A Tale of Two Cities: Update is LIVE

"'Who here likes good times?' asked David Copperfield as he removed his shirt and popped a whistle in his mouth with the words GOOD TIMES etched in its side. He began tooting on the whistle, signaling the beginning of the good times."

So begins Charles Dickens' feel-good sequel to The Tale of Two Cities, the 800-pageBleak House (a printing error that misspelled the book's original title Good Times Beach House). Day Two of our Two Cities Update picks up in the spirit of Dickens with 100% good times-dedicated announcements: A new animated short, another new map, some more achievements, and some long-anticipated upgrades.

What's in the box ?

This new update includes gameplay adjustments and spectator features, along with map changes driven by pro feedback.

We’re counting down the days until the 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship. Are you ready?

Don’t forget to link your Steam and Twitch accounts for a chance to receive keyless DreamHack Winter 2013 Souvenir Packages.

These keyless Souvenir Packages are the only way to get souvenir weapons, marked by one of several exclusive event stickers.

There’s more to come, so stay tuned as we approach the big event!

Three Spirits Update

Here we go!

The latest Dota 2 update introduces the three amigos: Ember Spirit, Storm Spirit and Earth Spirit, and features like Crafting, Coaching and the givin’ of the Diretide.

Storm Spirit

As a fresh young spirit, the boisterous Raijin found the Wailing Mountains too constricted for his tastes, and so set forth to stir the winds of the wider world. But no sooner had he ventured out than he found himself caught in a bungled summoning spell. An amateur elementalist named Thunderkeg had hoped to end a drought; instead he ended his mortal life, forever transfigured into the entity known as Storm Spirit.

Earth Spirit

Carved of sacred jade, a statue of general Kaolin was buried at the head of a stone army ten thousand strong'a force of soldiers, holy men and acrobats, entombed for millennia in the embrace of the soil. Within this jade flowed the spirit of the Earth itself'an elemental force at one with the planet, gathering its strength until it dug its way free. Now the great Kaolin Earth Spirit strides across the land, fighting his enemies, calling forth remnants of his buried army.

Ember Spirit

Within the Fortress of Flares rests a topaz cauldron filled with ash, a pyre for the warrior-poet Xin, who trained his acolytes in the Bonds of the Guardian Flame. Touched by the teacher's lasting legacy, the Burning Celestial, aspect of fire, cast himself to the fortress to reignite the remains. From these glowing embers emerged an image of Xin, wreathed in flame, his thoughtful countenance prepared to train and to teach, and to spread the fires of knowledge to all who seek guidance.

Plus these new features

In-Game Coaching

Teach a friend to play Dota, or invite your more experienced friend to teach you. Warm up in a one-on-one training session, and then get your entire team together for a session with a professional player. Whether you're training in matchmaking, using private lobbies, or simply helping a new player through their first bot games, we've got you covered.

Crafting and Socketing

Crafting

Get more out of your unwanted items! Use a Polymorph Recipe to transform several items of the same rarity into a whole new item, or try out an Augment Recipe to combine duplicate items into a single item of a higher rarity. Collect Recipes by playing, or by opening Ancient Scroll Cases -- where you can find Polymorph and Augment Recipes, or even rarer Recipes that generate exceptional items.

                           Soketing

Got a favorite item? Personalize it even further by adding sockets and gems. Insert a Kinetic Gem to add unique animations to your favorite sword, or grab your most prized courier and add an Ethereal or Prismatic Gem to show off new colors and effects. Get your favorite team to sign your tournament item with their Autograph Rune, and throw an Inscribed Gem in there as well to show off your best hero stats. Indecisive? Good news! Each item can hold up to five gems.

Showcase View

Appreciate the world of Dota 2 in a new way. Zoom into the field of battle and admire your hero from a new perspective, find details you never knew about on your favorite armor, and follow your courier's adventure through the dangerous wilds. Open a replay and use Showcase View to set up the perfect angle to watch a daring tower dive, or create the perfect screenshot and show off to your friends. To activate Showcase View, click the icon on the left side of your hero portrait.

Player Items

Created in collaboration with professional players, the new Player Items are the perfect way to support your favorite player. These items will keep track of Tournament games featuring your chosen player. Wear them to show the rest of the world which pro player you favor most.

New Treasures 

Treasure of Ember Essence 

Treasure of Earth Essence

Ghastly Treasure of Diretide

 User Interface

• Lanepicker added to hero selection screen
• You can now invite to trade from within Dota 2, including people you aren't friends with (privacy settings available)
• Games that are part of a best-of series are now grouped and spoiler-protected in the recent games panel
• Added set browser to Hero Picker
• Broadcasters can now specify a country and description per channel when setting up a lobby for specators
• Showcase View can be activated using the icon on the left side of your hero portrait.
• Colorblind option added
• Closed-captioning option added
• Added a "Pending Invitations" tooltip when in a party that lists outstanding party invitations
• Added Acknowledgements tab to the Library
• Fixed incorrect turn arrows when spectating Captains Mode drafts
• New convar dota_ability_legacy_mode_quick_cast causes all ability casts in Legacy keybinding mode to be Quick Casts
• You no longer need to equip pennants to have their view counts updated and count towards teams you watch live

