way better at every point of the game than kindred. So I think riot should just put less power on her passive and put it elswhere. Just a power shift would make them fine again.

Veraska1 votes

Yea a power shift would make thrm more accessible but if we're comparing them to every other carry jungler (the big 3 right now being rengar, kha'zix, and Lee sin) kindred trades that more obvious fighting strength for god tier utility theirr ultimate so they're still useful

it's a tough balancing act but if her winrate is anything to go by they seem to be in a pretty fair spot

AgeOfTheMage1 votes

yeah, i used to think kindred was trash, but then i picked them back up and now i've been destroying with them! i honestly don't think they need a rework, i love everything about their kit

FioraWillCarry2 votes

I played Kindred recently after not playing her for a long time. And by God, she is weak as fuck. I remember Kindred being one of the top duelists and most dangerous gankers. Now, she's barely stronger than a minion. I was in awe at just how weak Kindred is now, a far cry from the monster I remember playing the first couple months after her release.

Just to give you an example, I ganked Top lane who was so over extended that they were literally under our tower. I came around from behind, a gank no one would ever believe could fail and yet it did fail. To add insult, they didn't even use any summoners, they just straight up walked passed me and back to the safety of their tower. It was fuckin embarassing. Right there I knew this was not gonna be a fun game. I proceeded to go 2-11 and be completely useless all game.

Kindred is only a shadow of her former self now.

Chaos6891 votes

Dude kindred got released in October of 2015. We're currently reworking Warwick, who was released in February of 2009. Reworks generally go from older to newer. Translation: No Kindred is not going to be reworked.

Call Me Dental1 votes

Then at least buff her mark by not letting enemies see it until they physically walk up to it.

Dead flag blues1 votes

{quoted}

Dude kindred got released in October of 2015. We're currently reworking Warwick, who was released in February of 2009. Reworks generally go from older to newer. Translation: No Kindred is not going to be reworked.

They got reworked once tho

Bunnymap1 votes

Riot has stated that they think they're mostly fine and can be fixed with number buffs or small mechanic changes. I completely disagree with this, but whatever, can't change riots mind.

what you deserve1 votes

I just want their damn heal back, i loved that

Spârky1 votes

NO! As a level 6 mastery kindred player i disagree. Because the m/s and a/s slow on their w is fine. Their focus is kiting jg monsters not healing. Otherwise you run into the problem of them always being at full hp while other jg are at about half from their clears. I've said this before i think kindred just need a power shift away from their passive being so important. It's a good feature but the game is decided on whether or not kindred get stacks.

what you deserve1 votes

I'm also a level 6 Kindred player, and here's my problem with the current version of their W: Lane Kindred is no longer a thing. It can't be, because their kit was changed to be specifically only good against JG creeps instead of having lane sustain. This is really dumb because Midred was really fun while it was possible.

3BallWarsaw1 votes

Build her for burst over attack speed

Tormentula1 votes

Kindred is hit or miss IMO.

They're still strong champions with marks and their winrate vs. meta matchups show they can hold their own (they have a positive winrate vs. lee and vi, i didn't even think that'd be possible for kindred of all champions.). The only thing I hate about kindred that prevents me from taking them ranked where statisics and preformance matter, is the mark system. I feel like I don't have control of my game, the marks make the game feel more cheesy and RNG based than it should be. First mark spawn enemy raptors? My game got harder and my chances of winning got slightly lower... mark in river and secured? I think I might've won since now I can have 2 marks after I gank.

I still find the concept of "teams don't work around kindred" very silly when solo carrying as kindred isn't that hard. The problem with kindred is their playstyle and marks force them to make plays they really don't want to make, try to be productive early for a snowball which for marksmen is pretty bad, and make them go into enemy territory where they really don't have the early clear speed or even survivability to fight other junglers who catch them.

I get kindred is a marksmen, but you can't design a marksmen to force early game like this, and require objective control (marks) inorder to scale, you're going to end up with something either stupidly overtuned an impossible to deal with in order to succeed, or something rather subpar and can't keep up with its own job.

