Collossus guide - by Pyrochemik

## Purpose of the ship

Colossus is no doubt a tank. You are slow, large and most of your abilities are there to keep you alive. Your job as a tank is to bring chaos to enemy, and stability to your team. For this reason, you need to focus your build on defense first, but damage second. You are useless as a tank, if enemy does not fear approaching you. Colossus is one of the ships dealing damage with rockets, but unlike Dreadnought, you build shields for defense.

### Rockets

Unlike frigate and battlecruiser, your attack range for rockets does not grow with sensor upgrades. So do not even buy it. In fact, it makes farming harder, as your rocket range and laser range starts to overlap, making your laser focus enemies instead of minions. In exchange, your rockets grow +6 damage per upgrade (+5 and +1 extra vs. shields), making them the fastest scaling damage weapon. But you can´t buy more of them (stuck at 6 attacks), like terrans do, so the damage is lower, despite their higher attack speed (period 2,33 s, frigate is 4s). Since your range is quite low, please note that rockets can not shoot a target which is touching you. It is a common counterplay vs. colossus to hide inside him.

### Shields

As I mentioned, shields are key aspect of Colosus´s defenses. All defensive skills enhance them, more about that later. Each shield upgrade provides you with shield max HPs, shield armor and shield regeneration speed.

**+ 500 hitpoints; + 1 shield armor; + 10 shield regeneration per upgrade**

Shields can be improved by buying armor as well, each armor provides +1 shield armor, and +3 hull armor. Please note that one you run out of shields you die, because your hull is not tanky at all. That is a fate of shield based tank.

### Engines

As all ships, you need to improve engines to get faster. Collosus is naturaly slow, starting at speed 1,5 with 2 speed upgrades. So you need to be the first to go back, otherwise you may drag your team into a disadvantageous battle.

## Skills

### Quantum reactor

This relatively cheap skill provides regeneration when in combat. Your shields will regenerate at 33% of their normal regeneration rate, despite other ships can not regeerate when in combat. This costs you no energy. Regeneration speed of shields is 60 +10 more for each shield upgrade. This is a very good skill to pick first.

### Shield Recharge

This is an upgradable shield skill. It allows you to instantly regenerate 16% of your maximum shield HP, by spending 75 energy. This skill also scales with shield levels, as it renews percentage of maximum shield value. Upgrades merely reduce cooldown by 5 seconds, starting cooldown is 20 seconds, final cooldown can be reduced to 5 seconds.

### Reinforced shield

This is a bread and butter skill for colosus, where majority of defenses come from. This skill reduces damage of incoming attack to 50, upon activation it catches 5 attacks. While that seems useles, the amount of intercepted attacks is increased by addition of shield level. So a colossus with 10 shields will catch 15 attacks with hardened shield. This skill has 7 second cooldown, and cost of 50 energy. It can catch ion cannon, psi blast, frigate´s level 42 rockets, yamato cannon etc, reducing them all to 50 dmg.

Due to it´s scaling nature, it is not a suitable skill to rush.

### Guardian Shield

This skill is not related to your shields like previous three. It creates sizeable aura around you, reducing all damage to allies, including yourself, by 33% for 15 seconds. Cooldown is 30 seconds, energy cost is 75. This is a good skill to activate before you enter the fray, or if enemy does not deny your energy.

### Force field breaker

This is an important counter against force fields the enemy arbiter throws around. Any force field you touch immediately disappears. It is also a passive skill, costing no upkeep and cannot be locked by battlecruiser. This skill also breaks voidray´s chrono rift.

### Thermal lance

This is your area damage skill, which deals sizeable damage to main ships. It deals 125 damage points to minions, and 1100 to main ships. Colosus needs to face the direction it is about to use it, and it costs 100 energy to use. Since it is very easy to target, this skill is one of the best counters to guardian´s scourge, interceptors and frigate´s cloaked wraiths - if you know where they are. It also deals damage to cloaked voidray. Downside is that it costs a lot of energy, colossus is the most denied ship. Which is why you can´t hesitate to use it at the beginning of the battle, before you get denied. Hitting multiple enemies at once makes it more powerful than yamato cannon.

### Invulnerability shield

This is your ultimate skill, with cooldown of 180 seconds and cost of 150 energy. It makes you literaly invulnerable for 20 seconds, everything will do 0 damage to you, this includes nukes, torpedoes, skills. Lockdown can not be used on you either. You can´t ge plagued, contaminated or harmed in any way. Very expensive skill to use, use it before they can take your energy away. Make sure to use your skills before it ends to prepare your defenses.

