The PTR Blizzard just put up today is arguably the biggest patch the game has ever had. Bigger even than the Cho'Gall patch last year where they changed how stat scaling works and added a two player hero. This one goes places. Check the patch notes!

As the hero pool reaches 49 or 50 heroes with Dehaka, Hero League finally gets bans. They look great!I'd go into detail but I'd rather just lay em all out real fast.

Dehaka, the 49th or 50th hero (Cho'Gall is one hero or two), added to the game.Ban system has been added!In order to offset the new 14 hero requirement for HL heroes from the Free To Play Rotation are allowed now too so long as they're level 5.No limitation on HL or TL! You can play it immediately now.Hero selection in Draft now has filters, search, favorites and a larger grid for selecting heroes from."Welcome to (Battleground)" now done before draft begins like in Overwatch so players don't miss the battleground they're drafting for.A Custom Game only 1 Lane "No Hearthstone" battleground ideal for ARAM custom games.Death Recaps! (The things previous on the list they did blogs for, this one was a surprise.)Many heroes got their ability art redesignedAll remaining talents which used the same icons as others on their tier (e.g. augmenting same ability) have been tinted so they can be told apart at a glance.Hotkey options per hero addedGame will now remaximize when loading is done and do the reminded to play when loading is done.Will also kick AFK players at start a lot faster.Li-Ming will now gloat about her kill streaks rather than let the announcer call them out. (Kills reset all all her cooldowns, it's very fitting) On top of all those a lot of HUGE hero reworks. Huge ones! To name a few... Kael'thas's Living Bomb now chains to enemy heroes by default! Plus his talent tree's been almost entirely reworked.Sylvanas's Possession is no longer a heroic, instead being changed into a level 7 pickup. Her new heroic, Mind Control, allows her to take control of an enemy's movement. Plus the rest of her talent tree has been almost entirely reworked.Tychus has finally been remade into a tank killer. Instead of having a wind up his basic attacks can now do bonus damage per hit based on the enemy's max health. Plus the rest of his talent tree has been almost entirely reworked!Illidan and Gazlowe also almost entirely reworked. New versions sound scary, but I don't have a good summary for their reworks.Not a full rework, but lots of quality of life improvements for Zagara's nydus network. It heals like the Hall of Storms does while she's in it now too! It might be viable now.Jaina's Ice Block talent now on a 20 second cooldown and she can't get Bolt of the Storm anymore.Interesting thing to note with these reworks, lots of quest talents. There's one that increases every time you get a hit and resets when you die but DOESN't RESET if you get max stacks. There's also one on Kael that gives you the super strong Arcane Barrier if you collect 25 regen globes through a game.Lots of other talent changes. 21 heroes received changes, plus a few changes to generic talents which effect everyone who has them.

Hell, it's about time.Fucking huge stuff all that. Plus Dehaka sounds super fun. He can burrow to any bush or vent instantly and then drag enemies wherever he likes. He can ignore collision even with his W making his drag even more deadly! I'm gonna go give this a look now, I'm super excited. This PTR lasts from today to next week. After that I don't know if it goes live since Heroes of the Dorm and the Spring Championships are happening, but I'd hope it does. Super exciting.

Edit: It went live for the live game yesterday! Changing the title.

I'm so glad they are finally adding bans to the ranked games !

So many good changes! However Sylvannas hardly needed an entire rework, though posseion being a talent now is dope, I am still a bit scared when it comes to what else they have done with her. She was fine before balance wise.

Also the lower requirements for hero league actually allows for pay to play.

But yeah, other than that I am looking forward to these changes.

looking forward to it ... Tychus needed a rework badly. Murkys March of the Murlocks got a bit better, maybe i'll pick that one up at certain maps now (level 20 murky wohoo) ... all in all, good patch in theory

Man I loved taking Possession, watching my team flip out because I didn't take the silence heroic and then win the match with insane minion pushes to prove them wrong. Guess now that joy is gone lol. The rest of the talent changes and stuff (For all the other heroes) seem pretty good, fingers crossed the Li-Ming voice acting for her kill streaks is good! I really like playing her.

The new Illidan is a real fucking threat. Holy shit, he gets right up your ass and stays there until you die. You are not prepared left and right.

Sylvanas's new heroic is hilarious. They just walk towards your murder, it's great. Especially when every team has a Dehaka as well, pulls for days. Dehaka's very strong too. Can be a very high damage warrior while also surviving through a lot of damage. Having ice block as a basic ability looks great.