Quality of life improvements for Kez because there’s so much wasted potential
Kez is already so complicated that his kit should feel really smooth to play and execute. The difficulty should come from the decision-making and combos, not from the arbitrary clunkiness of playing the hero.
SECTION 1: GRAPPLING CLAW
Alr made a separate post on this but included it here for completeness.
https://reddit.com/link/1hbq00m/video/uyq70415x66e1/playerFrom the video, the same grappling claw casted on the same tree from the same spot led to 3 outcomes, Kez stuck on low ground, Kez walking freely normally and Kez stuck on high ground.
Kez players shouldn’t have to memorise the grappling claw behaviour of 9999 individual trees from 360 different angles.
Also when you grappling claw to trees, you can’t target the inner trees (because you’d get stuck). So you target the outer trees and get stuck anyway.
https://reddit.com/link/1hbq00m/video/8qaaprd7x66e1/playerSuggestion: When grappling claw targets a tree or unit, Kez will end up on the opposite side of the tree or unit from where he grappled from
SECTION 2: AGHANIM’S SCEPTER
Even pro players and high mmr kez players are struggling to use Kez’s aghanim’s scepter properly (I can provide match IDs if anyone is interested). People are instead opting to play him in a super braindead way (buying the same items every game and just fighting every fight 100% in katana mode, using sai mode only to activate falcon rush then it’s back to katana mode)
That one-dimensional playstyle is a huge pity for this hero that was designed so beautifully.
But the aghanim’s scepter needs to be made less clunky to use.
What is the problem with this aghanim’s scepter? The problem is that Kez is the only hero in the game with multiple different abilities on THE SAME HOTKEYS. But they’re abilities in different modes, so what’s the problem with same hotkeys?? Well, the thing is this. Switching stances can fail randomly all the time. If you fail a switch stance and you press the hotkey for the wrong spell, the wrong spell activates and it ruins the entire combo ability chain and throws the teamfight.
Why might switching stances fail? It might fail because you pressed it during a ministun like clock battery assault. It might fail because you pressed it during the cast animation of a previous spell that hadn’t yet ended. It might fail because you pressed it during the cast backswing of a previous spell that had already ended. It might fail because you randomly got hit by a sniper with mindbreaker and got mini-silenced. It might fail because your game input didn’t get registered. It might fail for many reasons in the middle of a chaotic hectic teamfight.
More concrete examples:
You cast grappling hook to engage. Then you press switch discipline. Did you know that switch discipline will work in the first part of the cast animation (the hook flying to the tree) but it will NOT work in the second part of the cast animation (when your hero is flying to the tree)?
Switch discipline also doesn’t work in the cast animation of raven’s veil (it will only be queued as a next command but the queued command can be overridden).
So in any super fast combo execution, if you thought you had switched disciplines but hadn’t, ONE wrong spell and your whole teamfight is done.
That’s maybe part of the reason even pros and high mmr Kez players are favouring other items over aghs when aghs is (in theory) so powerful.
Suggestion: When aghanim’s scepter is bought, allow Kez to switch stances during the cast animation of his abilities, and during the flying animation of grappling claw.
Optional but probably controversial: Allow Kez to switch stances even while stunned or disabled (there’s ZERO gameplay advantage to be gained from this btw, it’s purely 100% a quality-of-life change)
SECTION 3: SELF-CAST KATANA MODE E
This part is also related to the aghanim’s scepter. Kez aghanim’s scepter, in order to utilize it you need to switch stances before your spell casts.
If you’re in Katana mode and you need to
