Kindred's Rework Failed Their Fan Base @RiotRepertoir
I try not to bash the developers, because that solves nothing. But the Kindred 'rework' was never particularly well received. I have 400k Mastery on the champion and no longer really play them because it feels absolutely awful to do so.
They're full of anti-combos.
I have a slow I want to open a fight with, but it has a long cooldown and does missing health damage, so using it for either purpose feels like a wasted choice. ANTI-COMBO
I can get a ton of range, but generally want to play much closer to prevent enemies from just walking away from my W. ANTI-COMBO
I have a ton of attack speed, but nothing in my kit is particularly concerned with attack speed. You could argue that it enables you to build raw damage and skip out on attack speed itemization, but the best items for damage on someone who right clicks are critical strike items, which pack a ton of attack speed. Alternatively, you can build On-Hit items like Bloodrazor and BotRK, which do synergize with the attack speed, but waste your damage ratios. ANTI-COMBO
My W deals magic damage which gives me a tool to affect enemies who stack armor, except its damage scaling is almost entirely percent current health damage which does very little to actually help me kill said armor stacking targets. ANTI-COMBO
I have a mini-game for a passive that encourages risky invades and aggressive ganking, but I'm not a particularly threatening ganker compared to many other champions, and I can't duel many junglers, AND the stats gained from actually succeeding are anti-combos, AND even if they weren't anti-combos they'd still mostly do nothing without other items to augment them, AND those items are expensive Attack Damage items on a role with relatively little gold income. This thing is an ANTI-COMBO COMBO.
I have an ultimate which is an incredibly strong tool for teamfighting, but I don't want to actually teamfight because it's literally the only thing I bring, and it's a complete gamble as to whether or not my team can play around it. You could say Kindred brings single target damage, which you shouldn't, because there are far better choices for that, like Kha'zix, Jax, Vayne, or Caitlyn, who actually do enough damage to justify the fact that it's single target AND have better and more reliable utility. Three of those can easily jungle. ANTI-COMBO
I have an ultimate which can save allies from dying, but is based upon my positioning, which is TWO shades of awful. Either I'm on the frontline and can assist short range or melee champions on my team with it, and am not using my bonus range, or I'm in the back where I can't help the champions who are often actually taking damage and threatened with death. ANTI-COMBO
And there are a lot more complaints, such as how removing Kindred's thematically fitting percentage health On-Hit damage hit their identity, or the fact that Kindred's previously unrivaled build diversity has been streamlined.
But idle complaints solve nothing.
To fix something, we have to actually put in the work. Or, if nothing else, try to. So here I am on the forums barking about it.
If any Rioter actually does read this, I beg you to do something to fix Kindred and restore them to the champion many of us fell in love with and have hundreds of hours played on. If you can't do that, at least let us know we're heard.
I'm deathly serious when I say I'm passionate enough about this champion and this game that I'd personally pay for a flight to your HQ, sign an NDA, and resign myself to being homeless and sleeping in public bathrooms if I had to for the opportunity to work with you guys on fixing them. But that probably sounds too desperate so you can ignore it.
Here's my best take on fixing what's wrong with them and finding a middle ground between the old Kindred and the new Kindred.
Passive - Mark of the Kindred:
Each Mark now provides 2% missing health damage On-Hit, with a minimum damage of 4 and a maximum damage against monsters of 10 per Mark. Each Mark now provides W - Wolf's Frenzy with 1% current health damage per attack, with a minimum damage of 4 and a maximum damage against monsters of 10 per Mark. Each Mark now provides W - Wolf's Frenzy with an additional 50 cast range and 50 radius.
Kindred can now acquire marks if they participate in a monster takedown. (This stops people on your team from intentionally trolling and stealing your Marked camps out from under you.)
No longer provides bonus attack range or bonus cast range for E - Mounting Dread at 4 Marks and every 3 Marks after. No longer provides bonus attack speed after casting Q - Dance of Arrows. No longer provides additional percent missing health damage on E - Mounting Dread
WHY THESE CHANGES?: This restores Kindred's thematic identity as a death in two halves by returning the percentage health On-Hit damage. Lamb deals missing health damage, whilst Wolf deals current health damage. Unlike the previous iteration of Kindred, though, it's a lot less prone to being a balance nightmare. Percent missing health damage makes Lamb's arrows a lot less deadly at the start of the fight, giving you a chance to fight back or flee, whilst Wolf's percent current health damage reinforces Kindred's dependency upon fighting within W - Wolf's Frenzy. The Mark scaling on the radius and cast range of W - Wolf's Frenzy is intended to let Wolf feel more like his own entity, rather than just being a visual effect on the key you press to press Q more, as well as allowing Kindred to be more useful when behind or in siege situations.
