In a dastardly stroke, Riot Games has announced the newest champion for League of Legends during our top MOBA-writer’s week-long break. We at Kotaku are now reconsidering our vacation policies.
The new champion is called Kindred: The Eternal Hunters and is described by Riot as “a marksman designed for a life in the jungle.”
Here’s more: “Kindred prowls through camps, marking enemy champions for death and permanently growing in strength if they’re able to carry out the promised sentence. But just as Kindred brings death, so can they delay it. Should their allies meet deadly force, Lamb – one of Kindred’s two spirits – can create a large blessed zone that, for a few valuable seconds, denies the ever-creeping and inevitable clutches of death.”
Yannick LeJacq, who usually prowls through the Kotaku camp, would be able to tell you more about what this means. But he’s not here now. Best to go to Riot’s site to find out the rest.
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League of Legends latest champion are Kindred.
You read that right – it’s a bit strange though.
Much like the Child Nunu who rides his yeti Willum, or the arctic warrior Sejuani who wades into battle atop her massive boar Bristle, Riot Games has released its third twinned champion – two ‘characters’ forming one champion.
Kindred: Wolf and Lamb; the Eternal Hunters.
Generally with these sorts of champions, they are considered to be one – think Ice Climbers in Smash Bros.
Kindred is hardly different, save for one of its spells – more on that below.
Kindred is intended to be a “marksman designed for a life in the jungle”. This means that rather than the traditional team-versus-team battling in one of the three lanes of Summoner’s Rift (League’s most popular map), Kindred lives in the jungle – an area of dangerous twisting paths full of neutral monsters and hiding spots for enemy champions.
The presence of a jungler is very important in League of Legends for a few reasons – one being that while in the jungle, the enemy team will have no vision of that champion – they really could be anywhere.
This global pressure created just by having a teammate in the jungle is amplified by Kindred’s signature abilities.
Kindred’s innate passive ability (“Mark of the Kindred”) periodically marks one enemy champion for death. As long as this mark persists, that champion is always visible. Additionally – if Kindred can bring down this enemy champion (removing the mark), then Kindred gets a permanent bonus to its basic attacks (especially handy for ‘marksman’ class characters, who rely heavily on their basic attacks).
Kindred’s basic abilities are not nearly as complicated – a quick hop that shoots arrows at up to three nearby targets (Dance of Arrows), a ranged slow that causes additional damage if it is followed up by more attacks (Mounting Dread), and one special ability that splits Wolf and Lamb apart, creating a small zone in which Wolf will attack enemies (Wolf’s Frenzy), leaving the player in control of Lamb (with the added bonus of being able to utilise Dance of Arrows much more often inside the zone). There are no negative consequences to splitting the two characters – they are still essentially one.
Kindred’s Ultimate Ability, which characters do not unlock until they reach level 6 (out of a maximum of 18), is the biggest game-changer of all – even more so than the “Mark of the Kindred” passive.
Kindred’s “Lamb’s Respite” lays down a circle on the ground that persists for about 4 seconds (a long lasting ability given how fast-paced battles in League of Legends are). Inside this magic zone, nothing can die. Minions, monsters, allies, enemies, even Summoner’s Rift’s ultimate colossal serpent – Baron Nashor – are all protected from dropping into “critical health” – which looks to be about 5-10% of total health. When the zone expires, a burst of energy heals all champions (allies and enemies). This ultimate ability can turn battles by preventing death – very similarly to another recently released champion: Bard; who can throw a zone that places all champions, minions, monsters, and buildings into stasis for a short time.
There are already cries that this unreleased champion will be far overpowered, but that’s always the case with new champions – we won’t really see until The Eternal Hunters are released into the wild.
You don;t know how much you miss him ’till he’s gone.
but YAY NEW JG