Kez finally arrives in Captain’s Mode after new patch, but will he be any good?

Luke Warr Published October 3, 2025

Dota 2 patch 7.39e has arrived and the game’s newest hero Kez is now playable in Captain’s Mode, but how much of an impact will he realistically have?

The first post-TI patch has arrived and, unsurprisingly, it delivered targeted nerfs for many of the most powerful heroes from the season-ending event. Not all of the strongest heroes from The International have been affected however, as Valve inexplicably left Nature’s Prophet as-is despite his obvious strength.

The most notable change in this latest patch is that Kez is now available for play in Captain’s Mode. This means that serious players and Dota 2 pros alike will now have the opportunity to pick the swashbuckling bird in their matches. Will he be any good, though?

Kez nerfed heading into Captain’s Mode, is he still good?

Kez likely won’t be particularly good when he debuts in Captain’s Mode in Dota 2 following the 7.39e patch, which includes a nerf for the hero.

As is a tradition in Dota 2 at this point, Kez received a sweeping round of nerfs before officially being added to Captain’s Draft. Here’s what happened to Kez in Dota 2 update 7.39e:

• Flutter Facet: The first hit bonus is now consumed by the first attack of Echo Slash and Raptor Dance rather than applying to the entire cast, fixed the Katana bonus being lost if Echo Slash hit nothing
• Switch Discipline: Fixed a bug with Aghanim’s Scepter that would allow extra Sai abilities to skip cooldown
• Kazurai Katana: Impale damage changed from post-critical strike bonus damage to a separate instance of physical spell damage
• Raptor Dance: Max Health as Damage decreased from 3% to 2.5%, can no longer be interrupted by casting Grappling Claw
• Falcon Rush: Now has an 825 break distance, Attack Speed Factor rescaled from 6/8/10/12% to 9%
• Shodo Sai: Mark Critical Strike decreased from 140/160/180/200% to 125/150/175/200%

Kez did receive a small buffs in the form of his base mana regen going from 0 to 0.25, and some of the adjustments to his spells aren’t strictly nerfs. Still, this is an undeniable net negative for Kez. And it’s not the first, either.

While Kez arrived in Dota 2 in an extremely powerful state, this didn’t last very long. Valve has delivered significant nerfs to the hero several times over since his debut. This left Kez as a generally mediocre hero pick. Another set of nerfs doesn’t help his chances of actually getting picked in the Dota 2 pro scene, and he’ll likely need some buffs until he actually appears on pro teams’ radars. That is to say, don’t expect the game’s newest hero to suddenly appear in many upcoming Dota 2 tournaments.

Other buffs and nerfs of Dota 2 version 7.39c

Dota 2 7.39c is a very nerf-heavy patch targeting some of the top heroes at The International 2025, as well as Kez.

Naga Siren, Beastmaster, Earthshaker, and Marci were the most contested heroes at The International. Unsurprisingly, all of them were nerfed.

Beastmaster’s early-game strength and scaling was reduced with lower base damage and nerfed talents. Naga Siren is now less threatening, with Deluge’s damage now scaling from 80 to 260 rather than 80 to 290. Earthshaker’s Aftershock received a pair of nerfs, including a straight damage nerf and the bonus AOE from the Tectonic Buildup facet being reduced. Finally, Marci’s ultimate just doesn’t punch as fast as it used to.

Some of Dota 2’s best mobility skills were also weakened, with players now being able to interrupt Monkey King’s Tree Dance and Magnus’ Skewer. The full lineup of changes can be found on the official Dota 2 website.