I know people have already posted their ideas about various units before, but after playing for a few days, I've been wanting to give my own personal thoughts about Protoss. Gateway Zealot The standard unit in the toss early army. Has a good amount of durability for its cost. The usefulness late game returns once you get the charge upgrade as it allows for faster closing into ranged enemies. Overall, not much to say about him than other people have already done. Sentry Obtainable after Cyber Core, and the first ability caster for the toss. This unit is a great compliment for the zealot, being light on mineral cost and able to attack air. It's most useful ability for someone with poor APM like me is the Guardian Shield. If I have 3 Sentries in a group, I just have to click it 3 times and each sentry does it. Force Field is useful for dividing larger armies into manageable pieces, but I haven't used this ability too much. Haven't tried the Hallucination yet since I don't think the upgrade cost is really worth it. Stalker The new Dragoon. Though not as strong as the original, it gain a new ability called Blink. Besides the Sentry, the stalker is the protoss's answer to air units, getting 9+4 v. armored. The Blink also gives it the side roll of harassment, though you need a number of them to deal damage fast enough. High Templar Pretty much the same as the original from SC1. Its Psyonic Storm ability has been nerfed to a small location, so I haven't used this ability too much, or this unit. Another problem is that this unit is slow, so if I have to travel a distance to get into battle, the HT will lag behind and not be in time to be most effective with their storms. However, with the upgrade of +25 energy, they can storm as soon as they are created, allowing them to be useful in defense if you're under attack by a lot of lower tier units. Dark Templar High attack, low life, and cloaked, the DT plays the same role as in SC1. It is expensive to tech to, so not many people use it. DT rushes can be effective if not scouted, but don't neglect unit production trying to tech to them. Archon Rarely seen or used, the Archor has a ton of shield but low HP. It doesn't seem worth teching to since both the HT and DT seem to be better off by themselves instead of fusing. Robotics Facility Observer Protoss's cloaked recon unit. Has no attack but can detect other cloaked units. Plays same role as in SC1, though it no longer needs an observatory to build and doesn't have the enhanced VoS upgrade. Warp Prism Protoss transport, and can deploy to create a small energy field. This unit is extremely useful when combined with warpgates, allowing you to create units right behind the frontlines to join a battle or create units inside an enemy base. immortal The answer to armored, heavy units. It is the ground response to roaches or tanks and is pretty necessary when dealing with them. It's shield decreases damage dealt to it to only 10 points per attack and has a +50 v. armored targets, which also makes it useful in attacking buildings. Colossus The answer to light units. Its AoE attack allows it to play a similar role to the terran's tank, sitting behind the front dealing a lot of damage to a specific area. The Thermal Lance upgrade is essential for this unit as it allows the Colossus to have 3 more range and thus less likely to be attacked. It is the only unit in the game to be affected by all 4 damage patterns(AtA, AtG, GtG, and GtA) due to its height. Stargate Phoenix The standard AtA fighter. This unit is fast, but has a somewhat weak attack. Its Gravatron Beam ability raises ground units into the air and immobilizes them, but does not work against massive units like the Thor or Colossus. Overall, not that useful unless in large numbers. Void Ray The Void Ray in my opinion is the best of the Protoss's air units. It has two levels of attack, and once it reaches the second level, it will stay at that power as long as there is another target nearby to attack. It is he best air for trying to snipe enemy CC/Nexus/Hatcheries. One key note: if you have Void Rays and your opponent is attacking another location with their own rays, try to wait until they his are no longer in level 2 attack mode. There have been many games where my Rays slaughter an opponent's, even if he has more, because my rays were at lvl2 attack and his were still at lvl1. There is a huge difference in damage dealt between the two attacks. Carrier Not the best IMO, and requires the Fleet Beacon to build. It is useful with a ground army to try and distract units with its fighter drone cloud style of attack. Otherwise, you need many carriers to be effective and they are still vulnerable to enemy AtA units. Mothership While useful, I've never built one of these, and I've only seen it in 2-3 of my games. While useful, the tech and resource cost for one usually sets you back on unit production. So unless you have a better income than your opponent, I wouldn't recommend getting one. Another problem is the unit is very slow, which kind of defeats the purpose of it having recall, if I wanted units at a location I would use a warp prism, it's a lot cheaper to get and faster. It's other abilities include Cloaking nearby units and buildings, and a Void that traps all units nearby, taking them out of battle for a short period of time. Notable Mechanics Chrono Boost Usable from the Nexus for 25 energy, this ability allows for any unit of upgrade speed to be increased during the duration of its affect. I mainly use it on the nexus for probes, Core for warpgate tech, or Robo Facility for faster Immortals/Colossi. Warp-in Usable once you upgrade the gate way to the warpgate. It allows for instant production of gateway units anywhere where you have pylon power. It allows for the ability to make a fast army when needed, and has a faster cooldown time that if you produced the units at a gateway.
