Li-Ming Patch Notes Commentary

by Valiver

There's a new patch out, and I figure I'll share my thoughts on it. With two balance patches already out in the last few weeks you'd think a major patch might have fewer balance changes, but not really. I guess Blizzard had a bit of a backlog of changes to make after doing nothing for two months. Remember that these are opinions and predictions, and if you disagree, say so! It's tough to think of every way a patch will change the game, so I'm sure others have different perspectives I haven't considered.

General

New Special Event: Lunar Festival 2016
We’re ringing in the new year with a brand new Lunar Festival event, which includes new and returning skins and bundles, as well as new Special Event quests and rewards! Be sure to complete your quests and pick up a few skins before our 2016 Lunar Festival even concludes on Tuesday, March 1.

New Special Event Quests
- Play 25 Games
  - Complete 25 games in Versus A.I., Quick Match, or Ranked play during the Lunar Festival 2016 event to earn a special Monkey Elder holiday portrait!
- Catch the Monkey Elder
  - Each day during this year’s Lunar Festival event, you’ll receive a Special Event quest to catch the Monkey Elder.
  - Teams will have a 50% chance to spawn a Monkey Elder at the start of each game if any players on the team have not yet finished this quest for the day
  - Work together to follow and catch the Monkey Elder who will drop a Red Envelope that awards 100 gold to each ally with an active Monkey Elder Special Event quest.

New Portraits

New portrait rewards have been added! Unlock them by reaching Hero Level 10 with the following Heroes:
- Cho’gall Combo – Cho, Gall
- StarCraft II Protoss Heroes – Artanis, Tassadar, Zeratul

Replay Protocol Now Available

Hero Replay Protocol is now open source and available for use by players who wish to write or upgrade their own community-driven replay analysis tools.
Click here to learn more about Hero Replay Protocol, or follow this link to access our heroprotocol directly on GitHub.

Additional portraits are always welcome, but the replay protocol is good news. I know hotslogs can already get a lot of information from replays, but with new possibilities I'm ready to be amazed at the analytic depth.

The Lunar Festival is excellent, as no one will ever complain about more gold (yes I know there's someone reading this who has 80k+ and wants to spend it, go buy Master's skins). I'm not really a fan of chasing the Monkey Elder, because it takes up a lot more time than you'd want it to, and can interfere with getting to the proper lanes quickly. Be wary about accidentally clicking on Fountains if you use mana to Vault, Teleport, Blink, etc, to chase him, because you don't want a cooldown on the Fountains for the first minute of the game, or you'll need it.

New Hero

Li-Ming, Rebellious Wizard, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of her Abilities.

Trait

Critical Mass
- Participating in a Takedown refreshes all of your Ability cooldowns.

Basic Abilities

Magic Missiles (Q)
- Fire three missiles toward a location, each damaging the first enemy it hits.
Arcane Orb (W)
- Fire an orb that powers up as it travels, damaging the first enemy it hits. The amount of damage dealt is increased the farther the orb travels, up to 300%
Teleport (E)
- Instantly teleport a short distance.

Heroic Abilities

Disintegrate (R)
- Channel a powerful beam of energy, dealing heavy damage over 2.5 seconds to all enemies in its path. The direction of the beam follows your cursor.
Wave of Force (R)
- Damage and knock all enemies away from the targeted area.

Li-Ming is strong. She puts all of the previous heroes since Leoric to shame for strength on release. She's a high octane caster with some high damage and decent mobility, but a low health pool. If you don't shut her down early in a fight and people start dying, it escalates quickly. In the hands of a good player, Li-Ming can make plays. Personally I think her Teleport talent build is the best, but more on that in our First Impressions article next week.

Art

Battlegrounds

Bell Towers on Towers of Doom have received updated art to better represent the area of terrain blocked by the base of the Structure.
Cores are now each surrounded by a set of floating shields to better indicate when they are invulnerable.

Hero Abilities and Talents

The icons for many Talents that exist on the same Talent tier, and modify the same Ability, have received new color tints to help players more easily tell them apart at a glance.
The Imposing Presence Talent’s broken sword visual effect will now appear whenever the player is affected by any Attack Speed slow.
Several Talents that modify Heroes’ Basic Attacks have received updated button art.
The following Heroes have received updated Ability button art:
- Anub’arak
- Arthas
- Diablo
- Gazlowe
- Murky

Skins

All Arthas Skins and Skin Variations have received facial animations.
The following Hero Skins have received additional visual polish for certain Abilities, which more closely match that Skin’s theme:
- Spectre Illidan – Dive (Q), Sweeping Strikes (W), Metamorphosis (R), The Hunt (R)
- Shan’do Illidan – Dive (Q), Sweeping Strikes (W), Metamorphosis (R), The Hunt (R)

The Bell Towers were circular, but had an actual hitbox of a square, and so it was rather misleading whether or not you could get a skillshot around them. Hopefully the new art clears that up.

