The Future of Kindred
Kindred is a champion that has been...a headache, for many, since her release. When she first came out, she was a strong counterjungler who was incentivized to delve deep into enemy territory very early in the game. Her healing, kiting, and the promise of marks were her tools, and she cut down many melees who dared to enter her territory.
Fast forward a bit and we see the results of a kit that has three auto target effects and one point and click slow: it's annoying. Kindred suffers from a general lack of counterplay. When you're fighting her, she doesn't offer much in the way of interaction. You can't dodge her spells, you can't burst her down, you can't escape her and you can't out DPS her, usually. Even if you do, she has a button that causes death to delay, so that she can catch up in the DPS war before both of you become mortal again.
In her current iteration, I don't think Kindred will ever be let out of the doghouse again. She is very unfun to play against. However, Riot designed the entire patience system around her so I doubt they are going to turn their backs on her completely. I think we may be able to salvage her kit if we work on it somehow.
A few ideas to introduce counterplay and make Kindred less of a stat-check duelist:
A) Kindred's W causes Wolf to appear and become targetable. He attacks the enemy, but the enemy gains a small burst of health for killing him (similar to a neutral monster) and while Wolf is dead Kindred cannot use her E. Otherwise functions the same with the zone and the Q CD.
B) Kindred's R is completely replaced, and instead reduces the damage those inside can take by a large percentage for the duration. It starts out very high and rapidly degenerates to 0. This would allow Kindred to use it as a shield against burst damage (Starting percent could be 70/80/90% based on rank) which rewards mechanical skill, and allows enemies to play around it and kill her afterwards.
C) Kindred's Q fires three arrows in various directions, similar to Twisted Fate's Wild Card. This may hurt her ability to clear a bit but she's ranged so a weak clear should be her primary weakness (same with Graves, we'll get there eventually). As long as her abilities aren't all brainless autolock she can actually have decent numbers to back them up.
So, what do you all think? I have a poll, but the poll descriptions are too short so here are the options:
POLL
A - Top Lane has already been overrun by ranged champs. Keep her in the trash can!
B - I dislike Kindred in general, but I still don't think any champion should be unplayable. Maybe a small nerf to her somewhere and we can buff her in exchange?
C - Mastery 7 Kindred Main since Preseason 1, her last nerfs were bullshit!
D - I don't play Kindred but League needs every furry girl to be viable so we can have more hentai.
E - Kindred is a them, not a her! Respect the unstated preferred pronouns of fictional metaphysical representations of abstract concepts!
F - Ayyy let me get a sauce on that pic OP!
