1) Li-Ming Story/Bio

2) Gameplay

3) Build explanation

4) Talent Breakdown

5) Skill Combos

6) Strategy

Li-Ming Bio

Li-Ming was tutored at the young age of 7, by Isendra (the Diablo 2 Sorceress). It was from Isendra that Li-ming learned to dismiss warnings of magic, and saved the city of Lut Bahadur from drought at the age of 16 by calling down rain. The attention received had Isendras influence on Li-Ming noticed, which led to her being targeted and Assassinated. Li-Ming concluded that Isendras death was unnatural and after confrontations with the Sanctums leader, she defeated him in battle and left at the age of 19 where she ventured to New Tristram, pursuing the sight of a fallen star.

"It’s a generally agreed upon fact of life among the denizens of Sanctuary that wizards and magical mayhem are never far apart. Although she understands people’s concerns, Li-Ming is entirely unapologetic for the destruction in her wake. She delights in unleashing devastating spells on her foes from afar, then teleporting away to frustrate her enemies’ attempts at striking back. Small minds may fear this kind of power, but Li-Ming wields the arcane forces of the universe with confidence and unmatched skill."

Li-Ming
Rebellious Wizard

Playing Li-Ming is a great delight! She is an amazing high skill cap hero which can take down the enemy team, so landing her skill shots is imperative. The more you practice her: the more you will live, the more damage you will be able to dish out, and therefore the better you will get.

PROS

High Mobility
Hard to Lock-Down
Cool-down Reset Trait
Fast Spam
Burst
Great Siege Damage


CONS

Usually Targeted
Can be Squishy
Heavily Skill Shot Oriented

1) New to the Hero?

Yes - Laser Party Girl
No - question 2

2) Do they have a Zeratul, Illidan, Tyrael, Greymane -OR- 2/+ Melee heroes?

Yes - Laser Party Girl
No - Question 3

3) Do they have more than one warrior?

Yes - Annoying Flirt
No - Question 4

4)One Night Stand

Laser Party Girl

Useful in most situations. Great for learning mechanics.

Annoying Flirt

Poker, sustained damage. Good for high HP targets and double tank teams

One Night Stand

Once you get used to Li-Ming and her mechanics, this is the higher skill-cap build that requires hitting of your abilities and the dodging of theirs.

This guide is based on my experience with Li-Ming. With any guide, Talents should be adjusted with the current game you're engaged in, based on what is required to counter the enemy team. The build here is the basic talents I run in Hero League, and in my opinion does more damage because of your sustainability- you cant deal damage if you're dead.
This build is focused on knowing when to go in and when to poke from the back-line. Learning when to go in is imperative to consistent win streaks- too early and you'll most likely die, too late and your team will not benefit from your potential. With right timing you can wipe the enemy team easily.

This build is designed to chain-kill the enemy team with its use of shields and heals. I have consistently been able to chain enemy heroes down, Dominating the team, resulting in countless victories.

Talents have been colour coded into:
GREEN: Priority
YELLOW: Situational / Alternative
RED: Not Recommended

Level 1

The change to Astral Presence leaves us with the decision to pick the first talent situationally.
Astral Presence: Your Mana regeneration is increased by 100% while below 25% Mana.

With the recent nerf to this skill, its usefulness decreased.

Helpful on Maps: (LARGE) Battlefield of Eternity, Cursed Hollow
Enemy Team Comp: Tanky teams- When you need that little extra poke for turtle team fights.

Power Hungry:
Regeneration Globes restore 100% more Mana and grant 10% Ability Power for 20 seconds.

Might be helpful in lane, but then during team fights and end game, globes aren't always readily available. This is helped by the buffs 20sec duration which usually coincides with the minion waves. The extra ability damage is great for in lane poke- especially sieging those turrets!

Helpful on Maps: (ABUNDANT HEALTH ORBS) Blackheart's Bay, Tomb of the Spider Queen
Enemy Team Comp: General

Force Armor:
When Magic Missiles damages an enemy Hero, you gain a charge of Spell Block, reducing the damage from the next enemy Ability against you by 50%. Can hold up to 4 charges. Can only gain 1 charge per cast.

This is an interesting Talent which becomes useful when against heroes with heavy ability bursts. Usually only pick this when you're up against a heavy engage team or a double stealth one. If u feel like its going to be a hard match, pick this: it is amazing.

