State of Kindred - High-MID ELO consensus: Powerups Not Enough
The general consensus is that Kindred needs help beyond power ups.
Phylol, Fox Drop, and a number of others having re-evaluated Kindred's actual performance vs on paper, The Eternal Hunters are still struggling.
I'm excited that Kindred is getting additional buffs in 7.13 - the extra three damage in 7.12 has helped the jungle clear somewhat, but only if I have maxed out damage runes and quints - which I was running post Rework.
Progamers and Youtubers all seem to have the similar sense that Kindred's performance without their old damage has dropped, no, "plumeted" rock bottom.
Now I've been a Kindred Main since nearly this champion came out. I. Love. This. Champion. But as a result, I may be overly used to having less than a 50% winrate with Kindred and they as professional gamers, will see things I miss.
But as a Kindred career-main, I'll also see a few things there.
I am a huge advocate of giving a momentary hard CC, and thematically, make it fear based, to Kindred's E. Idk, give it double utility by having an allied cast give them a temporary speed boost because they're scared, they run, while enemies freeze.
As a ranged Jungler, Kindred needs more vision than others because you run out of wards and scanners VERY quickly, and Wolf can't check bushes unless close enough to cast into them with W.
As of now, there is NOTHING Kindred can do if hit by another jungler's skillshot or freeze or stun or so on. They have no CC and no defense against CC.
Kindred is the jungle's glass cannon, but without the hyper-carry of Jinx.
These power buffs to Kindred such as a faster vault speed, buffed base attack, etc. ARE needed - but power buffs won't be enough which is the consensus people seem to have.
in 7.13 Kindred's vault will move a bit faster and E will now cost less meaning they can potentially use their q a bit more, but those Q bolts HAVE to hit enemy champions.
Kindred Q's bolts favor hitting nearby minions AND jungle monsters! That's proc-ing suicide aggro *and* missing their enemy target.
The same goes for Wolf's W when the enemy champion wasn't hit after casting W.
Kindred needs defenses beyond the additional range potential and decent damage.
On paper, Kindred *can* become OP in late game, because now they're a weaker version of Jinx as a late carry, but Kindred will never have the same carry power!
Jinx and Cait both have traps that can hit multiple enemy champions at once, while Kindred will always be a ranged "dueling" champion - one target at a time.
Kindred will never have Jinx's Hurricane triple AOE, so there really should not be concern that Kin will fall out of place - that's how far they've fallen.
But in order to even remotely get to that point, Kindred needs to be stronger in the early and mid game, especially the early game because against Kindred, enemy junglers aren't at all afraid to hunt this squishy ADC down - and use their marks against them.
And yet I still love to play them. They are incredibly cool, even more so after their rework- Wolf can harass and attack while Kindred runs away or is out of range or even momentarily, the two can attack more than one champion at a time - if for only a rather small amount of damage on each as this tends to happen late mid-game.
Their ult, if timed right, can help turn the tide of a fight, but only in games that are NOT a bad matchup. In those, saving everyone with a Kin Ult is just delayed suicide because it promotes your team mates to actually stay in place for that desperate heal.
I've seen a lot of escaped teammates actually *come back* to the ult to heal and then die for it.
It would be *really* helpful for any friendly champions who were caught in the cast of Kindred's ult to have the ability to leave it, lose the invincibility, but still gain the benefit of the heal so they don't stay to die.
A single heal in such a situation is no longer quite same powerhouse ability it once was as champions are more fragile and damage hits harder than it did a few years ago as games no longer last 1 hour, but half that.
And Kindred could use more vaulting ability - yes they vault faster as of 7.13, but its a fairly short distance - adding just 50-100 distance units would make a difference despite being able to use it more.
So to recap:
Kindred needs protection and mobility right now. If Kindred vaults over most of the major escape points in Jungle, They, Will, Proc, Aggro!
Kindred's Q prefers nearby minions and monsters over enemy champions. For an ADC, this is DEATH.
Mark of the Jungle forces Kindred to burn time on a *third* option - one more than any other Jungler - Do I gank or farm? - now add "Do I go for this jungle hunt?"
Jungle Hunts make Hunting Kindred much easier. Kindred is Squishy.
Marks are easy to starve - they take too long to lock, and give marked champions ample time to set up an ambush or leave before the Mark locks on.
Marks are almost like having Vision on Kindred.
Kindred, does not have enough extra Vision to match it - sending Wolf over walls is at *close range* - they can't clear bushes without getting hit with a counter like Amumu's Bandage Toss, Warwick, Blitzcrank - the list is enormous.
Kindred has no hard CC to counter against ambushes, very specific vault-escape routes, have to be almost ADJACENT to a vault point, a *short* vault distance, and ZERO personal defenses if caught away from an escape-vault point except to fight.
But if Kindred is hit with a CC ambush, silence, etc. They Will Die Faster than Any Other Jungler. Because they're a squishy ADC. That's not necessarily *the* problem, its just an important part of the picture.
Summary
Kindred's power does need a buff, but that's not the inherent solution to The Eternal Hunters. They no longer deal percent damage on their auto and must rely on expensive early damage items first such as Infinity Edge even after completing their jungle item. This automatically blares "item dependent" More than any other jungler, Kindred is more vulnerable because Mark of the Kindred is the core method in which Kindred snowballs into late game - and right now, they can't. Kindred needs Vision because their Mark passive Telegraphs basically giving extra information about Kindred's plans.
Kindred is an ADC and relies on mobility to protect themselves - but kindred's vault for escaping is VERY short, and most of the Map is Impassable to Kindred.
If Wolf's W is vision utility, it needs to check bushes and have a lower CC so that it can be "wasted" on checking over walls and brush.
That W is the cornerstone of Kindred's mobility.
Kindred' Ult actually PULLS BACK dying friendly champions because of its heal, and many champions also leave it, thinking the heal will follow. So maybe it should, but the invulnerability stay in the zone, only.
Its not a big heal in a losing team fight against winning enemy teams when Kindred's ult is most relied on. Its actually ineffective.
Finally, Kindred needs a kind of counter to being hard CC'd - vision, yes, but a little CC of their own.
.5 seconds of fear that stops enemies, and maybe, just maybe, a movement speed boost to an ally moving *away* from enemies.
Kindred decides who lives, dies and when, thematically.
Kin is dependent on items and marks, is easy to squish in an ambush, burn out Kindred's wards on vision, and therefore is easy to prevent reaching a late game strength, or even leaving an early game strength, because the other team need not fear hunting them, and they have good ideas of where they'll go.
The Hunter is now the Hunted - and needs tricks, defense to turn it around.
Offensively, Kindred is pretty fun! I love this champion when the game is evenly matched and I wouldn't give that feeling up. But there are *so* many bad match-ups for Kindred because they're so easy to wait for in a bush where there's no escape wall to vault, and you know where they'll go because you can see their marks, ward them, or even ward preemptively because you know what order the marks will show up, and where.
Kindred needs tools to balance this out, as well as the latest power buffs, and a quick look at how Kindred's ult effects bad match-up team fights.
Because in a bad matchup, Kindred is a carry champion, who should, as the one who decides Who Dies When, be able to at least turn tides briefly, effectively, and appreciably just enough to balance out the game in that fight, while not necessarily winning it like a 40 minute Jinx might.
Thanks!
