The Best Brood War Unit, Part 3- Protoss

The Best Brood War Unit, Part 3- Protoss

Protoss is going to be an interesting one, because my general takeaway is they have a lot of good units but not a lot of great ones. So let us dive in:

Zealot ****

Zealots are beefy mineral only units. 100 health, 60 shields, armor, and deal 16 damage per hit. So over 3 times the damage of a zergling and 4 times the hitpoints of a marine, despite only costing 100 minerals. They are melee only, which has its pros and cons. For example, one on one against a hydralisk, a zealot absolutely crushes. But if you have 40 hydralisks against 40 zealots and the zealots get bottlenecked, the ranged attack wins. Early game they can absolutely overpower opponents. It takes a marine forever to kill a zealot, same thing with a zergling. Late game they wouldn't be useful if it wasn't for the citadel of adun upgrade “Leg Enhancements” that increases their movement speed. This lets zealots close the distance quickly, which is imperative for taking out siege tanks. They pair well with other gateway units, or with corsairs which can pick of the mutalisks while the zealots deal with everything on the ground. The downside is they take up 2 supply, vs the marines' 1 and zerglings' .5, can't attack at range and can't attack up. The melee though is helpful against defilers since dark swarm doesn't negate the damage.

Dragoon ***

Dragoons are a paradox. The Protoss absolutely need them, but they are not a good unit. They attack air and ground, attack at a range, and deal explosive damage which works well against large units but poorly against smaller units. Their pathing is terrible, they are constantly getting stuck or bottle necked. Watch them go up against siege tanks alone if you want a laugh, its just an endless sea of splattered blue goo. They get equally embarassed by zerglings, which can annihilate them for a small fraction of the price. If the zerg uses dark swarm, one zergling can beat an arbitrary number of dragoons. You'd think they would do well against mutalisks but without templar support.... not really. Still, they are the main workhorse ranged attacker of the protoss army. They work, but they need to be supported. Zealots, templar, arbiters, etc. all help the dragoon to survive long enough to be useful.

High Templar *****

A spell caster that costs 50 minerals, 150 gas and has no natural attack. One of its abilities, hallucination, is almost never used in pro games. So.. why five stars? Psionic Storm. This probably competes with dark swarm for the best spell in the game. Massive area of effect damage for only 75 energy, I believe its 112 damage to each unit over a large area. Now, if units are very mobile they can dodge the storm... but they frequently don't. It's just an exceptional ability against any massed concentration of units. As such, a few well placed storms can completely turn the tide of a battle or defeat a superior force. Zerg coming in with a hydra all in? Throw down a few storms and you are good to go. Mutalisks took out your corsairs and are headed for your mineral line? Storm them. Terran death army moving in? drop some high templar behind their lines and storm them. Enemy workers? drop and storm them. When you consider an upgraded high templar can cast 3 storms before needing to restore energy, 150 gas is a small price to pay. Oh, and if you have two high templar that are out of energy, merge them into an archon and now you have a heavy hitting attack unit. Easily the best Protoss unit in the game.

Dark Templar ***

This is really a gotcha unit. They are invisible, so if the enemy isn't paying attention or isn't aware they can do incredible damage. I've seen a dark templar slip in and kill 15-20 workers while the opponent is busy focusing elsewhere. But, if the enemy does have detection, they get killed very quickly. And at 125 minerals and 100 gas, they aren't cheap. Their attack deals 40 damage, but its melee with a small attack rate if they get scanned a few mech units will kill them. Zerg have overlords, so the only way to make a dark templar viable is to take them all out with corsairs. So you can cheese with them, surprise an enemy, or try to turn the tied of a losing battle, but in a stand up battle they don't really hold their water. They can turn into Dark Archons though, so that's cool. Not really a last resort thing, you need to plan on that since the dark archons need time to build up their energy, vs the high templar which make archons that are ready to go right away.

Archon ***

Might be controversial but I'm going three stars here. They have 350 shields, 10 hitpoints and deal 35 splash damage, so they are absolutely heavy hitters. But, they cost 300 gas 100 minerals. That's a lot of vespene gas to sink into a unit. Also, since almost all of their HP is in shields, they take full damage from everything. Hydralisks and vultures kill them really fast. An EMP instantly brings them down to 10 health. On the upside, plague is essentially useless against them, dealing a maximum of 9 damage. They can be a good counter to mutalisks, but corsairs are better. If you have extra gas or templars without energy they can be good against zerg but for 300 gas they are just generally too easy to pop.