Q - Dance of Arrows
Cooldown changed to 8 from 9.
Cooldown refund during W - Wolf's Frenzy changed to 50%/56.25%/62.5%/68.75%/75% of remaining cooldown from a static 4/3.5/3/2.5/2.
Damage changed to 60/75/90/105/120 + 40% Total AD from 60/80/100/120/140 + 65% Bonus AD
WHY THESE CHANGES?: With the return of a far less overbearing version of Mark of the Kindred's On-Hit damage, we're splitting the difference between old and new Kindred's Q scaling. The cooldown reduction provided by W - Wolf's Frenzy has been adjusted to provide better scaling with Cooldown Reduction from items. Whilst I expect Q max would still be ideal, this does open up some build diversity as Kindred could choose to max W - Wolf's Frenzy or E - Mounting Dread and rely on Cooldown Reduction from items rather than being forced to max Q first in every game.
W - Wolf's Frenzy
Cooldown changed to 20/18/16/14/12 from 18/17/16/15/14 Cooldown now starts when the effect ends rather than when the effect begins.
Cast range changed to 700 + 50 per Mark from 500. Radius changed to 800 + 50 per Mark from 800.
Damage type changed to Physical.
Damage changed to 30/35/40/45/50 + 50% Total AD + 1% Current Health per Mark from 25/30/35/40/45 + 20% Bonus AD + 1.5% Current Health + 1% Current Health per Mark
WHY THESE CHANGES?: Originally, Riot changed Wolf's Frenzy to magic damage, I presume, to give Kindred some relevance when facing targets with high armor, but this actually feels pretty awful. Why? As touched on above, its damage scaling is almost entirely current health damage, which falls off as your target gets lower and lower health, so you're left sitting there wondering where all your damage went as you get baited into overextending for a kill you couldn't possibly have secured. To fix this, the damage type has been restored to Physical. This also once again promotes synergy with Black Cleaver and Death's Dance. The AD ratio has been restored and slightly buffed from how it was before the rework to restore Kindred's viability in a lane whilst keeping their damage to jungle monsters similar to what it is now. The base cast range has been increased to allow Kindred complete control over Wolf's spawn position as well as allowing Wolf to go over several of the thicker walls that it looks like you should be able to toss him over but presently can't. (Trying just causes him to smack into them and waste his time trying to path around.) The change to the cooldown is probably the most controversial change, but it is intended to provide Kindred with a clear window of power. Currently the spell is almost always available, rendering it pretty moot as to whether or not you or Kindred leave the area. Before you freak out about this, I suggest you continue reading.
E - Mounting Dread
Cooldown changed to 12 from 16/15/14/13/12.
Slow changed to 30/35/40/45/50% for 2 seconds from 50% for 1 second.
Damage type changed to True damage from Physical damage.
Damage changed to 20/40/60/80/100 + 20% Total AD + 1% Maximum Health per Mark from 65/85/105/125/145 + 80% Bonus AD + 8% Missing Health + .5% Missing Health per Mark.
No longer scales with critical strike chance or critical strike damage and no longer critically strikes low health targets.
The cooldown of W - Wolf's Frenzy is now reduced by 6 seconds when E - Mounting Dread deals damage.
WHY THESE CHANGES?: As mentioned above, Riot changed the damage type of W - Wolf's Frenzy to try and give Kindred some form of relevance against armor stacking enemies, but that did not work very well. Mounting Dread seems like a far better spell for this, and as a result it has been changed to True damage. We've also returned the percent maximum health damage to provide a mechanical embodiment of Lamb and Wolf's unified attack. Mounting Dread resets the cooldown on Wolf's Frenzy to give Kindred, and Kindred's opponents, more motivation to actually play around the spells' effects. The slow percentage has been lowered at early ranks, but the duration has been increased, which should make the spell feel a lot more useful in situations where you can't land the bonus damage. ** R - Lamb's Respite**
Cooldown changed to 180/150/120 from 160/130/100. Cast range changed to 500 and can now be cast on any allied or enemy champion.
Heal changed to 5/10/15% of Maximum Health.
