Valve has released a small patch for Dota 2 that is designed to buff the new hero Kez, who only launched a day ago. While Valve has, obviously, not given a reason for these buffs, many fans assume it is due to the dismal win rate Kez has had since launching, with it sitting below 35% in some skill brackets.
The new Dota 2 patch features a couple of pretty strong buffs, as well as one that I doubt will make too much difference. The most notable buff is an increase in base armor, going from zero to two at the start of the game. This should make his early lane stage a lot easier, as he will be less prone to just being zoned out of the lane by long range supports, which seems to be the best way to counter him so far. The other buff is a small movement speed increase, from 315 to 320, which again could make laning, and just generally moving around, a little easier.
The smaller, on paper at least, buff is a tiny 0.1 attack rate decrease on his Falcon Rush ability at all levels, which basically means he will attack quicker. I doubt this will make any kind of real difference, but will likely make it feel like a little more natural to use with slightly nicer timings. But I also haven’t played Kez yet, so could be wrong on that!
A new Dota hero getting changes, that aren’t bug fixes, so quickly after launch is quite unusual, with Valve usually waiting at least a few days for players to lean how to play the hero. However, Kez has had one of the worst win rates we have ever seen a new hero have in Dota 2 over his first 24 hours or so.
Excluding the bottom three ranks, where games are generally so back and forth anyone can win, Kez sits around a 35% win rate across all brackets. However, midway through his first day in game he was sitting at a dismal 29% win rate in games over 8000 MMR. While you wouldn’t expect a balanced new hero to sit at a 50% win rate during their first day, especially one as complex as Kez who has two sets of abilities to learn, a 35% win rate is truly appalling, and it was clear something needed to be done.
We’ll likely see Kez get a few more changes over the next week or two, but you can also expect his win rate to increase a little as players get better at him. He’s clearly a very complex hero, potentially in the same bracket as Invoker and Meepo when it comes to difficulty level, so just picking him up and winning straight away is always going to be a tough task.
