● Temporarily removed bugged SF from the piece pool

Good idea. Cause it was mine.

● New pieces added: Ogre Magi ($2 Ogre Mage), Nyx Assassin ($4 Aqir Assassin)
● Reworked Ogres' Species Trait: Iron Fist
(2) Ogres: Whenever a friendly melee piece dies, all frindly Ogres gain bonus 25% health and 25% damage for the entire battle. Maximum 8 stacks.
● Added (4) Aqir Infection: (currently only available through Wizards)
(2) Aqirs: Grants all non-Aqir allies: Upon death, if there is any friendly piece of the same name on the chessboard, summon a random Aqir piece.
(4) Aqirs: Grants all Aqir allies: Upon death, if there is any friendly piece of the same name on the chessboard, summon a random Aqir piece.
● Added (9) Assassin Coup de Grace: (currently only available through Wizards)
(3) Assassins: All friendly assassins have 15% chance to critical hit for 300% damage.
(6) Assassins: All friendly assassins have 15% chance to critical hit for 500% damage.
(9) Assassins: All friendly assassins have 15% chance to critical hit for 700% damage.
● Now hexed pieces (through Scythe of Vyse or Hex) do not share a name with any other piece.
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Fixed matching algorithm
● In the previous patch, when there are 4 players standing, you only fight against 2 other players in turn instead of 3, as the algorithm avoided matching you with your visiting foe on his own board. This patch fixed the issue and similar cases that may happen when even-numbered players are standing still.

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UI Optimization
● Seasonal rewards and activities are folded into activity list. The panel also shows the highest rank achieved in current season.
● Eliminated players will now be shown gray in player panel.
● The player panel and post-game panel now highlights yourself.
● The chess piece list is re-sorted based on species.
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Grow Up!
● Congratulations to Tiny for winning this week's least wins prize!
● Increased Tiny's base health from 650/1300/2600 to 650/1400/3000. Tiny★★ and Tiny★★★ now have a increased model size as well.

● Now players with a 5x/8x/10x win streak will have their nameboard highlighted accordingly (yellow, orange and red). Player who terminates a Nx (N>=5) win steak by defeating the victim in his home battle now receives a $N bonus reward.
● Item Change: Divine Rapier now provides +300 damage. If the owner of Divine Rapier fails a home battle, it drops to another random player.
● New item added: Poor Man's Shield (Stout Shield x2), blocks 20 damage.
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Balance Updates
● (2) Priests' Barrier now compensates offerings when receiving more than 8 Couier damage, instead of 8 or more.
● Slightly adjusted Aqirs' Infection algorithm: now it has a higher chance to summon an Aqir piece whose level is equal to the highest level among the same-named pieces.(Double weightage compared to other situations)
● Increased Crystal Maiden's Arcane Aura pulse mana regeneration from 8/12/20 to 10/15/25.
● Increased Sven's base attack cooldown from 1.5 to 1.6.
● Balanced Venomancer's Plague Ward cooldown from 4/4/5 to 4/4/6 seconds.
● Balanced Enigma's Midnight Pulse percentage damage from 6/9/13 to 6/8/12.
● Increased Oracle's Fate's Edict projectile speed from 600 to 800.
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Bug Fixes
● Fixed a bug with Batrider, Tiny and Pudge's abilities taking effect over each other and causing glitches.
● Fixed a bug with Batrider's Firefly taking an incorrect ability slot.
● Fixed a bug with giving consumables to chess pieces, or items to summoned units and causing them to vanish. Now chess pieces will drop any unusable items at the end of each round.

● fix aqir description

● Maps for Ranked matches are now available for S3.
● Aqirs' Infection now summons a random Aqir piece with the level approximates to the highest level among the same-named pieces, instead of equal to.
● Nyx Assassin is now treated as Level 4/6/8 when summoned from Infection and has his attributes balanced. Due to the outstanding performance of his ability, Nyx Assassin is likely to join the chess piece roster as a $4 piece in future patches. (Sand King: How dare you steal my throne?)
● Fixed a bug which Venomancer's Plague Wards having an unexpectedly low damage.
● Many of our fans and players expressed confusions towards the new Aqir synergy as well as new Ranked rewards system. Here we prepared an FAQ list for your reference towards such questions.
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[Aqir synergy and S3 rewards FAQs]

Q: Can the summoned units (such as Treants and Lycan Wolves) be Infected by Aqirs?
A: No. The synergy effects in DAC are applied to chess pieces at the start of the battle, and will not do so during a battle. Technically the summoned units do not benefit from Class or Species synergies except for the Beast synergy which specifically mentioned summoned units.