WHY THESE CHANGES?: Restoring the original cast paradigm makes the spell a lot more flexible and provides more room for skill expression. To compensate for this change, the cooldown has been increased. The heal has been changed to a percentage of maximum health from a flat value to prevent some of the more obscene early game tower dives with the spell which is exactly the sort of thing that ends up breaking pro play.
Revert like

?????
?????
???????????
???????
????????????????
??
????????????????
????
???????????
??????
???????????
???????
???????????
????????????
Please?
EDIT:
I'd like to take the time down here in this edit to explain some of the design choices in my own rework suggestion since I saw the comments worrying that it was too much. Whilst I did some degree of that before, I think there's a few things that people are questioning which require more context.
It isn't very fun to play against a champion who can't die but can still deal a sickening amount of damage. Kindred was definitely capable of that before Riot's rework. At the time, even if you did manage to get them low, which was incredibly difficult due to their combination of mobility and itemization, they still had Lamb's Respite to fall back on. Percent missing health damage is a lot less abusive on that front, as you have to deal damage or rely upon your team to gain damage from it. It's still possible to build a lot of durability with my rework, which was one of my intended goals, but it's nowhere near as frustrating or powerful as it was before.
The reason that I added in W's scaling radius and cast range is to keep some form of Kindred's current bonus range, to appeal to those people that liked it. In most cases you'll only get a few hundred extra units worth of range on it and enemy champions still have to either be alone or have been recently attacked by you for Wolf to target them.
The cooldown changes to W affect their jungle clear speed and pattern in a way that might not seem obvious at first. If you use W on a camp, you won't have it up for the next camp. This means two things. First, Kindred will actually have to take some damage in the jungle and second, if Kindred chooses to use W to clear a camp they will not be able to use it to duel you immediately after. This is a nerf to Kindred, certainly, but it is one that is in line with Riot's design philosophy of improving game health. If Kindred uses W to steal your Krugs and you catch them there, you should be able to fight them over it. Alternatively, Kindred can choose to steal your Gromp but save W in case they suspect an enemy is lurking nearby. The long and short of it means that even if there isn't a way to mechanically outplay Kindred and you can still outplay them on a macro level. There's a lot more room for skill expression for both players. This also applies to Kindred's ganks.
There are two reasons that E reduces the CD of W. The first is so that Kindred still has W up reliably in the later stages of the game. After all, being stat checked by a short range champion is a lot less of a concern when you have your team with you. Think about the way that Teemo or Akali become a lot less obnoxious to play against once lane phase is over! And the second reason is to further enforce the risk/reward structure of the new W. Kindred can shave a substantial portion of their W CD by using E on monsters, but that means instead of being without W for the next camp/duel, Kindred is without E. It also requires more mana management.
That all might seem like a small change, but it's actually pretty huge. A lot of why Kindred is so overbearing when the champion is strong is their W. Don't believe me? Look at Nunu. He's objectively a weak champion. And yet, the one thing he does, counterjungle, is so strong that anytime he sees viability he defines the meta and absolutely destroys the competition. Think about it this way, if we nerf Kindred's overbearing gank/counterjungle potential to be more fair, the champion can actually be buffed to viability outside of that niche.
If you were worried about those changes hampering your ability to gather Marks, you could always max W first for the lowered cooldown. Whilst that would affect your ability to duel, I think that's an acceptable tradeoff. After all, you're a lot less dependent upon maxing Q since it scales with total AD and CDR and you have On-Hit damage once again.
As for E's combination of flat and percent maximum health True damage...you can't tell me that it isn't fitting on a champion who is the literal embodiment of death in Runeterra! I tried to keep the damage reasonably fair. Lee Sin's E does 70 + 100% Bonus AD magic damage. If he ganks you at level 4, you'll end up taking about 60 damage from it in most cases post-mitigation. With my suggested changes to Kindred's E, you'd take about 35 flat damage and an additional 1-3% of your maximum health, which is pretty similar. In the late game, Kindred likely has somewhere between 6 and 12 Marks, which means all in all the spell is going to do a pretty similar amount of damage to Vayne's W, except it of course has a longer cooldown.
I also edited my suggestion such that W's Mark scaling is now 1%. It was always intended to be 1%, so that Wolf scaled exactly 50% with their passive, 50% with their AD, and 50% with their attack speed. I wrote the thread on three hours of sleep, forgive me.
I also edited E's CD reset on W to 6 seconds. A full reset was never my intention, but it was honestly the last section I wrote and I was too tired to find a good number.
.