^ I wouldn't rely on Sacrifice as an SM to finish something like a Ranger off. Why? Because you'll hardly find yourself ever 1-shotting them even if you Crit with Sacrifice if they are at full HP from the moment they start attacking you. Personally, I'd hit them with Extinction and try to hit them as hard as I can before I use Sacrifice in hopes of finishing them off. You do not want to immediately use Sacrifice off the bat. It's only something reserved for the desperate players who are about to be eliminated or for those players you have high confidence for using it as a finisher. Never use it as your starting move. I've won quite a few Colosseums on my SM with this mindset. It's always about saving that Sacrifice for a special someone. If you miss, tough luck. It happens to everyone with a high burst skill. Just remember that these high burst skills are almost always your ticket to victory.
Crescentia? Inflict all available DoTs on the Ranger after using Raw Tilt. Earthworm them. Run up if possible to inflict as many Stimgas on them before using Tempest. Like Sacrifice from SM, you should save Tempest for targets about to die. In this case, Tempest is far more crucial to time with, because it has a 60 second cooldown as a opposed to Sacrifice's 30 seconds cooldown.
For me? Simple: Hit them hard before dying and finish them off after respawning. That's only assuming they're hitting you harder than you can recover from anyways. For me, going on the defensive can be a huge gamble. It's like a 50/50 chance out in the open for others observing you two to either attack you or the player attacking you. Sometimes it benefits the observers/KSers, because the one attacking you is probably too engrossed on fighting you to notice how much damage they might be taking themselves. Then again, for the typical observer/KSer, they might find it more beneficial for them to finish you off after the one attacking you weakens you enough before attempting to fight off the one that attacked you. So who knows? I've had both scenarios happen quite often.
That's the beauty of Colosseum for me though. It's supposed to be a Free For All. A lot of factors are associated with it. Premades shouldn't have a place in there for that. I find I have the most fun, whether I win or lose in the end, whenever there isn't a premade for me to run into. The unpredictability is a thrill.
Edited by GuardianTK, 18 December 2013 - 10:44 AM.