Shanco

Alrighty. Well after waiting a long-ass time for my computer to be repaired, I can proclaim that I had the opportunity to watch a number of games involving the new champion Kindred (as well as play a couple myself). After my endeavors on the PBE, here's what I can conclude. Kindred's Niche ADC-style jungler with scout-like and assassin-like properties. Pros Clears camps fairly quickly at level 2 and beyond Great area-of-effect DPS High base damage; scales well with both Attack Damage and Attack Speed Crazy-good in-combat mobility Can infinitely stack her passive's % current health damage Ability to save teammates from death, giving them something of a mini Undying Rage Snowballs immensely hard if fed Cons Squishy as fuck. Deals entirely physical damage No poke, and no good answer to it either Susceptible to falling off super hard if behind Hard as hell to play if you're not used to her Kindred's Damage Unlike most if not all standard junglers, Kindred is not meant to soak up damage on the front lines. She is meant to function in a fashion similar to that of an AD carry in fights; thus, a heavy investment in damage is necessary. She has no AP scalings, and all of her abilities deal physical damage that scales pretty well with AD. She also has pretty impressive base damage, which includes a % current health ratio (passive and W) and a % maximum health ratio (E). Marking an enemy Champion If you intend to mark an enemy before or during a gank, make sure to do it just as you approach your target. Do it too early, and you'll give your enemy too early a warning; do it too late, and you won't get a treasured passive stack as Kindred can not mark enemies or change her marked target while in combat. It can also be very tricky to remember that the Mark is a thing. So make sure somehow that you remember it's there! Power spike Kindred is a champion suited to skirmishes, and as such is strongest in the mid-game. The targeted slow is surprisingly strong, even if for one second, if you have a teammate nearby. The % health damage Kindred has is also good for taking out the Dragon quickly (although I wouldn't count on soloing it early). Example build 1 The following build is the one that, from my observations, has yielded the most success: Skirmisher's Sabre w/ Devourer ench. Berserker's Greaves The Bloodthirster Blade of the Ruined King Last Whisper Guardian Angel Generally, Skirmisher's Sabre is the best fit for Kindred unless very far behind. Your autos deal true damage, you take 20% reduced damage from someone, it's great. As far as enchantments go, you will usually go Devourer, but Warrior is a nice fallback. However, if you go Devourer, you're not exempt from needing to do your part around the map. If you relegate yourself to hard-farming jungle too much and neglect your teammates, you will miss out on plenty of opportunities to stack your passive, and of course losing valuable pressure on key areas of the map. You will need to find a balance of those amongst adaptation to your opponents to succeed. After that it's pretty straightforward ADC stuff. With your jungle item taking up space on your inventory, you will kind of need to play around it and that's where the double life steal, often seen on champs such as Kalista and Vayne, comes in. Buying an early Bloodthirster was something that I felt was better than BoRK at that point not because of the increase in sustain, but because of Kindred's AD scalings. After Bloodthirster, BoRK is a wise investment as you can kite tanks with it fairly easily, the % current health damage stacking on top of that from her passive. Attack Speed also allows you to proc Mounting Dread (the slow + mark) more easily. Kit misconceptions Dance of Arrows (Q) does not apply on-hit effects. That'd be crazy, especially with how low its cooldown is under Wolf's Frenzy. In addition, all three targets have to be within a single coned area. As mentioned before, Lamb's Respite (ult) keeps both allies and enemies from dying. Think about the choice you make when you cast it, before you cast it.

Falcon vs Fox is definitely in Falcon's favor. Fox definitely has faster attacks, but Falcon has a range advantage, and although Fox can combo him for days, he relies very heavily on killing off the top, which makes finishing off Falcon very difficult outside of a Shine spike, which itself is pretty hard. Fox is also combo fodder despite his low weight, which poses big problems when the big man possesses powerful finishers such as the Knee and Raptor Boost. Falcon can also momentum cancel with aerial Falcon Kick, which can throw off some Fox's combos as well as give Falcon a get out of jail free card. Fox also has almost no offstage game whereas Falcon has high-reach aerials which can kill Fox without much of a problem - even the weak knee can gimp him. Fox wins by shooting Falcon while waiting for an opportunity to capitalize on Falcon's laggy ground moves. And while I'm here, most if not all of this applies to the Fox vs Ganondorf matchup as well. As you can imagine, the matchup is definitely more reasonable for Fox, but it's probably 50:50 at best for him. I say "at best" because if the Fox can't tech Flame Choke, that's a problem. Ganon is heavier, which is good for very early Fox combos. However, Ganondorf is floatier, so those stop working at the mid percentages and Fox will then be forced to rely on hit-and-run tactics because overcommitment means a boot - or worse, an elbow - to the face, especially since Ganon will have rage almost every stock vs Fox. Don't screw around offstage either, don't even edgeguard him; Dark Dive's grabbox combined with his aerials make it a huge gamble. Also beware of the aerial Wizard's Foot. Other than that, use your speed to piss Ganon off then promptly punish. Oh, and practice teching Flame Chokes. Otherwise if you get Choked, Ganon gets a free D-tilt, which kills Fox from the base of FD starting at 100% and true combos into other moves earlier on, or F-tilt, which kills Fox at 80% at the edge of FD, or 105% from the center. (Factoring in DI, but not Rage, meaning this can kill much earlier depending on circumstances) Luigi NAir comes out on frame 3 and does 12%, it's crazy. It's probably getting nerfed in next week's patch

