Colosseum

Colosseum is a ten-player custom game in which two teams must battle over five control points. The map features numerous traps and NPC Behemoths to aid each team in their defense and offense. It was the third custom game created by Valve, in lieu of the traditional Diretide event.

Gameplay

 * Two teams of five players start at bases in the top right and bottom left corner.
 * Items and hero mechanics are generally identical to standard Dota.
 * All heroes start with 2000 gold (2200 if randomed, 1900 if repicked) and gain 5.5 gold and 4 experience per second.

Control Points

 * Each side begins with two control points, with one neutral point in the center.
 * Begin capturing a control point by standing on it.
 * The more players standing on a control point, the faster it is captured.
 * If two or more players on both teams are standing on a single point, progress towards its capture will be halted.
 * Capturing a point will grant 200 gold and 200 experience to each hero on the team.
 * The team with more control points gains points over time. The more control points a team has, the faster points are earned.
 * The Glyph of Fortification can be activated to temporarily block all control points from being captured (except for the uncaptured middle one at the beginning), and halt the enemy team's point gain.
 * All control points are visible to every player, providing 500 radius vision and True Sight to both sides.
 * First team to obtain 5,000 points wins.

Behemoths
Behemoths are large NPC allies that help a team push towards the middle (3rd) point.


 * For every 1,000 points earned, a wave of Behemoths is spawned for the enemy team.
 * One enemy Behemoth is spawned for every 1,000 points earned on the opposite team.
 * For example: Earning 4,000 points will spawn a wave of 4 enemy Behemoths.
 * The Behemoths, when not aggroed, walk towards the center point and circle around it.

Heroes
Some heroes cannot be picked in Colosseum:


 * (due to his Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allowing him to target ancients, and thus Behemoths)
 * (due to Meepo clones giving too big advantage in point capturing)
 * (due to lack of day-night cycle)
 * (due to lack of trees)
 * (due to Meepo clones giving too big advantage in point capturing)
 * (due to lack of day-night cycle)
 * (due to lack of trees)
 * (due to lack of day-night cycle)
 * (due to lack of trees)

Abilities
Some abilities have been modified for Colosseum.


 * : Grants less bonus damage (5/7/9)
 * : Increases respawn timer by less (20)
 * : Has smaller radius (225), grants less magic resistance (3%/4%/5%/6%) and less strength per stack (0.5/0.75/1/1.25)
 * : Deals less intelligence based damage (15%/25%/35%/45%)
 * : Grants less attack range (50/100/150/200)
 * : Has a smaller search radius (1250)

Items
The following items are disabled:

The following items are unlisted, but could be combined from its components:

The following items are modified:
 * does not reduce respawn time.

Runes
Despite being mentioned in the patch notes from Dec. 16, Arcane Rune was not added to the rotation.

Maps
Maps are symmetrical, so that no team is in advantage. There are three maps:
 * Haunted – initial one from Halloween event
 * Temple – less dark, with a dungeon theme
 * Desert – different landscape layout, with a desert theme

Everything listed here is mirrored for the Dire team:
 * Radiant's base is located in the bottom left corner of the map (top right for Dire). It is the safe zone for the team and it includes:
 * A Fountain, located right at the spawn area on the left side. has a healing aura (20% max hp/s, 30 + 20% max mp/s, 1400 radius), has True Sight (1300 radius) and can attack (0.15 BAT, 140-150 dmg, 1400 range)
 * A shop, located right after the spawn area on the left, on an elevated area. It sells all items, including Secret Shop items. Like in regular Dota, both teams can use either shop.
 * A teleporter entrance, located right across from the shop. It instantly teleports the hero towards the exit, which is located close to the 2nd capture point.
 * The teleporter can only teleport actual heroes. Non-hero units and illusions cannot use it. It can teleport spell immune, invulnerable and hidden heroes.
 * It is possible to use the teleporter in the enemy's base. But regardless of which teleporter is used, Radiant heroes are always teleported to their exit and Dire heroes to theirs.
 * The teleport exit has an aura which grants all nearby heroes phased movement. The aura affects any hero which gets close to the exit. It does not affect non-heroes, illusions and spell immune or invulnerable heroes. Its buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.

Treats
Whenever a hero dies, it has a chance to drop a treat. Each treat has a chance of dropping and a hero can only drop one treat per death. This means it is possible to not drop a treat at all. Behemoths also have a chance of dropping one of the gold treats, but also may drop nothing. Treats disappear in 10 seconds when not picked up.

Traps
Traps are activated by stepping on buttons placed nearby the trap. Only heroes,, and the current auras-bearing Panda from are able to activate them.

Damage dealt by team-based traps is attributed to the hero who activated it, but it can not be returned or reflected.

Tips

 * Zoning abilities like, , , , , and  are effective in preventing enemy players from advancing to capture points.
 * ' can significantly hinder enemy pushes by increasing their respawn time.
 * The map's numerous pillars and elevations allows, , to make good use of their mobility, as well as 's.
 * coupled with Glyph of Fortification can greatly delay enemy attempts to capture points.
 * ' mines are useful in defending points, but can be weak during the early game.
 * Treants and Spiderlings can be used to block off stairs.
 * 's provides excellent defense and offense when contesting a control point.
 * and are valuable items to sustain pushes and control points in enemy territory.
 * There are 2 big unpathable gaps between the team spawn areas and the area of the 4th point on both sides. This gaps are completely unpathable, even for units with unobstructed movement. However, with blinks or pseudo blinks (e.g., heroes can jump over it, by targeting the abyss so that the target point is closer towards the other side. Since the gaps are unpathable, the caster gets moved to the next pathable location, which is the other side when done correctly.
 * All trap buttons can be pushed by all heroes, regardless of team. This includes the enemy's pendulum trigger. Doing so will put the button on cooldown without triggering the trap, making enemies unable to use them for a while. Push the enemy's trap buttons whenever you can to prevent them from using it for a while.
 * 's counts as a hero and thus can be used to capture points faster.

Known bugs

 * Because of the teleporter being able to teleport hidden units, it causes strange interactions with spells which forcefully move a unit to certain location. The teleport cancels out the forced movement, so that the hero appears at the teleport exit at the end of the spell.
 * When gets teleported while having a unit ed, he no longer pops out automatically once the unit dies and has to manually use  to get out, which causes him to appear at the teleporter exit.
 * When 's spirits enter the teleport area, Brewmaster gets teleported. This causes him to appear at the teleporter exit once the spell expires, instead of the spirits' position.
 * When rolling over the teleport exit with, the Snowball gets canceled, with everyone in the Snowball appearing at the teleporter exit.