The new artwork is amazing. If you haven't seen it yet check out this reddit post. That's right, Anub'arak is no longer using the Zealot Charge icon from Starcraft for who knows what reason. I can't decide if I like the Arthas or Diablo ones better, but the Pufferfish is my favorite individual icon.

Shop

Bundles
Bundles

New Bundles have been added for a limited time!
- Star Princess Li-Ming Bundle
- Lunar Festival 2016 Bundle
- Nexus Heroine Bundle
- Ultimate Nexus Heroine Bundle

Heroes

Li-Ming has been added to the in-game Shop

Mounts

New Mounts have been added for a limited time.
- Star Chariot – Exclusively available through purchase of the Star Princess Li-Ming Bundle
- Lunar Dragon – Exclusively available through purchase of the Lunar Festival 2016 Bundle
Mount Removals
- 2015 Champion’s Nexagon

Price Reductions

Johanna’s prices have been reduced to $6.49 USD and 4,000 Gold.

Skins

New Skins
- Star Princess Li-Ming
- Lunar Jaina
- Lunar Illidan

So many mounts; it's starting to get ridiculous. And not just the number of mounts, the mounts themselves. At least Star Princess Li-Ming is still better than Stormpunk Kael'thas. If you need a good warrior pick up Johanna now, she's pretty easy to use and is a solid one.

User Interface

Custom Games

The lobby host may now choose Heroes for each A.I. player in Custom Game Lobbies using the new Pick Hero dropdown on the right side of each A.I. player slot.

In-Game UI

General
- Killstreak Flames have been removed to improve clarity during gameplay.
- Battleground objective UI for Blackheart’s Bay and Tomb of the Spider Queen will now indicate the total number of Doubloons and Gems each team currently has in its possession.
- Health bars above Cores will now clearly indicate when that Core is invulnerable.
Floating Combat Text
- Floating combat text has been visually reworked so that damage, healing, and other important numbers are easier to differentiate during battle.
  - Floating combat text numbers now fire away from the target in staggered directions, rather than stacking on top of one another.
  - Critical strikes have received updated art to make them more visually apparent.
- Floating combat text numbers are now color coded to better indicate their sources:
  - Basic Attacks – Orange
  - Ability damage – Purple
  - Healing – Green
  - Shield – White
  - Mana Restored – Blue
  - XP – Gold
New Default Observer Interface
- The new Replay and Observer Interface that was recently made available for testing has received additional improvements, and will now function as the default interface for all players while viewing Replays or observing live games.
  - Now that the new Observer Interface is enabled by default, the standalone version that was previously available for download is no longer supported.
  - Continuing to use the old standalone version of the interface may result in display issues. This can be resolved by heading to the Observer and Replay Options menu, and then selecting “Default” from the Observer Interface dropdown.
- Read our recent blog post to learn more about the new interface.
Ping Spam Reduction
- Reduced the frequency at which players can issue pings before they become unable to issue additional pings for a period of time.
- The duration that ping-spamming players will be prevented from issuing additional pings has been increased.

I don't really care about the Killstreak Flames as much as some people seem to, but I don't like the Doubloons/Gem counter. It's just not necessary. If people can't add numbers together get a calculator or something.

The Floating Combat Text looks good now, and it's much easier to distinguish what is doing how much. Good Stuff.

I didn't get a chance to test the replay and observer interface, but I'm assuming it was the one with the talents up at the top under the Hero icons? If so excellent work. I hate it when tournaments don't show talents.

Design & Gameplay

General

Abilities or Talents that apply Invulnerability or Stasis will now also display a timer to indicate the duration of these effects.
Damage dealt by splash and cleave attacks will no longer trigger effects that would otherwise require a direct attack to trigger (ex: Block, Spell Shield, Imposing Presence, etc.)

