New protoss strategies

H'okay, so we've seen quite a lot of protoss units already, so maybe we could start speculating about the possible strategies with them?

Phase cannon rush in mirror matchups could be good, since they can move anywhere in pylon power. Bring in some zealots and probes, zealots distract while the cannons are being built or kill the enemy's units if they go for the cannons. And when some are built, let's say 6, leave 3 alone and move 3 forward, then switch, and so on. Similar to the AP rush in Wc3. Even if the enemy manages to build some towers or something so you can't advance any further you would still hold them in the base and could expand, build more units, in short, force him to turtle while you gain an economical advantage. In other matchups it couldn't be so good because you would have to have phase prisms which probably won't be early in the game, and I think this strategy would work best when the enemy doesn't have much defenses on.

Then we have the good old Dark Templar rush, which isn't really something new. There's just some different aspects because of the terran domes, or warp-in in and so on.

I've read about stalker rush somewhere already, and while I don't really think it's a strategy that's going to be seen often, especially when good players clash, it could be worth mentioning. Some zealots distract the enemy in the front while the stalkers inflitrate the worker line and kill off as many as they can, creating an economical advantage so you can make a much bigger army than your enemy has and destroy him. Come to think of it, it could be very effective against noobs.

We could also discuss the best types of units against a certain enemy/strategy, like vs terran's tanks and vikings and so on, for instance zealots for the frontal pressure, immortals for the backup support, stalkers for blinking behind the enemy lines and harrasing, HTs for psi storm, maybe an archon or two for pure power...

Discuss!

 

Against Vikings, your best bet is probably the stalker since it can attack air and ground and can blink to avoid Vikings and give people who have trouble micro-managing a tough deal.

One thing I'm interested in is the HT psi shield ability. If played right, It could really slow your enemy down which leave room for the good old economy rush and you might even be able to force the opponent into your own version of a choke point.

 

Yes, I'd like to note the apparent opposing powers of the terran and the protoss, Look at the Immortal and how it owns tanks. Tanks will probably own stalkers cuz of their low hp. and If u look at the viking, there probably stronger than the immortals. There will be a interesting balance of power.....

 

I actually think the Stalker rush you mentioned sounds very effective and difficult to stop. They've got a powerful attack and will be able to make short work of an enemy's entire resource gathering. The Phase Prism will be available at the same time the Shuttle previously was. I wonder if you have to warp in in your own pylon energy field. Imagine if you were just to keep an undetected Dark Templar sitting in the corner of their base and then warp in a whole army right in the middle of their base away from all of their defense. They would be forced to destroy their own pylons to stop the warping in, so I figure it must just be your own pylon psi field. This makes Protoss proxy builds easier since you can basically hide two pylons near your enemy's base and just keep sending your armies through to him.

 

I'm going to agree with kehm and say Stalker rush is a great rush. I wouldn't even go for workers, I would just fight then when one gets eak blink it to the back of the group (where it can still attack). Blink on a normal unit will make for some awesome micro wars. I'm looking forward to it.

 

Yes, a stalker rush would be very useful, although I doubt it will do much good if you aren't good at micro. Seeing as stalkers have relatively low health and shields, a few zealots/ other stalkers, marines or reapers, or a few lings and hydras would be able to destroy them fairly easily if the stalkers didn't blink constantly.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the Stalker has just as much health and shields as the old Dragoon used to. I think people are exaggerating how flimsy the Stalker really is, plus they do a good amount of damage, so I think they should be able to handle themselves pretty well, even without blink. Of course, with blink, they're far more efficient killing machines; as each one weakens, simply blink it to the back of the line and continue.

 

I would do a stalker to old Fashen DT rush baby. who the heck is ganna think darn he's stoping the mining and slowing them down with a few stalkers and then u flood the enemys base with 20 DT's If the stalkers are played well in a match u can annoy your opponent into a a hot fuss and beat them out pritty easy.

but i cant say to much about this now because zerg are still looming in the shadows and are still unknown. We cant make strategies untill a later date. Blizzard is still moving units left and right. And dose anyone know what a Twilight Archon dose??

 

Only one page in my Protoss Strategy Book:

Reaver Rush. Self Explanatory.

 

Reaver rush is so out dated now. Dude get with the times this is SC2. do a colossus rush man. that should be funny

 

I have a feeling I'm going to post a book here, but I've always loved the Protoss and these new units give me many ways with which to think about how to penetrate another's base. I think I'll just cover uses of diffrent units just to have some fun.

Ground assaults- Protoss have the strongest units of the three, but also the most expensive (and consiquently the fewest), calling in some good strategy and some manuverability to make use of the units you do have means that you'll come out on top every time.

Immortals/Zealots/Stalkers- Keeping immortals in front with zealots charging in behind just makes sense, keep the heavy guys in front while the little guys charge in and start taking down infantry will put stress on a defensive formation. (lets assume Terran for now with siege tanks and bunkered marines). In keeping with style, once the battle is engaged you move stalkers and port them directly past the front line of your opponent and pincer them back onto themselves finishing them off in a fairly hands off approach. This would be similar to the SC1 tactic of keeping some dark templar behind an assault without the risk of getting detected.

