No QuickCast? On Release? Or Full Quickcast?

General Discussion
1

100% Benefit
-Escapes and Dashes that do not go through impenetrable terrain.
Ex: Tracer’s Blink, Valla’s Vault
-Point And “Click” Abilities
Ex: Kael’Thas’s Living Bomb

75% Benefit
-Escapes and Dashes that can go over impenetrable terrain.
Ex: Genji’s Cyber Agility, Hanzo’s Leap
-Single Shorter Range Projecticle SkillShots
Ex: Jaina’s Frostbolt, Valeera’s Sinister Strike

<=50% Benefit
-Multi-Projectile Skill Shots
Ex: Valla’s Multishot, Genji’s Shuriken
-Delayed AoE Targeted Skill Shots
Ex: Jaina’s Blizzard, Kael’Thas’s FlameStrike

0% Benefit
-Vector Targeted Abilities
Ex: Alarak’s Telekenesis, Triglav Protectors Laser
-Instant Abilities
Ex: Genji’s Deflect, Mephisto’s Lightning Nova

I imagine the majority of players do not use QuickCast, and most pros argue for using On-Release or full QuickCast but I’d like to make the case that playing without QuickCast is better, not only because you get the permanent range indicator, but the range indicator also changes colors from yellow to green letting you know that you’re in range and that you’ll get guaranteed damage. With On-Release you still get the range indicators and the color change but it feels unnatural to release a key to confirm your action rather than pressing down a mouse button.

I’ve turned QuickCast on for Genji after playing him quite a bit and it feels awful on everything except DragonBlade. Granted, QuickCast is not a hack to become a GrandMaster overnight, but I’m wondering if it really can improve performance across all skill levels.

What are your experiences with QuickCasting?
If you use On-Release or Full QuickCast, what abilities do you turn it off for on your hero, and if not is the reason “I didn’t know it existed.”, or “I don’t like change.”, or “Its too late to change now.”, or “I don’t think it will help me get better.”?

It would be helpful to have a WikiPage with a general consensus for each Hero regarding which type of QuickCast to use for each of their abilities.

Please use the following format to contribute to such a page if it’s ever made.

Hero Name: 
Skill Level: (Low/Med/High)
Q - (Off/On/On-Release)
W - 
E - 
R1 - 
R2 - 
D -
2

Hero Name: Genji
Skill Level: High
Q - On-Release
W - Off
E - Off
R1 - On
R2 - Off
D - On Release

3

I think everyone should just play with whatever they feel like playing. Not everything will be the same for everyone. One fact is right though, quickcast will always be faster than on release or no-QC.

What I use for Genji (level 82) is this:
Q - On release
W - quickcast
E - on release
Dragonblade - quickcast
Xstrike - On release
D - On release

3 Likes
4

I tend to use quick cast on Sonya’s slam, Diablo’s slam, Tracer’s Q, and whatknot. It makes those abilities feel much more responsive.

I don’t use it on most ranges skill shots though, I like to see where I’m aiming and what the range is.

I use on release for Kel’thuzad’s W and Shadow fissure, again makes the abilities feel more responsive and I like being able to choose to hold the button down if I need to see the range.

2 Likes
5

Quickcast is my default setting, but i have it changed to on release for Ana´s and Orphea´s Q and Alarak´s pull.

1 Like
6

Any ability that requires precision, or that uses vector targeting, I use On Release. Anything that is sort of “over in this general direction” I have set to Quick Cast. For two examples:

Artanis

Q - Quick Cast
W - Not applicable
E - On Release
Suppression Pulse - On Release

Blaze

Q - Quick Cast
W - On Release
E - On Release

1 Like
7

I came to HotS from DotA (1), and I wasn’t using QC. But then I decided to try it out. And I must say that my experience with the game changed completely. While you get visual indicator when not using QC, it also delays your abilities.
With QC my Tracer experience became about 4 times more enjoyable, I started being able to cast Blink multiple times in a quick succession, instead of with small delays between casts, and I can cast Pulse Bomb in a much more intuitive way than before. Since Tracer is moving all the time, the targeting of the Bomb was also changing the longer I was aiming it. With QC it’s a hit or miss, but most of the time it’s hit.

