In every age, there are great warriors that stand head and shoulders above the rest, inspiring their comrades through their exceptional skill and determination. Players will be able to harness a bit of this power for their own nations in the next patch, when the first wave of Saga's new hero units are released.

Not only do these soldiers possess novel special abilities that will help to open up new battle strategies, but they also have a secondary passive ability that provides a buff to nearby friendly units and increases the overall effectiveness of your normal troops. Only one hero can be fielded at a time, but with proper use, these single-troop units can become a valuable asset to your army. Six faction-specific heroes will be released this patch (but keep an eye out for more in the future).

Special: Airdrop- launches Ivan to the target destination, doing 200 damage in 15m to enemies upon landing Aura: Light Step- increases speed of nearby melee units by 20%

Special: Stunshot- the next successful attack will stun the target for 5 seconds Aura: True Flight- increases range of nearby ranged units by 15%

Special: Hostile Takeover- capture the targetted building. 30m range Aura: +5% DR to nearby friendly units

Special: Grapeshot- 500 damage in cone area in front of Ghertazzid, 20m range Aura: Vampire- heals for a portion of damage done

Special: Slaying- deals 200% damage for 10 seconds Aura: Beserk blood- special abilities cool down 20% faster

Special: Disarm- attack range of targeted ranged unit is decreased by 95% Aura: Rapid Slaying- melee speed increased by 30%

Itching to get your hands on a hero? You can purchase exactly the one you want through the Saga Store and ensure that you're prepared to take on whatever your enemies can throw your way.

The more time you spend connected to Xfire while playing Saga, the higher we'll be on Xfire's Top Games list. Help us ascend the ranks and reach number one!

Xfire is an instant messaging service tailored to the specific needs of the computer gamer. Keep track of which of your friends are online and what they're playing, and even IM them to ask for help running that one heroic- all while ingame.

Players can also increase their effectiveness during team play through Xfire's voice chat feature, which allows you to instantly and easily coordinate with your buddy. Ask for reinforcements to protect your flank, synchronize your armies' attacks, or just talk smack about the enemy team and their mommas.

If you want to prove your army's superiority to the world, you can share footage of your epic battles with Xfire's video capturing and uploading service. A live video feature that allows you to broadcast or watch a game as it is being played is also in beta and will be available soon. Every wish you could get a better look at a skilled PvPer's tactics or see how somebody managed to be beat a certain quest? Here's your chance.

The magic faction is pretty awesome, and if you happen to disagree, you can be the one to tell the hulking giant made of bronze. Maybe he won't step on you. You'd be a pain to scrape off of the bottom of his shoe.

Most of the other nations have loading screen eye candy to admire while waiting for a battle to begin, but despite Magic's obvious excellence, it's gone without one for some time, now. However, that's about to change. One of our very talented artists is working on a painting to represent the dark elves' faction. Take a gander:

Saga is celebrating the holiday season with a festive quest. Players that successfully defeat the living trees in the Cursed Snow Forest will be able to take one home as a trophy and display it in their nation.

The Cursed Snow Forest is a level 10 non-repeatable quest, and can be found at coordinates 30, 110. It will be available this coming patch. Enjoy!

Many changes have been made in preparation for world World Conflict (you can read more about it here). Here are some highlights from the two most recent patches:

• Raiding now requires a player to have two fully healed mana mines on any one of their wilderness territories in order to raid another player.
• The war rhino has been added to the game.
• Using the /who command to search for nation names with spaces in them will now function
• Troops will not die for nations under level 10
• Resurrecting troops now takes Gold instead of God Favor
• Instant building repair now costs gold, stone and wood instead of god favor
• The army training, espionage, policing, and guild war features have been turned off while we make changes for World Conflict
• The spell system has been reworked to include the changes discussed in the last newsletter
• Several quests have been added, and many have been re-worked to take advtange of the new scripting system.

Version 1.45.1 Patch notes

Version 1.45.0 Patch notes

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