Protoss Nexus

Jump to Top – Next Unit: Pylon

This is the Protoss base building, the Nexus. It is the foundation of your economy due to it’s ability to collect the resources workers gather, and is the requirement of the most basic buildings aside from Pylons and Assimilators. It must be built a short distance away from any nearby resources. Any Protoss player on a non UMS map should try to have at least one of these at all times.

Protoss Pylon

Previous Unit: Nexus – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Assimilator

The Protoss Pylon is a building of necessity. The Protoss do not construct buildings on the battlefield, but instead warp them in. Pylons come in by providing power to do this. Basically, you cannot build anything other than a Nexus or Assimilator without a Pylon. Pylons provide energy to buildings in a radius around the Pylon. If the Pylon gets destroyed, the buildings will lose their energy and will become unpowered making them sitting targets that cannot perform actions until a new Pylon is built near them. Also very importantly, Pylons provide psi so you can build more units.

Protoss Assimilator

Previous Unit: Pylon – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Gateway/Warp Gate

To gather Vespene Gas from worlds, the Protoss require an Assimilator to be warped in. The Assimilator is placed on a Vespene Gas Geyser and Probes can then gather Vespene Gas from the Assimilator and return it to your Nexus. The Assimilator has one use, but is important if you want to build the majority of your units and buildings.

A new thing with the StarCraft II Assimilator is that you can no longer collect Vespene Gas when it runs out. Once the Geyser is depleted, it’s done.

Protoss Gateway/Warp Gate

Previous Unit: Assimilator – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Forge

The Gateway gets a lot of changes this time around. It still warps in ground units, but with more versatility. Zealots, High and Dark Templars (Templar Archives for High Templars and Dark Shrine for Dark Templars) are still made here, with the Sentries and Stalkers (Cybernetics Core) added in.

A big change is that Gateways can now research and ability to transform itself into a Warp Gate. Warp Gates can create units like a Gateway, except they actually will be on the map while being constructed. This means they can take damage while building. However, the benefits are you can create these units anywhere a Pylon or Warp Prism is providing a Warp Aura and they will be warped in faster than normal. After the unit is warped in, there is a cool down equal to the normal build time of the unit.

The Warp Gate therefore becomes useful in situations where you need to get troops on the field somewhere fast. You can warp them to the Warp Prism when they use the mobile Pylon ability anywhere on the field, or just to an expansion under attack.

Don’t worry, if you prefer the Gateway after testing it out, you can always just transform it back. These new changes make the Gateway a building that players will need to pay more attention to rather than just setting a rally point and building some units.

Protoss Forge

Previous Unit: Gateway/Warp Gate – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Photon Cannon

The Forge is the first research building available to the Protoss. It allows you to upgrade your Ground Weapons and Armor for your ground units. It also allows you to upgrade your Plasma Shields so that damage taken to your Shield Points is reduced for all Protoss units and buildings. Like everything else, the Forge can only research one upgrade at a time. In order to get past level 1 upgrades, you need a Twilight Council.

It functions the same as in SCBW and is still the requirement for the Photon Cannon.

Protoss Photon Cannon

Previous Unit: Forge – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Cybernetics Core

Photon Cannons function the same way as they did in SCBW. Same attack and same Detection ability. This makes the Photon Cannon a great defensive building again.

Protoss Cybernetics Core

Previous Unit: Photon Cannon – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Twilight Council

The second research building for the Protoss is the Cybernetics Core. The counterpart to the Forge, it is for upgrading your Air Weapons and Armor. Like everything else, it can only research one at a time, so warping in 2 would be a good idea. A Fleet Beacon is required for leveling up your upgrades past level 1. It also allows players to start building advanced buildings.

The new Cybernetics Core can get two more upgrades. The upgrade to allow Gateways to transform into Warp Gates, and the upgrade for the Hallucination ability now belonging to the Sentry. Finally, it unlocks the Stalker and the Sentry to be built at the Gateway.

Protoss Twilight Council

Previous Unit: Cybernetics Core – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Stargate

Similar to the Citadel of Adun, the Twilight Council has an upgrade for Zealots. The Charge upgrade allows Zealots to rush at a target quicker than normal for a very short period of time and also provides the passive speed bonus the Leg Enhancements from the Citadel of Adun gave them.

Stalkers also get a very useful ability here. Blink allows the Stalker to teleport on the battlefield a short distance. This can be very useful for many situations, such as blinking past an enemy’s defensive buildings or into the fray quickly.

The last thing to note about the Twilight Council is that it allows the Forge to upgrade past level 1 for all of its upgrades.

Protoss Stargate

Previous Unit: Twilight Council – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Robotics Facility

The Stargate has changed a bit, but only in the units it warps in. Now the only familiar unit it produces is a Carrier. The Phoenix and Void Ray can be built right away, a Carrier still requires a Fleet Beacon.

Protoss Robotics Facility

Previous Unit: Stargate – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Templar Archives

Robotics Facility comes back with entirely new units aside from the Observer. Off the bat it can produce the Observer, Warp Prism, and Immortal. When you get a Robotics Bay you can start building a Colossus.

