• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:57
CEST 11:57
KST 18:57
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy4Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic7Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview27
Community News
Classic & herO RO8 Interviews: "I think it’s time to teach [Rogue] a lesson."2Rogue & GuMiho RO8 interviews: "Lifting that trophy would be a testament to all I’ve had to overcome over the years and how far I’ve come on this journey.7Code S RO8 Results + RO4 Bracket (2025 Season 2)14BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack2Weekly Cups (June 2-8): herO doubles down1
StarCraft 2
General
Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing Code S RO8 Results + RO4 Bracket (2025 Season 2) Rogue & GuMiho RO8 interviews: "Lifting that trophy would be a testament to all I’ve had to overcome over the years and how far I’ve come on this journey. Classic & herO RO8 Interviews: "I think it’s time to teach [Rogue] a lesson." Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Semi Finals & Finals Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament $3,500 WardiTV European League 2025 Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) SOOPer7s Showmatches 2025
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion ASL20 Preliminary Maps BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Recent recommended BW games FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET Small VOD Thread 2.0 [BSL20] ProLeague Bracket Stage - Day 4
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason What do you want from future RTS games?
Dota 2
Best crypto recovery experts in the world Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine UK Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Vape Nation Thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 33354 users

Strengths of Each Race (Protoss Edition)

Blogs > tskuzzy
Post a Reply
tskuzzy
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States33 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-19 22:38:45
June 19 2011 22:27 GMT
#1
I've watched a lot of SC2 as well as played at a decently high level. With all the imbalance discussions going on and talk how certain races Zerg isn't being played correctly, I decided to subjectively analyze each race and their respective strengths and how they should be played. These are, of course, my general conclusions drawn based on what I've seen and experienced.

I'll split this post up into three parts, one focusing on each race. I don't want to make it too long otherwise people will complain.

General Overview

I view the Protoss army as very durable and powerful when fighting together. We've all heard of the "deathball" of Protoss units which include stalkers, colossi, sentries, and various other support units depending on the situation. Whenever a Protoss army "wins" an engagement, it usually involves a lopsided battle in which the units lost is very disproportional between the fighting armies. In such engagements, many times you'll see a Zerg army simply melt while the Protoss loses maybe 6 stalkers. And to a lesser extent against Terran bioballs as well.

No this doesn't always happen but it happens much more often than the other way around. The question is how can this army strength disparity be negated. And I think the answer here is economy. Unlike Terrans and Zergs, Protoss macro is more or less consistent, linear growth until it levels off at saturation. Terrans have the MULE mechanic to grow and sustain large armies off of a low base count. Zergs have the luxury of aggressively expanding and taking advantage of pure drone production off of larvae injects. Additionally, reactors and larvae injects allow Terrans and Zergs to remacro their armies very quickly after engagements.

Zerg is on the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to Protoss. Zerg units are rather "squishy" and cheap, thus easily massed. In this sense, army trades are very favorable to the Zerg player. The speed and mobility of the Zerg army (a lot of which is gained through map control) allows for flanks and surrounds which exponentially increases their effectiveness and ability to whittle down the opponent. While squishy, a lot of units in the Zerg arsenal are very deadly and can cripple the enemy if properly used. I'm talking specifically about the baneling though this applies to other units as well in certain favorable unit compositions.

Terrans are kind of an in between race which can either play like a Zerg if opted to go for pure MMM or like a Protoss if going mech. Usually you'll see something in between which leads to a very interesting and dynamic race. It's difficult to completely trade armies against a Terran (similar to Protoss) but when you do, there is usually another remacro'd army waiting back home (like Zerg). Depending on the composition, Terrans have varying degrees of ability to recover from losses as well as goals when engaging an army. While Zergs like to trade armies, if the Terran manages to take out a base while trading, the Terran gains the upperhand in the exchange. Against Protoss, if the Terran takes out the colossi and a good chunk of the Protoss ball, the reinforcing Terran army will be more than enough to press on and continue to apply pressure.


Specific Protoss Mechanics
What makes Protoss such a durable race? The units themselves are very powerful: they deal a large amount of damage and have high HP. But that's not all. Many of them have unique abilities which allow them to live and fight another day.


Forcefields

[image loading]

The bane of many players, forcefield is an incredibly powerful spell which can turn the tide of battles. The offensive use of forcefield is clear. They can be used to cut off reinforcements which diminishes the strength of the opponent significantly. They can be used to separate enemy forces and negate melee attacks entirely.This allows the Protoss army to fight small chunks of the opposing armies separately. Reducing the enemy's army size leads to an exponential increase in the efficiency of your army.

Defensively, it can be used to retreat during unfavorable engagements. It serves as an artificial simcity which again decreases the effectiveness of an enemy attack.

