• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:29
CEST 07:29
KST 14:29
  • 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
RSL Season 1 - Final Week6[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0
Community News
Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension4Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation17$25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced7
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension Who will win EWC 2025? Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away Program: SC2 / XSplit / OBS Scene Switcher
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo)
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame
Brood War
General
Corsair Pursuit Micro? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion Pro gamer house photos Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL
Tourneys
BWCL Season 63 Announcement CSL Xiamen International Invitational [Megathread] Daily Proleagues 2025 ACS Season 2 Qualifier
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
[MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project
Dota 2
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 Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 650 users

PROTOSSED, or how we gave up on understanding - Page 5

Forum Index > SC2 General
159 CommentsPost a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next All
leublix
Profile Joined May 2017
493 Posts
December 18 2017 21:01 GMT
#81
On December 19 2017 02:15 Psychobabas wrote:
TvP is nothing compared to late game TvZ

Amen.
iMrising
Profile Blog Joined March 2012
United States1099 Posts
December 18 2017 21:26 GMT
#82
despite the comments, I want to give a big thanks to Mizenhauer for providing one of the most satisfying reads I've had in a long while.
$O$ | soO
Xamo
Profile Joined April 2012
Spain877 Posts
December 18 2017 21:27 GMT
#83
On December 18 2017 23:22 Scarlett` wrote:
delete protoss.

Evolve or die. This is Starcraft.
My life for Aiur. You got a piece of me, baby. IIIIIIiiiiiii.
MoonyD
Profile Joined December 2013
Australia191 Posts
December 18 2017 21:56 GMT
#84
This brought up some valid points though. Especially the part about Protoss havng very little chance of catching back up in a macro game. Terran has mules to keep them going even if their base is sniped. Zerg can always just re-drone after larva injects. Protoss? Not really any real options but to all-in when a crucial 3rd base gets sniped.

Is the race 'gimmicky'? Sure. But that's kind of the identity of Protoss to 'outsmart' and 'trick' your opponent. Because in a straight-up macro-fest, it's hard to beat Terran with all its mules and Zerg with their macro mechanics to drone up to 60 workers.

Imagine if it was really just Terran and Zerg. It'd be very much so a scissors/paper/rock kind of situation with builds. Having Protoss in the mix with its unpredictable nature adds a twist to the otherwise monotonous game play.
The world wants to be deceived
VengefulTree
Profile Joined May 2014
Canada637 Posts
December 18 2017 22:46 GMT
#85
I agree this article hardly offers any new or arguments. It does describe the issue pretty well, and highlights the injust treatment protoss players are getting, but I wouldn't say it's an interesting development of the debate. More like a review of the literature.

Good read nonetheless.
"I'll temper my comments the best I can. To have Stats ranked anything below 2nd is total absolute bullcrap! A travesty an abomination!" - Rolltide | "When a foreign Terran is about to win, the entire universe conspires against him" - Paulo Coelho
bo1b
Profile Blog Joined August 2012
Australia12814 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-12-18 23:22:50
December 18 2017 22:59 GMT
#86
An article named after a porn site, in defense of the worst, most egregious design flaw in sc2.

Protoss was a mistake.

On a second read through I find this article even more offensive as it entirely misses the point behind the criticism of sc2 races. The fundamental building blocks of the game have been replaced by "unique identities" behind each race, which is all well and good but we're playing an rts not a moba - cool down based macro production should not exist in the game, nor should borderline 0 risk for enourmous reward abilities, which end up becoming the expected standard - such as adepts, or queen injects, or dropping 10 mules at once.

Protoss gets so much hate because it's the biggest offender, and only so much of it can be explained away by being "wily" or clever - of which it is not more clever necessarily to take advantage of the obvious implications behind certain skills. An army of adepts strolling up to a base early game and becoming invulnerable while it travels to another base (maybe, who knows these things right?) places the defender at an impossible decision - go and defend that base or this one.

Lauding this sort of decision making as clever entirely misses the point behind actual clever decisions, such as the entire drg vs innovation series, or pretty much everything life ever did, or mvp, or stephano. Which is ironically somewhat harsh on protoss, as it leaves the viewer wondering if what they saw was genuine cleverness, or just another protoss player reaching into the bag of bullshit and pulling out yet another gimmicky build. My condolences to rain, who really managed games exceptionally and will never receive the praise he deserves.

Protoss is the biggest pimple on a face that already looks like the moon.
AxiomBlurr
Profile Blog Joined November 2012
786 Posts
December 18 2017 23:35 GMT
#87
People often forget about the weaknesses of Protoss:

1) Pylons are outright terrible (they die = your shit does not work).

