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Tango
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Tango
Healing Salve
Stout Shield
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Bottle
Urn of Shadows
Perseverance
Phase Boots
Magic Wand
Town Portal Scroll
Shadow Blade
Crystalys
Daedalus
Divine Rapier
Drum of Endurance
Armlet of Mordiggian
Battle Fury
Heaven's Halberd
Heart of Tarrasque
Ghost Scepter
Black King Bar
Hand of Midas
Vladmir's Offering
Assault Cuirass
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2 | 4 | 10 | 12 |  |
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1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |  |
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8 | 9 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 18 |
I've noticed that in every single Kunkka guide on this website, all of them have the skill build of maxing Torrent first, before any levels into X Marks the Spot. (Item choices/build aside)
This is primarily because most novice players think early X Marks the Spot levels is pretty useless, and the extra 120 damage and 2 second slow on Torrent is a much better investment in skill points, right? But how many of these "torrents" do you ACTUALLY land? 3 out of 10? 8 out of 10?
With a little practice, having just 2 levels in X Marks the Spot can...:
1: Almost garantee a full Torrent + Ghost Ship combo everytime.
2: Be able to initiate for your team during the early-midgame (instead of always needing a good team to initiate for you).
3: Able to land Torrent with very little skill required.
4: Allow you to be much more aggressive, and take control of fights.
5: Force fights when neccesary, and at unfavorable times for your opponents.
This build is inspired primarily by SingSing, who is a professional Dota 2 player for Kaipi and a popular streamer.
Tidebringer is a ridiculous ability that allows Kunkka to cleave in a HUGE AOE every few seconds, and deals bonus damage as well as his normal damage (and ignores armor). Unless you're going for first blood with your ally who is setting you up for a garanteed Torrent, you should grab this first, and max it first. It gives you so much harrassing ability in lane, and can be used to last hit as well.
Tip: Tidebringer actually deals more damage to the cleaved targets than the main target due to the way it ignores armor and the bonus 60 damage from the skill itself. So often hitting the creep in front of your target is better.
Torrent is your primary nuke/CC ability, has a nice casting range and its AOE! The downside is its not always easy to land a torrent due to the 1.6 second delay. In the super early game, when you do not have X Marks the Spot, its very difficult to land a torrent without the help of an ally, you being quite skilled and/or the opponent being really bad. Nevertheless, grab 2 levels of torrent early on, and feel free to throw them out as you want. Max this by level 12.
Ghost Ship is a nice little ulti that has 2 major goals in a teamfight.
1: To deal decent damage in a fairly large aoe.
2: The 'damage delay buff' which significantly reduces the damage you and your team receives for 8 seconds. Note that you still take the damage gradually afterwards, but this damage CANNOT KILL YOU.
Most novice players think if you dont land the AOE stun, its a complete fail on your part. Which is true to an extent - but if they cast it to keep the team alive during an sudden engagement, then its not really a fail boat. Ghostship has a 1000 casting range, and if kunkka's in the heat of battle, its very hard for the boat to land, but the damage delay buys your team so much time to counter attack- survive - pop mekanism etcetc.
Obviously get this at earliest opportunity at levels 6/11/16.
X Marks the Spot is a very interesting utility type spell that forces the target (enemy or ally) to return to the X after a set time, or whenever Kunkka chooses to return them.
The most basic combo you can do with this is getting 2 levels of X Marks the Spot, and then use it together with Torrent, which has a 1.6 second delay. X the target, then almost immediately torrent the X spot. Unless the target has magic immunity or some really good dodging mechanism, there is NO WAY for them to dodge this torrent if you did it correctly.Also note that you need at least 200 mana for this combo.
Now this can not only set up your torrent, but for any of your allies spells/abilities, can be used for simple chasing like Disruptor's 
Glimpse, or even to return a target after they have 'teleported' away with a blink/tp.