### Warp

As every ship, colossus has warp as well. As all protoss ships, it costs only 50 minerals to buy, and 50 energy to use. Since you are slowest in your team, warp on someone to execute warptrick. Even if you do not bring much damage, somebody needs to eat the few chaotic attacks retreating enemy throws.

## Builds for Colossi

### Start

Correct starting build for colossus is one. **4 shields, 3 rockets, 1 speed**. This gives you the best stats, to slowly push enemy back, while playing in midlane. You will need support to heal you. Try to exchange fire with only one enemy at a time. Severe downside for every collosus is the batlecruiser´s mini yamato. There is no way to not take that damage, it is so broken skill that you can´t really see colossus in midlane anymore. Best thing you can have as colossus is arbiter with either force field, or shield recharge upgrades. Just mind their energy.

Incorrect starting build I often use in pub games is 3 shields, 1 rocket, 2 speed and 2 escorts. This makes pushing power too low, and you steal farm from allies with 1-hit farming. Your tankiness also takes a hit, as your starting maximum shield, shield regeneration and shield armor are lower. However this build works in the one aspect you need to function - to farm atleast some money.

### First back

Well, if you survived the first 5-6 minutes, you should have 400+ minerals. You need to get to 1,5 speed, you need *quantum reactor* and you need shields. Do not buy lasers yet, leave it for second back. This gives you sufficient tankiness. If you have money to spare, buy rockets or thermal lance + energy. No matter what, you should rush toward 10 shields first. Get warp.

### Second back

Well done, you survived! Get +1 more speed to 1,6, and 2 lasers. Get energy and hardened shields. 375 energy feels nice, not sure why. Spend the rest of money for shields and rockets. Keep them in 2:1 ratio if you are a tank. If you need to push as well, 1:1. Noob carry means tank suffers. Noob support means tank died already.

### Further build

The golden ratio of rockets to shields 1:2 is meant to be kept. Your job is to survive, not to kill. You need atleast 600 energy to be able to use hardened shield when enemy spams energy deny on you. Keep getting more. Your energy has no value in comparison to energy of your support. Shield recharge is a nice thing. Would be nice if you got a chance to use it, but that does not happen, hardened shields have always priority.

Overall this ship is easy to learn, easy to play but difficult to master. As all tanks, you need to know all other ships.

## Playstyle

### Farming

It may be obvious, but keep lasers 2-hit. It goes like this **0->2->4->5->7->9->11->13**, minions get stronger every 10 minutes. Your *escorts* need to be level 2 after 30 minute passes to remain 2-hit. If you want to use 1-hit farming, use your escorts, it is cheaper. Remember, you need to invest to your defenses or you die. 1-hit farming requires **2->5->10->13->16.** I think, I do not use it after 20 minute mark.

Now practicaly, what I see most players to struggle with is the laser farming. Basicaly, your lasers do not shoot at enemy minions, if there is an enemy ship in their range. Which happens a lot, as you are in middle fo dogfighting, and enemies suck at maintaining distance, while you are the slowest ship on the field, you also need to maintain pressure. But if you are allowed to do so, maintain the enemy distance so that your rockets shoot them, but your lasers do not.

If that is not possible, the only cure for that is to farm only with your on-board fighters (OBF), *escorts*. Which is why I like them as opening build. Release them with **R**, and reposition them with **T**. You should try to keep them alive, repositioning them on yourself will call them back. Doing so prevents their death from ovi´s *contamination*.

### Thermal lance usage I

I see people using thermal lance for farming all the time and let me tell you that it is wrong. Not only you deny farm to the supporter which your life depends on, you also waste your precious energy by doing that. So, if not for farming, surely for fighting? Sure, you can. But there is third thing to do with it - denying carrier´s farm. This is a very important role for you, and consider rushing thermal lance if you see enemy with carrier. Keep killing it´s interceptors, and use your escorts to stop or slow them from killing minions.

#### Thermal lance usage II

If you are facing Leviathan on sidelane, they usualy just mash the locusts to huge levels, and keep sending them out. Truly overpowered tactic. But you are not some powerless frigate, so just lance them along with minions.