New Player Experience

• Bots now substitute for players that leave in Limited Hero mode
• Added last hit training missions

Community

• Changed low-priority penalty metric from time-based to games played
• Added messaging popups and more indications of low-priority status in interface
• Added new survey questions about self and team cooperation

Audio

• Game Voices and Sound Effects now have separate volume sliders
• Added a damage sound to Blademail reflect (only audible to attacking player)
• Added a sound on Diffusal Blade target units
• Corrected Clockwerk's spawn line
• Fixed FoW issues with some Invoker, Crystal Maiden, and Nature's Prophet abilities
• Visage ult sound no longer stacks with number of familiars
• Bloodrage target sound now retriggers even if target is still silenced

Visuals

• New support for remnant based effects. Visual updates to Storm/Ember/Earth Spirit remnants can be applied to all wearable items and will properly mimic when Rubick steals them
• Modified Storm Spirit's effects to bring them visually in line with other Spirits

Coaching

• Anyone in a matchmaking party can specify that they'd like to coach the party instead of play. In lobbies, players can choose to coach a team instead of play or spectate. Coaches cannot be used in Team Matchmaking, or Tournament lobbies.
• Increased maximum matchmaking party size to 6, to allow a coach to teach an entire team of students (but you can't Find Match if you have 6 players with no coach)
• Coaches are able to use in-player perspective views and broadcaster tools like line drawing to teach their students. They are able to ping on the ground, the minimap, and anywhere in the HUD itself.
• Coaches are considered to be on the same team as their students, so they cannot see anything in the game that their students can't see.
• Coaches and students have private voice and text communication channels.
• Coaches can hit their 'Hero Select' key to cycle through their students.
• Coaches see spectator-style item purchase popups for their students.
• In-perspective player view now shows the correct state of more HUD elements (Shop Quickbuy, KDA/Last Hits/Denies, Buyback). These improvements apply the the in-perspective view in live games and replays, as well as coaches.

Economy

• Steam Community Market
  • This update may greatly disrupt market prices. In order to prevent items being purchased at pre-update prices for arbitrage, we are removing all item listings and returning them to their owners. While this removal process is taking place, new items will not be able to be listed on the Steam Community Market.
  • You can now list an item on the market from the armory (right click: sell on the market).
  • Armory item tooltips now contain the current lowest trading price for an item of the same class as the one highlighted. (Class is a somewhat flexible concept at the moment, so unusual courier prices will be less accurate than a specific wearable piece of equipment.)
• Crafting
  • Crafting recipes now have a chance of dropping as a bonus item. These drops do not take up your normal drops, but are in addition to them.
  • Polymorph Recipes
    • These recipes take a variable number of any input of the same rarity and output a random other item of the same rarity. Example: 2 of Any Rare => 1 Random Different Rare
  • Augment Recipes
    • These recipes take a combination of inputs of the same rarity and output a random other item of the next best rarity. Example: 1 of Any Common & 1 Wavecrester => 1 Random Uncommon
  • Ancient Scroll Case
    • A new type of Treasure Chest called the "Ancient Scroll Case" has been added. These cases drop multiple recipes when they are opened.
    • The Ancient Scroll Case has a chance to drop an Exceptional Recipe. These make items that were previously only available as Genuine quality promotional items. The recipe creates a non-genuine version of the item.
• Gems & Sockets
  • Items can now have up to 5 sockets.
    • A socket can receive a gem. Each socket can only contain one gem.
    • Some sockets require specific types of gems.
    • When a gem is added to a socket that already contains a gem, the previous gem is destroyed.
  • New Socketing Tools:
    • Artificer's Chisel: Adds a socket to an item.
    • Artificer's Hammer: Extracts the gems from an item.
  • Gem Types:
    • Kinetic Gems
      • Adds a new animation to the hero using the item.
    • Inscribed Gems
      • Adds stat tracking ability to the item similar to the old strange system.
      • The item they are added to changes to the "Inscribed" quality.
    • Ethereal Gems
      • Adds a particle effect to the item.
      • All unusual effects can now be colorized.
    • Prismatic Gems
      • Colorizes the particle effect on the effect gem.
    • Ascendant Gems
      • The Ascendant Orb, Gem of Taegeuk, and Bloodstones are now Ascendant Gems.
      • The item they are added to changes to the "Ascendant" quality. (in addition to tracking victories or gifts given as they did before).
    • Autograph Runes
      • Autographs are now Autograph Runes.
      • Allows you to tag an item with a pro player's autograph.
      • Since an item can have 5 sockets, you can now get a whole team to autograph an item.
      • The item they are added to changes to the "Autographed" quality.
    • Spectator Gems
      • Items that previously tracked 'games viewed' now contain spectator gems.
      • Spectator gems follow a specific league or team.
      • Styles that previously required 'games viewed' now require a gem with the same number of games viewed (for the correct league / player / team / etc).
    • Ethereal & Prismatic gems are used together on unusual items (couriers).
    • More types of gems will be coming in the future.
    • Unusual items do not change quality when gems are added. Non-unusual items will change in the order gems are added.
• Item Quality Keywords
  • The item quality keyword "Vintage" has been changed to "Elder".
  • The item quality keyword "Tournament" has been changed to "Heroic".
  • The item quality keyword "Haunted" has been changed to "Cursed".
  • The item quality keyword "Strange" has been changed to "Inscribed".
• Strange Items
  • Strange modifiers on items have been converted into stat tracking Inscribed Gems.
  • The stats on items are no longer wiped when an item is traded.
  • Strange modifiers that haven't been applied have been turned into 'gem packs' that grant a living stat tracking gem and a Artificer's Chisel to create a socket on an item.
  • Previously strange quality items are now have the inscribed quality.
• Unusual Paint & Colors
  • Unusual paint items have been changed into Gem Packs that will grant a gem of the same color of the old paint item when used.
  • All couriers that were painted in the past will now have color gems already installed of the appropriate color.
  • All legacy courier colors (very old drop colors, bugged colors, etc) have been preserved as color gems. If you want, you can smash the courier to recover the legacy color gem and use it on some other courier or effect combination.
  • All unusual paint items on the Steam Community Market have been delisted. You can relist the Color Gem Packs.
  • All non-legacy colors (colors that drop normally from Treasure Chests) now have specific names (i.e.: "Verdant Green"). Legacy colors will have the name "Legacy (R G B)". (Most Legacy Colors are completely unique, but there are a few where more than one of that color exist.)
  • New colors will appear on Treasure Chest unusuals from time to time moving forward. While we will avoid selecting legacy colors we cannot completely guarantee that new colors will not sometimes be similar. The 800 or so unique legacy colors in existence cover a large amount of color space.

