Some players will remember the cryptic “they are coming” teasers from the past week appearing on Summoner’s Rift featuring a pair of masks. Earlier this week, Riot confirmed that this was indeed foreshadowing a new addition(s) to the League of Legends when they announced Kindred, the Eternal Hunters.
Sharing a “two-in-one” theme with the lastest addition to Heroes of the Storm, Rexxar and Misha, Kindred is a champion actually comprised of two separate characters, Wolf and Lamb, who together make League’s first marksmen jungler. If anyone tried jungling with any of the current marksmen, they would be reported for trolling before you could say “blue buff.” However, Kindred’s kit brings together two otherwise mutually exclusive playstyles into a single roving assassin.
Passive: Mark of the Kindred
Lamb marks an enemy champion – anywhere on the map – while Wolf periodically targets a large jungle monsters in the enemy jungle. If Kindred kills a marked target or assists in their death, they gain a permanent stackable bonus to their basic attacks. All players can see which targets are marked. This passive provides a high risk/high reward incentive for the player to leave bottom lane where marksmen tend to spend the majority of the game. The added damage will make Kindred a force to be reckoned with come late game, but accumulating stacks requires the player to put themselves at substantial risk, making this champion better suited for expert counter-junglers and roamers.
Q: Dance of Arrows
Kindred dashes in a target direction before firing at up to three nearby enemies. While the primary damage dealing abilty, the majority of Kindred’s damage will come from their auto-attacks. Dance of Arrows will mainly function as an escape tool but should be used sparingly, coming with a cooldown of nine seconds.
W: Wolf’s Frenzy
• Passive: Kindred builds stacks of Hunter’s Vigor as they move around. Once fully stacked, Kindred’s next basic attack steals a flat amount of health, providing a source of sustain.
• Active: Wolf creates a large spirit zone around Lamb, attacking whoever Lamb attacks, or the closest enemy. The cooldown of Dance of Arrows is greatly reduced while inside Wolf’s Frenzy. Frenzy will allow the strategic player to set up a killing ground for the unwary target, luring them into terrain that makes it difficult to escape the spirit zone and allow Lamb and Wolf to whittle them down.
E: Mounting Dread
Kindred initially slows a targeted enemy. If they’re then able to attack the target three times in quick succession, Kindred will deal a percent of the target’s max health as damage.
R: Lamb’s Respite
Kindred creates a large but temporary zone beneath itself or a targeted ally. While active, Lamb’s Respite prevents ALL units within its boundaries from dropping below critical levels of health. Finally, Lamb’s Respite applies a flat heal to both allied and enemy champions still inside when it ends. This essentially gives all champions in the area of effect a Tryndamere ultimate along with a follow-up heal. This could either win or lose your team the fight, depending on your timing.
Kindred has legs at all phases of the game – from laning, jungling to late game team fights. Roaming between lanes and both teams’ jungles, nowhere is safe from the Kindred. For more on what went into Kindred’s gameplay and thematic design, check out Riot’s Champion Insight post.
