Everyone’s favorite pirate Kunkka has been making a splash in Dota 2 this week after finding himself in troubled water at The International 2023 last month, suggesting the tanky offlane initiator has finally turned the tides.
The Admiral’s win rate has jumped to 54.6 percent in high-level ranked games according to Dota 2 Pro Tracker, and 55 percent across all levels as per Dotabuff. That’s a lot better than the 47 percent win rate he had at TI, where it even dropped to 42 percent at one point.
In fact, he has the second-highest win rate of any offlaner right now with only Chaos Knight ahead of him. Even Bristleback, who is a popular choice in the offlane right now, isn’t doing as well as Kunkka. What changed, exactly?
It’s clear to see why he’s doing well. Kunkka has everything: A big health pool in a meta dominated by Strength and Universal heroes, good armor, and lots of ways to catch, damage, and stun enemies. He even has a powerful ultimate that can change the tide of a team fight. Plus, his Aghanim’s Shard ability gives him even more crowd control.
The popular way to build right now is pretty standard. Players start with two Tangoes, a Quelling Blade, an Iron Branch, Gauntlets of Strength, and a Circlet. Next, they build a full Bracer, a Magic Wand, or both, depending on how their lane is going. Then they get Brown Boots, upgrade to Phase Boots, and add on items like Blademail, Aghanim’s Scepter, and Aghanim’s Shard.
Later, they might get a Black King Bar and maybe even a Heart of Tarrasque. In some situations, players also think about getting a Refresher Orb, Scythe of Vyse, Shiva’s Guard, and Octarine Core.
This setup makes the most of Kunkka’s amazing skills in team fights, and it’s very popular right now. A skilled player can control almost every battle if they’re in the right spot. It’s not much different from the one that didn’t do so well at Tl, but big tournaments like that often have their own meta unfold, and for some reason, Kunkka just didn’t take off there.
We’ll see if the Admiral holds his win rate after Valve’s post-TI Dota 2 update, which we’re expecting any day now.
