● 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.

● Warlock - Soul Leech: (10%/20%/30% previously)
(2) Warlocks: All allies have +15% lifesteal and +15% spell lifesteal.
(4) Warlocks: All allies have +15% lifesteal and +15% spell lifesteal.
(6) Warlocks: All allies have +30% lifesteal and +30% spell lifesteal.
● Elf - Evasion: (20%/20%/20% previously)
(3) Elves: All friendly Elves have +25% evasion.
(6) Elves: All allies have +15% evasion.
(9) Elves: All allies have +45% evasion.
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Item changes
● Energy Booster: Decreased mana gain at start of the battle from 50 to 40.
● Arcane Boots: Decreased：Decreased mana gain at start of the battle from 50 to 40, mana restoration from 25 to 20 when used.
● Mango: Random mana restoration now ranges from 1 to your current Courier level.
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Bug fixes
● Players who have multiple badges can now select them on team select panel.
● Fixed a bug causing the summoned units remaining on the board for too long.
● Fixed a bug which 2 Summoning Stones can be stacked and resulting in only 1 remained.

Are we going to have an Arcana? Certainly!
● New items: Boots of Speed, Enengy Booster, Tranquil Boots, Arcane Boots
● Move System reworked: Chess pieces will move according to their movement speed (Initial 500), and move will be replaced by jump if any boot equipped, pieces will be immune to attack and abilities when jumping.
● Assassin pieces will jump to the target in their first move (Immune).
● The following abilities may affect movement speed: Walrus Punch of Tusk, Hex of Shadow Shaman, Leech Seed of Treant Protector, Plasma Field of Razor, Requiem of Souls of Shadow Fiend, Viper Strike of Viper, Stroke of Fate of Grimstroke, Elder Dragon Form of Dragon Knight(3 Stars), Call Down of Gyrocopter
● Take Aim of Dwarf modified: (2) Dwarves: All allies have 300 bonus attack range and focus on the lowest-health enemy.
● BH, CM, Furion, TA, CK, Tusk, Techies redecorated

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● Awards for S2 Googie Season:
♕Top 20 ranked Queen(on the leaderboard): Badge of Googie and normal Queen Award
♕Normal Queen: 320 Candies, Googie Crown (valid in S3),Beetlebark and Plod | Golden Aegis
♔King: 320 Candies, Beetlebark and Plod | Octarine Core
♖Rook: 160 Candies, Beetlebark and Plod | Ultimate Orb
♗Bishop: 80 Candies, Beetlebark and Plod | Gem
♘Knight: 40 Candies
♙Pawn: 20 Candies
● Chess Room will be temporarily closed on the last day August 31st, but you can still play casual games. S3 Kobold will arrive on Sep 1st!
● Ogre Magi has won in both TI9 Arcana vote and Auto Chess Most Wanted Returning Piece, he will return soon in the new Season!