2) Army splitting is the worst for Protoss out of the races. One strong Protoss army divided by two = two shit armies,
each less powerful than half the original army.

3) Protoss relies on heavy units (more so than the other races) Immortals, colos, disruptors etc... that if sniped can crumble the Protoss army.

4) Army composition is the most important for Protoss. Terran bio scales efficiently into late game, Zerg can Hydra+ Zergling into late game but P must very carefully build select compositions of late game armies of at least 6-7 unit types.

5) Expanding for P is the most difficult of the races: Terran can build and float + planet, Zerg hatch is only 300 mins and easy to defend because of creep + Z unit speed. P must warp in Nexus, pylons, cannons and or batteries for a single expo most times (600-700 mins of easily snipeable buildings). This also relates to the P behind in macro issue mentioned in the article.

6) Unit abilities are extremely strong for Protoss but the precision with which they must be used to gain maximum efficacy has a gradient. Sure a good P player can hit some decent storms, forcefields, blink micro, efficient oracle tags etc but the small margin between their ability usage/ positioning and the Protoss god players represents a massive difference in damage dealt etc... This is not easily appreciated and the article by Mizen does well to elaborate this point.

7) Workers: SCVs repair shit, Drones can morph into structures to protect themselves and regen complete health, Probes pop like popcorn and have a shitty shield, true they can warp in buildings and go back to work, but of the workers they are indisputably the worst.

There are more but this is enough to highlight the point. P is strong with a great arsenal of builds, but all of them have great weaknesses.
Sundr
Profile Joined November 2017
34 Posts
December 18 2017 23:42 GMT
#88
Just a quick pointer: anything that is inherently broken would have clear indication and huge spike in statistics, such as winrate f.e. If winrates are generally float around ~40-60%, that logically mean that something may be strong, but not brokenly OP and can be successfully countered, like many different pro players do, as well as it may just indicate simple (temporary) statistical inaccuracy. There's nothing so IMBA that Protoss can pull off and always have 100% win, while certain pros have close to perfect execution skills. In all games there are always many issues with design and balance, but I don't see real big problem here in SC2 in that regard tbh.
moloko
Profile Joined August 2011
Austria7 Posts
December 18 2017 23:42 GMT
#89
Really great writing, I enjoyed every second reading this!
bo1b
Profile Blog Joined August 2012
Australia12814 Posts
December 18 2017 23:49 GMT
#90
On December 19 2017 08:35 AxiomBlurr wrote:
People often forget about the weaknesses of Protoss:

1) Pylons are outright terrible (they die = your shit does not work).

2) Army splitting is the worst for Protoss out of the races. One strong Protoss army divided by two = two shit armies,
each less powerful than half the original army.

3) Protoss relies on heavy units (more so than the other races) Immortals, colos, disruptors etc... that if sniped can crumble the Protoss army.

4) Army composition is the most important for Protoss. Terran bio scales efficiently into late game, Zerg can Hydra+ Zergling into late game but P must very carefully build select compositions of late game armies of at least 6-7 unit types.

5) Expanding for P is the most difficult of the races: Terran can build and float + planet, Zerg hatch is only 300 mins and easy to defend because of creep + Z unit speed. P must warp in Nexus, pylons, cannons and or batteries for a single expo most times (600-700 mins of easily snipeable buildings). This also relates to the P behind in macro issue mentioned in the article.

6) Unit abilities are extremely strong for Protoss but the precision with which they must be used to gain maximum efficacy has a gradient. Sure a good P player can hit some decent storms, forcefields, blink micro, efficient oracle tags etc but the small margin between their ability usage/ positioning and the Protoss god players represents a massive difference in damage dealt etc... This is not easily appreciated and the article by Mizen does well to elaborate this point.

7) Workers: SCVs repair shit, Drones can morph into structures to protect themselves and regen complete health, Probes pop like popcorn and have a shitty shield, true they can warp in buildings and go back to work, but of the workers they are indisputably the worst.

There are more but this is enough to highlight the point. P is strong with a great arsenal of builds, but all of them have great weaknesses.

Protosses weaknesses and strengths keep the race like a yoyo, it's either winning or being dumped on.
captainwaffles
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States1050 Posts
December 19 2017 00:04 GMT
#91
On December 19 2017 03:38 youngjiddle wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2017 03:35 Durnuu wrote:
On December 19 2017 03:34 captainwaffles wrote:
Yes, maybe there's some bullshit inherent to Protoss.


There, thats it. The article can be reduced to that one sentence.

You completely missed the point, congratz


I think he chose to ignore the point, which in fact strengthens the point of what the articles is about, which is very funny.



