Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy

Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategy

The Protoss are a highly psychic race that offer a myriad of play styles. Their ability to Chrono Boost their buildings and build structures without devoting a worker to them makes them very interesting to play. Protoss rely on Pylons to create a power grid because no buildings can be built outside of the Pylons range. Finally, they have the ability to reinforce almost instantly with their Warp Gates which makes Protoss proxy strategies and the abilities to deal with sneak attacks very effective.

Protoss Strengths:

Probes are able to place buildings and then go back to other jobs. This strengthens the Protoss economy, especially in the early game.

• Protoss shields regenerate constantly while out of combat so your veterans are not left injured for long.
• Photon Cannons are the only static defense building that can attack both land and air.
• Chrono Boost will double any buildings production speed for 20 seconds. This allows you to finish a vital unit or research in half the time it would otherwise take.
• Because Probes can regenerate shield in Starcraft 2 very quickly, Protoss players love to pull off some annoying strategy to harass the Terran player's SCV.

Protoss Weaknesses:

• The protoss army relies heavily on shields making a strategy or build order with EMP's very dangerous
• Losing a Pylon can shut down nearby buildings until you replace it.
• Protoss units are generally more expensive and take more supply due to their power.
• Zealots, the Protoss basic unit, can be kited by a lot of other units including Marines, Reapers, and Roaches until you buy their Charge research.
• A full Protoss army can require a great deal of micro management in order to use all of their abilities to the fullest.

Unique Traits of Protoss:

• The Protoss Mothership is a new game changing unit. It is essentially an Arbiter from Brood War on steroids. It cloaks all friendly units around it and has the ability to teleport your entire army to itself. In addition it has the Vortex ability which if used properly can eat half or sometimes even more of your opponents units, making them useless until the vortex ends.
• Protoss have the only permanently cloaked unit that can still attack and the only cloaked detector, the Dark Templar and the Observer respectively.

Protoss Strategies in Starcraft 2 vs Starcraft Brood War

-Dragoons have been replaced by Stalkers. These units fulfill essentially the same role as they are both lightly armored ranged troops that are unlocked by the Cybernetics Core. The main difference is the Stalker's new ability, Blink, which allows it to teleport a short distance instantly. These guys have been replaced by Immortals. (literally a walking wall against any armored units) Requires very minimum micro or strategy. 1a2a3a should do it.
-Shuttles have been replaced by the Warp Prism. The warp prism has 2 modes. In its basic mode it functions exactly the same as the shuttle did in Brood War, but in Phasing Mode it deploys a power field similar to a Pylon.
- The Reaver has been removed. 2 new units, the Immortal and the Colossus have been added to the robotics facility. The immortal does a ton of damage to armored units and has a special ability which negates all damage over 10 while his shield is up. The colossus is a massive unit which can climb ledges and has a splash damage attack that destroys light units.
-The Sentry is a new spellcaster unit. Its Force Field and Guardian Shield abilities can turn the tide of battle quickly and its Hallucinations can be used to confuse the enemy or even as free scouts.
-Dark Archons removed, all Templar turn in to normal Archons now.
- Corsair replaced with the Pheonix. The Pheonix is a very similar unit except that it has the Graviton Beam ability which can lift a unit in to the air, rendering it unable to function and vulnerable to anti air attacks.
- Scout was removed and replaced with the Void Ray, an incredibly powerful aircraft. The Void Ray can attack both air and ground. After about 7 seconds of constant fire the Void Rays damage will double making it perhaps the most deadly air unit in the game.

I hope a good comparison between all the Protoss strategies was helpful. Starcraft 2 Protoss is a much different race compared to the original. Units like Voidrays, Sentries and other highly technical units really promote diverse strategy play for any high level player.

By Moderas