#### Thermal lance usage III

If they have guardian, chances are 70% hat he will build *scourge*. That is a skill which releases about 12-20 suicidlings, which fly in a group toward target and explode on their ship, each dealing 250 damage. Lasers can kill them but there is too many, OBF usualy just hit once before they get out of their attack range. So your team needs to counter it. Raven can do so easily with *defensive matrix*. Battlecruiser can do so with missile pods, but it is difficult to hit. Thermal lance is easy to hit, just remember to turn your ship toward the target with Q for immediate activation.

#### Thermal lance usage IV

This is the skill no noobs know. All area damage skills can be used to deny minerals from enemy. You just kill your own minions. There is a catch though, if you hit only your minions, you get marked as enemy and killed. But if there is a large group of your minions fighting like 3 enemy minions, lance them all. Each minions is worth 4 minerals so killing 16 of them equals to 64 minerals taken out of their pockets. There is also the advantage, that the killed minions will not kill enemy minions, so you get to lasthit more.

This method is aplicable for *thermal lance*, *contamination*, *storm*, *bombard*, *acid spray*...

#### Thermal lance usage V

.... AAAND it is farming. If your enemy uses ripwaves, you need to use it, or your fat hull and short laser range combined deny all farm to you. Even with 1-hit farming some minions will just hug you and die. Your position is more important than your farm, everyone tends to follow tank (and those who do not are bad and die). So you cant do abrupt maneuvers over 3 minions or their formation collapses.

### Hardened shield usage

This is a skill you use all the time you can. Keep mashing the **D** button. If you see enemy charging ion or yamato, activate the skill before it drops. Even if it is active, some rockets tend to cancel it just before ion drops. It is a big difference between 4000 shield damage and 50. Activating Hardened shields takes precedence over anything else.

### Shield recharge usage

Is the hardened shield active? Yes? Do you have missing shields? Yes? Do you have energy? Yes? Than use it!

### Fighting

You can control who your rockets target, just by **A** + click on enemy in range. But you need to do it very often, as your rockets have short firing period of 2,33s and you start losing speed once you use it, so you need to righclick click to move again, which cancels the attack command. Controling your target is not what you do most of the time in fight, most of your effort is spent on watching energy levels, to renew hardened shields ASAP. If you miss the thin window to do so, you get denied energy. If there is no window, you do not have enough energy. (Arbiter´s *boost* can help with energy deny, it even shortens *lockdown*´s duration)

The most important thing is your positioning. You want to cover your backline, you want to avoid nukes, and if they are about to hit, you need to drag them away from allies, idealy hug the enemy support or other ships. If you do not handle them so, in middle of your team explodes nuke which causes lockdown effect. You need to stay within support´s reach. That was the defensive mode.

The aggresive mode is when you just say \*duck it\* and charge in middle of enemy team like a wrecking ball. Your target is enemy support, carrier, or injured ship. You do not need to kill, though that is always nice, you just aim to break their formation, so that your team´s carries can damage them. If you wanna perform this move, you need to know that your support will not be able to help you there.

## Master tricks

\*Nuclear hug\*. You just need to predict that battlecruiser is going to nuke you, and then you help him by hugging him. The poor sod takes full damage as well. Bonus points for using invulnerable shields. There is a small casting time for nuke which can not be canceled, in which the BC can´t change direction. That is when you hug him.

\*Our torpedo\*. Enemy frigate decides to shoot torpedo through their team. That gives you 4 seconds to move into middle of enemy and eat the torpedo together. Sharing is caring. Bonus points for hitting invisible voidray.

\*I present you a seeker\* Bringing a seeker to enemy ships is an old custom among Colossi.

\*I will be taking your vortex\* If you charge at enemy carrier, forcing him to use a vortex defensively is a big win for team. Those things can decide a teamfight, and have 3 minute cooldown. Be faster than carrier. Then just walk menacingly.

\*These zergs need to be purged with fire\* - if enemy guardian uses mass broodlords build, ask raven to cast irradiate on you, and just go in middle of them. Remember to raise your hull armor as well, it strenghtens your shields. Shield invulnerability is great for this purpose, as Raven must not go in broodlord´s range. (Broodlords are fully under control of the guardian player, he may target anything in range!).

\*Frig, lend me your rockets\* Using ripwaves has a downside, it hits allies as well. The noobs never turn them off. So go and hug their friends, frigate´s damage is bigger than yours anyway. touch as many as you can (their rockets can´t target you than). Their support can´t block their own rockets. Note: it will be your team´s frigate who kills you.