A look at Kindred, Solo - A few bugs? Utility issues

Thank you for the rework to Kindred - while this champion isn't entirely smoothed out yet as being still a somewhat squishy ADC more than jungler, Kindred plays a lot smoother in jungle camps now!

There are a few glaring issues however, and I'll start with the "bugs" or at least some reduced utility.

Kindred's Q attacks favor minions!   When chasing down an enemy champion, Kindred's Q auto attacks actually seem to favor hitting minions - now having too many minions during a gank is just bad jungling - but if there's even just a couple, Vaulting towards Kindred's fleeing prey is actually very lackluster when they hit jungle camps and minions over the champion they've been fighting the past 5 minutes who has completely escaped this one attack and is now well within the safety of their turret that a squishy Kindred can't really follow into - even sending Wolf with a W will have him after minion bites as 

Using W as a skillshot on a fleeing enemy champion that has been auto attacked still favors minions - Kindred *HAS* to auto-attack their target *inside* their W for wolf to chase down their target.
This does not work as Kindred's only "Too-Squishy-to-Dive" tool as especially in bad matchups, W should function more like a skillshot under enemy turrets instead of Wolf loving Minion Munchies or attacking a different champion. 

Why would Wolf give up the hunt they were just on?  He "Always Win" - so long as the near -dead enemy champion is within range of course.
Tuning this would *not* be OP as the effect would still cause the turret to attack Kindred, it would simply fine tune executing fleeing champions where *other* junglers could, and would simply dive after, or use a hyper mobile ability to close the way in addition to flash.

Kindred's E also seems to slightly favor minions - This is not my personal skill effect as I've been playing Kindred from all the way back as Day 1 (I've had practice). When casting on an enemy champion near minions, it seems to target them occasionally instead of the hunted, even auto-attack-marked enemy champion for some reason. 

 Beyond that, Kindred so far feels pretty smooth in a "normal"/traditional farming game. That brings up the last bit of smoothness issues:
 

Kindred is still somewhat more ADC than jungler - but I say that to point out some utility issues, NOT to disparage their state at this point. I really do enjoy the little bit of additional smoothness of play 7.12 has brought!

Primary issue:

Kindred has a very difficult time recovering from a bad matchup in early and mid game and needs team assistance, which is difficult for a team when the role of Jungler is strongly viewed to be the assistance. While on paper this seems like a great way to have a jungler focus on a lane, its also a great way to weaken their play, giving the enemy jungler much freer access to objectives and can see where Kindred will be without a sweat.

Their Mark system also has a other issues few issues.

The Mark system STILL allows for Kindred to be hunted more easily than any other Jungler, and as a result, Kindred needs more Vision than any other, right from the early game. 

An aggressive Jungler will know that Kindred will have to come within range of abilities like Amumu's bandage toss or so on in early game BEFORE trinkets can be upgraded, or can hide in the brush that Kindred's used up sweeping lens isn't there for - and ADCs are still squishy, with no hard CC to buy the second needed to start a fair duel.

Sending Wolf across walls helps, but he doesn't sniff out the bushes if you cast the W there, and you can only use Scanner so many times within a time period, and there are MANY bushes for the Squishy to check out.

Once an ambush has been detected or IF is detected, Kindred lacks the initial vault distance or movement speed or even a .5 second fear-stun to buy a window to back off. 

So as a result of the Vision issues, The time taken for a Mark to lock on - Not the time for a new hunt to be selected - is pretty long.

A common problem is when Kindred's lane mate is overly aggressive or kill-thirsty, killing the enemy champion in a gank before the lock can happen or even before Kindred can arrive, simply because "I can kill them now, so I will." It does not matter that they have Kindred's mark on them. These summoners are not rare. The second situation happens because a well timed Kindred will be thousands of units away to give the Mark time to lock - its too long - or the Marked champion will start running the second the Mark starts to appear. While this seems great psychologically..

Mid (about lvl 10+) and Late (about lvl 15) game where team fighting isn't unexpected, Kindred works quite well as a dancing ADC  unless again, in a bad matchup, Kindred's team is full of kiting players, which is not at all a rare occurrence. 

To ward against bad matchups, Kindred just needs a bit more utility perhaps in the ability to briefly pin down or scare off select enemies periodically. 

Kindred's E has a fairly high cooldown - just barely enough to initiate against a healthy champion, and maybe again to take advantage of its execute. 

Maybe one or two more against a Warden Tank.

But its getting there that is still a real challenge in BAD matchups.   Its no longer about Kindred's damage or power - as a Jungler Kindred just needs more utility.

You've solved Kindred's issue of being a late game ADC - in the games where we have actual team players Kindred plays the role beautifully and the use of their R in these situations works just as well - Wolf as a harassing W actually pushes off some of the pressure except against very tanky builds despite the 20% as he has to spread his damage around in a team fight, AND favors minions over champions if any champion has left Wolf's Claimed Territory.

Now Kindred just needs some fine tuning and more utility in order to fully realize their role and kit as a jungler.

The Current State of Kindred

It is important to note that Kindred's current builds all still rely on building damage and crit well beyond building attack speed. 

In order to continue Jungle camp clearing I have to have a full damage based rune and mastery set and my first item back is going to be BF Sword into Infinity Blade  and Warrior. 
The 7.12 boosts simply gave the little bit of damage on top of this that made it smooth and clearing just a little bit less damaging/quicker, but on par with most other junglers - but there's no really successful attack speed version, and Kindred's Q speed boost at early levels (6 and below) isn't quite that noticeable without it.

The above noted ability/utility issues and wondering if a Damage/Crit Kindred is what you're looking for in bad, or good matchups are pretty much it now.

In a normal, well matched game or even in games where my team is slightly weakened by inexperienced or obstinate players, I can fulfill my role as Jungler fairly well now so long as I have at least two teammates who can play fairly well, as well. But in games where their entire team is hunting me - and because of the mark system, they do, its easier for them than hunting other champions, and Kindred needs more vision as a result, but has the same resources as other champions for vision - and Wolf can't check bushes.

If its a bad matchup, Kindred NEEDS champion marks. Any marks in the jungle are going to be ambush points from the entire enemy team (worst case, but common scenario). Worst of all, once the enemy champion is safely away, everyone will know which direction Kindred, in a bad matchup, will intend to go. The headgame potential to fool the other team has a very short expiration date - the New Rework needs hunts, and bad matchups leave only Champion marks.

What makes jungle camp marks easier for Kindred to hunt now *also* makes hunting Kindred that much easier - there's a pattern, Scuttles, Gromp, etc.  so placing a ward there to wait for or to know which camp Kindred is going to set up an ambush, is *very* easy. 


Thank you Riot!!  I Love This Champion!  Kindred is a little healthier now!  Please help us have a polished/smoother play champion!  

Most sincerely, -Tryst "Phoenix Incite" Lee