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

* Buyback cooldown increased from 6 to 7 minutes
* AoE Gold NWFactor reduced from 0.06/0.06/0.05/0.04/0.03 to 0.05/0.05/0.05/0.04/0.03
* AoE XP XPFactor reduced from 0.3/0.3/0.2/0.15/0.12 to 0.23/0.23/0.2/0.15/0.12
* Mystic Flare damage is now dealt over 2.4 seconds instead of 2.2 seconds
* Ancient Seal cooldown increased from 11 to 14
* Crypt Swarm damage rescaled from 100/175/250/300 to 75/150/225/300
* Exorcism cooldown increased from 135 to 145
* Juxtapose max illusions reduced from 6/8/10 to 5/7/9
* Bloodrage now only amplifies for half of the value when the dealer and the receiver are over 2200 range apart
* Primal Split cast time increased from 0.4 to 0.65 seconds
* Primal Split delay after cast time (while invulnerable) reduced from 0.85 to 0.6 seconds
* Ethereal Blade projectile speed increased from 1100 to 1200
* Song of the Siren cast point increased from 0.65 to 0.8 seconds
* Guardian Angel no longer provides HP Regeneration
* Metamorphosis movement speed reduced from 315 to 290
* Conjure Image damage intake increased from 300% to 425%
* Sunder no longer interrupts the target
* Sunder cast range increased from 250 to 325
* Haunt illusion outgoing damage decreased from 40% to 30%
* Spectre movement speed reduced from 295 to 290
* Chronosphere cooldown increased from 120/100/80 to 130/110/90
* Eye of the Storm Scepter interval increased from 0.55/0.45/0.35 to 0.6/0.5/0.4
* Static Link cooldown increased from 25 to 32/30/28/26
* Flaming Fists damage type changed from Magical to Pure (pierces Spell Immunity)
* Flaming Fists damage reduced from 100/150/200 to 80/115/150

* Fixed a Meepo item exploit.

* Fixed various methods by which the IP of the game server you are playing on could be revealed to a third party.

* In the latest Steam Beta client, your IP is no longer revealed via unaccepted Voice Call requests.

* The Game Info feature on the Steam Friends List no longer shows the IP of the gameserver you are on.

* League games will now automatically pause when any player disconnects. It will remain paused for up to 24 hours if all players are disconnected.

* Local lobby league games can now be viewed through DotaTV. However, this is recommended only as a backup solution for league administrators, as locally generated replays are not fully integrated with the league system. This will be on the Test Client first and then merged to the Main Client next week.

* Customers who purchased an ESL One NY or WCA ticket will receive a free Treasure Redemption Token for each ticket.

* We've worked with the ESL team to collect the replays for yesterday's games that weren't broadcast through DotaTV. Replays are available here: http://cdn.dota2.com/apps/dota2/posts/ESL_One_NY_Local_Replays.zip

* The Singapore maintenance window will be moved from next week to later this month. Further details will be announced here as they are available: http://www.dota2.com/maintenance/

* Made improvements to server network performance
* Added two new matchmaking regions in South America (Chile and Peru)
* Removed Captains Draft mode from ranked matchmaking. There were too few players in this mode which caused excessive wait times, imbalanced matches, and potential for MMR abuse.

The Singapore matchmaking region will be undergoing some changes next week. There will be a maintenance period from the 13th until the 16th Singapore time. On the 14th the region will be entirely unavailable, and during the other times it will be operating under limited capacity (fewer servers available for usage). We will be rebuilding the clusters on new server hardware and retiring the old server hardware. On the network side, we will be improving the router architecture, as it is currently too susceptible to packet loss under high load.

- Fixed Ranked Matchmaking not obeying its level restriction
- Fixed a rare bug that allowed you to teleport and be stunned at the same time
- Fixed the hitbox for the Neokin Faierie Wards
- Added stack counter for the Flak Cannon buff