Decoy Suggestion - Kindred's Mark system needs help - Too easy too counter-bully

Phoenix Incite··22 votes·1,173 views

Kindred is a fun, rewarding champion - but incredibly difficult due to heavy reliance on a mark system that telegraphs where this squishy ADC will go.

It's become the normal standard that outside of unranked and low level ranked games, entire teams will bully the jungle - and Kindred is by far the easiest due to being able to see the marks Kindred needs to function.

In the early game, Kin lacks slightly for damage. Enemy champions consistently tend to survive with a sliver of health more times than losing because assigning them a mark gives them time to prepare.

Rather than making a massive change or a lot of work for Kindred, why not play test decoys?

For Kindred, nothing visually or mechanically changes, but to the enemy team, there's not one visible mark, but 2-3, making it challenging to figure out which one is real.

Kindred appears to have a healthy winrate right around 50%, but with play rate of less than 2%, that number is a mirage.

Adding decoys to challenge the enemy team that Kindred may or might not be able to see themselves also adds an element of fun.

Which one is real? It would ensure the enemy team also would have to spread out should they try to bully the ADC Jungler.

9 Comments

Dante Korvinus5 votes

Maybe it could work something like, when you mark someone it marks 2 people on the enemy team. It increases to 3/4/5 at levels 6/11/16.

I'm digging this idea, Kindred is currently buried into nothingness or normal games for nostalgia.

Heckin Support1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Maio Dono,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=fhu4wQaT,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2017-10-14T13:44:37.037+0000)

Maybe it could work something like, when you mark someone it marks 2 people on the enemy team. It increases to 3/4/5 at levels 6/11/16.

I'm digging this idea, Kindred is currently buried into nothingness or normal games for nostalgia.

At this point, Kindred seems just like a failed experiment. She had potential, her lore is great but her gameplay just isn't quite there. Not to mention the weird changes with her mark that didn't really help her at all.

IcyPepper1 votes

What about wolf?

OyddAWqJ5r3 votes

Kindred's problem is that when she's behind she stays behind.

Maybe make champions that live for a long period of time get marked (mostly happens in a behind situation)

Devilreaper XIII3 votes

kindred is pretty weak atm, and kinda needs a rework on the kit as well, its outdated and doesn't fit in the current meta of dashes flashes and other high mobility moves .-.

kindred focuses on duelling in one place, but everyone just moves away, or easily bursts you into nothingness.

Abibyama1 votes

Didn’t know that 2 years is outdated

Fear the Kayn1 votes

I just think it shouldn't be marked on the enemy map altogether. Make wards and vision the counter to her, not Rito telling you exactly where to find her.

Scopé1 votes

Well, I've made a post about my suggestion of their passive rework and I still think that it should be done at some point. Lemme quote it here:

Sooo, Kindred's rework has took away their core identity of a tank buster, making them more of a traditional ADC which IMO is not so fun. I was thinking what could be done to keep the best of both worlds and I came up with an idea that not only brings back Kindred's previous identity, but also fixes their core problem of RNG passive.

Passive has 2 componets:

Mark of The Kindred:

Kindred gains 1 stack of Mark of The Kindred for every large monster they kill in their jungle, 5 stacks for every large monster they kill in the enemy jungle and every epic monster, and 15 stacks for every enemy champion that Lamb has marked.

Every stack gives Kindred 1.1 bonus range on basic attacks, Q and E, while also amplyfiying Kindred's basic abilities as follows:

Q - gives +0.5% Attack Speed for every 1 mark E - gives +0.05% Missing Health damage for every 1 mark

Swift Arrows: Kindred's bonus AD deals damage equal to 40% of it's original value on basic attacks and can't crit. Every 15 bonus AD Kindred gets is converted into 1% Enemy's Current Health damage which can crit for 2% Enemy's Current Health or 2.5% Enemy's Current Health after purchasing Infinity Edge.

Wolf's Frenzy [W]: Wolf deals 40% damage from Swift Arrows ( AD scaling the same as now).

Of course, I'm aware that it would require some damage values tweaks on their basic abilities, like probbably increasing Q base damage early on. And finally, they could be balanced like a normal champion since we no longer have RNG in their kit, so it's much easier to assess their power and adjust it accordingly.

Some of you may be afraid that it's basically old Devourer in champion's kit... However, Devourer gave you pure damage and basically needed to be stacked in order to be worth it's price. It's not the same here, because the goal is to make the bonus range (mainly) more like side effect of doing normal jungle stuff, while preserving Kindred's identity of a hunter (bounty for marked champion takedowns and reward for invades).

xSightlessx1 votes

instead of calling it a decoy, it could be called "False Mark"

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