Introduction
"Rough seas ahead, crew. Strap me to the mizzen when I give the word."
Kunkka is a melee strength carry hero. He's typically played either mid or as a farming core in either lane. His Tidebringer passive deals cleave damage in an AoE and is what makes him popular in pub games, where he is able to provide significant harassment in lane whilst last-hitting and eventually scale into a potential one-hit death machine in the late game.
In the mid game his ultimate, Ghost Ship, makes him a great teamfighter capable of dealing significant physical and magic damage.
Kunkka's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great lane harass
- Good magic damage
- Good disabler/initiator
- A carry that can contribute at all stages of the game, not just late-game
- Can lane almost anywhere, and can even be played as a support if necessary
- Ultimate is useful even if you don't manage to land it
- Huge AoE cleave
Cons
- Can feel like a one-hit wonder in short teamfights
- Deceptively high skill hero
- Abilities can be hard to land
- Passive automatically pushes the lane
- Quite mana hungry
- Outshone by most other carries in 1 on 1 manfights
- Will need a lot of items late game.
Item Build
Kunkka's most popular item builds revolve around increasing his mobility (which is naturally poor) and maximising the effectiveness of his damage cleave ability, Tidebringer.
Starting Items
As of the 6.79 patch, which altered the prices of Tangos and Healing Salves, this is my recommended starting build on Kunkka:
2x Healing Salve, 1x Circlet, 1x Gauntlet of Strength, 1x Iron Branch.
Since you can no longer afford a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve and an Iron Branch, I prefer to get two Salves instead (which leaves you enough to purchase that Iron Branch).
Alternatively you can go:
A set of Tangos, 1x Healing Salve, 1x Gauntlet of Strength, 3x Iron Branches.
This second build gives you more flexible regen but will fill up your item slots, meaning you can't get early Boots of Speed from the side shop unless you use up your regen first or Courier yourself a Magic Wand.
Early Game
Grab some Boots of Speed, and work on upgrading them into Phase Boots. Why Phase Boots over Power Treads? Because Kunkka has poor mobility, and because that early chunk of damage makes your cleave harassment more potent. Power Treads are certainly viable, but not optimal on Kunkka in my opinion.
Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and upgrade any Bracer components you have into a casual Bracer. This can in turn be upgraded into a Drums of Endurance later on if your early game goes poorly and you're struggling for farm.
Core Items
Shadow Blade is typically Kunkka's go-to first damage item. It gives you some much needed mobility, a pseudo-escape mechanism, and allows you to more carefully position your opening attack under the cover of invisibility, allowing you to try and get the most out of that initial Tidebringer proc. And of course it adds a nice chunk of damage and attack speed, including 150 bonus damage with your first hit out of invisibility.
The downside to Shadow Blade? It's very much a pub stomp item. In higher levels of play enemy teams will buy detection, rendering some of its potential uses (such as an escape mechanism) ineffective. That shouldn't automatically discount it, however; it is still a very useful positioning item on Kunkka that also increases his damage output.
Daedalus - Once you have your true core then work on getting a Crystalys, and then upgraded it into a Daedalus. This is the point where your Tidebringer cleave goes from being annoying to being absolutely deadly. A lucky crit on your cleave will put most supports out of the fight, even if it doesn't one-hit kill them.
Luxury Items
Black King Bar - Will allow you take part in teamfights beyond merely casting Ghost Ship and 'fishing for crits'. It prevents you being stun-locked thanks to its spell immunity active, gives you a nice chunk of health, and a little extra damage. It will also protect you from the effects of Blade Mail - a very common item pick-up against Kunkka.
This is never a bad option and BKB is often the first luxury item picked up on Kunkka, although not always.
Assault Cuirass - The ultimate team utility item for a carry to pick up. You entire team benefits from the attack speed and bonus armour aura, and the enemy team (and buildings) is affected by the minus armour aura. Gives you some nice tankability in the later stages of the game whilst also making your team's attacks hurt that much more during teamfights.
Daedalus - Yes, another one. The all-in crit build. Crits do not stack (you cannot pile a crit on top of another crit), but the percentage chance of a crit occurring does stack, albeit diminishingly (with one Daedalus you have a 25% chance, whereas with 2 you have a 43.75% chance of a crit). And of course you get the additional +81 damage from the item itself.
