Starcraft 2 Protoss Guide - HotS Updated
Starcraft 2 Guide --> Protoss Guide (you are here)
In our Starcraft 2 Protoss guide, we cover all aspects of the Protoss race in-depth. Below you will find everything from detailed data on all the Protoss units and structures the best builds and strategies that can be used against all three races.
Protoss Guide Table of Contents
For ease of navigation and simplicity, we have split out Protoss guide into 6 primary areas:
Protoss Structures
Protoss Units
Protoss Army Compositions
Protoss Strategy
Protoss Build Orders
Protoss Tips
Below, you will find an overview of each of the sections of our Starcraft 2 Protoss guide along with links tofull articles and guides expanding upon each of these 6 topics.As an example, the Protoss Strategy overviewbelow will discuss the basics of Protoss strategies, whereas the full guide linked to in the overview will go overstrategies individually for all three Protoss match-ups.
Full Guide: Starcraft 2 Protoss Structures
Most players agree that the Protoss race has the most effective method for adding on new structures. Rather thanlosing a Drone like the Zerg or only being able to produce one building at a time like Terran, Protoss players areable to construct as many buildings as they can afford simultaneously with a single Probe.
Rather than constructing buildings, Protoss Probes "warp" in buildings. Once building construction starts, theprocess completes automatically while the Probe that initiated the warp can go on to perform other tasks likestarting more buildings, scouting, or even going back to harvesting resources.
The only catch to Protoss building is that all buildings must be placed within range of a "power field". PowerFields are automatically generated by Pylons (or Warp Prisms in Phasing Mode). SincePylons also increase theProtoss' supply cap, adding on Pylons is not a big inconvenience. However, if all Pylons are destroyed that arepowering a given building, the building will go unpowered and be non-functional until a new Pylon isbuilt.
Protoss players have several building-oriented abilities. The Nexus can cast the Chrono Boost ability for 25energy. It speeds up production or research time of the target building by 50% for 20 seconds. The Mothership Corealso possesses two Nexus-oriented ability, such as the ability to give the Nexus an auto-attack as well as teleportunits to the targeted Nexus. Finally, Warp Gates can summon new Gateway units to within range of a Pylon or WarpPrism, making it much easier for Protoss players to reinforce their army or surprise the enemy with an attack.
Full Guide: Starcraft 2 Protoss Units
There arethree primary things that make Protoss units unique. First and most importantly is thepresence of the plasma shield, typically called "shields" for short. Protoss units make use of not just health butalso "shields". Shields are additional health pools that are drained as a priority over health.
As a Protoss unit takes damage, its shields will decrease as if it were health. Shield totals are reduced inpreference to unit life. A Protoss unit will not begin to take life damage until the shields are completelydrained.Some units have very low shield pools like the Zealot whereas the Archon has almost all shields andno life.
The major upside of the shield is that when a Protoss unit takes damage on its shields, if that unit does nottake damage for 10 seconds, its shields will regenerate to full at a rate of 2 shield points restored per second.The Protoss unit may deal damage and still regenerate its shields, it just has to avoid taking damage for 10seconds.
There are two downsides to shields. One is that shields do not benefit from default armor. For example, a Zealothas a default armor of one. When taking damage from a Roach, the shields will drain at the full rate of 18 shieldsper Roach attack. When the shields have drained, the native 1 armor the Zealot has will quick in, reducing theRoach's damage to 17 per shot. The other downside is that some abilities are strong against shields. Particularly,the Ghost's EMP ability can drain up to 100 Protoss shields from all units in its area of effect while the WidowMine deals a bonus 35 damage to shields with its primary explosion.
The second unique thing about Protoss units is that once the Warp Gate technology has been researched, someProtoss units can be constructed in just five seconds anywhere on the Battlefield that has a power source. Afterwarping in the units, the Warp Gates go on a cooldown before they can warp in more units, but the units they warpin are available even while the cooldown is still under way. This allows the Protoss to start constructing Gatewayunits and use them in battle just a few seconds later.
Finally, the last unique thing about Protoss units is the supply cost. The Protoss player has no offensive 1supply units. Only the Probe and the Observer cost 1 supply. Unlike the Terran and Zerg which have access to lowsupply units like theMarine and Zergling, Protoss Gateway units cost2 supplies each.
Full Guide: Best Protoss Army Compositions
Of all the races, Protoss players have the least number of viable unit compositions, especially in the lategame. This may sound bad at first, but the reason there are so feweffective armycompositions is notthat Protoss units do not mix well but rather that they all mix extremely well!