Battleground Monsters

Battleground-specific creatures are now universally defined as Monsters (ex: Neutral Garden Terrors, Sky Temple Guardians, etc.)
Several Talents and Abilities have been changed to reflect this new categorization, and the following no longer affect Monsters:
- Mercenary Lord
- Johanna's Knight Takes Pawn
- Lunara's Cruel Bloom
- Rexxar's Easy Prey and Bird of Prey
- The Butcher's Chop Meat
The following now affect Monsters:
- Anub'arak's Beetle, Juiced
- Azmodan's Demonic Smite
Several Talents that could previously trigger against both captured Mercenaries and Minions will now only affect Minions (ex: Seasoned Marksman, Black Soulstone, etc.)

The Monster change is pretty good, but rip Johanna's damage against anything Battleground-specific. The other Heroes mentioned here still get hurt a little, but have enough damage to where it doesn't matter as much.

Battlegrounds

Structures

Towers, Forts, and Keeps now deal 50% bonus damage to Heroes
Cores will now display an “Invulnerable” message if attacked by an enemy when no allied Keeps have been destroyed.
Structures can no longer be made Vulnerable

Dragon Shire

Dragon Knight
- Damage reduction from Structures increased from 50% to 60%
- Savage Charge (W)
  - Channel time reduced from 1.125 to 0.75 seconds
  - Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Infernal Shrines

The minimap now more clearly indicates when a Shrine is ready to activate
Arcane Punisher
- Arcane Sentry damage reduced by 20%

Towers of Doom

Ownership of nearby Bell Towers will no longer determine which lane Sapper Mercenaries will travel down. The two southern Sapper camps will now always travel down the bottom lane.
Text has been added to the Tunnels to help clarify their one-way use.

Try Mode

A new Healing Dummy has been added above the existing Target Dummy, that calculates healing and healing over time.

Structures not being made vulnerable is a huge nerf against Sylvanas. Her Lost Soul/Cold Embrace build is a staple one, and now it can't push buildings as hard.

The Dragon Knight's Charge is a trap sometimes, and now noobs will just spam it more and waste time that could be used killing things. Arcane Sentry needed to be nerfed, and I'd even say the Mortars should be buffed.

I love the Sapper change. It adds some strategy to Towers of Doom and boy does it need that. Now the Sappers might actually be able to do Core damage every once in a while, and teams will have to keep an eye out for them if they lose a bottom Fort.

Talents

Block

Block charges are now tracked in the buff bar next to the Hero portrait, and a timer has been added to show the time remaining until a new charge is generated.

Focused Attack

Basic Attack damage bonus reduced from 75% to 60%

The Block change is just a quality of life change, but it's welcome as more info is always better. Focused Attack was a staple pick for Raynor and Sonya, and since both of them got other nerfs as well (Raynor with the last Wednesday balance patch), it's pretty clear this is directed at both of them, with a little bit directed at Tyrande too. Poor Tychus gets hit for no reason.

Heroes

Gall

Shove (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 1
- Cooldown increased from 15 to 40 seconds
- Can no longer be used while Cho is mounted
Eye of Kilrogg (Talent)
- Cast range increased by 33%
- Maximum charge count increased from 2 to 4
Psychotic Break (Talent)
- Cooldowns for Shadowflame (Q), Dread Orb (W), and Gall’s Heroic Abilities are now cleared and can be cast immediately upon death
- Now provides a passive, permanent 5% Ability Power bonus
Hurry Up, Oaf! (Z)
- Spurred Onward (Talent)
  - Now also increases the initial Movement Speed bonus to 70%
Shadowflame (Q)
- Double Trouble (Talent)
  - The functionality of this Talent has changed
  - Shadowflame’s cooldown is reduced by 1 second if it hits an enemy Hero affected by Cho's Consuming Blaze
- Shadowflare (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 16
  - Enemies hit are now slowed by 25% for 1 second
Runic Blast (E)
- Siphoning Runes (Talent) removed
- New Talent (Level 4): Runic Persistence
  - Runic Blast no longer destroys Cho’s Rune Bomb
Twisting Nether (R)
- Damage increased from 342 (+4% per level) to 415 (+5% per level)
- Slow amount increased from 40% to 50%

The virus is mutating. The Shove nerf hurts a bit, but having it available at level 1 isn't too bad. The other buffs are fairly well done as he doesn't need to do more damage to be better (besides on Twisting Nether of course, that was terrible).

Illidan

Basic Attack damage increased from 74 (+4% per level) to 78(+4% per level)

He needed something since a talent rework is probably months away. Because he scales well off of attack damage, this is an okay buff, but it's still only ~9 damage at 20. It's not enough to put him into the meta.

