Blitz (Vassa's Hybrid)

Overview

The Blitz build is all about fast paced, explosive Colossus action. It shares many of its core components with the advanced builds by the amazing [JRSVengeance] and [icebaby32], but the focus is a bit different here. We neither prioritize maximal ultimate damage, nor specialize in cunning combo cycles. The goal is to build a well balanced, somewhat agile chonker that packs some nice instant-BOOM, without relying much on rare top items. Thus, it offers a viable alternative to the Venom Storm based Starter Build.

Weapons

Weapons offer inscription slots that are valuable for your survivability. Ideally, your three weapons will provide a balanced mix of Armor, Repair (or Resupply) Drop Rate and some damage inscriptions. High local damage rolls or other specialized inscriptions are not required.

Sentinel’s Vengeance

• This is your tool against armored enemies (yellow health bars). They receive significantly more combo damage when primed with acid, while the acid debuff provides another strong damage multiplier. This grenade launcher is among the best acid primers in the game and does not need any local damage rolls to be effective. We use it whenever we have to prime from a distance or need some extra punch in our BOOMs. Mine has +180% Armor, with some rather useless +25% Harvesting and +150% Ammo.

Jarra’s Wrath

• This is your tool against shielded enemies. They cannot be primed, so we want to destroy those shields as fast as possible. Jarra's Wrath is amazingly effective for this, if you have one with decent damage rolls. In addition, it is useful to quickly finish off weakened enemies in your proximity. The electric primer is rarely of interest, since most things go BOOM before the effect kicks in. Mine has +400% Dmg, +40% Repair Drop Rate and +48% Pickup Radius.

‍

Melee Weapon

Meteor Smash

• Scar's on fire, yo! And anything else we stomp onto, actually. Meteor Smash is our signature move, and we are going to use it frequently to prime groups of enemies and set wide areas on fire. That's why [advanced Colossus movement] and Berserker's Cry are super helpful for a Blitz build. The Smash itself does not really need local damage inscriptions to be effective, so other rolls are helpful. Mine has +200% Dmg, +28% Gear Recharge and +75% Armor.

‍

‍Gear‍

It is really not hard to guess the gear of this build from the title. But let's have a closer look at the inscriptions and tactics involved.

Solvent Green‍

• Oh, you again? Solvent Green's passive combo bonus is so ridiculously powerful that you will find this piece on practically every Colossus build. If you are ever going to use the sludge launcher, that's most likely to break a grabbit decoy without reloading your guns. This means that any +Recharge for this slot and local inscriptions of any sort are a waste. Mine has +40% Repair Drop Rate, +21% Dmg and some +28% Gear Dmg.

Vassa’s Arc

• This one sparks joy - literally! Vassa's can be toggled any time - even while stomping on enemies, launching some grenades or flying right into havoc. And the latter is the reason why we are talking about a Blitz build. (But don't tell your Ranger buddies.) We usually turn Vassa's on for just a second - and watch things go BOOM. It's all about timing, and you will get the hang of it quickly. Inscriptions are not really important for this amazing tool, but +Recharge comes in handy also from other items. That's because the coil needs to accumulate 5 charges before it can be activated again. Should you run into this embarrassing situation, a shield bash will be great for stress relief. Mine has +30% Repair Drop Rate, +30% Dmg and +15% Gear Dmg.

‍

Support Item

Berserker’s Cry

• Feel the chonk honk! Berserker's Cry is the strongest support gear in the game, packing +200% Melee Dmg with a melee speed buff and a resistance debuff. Ideally, it will have at least two charges, so you can boost your Interceptor buddies and yourself permanently. This is tremendously useful, especially if you like to spread flaming havoc using smashes with shield cancels. Mine has +100% Charges, +28% Combo Blast Dmg and +35% Ammo Drop Rate.

‍

Components

We are going to use two colossus specific and two universal components to establish a solid basis for our overall damage output. The last two components are very convenient to have, but can be replaced if you need your strongest other components. The Blitz hybrid should have a well balanced combination of Drop Rates, Ultimate and Combo Dmg. Gear Recharge and Armor are ideally already covered by your weapons, and can be balanced with inscriptions on universal components otherwise.

Shock Treatment

• This component is another privilege no Colossus wants to miss: A whopping +80% universal damage that kicks in whenever the chonker gets tickled. Mine has +45% Resupply Drop Rate.

Symbiotic Surge

• This component is used in almost every build, granting you another +50% universal damage bonus. The more Repair or Resupply Drop Rate inscriptions you have in total, the better the chances that this perk will be active permanently. Mine has 28% Ulti Dmg and +29% Combo Blast Dmg.

Catalytic Overdrive

• With the passives from this component and Solvent Green combined, we are already at +250% Combo Dmg, plus +130% universal damage from the other components. So even without any good inscriptions, we are well capable to deliver some BOOM. Mine has +35% Resupply Drop Rate and 35% Repair Drop Rate.

Emergency Power

• This component is not only a life safer with a valuable +30% Ulti Dmg passive – the heavily armored Colossus can even easily trigger the perk on purpose. With proper timing (some say luck), that's an extra Ultimate every two minutes. Mine has +38% Ulti Dmg and 78% Melee Dmg.

Extended Special Arms Magazine

• The damage bonus is irrelevant, but the doubled clip size is very helpful for Sentinels Vengeance. Unless you have enough Resupply Drop Rate to never even think about reloading. Mine has +50% Ulti Dmg and +20% Elemental Dmg.

Thermal Cooling

• Flight and maneuverability plays a pivotal role for the Blitz build, so the extra Heat Capacity and Overheating Recovery perk from this component can be nice to have. Mine has +43% Ulti Dmg and +21% Combo Blast Dmg.

‍

Sigils

If you want some extra BOOM from sigils, +30% Combo Dmg and +50% Ulti Dmg is solid choice. And in case you replaced Thermal Cooling with something else, a Heat Capacity Sigil may come in handy.

‍

Further Reading

As outlined and linked in the overview at the top, this build is very similar to two of the most powerful Colossus builds. This guide here has not reinvented the wheel, and we won`t even try to go into the technical details and personal tactics that are already wonderfully described in those original guides. Rather, the intention here was to lower the barrier and close the gap between intermediate and advanced builds, since a hybrid approach ultimately can be anything in between.

‍