Stupid Colossus Tricks

[[R] Nerva]

So the Abyss Lord's Colossus is a thing. A solitary super-barricade with an extortionate initial cost, but the ability to be relocated as you please for free. I see a lot of hate for it as I read around, but... honestly I sometims wonder if people haven't considered the kinds of tricks you can pull with a Colossus. It's expensive, sure, but it's got plenty of uses and great tactical flexibility to justify its cost.

Here's a few to try if you haven't already...

Augment your DPS: The Colossus moves instantly and engages enemies as soon as it spawns, especially if you face it in the right direction. If you've got a bunch of enemies you plan to bombard with Abyss Stones, drop your Colossus in their face first to block them and bunch them up, and then bombard them. You can pack a lot more Abyss stones around the enemies when they're not moving past you and are clustered around a single target. Plus the Colossus is putting out its own damage.

Escape a Losing Fight: Find yourself in a losing fight? Drop your Colossus right next to you and run. Enemies will prioritize smashing it instead of you and you can make a clean getaway. Better still, you can heal up with your Fountain and then return to the fight, working the edge of the battle with your mana drain, knight, and abyss stones while your Colossus tanks.

Stop a Siege Roller: The Colossus has more health than any other barricade, sans things like passives or spheres. As a result, it can hold a Siege Roller immobile for longer than other barricades. It'll still need constant repair, but you have more leeway and more time to put out damage onto the Roller. It also saves your regular barricades from being ground down by the Roller. It's more likely to survive if you throw it in the path of a Roller and then run to deal with a second Roller elsewhere.

Plug a Defense breach: Lose a Skeletal Orc or some other barricade that was holding the line? Slap your Colossus in its place until the next Build Phase to keep enemies from slipping past.

Troll Betsy: Fill the the grassy spots at the edges of her stump with Skeletal Archers, and then plonk your Colossus right in her face after she lands. She'll focus on the Colossus and rarely attack the surrounding Archers as they fill her with arrows.

Troll Harbinger's Cannons: The Colossus is a HUGE tower, one of the largest in the game, and can be repositioned at-will. As a result, it's the perfect tool for body-blocking the cannons on Harbinger's ship to keep them from shooting the engine of the Prince's ship.

Barricade Fliers: Due to its size, the Colossus can sometimes successfully function as a barricade against low-flying fliers. Hard to do, but spectacularly amusing if you can pull it off. The Colossus will happily whack the flier out of the air if it approaches into melee range, too!

Distract Lightning Bugs: Dealing with lightning bugs chaining their lightning through your defenses? Place your Colossus a little ahead of your regular barricade, outside of chaining range. The Lightning Bug will shock it, and the lightning won't chain into your defense position. If you're really lucky, the bugs will flutter right into the reach of the Colossus's hammer and get squished.

Mobile Cover: You can use a Colossus as cover to protect yourself from enemy ranged attacks, like Ogre snotballs and Dark Mage blasts. Don't try this with Javelin Throwers, though. They pierce right through.

Troll a Kobold Rush: Is thre a worryingly-large wave of kobolds coming towards your defenses? Drop a colossus next to them. Since it's considered a barricade, they'll light their fuses and charge it instead of charging your defenses. The Colossus will probably take a lot of damage, but it has a lot of health - it'll probably survive for you to repair it or upgrade it.

The Colossus Deep Strike: You can use the Colossus offensively to reach places that you can't walk to very quickly. For instance, throw it into the back of enemy groups to sow confusion and separate them out into manageable groups. Throw it in front of a special enemy, and then use it to kite him around once he aggros on it. It's like having your own personal teleporting Squire!

What sort of Stupid Colossus tricks have you pulled off?

[Random Asian]

Originally posted by R Combat Haberdasher:

What sort of Stupid Colossus tricks have you pulled off?

I've teleported my Tier 5 Colossus behind a Siege Roller and it got instantly destroyed because I placed it too close...

[Kobalobasileus]

I love the Colossus in theory, but none of those tricks are really viable due to his massive DU cost. Builds typically have room for one or two disposable Magic Barricades, but not a Colossus.

[[R] Nerva]

Originally posted by Kobalobasileus:

I love the Colossus in theory, but none of those tricks are really viable due to his massive DU cost.

