Knoobish's Guide to Kunkka





Introduction
Kunkka has always been one of my favorite heroes since his inception. His mix of abilities has always intrigued me, and after a whole lot of play with this hero competitively and casually I've decided to write a guide describing how to play this hero.

Be warned that this guide is written to be catered to players who already know the basics of DotA and generally what Kunkka does. I'm not going to sit here and write a 3 paragraph description of all of his skills. If you need that knowledge, it's readily available elsewhere on the site.

Stats and Abilities

Strength (Primary) 21 + 2.7
Agility 14 + 1.3
Intelligence 16 + 1.5

Affiliation: Sentinel
Attack Animation: 0.4 / 0.3
Damage: 47 - 57
Casting Animation: 0.4 / 0.51
Armor: 3.6
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movespeed: 300
Missile Speed: Instant
Attack Range: 128 (melee)
Sight Range: 1800 / 800

NOTE: Skill descriptions in spoiler tags if you wish to see them.

Torrent


Your primary nuke, this takes a little practice to learn to aim, but overall is a lot easier than say, Meat Hook or Elune's Arrow. Torrent is extremely powerful because it deals AoE damage, it acts as a pseudo stun (heroes are in the air for 1.53 seconds), AND it slows. The only other non-ultimate skill in the game that has 3 effects is Gush, and we know how powerful a ganker Tidehunter is early. Aiming torrent and using it effectively will be explained later.

Tidebringer


This skill makes Kunkka. Tidebringer is your laning, farming, pushing, and scaling AoE tool. This skill allows you to effectively lane solo middle versus powerful ranged heroes and still come out on top all farmed. Effective use of this skill will be explained later.

X Marks the Spot/Return


Useful skill, if only for setting up Torrent. This is also good for chasing blinkers, and can be used with a few funny combos for some cheesy play. Not a priority like Torrent and Tidebringer though.

Ghost Ship


Excellent ultimate. When used in conjuction with Tidebringer and Torrent, allows Kunkka to deal a sick amount of AoE damage very quickly. The rum protection is also incredibly useful if you start a teambattle and find out that you're going to lose, as it allows you to get away much more effectively than normal. Aiming the ship can be tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it you'll have no trouble landing it. I'll explain how to do this later.

Skill Build

When I play Kunkka, I only use one skill build. There's always fluidity in skill builds, but in 99% of situations I'm going to build Kunkka in this way.

1. Tidebringer
2. Torrent
3. Tidebringer
4. Torrent
5. Tidebringer
6. Ghost Ship
7. Tidebringer
8. Torrent
9. Torrent
10. X Marks the Spot
11. Ghost Ship
12. X Marks the Spot
13. X Marks the Spot/Stats
14. X Marks the Spot/Stats
15. Stats/X Marks the Spot
16. Ghost Ship
17. Stats/X Marks the Spot
18. Stats/X Marks the Spot
19. Stats/X Marks the Spot
20. Stats/X Marks the Spot
21. Stats/X Marks the Spot
22. Stats/X Marks the Spot
23. Stats/X Marks the Spot
24. Stats/X Marks the Spot
25. Stats/X Marks the Spot

Rationale: Tidebringer is your best skill, therefore it is maxed before your others. Torrent is also very strong, and in conjunction with a Tidebringer hit can deal a lot of damage quickly. Ghost Ship is such a good ultimate there's no reason to delay getting it. X Marks the Spot is a little different: you always get 2 levels because you can cast it then torrent immediately after and score a hit every time, UNLESS that hero is a "blinker" (IE: Antimage, QOP, PotM). In that case, I like to max X Marks the Spot before I go for stats.

Item Build

The item build for Kunkka is very fluid; I never end up getting the same mix every game. So instead of giving a set of items, I'll point out the useful buys.

Boots: Figuring out what set of boots upgrade you will use is one of the most important aspects of Kunkka play.

Power Treads: Good because they give you attack speed and extra strength or int, bad because Kunkka doesn't really need the attack speed for how he should be played (IMO). I get these if my team is depending on me to be the primary "carry".