Protoss Templar Archives

Previous Unit: Robotics Facility – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Dark Shrine

Templar Archives is the requirement for building High Templars at your Gateway. It also allows you to research two upgrades for them.

Psionic Storm is the first ability you can research here. The same powerful ability from SC1. The second ability grants a bonus to the energy a High Templar starts with by 25 Energy Points.

Protoss Dark Shrine

Previous Unit: Templar Archives – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Fleet Beacon

The Dark Shrine is a strange building. It is the first building that enables building a unit, but nothing else. At this point, the only thing a Dark Shrine does is fills the requirement for warping in Dark Templar in at a Gateway.

Protoss Fleet Beacon

Previous Unit: Dark Shrine – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Robotics Bay

Another building brought back from SC1, the Fleet Beacon allows for some strong air units again. Carriers become enabled at the Stargate once you have one of these. The Mothership can also be built at a Nexus (But you can only own 1 of them at a time). The Fleet Beacon also right off the bat enables leveling up your Air Weapons and Armor past level 1.

Only two upgrades are available at the Fleet Beacon. The first one increases the speed of the Void Ray, and the other allows your Carriers to launch out its Interceptors faster.

Protoss Robotics Bay

Previous Unit: Fleet Beacon – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Probe

The final Protoss Building is the Robotics Bay (short for Robotics Support Bay). It unlocks the creation of the Colossus at the Robotics Facility, and has some upgrades for units there that you can research.

The first upgrade boosts the speed of the Observer. The second is for increasing the speed of Warp Prisms. And the last is an increase of the range of the Colossus, giving it a 50% boost.

Protoss Probe

Previous Unit: Robotics Bay – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Zealot

Probes are the worker unit for the Protoss, and thus warp in buildings, gather Minerals and Vespene Gas, and have a weak melee range attack. They are built at a Nexus and in normal Melee based maps you start with some along with your Nexus.

The Probe can warp in Protoss Buildings following the Tech Tree and can only build the vast majority when powered by a Pylon or the Warp Prism’s ability.

Protoss Zealot

Previous Unit: Probe – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Stalker

The Zealot is the first ground combat unit you get and it is warped in at the Gateway. It uses its powerful Psi Blades to cut into enemies. Since they are a melee unit, you should try to send them in against enemies in packs or with a ranged unit for backup.

Their new Charge ability developed at the Twilight Council allows the Zealot to rush a short distance extremely quickly in order to start slicing up the opposition quicker.

Protoss Stalker

Previous Unit: Zealot – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Sentry

A fast favorite for new Protoss players, the Stalker has a ranged weapon that hits ground and air. Stalkers are built at the Gateway and require a Cybernetics Core.

Their Blink ability gives them a special advantage over the Dragoon. They can teleport a short distance allowing them to quickly join in combat, chase down enemies, skip over defenses, and jump up to higher terrain.

Protoss Sentry

Previous Unit: Stalker – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Phoenix

The Sentry is a spell casting unit with an attack that hits quickly against air and ground. It requires a Cybernetics Core to be built at the Gateway.

They have two special abilities. Guardian Shield reduces all ranged attacks that hit your units near the aura by 2. Hallucination works differently than in SCBW. You can even Hallucinate units that you have not yet built. Depending on the unit you pick you may even get multiple ones. Fakes take double damage and can be instantly eliminated by Psionic Storm and certain weapons like Sniper Rounds.

Protoss Phoenix

Previous Unit: Sentry – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Void Ray

The Phoenix is a unit similar to the Corsair as it is an anti air unit. It is built at a Stargate.

The Phoenix has a special ability, Graviton Beam, which will lift light ground units into the air for 10 seconds so that the Phoenix can target it. While they are lifting the units however, they will not be able to regenerate their Energy Points like normal.

Protoss Void Ray

Previous Unit: Phoenix – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Observer

An interesting new unit, the Void Ray is built at the Stargate. It can target both ground and air with its fast but weak attack. The part that makes it a strong unit is it has an advantage when targeting units with lots of Armor or HP. As long as it is targeting a single unit, it’s damage will increase over time (maxes out at 8).

The Void Ray can also have its movement speed upgraded at the Fleet Beacon.

Protoss Observer

Previous Unit: Void Ray – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Warp Prism

Observers function in SCII the same way they do in SC. They are built at the Robotics Facility. Observers are ideal detector units because they can fly and have a passive cloaking ability.

In SCII the Robotics Bay has an upgrade to increase the movement speed of the Observer.

Protoss Warp Prism

Previous Unit: Observer – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Immortal

A combination of the Shuttle and a Pylon, the Warp Prism is a creative new support unit. It is built by the Robotics Facility.

The Warp Prism can carry 8 slots worth of units (Multiple slots can be taken up by large units like in SC). But the main reason this is a creative unit is because it has an ability to basically turn itself into a Pylon. While in this mode, it allows powering of buildings and warping in of units from a Warp Gate which can be great tactically. However, while in this mode it cannot move.

