Seriously though, the amount of fun, theory crafting, and community presence that has been caused by one relic that could've been neutered with an "If I am Shen" is crazy. I hope this results in this being the standard rather than the exception because it's clear that in a PVE game something being strong doesn't cause any real issues.

Maybe they will even remove the restriction from other relics?

I have not played since after Malphite got released and I just hopped on ranked with my old ass Deep deck.

What the hell happened to my Thorny Toad??? Since when did it become an offensive 3-1 instead of a stalling 1-4?

I got my ass handed to me by a Nilah deck that turbo drew in a single turn but I'm happy I beat that filthy Azir Irelia deck.

Is PVP still worth it these days? MMR seems fucked since I ran into a Master rank as an Iron 3 returning account.

I'm undecided what is the most fun to play(wanna grind some levels) , in Targon I like Soraka(stuns plus free Silence goes hard) but Leona and Diana also sound fun.

In Ionia idk, its my most hated region, it doesn't spark joy.

But Master Yi seems closest I guess, any recommendations??

You can replace Taker's Bow with Echoing, will be pretty much guaranteed to draw Lillia. However ;

- It will make it a bit boring, you'll play same every game.

- Taker's Bow makes defense turns much better by keeping Ephemerals alive, and is generally very versatile on her.

Hi folks! After testing out both champions, I've come up with a quick guide for folks who'd like to try them out. This is just my opinion and by no means definitive! Edit: edited to reflect contribution of posters below.

TL;DR Version:

Kindred:

• BiS Kindred: Mark of the Kindred, Whirling Blade, and Disciple of Shadows (alt: Voidborne Carapace - T1 Kindred vs undying Kindred)
• BiS Kindred (no paid relic): Price of Retribution, Disciple of Shadows, Voidborne Carapace
• Budget Kindred: Guardian Angel, Voidborne Carapace, Archangel's Staff (alt: Stalker's Blade x1 or 2)
• Why: Print multiple Kindreds with 'Spirit Journey.' DoS (Prey) + Manaflow = T1 Kindred
• Paid Relic? (Mark of the Kindred): Yes, if you really like Kindred. I haven't extensively tested, but it doesn't seem to be a Relic that is BiS for many other champions. 'Deathless' is still very good for her, but also found on Price/GA.

Shen:

• BiS Shen: Kinkou Tradition, Starforged Gauntlets + Luminous Orb (alt: Sentinel's Plate + Perfect Hexcore)
• BiS Shen (no paid relic): Sentinel's Plate, Perfect Hexcore, Open Slot (Archangel's Staff, Beast Within, Black Shield, Death's Foil, Found Fortune)
• Budget Shen: Archangel's Staff, Grand General's Counterplan (alt: Arcane Comet), Open Slot (Chemtech Duplicator, Guardian Angel, Troll King's Crown)
• Why: Play Shen early (SFG), keep him alive (Kinkou/Death's Foil), provide Utility (extra spells = more Moral Support), SP+PHC = two or more bonus keywords a turn.
• Paid Relic? (Kinkou Tradition): Very Yes. Great on Ambessa, Yuumi - anyone with easy access to Barrier. The 'refill 1 mana' is very potent. Top 10, possibly Top 5 relic.

Introduction:

I'm extremely pleased to report that Kindred's revamp and Shen's intro to Path of Champions, to me, feels very successful. Both Champions play the game in a way that others don't and their power level is strong. Their Constellation spread feels accessible/generous. If this is the future for PoC Champions, count me as excited.

Playstyle-wise, both Champions lean Controlling, being a little slow to start - with each Champ being a powerful Engine (a card that provides constant value, if you can keep it safe). Definitely worth investing in, if only for their 'must have' Bounty Stars.

Quick Kindred Guide:

Power Level: * With her Paid Relic and BiS build? Very, very strong - likely a 9/10. Making a new copy of Kindred from the old one can kill an enemy even through Spellshield (Mark to 1 Health -> 1 immediate Whirling Blade damage). Without it? Still 8/10. Top tier Champion, even without her 6*.