Jaina

Ring of Frost (R)
- Ring of Frost’s inner-area radius now properly matches the Ability’s visual effects

Ring of Frost's animation and effect hasn't matched the targeting ring since her release (oh yeah, that was over a year ago). Get ready for a lot of people whiffing Ring of Frost again. Really though, I'm glad this change is finally going through.

Lunara

Lunara's Basic Attack has received responsiveness improvements
Ranged Basic Attack animation speed increased by 50%.
Melee Basic Attack animation speed increased by 300% to match the ranged animation’s new speed
Wisp (E)
- Mana cost reduced from 50 to 30
- Cooldown decreased from 45 to 30 seconds, but its duration has not been changed

Now this is what Lunara needs. Her prancing around made it really awkward to auto attack while stutter-stepping. She'll be a lot easier to use now, and there won't be those odd moments where you just stop moving for a second, don't attack, and start moving again.

Nova

Conjurer's Pursuit (Talent) removed
Gathering Power (Talent) removed
Envenom (Talent) removed
Headshot (Talent) removed
Spell Shield (Talent) removed
Overdrive (Talent) removed
Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
Permanent Cloak, Sniper (Trait)
- Advanced Cloaking (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 13 to Level 1
  - Now increases Nova's Movement Speed by 30% while Cloaked
- New Talent (Level 1): Tactical Espionage
  - Regenerate 4 Mana per second while Stealthed
- New Talent (Level 20): Ghost Protocol
  - Activate to gain Stealth for 2 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, or using Abilities will not break Stealth during this time
Snipe (Q)
- Damage reduced from 335 (+4% per level) to 268(+4% per level)
- Cost reduced from 65 to 60 Mana
- Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
- Psi-Op Rangefinder (Talent) removed
- Ambush Snipe (Talent) removed
- Railgun (Talent) removed
- Explosive Round (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 13
  - Area of effect radius increased by 75%
- Perfect Shot (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 4 to Level 16
  - Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe reduces its cooldown by 4 seconds
- New Talent (Level 7): Snipe Master
  - Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe increases subsequent Snipe damage by 5%. Stacks up to 10 times. All stacks are lost if Snipe misses an enemy Hero
- New Talent (Level 13): Psionic Efficiency
  - Increases Snipe range by 10% and removes its Mana cost
Pinning Shot (W)
- Range increased by approximately 18% in order to match Nova’s Basic Attack range
- Tazer Rounds (Talent) removed
- Covert Ops (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 1
  - Bonus to Pinning Shot’s Movement Speed slow increased from 1% to 2% per second
- New Talent (Level 1): Longshot
  - Pinning Shot range increased by 30%
  - Pinning Shot also increases the range of the next Basic Attack by 30%
- New Talent (Level 13): Double Tap
  - Pinning Shot now stores up to two charges
Holo Decoy (E)
- Double Fake (Talent) removed
- Remote Delivery (Talent) has been changed
  - No longer reduces Holo Decoy's cooldown
  - In addition to providing 100% increased cast range, now also grants a 50% vision range bonus to Holo Decoys
- Lethal Decoy (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 16
  - Holo Decoy damage increased from 25% to 40%
- New Talent (Level 4): Rapid Projection
  - Reduces Holo Decoy's cooldown and Mana cost by 40%
- New Talent (Level 4): Holo Stability
  - Increases the duration of Holo Decoys from 5 to 12 seconds

The standard pure Snipe damage build is gone. She can still do good damage, but you won't see nearly as many insta-kills, and Pinning Shot can actually cause damage now. Some highlight changes include Bolt of the Storm being removed for an activatable Cloak that can't be broken (look for more talents to replace Bolt on other heroes soon, looking at you Kael'thas), and Halo Stability. Decoys going from 5 to 12 seconds duration makes enemies have to pay closer attention to clones. It's easy to plop one down, move into a completely different area, and have the enemy think they are on your trail when they find your clone 10 seconds later.

The Butcher

Lamb to the Slaughter (R)
- Invulnerability and Unstoppable now suppress the chain effect, rather than remove it
- Stasis effects no longer remove the chain
- Enemy Heroes affected by Lamb to the Slaughter can no longer enter the Dragon Knight, Garden Terror, or Lt. Morales’ Medivac, and Tyrael can no longer cast Judgment

Lamb to the Slaughter just got really annoying. Even Divine Shield won't remove the chain, and if it ends before Lamb to the Slaughter does (yes it has a longer duration than Divine Shield), you'll be yanked right back in. I do notice that Illidan's The Hunt is not mentioned as being unusable, anyone tested that one yet? Also the Haunted Mines are not available but I wonder if you can enter or leave the Mines while chained, or if they just ignored that interaction since they have no intention of adding the map back yet.

