• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:52
CEST 16:52
KST 23:52
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3
Community News
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)6Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over2New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!38Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week6Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles3
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week
Tourneys
Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) 2026 GSTL Announcement PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome
Brood War
General
ASL22 General Discussion Which box art did your first copy of StarCraft 1 have? BW General Discussion New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! XUN appreciation thread
Tourneys
Escore Tournament - Season 3 [ASL22] Ro24 Group F BSL LAN Party - Kraków 29-30 August - OPEN SIGNUPS [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Game Theory for Starcraft Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
Violent Games and Crime Rate…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8594 users

Why dark archons are not used much?

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-08-22 18:18:38
August 22 2024 13:53 GMT
#1
I only see them built rarely to counter mutalisks, but they can do much more. Prevent storm dodging with maelstorm, hard counter defilers with feedback or even mind control them (plague is so devastating vs zerg units). Are they not used simply because of extra micro required?

Or counter HTs with long ranged feedback, which are quite popular in PvP.
prosatan
Profile Joined September 2009
Romania9193 Posts
August 22 2024 18:12 GMT
#2
They are used a bit more in PvP on fastest map.
Brain (and other protoss players) leave a dark archon next to minerals to feedback enemy high templars !
Lee JaeDong Fighting! The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.
Xeofreestyler
Profile Blog Joined June 2005
Belgium6779 Posts
August 23 2024 09:55 GMT
#3
On August 23 2024 03:12 prosatan wrote:
They are used a bit more in PvP on fastest map.
Brain (and other protoss players) leave a dark archon next to minerals to feedback enemy high templars !


That's clever but ... why not just mc the shuttle?
Graphics
prosatan
Profile Joined September 2009
Romania9193 Posts
August 23 2024 11:35 GMT
#4
On August 23 2024 18:55 Xeofreestyler wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 23 2024 03:12 prosatan wrote:
They are used a bit more in PvP on fastest map.
Brain (and other protoss players) leave a dark archon next to minerals to feedback enemy high templars !


That's clever but ... why not just mc the shuttle?

This is very good too !!
Lee JaeDong Fighting! The only church that illuminates is the one that burns.
Rainalcar
Profile Joined April 2010
Croatia488 Posts
August 23 2024 19:50 GMT
#5
I have never seen a mind controlled defiler casting plague on Z units in a pro game.
j.r.r.
Biff The Understudy
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
France8176 Posts
August 27 2024 13:06 GMT
#6
I suspect there is still untapped potential in some underused units that are still just too micro intensive to be worth making even at the highest level.

I think that ghosts in tvp and medic’s heal spell in tvz are other examples of units and spells that could be really strong in the future. I am old enough though to remember a time some very, very good players argued that emp didn’t make sense in tvp.

Dark archon may become standard sometimes in the future. Time will tell. I remember Violet used to like them.
The fellow who is out to burn things up is the counterpart of the fool who thinks he can save the world. The world needs neither to be burned up nor to be saved. The world is, we are. Transients, if we buck it; here to stay if we accept it. ~H.Miller
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10551 Posts
August 27 2024 21:48 GMT
#7
They're definitely underused in PvP as a full energy DA can kill 4-5 templar which more than pays for itself. Plus, MC a shuttle full of reavers is also an interesting tactic too.

They've started to come up more in PvZ which is great, since feedbacking defilers is really nice and maelstrom on unburrowed lurkers when they try to engage your army is massive. But as people have said, adding more and more spellcasters to your army taxes you more and more, and it makes it really hard to effectively use them.
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
TMNT
Profile Joined January 2021
3296 Posts
August 28 2024 20:24 GMT
#8
On August 28 2024 06:48 FlaShFTW wrote:
They're definitely underused in PvP as a full energy DA can kill 4-5 templar which more than pays for itself. Plus, MC a shuttle full of reavers is also an interesting tactic too.

I can only say this for pro level, the reason is at that level PvP games don't often go to the late game state when you have 4-5 Templars.