Give Diretide !!

After the last mistake by "Volvo", that lead to cc's on Obama's, Putin's and not the least , Volvo's facebook  ... Valve has decided to respond to us , this is what they say : 

"Whenever we make a significant mistake, we spend a bunch of time looking at what happened, why it happened, and how we can fix it. Most of the time we do this privately, but in our recent mistake around Diretide, we felt sharing our analysis with you made sense. 

First, what happened - we didn't ship a Diretide event this year, and you were rightly upset about it. That was clearly a mistake, and then we compounded the problem by not telling you what was going on. 

So, why didn't we ship Diretide? 

• We have a huge update in the works that looked like it would be finished in time for Halloween. Stopping that update to work on Diretide seemed like something you would actually be unhappy with us for, because the update is pretty significant. More on that later.


• Turning on last year's Diretide event wasn't trivial. We'd done a year of work on the game which had changed our codebase, UI, and other systems enough that we would need to do some work to resurrect it.


• We underestimated how much you wanted Diretide.


• We made the decision a while ago, and failed to employ our usual process of regularly asking ourselves whether we were still on the right track. There were a bunch of people on the Dota 2 team who poked at the decision to not do it as Halloween approached, but due to how busy everyone was with our next major update, no-one really took the time to step back and objectively realise we were being collectively crazy. 

Due to our poor prediction of your reaction, and the team being focused on the next update, we didn't spend enough time thinking about talking to you about our decision. As a result, by the time we'd realized we'd made a bad decision, the pitchforks were out. 

Then, why didn't we communicate with you what was going on? 

• You were already mad and disappointed in the lack of Diretide. Telling you that you weren't getting it at all wouldn't have really helped much. Now we started thinking in terms not of "what should we say?", but in terms of "what should we do?"


• We were, and still are, confident that you'll be happy when you see what's in the next update (which isn't far away now).

Now, what is the fix? 

First, we're going to ship Diretide with the next update. The rest of the update we've been working on is in final testing, and as each of us finish up our work on it, we've been jumping over to Diretide. Second, we're pretty sure the update that we've been working on for a couple of months is going to be pretty significant. In addition, we've made a few changes to Diretide that we think makes it more fun than before. And while we always want the community to tell us exactly how we're doing, this is probably a good time to stop cc'ing innocent car manufacturers with your messages. 

Paying attention to what is happening in the community around Dota 2 is one of the most important aspects of what we do at Valve. And while we are clearly not mistake-proof, hopefully it is useful for us to walk everyone through our process for recognizing and then fixing our mistakes."

ScreamFortress is LIVE !

Ahoy, buoys and gulls, it’s almost Docktober 31st, and that means it’s time for the Fifth Annual Team Fortress Tort-urous Halloween Special, which this year is based entirely around the terrifyingly complex legal questions that haunt maritime law. AWOOOOOOOO! [Sound of receiving a jury summons]

And that horrifying description of an obviously terrible idea for a Halloween update — an idea so dreadful that we gave up on it almost fourteen hours ago — was just the FIRST of this year’s many spine-chilling, spine-tingling, all-around spinal cord-injuring shocks. We have one word of advice to those of you who survived our previous four Halloween Specials: Stop lying. These updates will kill you — GUARANTEED! [sound of our lawyers reading that sentence]

This year's Scream Fortress map is Helltower, a Payload Race variation, with at least one major difference: You're all powerful magicians. Everybody gets a spellbook gifted to them automatically, which you can equip in your Action Slot in order to pick up and cast spells. The team that wins the race will be granted a buff for the final climactic battle, where you will fight for the ultimate Halloween reward: Your own lives. And areward.

So, fear fans, it’s time to put aside your precious laws of the sea, because this yearanything can happen. Ghosts? Yes! Forbidden magic? Yes! Skeletons? Oh, yes. A Hellmouth? Obviously. A corpse? Yours. Really? Check your pulse. The murderer? You. Anyway, we’d love to sit here and shock you to death all day, but the update’s live.