Monkey King Bar - Great damage (+88), a small attack speed bonus, a mini-bash, and crucially True Strike, which is a great counter to Evasion-based carries like Phantom Assassin or agility carries which purchase Butterfly.
Battlefury - Increases your cleave damage (albeit the AoE of Battlefury's cleave is much smaller than that of your passive, so it's only useful for this purpose against those enemies/creeps within 225 units of your attack point).
Also gives you a nice chunk of damage (+65) and good all-round regen, and will make clearing creep waves/jungle camps a lot quicker, but Kunkka isn't suited to the rice farming role. Personally, I prefer to get another Daedalus or an MKB if I'm seeking another damage item on Kunkka. Battlefury gets a lukewarm recommendation from me.
Heart of Tarrasque - If you want to tank up then Heart is the route to go - a whopping 300 bonus health and 30 strength (which also means it gives you 30 bonus damage).
Situational Items
Bottle - Bottle is a great pick up if you're playing a mid-lane Kunkka, and sometimes worth getting if you're forced to offlane as well. Will help resolve a lot of your mana issues, and also allow you to be a more effective ganker.
Drums of Endurance - A good 'luxury' pick up as well. If things start off a bit rocky, you fail to get much in the way of farm, or you find the game is action-packed with hardly any downtime for just farming creep waves, Drums is a great option. It's cost-efficient, gives you decent stats, and is extremely easy to build into so you won't lose much unreliable gold upon death.
Divine Rapier - I never buy Rapier, but I'm a very cautious player and worry about the consequences should I die and drop it. If you don't care about potentially throwing the game, or you're so far behind that it's worth buying it for a hail-mary attempt at winning, then feel free to go for a Divine Rapier. Just warn your team so they know to either protect you or be prepared to pick up the Rapier should you die.
Skill Build
The image above shows the most popular skill build for Kunkka, and is generally the best build to go with.
The one change you may wish to make is to invest a point in X Marks the Spot a little bit earlier, so that you can cancel enemy channeling or TPs, or to better ensure that you land your Torrents.
Tidebringer is prioritised, and maxed by level 7. In lane it allows you to harass enemy heroes whilst last hitting creeps (although the disadvantage of this is that you will often push the creep wave; good in the mid and late game, but disadvantageous in the early game. Generally, however, it is a price you will be willing to pay.
Torrent is maxed second. A stun with decent burst magic damage and a 35% slow, it shouldn't be under-estimated. The only problem is ensuring you land it. With a 1.6 second delay and a lengthy cast animation this is easier said than done and relies partly on luck and partly on anticipating enemy movement.
Always get Ghost Ship, and use it every teamfight. The cooldown is very low nowadays, and even if you miss with the boat itself the rum bonus (increased move speed and, crucially, delayed damage reaction for 8 seconds) is immensely powerful, allowing your team to tank more hits than usual. If you disengage before the rum effect wears off then you will often come out of the teamfight on very low health when you otherwise would have died. Although the damage comes back over time, it is non-lethal.
If you manage to land the ship, all the better, that's 1.4 second stun and a sizeable 400-600 magic damage.
You max X Marks the Spot last. As of patch 6.83 you can guarantee to hit the chosen target with the Ghost Ship if it's casted immediately. In order to land an X into Torrent combo you now need to leave an additional 2 seconds between casts.
Gameplay Tips
A good way to ensure Torrent lands is to team up with another disable with reliable lockdown, like Vengeful Spirit, Crystal Maiden, Bane, Lion, and so on.
You can actually use X Marks the Spot on allies, as well as enemies. One trick sometimes used is to cast a fully leveled X on yourself, Shadow Blade, and then run at an incoming creep wave which you expect your enemies to be behind. If you're sufficiently stacked and the crit from Daedalus procs you have a shot at killing an enemies behind the creep wave.
Another trick is to cast it on an allie as they teleport out if they wish to return to their original position as quickly as possible; they'll have time to regen a short while at the fountain and refill their Bottle (if they have one), before being brought back by your skill. In this way X acts as a free TP Scroll.
Ghost Ship can be difficult to land. Remember that it will travel in the direction is targeted but will travel 1,000 units ahead of Kunkka, so it is best to cast from fog of war so that enemies have less notice of its approach.
X into Torrent into Ghost Ship followed by right clicks should be sufficient to net a kill in the early post-laning stage. Don't be afraid to gank solo heroes with this combo; the cooldown on Ghost Ship is relatively low so you can use it liberally.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