Tychus

Overkill (Q)
- A range indicator will now display while Overkill is active, and when hovering the cursor over the Ability icon. This is only visible to Tychus

Tychus needs a lot of help to be a viable pick, so he gets a small quality of life change that doesn't affect his play at all. But hey, the Focused Attack nerf helped box him into Overkill builds, so at least this change helps more people now.

Zeratul

Cleave (Q)
- Damage increased from 189 (+4% per level) to 200 (+4% per level)
Shadow Assault (R)
- Range increased by approximately 37%
- A range indicator will now display while Shadow Assault is active, and when hovering the cursor over the Ability icon
- Duration reduced from 6 to 4 seconds
- Mana cost reduced from 100 to 50
- Cooldown decreased from 100 to 45 seconds

Ironically enough Focused Attack was nerfed and Master Warp Blade which replaced it because FA was too strong on Zeratul was just buffed to be better than FA now, but without the frontloaded damage. That's right, Master Warp Blade procs on all targets now, not just Heroes (undocumented change). That alone is a huge buff giving him much higher PvE damage, but then he gets more. Shadow Assault might become the standard pick now, because that cooldown reduction is no joke, while the range increase will make it harder to escape against.

Abathur

Symbiote (Q)
- Stab (Q)
  - Damage increased from 108 (+4% per level) to 113 (+4% per level)
- Spike Burst (W)
  - Damage increased from 106 (+4% per level) to 111 (+4% per level)

Abathur gets a lot of hate, doesn't have a good win rate, and mostly uses Mines or Pushing builds now. Maybe we'll see some Symbiote builds but it probably won't be as strong as Mines/Pushing. I think Blizzard just wanted to improve a part of Abathur that wasn't really utilized as much.

Azmodan

General of Hell (Trait)
- Will no longer dismount Azmodan on use

All real Generals direct their troops from horses, so of course Azmodan should stay mounted.

Gazlowe

Salvager (Trait)
- Will now dismount Gazlowe on activation
Rock-It! Turret (Q)
- Clockwerk Steam Fists (Talent)
  - Duration bonus for active Rock-It! Turrets increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds per Basic Attack
Deth Lazor (W)
- Goblin Fusion (Talent)
  - Additional charge level damage bonus increased from 25% to 50%
Xplodium Charge (E)
- Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60

I'm surprised they are buffing a talent as widely used as Clockwerk Steam Fists, but Goblin Fusion needed a buff. Note that this is NOT the rework they have planned for Gazlowe (DB confirmation) so I guess this is just a buff to hold those 5 dedicated Gazlowe players out there sane for just a bit longer.

Malfurion

Innervate (Trait) (D)
- Mana return increased from 15% to 20% of the target’s maximum Mana
- Versatile (Talent)
  - Bonus to Innervate’s Mana return increased from 25% to 30% of the target’s maximum Mana

Malfurion just got a pretty good buff to his Q healing, and now he gets a buff to his Trait. He's been a low tier healer for a while, but as long as the stun/burst meta lasts, he won't get much more use. Healing over time is a cool concept, but it's out of style.

