The newest Dota 2 hero, Kez, just can’t seem to get a break from Icefrog’s nerfs and was hit with some rebalancing in the most recent Dota 2 update. Released late on Tuesday evening (Dec. 3) the patch specifically targeted Kez, and Kez alone, with a series of nerfs across all his skills and stats.
Kez receives nerfs in latest Dota 2 update (Image credit: Valve)
The Early December Nerf on Kez
This Dota 2 update did not come with any versioning, so let’s call it post-7.37e Dota 2 update for Kez. As the name suggests, it is simply nerfs on Kez, such as stats on his skills:
- Falcon Rush: Rush Range decreased from 650 to 575
- Grappling Claw: Hero Bonus Heal reduced from 40/80/120/160 to 30/60/90/120
- Grappling Claw: Cooldown increased from 15/12/9/6 to 16/13/10/7
- Talon Toss: Cooldown increased from 15/12/9/6 to 16/13/10/7
Previously, Kez’s wide variety of attack and skills enabled him to be very mobile despite being a melee hero. With cooldowns increased for Grappling Claw and Talon Toss too, expect Kez to not be so elusive anymore.
Attack modifier changes
While stat nerfs don’t seem too bad, the changes to Kez’s various skill effects could be the nail on the coffin to bring down Kez’s win rate. Previously he was one of the best Dota 2 heroes around, but these nerfs have dragged him down to normalcy.
Notably, Echo Slash no longer applies cleave on units hit. This is a major nerf on his skill, which was very efficient for farming large camps quickly in early to mid game. While this may seem like a severe nerf, note that this effect completely countered Broodmother’s Spiderlings, which made her obsolete if Kez is her opponent.
Additionally, Raven’s Veil, which applies a mark on affected heroes, no longer applies parry bonus too. Previously, when stacked with Shodo Sai’s parry bonus stacks, the bonus critical strike would be tremendous. Nonetheless, you can still get this parry bonus effect as a level 15 talent.
Dota 2 HUD Changes for different stances for Kez
While the nerfs on Kez were miserable, this patch did include a highly-requested feature for Kez’s different stances. Previously, Kez’s old HUD for skills on different stances weren’t very easy to distinguish, which was a concern many in the Dota 2 community voiced out.
Hence, Kez players are glad that Valve listened to the feedback and implemented more contrasting colors as indicators of Kez’s two different stances in blue and yellow color themes.
Reworked HUD for Kez’s skillset (Image credit: Wykrhm Reddy)
Bug fixes on Kez
Besides these crucial changes to Kez, several minor bugs, such as longer attack ranges than usual or incorrect interactions of Kez’s skills have been resolved as well.
The Dota 2 community seem to think that the latest Kez nerfs might have been too harsh from Icefrog, especially the removal of cleave on his Echo Slash. Particularly, this change affects his item build, which traditionally didn’t require a Battle Fury. However, now that’s an additional cost of 4100 gold if Kez players want to get it.
It seems like Kez is becoming a relatively underwhelming Dota 2 hero with a stale skillset after these barrage of nerfs that even overhauled his unique skill effects. Mind you, Kez also received an nerf after his Crownfall Act 4 release last month. Nevertheless, it is still too early to say whether this latest change on Kez will make him literally unplayable as the winrate has only dropped 2.5% from 51.03% to 47.44% since this Kez Dota 2 Update.