State of Kindred : 1 Week Later. Looking slightly better.

Hey guys!

Introduction: I've played easily well over 400 games with this champion since Kindred first came out. There are MUCH more powerful champions in the jungle to carry and win with, Zac, Xin, etc. but for whatever reason, I really enjoy The Eternal Hunters.

That said, there's some rather gradual, cautious, and definite power boosts to this champion in the last couple patches, and this is my personal assessment based on professional gamers on youtube, op.gg, and my own personal experience talking to or hearing from as many other Summoners in Solo Q as I can.

The last buff at 7.12 has definitely seen an effect - Kindred's pick rate has gone from less than 1% to about 1.7% around the world (source: averaging all numbers on op.gg), and their win rate has gone from around 42% to about 46%, again mean averaging numbers.

They've gone from the worst performing jungler, to the 2nd-3rd worst at the 32nd rank (though still dead last) out of 34. 32/34 is still a difficult number, but it shows its working somewhat.

Now watching footage, talking to players, listening to proplayer casts, watching youtube, etc. it looks as though Kindred is kind of ok in a low ELO style game - one where there's no real invades, junglers stay relatively safe in their own clears, and players stay in their own lanes.

This measure of predictable security allows Kindred's squishy ADC stats to pretty much not be an overly serious issue, and so long as Kindred ganks a lane that has one ally and one, maybe two enemy champions, its ok.

But when it comes to Gold or Higher styles of play where players manipulate lanes instead of mainly farming them, Kindred has almost no way of counter playing enemy ambushes in the jungle.

Overall Summary Thoughts: Kindred plays and feels like an ADC now - one without AOE, Burst, Stealth, Utility. Jungle clears are smoother if the enemy team leaves Kindred alone, which with the Mark system, they don't. Buffs after 7.13 will emphasize more late game power - increased range in the jungle doesn't necessarily help Kindred's defensive ability as the number of Walls Wolf can go over to give vision are very limited.

Where Kindred needs help is not necessarily their early game or so on - but overcoming that mid-early game fragility that allows other champions to chase off and kill this ADC.

Semi Pros The rework does feel a lot smoother than Pre-Rework Kindred, what with the ability to throw Wolf's claimed ground and his damage actually securing the occasional kill from under a turret - Its fun to see him wiggle past minions and bite the fleeing hunt, but this is a pretty rare occurrence. Kindred's increased attack speed from Q somewhat helps at this point, but burns a lot of mana and can easily leave average players vulnerable to ganks.

Sources of Struggle Nearly every other Jungler has tankier early stats or a better escape method than Kindred, whether Stealth, Hard CC, a significantly longer dash/vault/etc. etc. Kindred's early game movement speed is too slow - With Kindred's Vault being the fairly short distance it is, I've noticed that if enemy champions get within 500-600 units in the early game, many of them have dashes or special engagement abilities that cause Kindred to use their q instead of saving it for when its needed, and 3-4 seconds is a LONG time for an enemy jungler to catch up with them

Kindred needs to be with a teammate in the first 10-15 minutes of a game because of their ADC-like health, armor and mana stats, even 20 minutes if the enemy team is particularly aggressive for low ELO, or normal for Mid-low (Gold or Higher) until they can catch up, which is very difficult as the enemy team is starving their Marks and Camps, leaving Kindred's team without an effective jungler.

This poses a tricky problem for the Eternal Hunters. Their current design is a lot of fun, but they're unable to hold their ground when encountering healthy enemy champions. Soloing Rift Herald? Dragon? Zac, Warwick, Evelynn, Xin, even Support champions like Leona, Blitz, etc. have little problem chasing off or squishing Kindred at 10 minutes or earlier.

Throwing Wolf over a wall with W is actually surprisingly limited on the number of walls that Wolf can go over, so vision is not quite as boosted as the ability suggests.

Thoughts:

Riot IS giving what I believe is an unprecedented series of buffs, one right after the other, and they're fairly incremental, which is actually kind of cool as it promises new buffs the next time around.

Sped up Animations, lvl 1 damage increases, and making their range buff more accessible in a 20 minute game (typically Kindred losing xD) by dropping it to every 3 instead of 4, and making Q a bit cheaper to cast - these are all helpful and carefully increase Kindred's smoothness in their current play-kit.

it doesn't necessarily address some of the inherent mechanical issues however - These buffs push more into the late game rather than necessarily helping Kindred get there.

Kindred's kit is focused on sustained speed damage, but has no real self protection that allows them to hold their ground and fight in the jungle when caught, and the mark system vastly increases the times this champion is caught.

Looking at the entire list of Jungle champions, Kindred is the only one that lacks some assistive benefit in this situation - Squishy, not Tanky; no Stealth, No Hard CC, no AOE damage, no Burst damage, etc.

Kindred Has To Run - Away. For an ADC to rely on their ult to escape without having an opportunity to use it to kill their opponent is a tall order. A Kindred without their Ult or Flash is very easy for a team to kill.

Riot is understandably haunted by Kindred - back when Games used to last longer and Kindred's heal was as deceptively oppressive as Soraka used to be, pre-rework, Kindred was unstoppable. Between a healing sustain, a 4% per hunt damage bonus, and a risk/reward style of semi-mobile ADC play, there were no other champions at the time that could match their durability, damage output, and champions at the time were generally not very mobile, or tanky.

But boy have times changed! - All of that is now gone and its a whole new world becoming only a whole lot newer.

Tanks are a proud, powerful new meta and a new breed of champions, now, or reworked, has fully changed the game and how Kindred interacts.

Taliyah can easily hold her ground by repelling Kindred and outpacing; Galio is a CC tank that falls from the sky; Xayah is a hard CC, high damage, deathquill queen; Zac's rework has hard CC and is incredibly mobile; Warwick has no problem eating Kindred as any Jinx in early-mid game, and Xin and other tanky champions just have to outlast Kindred in the early/mid game by sheer tankiness.

Wolf's percent damage does help, but it doesn't even the playing field as numbers on paper might suggest - he vanishes when Kindred is cc'd, and its the early-mid game that he ought to be helpful against tanks, but his attacks are too infrequent to chase them off.

If Kindred goes with a speed build to boost this, Kindred lacks critical, essential damage.  If Kindred goes with damage, their attack speed, even with their Q, is too slow for close-quarter defense, and the Jungle is All About Close Quarters. 

Kindred's current design feels and plays much better as an ADC - which is ok for now, as Riot's intention was to have an ADC that could come out of the Jungle. Its the Jungle aspect, fighting in the jungle, that needs help.

Increasing Kindred's range earlier could help Kindred set up "over the wall" damage initiation, and ganks, but more than any other champion, Kindred has to rely on maintaining a lead when counterplaying Kindred's mark system is pretty d*mn easy.

Kindred is a FUN champion, but their early game is haunted by an inability to stand up to bullies in the jungle, and Kindred's Mark system makes it much easier to get bullied. Overcoming this is an essential ability for ANY Jungler if they are to be of help to their team.

TY