Li Li is a hero designed for new players. She offers a relatively easy gameplay experience for those who are just being introduced to the genre, and while she does succeed in being an easy-to-learn character, she also consistently teaches bad lessons. Additionally, just because she's designed to have a low skill floor doesn't mean she needs to have a low skill ceiling.
Rework mission statement:
Respect Li Li's niches, both in being an easy-to-use character for new players, and in being a Healer who is hard to focus down.
Divide her power pie such that more of her abilities feel impactful baseline. In turn, this should help expand her talent diversity.
Increase the distance between her skill floor and ceiling without necessitating gimmicky assassin builds.
Make the character less infuriating to play against.
Pain Points:
While they do somewhat reward good positioning, her abilities can often be spammed mindlessly. While this helps her be beginner friendly, it doesn't actually teach them anything.
Healing Brew's design and Fast Feet creating an inconsistent ability cadence often leads to Li Li just mashing the Q button rather than putting thought into the ability.
Blinds are often a very frustrating CC tool, with Li Li having very easy access to them.
Cloud Serpent often feels like an afterthought unless heavily talented into.
Lopsided mana tension, can sometimes run out very quickly, or always stay topped up.
Healing Brew can sometimes perpetually keep her alive against sustain, while often giving her no answer against burst.
Despite her strengths, Li Li often finds herself unable to fill a healer niche, due to the inability to control where her healing goes. While this is a core part of design, granting her more means to mitigate this issue could help to shift things in her favour.
Relative buffs are marked in green, relative nerfs are marked in red.
Stat changes: Li Li now uses Brew instead of Mana. Li Li can hold up to 100 Brew, regenerating at a rate of 10 per second. Li Li's basic attack damage reduced from 60 to 48.
Notable playstyle changes: Li Li no longer uses mana, and so will never need to Hearth, however, she is now tied to a Brew resource, which requires some degree of conscious management to maintain, primarily in the form of keeping Fast Feet active more consistently, or by making good use of her level 1 talents.
Cloud Serpent has been made a more impactful healing tool following the nerfs to Healing Brew. The move is simultaneously easier to use at lower skill levels (due to its passive effect of the serpent now being permanent) and allows for more skill expression at higher skill levels (due to its 1 second cooldown enabling high APM play).
Blinding Wind no longer has projectiles baseline, and so cannot blind from a distance. For beginner players, the move has increased defensive peel utility, while more experienced players can get value out of intentionally positioning to hit more than two targets simultaneously. This also means increased counterplay to Li Li's Blinds exist, primarily in the form of not getting too close to her until the move is on cooldown.
Combat Trait
1
Fast Feet
Upon taking damage, Li Li gains 10% increased movement speed and 100% increased Brew regeneration for 1 second.
Li Li uses Brew instead of Mana. Li Li can hold up to 100 Brew, regenerating at a rate of 10 per second.
Primary Abilities
1
Healing Brew
Cooldown: 3 seconds. Cost: 50 Brew.
While active, cast Healing Brew every 3 seconds, healing the lowest health nearby allied hero for 195 health.
When used from full brew, the move will cast up to 3 times before running out, at which point it will only cast once your brew is high enough (every 5 seconds instead).
Ideally a low level player can just leave the ability on and still get some value out of the move, but eventually will be forced to learn the fundamentals of resource management.
As long as Fast Feet is active, Li Li will always have enough Brew to keep Healing Brew perpetually casting at optimal speeds.
2
Command Cloud Serpent
CD: 1 second.
Li Li has a permanentCloud Serpent that follows her around and automatically attacks nearby enemies, doing 26 damage and healing her for the damage dealt.
Activate to command the Cloud Serpent to follow a nearby ally, giving its bonuses to them instead. Cloud Serpent returns to Li Li if the target moves outside her command range.
These changes should make Li Li's serpent feel that little bit more interesting and give her a way to spread her heals out a bit more effectively. Because this ability has no cooldown (aside from the serpent's travel time) it can allow a player to rapidly move the serpent between allies, which can pair well with Li Li's new talents, which often specifically benefit her Serpent's target, granting targeted healing.
