Release 2.5

## New Hero: Yi-Lin

Yi-Lin is a quick, melee hero who uses her twin swords to devastating effect. Her use of combos can deal devastating damage as well as provide regeneration making her a true force to be reckoned with.Yi-Lin is not just any accomplished fighter. This woman out of time was the greatest and most loyal warrior fighting in service of her friend, Chang’E, Empress of the White Tiger Empire. In centuries past, the White Tiger Empire and its allies were threatened by certain destruction as orcs and other invaders poured into their kingdoms from the Dark World. Seeing no other solution, the dwarves of Thuricvod evacuated the stone halls of their home on Centre. Fleeing to the safety of their homeworld and collapsing the portals behind them to cut off the invading forces left the White Tiger Empire with few options for its defense and even fewer allies.

Desperate for a solution to protect her people and preserve her empire, Chang’E forged new alliances and agreed to share her powerful rift magic in exchange for the White Tiger Empire’s relocation into the clouds in a bargain with the Jade Rabbits. But the Empire’s preservation came at a high cost for Yi-Lin. Left behind as the eternal guardian of the final rift to the reborn Cloud Tiger Empire, Yi-Lin transformed into the Jade Sentinel she had previously been in name only and began her watch over the Lotus Temple.

For over one thousand years Yi-Lin stood vigilant, waiting. Now a shadowy figure known only as “Reve” has unleashed unstable rifts on the Lotus Temple, renewing the ancient assault on the White Tiger Empire with the hope of reaching their new empire in the clouds. Yi-Lin, the Jade Sentinel has awoken to defend Centre once more against the hordes of orcs, soldiers, and her old enemies – the Wu Xing Dynasty.

Learn more in our Designing Yi-Lin blog!
## New Faction: Wu Xing - Masters of the Five Elements

* **Wu Xing Soldiers:**These soldiers come in four forms: light, medium, heavy, and ranged.  All of the soldiers have magic armor, making physical damage optimal in defeating them.
* **Terracotta Giant:**These slow-moving stone giants do not attack players.  Instead, they perform a steady march to the rift, slowing any player that gets too close.
* **Red Panda:** Despite being called the Red Panda, these minions are actually blue!  Be careful, these minions cast a powerful speed buff on allied minions.
* **Water Dragon:**This hunter minion focuses on players.  Unlike other Hunter minions, this minion has a splash attack, damaging all players within a cone in front of him.
* **Elemental Mages:** These mages throw bouncing orbs of elemental energy.

## New Battlegrounds

**Water Garden - Survival (Apprentice and Master)**

The water gardens of the White Tiger Empire appear to be closest to the first attacks by the Wu Xing Dynasty.  Defend three breaches to the best of your ability without too much help from wall traps.

****Castle Gates - ****Survival (Master and Rift Lord) and Endless********Breaching the Castle Gates is a solid strategy for the Wu Xing Dynasty.  Once inside, defending this open map will be a challenge.  Funneling the front gates to one side is imperative.

****Midnight Market - ****Survival (Warmage and Rift Lord) and Sabotage********These marketplaces of the White Tiger Empire are popular night spots.  This seems to be exactly why the Wu Xing Dynasty has chosen to attack them so aggressively.

## New Feature: Discord Integration (PC only)

Discord has remained one of the most popular modes of communication for OMD!U.  This integration will make communication and community building easier than ever!

## New Feature: Weekly Challenge Matchmaking

The community has requested this feature for quite a while.  We are happy to deliver this highly anticipated feature!

**New: Imperial Skins**New themed skins have been added for Tundra, Ivy, Midnight, Smolder, and Hogarth.

**New Guardian: Jade Empire Guardian**This new guardian is available in Warmage, Master, and Rift Lord chests.

Immobilizes enemies for 2 seconds when attacking them.  Provides 3 coin per second to nearby allies while in combat.

**Dashboard:**

* The dashboard has been re-skinned for the launch of the Wu Xing Battles expansion.
* Notification badge logic has been updated.  You'll see fewer and more relevant badges in the dashboard.
* The chat UI has been overhauled.  The new design features time stamps, channel notifications, and easier browsing of chat channels. (PC only)

**Quests/Achievements:**

* New Quests have been added for Deadeye and Yi-Lin
* New Achievements have been added for Deadeye, Yi-Lin, and Cygnus.

## Balance Updates

**General:**

* Restricted Section and Temple Graveyard (Warmage) have been made less challenging.
* Crogon Keep and Eventide Stables (Master) have been made less challenging.
* Apprentice and Warmage Banquet Hall has been made less challenging during early waves in Sabotage.
* First wave of Warmage Restricted Section has been made easier in Sabotage.
* Rift Lord Baths has been made more challenging in Sabotage.

