Dota 2’s newest hero, Kez, has arrived with a unique dual-weapon playstyle. The leader of the revolution is a melee agility hero wielding the Kazurai Katana and Shodo Sai. Mastering both weapons requires the art of seamless transitions, and in this beginner guide, we’ll dive into the basics of just that and more in playing Kez in Dota 2.
Understanding Kez’ Abilities
Kez’ weapon sets have specific abilities they unlock when you switch to each one with his “Switch Discipline”. Activating Switch will reduce his cooldowns by 0.2 second that adds up every hero level. Let’s look at his diverse armamentarium.
Kazurai Katana Abilities
- Echo Slash: A line-targeted skill that deals a percentage of Kez’s attack damage and briefly slows enemies. After a short delay, the area is attacked again, dealing bonus damage to heroes.
- Grappling Claw: Kez shoots and swings with a grappling hook on a target unit or tree. The hook will slow down the enemies when hit and the landing damage will have a high lifesteal buff.
- Kazurai Katana (Passive): This makes enemies hit receive a debuff that weakens regeneration and apply a stacking damage.
- Raptor Dance (Ultimate): Channelling for a second, Kez becomes immune to effects and is buffed with 100% magic resistance, he then executes slashes and strikes around the area and deals damage based on enemies max health, he heals with the portion of damage he dealt.
Shodo Sai Abilities
- Falcon Rush: A quick attack that allows Kez to phase through units. He can repeat the attack with a short delay that gets a reduced attack speed interval per repetition.
- Talon Toss: Kez throws a sai that explodes upon hitting an enemy, this causes the target and those around to receive damage and a silence effect.
- Shodo Sai (Passive & Active): Kez’s attacks and abilities may mark enemies hit. The mark buff can be consumed with the next attack or ability that will deal True Strike damage, critical strike, and stunning the enemy. Activating this ability can perform a parry on a target location. Upon successful parry, the mark buff will activate instantly.
- Raven’s Veil (Ultimate): Unleashes a wave of smoke that hinders enemies vision and marks them with additional parry buff. Kez will also be buffed with basic dispel, increased movement speed, and becomes invisible until he attacks or casts an ability.
Recommended Skill Building
Since Kez is new to the game, his many abilities that are versatile could prove to be complicated for some players. As they can be difficult especially for a beginner in playing Kez or Dota 2, this article will provide a skill build guide that is optimal to utilise his abilities effectively.
These are the following order of abilities and talent building:
- 3rd ability: Kazurai Katana/Shodo Sai
- 1st ability: Echo Slash/Falcon Rush
- 3rd ability
- 2nd ability: Grappling Claw/Talon Toss
- 3rd ability
- Ultimate: Raptor Dance/Raven’s Veil
- 3rd ability
- 1st ability
- 1st ability
- Talent Upgrade: 12% Magic Resistance
- 1st ability
- 2nd ability
- 2nd ability
- 2nd ability
- Talent Upgrade: +2s Falcon Rush Duration
- Ultimate
The rest of the remaining levels and upgrades are free to use to max the remaining abilities and talents. The recommended Talent Upgrade choices are level 20: +5% Damage per Second from Kazurai Katana, level 25: +1 attack on Echo Slash.
Maxing the 3rd ability early on will allow Kez to deal a high amount of damage and reduce enemies regeneration, followed by the 1st ability that would provide more damage but this is best used for mobility, next the 2nd ability is for movement flexibility and survivability.
Recommended Item Build
Here are the recommended item builds for Kez in Dota 2:
Starting Items:
- Quelling Blade
- Tango
- Iron Branch
Core Items:
- Phase Boots
- Echo Saber
- Black King Bar
Late Game Items:
- Satanic
- Abyssal Blade
- Silver Edge
- Manta Style
- Aghanim’s Scepter
Situational Items:
- Diffusal Blade
- Desolator
- Eye of Skadi
- Butterfly
As long as you familiarise yourself with the items needed to gain edge against enemies, you should be good to go with these item builds. This build promotes damage and survivability, which complements Kez’s versatile arsenals.
Conclusion
This new hero, Kez, requires a certain level of mastery—lots of practice and game mechanics understanding is required. Once you manage to gain enough sense of his capacity, Kez undoubtedly has the potential to dominate the battlefield with his diverse sets of skills that are good for dealing damage, chase or escape, and crowd controls.
With the unpredictability of Kez from Dota 2, this beginner guide aims to help you figure out how to navigate his playstyle to easily slay or interrupt enemies. Like any other hero, practice of his arsenal and making tactical item build choices will be the key for you to be a formidable force on the battlefield.
