Dota 2 Auto Chess is preparing for a new update and according to a few leaks found on the test servers earlier today, the game will see a few new additions and a couple of items and Chess Pieces balance changes.

User experience, visual effect changes:

– Optimization on map pre-load. The level-up of certain pieces will no longer cause FPS drop.

– All players’ courier level and current gold will be displayed on the left sidebar of your courier. Also, your current opponent icon will be displayed.

– Certain players will receive a visual effect above their courier. Judging on the fact that visual effect is a crown, we assume that this will be available only for the Queen ranked players and perhaps for the King ranked ones too.

Balance changes:

– Phantom Assassin Damage reduced from 90/180/360 to 80/160/320

– Tiny “Toss” changed to: Toss an enemy nearby, throw it to the farthest enemy (at least 3 grids away from him) or to the farthest grid and stun.

– Heart of Tarrasque changed from +1,000 Max HP, +1% Max HP regeneration per 2s  to +1200 Max HP, +10 HP Regen, +1% Max HP regeneration per second

– Scythe of Vyse hex duration changed from 5 seconds to 8 seconds  

– Battle Fury melee attacks cleave damage changed from 50% to 30% cleave damage

New couriers:

Two new couriers are to make their appearance in the next patch. Their names are for now an approximate translation from the test servers Chinese names. One is a mushroom look like named Dove and one is a Whale.

New race: Aqir

Sand King was removed from the game on the 29th of March update, but he is now mount to come back with a new race. According to the information gathered from test servers, Sand King is changed from Beast to Aqir. With the addition of this new race which comes from the World of Warcraft world, we should perhaps expect to see Nyx Assassin joining the game as well since he would perfectly fit the new Auto Chess race. In WoW, Aqirs are an insect race who dwelled in ancient Kalimdor and waged war against the Trolls. They were eventually defeated and therefore they split into three colonies: Nerubians, Qiraji, and Manti’vess.