**Chaos Trials:**

* The following modifiers have been made *less* common:
	+ Persistent Barricade Rubble
	+ No Health Drops
	+ No Mana Drops
	+ Additional Northmun Archers
	+ Ice, Fire, Arcane, Lightning, and Physical Armor
	+ Rugged Runners
* The following modifiers have been made *more* common:
	+ Double Rift Points
	+ 5 Rift Points
	+ Additional Firefiend Runners
	+ Slow Minions
* "Additional Rift Points" will now be paired with easier modifiers, on average.
* "Coin Drain" rate has been reduced by 15%.
* "Additional Order Mages" will no longer roll on Apprentice and Warmage Chaos Keys.

**Firelings:**

* Health reduced by 70%.
* Speed reduced by 30%.
* Now only spawn 1 Fireling when a Fire Elemental dies.
* Now more reliably wait 1 second before detonating.
* When spawning directly from a door, firelings will now play a spawn sound.
*Developer Comment: Firelings were always intended to attack barricades, but when we fixed the bug in the last patch, they became far too powerful.  These changes pull back on the strength of firelings dramatically.*

**Oziel:**

* Soul collection radius increased 75%.
* Fixed an issue where the "Jagged Shards" weaver upgrade was not providing the correct amount of damage.

**Sabotage:**

* Teleportation Staff teleport delay reduced to 3 seconds (from 5).
* Teleportation Staff will now expire after 90 seconds, regardless of whether or not it is destroyed.
*Developer Comment: This change allows the teleportation staff to be useful, even when a teammate does not have a consumable to apply control effects to an enemy.  In addition, in order to allow melee heroes to deal with this staff, it will now expire after 90 seconds, if not killed.*
* Minions summoned via consumables no longer reward coin or experience.  Base bounties increased in Sabotage to compensate.
*Developer Comment: This change helps create comebacks by making powerful cards more powerful.  In addition, this change also helps solve some inadvertent/unfun strategies that would result in neither team sending minions until sudden death.*

**Bug Fixes:**

* Elemental minions will no longer replicate when killed by being knocked off the map.  However, after we fixed this bug, we noticed that many maps need their kill volumes to be updated.  As a result, this can still occur, but it will happen much less frequently.  Expect more updates in the future.
* Fixed an issue where the Serpent Guardian was still being listed as promotional.
* Fixed an issue with Tundra's Stay Frosty weaver upgrade not providing damage over time.
* Fixed an issue where resurrected minions would not have the correct amount of health.
* Fixed an issue where matches could not be restarted if the dashboard was closed.
* Fixed an issue where the Chaos Key icon would not be shown at full opacity on the login rewards screen.
* Fixed an issue where minions that were slowed by Stinkeye's Sermon of Speed weaver would not show foot-shackle effects.
* Fixed an issue where Gabby's hair could get stuck in a falling position.
* Fixed an issue where the Arcane Bubble Blower could be activated while in mid-air.
* Fixed an issue where the icon for the "Tundra 1" quest was incorrect.
* Fixed an issue where Deadeye's fourth ability could play duplicate effects.
* Fixed an issue where Stinkeye's totems could occasionally fail to hit enemies that are in-range and visible.
* Fixed an issue where the Chaos Trial information would be shown each time the hero info panel is closed.
* Fixed an issue where the player would receive an invalid trap placement message when trying to place a trap while orbiting the camera.
* Fixed an issue where the Saw of Arctos did not display its damage type.
* Fixed an issue where the teleportation staff would not function if overlapping.
* Fixed an issue where fire trap were consuming charges faster than intended.  Balance updated to compensate.  Should not result in visible functional changes.
* Fixed an issue where community events would not always be displayed.
* Fixed an issue where Scurvy does not attack guardians.
* Fixed an issue where chest descriptions could overlap quantity descriptions.
* Fixed an issue where killing a Chaos Crystal near an environmental trap with lightning damage would cause the server to crash.
* Fixed an issue where Smolder's primary attack could not trigger the swinging mace on Throne Room.
* Fixed an issue where Chaos Trial wins would provide stars for achievements.
* Fixed an issue where Sabotage consumables could be used during a go-break.
* Fixed an issue where the Dashboard would occasionally force players to reconnect to non-matchmade games.
* Fixed an issue where Temper's Happy Place weaver was not providing a speed boost.
* Fixed an issue where Deadeye's Deadlier-Eye weaver upgrade was not providing the full bonus to damage.