The other benefit of this change is that it is both easier for a new player to use, as it grants value even when not being used. Lower level players can set it and forget it (sometimes not even setting it), while higher level players may find value in rapidly moving the serpent between their allies.
3
Blinding Wind
CD: 12 seconds.
Allnearby enemies take 144 damage and are Slowed by 30%, decaying over 1.5 seconds, and Blinding them for the same duration, causing them to miss all basic attacks.
Heroic Abilities
1
Jug of 1,000 Cups
CD: 20 seconds.
Channel for up to 6 seconds. Every 0.25 seconds, heal the lowest Health nearby allied Hero for 66 Health and increase the cooldown of Jug of 1,000 Cups by 2 seconds, up to 50.
2
Water Dragon
CD: 45 seconds.
Li Li channels for 2 seconds, summoning a Water Dragon that hits the nearest enemy Hero and all enemies near them, dealing 300 damage and slowing their Movement Speed by 70% for 4 seconds.
Level 1 Talents
Li Li's new level 1 talents are somewhat homogenous in terms of their purpose, as they both increase her overall healing output and help to relieve her Brew tension. However, the three all try to push Healing Brew in completely new directions that encourage Li Li to position differently.
Q: Second Serving - Lower the Cooldown of Healing Brew to 2 seconds and reduce its brew cost by 10. Healing Brew will not target allies who have been healed by Healing Brew within the last 3 seconds.
Q: Happy to Share - Healing Brew can no longer target Li Li, but she now gains 40% of the healing received when Healing Brew heals an allied hero, increased to 60% while Fast Feet is active. Passive: Li Li's Basic Attacks against heroes grant her 5 brew.
Trait (D): Cup Runneth Over - Fast Feet grants 10% bonus spell power, and becomes active while Li Li has an active regen globe. Quest: Collect Regen Globes. Reward: Li Li's maximum Brew is increased by 3 for each Regen Globe she collects.
Level 4 Talents
Talents that increase Li Li's general survivability, as well as provide quick support to allies. Surging Winds sees most of its value come at level 13, where Li Li's dedicated E talents benefit greatly from the reduced cooldown.
W/E: Wind Serpent - When casting Blinding Wind, Li Li's Cloud Serpent spits out a cloud that deals 88 damage to the closest nearby enemy hero over 1.5 seconds and blinds them for the same duration. Li Li's Cloud Serpent target heals for 100% of the damage dealt.
E: Surging Winds - If Blinding Wind damages multiple heroes, its cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds.
Trait (D): Safety Sprint - Increase the movement speed bonus of Fast Feet to 15%. Activate Fast Feet to gain its effects plus an additional 25% movement speed for 1 second.20 second cooldown.
Level 7 Talents
Talents that help to mitigate some critical issues Li Li may be facing. Tthe replacement for Lightning Serpent, Storm Serpent, allows for an alternative way to deal with CC, while also providing a consistent boost to Cloud Serpent's damage and healing outside of combat. Bottomless Brew is also a good tool for emergency healing, granting an instant
W: Storm Serpent - Increase Cloud Serpent's basic attack speed by 25%. While Cloud Serpent's follow target is Stunned, Rooted, Silenced, or below 25% health, its attack speed is increased by a further 75%. Increased attack speed has the benefit of also increasing its rate of healing.
Active: Let's Go! - Activate to heal an allied Hero for 140 health and make them Unstoppable for 1 second. Let's Go's cooldown recharges 50% faster while Fast Feet is active. 40 second cooldown.
Active: Bottomless Brew - 20 second CD. Activate to instantly cast Healing Brew for free and cause Healing Brew to no longer cost Brew for the next 7 seconds. Bottomless Brew ends early if Li Li takes damage.
Heroic Talents
Detailed above. Largely left unchanged, though Jug really does warrant a rework after these changes.
Level 13 Talents
Dedicated E talent tier. With Hindering Wind's effects partially baked into the standard form and E now being much harder to use, several talents have been revamped.
E: Gale Force - Blinding Wind's Blindand Slow Effects last an additional .5 seconds, and its slow no longer decays.
