This week, the life-binder Alexstrasza became available to play on live servers. As the games newest support hero (one that players have been anticipating for years), Alexstrasza brings a combination of burst heals, AoE heals, and surprisingly effective damage potential to the table. Already a fan favorite from a lore perspective, it appears that her power level is high enough to see tons of play casually and competitively.

In addition, Li Li's talent rework is so massive, she might as well be considered a new support hero as well. With a new cleanse talent and Fast Feet trait now passively granting cooldown reduction whenever it activates, Li Li players should get used to a more active in-your-face style of play. Li Li will be at her most effective when Fast Feet is active, rewarding players that soak enemy damage while still staying safe from death.

Considering Li Li is one of the oldest heroes in the game, Heroes developers included a thorough explanation of what they wanted to accomplish with this rework:


"Li Li is one of our oldest Heroes and has remained relatively unchanged since her debut in 2014. With this rework, we wanted to preserve her relative mechanical simplicity, but give her other ways to show mastery of game knowledge. Additionally, we wanted to expand upon her fantasy of being the enthusiastic sidekick who’s not afraid to put herself in danger to save her allies.

With the new cooldown reduction mechanic on her trait, Li Li players are encouraged to dart in and out of skirmishes, taking just enough damage to keep her trait up. The longer she can keep her trait up, the more ability casts she gets, pushing her into a powerful sustain support role. With this mechanic, she can also bully enemies that lack sustained damage; slowly forcing them out of lanes or off objectives."


You can read the full patch notes and the rest of the developer commentary at the official Heroes website.