In fact, the better the players are, the less chance you'll see HTs in PvP. I don't think I have ever seen a game between Mini and Snow (the two best PvP players out there) in which they used storm. They will fight with Dragoons and Reavers to death and their supplies rarely go past 100. The reason being at their level they smell blood so fast and if one knows he can finish the other off, he will.
mtcn77
Profile Joined September 2013
Turkey729 Posts
September 11 2024 15:07 GMT
#9
It is a bullying unit. You also see it when zergs infest terran CC. That is the same for protoss DA's, you never do it until you want to humiliate your opponent into gg because it is too far outside normal play. Though, I don't know why that is the case when Terrans irradiate with SV's no problem. It is just out of meta. People even argue it is against the rules for zerg players to infest CC's. It gives that much advantage same for Protoss DA's.
Turrican
Volka
Profile Joined December 2010
Argentina412 Posts
September 15 2024 01:57 GMT
#10
On September 12 2024 00:07 mtcn77 wrote:
It is a bullying unit. You also see it when zergs infest terran CC. That is the same for protoss DA's, you never do it until you want to humiliate your opponent into gg because it is too far outside normal play. Though, I don't know why that is the case when Terrans irradiate with SV's no problem. It is just out of meta. People even argue it is against the rules for zerg players to infest CC's. It gives that much advantage same for Protoss DA's.


I thought the Scout filled that role. Honestly DA spells are great and they do have their specific uses. It's just storms are more impactful over most situations and thus pros focus on those.
http://www.starsite.com.ar
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10551 Posts
September 16 2024 14:23 GMT
#11
On September 12 2024 00:07 mtcn77 wrote:
It is a bullying unit. You also see it when zergs infest terran CC. That is the same for protoss DA's, you never do it until you want to humiliate your opponent into gg because it is too far outside normal play. Though, I don't know why that is the case when Terrans irradiate with SV's no problem. It is just out of meta. People even argue it is against the rules for zerg players to infest CC's. It gives that much advantage same for Protoss DA's.

Those things are not even remotely close to being the same lol. Eraser trick on vessels are legitimate tactics when Zerg doesn't have sufficient anti-air, and DAs have seen legitimate play in pro play in late game PvZ applications with feedback on defilers and maelstrom on clumps of hydra/ling.
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
Biff The Understudy
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
France8176 Posts
September 16 2024 16:29 GMT
#12
On September 12 2024 00:07 mtcn77 wrote:
It is a bullying unit. You also see it when zergs infest terran CC. That is the same for protoss DA's, you never do it until you want to humiliate your opponent into gg because it is too far outside normal play. Though, I don't know why that is the case when Terrans irradiate with SV's no problem. It is just out of meta. People even argue it is against the rules for zerg players to infest CC's. It gives that much advantage same for Protoss DA's.

Yeah i really disagrees. DA are not a manner unit. They are actually very good.

Infest CC is actually also situationally useful, if terran is playing mech zerg had queens, it can reduce the killing time of a cc significantly.

I would say they only real manner units in the game are scouts, that have no place in the metagame under any circumstances and are unequivocally terrible, and maybe infested terrans.
The fellow who is out to burn things up is the counterpart of the fool who thinks he can save the world. The world needs neither to be burned up nor to be saved. The world is, we are. Transients, if we buck it; here to stay if we accept it. ~H.Miller
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
13:00
King of the Hill #261
EmpressLilyy39
Liquipedia
GSL
11:00
2026 GSTL: Main Stage Day 4
IntoTheiNu 1261
CranKy Ducklings SOOP212
Rex30
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Maru 88
BRAT_OK 57
SHIN 55
Rex 30
herO (SOOP) 29
Zoun (SOOP) 25
Trap 18
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 43108
Shuttle 3252
Bisu 2646
EffOrt 653
BeSt 507
Light 499
Horang2 459
Mini 440
Larva 364
Soulkey 307
[ Show more ]
Rush 247
Snow 246
Stork 199
Hyuk 156
Dewaltoss 100
Sea.KH 93
Zeus 78
Leta 78
Mind 63
Pusan 60
ToSsGirL 39
soO 32
Barracks 28
Sexy 23
NotJumperer 21
Terrorterran 20
Shine 20
Aegong 19
Hm[arnc] 18
Sacsri 16
zelot 12
SilentControl 11
ajuk12(nOOB) 11
Rock 11
sorry 11
Dota 2
Gorgc5904
qojqva3127
Dendi1682
syndereN1131
Other Games
singsing1634
hiko1010
B2W.Neo742
Lowko254
OGKoka 141
RotterdaM126
Pyrionflax118
ArmadaUGS74
Mew2King59
QueenE37
Trikslyr9
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV28
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• mYiSmile111
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis3457
• TFBlade786
Upcoming Events
PiGosaur Cup
9h 8m
Kung Fu Cup
20h 8m
Replay Cast
1d 9h
The PondCast
1d 19h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
OSC
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Soma vs Shuttle
BeSt vs Rush
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
[ Show More ]
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
Leta vs ggaemo
Jaedong vs Queen
GSL
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 2026 LAN: Kraków
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
RSL Revival: Season 6
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Calamity Invitational
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.