However I don’t use QC for Azmodan’s Globe, because I try to hit as many minions as possible with it, and sometimes it’s hard to tell what will it hit without the indicator. Same goes for Murky’s Fish and Gazelowe’s Bomb.
I also use on release for Hanzo’s Split Arrow, as I need to know where the split offs will go, and I don’t care as much about the original projectile.
I also use on release on Genji’s E, because I more often miss with it when it’s a simple QC. Due to the fact I tend do aim at a hero’s body instead of at their base circle.
I also tried to keep everything on On Release, but that was also clunky sometimes, so I just use it for abilities that actually need it.

1 Like
8

For abilities like Jaina’s Blizzard, I use on-release. Everything else tends to be quick-cast. (This is subject to change on a per-hero basis.)

1 Like
9

Great point Darak, seems the answer is more of a “it depends on what feels right to me” than something that can be objectively or mathematically proven. I will try some of the setups for heroes posted in this thread and encourage others to do the same.

Time to check up on how Malfurion and Arthas are getting along in Try Mode!

1 Like
10

I think I played too long without QC to adapt to it. Every time I try it, it doesn’t feel right to me, so I revert it. The only abilities that felt right as QC were Tracer’s Blink, Sonya’s Slam and Li-Ming’s Teleport.

Actually just yesterday I noticed it was sometimes hard to cast Kael’s Living Bomb at max range, probably due to the newest movespeed increase. So I thought it’s a great spell to be on Quickcast. But it actually made me fail to cast it even more when there’s little time.

11

A few of my top played heroes (not following format to not clutter this thread too much):

Medivh: All quickcast prefered (E and LLS could be on release)
Tychus: All quickcast prefered
Stitches: All quickcast prefered (Q could be on release)
Dehaka: All quickcast prefered
Alarak: All quickcast prefered Except: Q which is mandatory to On, W which is Off, and Deadly Charge can be anything the player prefers.
Tracer: All quickcast highly recommended (not mandatory, but not having it can hinder at efficiency a lot)
Ana: All quickcast prefered (Q, E, Debilitating Dart could be on release)

And for all heroes the talents are included. so if those arent mentioned, its quickcast on.

But as said before, its down to player preference, some like to practice out a hero without quickcast first. But my own experience says that in most cases, you should be using it unless you notice it hinders you instead of helping.

12

I think for the majority of players that started without QuickCast, upon turning it on their accuracy will go down, then it’s a matter of fighting your pre-existing muscle memory and learning to play without the range and radius indicators and eventually/hopefully they’ll be performing better than if they kept playing with it off.

13

I meticulously pick whether or not to use quick cast for each individual ability. It just depends entirely on how I use the ability.

Example for Morales:

-Healing Beam: Quick Cast on. In my experience, I have other things to think about in the middle of a fight than worrying about the 2-step process of selecting your healing target without quick cast. Healing Beam is very much a “set-it-'n-forget-it” type of situation for me; it helps to be able to gracefully swoop my cursor over another ally who’s suddenly getting focused in between stutter-stepping. Healing Beam is also a uniquely “forgiving” ability for if you accidentally select a minion or an isometrically-fatter ally by accident, so it’s nice to be able to rapidly switch targets without that 2-step process. A 100% Benefit ability, per D4rkZ3r0.

-Safeguard: Quick Cast on. I use Safeguard as a reactionary ability. Since it’s an instant-cast ability, I don’t want to have a 2-step process for mitigating a gank as soon as possible. Every 10th of a second counts in those situations. Maybe I’ll cast it on Muradin instead of Valla by accident, but if that happens, that’s on me. A 75% Benefit ability, per D4rkZ3r0.

-Displacement Grenade: Quick Cast off. I feel you can make equal arguments for having it on or off for Displacement Grenade. I was inclined to have Quick Cast on since I was, at first, treating Displacement Grenade as a spell for dealing a small chunk of damage. Over time, I came to prefer the actual displacing ability of the grenade itself (like a miniature Hook) instead of the damage, which involved a lot more precision than I’m able to process without having the range indicator showing me exactly where it’ll land, so I turned Quick Cast off. Does my damage output suffer when I get lots of 2-second cooldowns using the Second Opinion talent? Of course, but the overall benefit of having that precision outweighs the potential spam benefit in my mind. I’d still love to have that damage, but hey, that’s my preference. A 50% Benefit ability, per D4rkZ3r0.

