Both of them have pretty much a point & click playstyle, oppressive AOE and can output absurd dmg if left unchecked, though Jaina is more on the upfront side.
Both squishy, no escapes, around the same amount of CC (permaslow vs 1 stun) and single target / teamfight ults.
I believe Jaina is harder to play than Mr. fire and forget Living Bomb, opinions?
Jaina is easy for me. Kel is a little harder to keep alive, and I like a challenge.
Their both relatively are pretty easy to use.
Kt by far, his only challange is not over extending. All his spells are point and click lose half hp. Which the only counter to is run away from your friend or kill them too.
I cant rate it as ‘hard to play’ because they are both mages and fragile. they both have ways to deal with things. so really it just comes down to the playstyle.
KT without a doubt has more raw damage potential than Jaina. its like no contest. give the chance he will wipe your entire team.
Jaina’s damage is scaled back a bit because of her trait. however, she gets more defense like from ice barrier. she can take camps without any trouble and her team synergy is higher since she isnt ‘just damage’. since she has slows and roots her abilities help out other heroes where KT cant do that.
I’d say Jaina is easier to play, she has few abilities, and you can use them in almost any order, because they all inflict Frostbite.
KT on the other hand, you have more to play around with because of his trait, yeah most of the time you just use it for a free bomb, but you can use it for a longer stun or a bigger Q.
Have to disagree here. Jaina with Icy Veins at 13 and Wintermute at level 20 can also easily wipe an entire team. I would hazard a guess that her raw damage surpasses KT’s (assuming both heroes take optimal talents for damage), assuming that both their AoE abilities land on as many targets as possible.
I’ll test it myself tomorrow as its late here for me, but if you want to test the numbers yourself feel free. I’m honestly curious as to what the actual numbers look like.
I’d say elemental jaina
that is an interesting one i would like to see 
main issue with testing this though is that KT is pretty much broken in test mode @20 with Master of Flames. if you dont take Master of Flames its like not taking Winter Mute for him. you are really hurting your damage in this particular scenario.
the Living Bombs will keep going forever until the dummies die and there is no target left to spread to.
They both have their learning curves.
Jaina you have to get closer but she also can apply a permanent slow to her enemies. She also has access to Ice Block once she does enough damage which can bamboozle any heroics that lock onto a hero such as Triple Tap, Pyro Blast, and Frost Blast just to name a few.
Kael’thas I always found to be the better carpet bombing mage as he can light up multiple people at once and with the appropriate talents he can gain ridiculous range. Plus I always found his ability to conserve mana more efficient than Jaina. Outside of Gravity Lapse though he has no way of peeling people off of himself like Jaina can, nor does he have access to Ice Block.
That is just at an at a glance, bare bones description of the two mages. I recommend you actually trying them out and see how you like them rather than asking which one is harder.
To me, they’re both okay heroes. You just really need to be mindful of your positioning and have good mana management since spamming mindlessly will drain your mana pool.
I’d say jaina, as hitting spells on slowed enemies is easier than landing a skillshot then throwing everything under the one guy.
Basically, if you want value out of KT, you have to hit multiple people or force them in disadvantageous situations by forcing them to spread out, with jaina you can just blow up one guy and still be ok with using the spells, imo.
I figure jaina is easier to play with that leway.
Jaina is a bit more forgiving when it comes to play, as she is able to pick up an armor talent for melee that auto-applies her chill, so she can burst with her abilities, on top of Ice block from her trait and the shielding talent she can pick up later.
KT provides just as good AoE and blow-up power, but requires a bit more precision to get value. As someone said earlier, you really need the enemy team to play dumb and spread Living Bomb to gain a lot of value from the ability. Flamestrike is OK, but if the enemy is smart enough to NOT spread bomb, than they should also get the hint to move out of the glowing circle. KT is able to take Mana Barrier at lvl 1 for survival, but other than that he relies on his Gravity Lapse to create distance and survive one-on-one. If you can reliably predict enemy movement and time your Gravity throws, he can be just as easy as Jaina.
My recommendation for a new player: Jaina. Once you can continually land your Q’s, give KT a shot as you SHOULD be able to land your Gravity casts.
I recommend you actually trying them out and see how you like them rather than asking which one is harder.
I recommend you to read carefully so you can see that I already made my own opinion on the subject, but still wanted to have a discussion.
Smh.
Jaina is easier to play than KT, but she can be more impactful at higher skill levels. Her skill curve is weird.
KT relies on a lot of things: proper position, cooldown management, team setup, etc. A good KT with a good team is an absolute monster to deal with, but those are rare (cries in KT).
Jaina, on the other hand, is less impactful than KT at lower or middle skill levels, but more reliable. Once you get to higher levels, she becomes a monster herself. Her slows, roots, and damage amplification can allow her to be a playmaker beyond most other mages in the hands of someone truly skilled with her.
I guess I could put it like this: I’d choose for my team a mediocre Jaina over a mediocre KT, a good KT over a good Jaina, and an awesome Jaina over an awesome KT.
I find Jaina easier to play as, partly because her trait is passive, while KT’s requires some planning. A well placed enhanced Gravity Lapse can save allies or doom enemies, same with a Flame Strike.
Jaina surely has that too, with her slows and Numbing Blast if you pick it, and Blizzard zones for longer.
Also KT relies on hitting grouped enemies to maximize his damage.
Jaina benefits from it, but her power is also in hitting the same enemy with multiple spells so she becomes more bursty, though cone does put her in a riskier position.
Depends what rank you are playing at. Kael just wrecks uncoordinated teams whereas Jaina really needs a well-coordinated team to reach her full potential. Because of that, I would say Kael is slightly easier to play.
Kael. His cc makes him a bit safer and he can poke a little further at the start. His ults are also point and shoot.
I think Jaina is easier to play and has bigger playmaking potential. I will say that KT is more forgiving hero having giant shield, unlimited mana and stun, but his combo requires more timing overall(and still yields lesser reward).
Seems like the opinions are quite split…
It’s just a matter of each hero has pro’s and con’s in a situation, which is how it should be. If you aren’t going to/or can’t coordinate with your team, pick Jaina. She is more self-sufficient with her slows and defenses, and can generally put out better numbers 1v1 due to being able to kite with her slows and achieve the bonus trait damage, beefing up Frost Bolt (and dramatically lowering the CD if talented).
If you have a coordinated team, you can go with either, both are burst, AoE mages that are squishy. Jaina is just less reliant on team coordination and coverage.