That's some pretty basic Captain Falcon stuff, although he loses some points for not spiking Link with the down air and instead taking the easy one. I is mad.

Did someone say "Ganon"? Anyway yeah, Pyrrhon nailed it. That early zero-to-death was epic af

I take this from one of the Smash skype groups: As good as he is at edgeguards though, they are also his weakness. So they require him to not mess up, but they are some of the game's best this time around. Link is also very good, which is why I keep losing to tack...

Not bad, dude! Also Ganon should beat Bowser 55-45 maybe 60-40. If Bowser misses one tech off flame choke, he will probably get combo'd until he is offstage, then promptly gimped, having a poor offstage game (whereas Ganon is one of the best edgeguarders in the game). Bowser's kill moves are also laggy af and Ganon has numerous ways to punish them (including Bowser's F-Smash, D-Air and Bowser Bomb all begging for him to be Warlock Punched). For Bowser to win, he has to use his speed advantage and assert dominance early, and most importantly not make unreasonable commitments - Fire breath helps a lot with this.

Really good on Vi imo. Buy it a fourth maybe fifth item.

Don't let your would-be teammates tell you what to do, bruh.

Bowser's alright. He's right around the middle, maybe just below that (similar to Falco, Link and Lucina). He gets messed up hard by combo-oriented characters, especially Captain Falcon and Ryu as he can not kill them easy, and they always hit him hard enough that his Tough Guy passive is useless in all capacities. Ask any questions about Bowser and Godot or Washman can probably answer them, otherwise I'll direct them at the local Bowser player (Prof. Shiro).

You might have it the other way around. Captain Falcon beats heavyweights not named King Dedede to a pulp.

Something about me just doesn't feel right picturing Ahri yelling "Fiyah!" and "To-Yah!" every time she casts something

Kills? I don't need no stinkin' kills to do my part.

He's really damn good.

Vayne top isn't always a bad idea, but it is against Nasus. The fact that Vayne decided to buy another Zeal instead of QSS compounded her problems. Although DD was kinda lacking in the farm department himself. Worked out though, so oh well

Went to another tournament last night, iirc a 32 man tourney like last time. Here were the top 12... 1. Zero Suit Samus / Robin 2. Sheik / Mario 3. Palutena / Mario 4. Fox / Mario 5. Diddy Kong 5. Villager 7. Rosalina / Greninja 7. Random 9. Ganondorf / Lucina 9. Captain Falcon 9. Kirby 9. Sheik

They need to not actually nerf her, but tune the numbers to make her better at what she was meant to do. AKA actual melee ADC instead of this crazy-ass AD caster crap.

The new champ is pretty solid. Gives me something to jungle-ADC with. (I used to jungle ADC with Lucian and Jinx, and I still do win Lucian, so good change of pace to get something proper.)

Traditional would be my favorite Karma skin if it wasn't for the terrible voice acting. So I'd have to go with either Order of the Lotus or Sun Goddess. My biased list of favorite skins for each champ:

New skins! (Pictures incoming) Warden Jax (Day 1502: Still doesn't have a real weapon) Warden Karma Marauder Alistar Marauder Olaf Ironside Malphite (for real this time!)

Something to note about Kindred's ult that people have been missing is that it prevents EVERYONE inside from dropping below 10% health, including enemies. So don't think this is a get out of jail free card every time you cast it. I have yet to see how it interacts with true damage, maybe it blocks that as well. We'll see.

Speaking of Riven, it has been announced that Championship Riven will be given out to players who get every single pick in the Worlds Pick 'Em correct. Last year there were only 10 people that managed this, but there were no real prizes.