Arena Kuzenbo: The Big Bully Kappa(patch 8.9)

I have created this guide in honor of a long standing member of our community here, Gulfwulf. After learning of Gulf's passing, I decided as a nod to him that I would really give Kuzenbo a run and see what I could do with him. I did not try to do something similar to what Gulf did with his guide and I don't play conquest or any of the other more serious modes, but as long as the interactions and feedback within the discussions for this guide are civil, respectful and made in the spirit of helping other players be better and make better choices I feel that is a fitting way of showing respect for a member of our community that was always willing to help another player.

I had thought maybe that I would do some more testing but after the matches I have under my belt I found what works for me. In keeping with my desire to honor Gulf's presence within our community here I just wanted to go ahead and line up my build, and organize what I believe would work for Kuzenbo in tweaked versions of the build and then just publish it and have the type of discussion about it I mentioned above.

Gulf was big about helping other members of our community here with his knowledge.
What I gathered from what Bran has shared with us recently about Gulf was that he was big on helping others and enjoyed contributing to the happiness of others. My hope is that even if some of you may look at my guide and not like it at all, in the spirit of goodwill and friendship that Gulfwulf tried to espouse within the community here and probably in many others in his life away from this game that you would leave constructive feedback and keep that spirit of helpfulness and friendliness that I will remember most about Gulf in my limited interactions with him.

I know this is just an arena guide, but I just wanted to make my own contribution in remembering and honoring Gulf and I hope that it helps some of you at some point.

Core Build

Mystical Mail
I like this item so early for him because it is gives you a nice boost to your health to start, it provides some physical protections to start, gives you some of your CCR to build on if you need more later but another good thing about it is that protections really aren't going to be built up much or at all yet on the other team so magic damage provided from it when in close combat is a nice bit of a boost considering his lower basic attack damage.

Stone of Binding
This is normally a nice pick up early for a guardian. It boosts your physical and magical protections and gives your whole party more damage potential from the penetration provided from the passive.

Genji's Guard
Kuzenbo is an ability based god, cdr is kind of essential as the match goes on, this also gives a nice bit of mp5, and some health.

Pridwen
Kuzenbo is going to be right in the thick of things, this is a nice pickup not just for the amount of cdr it provides and the dual protections but after ulting the extra damage from the shield is nice. Against squishies, who will have minimal or no protections, your mystical mail damage will be consistent damage and you will have enough pen from stone of binding to get more of that damage through to them and combined with the shield damage from the ult it can make it less challenging to get kills or gift wrap them for teammates.

Spartan Flag
Again, since Kuzenbo is built to be right in the thick of the action, if your teammates are taking advantage of your pressures and you are making wise pushes then this can be a nice power up for your whole party in team fights. This is before even accounting for the nice bump to your health, magical power and another boost to your mp5.

Staff of Myrddin
This is a nice way to round out this build late. It gives you some more penetration, a good chunk of power and the passive is a good way to help you have more staying power in solo or team fights.

Whether you go out and try my main build or you follow my core and end item suggestions, I encourage you to provide feedback on how they work for you.

Water Bowl
This is Kuzenbo's passive. It is pretty useful for him since as he takes damage it allows him to temporarily gain reduction to the amount of damage he will take dependent on the amount of health he loses.

NeNe Kappa
This ability is a good way to damage enemy gods from a distance, help clear minions when no one else in the party is killing minions, to finish off escaping enemies and to hinder enemies as they chase you.

Shell Spikes
This ability is a nice deterrent during escape when enemies are chasing you and low on health themselves, a nice way to deal extra damage to enemies in team fights when you are in the middle of the action and as an added bonus allows you to be more aggressive since every time you take damage while it is active your cooldown on your other non-ult abilities is reduced and it can be activated while being crowd controlled.

Sumo Slam
This is a great lock down ability that can be challenging to use. If used properly it can be the difference in team fights, saving teammates and escaping death yourself

Watery Grave
Kuzenbo's ult, which is very good for scattering the enemy team and leaving them vulnerable to attack from your teammates.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and I plan on adding some tweaks to it later. I look forward to discussing my build options with any of you who decide to contribute.