CS:GO Weapon Finishes

The Counter-Strike community has a long history of creating custom content. Starting today, contributors can generate and submit their own weapon finishesto the CS:GO Workshop. Highly-rated weapon finishes have the best chance of getting included in CS:GO in an official update.

Ready to make weapon finishes? Click here for details on how to get started and access the CS:GO Workbench. You’ll find guides and tools designed to get you from your concept to a submitted finished weapon.

Not planning on making your own weapon finishes? Make your voice heard and head over to the workshop. Rate up the best finishes, and give contributors feedback on their work!

You can find all the details HERE.

6.79 is here ...

The big patch 6.79 is live , here is all the updates the game got ...

6.79 Gameplay Update

GENERAL

* Buyback prevents gaining unreliable gold (creeps, neutrals, etc) until your normal respawn time finishes

* When buying back, 25% of the remaining respawn time will be added to your next death

* Creeps now meet a bit closer to the tower in your offlane

* Ranged Heroes now get the same denied experience as melee heroes (instead of less)

* XP AoE increased from 1200 to 1300

* Non-Ancient Neutrals now split XP with all heroes in the AoE instead of just the team that killed them

* Swapped the medium pullable Neutral Camp with the small camp

* A neutral creeps camp will no longer spawn the same set of neutral creeps twice in a row

* Small reduction to the pull timing duration of the mid Radiant and mid-top Dire camp

* Satyr Mindstealer XP bounty reduced from 88 to 62

* Satyr Tormentor XP bounty reduced from 155 to 119

* Mud Golems XP bounty reduced from 119 to 88

* Mud Golems armor reduced from 4 to 2

* Dark Troll Summoner bounty XP reduced from 155 to 119

* Hellbear Smasher HP reduced from 1100 to 950

* Hellbear armor reduced from 5 to 3

* Satyr Trickster's Purge cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.2

* Fixed Neutral Envenomed Weapons debuff dispelling regen items

* Day/Night length decreased from 6 to 4 minutes

* The following heroes now have the standard 800 night vision: Drow Ranger, Mirana, Puck, Leshrac, Enchantress, Ancient Apparition, Meepo and Treant Protector

* Roshan will respawn at a random time between 8 and 11 minutes after death

* When Aegis expires unused, it heals the hero fully over 5 seconds (regen dispels on damage from players or buildings)

* Starting gold increased from 603 to 625

* Random Gold bonus reduced by 50

* Gold for ending a spree changed from 75->600 (3x->10x) to 125->1000

* Your gold income is now 1 per 0.6 seconds, up from 1 per 0.8 seconds

* Tower last hit bonus gold increased from 100-200 to 150-250

* Melee Barracks HP regen increased from 2.5 to 5

* Ranged Barracks HP regen decreased from 2.5 to 0

* Ranged Barracks HP reduced from 1500 to 1200 and armor increased from 5 to 10 (same EHP vs physical damage)

* Evasion now stacks diminishingly

* Can no longer orb-attack while attack restricted (such as Ethereal or Frostbite)

* The following abilities no longer automatically ignore backswing time by default: Rupture, Malefice, Venomous Gale, Stifling Dagger, Flamebreak, Wave of Terror, Shadow Word and Power Cogs

HEROES

Abaddon

- Base armor reduced by 1

- Myst Coil self damage increased from 50/75/100/125 to 75/100/125/150

- Aphotic Shield is now dispellable

- Borrowed Time no longer activates while Doomed

Alchemist

- Chemical Rage no longer provides 250/500/750 bonus HP

- Chemical Rage HP regen increased from 15/30/60 to 50/75/100

Ancient Apparition

- Ice Vortex cooldown reduced from 5 to 4

- Ice Blast cooldown reduced from 45 to 40

- The Chilling Touch buff is now always applied to Ancient Apparition even if he is not within the target area

- Chilling Touch cooldown reduced from 50/46/42/38 to 50/42/34/26

Axe

- Berserker's Call AoE increased from 275 to 300

- Battle Hunger duration reduced from 10/13/16/19 to 10/12/14/16

- Battle Hunger damage reduced from 15/21/27/33 to 15/20/25/30

- Battle Hunger movement speed slow/bonus increased from 8% to 10%

- Battle Hunger is now dispellable

- Counter Helix cooldown reduced from 0.55/0.5/0.45/0.4 to 0.45/0.4/0.35/0.3

- Counter Helix now hits siege units

- Culling Blade no longer goes on cooldown if it successfully kills a hero

- Culling Blade threshold reduced from 300/450/625 to 250/350/450 (Aghanim upgraded version is still 300/450/625)

- Culling Blade speed bonus increased from 25% to 40% and AoE from 600 to 900

- Culling Blade 40% speed bonus now applies to attack speed as well

- Culling Blade Aghanim allied buff duration increased from 6 to 10

- Culling Blade manacost reduced from 150/200/250 to 60/120/180

Batrider

- Base damage reduced from 48-52 to 38-42

- Vision reduced from 1400 to 1200

- Flaming Lasso cast range reduced from 175 to 100

Beastmaster

- Inner Beast AoE reduced from 1000 to 900 (standard aura AoE)