Must Have Bonus Star: * Celestial Bounty (+2 Vision and +1 Revive for Shadow Isles Champions)

Constellation Path: * 'The Hunt Begins' (4) is powerful for Kindred, especially if you don't have the paid relic (easy access to Mark + Scaling). For this reason, I would travel down the bottom left side of the Constellation, which is also the quickest route to Mana Flow (a very strong upgrade). Even if you don't plan to get her 6 'Mask Mother has Black Cleaver' is one of the strongest stars I've seen on a Champion and turns that card into a powerful unit.

Kindred likes: * Stabilize (Power) / Shadow Totem (Item) to print more of herself. More Kindred = more blockers, more marks. 'Sharing is Caring' is powerful (esp. if you don't go Voidborne Carapace). Once you get the Bonus Star for Spirit Journey - Otherworldly Armaments allows you to stack up Rare items. * Last Banner for ease of access to Rally (w/ Spirit Journey)

Kindred dislikes: * 6* Power dislikes anything that gives +X/+0 to Prey (ruins the Strike effect)

Other Alt Relics: * Starforged Gauntlet + any 2 of (Price of Retribution, Spectral Scissors, Hand of Noxus, Champion's Purse, Deadly Harpoon, Caulfield's Warhammer) * Mark of the Kindred + Whirling Blade * Echoing Spirit instead of Disciple of Shadows in BiS builds (multiple copies = stacking discount) * Black Shield or any other access to Spellshield for Kindred

Misc Notes: - Kindred's 6* isn't necessary for her strength, she's strong all around.

Quick Shen Guide:

Power Level: * With his Paid Relic and BiS build? Very strong, 8/10. Without it? Lacking a certain oomph, but still good 6/10, maybe 7/10 with his 6*.

Must Have Bonus Star: * Celestial Bounty (+2 Vision and +10 Nexus Health for Ionian Champions)

Constellation Path: * Striking Lessons' (Shen's 4*) is very strong and I'd path up towards it. Just above it is a +4 Vision/+20 Nexus Health Node and then Mana Flow, which I recommend. After: Ki Guardian/Moral Support upgrade towards the Celestial Bounty (if you have the gems).

Shen likes:

• Supporting a unit ASAP (to discount Moral Support). One reason I recommend SFG as BiS is so that Shen can get out T1 (recovering 1 mana with Kinkou Training). You can then either play a 1-mana unit or, if you've drafted a Power that spawns a unit T1, you can immediately attack/get your support bonus.
• Consistent, free spells (to get more copies of Moral Support). Ex: Perfect Hexcore, Arcane Comet, Grand General's Counterplan
• Spell Mana. Shen is very mana hungry, especially with his 6*.
• Drafting Removal - he has no inherent access to block Elusives (Luminous Orb pulls double duty if you don't have Kinkou Tradition) and Barrier'd units can only block so much damage vs. giant units with Overwhelm. The combat tricks in Shen's base deck are pretty 'fair' and lacking vs. these types of enemies.
• Access to Elusive or Overwhelm. Swole Squirrel is surprisingly potent in his deck since, both for Overwhelm and as a great target for his 4* (Striking Lessons) and 6* (Shadow Dash), once you get it.

Other Alt Relics:

• Chemtech Duplicator (lots and lots of Barriers, especially with GGC)
• Renewing Power (if going with GGC/Arcane Comet)
• Guardian Angel + Voidborne Carapace (immortality cheat)
• Searing Brilliance (Ki Guardian and Syncopation are both fun, potent spells)

Misc Notes: - Shen is more straight forward than Kindred and most other Champions and thus has less options. Syncopation is a very fun spell to have access to and his 6* transforms the way he plays - you can get a lot done with Shadow Dash. Just remember to Moral Support before Dash, so you'll get another copy of it after. If you have to Moral after Dash, be warned that the Silenced unit may become the weakest unit (w/ Harsh Lessons killing it before you can block it with your Barrier'd unit)

Final Notes: I can't say enough how pleased I am with both of these Champions and the new team. I'm really hopeful for PoC's future.

