League of Legends Designer Discusses the State of Kindred and Potential Buffs

Kindred received a small-scale update for the 2-in-1 champion recently, but while the changes may not have set well with some, it put the champ in a healthier spot until more changes can come, according to one League of Legends designer.

The champion holds a unique spot in League as a character that's best referred to as "they" since it's composed of both Lamb and Wolf, two distinctly different personalities that share the same death-fulfilling goal. They're also notable in their primary jungle role as a marksman made specifically for jungling, standing out from others like Graves and Ezreal who worked their way into the jungle on their own.

Riot Wav3break, a game designer for League, spoke about the recent update that was pushed for Kindred and said that the champ isn't exactly hurting right now, but given the current state of the meta, they could certainly use some help in the jungle.

"The mini-update eroded some properties of their gameplay that veteran Kindred players really liked, particularly their ability to shred tankier champions," Riot Wav3break said. "In recent development cycles, we've discussed buffing Kindred, but completing work on them fell in priority due to other systems requiring our resources."

Regarding what changes might be needed for the champion, Wav3break pointed to one of Kindred's most recognizable facets, the Mark of the Kindred ability that provides constant pressure from across the map.

"That said, exploring directions that bring back some familiar feelings or improving the play quality of Mark of the Kindred's bounty system seem like proper next steps for us to look into," Riot Wav3break continued.

But like any other new champion, rework, or buff that's being tentatively planned for the next few patches, all of these ideas revolve around one feature: Runes Reforged. The new runes will create innovative and occasionally broken ways to play champs, so it's important to not make any rash decisions before that happens.

"It's important to highlight that we expect Runes Reforged to change the meta-game a lot," Wav3break said in closing. "This means we will have to re-evaluate Kindred's state once things settle down (as with all other champions). As a result, Kindred will remain unchanged until after Runes Reforged launches."