- Inner Beast attack speed rescaled from 18/26/32/40 to 15/25/35/45

- Call of the Wild now has two abilities for summoning each unit independently

- Call of the Wild manacost reduced from 25 to 15 and cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

Bloodseeker

- Base movement speed reduced from 305 to 300

- Thirst is now global instead of 6000 range

- Thirst bonus now stacks for each unit that is low HP

- Thirst HP threshold increased from 20/30/40/50% to 50%

- Thirst movement speed bonus reduced from 15/25/35/45% to 7/14/21/28%

- When Thirst is active, movement speed cap is removed on your hero

- Thirst no longer provides armor bonus

- Thirst provides bonus 7/14/21/28 damage

- Thirst no longer grants full hero vision around low HP targets, it only shows their model

- Thirst no longer lasts for an extra 3 seconds when the target is dead

Brewmaster

- Base agility increased from 16 to 22

- Drunken Haze affects a 200 AoE around the target

- Thunder Clap is now dispellable

- Primal Split selection order is now Earth/Storm/Fire

- Reworked Primal Split Aghanim upgrade.

No longer upgrades any stats, cd, duration, etc on Aghanim.

Instead, it now grants Thunderclap to Earth, Drunken Haze to Storm, and Drunken Brawler to Fire.

The skills granted are at the same level as Brewmaster's skills.

Cooldowns are independent of the original Brewmaster.

Bristleback

- Attack point improved from 0.4 to 0.3

- Viscous Nasal Goo is now dispellable

- Viscous Nasal Goo cast point improved from 0.4 to 0.3

- Warpath max stacks increased from 5 to 5/6/7

- Warpath stack duration increased from 10 to 14

Broodmother

- Spin Web AoE increased from 650 to 900

- Spin Web cast range increased from 600 to 1000

- Spin Web cast point nerfed from 0.2 to 0.4

- Spin Web no longer destroys trees

- Broodmother now has completely unobstructed movement when under the web (can walk over cliffs, trees, etc)

- Removed buffer time when leaving Spin Web (you now immediately lose your regen/movement/pathing/invis bonuses)

Centaur Warrunner

- Stampede slow duration increased from 1.25 seconds to 1.5

Chaos Knight

- Chaos Bolt damage and stun values are now inversely related

Chen

- Test of Faith teleport is now dispellable

- Hand of God cooldown increased from 140/130/120 to 160/140/120

Clinkz

- Searing Arrows damage increased from 20/30/40/50 to 30/40/50/60

- Searing Arrows manacost increased from 8 to 10

- Searing Arrows is no longer blocked by magic immunity

Clockwerk

- Units knocked back by Power Cogs destroy trees in 100 AoE around where they land

Crystal Maiden

- Freezing Field AS/MS AoE slow increased from -20/-30 to -30/-30

- Freezing Field Scepter AS/MS AoE slow increased from -50/-30 to -50/-50

Dark Seer

- Vacuum cooldown increased from 24 to 28

Dazzle

- Weave duration rescaled from 12/18/24 to 20

- Weave armor per second rescaled from 1 to 0.75/1/1.25 (scepter is 1/1.25/1.5)

- Poison Touch damage increased from 8/16/24/32 to 14/20/26/32 (7 seconds worth)

- Poison Touch is now dodgeable

- Poison Touch slow timings reworked

Previous Poison Touch:

=========================

Lvl 1

Slow target by 33% for 1 second

Lvl 2

Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second

Lvl 3

Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second

Lvl 4

Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second

Ministuns for 0.01 seconds at the start.

New Poison Touch:

==================

Lvl 1

Slow target by 33% for 3 seconds

Lvl 2

Slow target by 33% for 2 seconds, then slow target by 66% for 1 second

Lvl 3

Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then slow target by 100% for 1 second

Lvl 4

Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second

Ministuns for 0.01 seconds at the start.

Death Prophet

- Exorcism Spirit damage increased from 43-48 to 53-58

- Fixed max Spirits being capped at 23 instead of 27

Disruptor

- Kinetic Field AoE increased from 300 to 325

- Glimpse cooldown reduced from 60/50/40/30 to 65/50/35/20

- Static Storm AoE increased from 375 to 450

- Static Storm max damage increased from 170/220/270 to 200/250/300

- Added Aghanim's upgrade: Static Storm silences items, and lasts an extra 2 seconds

Doom

- Doom cooldown reduced from 110 to 100

- Doom now removes positive buffs on the target before applying the debuff

- Doom Aghanim AoE requirement increased from 550 to 900

This is the AoE that is considered when freezing the duration of Aghanim upgraded Doom.

Drow Ranger

- Precision Aura damage ratio increased from 16/20/24/28% to 18/24/30/36%

- Precision Aura no longer affects creeps

- Precision Aura can now be manually casted to affect creeps globally for 30 seconds (120 cd)

- Marksmanship attribute negation AoE increased from 375 to 400

Earthshaker

- Enchant Totem damage increased from 75/150/225/300% to 100/200/300/400%

- Fissure range increased by 100

Elder Titan

- Ancestral Spirit damage reduced from 120/160/200/240 to 80/120/160/200

Enigma

- Midnight Pulse dps increased from 3/4/5/6% to 4/5/6/7%

- Added Aghanim's upgrade: Adds Midnight Pulse damage to your Black Hole. This damage stacks with Midnight Pulse.

