Kunkka

Kunkka the Admiral is a versatile melee Strength hero built with an arsenal of powerful area-of-effect spells. Two of his active spells are nukes that have long reaction times, but can disable and disrupt the enemies' position. He is mostly played as a carry or an initiator or even a spell nuker. He is known for his Tidebringer sword, which magically gives him the ability to cleave a large area around him on his attack with heavy potential damage on his next attack, which refreshes at a given period of time. Torrent calls upon the element of water to rise and burst out, dealing damage, disabling them up high, and slowing them on impact. There's a delay on this ability before it activates, so Kunkka must be wise in using this ability. X Marks the Spot targets any hero or Admiral himself to be marked on their current position, and after a few seconds delay, instantly returns to the marked spot. Useful in setting up tricky spells, escape prevention, or even saving allies, X Marks the Spot makes the Admiral a great battle strategist. His ultimate lets him summon a Ghostship, which travels on ground, until it crashes a set distance away, stunning and damaging enemy armies on that location. The Ghostship also bolsters allies with Kunkka's Rum, granting them bonus movement speed and numbness to damage. Ghostship is difficult to land, due to the fixed distance of its cast point and the crash site of the ship. However, a good Ghostship absolutely cripples an enemy team. Capable of inflicting high burst damage with his spells, controlling their position while able to survive the mayhem when his spells are used properly, Kunkka is a mighty offensive team fighter, built with strong physical and magical damage output, who can indeed turn the tide of a battle.