Helpful on Maps: (CONSISTENT ENGAGE) Sky Temple, Towers of Doom
Enemy Team Comp: Bursty, Sticky

Aether Walker:
If you haven't taken damage in the last 5 seconds, Teleport costs no Mana and its cooldown is decreased by 2 seconds.
Aether walker is another talent that mitigates Mana consumption. Its heavily reliant on not being hit however. If you're new to Li-Ming, this talent will help you test the boundaries of Teleport as well as help with her basic Tele mechanics, and how to dodge.

Helpful on Maps: (POSITION-BASED) Sky Temple, Dragon Shire
Enemy Team Comp: Skill-shot oriented.

Level 4

Charged Blast:
Basic Attacking a target recently hit by a Magic Missile does an extra 191 (91 + 4% per level) damage
Grants great sustained damage, usually used against tankier Heroes for additional poke. Considering Magic Missiles are on a 3sec cooldown, you're basically guaranteed to get in at least one basic attack.

Triumvirate:
If Arcane Orb hits an enemy Hero after traveling at least 80% of its base range, the cooldown is reduced by 7 seconds.
This is a talent that I used to use when I went long-range full glass-canon Arcane Orb build. I now believe however that there are better builds. Being far from the fight basically renders your Critical Mass trait useless, because Li-Mings skills are slow moving and can be blocked.

Dominance: Takedowns restore 25% of your maximum Health.
This. This is one of the reason you'll be able to dominate the enemy team. Practice engage timing and you'll end up with more health than you started the fight with - Just, without the enemies.

Level 7

Seeker
If three Magic Missiles hit the same target, the third one deals an additional 274 (130 + 4% per level) damage.
while it can take a low enemy by surprise, its barely noticeable. There are much better talents in this tier.

Zei's Vengeance
Arcane Orb does an additional 25% more damage to enemies far away, but will deal 25% less damage to enemies up close.
You'll mostly be in the fray when the going gets good. Cooldowns will reset, Don't reduce your damage.

Calamity
Teleport does 542 (309 + 3% per level) damage to enemies near your destination.
Calamity is important and amazing. The burst is insane and will secure you kills. When you increase its range at lvl 13, this is one of the defining talents of a complete enemy team takedown.

Level 10

Disintegrate
Channel a powerful beam, dealing 1168 (462 + 5% per level) damage over 2.5 seconds to enemies while they are in it. The direction of the beam changes with your mouse cursor position.
This Heroic will grab those few Heroes that are about to escape. It finishes off runner, and AoEs the enemy team for decent damage. It cant be blocked like her other abilities. The range is impressive.

Wave Of Force
Knock away all enemies from an area and deal 425 (168 + 5% per level) damage.
Wave of Force can be a game changing Heroic. Pushing enemies into friendly AoE, as well as the potential to peel enemies away from your teammates. Considering you'll be in quite close proximity to the enemy, the range of this skill is not an issue.

Level 13

Cannoneer
When you use an Ability, increase your next Basic Attack by 75% and cause it to deal Ability damage. Stacks up to 3 times.
Ive found this surprises enemies more often than not. This talent is consistent in dps and with Li-Ming's low cooldowns, you'll be hitting for nice damage, especially considering Teleporting into basic attack range with calamity. Still, you really cant pass Illusionist in this tier.

Glass Cannon
Increases your Ability Power by 15%, but decreases your maximum Health by 15%.
Great for long ranged builds and those that are confident.. You cant do damage when you're dead though, and it interferes with Diamond skin.

Illusionist
Increases Teleport range by 50%, and if you lose more than 15% of your Health at once, its cooldown is instantly refreshed. This cannot happen more than once every 4 seconds.
BAM. Getting those Calamity Teleport chains off is assisted with this talent. Increasing Teleport by 50% is a huge amount, and you will be able to jump over larger obstacles. Additionally to that, the reset is super super nice. Just think: Calamity-ing in for a large burst> Diamond Skin 25% shield> First hero bursts over 15% health> Reset on tele> Calamity teleport again> new shield. This doesn't even include your other skill combos.

