What is in a Jungler? Kindred's Unique Amputation

Phoenix Incite·6/8/2017, 7:45:54 AM·3 votes·531 views
Champion Reveal: Kindred, the Eternal Hunters

What if Kindred had hard CC?

Junglers in League have a formula.

They have to have a hard CC to be effective. Its just part of the job. You have a bot, mid or top lane in trouble, you use your CC to freeze or interrupt the enemy champion to rescue them. Ivern has a snare, Rammus a taunt, Shaco his boxes, Xin his ult, - the list goes on.

Then as part of a jungler's kit; They're either tanky with additional abilities, OR they have a cool special escape ability. Shaco can go invisible, Talon can vault over great areas. Ivern's snare can pull him where he wants to, AND can slow with his shield, or summon a massive golem, Daisy. Warwick has the ability to briefly hold and tear up a champion, along with Rengar, Kha'zix, etc.

Kindred has none of the above. They are Riot's most mechanically unique jungler - the Marksman Jungle.

And it used to work - far too well. Given a heal and percent damage in addition to items, Kindred could hunt, be caught alone, and was quite self-sufficient, and only got stronger as hunts grew.

But without either, Kindred is identical to any other ADC caught alone despite a REALLY cool kit.

And when ganking, Kindred needs protection like as an ADC.   
When trying to catch up or in a bad match, Kindred HAS to rely on getting more hunts and getting items to make up for the extra challenge.
And Marks aren't something people fear when they're ahead. They use it to punish Kindred, endlessly.

If Nocturne had marks, then yes, they'd be scared! Noct can gank from incredible distances with a hard cc and a lot of burst damage on arrival, - but most importantly, Noct can come from anywhere. 

Kindred, comes from any place any other champion or jungler has to go.

So this one Jungler, more than any other, uniquely has a greater challenge. They have to do everything a jungler does - figure out where to apply pressure, etc. steal camps, - but also has to keep up with their marks and *stay away* from healthy enemies to avoid being a squishy adc.

Their ult helps, but you have to either stay in it or use it as a corridor to gtfo - and there are few escape points Kindred can vault over, and some of them are quite tricky to use. 

So as a concept, what if Kindred had hard CC like any other Jungler? What if Wolf's E also applied Fiddlesticks' fear, A fear-stun?
What if Kindred's W also gave a temporary speed/mobility boost? 
What if *something* boosted their speed so they'd be able to kite in the tight spaces of the jungle more effectively?

What if Kindred had a vision ability, just for them, that let them see a larger area, see hidden enemies in the bush so its harder to catch the squishy ADC Jungler?

So as a concept, I ask what if Kindred had a hard CC, Fear, and a temporary speed boost, like Jinx, and the ability to move around the Jungle a little more freely using their Q?

This would give Kindred a chance to respond to a hard ambush that their wards didn't pick up or so on - briefly freezing an enemy while they used their burst in mobility to escape, or catch up to a teammate and ult their way to safety, something that lets Kindred Be a Hunter, NOT Prey.

But through careful resource management.

1 Comments

ModThe Djinn6/8/2017, 6:49:35 PM3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Phoenix Incite,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=xKHEAMLZ,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-06-08T07:45:54.567+0000)They have to have a hard CC to be effective. Its just part of the job. You have a bot, mid or top lane in trouble, you use your CC to freeze or interrupt the enemy champion to rescue them.

I'm not sure I agree. If we look at the top win-rate junglers in the game at the moment [according to Champion.gg], the following all have a 50%+ win rate with no hard CC.

Nunu, Kha'Zix, Evelynn, Rumble, Dr. Mundo, Twitch, Nidalee, Master Yi. There are also a few champions who have ultimate-only hard CC or unreliable CC -- Aurelion Sol, Warwick, Nocturne, Shaco.

It's pretty clear that some junglers function just fine without hard CC.

They're either tanky with additional abilities, OR they have a cool special escape ability. Shaco can go invisible, Talon can vault over great areas. Ivern's snare can pull him where he wants to, AND can slow with his shield, or summon a massive golem, Daisy. Warwick has the ability to briefly hold and tear up a champion, along with Rengar, Kha'zix, etc.

I'd argue Kindred has this with her ability to become unkillable with an area and her fantastic movement abilities with her W+Q combo.

So as a concept, what if Kindred had hard CC like any other Jungler? What if Wolf's E also applied Fiddlesticks' fear, A fear-stun?

That might make her ganks TOO effective, given that she already brings high damage, a slow, and a lot of mobility to chase. If she didn't get permanent bonuses on killing targets maybe.

What if Kindred's W also gave a temporary speed/mobility boost? 

It does, by enabling more Q uses. She's actually a super mobile champion as a result, although limited in an area.

What if *something* boosted their speed so they'd be able to kite in the tight spaces of the jungle more effectively?

This is, again, sort of what her Q reduced cooldown does.

So as a concept, I ask what if Kindred had a hard CC, Fear, and a temporary speed boost, like Jinx, and the ability to move around the Jungle a little more freely using their Q?

I think you would have to find something else to weaken in the kit, frankly. They're not bad ideas, by any means, but Kindred is a tricky one to balance because of her powerful late game and passive scaling.