Phase Boots: Good because they give you better damage and the phase ability, but really the most useful part is the armor. Since the agility nerf on Kunkka, his armor has been lacking, so Phase Boots really help out there. Bad because you don't get stats, and Kunkka isn't exactly a major tank

Travels: I almost never get travels on Kunkka. He isn't the best ganker in the world, so he doesn't need to get around the map all that fast, and he really benefits from the effects of Phase Boots or Treads more than the extra MS and teleportation. Take some scrolls instead

Regeneration Items: Again, the regeneration item that you pick up early is going to determine where your item build goes later.

Bottle: Good if you are soloing mid versus certain heroes. This is a popular item on Kunkka, but most of the time I end up skipping it even when I solo mid. The decision on whether or not to get bottle depends entirely upon the enemy lineup. I'll go more in depth on this later

Perseverance: Good item on Kunkka for a multitude of reasons. First, it builds into Battlefury, which is my favorite first "big" item on Kunkka. The regen allows you to stay in lane without bottling, which gives you a big advantage over a bottler.

Bracers: Useful early if you're really having trouble farming. Often times I don't bother building bracers, even when I start out with 2x Gauntlets, Salve, and Tangos. But they can be useful.

First "Big" Item: Your first big item is usually decided by what regeneration item you got.

Black King Bar: Avatar obviously, but also adds +34 damage and a nice health boost. Get this first if you didn't get a perseverance early. You actually usually end up with a BKB, but only as a first item under that circumstance.

Battle Fury: This item has everything Kunkka needs. The +65 damage is incredible when you Tidebringer cleave, the battlefury cleave allows you to farm even faster, and the item builds very nicely off of perseverance. I'm almost always getting battlefury on Kunkka.

Afterwards: There's a lot of good choices for items afterwards, and since Kunkka is such a good farmer you can often pick up two or three of them in a 40-50 minute game.

Black King Bar: Get this now if you didn't get it earlier. Kunkka isn't the biggest tank, and he can really get screwed over by heavy AoE/disables if you don't have this to protect you.

Heart of Tarrasque: Great item on Kunkka, as it helps you really stay in battle longer and get off more Tidebringer hits. Get this if you find yourself getting focused in combat even after you have your BKB. Don't forget about the extra damage also.

Assault Cuirass: Another good item on Kunkka, especially if the enemy team is full of heroes that have low armor already. It allows you to push faster as well. This is a good followup to Phase Boots, as late game you'll benefit more from the attack speed. If you have treads already you often don't need AC.

Crystalis/Buriza: Both great choices. Crystalis is cheap added damage, and if you critical with either Crystalis or Buriza on a Tidebringer hit you will deal a whole ton of damage. These are especially good if you already have a BKB/Heart to help you tank better so you aren't a late game glass cannon, so don't rush them too quickly.

Hood of Defiance: Good if you're STILL getting hurt hard by AoE. This is cheap enough that you can fast-farm it later in the game really quickly. I don't recommend morphing this into a Pipe unless your team really needs it, since your mana pool is already stressed with your regular skills.

Gameplay


Now that we're past the boring stuff, I'll get right into the actual playstyle of Kunkka. Many new Kunkka players treat him as a hard carry like Clinkz, PA, Void, etc; I'm here telling you this is probably what Kunkka does the worst. At best, you can treat Kunkka as a semi-carry. Instead, treat Kunkka as an early game lane controller/strong farmer and mid-late game as a major AoE threat.


Early Game -- Levels 1-7

Early game, you're unlike most melee heroes in that you can actually farm and harass. Tidebringer will allow you to do this. Proper use of Tidebringer is actually harder than just using it to harass, so I'll show some pictures of how to use Tidebringer as an effective laning AND farming tool.

1. Denying:
Denying is the easiest way to effectively use Tidebringer. When you deny a creep with your extra Tidebringer damage on, you won't lose your charge, meaning you can very easily get large deny chains on your enemy, letting you level easier.

2. Using Tidebringer to hit creeps out of range:
Remember that Tidebringer has an enormous AoE. This allows you to think like a ranged hero every 16/12/8/4 seconds. If your creeps are focusing a creep out of comfortable range (ie. where you can be harassed), hit a creep that is closer to you with your Tidebringer hit in order to use the splash to get your last hit.