The dark bargain is struck. Today through December 7th, the Nemesis Assassin Event will allow all heroes a unique opportunity to earn trophies and items. During each day of the event, contracts will be put out on the life of those heroes listed on Oracle’s Nemesis Registry, and these contracts can either be Fulfilled or Denied during the course of the match.

Owners of the Manifold Paradox Arcana will enjoy many custom upgrades to their specialized assassin, including an evolving weapon and a kill marker to show the location of their kills, but it’s important to remember that the hunter easily becomes the hunted, so rewards can be earned by all who participate successfully in the event.

You’ll also be able to purchase the Treasure of the Defender’s Vision, which includes mythical items. Or you can earn this treasure by using the charm and making three correct victory predictions. Visit the update page to see the Nemesis Assassin Event explained in detail. Will your favorite hero make the list?

An enigmatic new hero strides onto the battlefield. Oracle is coming to let you seize the fates of both friend and foe. Prefer to deal a deadlier destiny? Phantom Assassin's new arcana, the Manifold Paradox, is available for preorder, and will be on sale for 20% off until December 7th. Learn about the Nemesis Assassin Event in Day 3 of the Foreseer’s Contract update, arriving this week!

An enigmatic new hero strides onto the battlefield. Oracle is coming to let you seize the fates of both friend and foe. Prefer to deal a deadlier destiny? Phantom Assassin's new arcana, the Manifold Paradox, is available for preorder, and will be on sale for 20% off until December 7th. Learn about the Nemesis Assassin Event in Day 3 of the Foreseer’s Contract update, arriving this week!

A mysterious figure, a ruthless assassin, and an infinite number of possibilities. The Foreseer’s Contract is coming soon. Head to the update page to get your first peek at a deal with incalculable ramifications, then come back next week to learn more.

Meanwhile, the Dota 2 Workshop has been redesigned to include a voting queue, which will make it easier for Dota workshop users to discover new items to vote on, as well as let us on the Dota team know which items you’d like to see shipped in-game.

The new design will also make it easier to browse new item submissions by authors you follow, find out what your friends are favoriting, and receive Workshop-related updates from the Dota 2 team. Workshop authors should now mark their sets as "sets" in the "edit collection" page, as this will give us a better opportunity to showcase your item sets.

So once you’re done reading The Contract, be sure to head over to the Dota 2 Workshop and start voting!

A mysterious figure, a ruthless assassin, and an infinite number of possibilities. The Foreseer’s Contract is coming soon. Head to the update page to get your first peek at a deal with incalculable ramifications, then come back next week to learn more.

Meanwhile, the Dota 2 Workshop has been redesigned to include a voting queue, which will make it easier for Dota workshop users to discover new items to vote on, as well as let us on the Dota team know which items you’d like to see shipped in-game.

The new design will also make it easier to browse new item submissions by authors you follow, find out what your friends are favoriting, and receive Workshop-related updates from the Dota 2 team. Workshop authors should now mark their sets as "sets" in the "edit collection" page, as this will give us a better opportunity to showcase your item sets.

So once you’re done reading The Contract, be sure to head over to the Dota 2 Workshop and start voting!

- Match Ready dialog now works when in a bot match.
- Fixed effects attached to Whale Blade, Kantusa and several other items not always drawing properly
- Improved network performance with various muli-target attacks (like Cleave)
- Various Phantom Assassin ambient weapon effects have been fixed.
- Fixed a bug that could cause low end settings to not display effects properly
- Wards with auras such as Juggernaut’s healing ward, Tusk’s Sigil, Pugna’s Netherward, etc. will now properly stop ambient effects when they expire or are killed.
- Fixed Phoenix not being pickable in CD
- Various pathing fixes
- Enabled creation of local lobbies with 5v5 bots
- Fixed hero guide submission.
- Fixed a bug with the Terrorblade Arcana where the portrait colors would be wrong after respawning.
- Fixed a bug with the Terrorblade Arcana where Terrorblade would lose his wings after respawning in some cases, such as after swapping from a player who didn't own the arcana.
- Fixed a bug that caused customized particle effects spawned by animations, like Juggernaut's critical hit, to only show the default.

* Reworked how broadcaster voice audio is managed in DotaTV and replays to keep audio more in sync and also improve the experience when variable latency or high packet loss are involved.

The current item drop system doesn't function well as a reward mechanism. It drops many items on players who aren't interested in them (the items are extremely common, or they're for a hero the player doesn't play), and in the process dilutes the value of the items. We'd like to get to a place where dramatically fewer uninteresting items enter the economy. We don't have a complete solution yet, so we're going to move forward step by step, taking feedback from you as we go.

- Item drops are now entirely time based instead of level based.
Drop list now includes full sets, treasures, bundles and Arcanas at a rare rate instead of frequently dropping common items
- Battle boosters have been removed from the game entirely (we actually removed them from the store in September).
Players with an active battle booster will receive a free Treasure of the Rotted Gallows.
Players who had an unused purchased battle booster in their armory will receive a free Treasure Redemption Token.

- A new treasure, the "Treasure of the Rotted Gallows" has been added to the game.
Treasure Redemption Tokens and other items that can be redeemed for treasures can select this new treasure.
International 2013 Treasure Keys may now be redeemed for treasures.
The items in this treasure can be traded/marketed in 3 months (February 1, 2015).
The rare rewards from this treasure are not subject to the trade or marketing restriction.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed custom Pudge chains not appearing on both sides.
- Fixed unusual Greevils not having their particle effects.
- Fixed alternate hero icons not showing consistently in the UI
- Buyback button now only accepts left clicks.

* Fixed various bugs related to Path Finding
* Captain's Draft no longer has any restricted heroes
* Fixed a bug with how the waves in Requiem of Souls calculate the area near the center

- Over the past week we've been rolling out a new mechanism for releasing updates. Download sizes will now be smaller and restarting the client will only be required when the update has dependencies on it.
- Fixed League games (without a ticket) not showing up properly in the Live Games tab
- Fixed some recent issues in Local Lobbies