How do you even play Kunkka?

bear with me, as I'm relatively new...I can't see where Kunkka fits in the meta. Attack speed isn't the greatest on him since his passive only triggers once every 4 secs at max lvl, and damage doesn't really work for the previously stated reason. The only place I can really see him fitting in is tanky teamfighter, and/or tanky semi support, but that just feels wrong...

Alenari ray Vallion. I summon you.

Most every Kunkka player builds

Urn of Shadows > Phase Boots > Crystalys > Shadow Blade > Daedalus > Heart of Tarrasque

This maximizes the effect of his cleave by giving him a **** ton of damage and initiation, which eh can then use to damage the whole enemy team at once, possibly even killing them if you crit and break invis at the same time. He main objective in the early game is to get as much farm as possible to build these things, and to initiate with his spells.

I would rather say: Phase Boots -> Urn of Shadows -> Shadow Blade/ Blink Dagger -> Crystalys -> Daedalus -> Daedalus -> Divine Rapier. :)



There are also some weird builds with Drum of Endurance or Battle Fury.

blink dagger is infinitely better than Shadow Blade.and this is unfortunately not up for discussion c:. jokes, you all know Blink is superior. The combo is just too good to ignore.

Nothing wrong with stacking damage items on him.

A good mix of AS+damage is needed for DPS, when you just rightclick things. In Kukka's case you want to for deadliest hit possible. He is a very good carry(but is unreliable so he is your plan B), the main reasons he is are:

1)He completely ignores armor with his cleave. His crits deal as much damage as these big red numbers say, whereas, say, Phanotm Assassin's crit is not so deadly(even though numbers are usually bigger) because of physical resistance granted by armor.

2)He farms and pushes really well and he doesn't need special items for that - damage items give him bot the ability to fight, to push and to farm.

He is also a very strong hero overall, especially if the lineup is comfortable for him. In this meta you are likely doomed if you don't have some fat initiator guy, and Kunkka synergizes perfectly with such heroes.

That's about his meta presence. If you want to learn gow to actually play the hero, there's a guide in my signature, where I explain most of his gameplay, item- and skillbuilds, etc.

I'm not certain, but I believe I saw a reddit post about stacking blink dagggers.

I'd like to argue that by saying that it amps his damage with the invis break, and I know that the invis can be countered and all, and that it can't get you from point A to point B as fast, but Shadow Blade is just a personal preference. It depends on play style.

I have a question.

Let's say you're running a 2-1-2 formation (or 2-1-1-1), and your team needs some secondary initiation as well as a #3 core. Provided that your #4 isn't greedy (or jungles and avoids your lane), is an offlane Kunkka building to Blink Dagger an acceptable play? You'd be filling a vital hole in what you are trying to do - and with so many games going past 45-50' it would be nice to have a third hero that can do work late in the game.

#1: Anti-Mage - he's a harder carry than you and commands safe lane farm over you for that reason
#2: Storm Spirit - class A mid hero that really needs the mid lane more than you do
#4: Sand King - needs your Ghost Ship to land so he can have an optimal Epicenter
#5: Lich - your humble hard support

Problem #1: Tidehunter, Elder Titan, and Earthshaker provide superior initiation - and your team may not like the Kunkka pick even though those three don't bring it in the late game like our Admiral really can.

Problem #2: In today's Dota 2, most people see better carry/mid options than Kunkka. It is often very hard to find people that will let you play him as the #1 or #2 - but with so few people wanting to play the initiator #3 perhaps that's where I'll get to play him against humans going forward.

Thoughts?

Offlane Kunkka is bad. You'll almost always land boat on one guy in every fight, but 2 becomes a feat. There's much better than him in pos 3.