Common Game Mode Abbreviations
These commands are usually typed by the host during the first 45 seconds of each game and is often seen in the room title when a player connects to a Warcraft server. These game modes will often affect the playing style of the players.
-ap - Short for "All Pick"; player may pick hero from all teams' taverns.
-ar - Short for "All Random"; all players start off with a random hero chosen out of both taverns.
-du - Short for "Duplicate Mode"; more than one copy of the same hero may be selected by different players. Currently only compatible with -allrandom mode.
-mm - Short for "Mirror Match"; players may choose a hero as normal, but after a given period of time, the teams will be randomized according to the heroes chosen by both sides and corresponding players given the same hero. The resulting teams will be identical, hence the name of the mode (5v5 game = 5 pairs of heros chosen from 10 possible ones).
-re - Short for "Reverse"; heroes are chosen by the enemy team and vice versa.
-sc - Short for "Super Creeps"; random super creeps may spawn every creep wave. Completely random except for the progression of supercreeps (Golems, Scary Fish, Ancient Hydra) and played for the increased gameplay dynamics. Not completely considered "fair", due to the randomness and inconsistency of the super creeps spawning per side (e.g. Sentinels may receive spawns very late in the game compared to the Scourge getting spawns frequently earlier on).
-sm - Short for "Short Mode"; building and tower hit points are reduced, higher rate of hero experience and gold accumulation.
-dm - Short for "Death Match"; if a player's hero dies, that hero type is removed from gameplay and the player chooses a new hero from the remaining selection. When a team has thirty deaths, it is defeated. (This mode is currently bugged in version 6.12b when a hero dies he also loses a level)
-id - Short for "Item Drop"; enables random item drop upon death instead of losing money.
-teamrandom - players receive a random hero on his corresponding side (either Sentinel or Scourge), he can repick for 500 gold during the first minute of the game by using the command -repick (see below).
-new - Enables an additional tavern with a new hero at the bottom right of the map. It is to serve as a buffer for newly introduced heros which are not yet balanced for normal play. Currently the heroes in this tavern are the Invoker and Old Silencer.
-ctf - Short for "Capture the Flag"; instead of destroying the ancient, players in this game mode must travel to the enemy base to capture the flag located there and bring it back to the friendly base, receiving one point for each flag returned. Any hero who holds the flag is rendered visible to his opponents and the hero's mana is constantly set to 0; the team who scores 5 points first wins.
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Commands for Players
-repick - Gives you a new, random hero if you're in an -ar game and you want to change your hero (costs 500 gold). There is a limited time window for repicking (the maximum number of "repicks" is one).
-refresh - with the Phantom Assassin (PA), it is used for refreshing her partial invisibility due to her "Blur" (due to a bug that removes this invisibility on death). Since the release of version 6.10, it no longer casts a Frost Nova animation on the PA.
-random (random): selects a random hero from your side. You can repick another random hero by typing -repick, but it costs 150g. (note the different gold costs for repicking in -allrandom games and repicking when you yourself choose to -random.)
-beamcounter - counts how many beams Luna Moonfang (Moon Rider) casts during the game. Was implemented for testing purposes and never removed.
-movespeed - displays current move speed (for debugging and informational purposes).
-recreate - for heroes that have the ability to undergo a metamorphosis that is not tied to the unit in the world editor map, namely Dragon Knight, Lycanthropy, Lifestealer, and Soul Keeper, where there are occasional problems with losing control of the unit. This is resolved by bringing the unit back to the 'fountain' area and typing this command. The command has a 200 second channeling time, to prevent abuses.
-unstuck - transports your hero to the fountain after 50 seconds; it's used when you are stuck in a unmovable place (e.g. trapped in an area of trees). You cannot move while transporting, and the cooldown exists to discourage abuse by players.
-matchup - Displays the enemy players' alias along with which hero they are currently controlling. Implemented in 6.13.