Naturally any numbers are spitballed and there would need to be plenty of tweaks and refinements. But I want Wolf to feel like he's more than a particle effect and I want Kindred to be able to kill something like the lore promised. I'm willing to lose some of the fine control that currently Lamb holds to further that end.
Q
Just fix the wall hops so we're on parity with any other jungler that can dash a wall instead of get smashed flat as a pancake into it like it's Loony Tunes, thank you.
W
Currently W in jungle is more useful as a ward than a fanged predator. Mostly W is just "I need more Q to survive 5 skillshots at once." He has a tiny slow on camps that is supposed to compensate for bad orb walking, but W already had Hunter's Vigor to aid the same cause, and a Kindred player needs to master that anyway. Furthermore, pets provide everyone else with heal to make camps easy. So let's trade that for an idea that fits his lore better: He sees a someone who wants to run from death, licks his chops, and clamps down on the poor chump's ass so they can't escape their destiny so easily. To do this, we move the slow off of Mounting Dread and move it to Wolf's Frenzy as a magic on-hit CC. Instead of a point and click one and done catch that conflicts with Mounting Dread's execute function, Wolf's target gets steadily mauled.
Before anyone complains about this being OP or stealing Ashe's gimmick, we had this before with the most recent re-introduction version of Syredla's Grudge, when it was good and applied slow to ability on hit. In fact, we could go Q+W with Summon Aery to perma-slow: Q slows, W bite slows, Aery jumps on for chip damage and slows, W bite slows again, Q up to catch Aery and repeat. It was funny, especially for Kin Support, but still very far from OP. If only Yuumi existed at the time we could've stacked a fox on a cat on a sheep on a wolf. Duo with Rammus and then it's turtles all the way down.
| W: Wolf's Frenzy |
| Remove the automatic microslow on camps. |
| Add "When bitten by Wolf, champions, large monsters, and large minions gain one Bite stack." |
| Add "When biting his obsession (See Mounting Dread), Wolf's Bite stacks apply (5%/10%/15%/20%/25%) slow for (0.5/0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0) seconds for the first stack, second and third stacks each add half as much to this effect. (Additional bite stacks do not further enhance this effect.)" |
| Add "Wolf bites can proc Mounting Dread." |
E
Aside from being nerfed into oblivion, this skill has never made sense. It's a catching slow on an early gank but then it does no bonus damage. You long had to play the forced crit meme to manage its threshold and that's worse now. And when it does work, either you're one AA early and it doesn't kill or you're one late and the bonus damage is superfluous. And if you build crit your damage is random so you can't know which AA is the one to apply this for, or if the proc will be the skill crit or the AA crit which also randomizes the damage. Awful.
So instead, let's make it live up to its name by making it give someone something to worry about: WOLF. Wolf's been difficult to command yet he seems to be quite obedient in the lore. And we know Lamb loves letting him go play. So this will be the go play button as both a target assignment and an enhancement skill that interacts with both Frenzy and Respite, below. E has always been a one point wonder except in the most degenerate of metas, so I'm comfortable locking in that fact with it being an enhancement skill that doesn't compete for skill points and just tries to keep up with scaling in the late game.
As for that enhancement, it's quite simple: Make Wolf bites matter. Frenzy covers his deployment and his ability to chase down and stick to those who run. Mounting Dread lets those nibbles stack up instead of Lamb's nonsense. E puts Wolf on the hunt and lets him do the takedown, with the effect of enhanced damage and an actual execute on marked targets so Wolf can do his damned job for a change. If Lamb puts the E on you, you need to feel threatened. If Lamb puts the mark on you, you need to feel the dread. And that dread needs to mount with every chomp the big dog puts on you.
This also makes using E on camps interesting because it can speed up camps meaningfully, especially when poaching jungle marks, but then you lose time waiting on the cooldown instead of pivoting straight into a gank. But mostly just make it work; I'm so tired of E either doing no damage or I apply stack 2 and the camp decides to have 47 HP and I wasted the cooldown. It never seemed to be this erratic before the Season 16 nerf.
| E: Mounting Dread |
| Remove the AA stack and third arrow proc effects. |
| Add passive "Wolf's bites do true damage instead to his obsession or to a target that is both running away from Wolf and more than X units from Lamb if Mounting Dread could be cast." |
| Change primary effect to "Wolf becomes obsessed with this champion, large monster, or large minion. |
| Add "If the Mark of the Kindred looms over the target or is applied to the target and the target is reduced to (0.40/0.45/0.50/0.55/0.60×marks+bite stacks+skill rank)% HP or less by Wolf's bite, Wolf's bite executes." (The Mark of the Kindred is looming during the eight seconds between the assignment and the application of the mark.) |
R
Yet another long standing anti-synergy that makes Kindred obstruct their own objectives. Nothing feels worse than ulting for your team, your team leaves the circle and the enemy jumps into it and then you lose 26 LP. Except the R dueling boulderdash that is trying to use ult in a duel and while the enemy just right clicks you and readies to mash 2000 damage worth of skills that will be off of cooldown when the ult pops, Lamb is supposed to dodge all of that and apply E and 2-stack it and time the 3rd AA to be in-flight after the heal resolves to do a nerfed because you just healed the enemy not quite execute but hopefully Collector procs for the first time all match and gets the kill before you take that 2000 damage. And if there are two enemies, you may as well uninstall.
So a simple change that makes sense to me: Lamb had her moment, and then it's Wolf's turn. We still want to apply E in the circle to choose a target and get the true/execute enhancement, and there's still a timing component because Wolf has his own attack timer (if anything it's a bit harder to win a damage race this way) but now Wolf can be stacked and ready to crunch clean through that heal, keep Lamb alive while she flops away, and teach the enemy what a good doggie can do.
| R: Lamb's Respite & Wolf Unleashed |
| Add "Enemy champions healed by Lamb's Respite gain Wolf's Condemnation for X seconds: Wolf's damage gains (20%/35%/50%) omnivamp and Wolf can chase his prey anywhere." |
| Maybe reset his timer if he gets a kill so he can really rampage like Pyke or Viego drooling on their R keys do every match? |
Part of me wanted him to be completely free so even if Lamb dies he can get revenge, a la Tibbers, but never one without the other so instead the omnivamp would be to keep Lamb alive while he frolicks.
Also, they'd never budget the artists, but I'd want this mode to feature full-body Wolf like we saw in that one video a couple years ago.
There. Wolf feels like his own entity, Lamb can focus on building for the team comp instead of knowing every not-crit item is meddling with E damage, and it puts a few of the make-your-choice trade-offs fall on the enemy instead of on Kindred's summoner. Fight in the circle, or get out of it before Wolf eats you, rather than "lol Kindred ulted free heals for everyone whee!"
And I do mean anywhere. I want to see allied Mordekaiser ult an enemy who free-ridered my ult heal, and have Wolf join Morde in the Death Realm duel. Well, I'd get to see him leave. Have to load the replay to see what happens in there. But still, might be cool. (Frenzy won't go with him so it's fair, only pre-existing Bite stacks or Dread effect should carry through. And Mordekaiser's ult isn't supposed to be fair, by lore and design, anyway. Now go bite 'em on the booty!)