E: Butterfly Effect - Blinding Wind's cooldown recharges 50% faster while Fast Feet is active.
E: Mass Vortex - Increase the radius of Blinding Winds by 20%. If Blinding Winds damages multiple Heroes, they take 75% increased damage.
Level 16 Talents
New for Li Li, a dedicated Cloud Serpent tier. With the overall buffs to Cloud Serpent, these should feel much more impactful than they would on old Li Li. One for Two synergises with all Level 1 talents, while granting her even more benefits to using Cloud Serpent effectively.
Q/W: One for Two - Every 20 seconds, Li Li's next Healing Brew will also heal the Cloud Serpent's follow target, regardless of their distance from Li Li. This amount is reduced by 5 seconds each time Li Li casts Healing Brew.
W: Blessing of Yu'lon - Cloud Serpent heals its follow target for 1% of their maximum health each time it attacks.
W: Twin Serpents - Li Li summons a second, untalented Cloud Serpent to follow her if the original is following another hero. Additionally, Command Cloud Serpent's range is increased by 30%, allowing allies to take Cloud Serpents further from Li Li's location.
Storm Talents
Li Li's level 20s have generally been in a healthy place, and so have been left largely unchanged, though Shake it Off has been reworked to be more Fast Feet centric.
R1: Jug of 1,000,000 Cups - Jug of 1,000 Cups heals two allies at a time.
R2: Double Dragon - After hitting a target with Water Dragon, another Water Dragon is summoned at the point of impact.
Active: Mistweaver - Activate to heal nearby allied Heroes for 149 (+4% per level). Basic Attacks and Cloud Serpent attacks reduce the cooldown of Mistweaver by 1 second. 30 second cooldown.
Active: Shake it Off: Activate to gain 30 armor that begins decaying after 1 second, at a rate of 10 per second. Decay is paused while Fast Feet is active. Activates automatically if Li Li is stunned or silenced while below 50% health. 40 second cooldown.
Changelog
22/9/2023
Major rework (and updated to match the Li Li rework that was released after this concept was made).
Brew is now capped at 100 instead of 60, while gaining 10 Brew per second instead of 5. This is just a nicer number in general, and has lead to a number of changes.
Fast Feet only increases Healing Brew regeneration by 100%, down from 125%.
Healing Brew's cost has been risen from 30 to 50 (so still 50% of total brew).
Level 1 talent Second Serving's cost now reduces by 10 (up from 5).
Level 1 talent Happy to Share now grants 3 Brew per basic attack.
Level 1 talent Cup Runneth Over grants 3 maximum Brew per regen globe.
Level 7 talent Backup Brew renamed to Bottomless Brew. Instead of refilling your Brew, it instead makes Healing Brew free for 6 seconds, while also granting one free cast of Brew instantly.
Level 20 talent Shake it Off has now baked in some of its post-rework mechanics, activating automatically if Li Li is stunned/silenced while at low health.
23/9/2023
Reverted Healing Brew to just a normal move, enough changes have been made that it should be less mindless and not just encourage constant mashing.
Toggle Healing Brew's functionality has been reverted to be more similar to live Li Li.
Level 1 Talent Second Serving now grants a cooldown reduction instead of a proc time reduction, however the functionality is effectively the same.
Level 4 Talent Wind Serpent's damage reduction has been reduced from 114 to 88, with the Serpent's follow target receiving 100% of the damage dealt as healing.
Level 7 Talent Storm Serpent has had some of its functionality made permanent. Instead of granting 100% increased attack speed when the target is CC'd, it grants 75%, with the other 25% always being active. This should make it slightly more useful in general situations, rather than being a purely anti-CC talent on a tier where "Let's Go!" also exists.
Level 7 Talent Bottomless Brew's effects now last for 7 seconds. This means the user doesn't need to be 'frame perfect' with their inputs just to get the maximum benefit.
Level 7 Talent Bottomless Brew's cooldown reduced to 20 seconds, down from 30.
Level 16 Talent One for Two's description has been revised to proc every time Li Li casts Healing Brew, rather than every time she heals with it.
Talent tier descriptions have been greatly shortened.
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