Protoss Units: Part One!

Much has changed for Protoss in Starcraft 2. Most of the SC1 units have been removed from the game and replaced with some categorical substitutes. Only the Probe, Zealot, Archon, Observer, High Templar, Dark Templar and Carrier remained in the list

As I will be discussing these units I might as well enumerate and classify them according to build order Tiers

Tier 0: Probe

Tier 1: Zealot

Tier 1.5: Sentry, Stalker



Tier 2: Immortal, Observer, Phoenix, Void Ray, Warp Prism, High Templar

Tier 2.5: Colossus, Dark Templar

Tier 3: Archon, Carrier, Mothership

~~ Tier 0 ~~

Probe

Starting Stats:

Shields / Hitpoints	20 /20
Range / Type	Melee / Ground
Attack Power	5
Armor	0
Speed	Normal
Cost	50 Minerals, 1 Population

The Probe is Protoss harvester/worker, their basic mining and structure production unit. I believe that the Protoss are more time-efficient in both mining and building production than the Terran or the Zerg. Unlike the other harvesters, Probes can queue a lot of actions (using shift key) while other probes are consistently mining minerals and gas. This is not much different as Probes in SC1 except for the better graphics. You can only upgrade its shields and armors and the basic attack of the probe isn’t much to be even proud of. The Probe has a basic build time of 20 seconds.

~~ Tier 1 ~~

Zealot

Starting Stats

Shields / Hitpoints	50 /100
Range / Type	Melee / Ground
Attack Power	8 (x2)
Armor	1
Speed	Normal
Cost	100 Minerals, 2 Population

Ah, yes, the Zealot. Well, this guy is the only Tier 1 unit available in the Protoss army. Unlike Starcraft 1, today’s Zealot has only 50 shield compared to the first that has 60. But compared to build speeds, SC2’s zealot decreased from 40 secs to 33 seconds, and that’s still without Chronoboost! Upgrading the Gateway to a Warp Gate will mean a more insane production of Zealots. 

Now the Zealot has a better upgrade than SC1’s leg enhancement, called Charge. It can be either a passive ability or an active one depending on your preference. Charge allows Zealots to intercept nearby enemies and it outrageously increases their movement speed. This upgrade is researched at the Twilight Council. Catching up with a running squad is very easy with this upgrade. Definitely a must for those Zealot fans coming out of lots and lots of proxy pylons everywhere. The Zealot can also have upgrades for Ground Weapons, Plasma shields and Armor 1-3.

~~Tier 1.5:~~

Sentry

Starting Stats:

Shields / Hitpoints Energy	40 / 40 200
Range Type	(5) Ground and Air Ground
Attack Power	8 (Ground and Air)
Armor	1
Speed	Normal
Cost	50 Minerals 100 Vespene Gas 2 Population

The Sentry IMHO must have a minimum of 2 per every basic 10 unit squad that you have. The reason is because most of the combat macro will be coming from this mech unit. Support is the main objective of the Sentry and all of its abilities is a must have. Once a Warpgate is available, producing this unit is now easy. Normal building time for a Sentry is 42 seconds and you do not want any of that on queue style. Below is the list of its sick abilities both having advantage to ranged and melee attacks.

Force Field – A very flexible “wall” spell it creates a hexagon-shaped block that lasts for 15 seconds which impedes movement of ground units, used for evading, leading or trapping enemy melee rush. This is in combo with your ranged Stalkers that can also teleport over and back of these fields. As I have been using and watching Sentry in HDH tournaments, this ability is a must have for Protoss players. This uses 50 energy.

Guardian Shield – An ability vs ranged attack. It creates a range 4 aura that reduces incoming ranged damage to friendly units by 2. Lasts 15 seconds and uses 75 energy. Use it well.

Hallucination – Creates clones of a unit (Except for Carrier, Observers and Dark Templars), that last 60 seconds. At first look you can use this at your advantage making your army look like a big one, since hallucinations do not look different from other kinds of units in your opponent’s view. Mainly I use the hallucinations to create a phoenix and scout it like crazy, and that’s it. This skill uses 100 energy and I want my Sentry to utilize energy more on fields and shields. This also has to be researched at the Cybernetics Core.

You may also want to protect the Sentry from any kind of opponent unit. The Sentry is a caster unit and not an attacker. It’s very easy to kill and deal with, but with the right kind of use, it will be the most annoying unit your opponent may want to face beside from your Stalkers.

Stalker

Starting Stats:

Shields / HP	80 / 80
Range Type	(6) Ground and Air Ground
Attack Power	8 (Ground and Air) +6 vs Armored
Armor	1
Speed	Normal
Cost	125 Minerals 50 Vespene Gas 2 Population

Of course, the best types of your offensives are at the upper Tiers, but think again. Being in a real time match against an experienced opponent you may want to swarm your squads with units that’s easy on your resources, can attack both air and ground, have a decent attack, defensive stats and a tactical ability. The Stalker is the perfect spam of your resources to create a solid squad build of average Zealots and minimal Sentries. 

Luckily, Blizzard chose this unit to spawn from a Warp Gate, wherein a proxy pylon or a tactical use of a warp prism can give you lots of map control using the sentry harass. Having the active “teleporting” ability Blink, can also give you instant cliff advantage vs melee, evasion, Force Field leap and etc.

Blink – Teleports the Stalker to a nearby target location. 10 seconds cool-down. Has to be researched at the Twilight Council for only 150 minerals and 150 gas. Research time of 110 seconds (w/o Chronoboost yet)

The best thing that was given to the Stalker is the production cost aside from its very flexible ability and stats. 80/80 is not so bad, considering the population cost of only 2 and a starting base attack of 8 on both ground and air, and that +6 vs armored! Not only that, 4 units of Stalkers can fit into a Warp Prism, unloading its units and using it as a pylon for the WarpGates and that can give you more Gateway forces for retaliation or resource harass. 

Combined with the Sentry’s Force Field, the Stalker can still attack from behind being unharmed to Zerglings and other melee. This is I believe the most number of unit type that you should produce.

And yes, the Stalker's my favorite (^^)

Next up: Protoss Tier 2 Units!