This^ All races have inherent bullshit, this whole article seems to me, a response to the proxy gate memes that have been making us all laugh on reddit.
https://x.com/CaptainWaffless
Lexender
Profile Joined September 2013
Mexico2628 Posts
December 19 2017 00:24 GMT
#92
There was no point to this article, every player with half a brain know all races take the same ammount of skill, everybody who said otherwise were just trolling in purpose. So people who already knew this learn nothing new and catering to trolls is like try to to empty the ocean with a glass.

At the end it seems whiny, its just a "you whine we whine now" except the person writing this is supposed to be informed and level headed.

The protoss meme has infiltrated its way into the collective and its not going to go away, but centring the attention into the 12 year olds that give importance to stuff like that serves no purpose at all.

At the end you give your best line, a contradicting line here:

"How many times has one of those builds left the audience feeling like THEY were the ones who had been mugged?"

Protoss is a complex and hard race to play, but starcraft, a game more designed for watching than for playing, don't showcase that very well. Sometimes very simple things look amazing and others really intricate actions seems easy and effortless.

THAT is the crux of protoss design, wheter you like it or not, and it is Blizzard fault, even if not for designing protoss in the way they did, for designing the game the way they did.


Azylis
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
Germany131 Posts
December 19 2017 00:36 GMT
#93
On December 19 2017 00:51 FilthyRake wrote:
great article - as a Protoss player myself, I really enjoyed the read. It made me feel a bit better, given all the hate being spewed towards us lately.


I got the same feeling. Great read, and some honey on the wound that is all the hate coming down on the Protoss players. Nice job, Mizenhauer!
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
7676 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-12-19 01:25:02
December 19 2017 01:13 GMT
#94
On December 19 2017 09:36 Azylis wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2017 00:51 FilthyRake wrote:
great article - as a Protoss player myself, I really enjoyed the read. It made me feel a bit better, given all the hate being spewed towards us lately.


I got the same feeling. Great read, and some honey on the wound that is all the hate coming down on the Protoss players. Nice job, Mizenhauer!

Personally, I would gladly trade victory for hate, but maybe that's just me......

Whining about whining always struck me as supremely petty–at least whining itself usually has some (small) kernel of a legitimate justification buried at the heart, when the meta is actually imbalanced. Whining about whining is just bitching for the sake of it.

Expecting people not to whine about losing in an imbalanced meta is just trying to have your cake and eat it too.
Denominator of the Universe
TL+ Member
LuLuneth
Profile Blog Joined July 2017
30 Posts
December 19 2017 01:34 GMT
#95
On December 19 2017 10:13 pvsnp wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2017 09:36 Azylis wrote:
On December 19 2017 00:51 FilthyRake wrote:
great article - as a Protoss player myself, I really enjoyed the read. It made me feel a bit better, given all the hate being spewed towards us lately.


I got the same feeling. Great read, and some honey on the wound that is all the hate coming down on the Protoss players. Nice job, Mizenhauer!

Personally, I would gladly trade victory for hate, but maybe that's just me......

Whining about whining always struck me as supremely petty–at least whining itself usually has some (small) kernel of a legitimate justification buried at the heart, when the meta is actually imbalanced. Whining about whining is just bitching for the sake of it.

Expecting people not to whine about losing in an imbalanced meta is just trying to have your cake and eat it too.


People whine about protoss regardless of the meta tho
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
7676 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-12-19 03:22:35
December 19 2017 02:54 GMT
#96
On December 19 2017 10:34 LuLuneth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2017 10:13 pvsnp wrote:
On December 19 2017 09:36 Azylis wrote:
On December 19 2017 00:51 FilthyRake wrote:
great article - as a Protoss player myself, I really enjoyed the read. It made me feel a bit better, given all the hate being spewed towards us lately.


I got the same feeling. Great read, and some honey on the wound that is all the hate coming down on the Protoss players. Nice job, Mizenhauer!

Personally, I would gladly trade victory for hate, but maybe that's just me......

Whining about whining always struck me as supremely petty–at least whining itself usually has some (small) kernel of a legitimate justification buried at the heart, when the meta is actually imbalanced. Whining about whining is just bitching for the sake of it.

Expecting people not to whine about losing in an imbalanced meta is just trying to have your cake and eat it too.


People whine about protoss regardless of the meta tho

Oh of course people always whine about Protoss. And Terran and Zerg and the sky being blue. But I don't think it's all that difficult to ignore (baseless) whine when it's mostly restricted to twitch chat and the occasional bm opponent.

It's when there's actual imbalance that reddit posts spring up like weeds, aligulac winrates become trending topics, the community updates get hundreds of replies, etc, etc. The increase in frequency/intensity of whining is pretty significant.

