Race Overview : The Protoss

The Protoss remain very simillar to their form in Starcraft and Brood War ,with some notable additions and replacements.

They remain the most straightforward race to play,with easy to master unit compositions and easy tech tree.

New Air Units

In Starcraft 2 we see new air units for the protoss race,like the Void Ray,capable of destroying entire bases with their prismatic cores when in large numbers.What makes the Void Ray a threat is their damage output that constantly increases the longer it stays focused on a target.

Void Rays Focusing Their Beams On A Terran Turret

Air to air additions include the Pheonix,able to guard and strongly support carriers and void rays against air counters.The Pheonix is equiped with a graviton beam ability wich incapacitates any ground unit,the beam also lifts the unit of the ground and makes it vulnerable to air atacks.

The Protoss received in Starcraft 2 a new transport unit,the Warp Prism that can load and unload units at any desired location.The unit altough comes with a Protoss twist,being able to enter Phase Mode,a channeled ability that transforms the craft from troop transport into a mobile Pylon.Couple with Warp Gates this offers a new level of strategic play for the race.

Unlike most of the air protoss air units that are trained at the Stargate,the new Observer is available from the Robotics Bay and does not posses any offensive ability.The unit is permanently cloaked and can be invaluable to the protoss scouting and detection of stealth or burrowed units.

In Wings Of Liberty we are also introduced to the Protoss Mothership ,the culmination of Protoss technology and a game changing addition against many oponnents. This massive air unit is valuable only for its supporting abillities rather than damage,capable of cloaking entire armies in its proximity and disabling whole enemy formations with its singularity ability.Due to the advantage this unit provides (and the astronomic costs) only one can be deployed on the field at any time.


The Mothership in action

New Ground Units

Amongst the new ground units in the Protoss army there is also the Sentry,a welcomed addition by many micro loving players.The sentry can shield units arround it,lowering the damage they receive,and also can create illusions of other allied units that can offer endless strategic and deceptive capabilites on the field.

Other new ground units include the Immortal,a strong counter to high damage ground units,The Immortal is equiped with hardened shields that can reduce incoming damage to 10.

Replacing the old Dragoon from Starcraft and Brood War is the Stalker,an armored mechanical unit,that has the ability to teleport on the battlefield,wich can be used to quickly flank enemy units ,or rush unsuspecting oponents from behind their mineral lines.

Then there is also the Colossus,a massive mech,able to walk up and down cliffs.The colossus is specificaly designed as a anti-infantry unit,with 2 thermal lances that can desintegrate entire organic formations.Tough strong against ground units this unit cannot atack air units,and being a "massive" unit he is also vulnerable to air-air enemy units.

Three Protoss Colossi in action

New Abilities

Old protoss units have received new upgrades in Starcraft 2, like the Zealot charge(aka Zealot Legs) ability,wich can expand their usefullness into mid-late parts of the game .

The Carrier now comes with 4 Interceptors available from the start,and can be upgraded with the Graviton Catapults wich deploys interceptors much faster.

The Nexus now has the Chrono Boost Ability that places any targeted structure in a Chrono Field accelerating its production for 20 seconds