Colossus

Summary

Strength	25	+2.7
Agility	10	+0.9
Intelligence	14	+1.0
Primary:	{{{Primary}}}

Gravel

Hero history/fluff info goes in here

The Colossus is a giant that specializes in support and troop destruction. He is best used as a spellcaster with lots of hit points.

Base Dmg: 53-63 which is pretty good.
Attack Speed: slow.

He has a very high STR gain, but terrible AGI and below average INT gain. Fortunately, his spells are all STR-based, so the AGI and INT are not as significant. INT is somewhat useful for a bigger mana pool and also to pump the mana regen rate. AGI pumps move speed and attack speed, BUT since Colossus has such low base values, the percentage gain is not that useful in my opinion. I would ignore AGI altogether.

Skills

War Club [Self Buff]

{{{title}}}

Hotkey: Q
[[]]

Innate

10

shorts

{{{range}}}

Grabs a tree for use as a club.

{{{description}}}

Click on a tree to grab a war club, good for 12 attacks. Increases damage per hit by 30 and range to 250. This skill is quite useful early game. Since he is so big and slow, it is hard to hit things. Grab a tree early game, and you can "last hit" troops and gain some gold. This is normally difficult, but the Colossusmbo of range, a good attack animation motion, and a huge (but slow) attack make this much more possible. Refresh it when you get a chance, as the range is very valuable even into lategame. Note that rightclicking a tree will automatically use this skill.

Rockslide [Line Damage]

Hotkey: R
Physical

Tosses a big rock

Spell Details
Level 1	replace me!s	65	{{{range1}}}	Deals 50 + 1.05 STR damage.
Level 2	replace me!s	replace me!	{{{range2}}}	replace me!
Level 3	replace me!s	replace me!	{{{range3}}}	replace me!
Level 4	replace me!s	replace me!	{{{range4}}}	replace me!
Level 5	replace me!s	replace me!		replace me!
Level 6	replace me!s	185		Deals 200 + 2.05 STR damage.

Tosses a large rock, dealing damage to all in its path including buildings. Approx 300 range wide and 1000 long, which is a very big area of effect. This skill is your sole reason for existence. It is the best AoE spell in the game due to its moderate cooldown, high damage, good scaling, and gigantic AoE. It will make you an obscene amount of money from troop kills..especially mid and late game. Use this spell often and make sure it is taken at 1,6,11,16,21,26! Note that it does 75% damage vs heroes like all AoE spells. Is NOT affected by armor.

Tremor [AoE Slow/Stun]

Hotkey: W
Transmutation

Causes the ground to shake violently, making it difficult for enemy units to move through the area.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	35	{{{range1}}}	25% slower movement. 2% chance to get stunned every second.
Level 2	s		{{{range2}}}
Level 3	s		{{{range3}}}
Level 4	s		{{{range4}}}
Level 6		115		64% slower movement. 7% chance to get stunned every second.

After a small casting delay, causes an area of the map to quake, slowing movement by a certain amount and creating a chance of stunning for 2 seconds every second. Lasts 20 seconds at all levels. Note that the AoE starts out small at level 1 but ends up incredibly huge at level 6.

I really like this skill as a hero-killer. It has a very long cast range and may be tossed behind an enemy hero which will prevent escape. Also good for escaping yourself. I do not use this skill until about level 21 when its AoE is very large and the move penalty and stun chance is enough to allow you and your team to kill heroes. Plus it drains your mana too much to use early or often. I highly recommend this skill as your secondary one.

Crumble [AoE Debuff]

Hotkey: C
[[]]

Lowers enemy armor in an area.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	40	{{{range1}}}	Armor reduced by 6.
Level 2	s		{{{range2}}}
Level 3	s		{{{range3}}}
Level 4	s		{{{range4}}}
Level 6		95		Armor reduced by 21.

All enemies in the small AoE lose armor for the duration. 20 seconds vs heroes and 40 on creeps. AoE does increase with level, but remains relatively small even at rank 6.

I do not like this skill very much, as the AoE is quite small at first. Heroes are hard to hit with it at first, and 20 seconds is not enough duration to significantly hurt them. This spell does not even pump the Rockslide damage. This spell is not a bad anti-troop debuff, but you can just toss a rock and do significant damage to 2 or 3 times the AoE anyways. Remember, lowering armor such that a troop is killable with 400 damage instead of 600 is really only doing 200 to that troop, times the small number that are actually affected. It is not even close to a good rockslide.

Heart of the Mountain [AoE Buff/Selfcentered]

Hotkey: E
[[]]

Increases armor and damage of nearby allies.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	35	{{{range1}}}	Damage increased by 5%, Armor increased by 9. Lasts 60 seconds.
Level 2	s		{{{range2}}}
Level 3	s		{{{range3}}}
Level 4	s		{{{range4}}}
Level 6		105		Damage increased by 20%, Armor increased by 39. Lasts 110 seconds.

All nearby allies in a moderate AoE gain bonus damage and armor.

This is an ok spell. The damage bonus is pretty weak, compared to a similar buff like Mass Haste. The armor bonus is decent though. However, adding armor to your troops is fairly worthless when only 2 or 3 of them are actually being attacked at once as in a typical battle. Especially since you can once again just toss a lategame rock and wipe out most opposing troops. Plus, when the Divine Wizard shows up and blows them all away, the armor bonus isn't so great. Heck, even normal troop mages do significant AoE damage that bypasses armor. Colossus should not be taking troop damage so its of limited utility. It is best when attacking a base since armoring many of your troops is of more benefit to resist the tower attacks.