Rehgar

Forward Momentum (Talent) removed
Spell Shield (Talent) removed
Healing Totem (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4
- Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
The following activated Talents will now dismount Rehgar when used in Ghost Wolf form:
- Blood for Blood
- Cleanse
- Healing Totem
- Rewind
Ghost Wolf (Z)
- Basic Attacks while in Ghost Wolf form now gain the effects of Feral Lunge, causing Rehgar to lunge toward the target, dealing 100% bonus damage
- Casting Bloodlust no longer causes Rehgar to leave Ghost Wolf form
- Feral Lunge (Talent) removed
- Shadow Wolf (Talent) removed
- Healing Surge (Talent) removed
- New Talent (Level 1): Wolf Run
  - Increases Ghost Wolf Movement Speed bonus from 30% to 40%
- New Talent (Level 7): Blood and Thunder
  - Basic Attacks while in Ghost Wolf form reduce Basic Ability cooldowns by 2 seconds
- New Talent (Level 16): Hunger of the Wolf
  - Basic Attacks while in Ghost Wolf form also deal 5% of target's maximum Health as damage and heal Rehgar for 5% of his maximum Health
Chain Heal (Q)
- Primary target Healing increased from 297 (+4% per level) to 372 (+4% per level) Health
- Mana cost reduced from 70 to 65
- Chain Reaction (Talent) removed
- Spiritwalker's Grace (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4
  - Mana cost reduction decreased from 25 to 20
- Tidal Waves (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 16 to Level 13
  - Now reduces Chain Heal’s cooldown by 1 second for every Hero hit
- New Talent (Level 13): Earthliving Enchant
  - When Chain Heal heals an allied Hero that is below 50% Health, they are also healed for an additional 200 (+4% per level) Health over 5 seconds
Lightning Shield (W)
- Damage increased from 31 (+4% per level) to 36 (+4% per level) per tick
- Empowering Charge (Talent) removed
- Reactive Spark (Talent) removed
- Lightning Bond (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 1
  - The Lightning Shield automatically granted to Rehgar no longer benefits from Talents
- Earth Shield (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 13
  - Target now gains a Shield equal to 15% of their maximum Health, instead of a flat value
- New Talent (Level 1): Electric Charge
  - Increases Lightning Shield radius by 33%
- New Talent (Level 16): Rising Storm
  - Lightning Shield's next damage effect is increased by 20% every time it damages an enemy Hero. Stacks up to 10 times
Earthbind Totem (E)
- Area of effect radius increased by approximately 16%
- Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50
- Earth Shield (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 13
  - Now targets gain a Shield equal to 15% of their maximum Health, instead of a flat value
- Earthgrasp Totem (Talent)
  - Increases the initial Slow duration from 1 to 1.5 seconds
- New Talent (Level 7): Totemic Projection
  - Reactivate Earthbind Totem to relocate it. The totem maintains its current Health and duration
Ancestral Healing (R)
- Cooldown increased from 70 to 80 seconds
Bloodlust (R)
- Gladiator's War Shout (Talent) redesigned
  - Each ally affected by Bloodlust now heals for 30% of their Basic Attack damage dealt to their primary target

Holy mother of a rework, Batman. Rehgar is probably the best healer now. About the only changes that were not buffs were Lightning Bond, the Ancestral CD nerf, and possibly Earth Shield. He puts out way more damage, more healing, and has a built in Feral Lunge now. You'll see a lot of Rehgar.

Tyrande

Searing Arrows (Talent)
- Will now dismount Tyrande on activation

Most mounts don't like fire.

Uther

Hammer of Justice (E)
- Can no longer be cast on Structures

Silly Uther, you can't judge buildings unless you are a qualified architect. Seriously though, I heard that they made this change so you don't accidentally target the towers instead of someone graphically behind one who you actually want to stun.

Cho

I AM Hurrying! (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7
- Duration of Gall’s Hurry Up, Oaf! (Z) increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
Surging Fist (Q)
- Frenzied Fists (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 16
  - Attack Speed bonus increased from 50% to 100%
  - Now lasts for 4 seconds instead of the next two Basic Attacks
- Surge of Stamina (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 16 to Level 13
  - Surging Fist now grants 50% Relentless for 5 seconds
Consuming Blaze (W)
- Seared Flesh (Talent) redesigned and no longer tied to Consuming Blaze
  - Every third consecutive Basic Attack against the same target deals 75% bonus damage

Along with the Gall changes, Cho'gall is more of a threat. Great.

Sonya

Seismic Slam (W)
- Primary target damage reduced from 192 (+4% per level) to 176 (+4% per level)
- Splash damage decreased from 48 (+4% per level) to 44 (+4% per level)

Along with the Focused Attack nerf she lost a fair amount of damage. She will still fit into the same role as before, but she just can't erase people as easily.

Bugs

Fixed an issue that prevented Chen from traveling through the intended target using Flying Kick.

Chen players everywhere rejoice at the fact that it is, finally, after so many "fixes", fixed! Meanwhile, I'll never forgive Blizzard for making it Chen free week for the Li-Ming release.

Missiles will now travel at one consistent speed on Towers of Doom.

This was inevitable after seeing videos of the wrong team winning Towers of Doom when the other team got the Altars first.

Jaina’s Ring of Frost now properly affects enemies that overlap the inner-edge of the Ability’s targeting ring.

They fixed Ring of Frost so hard, it was a balance change and a bug fix.

Fixed an issue that could allow additional Mishas to spawn if Rexxar was killed by immolation damage.

I just love imagining how they find these bugs. Hopefully this really happened in a game.

So what stood out to you in the patch notes? What are your thoughts on ~~the apocalypse~~ Li-Ming? Did the Nova rework destroy her as a "viable" pick? Let us know!