Random Thoughts on Kindred's Balance

Well, I'm not really all that great ad writing complex articles so I'll just say this, as simply as I possibly can.

Now, a lot of people -- especially in the lower tiers -- like to say Kindred is OP, but I don't really see that on either side, with or against. She's easy to play against and she's easy to play as, so long as you understand their kit (so many people still haven't read the patch notes, lol). Their sustain was the main dealbreaker for me, as I love to ADC with them more than Jungle and the lane sustain, especially early, is very heavy and a lot of those mechanics counterbalance her range and damage deficit against true ADCs. It's just loads of fun to lane with them, and still fun to jungle as well.

1. Kindred's Range: Everybody and their grandma outranges them, full stop. Even Kayle is a pain to even poke, and she's only a hybrid. If I had to name something I wanted buffed about Kindred, auto attack range would be it. It wouldn't even have to be by much, but just enough to make her not have to facecheck something just to get a kill or score cs without being slapped in the face two or three times. In team fights, this short range forced Kindred into the heart of a fight and thus causes them to trigger the ult since they are such a glass cannon, which creates an ever so generic recurring process of "everybody jump in the ulti circle!" which is, frankly and bluntly, boring as hell and really repetitive as far as team mechanics and gameplay is concerned; eight out of ten times, the team with either the most fed burst carries or higher tank health win the trade. Granted, occasionally a very good Kindred player will use allies to make great ult positioning opportunities or even use ults to bait enemy players or whole teams into positions of advantage or in poorly-timed fights, but this is rare and truly a staple of a well-versed LoL player which has little if anything to do with Kindred themselves. I'd also love to see a slightly better range (even if it's less so than half of the meta ADCs out there) because LoL has never been about forcing playstyles or specific picks, and the range deficit makes it incredibly difficult to lane against some ADC when one wants to do that instead of Jungle. Seriously, buff her range, give them a better dynamic to bring to the table than the inevitable faceckeck > slapped > ult > burst. Pro job, Riot.

2. Kindred's Sustain: This one is really simple. Riot gave her way too much sustain. The simple solution is to either reduce the frequency of the heal by reducing the stack rate, or simply reducing the heal. I've had it pop at one point several times in a single wave because later into the game it's just so ridiculously easy to stack. Early-game, in regards to laning, it is also frequent enough where if the enemy was smart and focused on keeping their CS ahead, between trades Kindred would pretty much heal to full before the next trade or poke began. They're a glass cannon -- and I love that about them -- but it kind of kills that vibe and need for clever outplaying when you can just eat a poke to the face and then heal it up not a whole minute later without pots or healing items. From what I've tested, nerfing the sustain won't hurt their mechanics at all in the jungle, as it will still cast at least once per camp anyways, which should be enough when combined with a health pot.

3. Kindred's Mobility: This has been surprisingly not much of an issue, whether playing as or against Kindred. Her Q does not have an overwhelming range, so it's actually pretty well rounded-out in my opinion, as it can't be used with nearly the frequency or distance as burst assassins like Irelia or Zed or fighters like Riven. The fact that her W requires her to be in the zone to "spam" her Q seems fine, as it facilitates her function as a kiting marksman in the jungle and in lane. If it were an issue to the majority of players, I would think simply reducing the duration of her W by one to two seconds should be more than enough to prevent that. Conversely, I think that the mana cost on her W could just overall be higher, because I can spam that in lane and auto-farm with almost no impact to mana sustain at all -- without needing to spam her Q as well -- so it definitely wouldn't be an issue for in the jungle. I'm no dev, but from the mind of an engineer, running those numbers over seemed to work out more balanced results statistics -- in theory, anyways. BUG Kindred's Q has one potentially gamebreaking issue for playing her and that was noticed particularly against pull champs like Blitzcrank and Thresh. She will Q out of the way, and the hook or fist will literally not hit her model but will touch where she originally would have been standing, and will air pull her anyways. I will try to screen capture this and break it down into a gif, because it's very fast and in a flurry of on-screen movement, so it is hard to notice at first, but on second inspection, becomes more apparent. For the record, my ping is steadily between 29 and 31, and system in 1080p 60hz 120 fps; it's 100% not lag... a netcode issue, maybe... but that's still not a clientside thing.

BUG Kindred's Passive has this issue I've observed at least three counted times in the past week in which jungle marks which belong to them (with or without an enemy Kindred in the game) will be killed by them but they will iterate that the mark was stolen and will not receive a stack.

I'll probably also be reporting these bugs in the Bug forum as well.

So my final thoughts: I've never seen a Kindred win or carry or snowball in a game just because they were a Kindred. I think there are minor tweaks that need to be made to make her viable in lanes, as roles other than Jungle, in the spirit of the non-restrictive nature of playstyles in League, and to overall make her kit flow a little more smoothly for both sides. It would also change the super-repetitive issue of her either sidelining and not having consistent damage output or frontlining and getting spanked, forcing out her ult almost immediately, causing a game of "who has the most max health and burst" because that is really, really corny. These changes would allow a little more flexibility in positioning and make her more of a "Target of Opportunity" killer that a jungle pick should be, waiting for that right moment and right person to chase down where success and potential escape leans on good timing and plays.

Tiers Tested: Gold IV, Silver V and Unranked Draft (I fully don't expect Riot (or anyone else) to give a crap since it's not Plat but these are the stats)