Shield Regeneration

After a short period of time, the shields of a damaged Protoss unit quickly regenerates to full health. This quick regeneration is much faster than the regeneration of Zerg units and unlike Terran medivacs and repair, it applies to all units automatically at the same time. Combined with forcefields, it allows Protoss armies to pull back for a few seconds and fight again at full health. After a few seconds, the endurance of a Protoss army essentially doubles (ideally of course).


Blink

[image loading]

Combined with rapid shield regeneration, blink allows damaged stalkers to fight from afar, healing up while you let full shield stalkers take the damage. Your DPS stays the same yet the damage you take is very minimal despite similar army strengths. It is also a good defensive ability to protect against harassment (allows Protoss to protect their base and economy). And again, on the retreat it allows the Protoss army to get away with little to no harm.


Colossi

[image loading]

Cliffwalking and the ability to walk over units gives the colossus very high mobility (even it's speed isn't that slow). Combined with it's powerful attack which can deal damage even at long distances, the colossus is very hardy and requires special, specific units to kill. Engaging a colossus based army without vikings or corruptors is practically suicide.


Tanks

[image loading]

Zealots and immortals are excellent tanky units which can soak up a ton of damage from high damage units. Marauders do very little damage against zealots and siege tanks can't touch immortals. A properly organized Protoss army with tanks in the front, stalkers/colossi in the back, and good forcefields is a terrifying sight.


Warp-in Mechanic

[image loading]

Among many other benefits, the warp-in mechanic allows a Protoss player to get units anywhere almost instantly wherever needed. But another important and crucial aspect of the mechanic is that it keeps the Protoss army together. Unlike a Zerg player who must rally his units from 5 different hatcheries spread across the map, warp-ins allow small standing armies to instantly reinforce at the correct location.


The Ball

[image loading]

Many features of each of the units allow Protoss balls to be so easily formed. Zealots and sentries have their small size. Colossi are able to walk over units, effectively taking up 0 space. Voidrays/Phoenix are widely used air units and also clump up over your army. You can read about the benefits of having a deathball elsewhere. I'm sure there are plenty of discussions out there about that


Mothership
[image loading]

You don't really see this unit out often, but I think it's interesting how it's abilities complement that of the already super durable Protoss army. Vortex is like a giant stasis (Starcraft I reference) which plays a similar role to forcefields. And the cloaking ability is like the icing on the cake. It makes your units 100% invulnerable without detection.


Moral of the Story
Keep your army alive. Remax and 1a another day.


TLDR
For Dummies

*
Chocolate
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States2350 Posts
June 19 2011 23:07 GMT
#2
You should post this on bnet since this seems like it's kinda geared to newer players. Thanks .
Scarecrow
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Korea (South)9172 Posts
June 19 2011 23:20 GMT
#3
Reads like a Blizzard unit/'strategy' guide.

People on these boards don't need to be told that the mothership has a "cloaking ability" or read a generic description of a collossus.

Yhamm is the god of predictions
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
GSL Code S
08:00
Semi-Finals & Finals
Classic vs GuMihoLIVE!
Rogue vs TBD
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Hui .176
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 1773
Larva 742
Bisu 721
Pusan 564
Killer 368
Mini 175
BeSt 173
Leta 123
Mind 102
Hyun 96
[ Show more ]
hero 86
EffOrt 47
sSak 45
Barracks 42
Aegong 42
ToSsGirL 39
Shinee 37
Soulkey 25
JulyZerg 23
Movie 22
Noble 14
HiyA 12
ivOry 6
Hm[arnc] 5
SilentControl 2
eros_byul 1
Dota 2
XaKoH 561
XcaliburYe536
Fuzer 90
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K957
flusha511
edward24
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang0457
Mew2King108
Westballz3
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor244
Other Games
singsing1137
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream11514
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream4390
Other Games
gamesdonequick610
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 25
lovetv 2
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 44
• Adnapsc2 14
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2146
League of Legends
• Stunt600
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4m
CranKy Ducklings14
WardiTV Qualifier
6h 4m
BSL: ProLeague
8h 4m
Bonyth vs Dewalt
Cross vs Doodle
MadiNho vs Dragon
Replay Cast
14h 4m
Wardi Open
1d 1h
Replay Cast
1d 14h
Replay Cast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
RSL Revival
3 days
herO vs sOs
Zoun vs Clem
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Serral vs SHIN
Solar vs Cham
Replay Cast
4 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Reynor vs Scarlett
ShoWTimE vs Classic
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
SC Evo League
6 days
Circuito Brasileiro de…
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-06-11
BGE Stara Zagora 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
2025 GSL S2
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
BLAST Open Fall 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.