Enchantress

- Untouchable attack speed slow increased from 20/50/80/110 to 30/60/90/120

Faceless Void

- Timewalk slow rescaled from 25/30/35/40% to 20/30/40/50%

- Chronosphere AoE increased from 400 to 450

Huskar

- Agility reduced from 20 + 2.4 to 15 + 1.4

- Berserker's Blood is now disabled by Doom

Invoker

- EMP restores Invoker for 50% of the mana it drains from heroes (excluding illusions)

- Invoke Max Spells rescaled from 1/2/2/2 to 2

Io

- Tether now does a -100% MS/AS slow instead of a stun

Jakiro

- Liquid Fire is now a castable Attack Orb (same cooldown, no mana cost)

Juggernaut

- Healing Ward movement speed increased from 300 to 450

- Omnislash Scepter cooldown reduced from 110/100/90 to 70

- Omnislash no longer stops if the target is Ethereal (it still doesn't do damage)

- Fixed not being able to use items during Omnislash

Keeper of the Light

- Blinding Light now destroys trees in a 150 AoE around where the target is pushed

Kunkka

- X Marks The Spot cooldown reduced from 16 to 13

- Ghost Ship damage increased from 350/450/550 to 400/500/600

Leshrac

- Diabolic Edict cast point improved from 0.7 to 0.5

- Pulse Nova scepter damage increased from 88/133/177 to 100/150/200

Lich

- Frost Armor has half effect against ranged heroes

- Frost Armor slow now stacks with the slow from Frost Nova

- Sacrifice cooldown increased from 35/30/25/20 to 44/36/28/20

- Sacrifice mana gain increased from 15/30/45/60% to 25/40/55/70%

- Sacrifice no longer denies enemy XP

- Sacrifice now converts your own creep for XP (shared in AoE as normal creep xp bounty)

Lifestealer

- Rage cooldown increased from 17 to 19

- Open Wounds and Infest cast points increased from 0.01 to 0.2

Lina

- Attack range increased from 635 to 650

Lion

- Mana Drain duration increased from 4 to 5

- Hex cooldown increased from 15 to 30/25/20/15

- Hex duration increased from 1.75/2.5/3.25/4 to 2.5/3/3.5/4

Lone Druid

- Base movement speed increased from 315 to 325 (still 280 in True Form)

- Spirit Bear XP bounty increased from 196 to 300

Luna

- Moon Glaive can now bounce back on the same units if it already hit all other units nearby

- Moon Glaive bounce damage reduced from -30% to -35%

- Eclipse Scepter beam count limit per target removed

Lycanthrope

- Armor increased by 1 (Shapeshift total armor is still the same as before)

- Base damage increased by 5

- Howl bonus damage for non-hero units increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20

- Wolves magic resistance increased from 50% to 80%

Magnus

- Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.8

Medusa

- Mystic Snake now does Pure damage to units in Stone Form

Meepo

- Base armor reduced by 1

- Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.65

- Earthbind cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

- Divided We Stand leveling rebalanced from 6/11/16 to 4/11/18

- Removed 30% stat sharing on non-aghanim Divided We Stand

Mirana

- Leap AoE AS/MS speed bonus is granted at the cast location rather than the destination

- Leap AoE AS bonus increased from 4/8/12/16 to 8/16/24/32

Morphling

- Morph level 4 shift rate improved from 0.25 to 0.2

Naga Siren

- Rip Tide AoE reduced from 450 to 350

- Ensnare manacost increased from 75/85/95/105 to 90/100/110/120

Nature's Prophet

- Treants' XP Bounty increased from 20 to 30

- Treants' Gold Bounty increased from 12-16 to 14-20

Necrolyte

- Base armor increased by 1

Night Stalker

- Darkness causes enemy vision to be reduced by 25% (affects heroes, creeps and wards)

Nyx Assassin

- Spiked Carapace no longer stuns your hero when your summoned units proc it (the summoned units get stunned instead)

- Impale no longer has unit targeting, it is now only a point targeted spell

Ogre Magi

- Ignite duration increased from 4/5/6/7 to 5/6/7/8

- Ignite is now dodgeable

- Ignite can now multicast to cast at a random enemy unit in 1400 AoE (prioritizes ones that do not already have the debuff)

- Unrefined Fireblast cooldown reduced from 10 to 6

Omniknight

- Degen Aura AoE increased from 315 to 350

- Degen Aura stickiness increased from 0.5 seconds to 1.0

Outworld Devourer

- Base damage reduced by 3

- Items no longer trigger Essence Aura

Phantom Assassin

- Stifling Dagger shares the same crit chance/factor as Coup de Grace

- Stifling Dagger is now dodgeable

- Stifling Dagger damage rescaled from 50/100/150/200 to 60/100/140/180

Phantom Lancer

- Spirit Lance is now dodgeable

Pudge

- Can now use Blink Dagger

- If you hook a unit onto an unpathable ledge, the unit gains free pathing for 5 seconds

- Flesh Heap magic resistance reduced from 4/8/12/16% to 6/8/10/12%

- Dismember Scepter strength multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.0

