Thoughtful analysis of Kindred

I've seen a lot of "Oh man this is the next kalista" and " oh great, another broken troll champ" threads going around about Kindred since the reveal, so I thought it might be refreshing to take a more objective look at what their kit does and why.

Aesthetic: This is amazing, probably my favorite character visual/ audio design within the past 2 years I've been playing.

Stats: Looking at their stats, the first thing that sticks out are its very low range (bottom 3 for ADC ranges in the whole game at 500) and its extremely low MS (bottom tier at 325). This sets Kindred as a very unsafe champion from the get-go since in a carry position range and mobility are paramount to success, which implies that they are heavily relying on this weakness to push Kindred towards the intended role of jungler. Other than those 2 stats, Kindred has moderate-high durability for a marksman, high mana pool, moderate regen stats, and average-low damage and attack speed. This all favors the style of a jungle marksman that relies most on being able to take a few extra hits while clearing and the slightly low base damage stats favor building a mixture of durability and damage.

Passive: The hunt mechanic allows for a semi-passive stat boost that primarily increases jungle clear and allows for a tankier build style. this also acts as a reward system for roaming and ganking, which further solidifies Kindred's role as a jungle champion. The damage boost is relatively small, requiring at least 7 stacks to surpass the bonus available from BotRK, however, it also provides a certain degree of scaling since even a Kindred with no kills can stack off of camps, and the stacks currently have no cap, potentially allowing for major late game tank busting and epic monster killing power.

Q: Low damage mobility ability. this has a rather low cooldown and can be reset to a negligible amount in tandem with W. the primary use of this ability is high mobility in a limited area. I cannot see this as becoming in any way nearly as toxic a pattern as Kalista's hops, since the dash has a lengthy cooldown and can only be reset if they use their 18/17/16/15/14 second cooldown W to gain a short boost. In combat, Kindred will be pretty slippery, but not oppressively so, especially when considering their very low range and MS. The primary function of this ability seems to be for kiting around monster camps early game to reduce damage taken during early clears, which is crucial to jungler success.

W: Passively offers sustain that benefits from a roaming play style (ideal for a jungle marksman) and actively gives the only source of real DPS in this kit. This offers excellent zone control, especially in confined areas, but at the same time the trade offs Kindred makes to their base stats leaves them vulnerable when caught off guard or when the ability is on cooldown. it seems like a pretty healthy ability with decent counterplay.

E: The "three hit and burst" ability style is getting pretty old at this point. This seems to be the only real ganking specific tool in Kindred's kit. it is not really imaginative in any way and acts as more of a necessary factor rather than a defining characteristic. It isn't great, but it isn't really broken either, just bland.

R: This ability is... different. It feels like the love child of a Bard, an Ekko, and a Tryndameres' ults. on the one hand, there is real troll potential (saving enemy champs or blocking allied healing) but at the same time it offers immense strength in a countersink or a team fight. I think the "trolly-ness" of this ability is strictly in that it is obvious how to troll with it, and like Bard, the trolls will have a field day with Kindred for a little while, and then the real serious players will start pulling off some seriously awesome shit with it and people will largely forget about the minimal troll abuse cases that are inherent to any champion design. It feels slightly out of place in a marksman kit like this, but for a jungler, it feels good.

Points of interest: Kindred is obviously a jungle champ, and I see it as no coincidence that Riot is nerving Sated Devourer on ranged users the same patch they release this bad boy. Kindred has pretty low base AD and has pretty poor AD scalings along with a potent scaling on-hit steroid, which in my opinion means Kindred will primarily be an attack speed heavy jungler. Now imagine jungle vayne from a few patches back, but actually designed to be a strong jungler. Kindred's on-hit % health damage would be insane with an un-nerfed Sated devourer. Also noteworthy, neither E or R cost mana. However, Q and W both cost mana, and since Q is a situationally very spammable ability, Kindred having a higher than average base mana pool makes sense.

So, what do you think? Is Kindred OP? UP? A breath of fresh air, or a lot of the same you've seen? do you have any interesting opinions on builds or strategies?