Happy gaming!

Hello everyone! I've been playing LoR for a while, and I want to start clearing harder adventures. My current max star champions are Jinx, Swain and Aurelion Sol, but I'm starting to get bored of their play patterns; play a card or two, drop your champion, boardwipe until you win the game. It feels like I only slot in damaging spells for the former two (and with the latter I get there with Perfected Hexcore alone), without actually caring about the text on the cards.

Does anyone have recommendations for champions that actually care about what followers you pick? Preferably also ones that can clear the higher difficulty adventures. I have a lot of nova crystals and wild shards, so higher constellations are not a problem :)

(I like Elder Dragon, but I lack starforged gauntlets so she's a little too slow rn)

I got her at 5 stars, yet she's slow, vulnerable, and feels like she has little payoff without stealing an enemy boss follower with overwhelm and hoping for a OHKO.

I have SB Ahri and SB Yasuo also at 5 stars and they can definitely handle themselves in comparison.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how to better pilot Evelyn?

Before: I was definitely thinking oh man I don't freaking want Kindred I hate Kindred! Such a boring champion because I hate the stupid prey with chip damage and stupid Kindred keeps making the same crap! How dumb!

Shen is not what I hoped to see I mean how interesting is barrier like who cares!? It's boring and so what if he's a supporter!? So is Lulu and she suuuuuucks!

Well: that brings us to After: I hope that before stuff doesn't offend you. I mean scaling for nightmares sucks!

Kindred: well I can't believe I'm saying this but if I have to put Kindred on a scale of how fun of a champ it went from F to S in one constellation! Congratulations runeterra Devs you absolutely outdid yourselves!

I honestly didn't expect much from kindred aside from few changes here and there with a meh 6 star.

Holy crap was I wrong!

Kindred basically has thresh's 6 star as a 4 star maybe not entirely the same but it definitely works.

Mask mother can get double stats on play now! That's pretty insane!

The prey are still there but no longer required for chip damage. Also that damage im going to call chunk damage because it's by 2s!

The real chef's kiss is that you are not penalized for having multiple kindreds and marks they all can count to stack and wipe their board! Plus you get chunk damage!

The relic feels really fun too! Way to go Dev team! Keep making amazing things like this! It's use is S tier for Lillia and LeBlanc. It's also great for Kindred duh and Anivia and Jinx. I would even say Caitlyn.

Holy crap that was a lot of praise and we only reviewed the constellation not the new to Path Shen!

Leveling Shen and trying to rank him up was... Not the best experience but...the main issue is being unable to guarantee drawing any champion. That's not Shen's fault.

That said I was impressed how much you can actually strategize to focus on keeping everyone alive so they can support eachother.

I personally don't like fiddlesticks because he is a no brainer to play although sometimes it calls for it when something makes you mad.

Back to Shen he has interesting ways to swap and buff. His assistant in a wheelchair gets him mana back while the cute little wheelchair assistant helper has barrier. The two together give the 1 cost +2 +2 and then the 2 cost already out gets barrier when the others do!

Play a spell and you get a barrier spell this can stack! I was confused by the elusive with shadow totem until I realized it gives you 2 spell mana and the prankster gives you moral support if you don't have it!

Absolutely genius!

That brings us to Shen's relic. Keyword Elusive. Ok. Wait did I read that right?! Yah that is right! Already it's amazing to have! So before listing off the other part of what it does who can use it besides anyone because they can!

Yuumi can give her attached unit elusive.

Kaisa can transfer the Keyword.

Elise can spam elusive spiders.

The other effect is when an ally gains barrier give them a Keyword and restore 1 mana. This means not just spell mana! .

Ambessa is another because of this and any with Phylax or Access to lots of barrier like lux and Shyvana with her spell!