Additional levels in X Marks the Spot actually makes it more difficult to land your torrent, as you have to actually time your torrent or manage the 'return' ability correctly. However it does give your initiation a bigger range, and can be useful in many ways as well.
Mid Start:
As with most mid starters, you would want to rush a Bottle.
Starting with 1 Tango and 3 Iron Branches leaves you with ~353 gold.
All you need is 5 last hits or so then you have your bottle ~ 1 min mark.
Offlane Start:
Pretty standard offlane items with alot of stats, stout shield for dealing with harrass, and alot of regen. Depending on how the game is going, you can choose to go for a Bottle, or an Urn of Shadows which is good for ganking, but you'll need to conserve your mana. Perseverance is also a good regen option if you're looking to build Battle Fury. Note that the cleave from Battlefury works indenpendantly from Tidebringer.
Core Items:
Phase Boots are the best boots for Kunkka. 
Boots of Travel can be considered super late game if you need the split pushing/defending power or you're maxed out on inventory slots.
Magic Wand is super useful. Especially helps with Kunkka's mana problem.
Town Portal Scroll is great in counter-gank, defending, flash farming, etc.
Shadow Blade gives you another way to initiate, and an escape mechanism. But more importantly, due to the way Tidebringer works, it's the passive damage and bonus 150 damage that you really want. Note that it applies to the Tidebringer, and thus allows Kunkka to deal a huge AOE burst damage. Most of the time, you'd be initiating with X Marks the Spot and Torrent anyway, and following up by using Shadow Blade and hitting a nearby enemy creep, dealing all the juicy splash damage.
Kunkka's play style is usually more about sitting back, do the full combo when you initiate, land a huge Tidebringer hit, then kiting back out (wait for tidebringer to come off cooldown). He's not normally the type of carry to charge in and just auto-attack people in the middle of the battlefield. The bonus damage from Shadow Blade works nicely with this type of play style.
Damage items:
After the core items are complete, I usually go straight for a Crystalys and then Daedalus, which allows Kunkka to become the One Hit Wonder he is known for, and is meant to be.
A Divine Rapier to top off that crit damage is something worth considering ;) even if you're losing.
Situational Items:
Now I know Kunkka is normally played as a side-carry, and might not always get the farm he wants. Also, depending on team composition and how the game progresses, the following items can be viable options. I consider these items to be situational because half of them do not directly synergize with Kunkka's skills/playstle. Attack speed bonuses are not as effective since it doesn't work with Kunkka's cleave. Items with proc-effects such as bash or chain-lightning are better off in fast-attacking heroes, so again doesn't synergize too well.
Hand of Midas rush can be very effective, allowing you to farm much faster.
Vladmir's Offering and Drum of Endurance are nice, cost efficient items that also benefit your team. Usually a good buy as long as no one else is getting them (auras dont stack).
Armlet of Mordiggian does give a nice damage boost, IAS and allows armlet toggling, all for a relatively cheap price (less than a Shadow Blade, but not as much Burst Damage). Make sure you do have a decent regen mechanism in place to counter-act its effect.
Battle Fury gives you more than enough regen you're going to need for the game, and allows you to clear waves of creep even faster. The cleave is completely independent from Tidebringer, meaning enemies inside of the 225 AOE will take the 35% cleave from Battlefury AND the cleave damage from Tidebringer separately, whilst enemies between 225 and 600 AOE will only take the cleave damage from Tidebringer.
Black King Bar is useful in situations where they have alot of CC and are trying to focus you down before you pull off your combo.
Heaven's Halberd gives you a more strength and a cool maim, but more importantly, the passive evasion and Disarm gives you a way to deal with enemy carries.
Ghost Scepter can also be used to deal with excessive physical damage carries.
Heart of Tarrasque is a great late game item that makes you really beefy, and improves your damage by a bit as well.
Assault Cuirass provides a nice aura for your team, and a nice -armor debuff. Note that the minus armor does NOT affect the damage output from your Tidebringer, only the damage from your main attack. Of course it does help your team by improving their damage dealt as well.
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