A different than normal complaint thread.

#I don't do this often but this is going to be a complaint thread about some champion designs, but I want to make it a lot different than the standard FOTM shitposts so none of that is going to take place. Bear with me please.

is my first up. I can't self proclaim to be a Gragas main, but I used him a LOT during the AP jungle hotspots of the last season or two. He really hooked me because his kit was so goddamn smooth. You could cast abilities during E, carry the cc of E through a flash, and his knock up off of said E was just the correct timing for his W to land and an R. Everything was so perfectly meshed in his kit where if you really knew what you were doing and were fast enough, you could pull off landing all of his abilities in a single well setup combo. So here comes my issue, the ult change not long ago. It's clunky. You can't point blank it, and I understand the reasoning behind changing this, but it ruins his fluidity. In order to combo, you have to use Q as a prediction instead of using it during E and use R during E instead, flash, ult lands, they land on Q. Regardless, this pushes his W timing out and the bottom line is that Gragas feels slower, clunkier, and just unnecessarily awkward. I would be in favor of reverting his changes that made W aoe in light of his ult returning to a clean cast (his clears would be fine).

is numero dos, and it's less about balance and more about deliverance. Yes, I know Kindred has been around for ages, but I still feel like their release was a miss hit on key opportunities. More than half the community just says "she", and for good reason: Wolf is barely even part of them. Wolf is one ability, a stagnant and un-interactive one at that, making it just feel like you are playing lamb. I was really looking forward to a tethered two champion in one with two controllable entities, and I'm not sure if Riot just wasn't ready for that or that idea fell out during construction. My other main issue is the mark passive, and to make a long statement short, Kindred falls out of meta whenever they can't get dominance over the mark mechanic from having some sort of dominant balance aspect that is being abused (overtuning etc.), which has proven true with changes to core jungle items that just slapped Kindred around.

is my last for this post. This'll be more of a 'need for rework' complaint. Kayle is very centered around a sort of Tryndamere meets Kog'Maw playstyle. She has both a slow and movement speed buff, paired with her core E of pumping out ranged damage protected by her ult. Aside from a heal and ability to cast ult on others being present in her kit, most all her abilities point to one main action: positioning at that right spot in a fight to melt down champions. This is all well and good, but if leaves her to be too linear and causes her to be easily counterable if coordinated against. She doesn't necessarily have a best role that stands out because she is a very simple champion who can be used in different areas if needed, and I feel like if there is every a rework on the horizon her core E should be kept but more of a "battle cleric" (if that is the right term) should take pride in her champion.

I don't expect this to move up on the front page, but hopefully you guys see this as a bit of a freshening of the Gameplay boards and something different.