Adept/Phoenix, I think, would be the best example in recent memory, the forums were completely on fire. Yes there was an incredible amount of whine, but an underlying issue did exist. Mass Oracle is another example.
Denominator of the Universe
TL+ Member
Topin
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Peru10055 Posts
December 19 2017 03:04 GMT
#97
i enjoyed reading this, thanks!
i would define my style between a mix of ByuN, Maru and MKP
Myrddraal
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia937 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-12-19 03:41:12
December 19 2017 03:40 GMT
#98
On December 19 2017 07:59 bo1b wrote:
An article named after a porn site, in defense of the worst, most egregious design flaw in sc2.

Protoss was a mistake.

On a second read through I find this article even more offensive as it entirely misses the point behind the criticism of sc2 races. The fundamental building blocks of the game have been replaced by "unique identities" behind each race, which is all well and good but we're playing an rts not a moba - cool down based macro production should not exist in the game, nor should borderline 0 risk for enourmous reward abilities, which end up becoming the expected standard - such as adepts, or queen injects, or dropping 10 mules at once.

Protoss gets so much hate because it's the biggest offender, and only so much of it can be explained away by being "wily" or clever - of which it is not more clever necessarily to take advantage of the obvious implications behind certain skills. An army of adepts strolling up to a base early game and becoming invulnerable while it travels to another base (maybe, who knows these things right?) places the defender at an impossible decision - go and defend that base or this one.

Lauding this sort of decision making as clever entirely misses the point behind actual clever decisions, such as the entire drg vs innovation series, or pretty much everything life ever did, or mvp, or stephano. Which is ironically somewhat harsh on protoss, as it leaves the viewer wondering if what they saw was genuine cleverness, or just another protoss player reaching into the bag of bullshit and pulling out yet another gimmicky build. My condolences to rain, who really managed games exceptionally and will never receive the praise he deserves.

Protoss is the biggest pimple on a face that already looks like the moon.


Wow you really tore apart that strawman, nice job! Reread these paragraphs and see how they sound nothing like what you are talking about. Nobody thinks that simply shading from one base to another is an example of clever play.

"But we’re not playing against DRG and Mvp, or more recently, soO and TY. When faced with a truly elite opponent, one can’t simply ride Protoss imbalance to victory. It takes precise execution to catch an opponent unaware. It takes the type of adepts splits that Neeb used to conquer Rogue to eke out advantages in skirmishes. It takes herO’s trademark warp-prism shenanigans to displace the defense.

Fights may look one-sided for Protoss players, but that’s because they have mastered precise micro and constant analysis of the situation. Protoss isn’t just about holding the “z” key down and painting some zealots on the map—it’s about knowing where to deploy which units for maximum efficiency. Sure, ramming as many adepts as you can down the opponent’s front door can be effective, even in a GSL final, but it’s not always so simple. Think all the way back to the summer of 2016 when Classic decided to kill the rocks on Apotheosis with dark templars, shutting out Dark’s army, giving his adepts free reign over Dark’s main and natural. By the time he cleaned it up, his fourth bases was under siege. Even the most zealous hater would have to admit Classic was more wily than despicable."
[stranded]: http://www.indiedb.com/games/stranded
bo1b
Profile Blog Joined August 2012
Australia12814 Posts
December 19 2017 03:53 GMT
#99
Before criticizing someones reading comprehension, you might want to take a good look at your own.
Myrddraal
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia937 Posts
December 19 2017 04:07 GMT
#100
On December 19 2017 12:53 bo1b wrote:
Before criticizing someones reading comprehension, you might want to take a good look at your own.


I didn't criticise your reading comprehension, I criticised your strawmaning of what you read, now your reading comprehension is failing too.
[stranded]: http://www.indiedb.com/games/stranded
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1d 4h
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft580
Nina 243
NeuroSwarm 134
ProTech62
StarCraft: Brood War
Leta 836
Snow 188
Noble 88
soO 71
NotJumperer 9
Icarus 5
Dewaltoss 0
League of Legends
JimRising 894
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1033
Super Smash Bros
amsayoshi55
Other Games
summit1g13258
shahzam906
ViBE84
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2110
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 70
Other Games
BasetradeTV53
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH241
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Rush1857
• Stunt544
• HappyZerGling53
Other Games
• WagamamaTV123
Upcoming Events
Esports World Cup
1d 4h
ByuN vs Astrea
Lambo vs HeRoMaRinE
Clem vs TBD
Solar vs Zoun
SHIN vs Reynor
Maru vs TriGGeR
herO vs Lancer
Cure vs ShoWTimE
Esports World Cup
2 days
Esports World Cup
3 days
Esports World Cup
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
5 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
5 days
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
FEL
6 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
6 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
6 days
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
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.