Pugna

- Decrepify damage amp on allies reduced from 40% to 25%

- Decrepify damage amp on enemies increased from 40% to 50%

- Nether Ward now requires 3 hits to kill instead of 75/150/225/300 HP (heroes hurt it for 1, others for 0.25)

- Life Drain restores mana if it tries to heal you while you are full hp when targeting heroes

Queen of Pain

- Shadow Strike manacost rescaled from 80/100/120/140 to 110

Riki

- Smoke Screen cast range increased from 425 to 550

- Riki is no longer revealed out of Permanent Invisibility when he casts spells or uses items

When he starts his attack from Blink Strike, he will be revealed

Rubick

- Telekinesis cooldown increased from 18 to 22

- Rubick can no longer steal the Aghanim upgrade of the enemy if they have Aghanim and he doesn't

- Added Aghanim's upgrade: reduces cooldown from 20/18/16 to 5, increases cast range from 1000 to 1400 and makes all stolen spells be considered to have their Aghanim's upgrade

Sand King

- Sand Storm dps increased from 20/40/60/80 to 25/50/75/100

- Epicenter attack speed slow is now same as movement speed slow (10%->30%)

Shadow Demon

- Shadow Poison AoE increased from 180 to 190

Shadow Shaman

- Mass Serpent Ward count increased from 8 to 10

- Changed Mass Serpent Ward placement structure

Silencer

- Intelligence Steal is an innate part of the hero rather than an element of Glaives of Wisdom

Skeleton King

- Base Intelligence increased by 5

- Removed Mortal Strike active

- Vampiric Aura now provides full effectiveness on ranged units

- Reincarnation slow increased from 30% to 50%

- Reincarnation slow AoE increased from 700 to 900

Skywrath Mage

- Int growth increased from 3.2 to 3.6

- Added Aghanim's upgrade: reduces Mystic Flare's cooldown from 60/40/20 to 20/10/0

Slardar

- Amplify Damage armor reduction increased from 8/14/20 to 10/15/20

- Sprint speed increased from 20/27/33/40% to 20/28/36/44%

- Sprint manacost removed (was 50)

Slark

- Shadow Dance duration reduced from 5.5 to 4

- Shadow Dance cooldown increased from 25 to 65

- Shadow Dance can no longer be revealed by Truesight

Sniper

- Take Aim attack range bonus increased from 75/150/225/300 to 80/160/240/320

Spectre

- You can now continuously use Reality on your illusions

- Reality cast point improved from 0.3 to 0

Spirit Breaker

- Base attack time nerfed from 1.7 to 1.9

- Greater Bash no longer works while doomed

- Nether Strike now uses 1.2 Cast Time instead of a 1 sec magic immune delay (can be interrupted as a result)

Sven

- Stormbolt cooldown reduced from 15 to 13

- Stormbolt is now dodgeable

Tidehunter

- Kraken Shell damage block increased from 7/14/21/28 to 9/18/27/36

Timbersaw

- Chakram manacost increased from 75/125/175 to 100/150/200

Tiny

- Craggy Exterior chance increased from 6/12/18/24% to 10/15/20/25%

- Craggy Exterior stun duration increased from 1.2 to 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5

Treant Protector

- Leech Seed damage per pulse reduced from 30/45/60/75 to 24/36/48/60

- Leech Seed number of pulses increased from 4 to 6 (duration from 3 to 4.5)

- Living Armor cooldown rebalanced from 15 to 32/26/20/14

- Living Armor manacost increased from 25 to 50

- Nature's Guise cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

Troll Warlord

- Berserker's Rage movespeed bonus rebalanced from 20/20/20/30 to 10/20/30/40

- Whirling Axes (Melee) damage reduced from 125/175/225/275 to 75/125/175/225

Tusk

- Frozen Sigil now requires a constant number of hits (3/3/4/4) instead of 200/220/240/260 HP (heroes hurt it for 1, others for 0.25)

Undying

- Decay steal duration increased from 25/30/35/40 to 40

Vengeful Spirit

- Can now use Blink Dagger

- If you Netherswap a unit onto an unpathable ledge, the unit gains free pathing for 5 seconds

Venomancer

- Poison Nova no longer ignores invis/fogged units

- Venomous Gale no longer ignores invis units

- Venomous Gale damage over time rebalanced from 15/30/45/60 to 0/30/60/90

- Poison Sting duration increased from 6/8/10/12 to 6/9/12/15

- Poison Sting dps no longer dispels healing or disables dagger

- Plague Wards now have Poison Sting for 50% of the damage at the current skilled level (When both Venomancer and a Plague Ward affect a target, only the highest dps is applied)

- Plague Wards XP bounty increased from 12/12/25/25 to 20/25/30/35

Viper

- Poison Attack cooldown reduced from 4/3/0/0 to 0

- Corrosive Skin no longer works while doomed

Visage

- Base armor reduced by 1

- Base magic resistance reduced from 25% to 10%

Warlock

- Fatal Bonds now links the closest units to the initial target, instead of randomly choosing targets in its AoE

- Upheaval cast range increased from 700 to 1200

- Upheaval duration increased from 10 to 12

- Removed Chaotic Offering 100 impact damage

- Chaotic Offering Golem armor increased from 5/7/10 to 6/9/12

- Chaotic Offering manacost increased from 200/250/300 to 200/300/400

Weaver

- Base attack time nerfed from 1.7 to 1.8

Windrunner

- Focus Fire remains sticky on the target you cast it on

This means that you can change targets and when you return to the original target, your attack speed bonus will resume.