Tips

 * Kunkka's abilities work best when the enemy team is clumped together. Time your ability usage accordingly.
 * Kunkka's skill set allows him to be played in a myriad of ways. Played as a carry, Kunkka can focus on building raw damage items and inflict massive area damage with his spells and Tidebringer. Played as a support/utility, Kunkka can focus on increasing the size of his mana pool and using his spells to lock down enemies and dealing large amounts of magical damage over wide swathes of area.
 * In general, carry Kunkka can be placed either mid or in the safe lane. As a mid, Kunkka should focus on getting early levels and harassing down the enemy's mid with Tidebringer, then using his spells to get early kills and farm his core items.
 * deals moderate amounts of damage on top of the disable and slow, but can be very hard to land and is very mana-costly on a hero with a small mana pool. Good prediction or a leading stun is required to land it properly.
 * Kunkka makes a very visible hand gesture when casting Torrent, which opponents can easily see and use to gauge the direction in which Torrent was cast so that they can dodge it. When casting Torrent on an enemy without a leading disable, it is recommended to either cancel your animation in order to fool the enemy if they can see you, or cast it from the fog of war by taking advantage of its extremely long cast range.
 * Torrent can be more easily landed if X Marks the Spot is used first. By inflicting X on the enemy, and then casting Torrent on that spot, you can force the enemy to return right before Torrent completes. However, mind the cast range of X Marks the Spot, as it is very low at early levels, and be sure that your timing is perfect otherwise the enemy may arrive after the torrent or have time to evade it after returning.
 * Combined with Tidebringer, Torrent can be used to lock down a foe long enough for you to maneuver into a position favorable to hit them or their teammates with cleave damage.
 * allows Kunkka to deal cleave damage in a wide area in front of him, making it powerful for harassing during laning and for inflicting massive damage to the entire enemy team in teamfights. Because it can only proc once every few seconds, it is recommended to build raw damage over attack speed on Kunkka when playing as a carry, rather than attack speed.
 * Tidebringer's bonus damage is retained when attacking allies (particularly lane creeps), and does not proc a splash. Therefore, it is recommended to keep Tidebringer off cooldown so that you can deny creeps easily when you need to during the laning stage. This is particularly useful in the mid lane where consistently denying creeps can give you a strong level and gold advantage over your opponent.
 * Cleave ignores armor on the splashed targets, and the cleave damage is based on Kunkka's attack damage rather than any damage dealt to the unit that was attacked. Therefore, when using Tidebringer, it is best to attack a nearby creep to inflict the cleave on all enemies behind it.
 * Remember that Tidebringer's cleave has a very long range. Angled properly, it is possible to hit enemies through the fog of war, and even through invisibility, making it a powerful ability for killing fleeing enemy heroes who are low on health. It is best to use a nearby enemy creep, or even one from a neutral camp, in order to splash the damage in the direction of your choosing.
 * is a flexible spell that can be cast on enemies and allies alike to return them to their point of origin after a delay. Used on enemies, it can be used to prevent escapes and lock down foes for your spells and those of your allies. Used on allies, it gives them a safe method of return if they are disabled while initiating.
 * X's principal utility is in locking down a target so that they can be hit by Torrent and Ghostship, both of which are otherwise hard to land. The same applies to teammates with similarly hard to land spells such as, , and so on. Good timing is required to do so, however, as returning the target before the spell hits gives them time to evade, while returning them after will result in a miss.
 * X Marks the Spot has a very short cast range at level 1, making it hard to land on an enemy during a gank. However, it lasts for the full 4 seconds at all levels so managing to cast the spell will give your team a large amount of time to set up for the return.
 * There is no maximum limit on X's return range, so it can bring its target back to the origin even after teleporting across the map. As such, it can be used on a foe who is attempting to teleport back to their base, or on an ally to get back to base to grab items from the stash or refill a Bottle and then return. Kunkka has to cast X on himself before he starts teleporting to make use of this trick.
 * X Marks the Spot lasts twice as long on allies. This gives it very powerful utility since an ally can have up to 8 seconds to scout, initiate, tower dive, or otherwise harass the enemy and be pulled back to safety.
 * Beware, X Marks the Spot cannot pull back invulnerable allied units. This means that certain abilities are able to interrupt an allied X, so be sure that you know what the enemy's capabilities are, as you can return a teammate early before they are inflicted with invulnerability, or hold back the return until after.
 * Conversely though, allies who are spell immune will still be pulled back. Therefore, if trouble is encountered, they can apply spell immunity to themselves in order to prevent themselves from being disabled, and still have a way with which they can return.
 * is a wide-area magic nuke that deals significant damage in its impact area and buffs allies that it passes through. While its cooldown is quite short, it is very mana-costly, especially on a hero with a small mana pool like Kunkka.
 * Ghostship will always appear a specific distance behind Kunkka and end a specific distance in front of Kunkka, taking a specific amount of time to do so. The distance at which the boat appears and hits can be seen by mousing over the ability and noting the radius circle. You can also just cast it from outside Kunkka's range as to make him move into range and ensure that the Ghostship will land to where you targeted it.
 * The Rum buff is a very powerful ability that should never be discounted. Any allies with the Rum buff will take half damage from all enemy damage sources for its duration, and can never be killed by the remainder once the buff wears off. This allows allies to absorb up to twice the normal amount of damage and still survive, making it extremely powerful on tanky heroes who are already very damage-resistant.
 * Due to his flexiblity, Kunkka can benefit from building various types of items. He benefits from the following as a carry:
 * is effectively mandatory if Kunkka is to be played mid. A Bottle is extremely useful for replenishing Kunkka's small mana pool, and can be easily replenished using X and a teleport to base.
 * , combined with X Marks the Spot, greatly extends Kunkka's reach when attacking with Tidebringer, and is useful no matter what role he plays. He can X himself and then blink forward, casting any spells or attacking with Tidebringer, and then returning to safety. Used by itself, Kunkka can instantly position himself in the best location from which to cleave the enemy, or jump within range to cast X on a foe during an initiation.
 * frees up an item slot for Kunkka, giving him room to build another major item if needed, and allows him to use X for temporary returns to base without using 100 gold each time. The ability to globally re-position is also very powerful, and the enhanced movement speed gives him better positioning, chasing and escaping ability.
 * is highly situational and very risky, but extremely powerful in Kunkka's hands. Combined with Tidebringer and a Daedalus, Kunkka can deal tremendous amounts of cleave damage and potentially wipe the entire enemy team under the right circumstances.
 * While not traditionally played as a utility/support, Kunkka's spells lend him some power in this area as well.
 * gives Kunkka a measure of mana regen and some more HP and base damage, enhancing his power as a roamer-disabler. The item's active can be used to heal yourself or teammates, or add more damage in a gank.
 * allows Kunkka to dip into his HP pool for casting spells. As his small mana pool is otherwise his greatest limitation, a Soul Ring can remove that limitation and allow him to be more active on the map.
 * are useful for allowing Kunkka to cast his spells without limit due to the greatly increased mana pool, and the ability to replenish his and allies' mana as needed.
 * gives Kunkka stats across the board, as well as armor. While very mana-costly, using it alongside Ghostship will allow allies to take up to an additional 500 more damage due to the Rum buff.
 * augments the hitting power of all of Kunkka's spells, as well as providing him with more stats and armor. It is a useful pickup if your team has other casters who can also benefit from the magic resistance reduction on enemy targets.
 * is a powerful utility item for Kunkka. It gives him more mobility and a sustainable mana pool, and the active can be used to instantly disable an enemy to set up for Torrent. Most importantly though, the active used on yourself can give you temporary invulnerability if the enemy jumps on you, remove debuffs such as silences from yourself, or stop X Marks the Spot from returning you to your origin if you need to remain at your destination for any reason.
 * helps make Kunkka beefier and gives him a larger mana pool to play with. The active can drastically slow an enemy from a very long range, allowing you to set them up for an easy Torrent or Ghostship.
 * is a good mid-game utility item. It gives all allies armor, some mana regen, and increased base damage, and gives lifesteal to Kunkka and any melee carries on his team. It is very strong when combined with Ghostship's Rum buff, as the armor and lifesteal auras' effectiveness are doubled due to the reduced damage that teammates are taking.
 * can be a powerful purchase to enhance Kunkka's survivability. The armor, HP and damage block all work to give Kunkka great resistance against physical damage, allowing him to weather attacks and get his spells off in fights more easily. More importantly though, the item's active ability can be used alongside Ghostship's Rum buff to drastically increase your team's survivability during a fight, as any damage the enemy inflicts will be greatly reduced prior to being halved by Rum.
 * works similar to the above, granting Kunkka strong resistance against enemy magic nukes, HP regen that works terrific alongside a Soul Ring, and a magic shell with which to protect teammates in fights. While Barrier is effectively only half as powerful when combined with Ghostship's Rum, it can still make a critical difference during major teamfights.
 * gives Kunkka a larger mana pool as well as additional armor for physical survivability. The aura and active can be used to slow enemies drastically in a fight, making Torrent and Ghostship easier to land as needed.

Trivia

 * Kunkka was named in honour of the artist who made numerous pieces of loading screen art for DotA and Dota 2.
 * Kunkka's official alternate/fun names were "Daelin Proudmoore", "CoCo", and "Captain Obvious". Daelin Proudmoore was a campaign boss in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne; his hero model is borrowed by Kunkka in DotA.
 * In his DotA biography, it is stated that some people called him "Jack Sparrow," but it was never seen as his name in-game. Jack Sparrow is the name of the main character in the Pirates of the Carribean movie franchise.
 * His rival hero taunts against, , and , and his allied lines for and , all come from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
 * His battle begin line kunk battlebegins 02.mp3 "Rough seas ahead, crew. Strap me to the mizzen when I give the word." is likely a reference to The Odyssey, where Odysseus commands his crew to strap him to the mast so he could hear the Sirens sing.