Colossus

This is a post by karune:

Actually, the Colossus to literally vaporize units with less than 50 Hit Points, in a second. Currently, their Twin Thermal Lance beams do 144 damage at a 'Fast' Attack Speed, and devs are also experimenting with possible AoE (Area of Effect) characteristics to the attack. Nonetheless, the Colossus will still be very vulnerable to air units. Though it is also important to note, that Beams are not instant damage, and are still undergoing much QA as well.

I guess the colossus is very strong then. I never thought it was so strong.
:gossip:

 

Sounds like more of a tank killer than we were giving it credit for.

 

What is that supposed to mean? :-\ It should do damage/second which, according to them, should be at least 50. Is the damage capped at 144 after which it must commence attack again (or a different unit)?

 

I think they meant it does 144 total dmg in one shot and then he needs to recharge and fire again. The colossus is getting better and better ( though those thermal beams wouldn't hurt a retuxture - the orange color is verry odd for protoss weapons ) and maybe a dmg derease and an area damage would make it even better - let's not forget the reaver - the only protoss splash dmg unit has been removed for the moment. Or they could add some sort of thermal reziduals that remain after the colossus fires and they would look like some sort of radiaton that dmg enemy units that pass over the rezidual area for a small ammount of hp/sec.

 

You're right, splash would be nice and now that you've mentioned that it replaces the reaver I have a question: Will the Colossus have the range of an artillery (longer than defence structures such as colonies/bunkers/missile turrets)? If not, won't the Protoss get a long range unit? I know the Carrier could be considered that but it can lose the things it actually attacks with so... not really an artillery category.

 

Ha ha, I soooo called this. Way back when, when the first vid was released, I totally said it was massacring Marines and people are like "nuh-uh" and I'm like "yuh-huh" and back and forth.


There were heavy casualties.

Whoa. Sorry.

Anyway. It looks like the Colossi are a hard counter for M&M tactics. 144>Medics healing.

 

this unit reminds me of war of the worlds

 

I don't think the colossus has a greater range than defences. It's not supposed to be a siege weapon as the reaver was. It is more of a verry heavy support unit. With all the defences you have a couple of colossus will bring them down in a moment with that 144 dmg per shot. Even with their air weapons vulnerabillity they would still pound those missile turrets, though if they are not supported by some other units they will probably end up really bad. The siege unit gap of the protoss army is still one of my dark thoughts about SC2 but in a way i'm confident that blizzard will not dissapoint. Yet as always there is a 'but...' .

 

lol i did that in Nexus Destroyers
3 raynors and like 50 medics

 

hmm it seems teh colossi will be better than i anticipated =D

 

144 damage? Yes, it seems the colossus will be the tank destroyer I was arguing about in earlier colossi threads. People kept saying it would be super weak against armored units, but I guess its kind of like the ray, it holds the beam on that unit and does continual damage until a certain amount is reached. The colossus will definitely be good against those who like to use the M&M and zergling rushes.

Now I like the colossus more than I did when I originally starting posting in this forum. ;D

 

Don't forget that it's not instant damage.

It's 144 damage PER BURST. So it deals 144 damage over time as the laser shoots, not 144 instant damage.

It may be faster than the Medic can heal, but it will only kill 4-5 Marines per burst. That's assuming there's no AoE, of course.

 

I know, but people kept talking about how a tank would own the colossus in matches of equal number. Talking about how the colossus is good against light units so it would do little damage v. heavy armored units like tanks, so even with ~300 - 400 life, the colossus would be defeated easy by a single tank.

 

hmmm interesting point eon, I can't wait to test it.

but I took a look at the video, and it seems to me that the beam lasts around 6 seconds so thats around 24 damage a second!

 

That still is about evenly tied with the siege tank in terms of cooldown. But the colossus has much more life than the siege tank does. My guess is that it would take 3 tanks in siege mode to kill a colossus without taking any casualties.

Also with the colossus ability to climb cliffs along with the new idea of not being able to see enemy attackers that are out of site, including cliffs, this would make it easy for the colossus to play a classic hit and run tactic. It could attack the tanks, do some damage, then quickly retreat out of site.

 

I'm thinking that the most effective (and safe) way to eliminate a Colossus will be through the use of air units, and not through the use of tanks.

Once again, as I've said before, I'm seeing a trend of decreasing dependancy upon the Seige Tank as the Terran weapon of war.

The other races have "transcended" the difficulties that the Seige Tank has created and forced the Terrans to change their tactics as well. This is why I'm so upset about the change in tier structure involving the Viking and its placement in the Starport instead of the Factory. It limits the Terran options since the Seige Tank has lost a bit of effectiveness.

Of course, we haven't seen the Zerg yet and it's quite possible that the Seige Tank could be infinitely more viable against anything new we see from that race, but with its new weakness of only 50 damage versus unarmored units, I think we may see a reduced role against the Zerg as well.

So yes, I think the Colossus is yet another unit that may offer an effective counter to the Seige Tank and will offer effective ground superiority for the Protoss when used effectively. But don't forget its weakness to air units.

 

That is correct since the colossus has no AA attack. However, I would think that if you had air units, chances are the protoss player would have a few phoenixes as well, but that is besides the point. Air units will prove to be the colossus's ultimate weakness.

I've also noticed this. With the new strategies in stealth attacks, static defences will prove to be less effective at protection. The terrans are going to be using marines and reapers more often to protect possible areas of intrusion.

 

The way I see it, the Colossus sounds mightily overpowered.

It leads me to the conclusion that TvP games will be extremely dull from Colossus and up, with only one possible victor.
Its a mid tier unit for crying out loud, its on tier-par with the bloody Cobra! Come on! Give us a break, how the hell am I going to be able to counter that kind of firepower? I know lorewise it should be that dangerous, but gameplay needs some thought as well thank you very much!

 

Remember that even though Blizzard is saying that it is extremely powerful at the moment, it doesn't mean that it will in game. And if it is, then it will be either extremely fragile or extremely expensive. Frankly I would prefer them to be more expensive because I don't think that any Protoss unit should be extremely fragile. Except for the Templar both High and Dark, Probe and Observer. Dark Templar should be fragile because they rely on their Cloak, High Templar because they rely on their energy and do not have an actual attack, Observer because they have Cloak and because they don't actually have an attack, and Probe because it is only the worker unit although it should be tougher than other worker units. The Colossus should be extremely tough because it is such an important unit, which means that it would have to cost a small fortune.

 

Also, remeber that the colossus will be expencive to make, so protoss won't be able to make too many of them until late game. Cost will probably be around the same as a carrier, so terran would be able to outnumber colossus armies and use tanks and cobras to win.

Also, remember that AA attacks also can hit the colossus, so turrets would be able to do damage as well. And the colossus can't hit air units, so vikings would be an extremely powerful counter when placed in air mode.