The new Dota 2 hero, Kez, has finally arrived! Valve welcomed Kez alongside the fourth and final chapter of the Crownfall saga. This highly-anticipated hero brings not only a powerful narrative from the Crownfall story but also an insanely packed skill set! 

Let's dive into the abilities and the talent tree for Kez! 

Dota 2 Kez: All abilities preview

Kez is a melee hero designated to fill in a carry role. He has strong escape elements and disabler skills. The Kazurai warrior is an Agility hero with an astonishing level 3 complexity!

But why is the hero considered highly complex? Well, Kez's Innate Ability - Switch Discipline - allows him to wield two different weapons, the Katana and the Sai, which you can toggle to get different sets of abilities.

The default Katana gives you four spells and switching to Sai replaces the set with four other unique spells! This means Kez has a total of EIGHT different spells to learn!

But beware when switching disciplines because the toggle has a cooldown of 8 seconds. The cooldown decreases by 0.2 per hero level.

Kez Katana Abilities

1. Echo Slash

Echo Slash lets Kez slash forward in a line, dealing a percentage of his attack damage [70%/80%/90%/100%] and a quick slow [100% slow for 0.25 seconds] to targets in the area. After a short delay, the area is attacked again in the form of an echo. Heroes take bonus damage [30/45/60/75].

2. Grappling Claw

Kez targets an enemy unit or a tree to swing a grappling hook. Kez will arrive to the grappled unit and upon landing, he attacks with 100% lifesteal plus a flat bonus if the target is a hero [50/100/150/200].

3. Kazurai Katana

This is a passive spell that lets Kez's attacks and abilities apply stacking damage over time to enemies. This damage deals a percentage of the original attack's damage as additional damage over time [Damage per second: 7%/8%/9%/10%]. Affected enemies will have reduced health regeneration [20%/25%/30%/35%].

4. Raptor Dance

Kez's ultimate is the Raptor Dance. It is a 1-second channeling ability during which Kez becomes immune to debuffs and gains a 100% magic resistance. After channeling is finished and uninterrupted, Kez unleashes a series of deadly slashes in a large area around him [450 radius]. The slashes go from [2/3/4] per level increment. This deals damage based on the max health of the enemy around him [4%] and also heals Kez with a 100% slash lifesteal.

Kez Sai Abilities

1. Falcon Rush

The first spell of the Sai weapon is the Falcon Rush. This ability causes buffs Kez for 7 seconds, allowing him to click on an enemy unit and rush forward to attack [650 radius]. After the first attack lands, an echoing secondary attack appears. 

2. Talon Toss

Kez throws a Sai at a target unit and once it hit a target, it will detonate. This deals damage [75/125/175/225] and applies silence for a duration [1.75/2/2.25/2.5s] to all enemies in the area [275 radius].

3. Shodo Sai

The third spell buffs Kez's attacks and spells which causes it to have a 17% chance to Mark enemies. Marked enemies are slowed by 10% and the next attack or ability damage from Kez gains True Strike. This attack will also stun the enemy for 0.5s and deal a critical strike [140%/160%/180%/200%], ending the buff. The Mark lasts 8 seconds.

You can also activate Shodo Sai to disarm Kez, lock his facing, and parry attacks and attack effects from the faced direction for 2 seconds. If an attack is parried, the hero is stunned for 0.5s and Marked, taking additional critical strike [25%/50%/75%/100%] and stunned for 0.5s.

4. Raven's Veil

Raven's Veil is Kez's ultimate for the Sai weapon. Activating this ultimate causes Kez to release a wave of smoke around him [1500 radius] that applies his Mark with Parry bonus to nearby enemies, also reducing their vision for 4 seconds. 

After activating Raven's Veil, Kez also receives a basic dispel, gains bonus movement speed [15%/25%/35%], and enters invisibility until he attacks or casts a spell.

Kez Aghanim's Scepter and Aghanim's Shard Abilities

Aghanim's Scepter: Switch Discipline Upgrade

The Aghanim's Scepter upgrades Kez's Switch Discipline Innate. Whenever Kez casts any weapon ability, it refreshes the cooldown of Switch Discipline. The first ability Kez casts 3 seconds after using Switch Discipline will not set its alternate weapon ability on cooldown.

For example, 3 seconds after using Switch Discipline, you use Falcon Rush, the first spell. When you toggle to Sai, its first spell, Echo Slash will not be on cooldown.

Aghanim's Shard: Kazurai Katana and Shodo Sai Upgrade

With a Shard, the Kazurai Katana spell can now be activated, which causes his attacks to briefly stun himself and the target in place. The attack impales the target deals bonus damage based on the stack amount.

The alternate spell, Shodo Sai, also receives an upgrade. The Shard passively grants 10 movement speed and an additional 10 movement speed per Marked enemy.

Talent Tree

Kez's Talent Tree offers the typical spell upgrades and buffs. As Kez is newly released, we have to give the community some time before we figure out the better talent options. Right now, let's look at all the given talents:

Facets to-be-decided

At launch, Kez does look more complete than the previous Ringmaster. However, he still has no Facets. The developers will assess his gameplay throughout the next few weeks or months and attempt to find the most suitable Facets for the samurai.

How do you like the hero so far?