Patch 6.11 - My opinion on Kindred
Hello people of Rito land.
I'll have a TL;DR at the end of the thread for all you lazy people.
I'm an avid high Gold Kindred enthusiast and have been since I bought her roughly 2 weeks after her release. I currently have a 59% winrate and a 3.25 KDA in 88 ranked games this season so far. In my humble opinion, I am no expert on the subject, but no novice either. So take everything here with a grain of salt.
I would just like to give my opinion on how 6.11's changes to Kindred affects them, or rather how I feel it affects them.
First off, for those who don't read patch notes, and you should, Kindred got some minor changes that yet make a big difference in her early game, given the enemy jungler is decent at countering you.
I understand Riot is trying to make them less opressive in the early game, their dueling power at level 3 being one of the strongest in the game for jungle champs at the moment. As minor as the 6.11 changes may seem, I feel like the impact was huge.
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CHANGES (with opinions)
Passive - Mark of the Kindred: Wolf now marks jungle camps according to how many marks Kindred have. 0-2 marks means Wolf will mark either scuttler or Razor beaks (raptors, for you Old timers). At 3-4 marks, Murkwolves, Beaks, Gromps or Krugs. At 5-7 he marks Brambleback (red) or Sentinel (Blue). At 7+ stacks he marks either Elder Drake or Baron Nashor.
Lamb's mark has a lower Cooldown of 60 seconds from 75. Which is fine really. A nice compensation. I talk about this later. _ Q - Dance of Arrows_: The base damage from Q was substancially reduced at later levels. It deals 45 damage less (135 from 180) at level 5 but every Mark of the Kindred stack increases that flat value by 5, meaning that** you need to reach 9 stacks to get the 180 damage at level 5**.
E - Mounting Dread: The slow is reduced from 70% to 50%, and the early game damage from the 3rd attack is not as powerful, reduced from 60 to 40 at level 1, but remaining at 180 for level 5. This change doesn't really affect much of Kindred's power since people usually max QWE. Mounting Dread is mostly used for the slow rather than damage. Given that the slow was a click ability, I can understand how opressive it was, specially when ganked by Kindred.
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So, I know the patch JUST came out, and I only had a few games so far with Kindred since then. But I felt a strong shift of balance in these few games that made me doubt the way I play Kindred.
The passive Wolf marks are predictable for Kindred, but they also are for the enemy. All the enemy jungler has to do is keep track of how many stacks Kindred has, and he can just ward accordingly and figure out where to go to catch death off guard. Nonetheless, I kind of understand why Rito made that change. Kindred's invade was plainly opressive and uncontrolable. I feel that with this aspect being far more predictable and readable, most people will understand how to play around it.
Kindred players have to gradually go further in the enemy jungle in order to get free marks. Higher risk, similar reward? Not so much! The reduced cooldown on the Lamb marks make up for the Wolf marks being more tedious. The fact that you can have targets marked more often will make Kindred players feel like they can gank more often...Maybe?
The way I see it, the laning phase won't be all about invading the enemy jungle, and a little more balanced around ganking, and going for easy wolf marks when they arise. Ganks might not be as opressive as before, since the slow on E is now 50%.
The most significant and more hurtful change on 6.11, again - in my opinion, was Q scaling with marks. That only means that if a Kindred gets starved out of his marks early by the enemy jungler (remember: predictabe), their late game power will take a massive hit. A good amount of marks to aim for at level 11 (midish game) is 8 or 9 stacks. But getting these marks is all about successful ganks, and mark farming in the enemy jungle. Which are now both harder to execute.
_So to put it simple, my opinion is that Kindred received a substancial early game nerf, and a lesser nerf in the mid-late game which can easily be compensated for if you don't get starved of your marks earlier.
I agree with the nerfs. As much as I hate to see my favorite champ get the nerf bat, I still feel she was a little over powered, specially in the tank meta with all that %hp shredding._
**I'd like to have opinions. I'm curious to see if any high elo player has insight to offer, or if a Rioter could give further explanations as to why they proceeded with these changes. **
TL:DR: Kindred were nerfed early game and I think the changes are a good thing since they target their primary opressive issue: ganking and invading pressure due to high early game damage output and mobility. I am sad to see them lose early power but I know its for the greater good.