This is the opinion of a 1,500,000 mastery point diamond Kindred main who fell in love with Kindred on release, Kindred right now is in their worst spot they have ever been in. I am not talking about win rates or how they work in the meta, I am talking about what really matters, How fun playing Kindred is, and right now they are not fun at all. Kindred went through two events that i dont think Riot really grasped how those two would affect Kindred together. One is the nerf to Kindred's armor and hop CD scaling with Q rank. This change alone was a very good idea to tone down Kindred's early game power, which was really oppressive at the time. The armor nerf didn't affect Kindred's HP while clearing, because they kite the camps but it did make their dueling weaker so they had to pick fights better. Then we have the other event, The change to the mark system to where Kindred's mark now scale their auto range and abilities. Kindred's abilities scaling off marks was a really good idea to where now kindred has to have marks to scale at all. The auto range change was weird but didn't really matter because with their abilities scaling off marks now, it was still the same as before so nothing really changed about Kindred, right? Wrong, because Kindred now starts with only a measly 500 auto range. These two changes together now leave Kindred with 500 auto range, 4 second hop CD, and no armor.
This post is gonna be pretty long but i wanted to clarify that i'm not just crying for buffs but have no idea whats wrong, i'm not just a bronze trashcan ranting about why i lost my silver promos to my team again. I'm not hoping riot makes them OP and Kindred is META pick easy wins. I'm hoping riot will use some of this to make Kindred what they should be, fun, because Kindred is not that right now.
Before i get into any suggested changes, i wanna share my vision of Kindred, to ensure i am as crystal clear as possible. After all, what i want from Kindred might not be what everyone wants. These are just my thoughts and what i feel the duo grim reaper of the rift is lacking.
Kindred should be a self reliant Marksmen jungler, that has the skirmishing potential to be able to contest their marks, in order to scale into the late game. Kindred should have to have marks in order to scale.If Kindred does not have marks, they will severely be lacking in the damage aspect. They can still offer utility through their ultimate and through playing safe and making smart decisions with their ultimate, get back in the game. A Kindred that has been playing good from the beginning and gets a early lead, should be able to start collecting marks at a very fast rate if no one is smart enough to deal with them and eventually, become a monster. Now current Kindred does have most of this in some shape or form. Kindred being able to send wolf out allows for them to get vision, their abilities scale off marks, and their ultimate is a thing of beauty but ill go over that later. So the core game play of Kindred is already there, Riot just needs to tweak it like most champions need, but for some reason has failed to do so, so here i am with a helping hand to address the problems i have stated thus far.
Fair warning i will not have strict numbers on any of these, as without being able to test it, i have no idea what would be OP or not. I will give vague ideas that Riot can work on to see if its OP or not. I would love to get in a discussion about what would work and what wouldn't though, because i have been playing Kindred for a long time now and i will never be forgetting my time playing as Kindred.
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Changing the mark system: First thing that needs to be changed is Kindred's auto range scaling with marks. You can only feel the effects of this mechanic when you have at least 10 marks. Till then you basically only have normal range and the main pressing issue with this mechanic is it guts Kindred's early game. Kindred's kit feels horrible to play with 500 range, the only way 500 range works is if you give Kindred back a 2 second hop CD and make them like a Kalista early game. Which has already been proven it doesn't work, as it becomes too oppressive against melee junglers (everyone). You could also give Kindred SO much damage that it doesn't matter that they don't have mobility or defensive stats (which i guess is what you are going for since those are the "buffs" you have on the PBE currently), but Kindred is still gonna feel horrible strictly cause of the 500 range and i can guarantee you its gonna get reverted or nerfed even harder. I suggest just make it to where they have a normal range (550, 575, 525 if you give them a lot of damage) and make the marks give some kind of damage on hit. Also scale their abilities even more into the mark side to where they do little damage without them and big damage with them.
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How marks are seen: I never quite understood from a game stand point AND lore stand point why Kindred's marks are seen by everyone AT THE SAME TIME. Yes i agree the enemy should be able to see the marks because the person is marked for death but i think a super easy fix to Kindred is just to make it to where the enemy doesn't see the mark till it's fully done cooking (i guess?) on champions, and give the jungle marks the same kind of mechanic, to where only Kindred sees its about to mark. Then when it actually marks the enemy sees it to. This allows for Kindred to prepare marks and will mark Kindred WAY less feast or famine. The very way marks works is just downright weird in every aspect, the current marks are feast or famine the mechanic. Like a mark spawns, you are either strong enough to take it or your behind and you can't get it. Not even including the heavy RNG that comes with it. With the new marks even if your behind or just the same, you can still ward up or try and gank the lane closest to where it's spawning to try and swing the odds in your favor. Marks with how they are now are a flawed mechanic and just downright not fun.
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Make Kindred feel like a duo: Don't really need to point out how little wolf does in Kindred's kit but here are some fixes. 300 IQ super easy fix is to just make wolf smarter. If you made wolf follow targets in bushes, he would at least not be seen as the dumb dog the game play makes him. Some more stuff you can do to the W is make wolf always auto things that are really close to you, but activating W makes him go out and do what he normally does doing more damage the the W passive. You can make the E to where if the W is active, Each of the two autos leading up to the third one has wolf maims them and slows them(could leave it as the current maim where he slows attack speed too, probably OP though). Making wolf always attack but making W active do more makes it to where wolf is always with you and he would actually always help, which would make him feel like less of a sidekick. Also adding some kind of interaction with wolf with the three hit E would help too, don't have to use what i stated, just something that could work.(BTW lamb doing physical and wolf doing magical is a pretty good idea to make them feel different but the same, so dont change that)
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Kindred's Ultimate: Finally the ultimate and how NOTHING SHOULD CHANGE ABOUT IT. Reading on the Kindred Reddit about how Kindred's ultimate should be changed triggers me to no end. After all this thought i could not come up with a single ultimate idea that beat the current one, without it being OP. Kindred needs some form of utility to be a self reliant Marksmen jungler but having it not on the ultimate would be weird for many reasons. Kindred's ultimate is the best thing about Kindred in terms of what a jungler needs or just its super fun. I could go on for hours about how Kindred's ultimate has infinite value but isn't OP strictly for how awkward it is to use. I can agree it does not fit Kindred lore wise but at this point i would argue it is a iconic ability that Kindred is known for having.
This turned out quite a bit longer that i intended and im sorry for the wall of text. It's just that I played league of Legends for quite awhile before Kindred was released and never really fell in love with any of the champions but when Kindred came out they were all i could play. I only ended up reaching diamond because i wanted to see how high i could go with Kindred. I never cared that i would have people flame me for picking a "troll champ" and end up intentionally feeding. I was playing Kindred because I had a blast doing so. I have been playing Pyke now non stop because after trying him out for the heck of it, I had a absolute blast playing him and im hoping Kindred can one day be as fun as they were back then(please no more 500 range).