Level 16

Fireflies
Drastically increases Magic Missiles speed, and lowers its cooldown by 1 second.
This talent can shine with other Magic Missile talents. Increased speed usually ensures hitting skillshots, plus the added cooldown is actually more than you would think. 33%. 2 second casts can add up into a nice sustained damage. Think of it as a slow auto attack that hits like a truck.

Mirrorball
Magic Missiles fires an additional 2 missiles.
This is nice. Magic Missile does a decent chunk of damage. Mathematically its +66% damage if you can land them all. Much better that the prerequisite Lunara talent of the same level, which only situationally adds +50%

Arcane Orbit
Arcane Orb travels 25% farther, doing up to 25% more damage.
Pretty straight forward.

Diamond Skin
When you Teleport, gain 25% of your maximum Health as a Shield for 4 seconds.
Diamond skill will be the enabler. It will let you kill, and get health back, then kill again. The amount of times this has saved me from death and secured kills/wiped teams, is uncountable.

Level 20

Temporal Flux
Disintegrate slows enemies by 60%.
Helps kill Heroes. Helps team. Great if you're behind.

Repulsion
Increases Wave of Force knock-back distance by 150% and increases its cast range by 100%.
Helps with range if you took wave of force.

Tal Rasha's Elements
Your Abilities benefit from 10% bonus damage as long as they aren't cast twice in a row.
Free damage, and by this level your skills will be doing A LOT. More damage = More kills = More Resets = More Heals and Shields = Dead enemies.

Archon: Pure Power
Activate to enter Archon form, allowing you to repeatedly use Disintegrate, but be unable to cast other Abilities.
Nice for sieging. Not really required. The downtime it takes to activate/deactivate is just enough for an enemy to destroy your squishy life. It destroys your combos and limits the build in my opinion. Plus you should have Disintegrate which will be off cooldown with all your takedowns.

Standard Bursty Poke
The Invitation

>
Standard poke burst, Arcane Orb into Missles. Practice getting them to hit at the same time. Adjust targetting of Missiles as we didn't pick Ess of Johan. This can take enemies by surprise and land kills on ~30% health targets.

Jump-In Engage Combo
Time to Dance

>>>
From about 80% distance (pref from the side of a battle, to hit all enemies) you can cast Arcane Orb, run with it for a while before shortly casting Magic Missile and then being close enough to Teleport in doing the Calamity talent damage. All skills should hit at the same time, and if they do all hit, you will have most heroes down really, really low (if not dead).

Close-Quarters Combo
1, 2, Step

>>
Used to poke in solo engagements, or more usually used after Jumping in and killing one enemy, the trait reset should then allow: Teleport on next low hero with Calamity damage, Magic Missiles should not be missed at this range- watch for if the enemy is retreating or standing ground in order to land Missiles. Arcane orb them as they retreat or if you disengage away. Disintegrate if needed.

Still in development

Early Game

You should be a little careful early game poke away with Missiles and The Invitation to the party.. You'll come to realize when it is safe, and when it is: begin to poke down those enemy turrets with the amazing range on Arcane Orb and Magic Missile. Watch other lanes for roaming heroes, but otherwise take out those turrets! You will be amazed at how fast you can get them down. The Astral Presence will ensure that you wont run out of mana, so spam.

Mid Game

You will start to notice your power growing, and while its not at maximum, you will be able to take down enemies with ease. Stay behind your tank and/or bruisers and poke the enemy heroes down with some poke combos. Watch what abilities they cast and note rough cooldowns. Secondary to this is their positioning, if there is one out of position it might be time to go in for the kill. Usually it is a good idea to poke down a few to around 60% health then its Time to Dance, at this percent you will find the AoE will take each hero (one to the next) down to a manageable health level that you can target and burst down. With numbers, enemies usually feel comforted to remain close and attempt to poke back. With 2 or more heroes low, jump into the fray. Use a combo to get the initial hero down. You have to make sure it dies for the reset. With practice you will know what you will be able to take down completely AND how to hit all those moving targets with your abilities. Once one enemy is down the cooldown reset from your trait will enable a swift 1, 2, Step follow up for a second kill, etc. If however the next hero is not prepared to take down yet, retreat to the back lines and reset to poking again.

Late Game

The game now will basically be the same as mid game, the team should be sticking together to take objectives, etc. You're just immensely stronger now.


Thanks for Reading! Feel free to share ideas, experiences and anything Ive missed :)

Guide still being updated.