Unlike other races which typically focus on 3-4 unit types to form the bulk of their army, it is not uncommonfor late game Protoss armies to use7 or 8 different unit types as part of their army. For example, a wellbalanced and incredibly hard army to stop for opponents of all races in the late game is a varied army consistingof some Zealots, Stalkers, Sentries, Colossi, Void Rays, Tempests, High Templar, and Archons. No other race usesthis wide variety of units.
This is not to say that Protoss armies cannot effectively use less unit types. It is perfectly viable forProtoss players to focus fully on air or timing attacks with Gateway units or Gateway units in conjunction with 1advanced technology tier.
Full Guide: Starcraft 2 Protoss Strategies
The Protoss race is quite flexible in their strategy choices. Protoss players have the option of going for bothvery aggressive as well as very economical openers. Protoss players can make viable attacks off of one base or cango for quick expansions just as easily. The introduction of the Mothership Core in Heart of the Swarm has made iteasier than ever for Protoss players to both put out early pressure as well as defend an early expansion.
Most top tier Protoss players opt for one of three major gameplans: earlyrushes, mid-game two base timingattack, or the late-game "deathball" approach. Early rushes are common against Terran and Protoss and typicallyinvolve the Mothership Core, a Stalker or two, and other Gateway units. Oracles work good versus Terran players aswell.
Two-base timing attacks tend to involve a quick expansion into a pre-ordained attack using a large number ofGateway units (possibly with upgrades). The support of a single high tier tech path may be involved. Typical hightier units for such timing attacks are Immortals, Archons, or Void Rays.
Unlike the other races, you never see a mid-game timing push with the Protoss player on three bases. Thetrickiest time for the Protoss player in any match is the establishment of the third base. Once a third base hasbeen established, it is very difficult for the Protoss player to defend all their fronts from sneak attacks, drops,and faster enemy units. As a result, Protoss players rarely grab their third expansion if they want to attack inthe near future. Once taking a third base, they typically wait until their upgrades and army sizes have increasedsignificantly before making attack in order to prevent losing the third base.
Protoss units tend to be the slowest and least mobile of all the races. Protoss players have to make up for thisweakness by getting reinforcements around the map by warping in units with Warp Gates. Having a network of proxyPylons (i.e. hide Pylons everywhere) around the map really helps the Protoss player to defend and reinforce allattack fronts and expansions they may have around the map.
Full Guide: Protoss Build Orders
What the Protoss lacks in variety of army composition, they more than make up for with the sheer number ofviable build orders. Protoss players have a large number of openers available to them, some of which are quitespecific to the race of their current opponent.
For example, there are many Protoss build orders that work great against Zerg race but are useless againstTerran and Protoss players. Protoss players can open with the Forge Fast Expand strategy against Zerg players inorder to grab a safe early expansion, but this tactic is not viable against Terran or Protoss. Likewise, theProtoss player can go for an Immortal and Sentry timing attack against Zerg, but this build is not particularlystrong against Terran or Protossforces. Finally, the Protoss player can instead opt for early Phoenix againstZerg, a strong build, but once again not viable against Terran or Protoss players.
Due the number of builds available to Protoss players (and the variety between these builds), it is recommendedthat you take extra care to learn multiple builds, even if you are new. Even new Protoss players should master 1build for each race match up.
Full Guide: Starcraft 2 Protoss Tips
There are a lot of great tips and strategies that do not fit into any other aspect of this Starcraft 2 Protossguide. In the Protoss tips section, we reveal our top 10 (and counting) tips that can help you win games ofStarcraft 2.
Here is one tip regarding the use of Guardian Shield, an excellent skill that reduces ranged damage but is oftenoverlooked by novice players.Since Guardian Shield is only active while the Sentry casting it is alive, youwant to make sureyou have multiple Sentries casting Guardian Shield at the same time. Having multipleSentries use this skill prevents a good opponent from focus-firing a single Sentry using Guardian Shield.
Since Guardian Shield lasts 15 seconds and has a 15 second cooldown, you do not have to worry aboutdouble-casting it with a single Sentry. Whenever the battle starts, select your Sentries and quickly tap "G" acouple of times. This will make the selected Sentries use Guardian Shield without having to worry about the Sentrycasting it twice in a row, wasting valuable energy.
Summary
Over time, we will be expanding this Protoss guide with more tips, strategies, and builds. Be sure to check backregularly for new guides and updates!