I do find kindred to be ok in the spot they're in, because I know for a fact a slight tune would make them over the edge when they're kinda ok right now. As I mentioned, it feels like games as kindred are either A) one sided because kindred got marks and scale hard, or B) one sided because not a single mark was accessible or spawned convienantly, and ganking the enemy laners wasn't a huge success with your team pushing the one you marked. Infact, what happened to me last night in a kindred game was I killed the bottom side rift scuttler, AND THEN the crab became my mark after I killed it, as it traveled to the middle of the river, which denied me an otherwise free mark not by skillful calculation or enemy dominance, but complete cheese, gameplay out of my control despite me doing everything right and getting drake vision, it feels so unrewarding to play kindred even if I do get an S+ in the first game I return to them in months and being first blooded while cheesed by crab marks.

The only buff kindred needs is clarity and consistency with their marks. A good kindred will do fine as long as they understand how to calculate enemy jungler positioning and watch enemy laners from roaming. So guess what kindred mains, its not your brand's fault for ahri roaming and killing you in her jungle, you shouldn't have been there and let the mark go.

Silencega1 votes

every time a champ gets reworked "can x y and z champs get reworked. " no, those champs are all new and we have much more deserving champs.

but kindred does need a buff.

Elisheva1 votes

She's not underpowered, she's just fairly boring, and can be weakened by experienced junglers.

Golldem1 votes

Kindred D’après moi Kindred n'est pas assez solide. Ce qui est décevant et la cause qu'il soit aussi vulnérable Le faite que les ennemis voient les marques dans la mini-map, il est très facile pour eux de Steal les marques Auparavant j'avais fait une partis avec Kindred le jungler ennemis ne me faisais que me steal mes marques et du coup j'était complètement inutile a mon équipe.

Call Me Dental1 votes

Passive - The mark of the Kindred really should not be able to be seen by enemies on the mini map, but they should be able to see it if they are right next to the marked camp. Kindred just gets camped and shut down by ANYONE if they dare try and touch the camp.

Q - This is relatively decent as it is. At most, make an attack speed/AD buff after activating it.

W - The only reason one would use this in a fight is so that the q cooldown is reduced. make it do % max health true damage, but make it scale off of ad If not true, then make it scale much better with ad.

E - The cripple slow should be strengthened when this is leveled up.

R - Make kindred (and only kindred) invulnerable for 0.5-1 seconds to allow her to re-position.

AA - her range is low, and her AA's do nothing, even WITH the lethality buff. So buff her range or the damage.

Overall, i think only minor tweaks would be needed. The only essential would be the passive buff i talked about. The camping thing is just so unfair. I go to get a rift and the jg (graves in particular) is hiding in a bush. This way there's a CHANCE that kindred can get mark(s).

BrokenWíngs1 votes

Do you even realise how OP everything you suggest is? Kindred is fairly strong even after the q nerfs

She does not need an attack speed or ad buff since she gets tons AS via her items plus the bonus damage from marks

If wolf dealt % max hp TRUE damage then it would end up being stupid thinking about how much hp damage you deal just by hitting. You already cut down tanks with 5 hits if stacked properly. Imagine squishies.

E is already one of the strongest slows in the game

If only kindred would become invu with her ult shed easilty at least 1v2 or even 1v3 anything in the game

Also giving range bonus to a champion with 2 sec cd dash makes her uncatchable. Imagine if caitlyn could dash around like vayne does. If you think her AAs do nothing youre doing something wrong. You can take down a 4k hp tanks in a matter of 6-7 hits, which is around 3 seconds if you built attackspeed (yellow jungle item, ruined king, runaans and a fair amount of stacks)

If you get nuked when you try to get marks just get a laner with you. Kindred is a counterjungler. You are supposed to be in the enemy jungle from now and then if you want to be effective. The enemy jungler can and should be able to see where your stacks appear, to be able to defend them, and stop you becoming op. If kindred was able to get all jungle stacks without the enemy knowing, shed be too strong too early. Your job on the other hand is to secure stacks and potentially kill the enemy jungler.

The only thing kindred needs is a more interesting way her passive pops on jungle camps or how you use it on a laner.

The ADC Wizard1 votes

As someone who loves playing Kindred I have a few things I want tweaked. When you hop with your Q as lamb, I want a cone of 3 arrows to come out when you click Q again to release the arrows (otherwise they seek the nearest target). I want the W to have a toggle effect to where you can guide Wolf to his victim. The E is unquestionably fine as it is, however I am not 100% on the ultimate. I feel it is too intrusive with a successful hunt, but this goes into the realm of my opinion.

More from Gameplay

More by Im that DUCK