I think that Riot should take a step back and reconsider Kindred's nerfs from Season 6

Hi, I was thinking about writing this for quite a while since something really bad has happened to my main. I'm (former to be) Kindred OTP with over 500k mastery points on them. It was my first true main and the champion I picked for all the fun it gave me. Suddenly, it's gone... But why? How come can a champion be this bad and considered a troll pick when it was so good on release and pretty decent even after series of nerfs. Let me recap it all for you.

Let's start off with Kindred's identity (not 2 faces of death and lore stuff) - jungling marksman. As we all know, marksmen and junglers have completely conflicting needs. Junglers has to be strong in the early game to provide enough pressure for their team and secure objectives (with or without help), while marksmen should be weak early and then, scale into powerhouses that deal tons of damage from a safe distance.

Moreover, marksmen need tons of gold to get items in order to be relevant in late game. And when minions are pretty reliable source of money, jungle is not since it can be easily denied by the enemy, thus cutting of the jungler from their source of gold and experience. Hence, we need a safety valve. Something that will allow the champion to do damage regardless of gold they gain.

And here we have Kindred: champion with high base damage on abilities and low AD scaling. Instead of AD, Kindred need stacks to get their on-hit % current health damage they get from Killing marked champions and jungle monsters in enemy jungle.

High base damage should allow Kindred to provide enough pressure for their team, gain stacks and counter jungle successfully. But... something went wrong. Even though, it seems pretty ok on paper, it was completely busted in regular play. High damage, sustain and relative to marksmen tankiness, made Kindred an unstoppable force that needed to be toned down. However, the problems that was the case back then are mostly no longer here thanks to the rework. Unfortunately, Kindred is still being balanced as if they were the same broken thing we remember from last year.

Conclusion is, that some of the nerfs/changes made to the champion in season 6 should be reconsidered and adjusted to the currents need of the champion, starting from the biggest nerfs.

• First off, Q cooldown when Kindred are in the W zone.

It was nerfed heavily because of Kindred's oppressive early game. Low, 2 second cooldown on their Q combined with it's high base damage was always enough to secure kills or eviscerate every jungler lvl 2 or 3. It was not okay.

But let's get back to what we have now. Kindred's Q scales well off bonus AD and has pretty low base damage unlike it's previous version. This ability is Kindred's only source of mobility and the only tool they can use to outplay someone early on since the lack of CC in their kit.

Kindred are squishy AF as if they still had 2 second cooldown on their Q, when in reality, their early mobility is restrained to 2-3 low range jumps.

Why? It no longer deals sick damage in early game and would help people get out from awkward situations when they are getting murdered in their own jungle, while not being able to properly kite because of their terribly low base MS (325) and 4 seconds cooldown on their Q. They are squishy enough to die when being jumped on, but it feels like rape when you just CAN'T do anything to survive.

Don't forget that before the rework, W actually did some damage to champions so it was even worse when you are being kited and the Wolf is biting you so you just die, trying to get on that tanky, healing monster. Now, it's just irrelevant.

• Next and probably the biggest nerf is the W heal.

Almost every jungler has sustain or additional tankiness in combat. It helps both with clearing and with dueling, but Kindred got ripped of it along with 7 armor points. And even though I completely understand the concept of nerfing it I can't accept the fact that it was completely removed. Not even because it was necessary to clear the jungle or duel people... It was just satisfying to use! It had great visual and sound effects and would still feel great even if it healed for 10 or 20 HP. Pretty irrelevant amount that doesn't do much in fights but still, feels pretty good to have.

Armor nerf was good. I admit it. It made people able to kill Kindred in right circumstances, but I totally can't accept the fact that part of the champion's kit has just been thrown into the dumpster. You adjust things first, and then, if it doesn't help, you remove them. It's like a doctor who saw a dark mole on your hand decided to cut off your entire limb...

I'm not saying that both on the things should be brought back into Kindred's kit, but at least one of them should be considered by Riot. This champion is just garbage and I hate myself for maining it. It feels annoying not to be able to do anything good in the game and not have a single favorable matchup (vs. dedicated junglers of course). Maybe exchange some of Kindred's late game power for better early game since with their current kit, they can't even make it to late game? Even jungle Ezreal or Twitch is better than Kindred...