Dota 2’s most prominent Kunkka player doesn’t want to play ‘awful’ hero after 7.36 nerf

Attacker, one of Dota 2’s most popular pubstars, whose streams of masterful Kunkka performances brought him into prominence, thinks the hero is in an awful state after Patch 7.36. He vows not to touch the hero before it receives a meaningful buff or rework in a future patch.

While Attacker didn’t specify in his May 27 stream what makes Kunkka feel like an “awful hero” now, we can assume the recent X Mark duration change plays a huge part, as it has for several other players who chimed in their frustrations in a May 29 thread in the Dota 2 subreddit. “They’ve nerfed him in the most unfun way possible, ruined his X timings, nerfed his primary skillshot, literally [did not give] him an innate after level 1 or 2,” said one player.

Dota 2’s Patch 7.36 saw Kunkka receiving a slew of nerfs, the most significant of which is the nerf to X Marks the Spot’s duration. Granted, it had an arguably unfair advantage against the new Debuff Immunity-granting Black King Bar. Kunkka could use X at the last second on a teleporting enemy with their BKB on, and the target would return after the TP ended since his X Mark duration was more than the lowest BKB timer. The nature of the 7.36 nerf to X Mark, however, means one of his combos, which players had perfected into muscle memory over the years, no longer works.

On the Innate ability and Facets front, too, the Admiral clearly received the short end of the stick. While some heroes like Weaver and Necrophos benefitted from having their passives moved into the innate slot, it had the opposite effect on Kunkka.

As it stands, there are several apparent disconnects between the hero’s current kit and the direction in which Valve is seemingly pushing him. 

His High Tide Facet, which Attacker tried on stream, nudges the hero into focusing on Physical Damage, which used to be arguably a much more fun and high-risk-high-reward style of playing the hero. But the Cleave Damage rework in Patch 7.20 (2018) meant Tidebringer hits now only tickle enemy heroes in mid to late-game.

Interestingly, it was this key change that shoehorned Kunkka into the Water Park build once his new Aghanim Scepter upgrade—Torrent Storm—was introduced in 2019’s Patch 7.23. Since then, Valve has pushed the hero into the mage caster playstyle, and the pro metagame has also seen Kunkka rising in popularity as a stable core hero from both Mid and Offlane—marking a strict departure from the old glass cannon build featuring Daedalus and Divine Rapiers.

At the time of writing, Kunkka is sitting at a 45.48 percent pub win rate, according to Dotabuff, taking a nosedive from the previous patch’s 51.68 percent. In terms of win rate declines, he is the third-biggest loser of the patch and remained untouched in the 7.36a Patch that refined some of the most over- and under-tuned heroes.

With more letter patches surely in the works, it’s unclear whether Valve will solve some of the egregious issues with Kunkka’s kit. I won’t be too surprised, though, if Attacker walks back on his vow if the Frog grants a few buffs to the Cleave build.