You kinda have to allot for him, yeah. Me, I'm a fan of small, hyper-efficient build layouts that leave room for extraneous playing-around or adaptive construction. The Abyss Lord is really, really good at making them possible, thanks in large part due to the Skeletal Archer's ability to cover a positively gobsmacking amount of terrain from places where you might not consider putting a tower normally.

In a lot of ways, the Colossus's cost is really prohibitive, but it's certainly not the worst thing out there. It's tied with Maw of the Earth Drake, Volcanoes are 100, Angry Nimbus is 100, Obelisk is 100... considering his flexibility, Colossus is kind of a bargain by comparison. With most big super-towers like the Obelisk and Volcano, there has to be a singular super-lane to justify using it, or it has to be able to hold a lane or two entirely on its own. The Nimbus is a lot better, in that it actively seeks targets over an honestly-terrifying range.

Only the Colossus can literally be anywhere, intercepting anything that is not a flier, and even intercepting those if they're low enough. If you can make room for him, and be imaginative in how you use him, he'll justify his cost.

[PollenAinne]

All of what you said is indeed possible... but only if you are 'playing around'. Otherwise, you are better off using all that mana to upgrade your other stuff and make your lanes handle itself better. The Collosus is nice. But it is a TOY much like the Weapon Manufacturer.

The only reason people make room for an Obelisk is because its a sure Seige Roller killer. The Volcano is a support tower for faster kills which is not necessary but good to have and totally not dependent on how good you are at 'playing around'. But mostly when you go with PuGs you cannot afford to 'play'. Sad I know.

But since its a game, then we should play. And thats why we have novelty towers like the Collosus, the Angry Nimbus, Maw of Earth Drake and Weapon Manufacturer. It is plenty of fun to play with if you are with friends or soloing. But for people focused on simply farming and completing a map... its useless.

[[R] Nerva]

Originally posted by PollenAinne:

All of what you said is indeed possible... but only if you are 'playing around'. Otherwise, you are better off using all that mana to upgrade your other stuff and make your lanes handle itself better. The Collosus is nice. But it is a TOY much like the Weapon Manufacturer.

You can call it a toy, and you're welcome to your opinion. I'll keep using it to save my bacon from Siege Rollers, Ogres, and some of the more annoying special enemy types (like Squibly or Griblok's Horde), and win matches both with and because of it. Can you win without it? Sure - but the same goes for almost every tower in this game. I've seen people win matches with nothing but zigzagging proton beams, un-upgraded training dummies (which spent the whole match not getting hit), and skyguards to pop fliers.

I can't speak for the Volcano, Weapon Manufacturer, Obelisk, or other super-towers, because I don't own those characters or regularly play with those who do. But the Colossus, despite its cost (and TBH, 80 is cheap for a supertower), definitely has a lot of uses and can directly contribute to you winning where you wouldn't before if you are willing to put in the effort to figure out how. I'd rate it as one of the most underestimated Defenses in the game.

Think of it less as a blockade, which is what it advertises itself as, and more as a mobile, sturdy source of DPS. You throw it at problems or places you want protected, and move it as needed. It's the closest thing you can get in DD2 to having another player around.

[PollenAinne]

Originally posted by R Combat Haberdasher:

Originally posted by PollenAinne:

All of what you said is indeed possible... but only if you are 'playing around'. Otherwise, you are better off using all that mana to upgrade your other stuff and make your lanes handle itself better. The Collosus is nice. But it is a TOY much like the Weapon Manufacturer.

You can call it a toy, and you're welcome to your opinion. I'll keep using it to save my bacon from Siege Rollers, Ogres, and some of the more annoying special enemy types (like Squibly or Griblok's Horde), and win matches both with and because of it. Can you win without it? Sure - but the same goes for almost every tower in this game. I've seen people win matches with nothing but zigzagging proton beams, un-upgraded training dummies (which spent the whole match not getting hit), and skyguards to pop fliers.

Well I'm glad you like it and are having fun with it. How we play is completely our own oppinion of what we think is good because of our own preference, that I understand. After all, a lot will still defend the Maw of Earth Drake's usefullness and would prefer it to any barricade despite the massive 80 DU cost. It all boils down to preference. Thanks for sharing yours.

[Jack]

All the mobile defense stuff is worthless in practice. Just let your towers kill them or play a better hero. I like abyss lord but it's just extra work for no reward.