First, I love his design, how he is intended to play, and can typically finish the quest. I’ve been playing him lately (54 games in QM because that’s how I roll, but 33% win rate). I’m wondering where he slots into the game as it stands. A few things I’ve noticed:
I can’t figure out the hitbox of his Q and E. Sometimes it seems to sail past heroes it should hit and vice versa. Then I look at a hero like Tassadar who can be played (and be extremely effective) with a skateboard in your left hand and a beer in your right.
I understand his skillshot design, but his abilities are either hella slow or have a long delay. Even when I land a chains and throw an immediate W, I’ve seen people have time to walk out of the center or use an escape, unless it’s perfectly placed.
This is a teammate issue, but I’m almost always under pressure from the other team. The average tank is terrible at protecting the backline, or late to team fights, or off solo laning with Mei during the objective.
Is his current state somewhat a function of the movement speed increase while keep his ability delays and travel speeds. I’m not claiming to be a KTZ god, but I feel like I’ve got a decent handle on how to play, but still cannot be consistently effective.
Hello, currently about level 370 with KTZ and a 61% wr so let me see if I can answer all your questions:
The hitboxes on his Q and E are fairly small, and in addition the animations may lead you to believe that they are larger than they appear. It takes practice to fully understand their inner workings.
One thing to note is that his Q has a small explosion radius if it connects with something. I have killed people that retreated behind their gate with this explosion.
This is a problem that is partly because of the global movespeed increase to all heroes that was done a while back. Now people have an easier time of simply walking out of his W unless you made sure to do everything perfectly.
It also helps to remember the fact that more distance between the chain targets = more CC time. They are stunned at the end of the pull and also cannot do anything while they are travelling, so if they are right next to eachother they are going to have much more time to move out of your frost nova.
In the case that they are right next to eachother, I would recommend attempting to throw out chain on one of them, then a frost nova, and then afterwards stun them with the 2nd chain. This however is risky business because you much more heavily committed if you miss. Alternatively, you could take Chains of Ice at 13 to make chaining close targets much easier.
Yep welcome to my world, where I am constantly under fire by the entire enemy team. This is why it’s important for you as a KTZ player to know how to position properly. Because make no mistake: They know just how vulnerable you are and they will exploit that.
I typically like to let my frontline engage first and observe the situation. A lot of time someone tries to sneak around and gank me when I decide to move in for a combo, so I’m cautious of that.
And a lot of times the enemy frontline refuses to use their abilities on ours because they’re waiting for me to get closer, so I try to wait for my frontline to either CC them first or wait for their frontline to be forced to use their own abilities.
When you play KTZ, you must anticipate that the enemy are all out to get you and you alone and make your plays accordingly.
I know this is easier said than done, but try to get accustomed to either shift queuing chains (E) or casting them really, really fast in succession.
That way I increased my chain binding ratio (either to Glacial Spike or to another player) from like 30% to 95%.
Practise hitting the second part of the chain as fast as possible so there is little room for dodging. Or, they can use Gladiator’s Medallion to dodge but that wont happen more than once per 5 mins.
Careful about executing combos too quickly when it involves using the Glacial Spike. The spike isn’t immediately usable and if you fire a chain at it before it is you will whiff the chain.
I know, I only mean the second part of the chain (tethering the other player to either Glacial Spike or to another player). I should have been more clear.
That is how you recognise the best KTZ, i played him quite a lot and tried to do so. But that is still to risky to do for me most of the time.
I love heroes with this kind difficult mechanics which needs hours and hours of training to master. Hopefully one day I will be able to do it