Witch Doctor

- Death Ward cast range increased from 400 to 600

- Voodoo Restoration AoE increased from 350 to 500

- Voodoo Restoration manacost over time reduced from 8/14/20/26 to 8/12/16/20 (50% of the heal amount)

- Paralyzing Casks now lasts 5 seconds on illusions (same as creep duration)

ITEMS

Animal Courier

- Movement speed increased from 300 to 350

- HP increased from 45 to 75

Arcane Boots

- Movement speed bonus reduced from 60 to 55

Armlet of Mordiggian

- Unholy Strength STR gain is provided over 0.7 seconds

- Unholy Strength has no toggle on or off cooldown

Black King Bar

- Recipe cost increased from 1300 to 1375

Blink Dagger

- Damage disable no longer ignores self damage

This means stuff like Rot will trigger it, but HP loss like Soul Ring will not

Bloodstone

- Now gives the +10 damage from its components

Boots of Travel

- Now prioritizes nearby structures first within 325 AoE from targeting position (when ground targeted)

Bottle

- Gold cost increased from 600 to 650

Clarity Potion

- Is no longer shareable (but can still be used on a target ally)

Dust of Appearance

- Slow increased from 10 to 15%

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

- Cyclone cooldown reduced from 30 to 25

- Movement speed bonus increased from 35 to 40

Eye of Skadi

- Eye of Skadi MS/AS slow increased from 30/20 to 35/35

Flying Courier

- Cannot be purchased until 3 minutes after creeps spawn

Gem of True Sight

- Gold cost increased from 850 to 900

Hand of Midas

- Transmute no longer works against Necronomicon units

Healing Salve

- Gold cost increased from 100 to 115

- Is no longer shareable (but can still be used on a target ally)

Helm of the Dominator

- Dominate can no longer control Necronomicon units

Hyperstone

- Gold cost reduced from 2100 to 2000

Linken's Sphere

- Linken's Sphere can now be cast on an allied hero to transfer the buff

When on cooldown it does not work on you. Goes into cooldown when cast and once the buff is used up.

If the cooldown ends and the buff has not been used up, the buff ends and does not trigger another cooldown.

700 cast range

Maelstrom

- Chain Lightning AoE increased from 500 to 900

Mjollnir

- Static Charge radius around attacker increased from 300 to 450

- Static Charge hit count increased from 3 to 5

- Chain Lightning AoE increased from 500 to 900

Necronomicon

- Summoned units duration increased from 35 to 40

Observer Ward

- Duration increased from 6 to 7 minutes

- Killing Observer Wards now grants a 50 gold bounty

Phase Boots

- Movement speed bonus reduced from 55 to 50

Pipe of Insight

- Barrier AoE increased from 500 to 900

Power Treads

- Movement speed bonus reduced from 55 to 50

Radiance

- Burn Damage AoE increased from 650 to 700

Refresher Orb

- Now gives the +10 attack speed from its components

Rod of Atos

- Cripple cooldown reduced from 16 to 12

Sange and Yasha

- Movement speed bonus increased from 12 to 16%

Sentry Ward

- Duration increased from 3 to 4 minutes

- No longer gives permanent vision around it

- Gives ground vision in a 150 area around it for 12 seconds when placed

Shadow Amulet

- Fade delay reduced from 2.4 to 1.8

Shadow Blade

- Shadow Walk cooldown increased from 18 to 28

Smoke Of Deceit

- Smoked units are now always hidden until the buff is removed (rather than being hidden only from minimap and partially from world)

Tango

- Charges increased from 3 to 4

- Gold cost increased from 90 to 125

- Is no longer shareable

- Tango can be targeted on an allied hero to create a 1 charge non-stacking tango item in their inventory. If the inventory is full, the item will be placed on the ground. This item has a 60s cooldown.

Tranquil Boots

- Reworked Tranquil Boots

Previous Tranquil Boots

=========================

Active Boots:

+ 75 Movement speed

+ 3 Armor

+ 3 HP Regeneration

Ability: Heal - Restores 250 HP over 20 seconds while out of combat. 60s cooldown. 25 mana cost.

Broken Boots:

+ 25 Movement speed

Restores when the last 10 seconds don't have 3 instances of damage.

Can be disassembled

New Tranquil Boots

=========================

Active Boots:

+ 85 Movement speed

+ 4 Armor

+ 10 HP Regeneration

Broken Boots:

+ 60 Movement speed

+ 4 Armor

Restores when you haven't attacked or been attacked in the last 13 seconds.

Cannot be disassembled

Urn of Shadows

- Soul Release cooldown reduced from 10 to 7

Vanguard

- Damage Block chance increased from 70 to 80%

Veil of Discord

- Now uses Null Talisman instead of Robe of the Magi (from +12 int to +6 int, +3 str, +3 agi, +3 dmg)

- Magic weakness duration increased from 20 to 25 seconds

* Broodmother and Slark are temporarily disabled from CM, they will be added back shortly.