-Stim Drone: Quick Cast on. I don’t have much to say about Stim Drone. It’s a big ol’ buff for your friendly neighborhood Zul’jin/Hammer/Butcher. Everyone knows that. It’s got a short wind-up, so I turned Quick Cast on in order to minimize the chance of being knocked out of casting at that perfect moment. Sometimes I hit Jaina instead of Raynor by accident, but again, that’s on me. A 75% Benefit ability, per D4rkZ3r0.

-Medivac Dropship: Quick Cast off. I’ve almost never found myself using Medivac Dropship as a reactionary ability. The way I play, I’m always looking out for the worst possible scenario that could occur, and what the timing would need to be for getting my team out of that situation. As such, I’ll queue it up at (what I’m hoping is) the appropriate moment to “Get in the van!” Other times, I might be using it for Hall of Storms taxi cabbing, or merc-jumping, so there’s little urgency in those situations. The 3-second “wind-up-before-launch” also makes Medivac Dropship sort of just fall flat as a “quick” cast ability for me. What’s the point gaining those 1 or 2 tenths of a second when you’re stuck there for 3 seconds automatically anyway. Also, I have, one too many times, thought I was quick-casting Medivac to safety using the minimap when I was actually quick-casting it to greater danger about 10 meters in the wrong direction, so I might be a little biased from that. For me, it’s a 0% Benefit ability, per D4rkZ3r0’s terminology.

I guess you could summarize my take as: Whether or not to use Quick Cast depends on “how reactionary vs planned” my use of an ability is. TL/DR and all that.

1 Like
14

Great primer on Morales while working in QuickCasting.

2 Likes
15

Depends on the player. Poor players ‘plan’ their ability a few seconds ahead and already press it to aim. Those are going to fail by quickcast. But those players are already underperforming anyway.
Decent players preaim with the mouse regardless and will only be surprised that they shot too early. But thats muscle memory you can quite quickly adjust to. As after all, they already were used to press the ability button and mouse instantly after. And even if they do that now, its not going to force them to change much in their playstyle.

On release however can even mess up with a player that is used to quickcast. As that is the least natural state of expectation (most people expect an action when pressing a button, wether that is Q, or mouse 1 is irrelevant there). I think this is going to disrupt your muscle memory most.

1 Like
16

The only ability that need to be Off is Hanzo’s Q. Because that’s the only way to cancel it. Other than that On release is the best default with few skills to be QC (I didn’t setup any QC myself: too lazy lol)

17

Full “Quickcast” for everyone. Oddly, I played purely without this in League of Legends, playing Katarina and Akali in the early days to full potential without using smartcasting. I never fully taught myself how to use it in LoL, but I had started to set it for specific heroes by the time I quit. The reason I never used it in that game, as opposed to this one, is the way the range tracker works in LoL; it’s not equal in all directions, so I knew precisely the pixel range I could utilize, say, Shunpo, and knew right up to when I could cancel it.

HotS was an entirely new game to learn, as skillshots function only the same at a cursory glance between the two MOBAs. In LoL, they’re very in-line with their animations, and champions are much more responsive in using them than HotS, with its .10-25s delay on casts for most of them.

18

Quick cast on everything. I think Hanzo is the only hero I used on release for fair while. There is just zero benefit in other options once you learn the hero, yet they come with negative of small delay and clutter. QC in general also helps you measure enemy ranges much better as you aren’t used to relying on extra indicators.

19

I only Quickcast skillshots/abilities that I’ve gotten used to. The rest are On-Release and vector-targeting abilities like Alarak’s W and Tass’ Force Wall are on normal cast.

20

Started playing on Quick Cast. Will never stop playing on Quick Cast. Once you know the range of all the abilities for every hero in the game, there’s no reason to measure the distance between you and the target every time you use the ability.

1 Like