Boulder Storm [AoE Damage/Channel]

Hotkey: T
[[]]

Creates a damaging avalanche.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	150	{{{range1}}}	16 damage per rock. Lasts 24 seconds.
Level 2	s		{{{range2}}}
Level 3	s		{{{range3}}}
Level 4	s	225	{{{range4}}}	35 damage per rock. Lasts 12 seconds.

Channeling spell that creates a wide "wall" of falling rocks. Anything in the area takes damage per rock hit.

This is one of the weakest ultimates around. The damage done is very low vs troops. Even towers which are fairly narrow will avoid most of the rocks. The ONLY good use for this is against town halls, since the wide hall will absorb a LOT of rocks. Note that the time DECREASES per level, such that overall damage remains about the same. Doing damage faster is beneficial, but I would not bother upgrading past rank 1 until much later.

Strategies

I HIGHLY recommend considering Colossus as the creep version of divine wizard. Well, sort of. I was VERY frustrated with Colossus until I figured this out. Tanking was a dismal failure due to no healing or dmg reduction (besides the armor boost buff), as was trying to take advantage of his big damage...he just gets stuck and dies. And he is SO friggin slow and hard to position. Instead, just toss lots of rocks and enjoy your high HPs. There is nothing quite like eating 1k from Atk of Opp from Infiltrator and laughing about it while you drop Tremor to catch her soon as she blinks away. Note that your manapool even with an orb of the magi can only barely support Rockslide. Therefore, do not spam your secondary skill or you will be popping lots of clarity pots.

Early game, use your long range heavy damage tree-swat to last hit for cash. Toss rocks when mage and archer troops are close to death to gain money and help push. With rockslide and your great HPs you should have a decent chance of doing well with nuke-warz with Aeromancer and Divine Wizard and the like. Avoid melee wars with other melee heroes (especially AGI ones) as their rate of attack will outstrip your high dmg and HPs. Stay back from the front lines except to get a last hit and then move back out of ranged attack range.

Midgame, your rock now does significant damage against troops. Spam it as much as you can. Especially right after your mage troop zaps the enemy, so you can get the mage/archer kills for profit. You can still do well against enemy heroes in nukewarz, but they may be able to blink and avoid rocks with the wand. Still, when you wipe out their troops, they are forced to withdraw.

Late game, your rock can almost wipe out full strength standard troops in one hit! Besides getting tons of cash, this is amazing for base defense or pushing. Remember that your rock does full damage to buildings too! Try to position yourself so you can wipe out troops and hit towers as well. Now, you can team up and kill heroes. When an enemy hero moves close, you can toss Tremor directly behind them. its huge AoE will ensure that hero does not escape quickly, even with a blink. No blink = pwned.

Builds

Name this build

1 - rockslide
3 - Tremor
5 -save.
6 - rockslide
7 - Tremor
9 - save
11 - rockslide & Tremor
13 - save
15 - Avalanche
16 - Rockslide
17 - Tremor
19 - save
21 - Rockslide & Tremor
23 - save
25 - SAVE. (dont bother with avalanche 2 yet)
26 - Rockslide & Tremor

From here, I would put any extra points from levels or crystal into Heart of the Mountain.

An alternative but more boring way to go is to take Heart instead of Tremor when leveling. This will be a bit harder on your manapool though, and you lose any chance of getting hero kills except for a lucky rock or buddy's disable.

Items and Enhancements

Start with a few heal potions, and/or grab some heal/mana elixir from the goblin shop as you will need the mana by level 11. You will make use of heal potions throughout the game.

Your first real item should be an orb of magi. This is perfect as you dont need INT. You DO need the mana, and the regen pump. Grab this as soon as possible, as it is the key for being able to use Rockslide effectively. Your base mana regen and manapool sucks, so you really need this ASAP.

When you can, crank that Orb up first. This will significant increase your staying power. Once it is +3 or better, pick up 4 rings of Strength as these increase your Rockslide. You are aiming for about 600 damage (200 STR) so you can wipe out full strength normal troops in one rock. You can gain MAD KASH in this way and push very effectively.

This is really all you need. The Orb, 4 STR rings that you slowly pump up, and some healing potions. Optionally, you can take the Sun Talisman since you benefit from the Regen, STR, INT(for faster base mana regen and pool), and even AGI for slightly faster movespeed. I would not prioritize the Talisman though, since it will slow your STR-ramping. Unlike many heroes, the money spent in items is an investment that you WILL see returned to you as you wipe out more and more troops with rockslide and get hundreds of gold per rock tossed.

For crystal, don't bother with bonus skills as they are expensive and you dont need them. Maybe late game you can take a few and get Heart of the Mountain up some. Pump your armor first because you have no items for this. Then STR and INT 5 points each. (The INT is to pump your base mana regen rate that gets multiplied by the Orb). I would avoid melee pumps for a while since you shouldnt need it. From there, crank your STR primarily, and occasionally pump Armor.

Note: It is tempting to take orb of skill, and use the mana-regen helm instead. Dont do it! The big INT pump is pretty nice, but the AGI is mostly wasted. You dont need the movespeed boost, since your base is so slow anyways... you won't be outrunning anything. More importantly, the mana regen hat is more expensive than the Mage Orb. Getting both skill orb and mana hat is a HUGE delay to your important STR-items. The Mage Orb is much more efficient and is really all you need to maintain a good spam rate on your rockslide and decent mana pool.