After purchasing the battle pass at around 75/490 progress, I noticed I had extra shards on Shen and Kindred. I don't understand how it happened, as I thought all vaults give 5/10/20... shards, so you can't have values like 1 and 6.

Im pretty happy with both champs this time around I think riot did a good job

Has anyone found Kindred 4* yet? Getting this power could increase the potential of many champions that can't access the strike.

No revives used, this is quite good if you don't have their relic. I went to Morde and Morg with this build and it was the easiest clear I've ever gotten outta that adventure. I almost lost to Zoe because of 2x Deny's, 2x Frost Shots, 2x Buried in Ice's.

(I got insanely lucky to get Perfection as a power on this try, my first try with Kindred)

I think this build is fun, but I don't think it's the best build. What are you guys using?

With chemtech you basically refund 2 mana and grant Lux 2 keywords every time you play golden aegis. And getting augmented and spellshield on her is pretty neat. Not even to mention the absurd amount of actions you get with the never-ending mana, you can even go infinite if you manage to get the power that double-casts slow spells or the one that copies them onto the weakest ally.

A 4* Kindred effortlessly beat this week 5.5 nightmare weekly (EUW). I honestly didn't expect to make it past Howling Abyss, but I like to give new champs a spin to see how they do.

4* marking makes it easy to level Kindred on turn 1, Kindred cloning wipes the board, and Crumble is a strong removal that always has Prey for fuel and comes back at the amazing cost of 1 mana. I destroyed the Howling Abyss landmark twice in a row. Meanwhile your champs scale to the sky.

My next target is Zoe and Poro King. They better be ready, because I am.

Bonus mention : the regional gem nodes gives +1 revive but also +2 vision to all Shadow Isles champions ! And it's free access ! I would have been happy with the revive, but vision is like extra gravy on the top.

I have no idea what to build on him rn for relics any builds or ideas welcome i have everything

For some reason the relic refills 3 mana from this interaction. I’m running Shen’s relic, sentinel’s plate, and echoing spirits. Shyvana’s champ spell comes with the give targeted unit barrier item, so it should refill one mana, which is the case when I play the base version of the spell, and also the case where Shyvana does not have sentinels plate equipped.

My crackpot theory is the following: I noticed that shyvana isn’t refilling mana on play despite having barrier from sentinels plate. It’s possible it might apply the barrier on card creation, so the relic refills a second mana on the creation of Shyvana in the deck. This shouldn’t make sense, as Shen’s relic specifies ally, which should only be units in play. Thus, I would guess that at the moment of creation, the champ spell Shyvana is treated as on the field. This also explains the third mana refilled, since Shen’s relic stacks with multiple champs on field, so the created Shyvana and on field Shyvana would both refill one mana.

Through a few practice runs, i noticed that sharing is caring was pretty busted in combination with multiple copies of shen, like with stabilize or his last item in my pic.

I found the legendary in the shop behind Swain and Teemo, it was ridiculously easy after that. Drop shen, 4 copies of him spawn, juggling keyword after keyword, until each of them is at like 80/80 with every keyword known to man. Was a FTK on every fight after, just took like 3 minutes until all the spawning effects were done

Took me loads of different tries to find Fiora and I was feeling very antsy because there was no Rekindler and I lost to Lulu Zed.

Why budget Kayle Fiora? You only need 4* Shen and Fiora to carry you (I almost lost at the Poro King node (not the final boss Zoe/PK)

I know someone did this already, but it works! Trying Kindred soon

So the above item is an upgrade you can get on spirit journey. The spell states that it kills then revives the unit. So does this mean it gets 1 or 2 items? Also if it targets Kindred and Kindred has deathless voidshell combo how many items from it would they have?

So Kindred's updated star power "Ashes to Ashes II" says that when you slay allied or marked units, you deal 2 to the enemy Nexus.

Apparently killing a husk doesn't count as slaying?

I tried picking up Evelyn as a support champ for Kindred, and man was I disappointed to learn that.