Icefrog has wasted no time in rebalancing the new Dota 2 hero, Kez, shipping out a new patch with nerfs just days after his release.
If you have played Dota 2 last week or seen any clips of it online, you would realise that Kez is seemingly very overpowered, not just in stats but its skill set. Considering Kez is categorized as a three-star difficulty hero, the latest nerfs were more than justifiable.
Image Credit: Valve
What nerfs did Kez received?
Out of the eight offensive skills Kez has, seven received nerfs. The official patch changelog includes:
- Kazurai Katana: Damage Per Second reduced from 7/8/9/10% to 6/7/8/9%
- Falcon Rush: Katana base attack rate increased from 1.3/1.2/1.1/1.0 to 1.4/1.3/1.2/1.1
- Falcon Rush: Duration decreased from 7 to 3/4/5/6
- Raptor Dance: Increased cooldown from 40/32/24 to 40/35/30
- Raven’s Veil: Increased cooldown from 40/32/24 to 40/35/30
- Shodo Sai: Fixed some Mark interactions dealing more damage than intended
- Grappling Claw: Fixed chain not being broken when linked to a target out of range
- Grappling Claw: Fixed it ignoring evasion
- Echo Slash: Fixed it ignoring evasion
- Echo Slash: Fixed it killing couriers
- Echo Slash: Fixed it allowing Kez to escape leashes and movement prevention abilities (i.e. Disruptor Kinetic Field )
Besides the mechanics changes on Echo Slash that previously felt indestructible, there are other numerical changes on the skill stats, such as cooldown, percentage and duration.
Kez’s win rate
(Image credit: Valve)
Looking back at Kez’s win rate since last week’s Crownfall Act 4 Update, the nerf definitely hit Kez hard, dropping his win rate to 43%. However, that’s not to say Kez is unjustifiably nerfed because having near 50% win rate as a new Dota 2 hero is quite an achievement, especially when the flightless hero started with a much lower one on release.
It’s likely Kez was definitely too powerful before the nerf since the average Dota 2 player was able to win with sheer stats alone without any true skill or mastery of the hero. In fact, perhaps it’s wiser to look at pro players, who have been playing Kez to understand just how powerful the hero can be in the right hands.
Wang “Ame” Chunyu and Du “Monet” Peng are two Chinese pro players who have been using Kez often during their streams. Ame has 75% win rate over 29 games while Monet has 71% win rate over 14 games, which is indicative of how powerful Kez truly is.
All in all, Kez can still become one of the best Dota 2 hero to win MMR even after the nerfs. He is a skill-based hero, so mastering him will surely improve your win rate.