One-Shot Kunkka

Introduction

Welcome to my very first guide, a very crit-based guide for Kunkka/Gladiator based on the HoN competitive scene. This build was the definitive build for Gladiator when I followed the HoN scene, and supposedly has its roots in DOTA. It might not really be the optimal build at the moment, what with patches and all, but it is without a doubt, one of THE MOST fun builds I've ever played with, and if you do well can still faceroll games.

As a disclaimer, this might not be the easiest build to read, or execute as a beginner, and as such I won't entirely be going over basics such as juking, farming, map awareness, etc.

Summary

So the question for some might be, HOW DOES THIS BUILD WORK?
It's very simple really. Due to Kunkka's passive Tidebringer, which is essentially a large AoE crit, the damage from a single strike can be spread to a relatively large area in literally less than a second. This build abuses this both with the inherent crit from a Shadow Blade, used in conjunction with a possible crit from Crystalys or Daedalus.

The basic strategy of this build is to spend most of the early to mid-game farming up your core, and after this, using it to win all the team fights with your ridiculous AoE burst.
How does this work though?
Very simple really, once you have your core, and your team is completely ready for a team fight, you can initiate using whichever skills you like, then:

1. Ensure Tidebringer is ready to proc
2. Activate your Shadowblade
3. Stealth in and hit one of the SUPPORT OR LOWER PRIORITY targets
4. Both Tidebringer and your Shadowblade should proc, and ideally the crit from Crystalys
5. The enemy team is weakened, your team should continue fighting and hopefully win

NOTE: I say to hit the SUPPORT OR LOWER PRIORITY targets as, when your hit lands, it will be subjugated to the standard damage mitigation from armor. However, armor does not protect from splash, and as such, will do more damage to those caught in the splash, and NOT your initial target. This also applies when you are chasing an enemy out of reach, sometimes you can instead attack a creep and rely on the splash to kill them.

In an ideal situation (and I mean UNREALISTICALLY ideal) you will have farmed until the after-core, with a divine rapier, and you can just blink in and crit the entire team with one-shot. Lulz will ensue. This of course, is a very rare situation, but it's always your goal.

Example: Play Video

Laning

Very briefly, the best lane for Kunkka would most likely be in the short lane with a support or babysit character. A good lane partner would be someone with a lot of disable skills like slows or stuns. You want these kinds of partners as your lane can work well as an offensive lane, and the stuns will help you line up your torrents.
Off the top of my head, good heroes to lane with would be:

• Crystal Maiden - Strong slow, great freeze, mana aura makes her a credit to team!
• Vengeful Spirit - A rather strong stun, good armor debuff and a potent damage aura.
• Lion - Two strong disables in an AoE stun and a hex. Both of them make it easy to land torrents.
• Witch Doctor - Again, a great stun that can help you land torrents, great synergy with his Maledict, and even a heal to boot!
• Dazzle - Has a strong slow/stun that helps you with your torrents, but also has his heal and shallow grave. This is for a more defensive lineup however, best used against a more aggressive lane like SB/Jugg or Lina/Sven

As a final note, you may have noticed that I only get Tidebringer to level 2 at the beginning before maxing out torrent, and this is simply because torrent is such a great skill to be used for ganks, counter-ganks, chasing and even juking if you know how. As well, if you get more than level 2 Tidebringer, I find that it pushes the lane too far, and level 2 is generally enough to help you with your last-hitting/harassing.

Items

So while it was already covered in the summary, the basics of this build is to get your core as soon as possible, then stealth-crit teams to do massive damage, possibly turning the tide (pun not intended) of the fight.

Starting items:
Well, I find that everyone has their own preferred starting item build, so do what you like best, but for me, this is what I like. The Tango is rather self-explanatory as it is our chosen method of regen. The three GG branches will give me a small stat boost and also serve as a great build-up to a Magic Wand. The Stout Shield is mainly there so that you can farm a little bit easier without worrying as much about harassment from the enemies. This does NOT mean you can go around tanking damage like you're Axe.

Pre-Core
These items are essentially the more important components of your core to get first.
Boots are rather obvious as they are used for chasing, travel and pretty much everything in general. I tend to get these first only if I'm not doing too well (0 kills with 0-2 deaths).

If you are getting a good amount of farm (Either lots of creep kills, or a hero kill or two) then I would save up and go straight for the Ring of Health as, similar to the stout shield, it ensures that you can stay in the lane for much longer. The increased health regen is great early game where you can shrug off those few auto-attacks your opponents may throw your way.

The Magic Wand is really a great item for those clutch bursts of health or mana you need. I tend to build this more out of a need of item space, but if you`re doing absolutely terrible, a magic wand might be able to help you survive those few ganks.

A Town Portal Scroll is pretty basic, and needs very little explanation. Ganks, counterganks, travel, pushes, defenses, escapes...you should have one at almost every stage of the game as they`re invaluable.

Core
This section has been pretty well covered earlier, but to repeat, you need the items so you can pull off your "Invis -> Crit" combo. I choose to use Power Treads over other boots simply because the extra stats are great, plus you can always swap between Strength or Intelligence depending on if you need more HP or more mana.

After-Core
This can be thought of as more of an extension from the core. It consists of two items so it isn't too big, and the Daedalus is rather obvious as an extension of your Crystalys. The BKB is an item that I'm quite fond of, especially on strength heroes like Kunkka. Not only is the magic immunity useful in virtually every game, but the strength and damage are both stats that Kunkka can use lots of.

Luxury
When late-game rolls in, I tend to prefer swapping my boots out for Boots of Travel, granted, only as a luxury, but around late-game, the stats are near negligible, and an extra item slot would be nice. Other than that, the rest of the items are up to you! A Heart is one of my favorites as it makes you that much more unkillable, and if you plan on getting a Divine Rapier, it'll help you hang onto it that much more easily. Divine Rapier, as you may have guessed is quite a plausible item as it makes your crit go from ridiculous damage to overkill. It's how people get those one-hit team wipes!

Skills

Kunkka's skillset is quite a good one with Torrent being a great ganking tool, Tidebringer for the insane AoE burst, and Ghost Ship for amazing team fight utility. X Marks the Spot is a skill that is often misused. When I play, I use it as a set up skill for torrent + Ghost ship combo, and I find that more than often I use it like that more than a skill to prevent people from escaping. Because of this, I choose to keep it at level 3 for as long as I can. Why? Because simply put, the time on Level 3 X is almost in sync with the delay on a Torrent, and so it leaves a lesser margin of error. If you disagree and like to have level 4 X, by all means go for it.

FunFact: When you're winning hard, X yourself, wait a bit, run into their well, invis -> Crit them, get pulled out by your X and hope someone died.