Stalkers can also fire at both ground and air defenses at pretty much the same time. (thier anti-air is independant from thier anti-ground attack) Making them an extemely good last minute defensive force with very good kiting ability. (they move fast and blink... with enough space I'm sure they could kill almost anything)

The Collosus I beleive will be underestimated at times for thier sheer utility and ability to really put the grind on almost any base defense. Cliffs will no longer keep a base safe, and while you engage an army on one side of a conflict...you use your Cololosus to go directly into an enemy base and immediately stomp out all thier work force. (thier lazers will make quick work of ANY mineral mineing force) Even if you loose your units to anti-air defense systems you will have effictively stopped a major part of thier economy.

Reavers will always be reavers, strategy with them seems no diffrent unless you combine them with the utility of its robot brother. A reaver will be very capable of taking down something like an Ultralisk (or heavy armored/big HP ground units) and help a Collosus dismantle a base in short order. This is of course risking shuttle drops and the like as this unit cant bypass cliffs.

High Templars new stasis ability will make him a key in assault forces with heavy defenses, or keeping your base intact by blocking off other forces long enough to get yours in place. For example, if there is a bunker or siege tank pummeling your troops from where you cant reach them, cast a stasis over the location to save yourself the trouble while your troops get to safety. If you spot an assault incomeing from a ramp base, you can cast a field over the entrence long enough to move your phase cannons to the front. This ability will add alot of flexability in being able to bide time for you to move your units to places they are needed.

Dark Templars/Archons seem no diffrent then before and thus I dont have anything to say about them.

Keeping ground forces mobile- It seems one of the major powers of the protoss is the ability to "warp in" and shift around thier very expensive units. It seems to me that it would always be a good idea to keep a few units ready to be warped in at any time. Using a hallucination spell with a bunch of portable pylons will result in being able to port a unit just about anywhere you want.

Money well spent- Because protoss units/structures are so expensive, the main theme here seems to advocate being stingy. If your going to use phase cannons to defend a base, only cover half the base so that you can move them in the event they attack your other side. Porting your units around to get them to where they are most needed quickly. Some units may be cheeper then they were before (Tempest) but that is no reason to throw them away carelessly.

Air Units- Overall the Protoss air force has simply AMAZING synergy. While just one of its units alone wont stop any real attack for any legnth of time, together even with just 1-2 of each they can cover each other's weaknesses nearly perfectly creating an extremely deadly and well balanced air force.

Phoenix have the best overall ability that I've seen so far in the air force. (mothership not counting of course) A decent anti-air and ground attack with a special ability that can put a dent in just about anything. However it has the shields/hp of a wet blanket in comparison to some of the other protoss units, so you dont want to use this without support.

Warp rays have thier niche in being able to kill anything big...The bigger the unit, the better off this guy is killing it. It synergizes well with the Phoenix and the Tempest for a very killer combo.

Tempests take out any ground units and base defenses with ease, thier anti-ground shield makes them perfect for punching through missile turrets and marines. Phoenix cover them from above, and warp rays kill anything too big for the "shuriken" (I beleive they are called).

Mothership can just be thrown in here as it makes a huge diffrence on any attacking force and doesn't need me to tell anyone its applications.

Star Relic is of course a very unique unit whos purpose is to be snuck into battle to blow things up with its detonation beam. (as well as its spells which are self explanitory) The way I see it there are a few ways to utilize this beam in ways that can be potentially devastating. One such example would be to back up an attack with it using the beam on a pretty fast/easy to kill infantry unit in the middle of a clog of infantry. One of these guys exploding would deal significant damage to the rest... Just dont expect it to kill that tank sitting next to them. Another use would be to put it behind a base and sneakily blow up a building near thier workers or even just blowing up a building in general (and watching the collateral chaos ensue)

I know I rambled a bit and said things that you guys could have figured out on your own. However As this thread is about protoss strats I feel this would be a good start.

500 minerals for a great post

 

I think most people have already stated the best ideas though. These two are just... filler....

This isn't that fascinating of an idea, but I guess the MS could always black hole all of the enemy miners, heh.

Oh, and warp in Dark Templars for the same purpose more or less.

 

I think Black Hole only hits air.

 

Black hole only affects air. And they are thinking of reducing it's OMGWTFness.

 

Create some zealots to start of the game, most likely seven or eight, then attack enemy base. Continue on to stalkers while the enemy is behind because of zealot attack. Bring out about one and a half dozen stalkers, bring eight around the front and eight around the back, and blink into the middle of the base. That will cause chaos. Of course by this time i will be at Colossus and I can bring in like three to destroy enemy economy. Then get some Twilight Archons backed up by stalkers for support. Bring in three or four carriers and a HUGE army of zealots for fun.

 

I think stalkers may also be effective or atleast annoying to thors. Since the Thor takes so long to turn you could easily blink behind him and by the time he turns around to fire on you, blink behind him once again.

Support with the Thor could be a problem for just using stalkers against it. So I'm thinking drop some templar in there with them or psi storm the light support units protecting the Thor.

Does anyone know if Immortals can attack air or are they only ground?

 

stalkers are like dragoons with blink added as their ability, so masses of them will be very effective since that they have a strong weapon

 

im pretty sure immortals only hit ground

 

nope... they hit air. look at meloku's thread.

 

Didn't they hit ground only before?