Dark Archon ****

This, along with the queen, I think is one of the most underutilized units in the game. It's a spell caster, so no natural attacks, but its spells are bonkers. Feedback only costs 50 energy and it turns a spell casters energy into damage against them. So theoretically a fully upgraded archon with max energy could kill five queens. realistically that never happens but to be able to snipe a spell caster, like a deflier, for only 50 energy? Pretty awesome, though micro intensive. Maelstrom freezes bio units in a large area for a short time. It's pretty potent when paired with psionic storm. A dark archon and high templar can melt a flock of 11 mutalisk with two spells. And then mind control turns an enemy unit to your side. Not used as often, but in the late game, taking a carrier, battlecruiser or ultralisk already has the dark archon paying for itself. You can also steal an enemy worker and double your potential supply, though this virtually never happens in professional play. The reason its 4 stars and not 5 is cost. 200 minerals and 250 gas is no joke. Still, I think these are underutilized as a force multiplier.

Reaver ****

Incredible range, 100 or 125 when upgraded splash damage, it is the Protoss answer to the siege tank. But why not five stars? Their speed is glacial, without a shuttle they are useless. Every attack costs 15 minerals, the only unit that you have to pay per attack (other than suicide units like scourge). So you drop 200 minerals and 100 gas just to get them, then add 150 minerals to fill it up on scarabs. BUT, with good micro they can be devasting. Wipe out worker lines, level bases, make barracks units essentially useless against Protoss. With the right player like Snow, this is a five star unit, but generally, its limitations drop it to four. It's just too vulnerable with its low speed and reliance on shuttles. Also not easy to unlock. Barracks- Cybernetics Core- Robotics Facility- Robotics Support Bay- and then two upgrades to really make them work. It's a lot of investment that could go to high templar.

Scout **

This should probably be a one star unit but they do tank a lot of damage and deal a lot of anti air damage. But, their ground attack is pitiful, and they are stupid expensive: 275 minerals, 125 gas. And they used to cost more, 300 minerals and 150 gas when the game first game out! Also 3 control units. So you are paying a lot for a unit that's decent anti air, but that's about it. You can use one to harass and pick off overlords, or make a group of them to deal with battlecruisers or enemy carriers. Other than that, they are basically only used to troll.

Corsair ****

Makes the scout obsolete. It's anti air attack only deals 5 damage, but it has an incredibly fast rate of attack and huge splash radius. This makes it annihilate lighter fliers like mutalisks and wraiths. They are also great for hunting overlords. They have the disruption web ability which is cool but not really viable. It makes it so units in an area can't attack, which is great to block out static defense. But it doesn't last very long and costs 125 energy. Brood War is a great game, but that's one ability that desperately could use a buff.

Carrier ***

One of the most powerful units in the game. It launches 8 interceptors when upgraded, each with its own separate attack. Can attack air and ground, has the highest base armor in the game and can take an incredible amount of punishment. So why not a higher ranking? Well, a fully loaded one costs 550 minerals, 250 gas and 6 supply. It's a non starter against Zerg which can just kill them with cheap scourge. If you can get up to enough of them against Terran they are overpowered, but you are very vulnerable during the transition since they siphon of so many minerals and supply. If you try to use them against Protoss you actually give Protoss a reason to make scouts, so that's funny I suppose. Like the Battlecruiser, its cool but limited in utility. Much better as a campaign unit.

Arbiter ****

Its primary attack is pitiful and it costs 100 minerals and a whopping 350 gas. But, it can cloak an entire army and teleport an entire army into an opponents base. Also Stasis is an incredibly potent ability. It freezes a large area of enemy units for quite a while. During this time they are invincible but not attacking. You are essentially locking up a big chunk of enemy supply. If both sides are maxed out, this can really turn the tide of a battle. Four stars and not five though because of the price. That and its the hardest unit to unlock in the game. You need to get a gateway, then cybernetics core. Then you need a stargate. Then you need a citadel of adun. Then you need a templar achives. Lastly you need an arbiter tribunal. And even after that you still need to research abilities. It's about as late game as a unit can be.

Overall, High Templar, no contest, best Protoss unit.