Q: Does 'Highest level among same-named pieces' refer to the starred rank?
A: No. Each unit in DAC has a level (1~9) as it does in DOTA2 and can be found at the bottom left corner of the portrait. e.g. Sand King★ is level 3 and Zeus★★★ is level 9.

Q: What are the possible pieces to be randomly summoned from Infection at each level?
A: Based on the latest rule, the pieces available corresponding to each level are as follows:
Level 1: Sand King★, Venomancer★
Level 2: Sand King★, Venomancer★, Nyx Assassin★
Level 3: Sand King★, Venomancer★, Nyx Assassin★, Sand King★★, Venomancer★★
Level 4: Nyx Assassin★, Sand King★★, Venomancer★★, Nyx Assassin★★
Level 5: Sand King★★, Venomancer★★, Nyx Assassin★★, Sand King★★★, Venomancer★★★
Level 6: Nyx Assassin★★, Sand King★★★, Venomancer★★★, Nyx Assassin★★★
Level 7: Sand King★★★, Venomancer★★★, Nyx Assassin★★★
Level >=8: Nyx Assassin★★★

Q: Why does my End-of-Season reward for S2 is not based on my highest Rank in the season?
A: The new rule 'EoS reward is given based on the highest rank in the season' starts from S3. S2 EoS reward is still based on your ultimate Rank at the last day.

Q: So by the new EoS rule in S3, does it mean that I can claim the rewards for Top 20 Queen if I have made it to Top 20 once?
A: No. The highest Rank you achieved will be Queen. Top 20 badge reward is only given to players on the final Top 20 list.

Q: Give Ogre Magi!!
A: Since Sand King has overtaken Ogre Magi just before the vote closed, we put him back first. But no worries, Ogre Magi is coming back soon with explendid rework!

● bug fix

『Return of the King』
● The dominator of the boundless desert, Crixalis has returned to our roster.

● The last day of S2 (08/31) will be the off-season day to award the excellent players. Click the Claim Reward button on leaderboard panel to receive your rewards! Ranked games played on the day do not contribute to your rankings. The new season S3 - Kobold kicks off on September 1st!
● The DAC Pass exclusive quest [Googie Egg Hatch] has been extended. You can continue your progress for the unique Courier in the new season.
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New Piece and Species, Change of Season
● New Piece: Oracle($2 God Priest. Ability: Fate's Edict - Oracle enraptures an enemy, disarming it and granting 100% physical damage resistance.)
● Returning Piece: Sand King($3 Aqir Assassin. Ability: Burrowstrike - Sand King burrows into the ground and tunnels forward, damaging and stunning enemies above him as he resurfaces.)
● Venomancer is now Aqir instead of Beast
● New Species Trait: Aqir - Infection ((4) Aqirs effect coming soon)
(2) Aqirs: Upon the death of any non-Aqir ally, if there is any friendly piece of the same name on the chessboard, summon a random Aqir piece whose level is equal to the highest level of the pieces sharing the same name as the dying one.
● Temporarily removed Slardar and QoP from the piece pool. They will be back soon after rework.

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Balance Updates on synergies
● Priest - Barrier: ((2) Priests effect added)
(1) Priest: Grants your Courier a holy barrier that reduces 20% of Courier damage taken.
(2) Priests: When losing a home battle and taking 8 Courier damage or more, grants a random offering.
● God - Overweening Superiority: (The effect now works individually on qualified pieces as how it does with Dragon synergy)
(2) Gods: All Gods and allies with no active Species Traits have -50% ability cooldown.
(4) Gods: All Gods and allies with no active Species Traits have -50% ability cooldown.
● Beast - Power of the Wild: (10%/20%/30% bonus damage previously. Removed (6) Beasts effect.)
(2) Beasts: All allies have +15% attack damage, including summoned units.
(2) Beasts: All allies have +25% attack damage, including summoned units.
● Knight - Divine Protection: (30%/30%/30% proc chance previously)
(2) Knights: All friedly knights have 35% chance to proc a damage-reducing shield for 3 sec.
(4) Knights: All friedly knights have 25% chance to proc a damage-reducing shield for 3 sec.
(6) Knights: All allies have 25% chance to proc a damage-reducing shield for 3 sec.
● Warrior - Fortified Armor: (5/7/9 bonus armor previously)
(3) Warriors: All friendly warriors have +7 armor.
(6) Warriors: All friendly warriors have +5 armor.
(9) Warriors: All friendly warriors have +11 armor.
● Undead - Horror: (3/5/7 armor reduction previously)
(2) Undeads: All enemies suffer -4 armor.
(4) Undeads: All enemies suffer -4 armor.
(6) Undeads: All enemies suffer -6 armor.