Protoss Immortal

Previous Unit: Warp Prism – Jump to Top – Next Unit: High Templar

Another new unit, the Protoss Immortal is a strong anti ground unit. It deals high damage but only against ground targets. You can build it at the Robotics Facility.

The Immortal’s name stems from its powerful ability. Hardened Shield allows the Immortal to reduce incoming non spell or nuke damage to 10 (As long as it still has Shield Points. The Shield Points upgrade level is not taken into effect to reduce damage below 10). This is a great ability against strong units, just make sure to watch your Shield Points.

Protoss High Templar

Previous Unit: Immortal – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Archon

The returning spell caster, High Templar, is back with two abilities again. You can warp in a High Templar at a Gateway after building a Templar Archives.

The first and signature Protoss spell is the Psionic Storm ability. Psionic Storm deals a good deal of damage to an area on the battlefield while it lasts for a few seconds. Any Hallucinations targeted by it will instantly be destroyed. However multiple Psi Storms on the same spot still does not do additional damage. It must first be researched at the Templar Archives.

The second ability is another familiar one. Feed Back deals damage to the target unit based on how many Energy Points it has. It also brings their Energy to 0.

Two other new things about the High Templar are there is now an upgrade to make them start with an additional 25 Energy Points (So they can start Psi Storming right away) and that Archon Meld has been changed. You can still use 2 High Templar to create an Archon, or you can use a mix of High and Dark Templars (Or 2 Dark Templar).

The Phase Shift Ability was removed in the 1st patch of the beta.

Protoss Archon

Previous Unit: High Templar – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Dark Templar

Another returning unit, the powerhouse Archon makes very minor changes in SCII. The Archon is made from combining the energy of two Templars (High, High and Dark, or Just Dark).

The Archon can again target both Air and Ground units with it’s Psionic Shockwave attack (which still splashes to hit nearby units). But now it also has the a stronger added bonus of dealing extra damage to biological units such as the Zerg and Terran Infantry.

Protoss Dark Templar

Previous Unit: Archon – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Carrier

The strong stealth warrior, the Dark Templar, returns in StarCraft II. In order to warp them in, you will need a Dark Shrine and a Gateway.

The Dark Templar is just about the same as it was in SCBW. It has it’s passive cloaking ability, and it’s strong Warp Blade melee attack against ground units and buildings.

Protoss Carrier

Previous Unit: Dark Templar – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Interceptor

Another strong StarCraft unit returns for StarCraft II. The Carrier can be warped in at the Stargate once a Fleet Beacon has been created.

The Carrier does not have an attack of it’s own, instead you construct Interceptors (8 max by default) for it which it carries and launches out to attack enemies. The downside is the added cost, the plus is that this distracts your opponents (especially computers) from targeting the Carrier themselves.

The Fleet Beacon has a new upgrade which when researched allows the Carrier to launch out it’s Interceptors faster than before.

Protoss Interceptor

Previous Unit: Carrier – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Mothership

The final unit for the Protoss returning from the original, the Interceptor is also in StarCraft II. It is built by the Carrier, and acts as its weapon, not as its own individual unit. A Carrier can hold a default maximum of 8 Interceptors and can rebuild any lost Interceptors..

The Interceptor is a weak weapon, but due to the quantity of them (especially in packs of Carriers), a swarm of Interceptors can quickly take down enemy forces. However, once the Carrier is destroyed, all the Interceptors it carried will blow up too. And any special abilities that freeze the Carrier will stop the Interceptors from attacking and will return to inside their Carriers.

Protoss Mothership

Previous Unit: Interceptor – Jump to Top – Next Unit: Colossus

The Protoss super unit, the Mothership is the final Protoss Air unit. Its powerful abilities make up for its weak weapon. It is built at the Nexus after you have a Fleet Beacon.

The Purifier Beams weapon for the Mothership has a standard range and hits both Ground and Air units. It does about the same damage as a Stalker at the moment. But where it really makes up for it are the 4 Abilities is has.

It has a passive Cloaking Field like the Arbiter cloaking all nearby units under and around it. The second ability is Vortex. Vortex sucks all nearby enemy units in and causes them to be unable to act until it is done. They cannot be attacked by weapons, but should be able to be targeted by spells. The final ability is Mass Recall which teleports all of the units you own in the target area to the Motherships’ location like the Arbiter’s Recall.

The Temporal Rift and Wormhole Transit abilities were removed in the 1st patch of the beta.

Protoss Colossus

Previous Unit: Mothership – Jump to Top

The final Protoss ground unit is the Colossus. You can build a Colossus at a Robotics Facility after getting a Robotics Bay.

The Colossus has a powerful weapon called Thermal Lances which are basically a beam that hits in lines to form an X across enemies. This is great against groups of small units such as Zerglings and Marines as many can be taken out quickly. However, it only can target ground units.

An passive ability the Colossus has allows it to pretty much ignore height differences in terrain. Cliff Walk lets the long legs of the unit scale cliffs without needing to find ramps.

The Robotics Bay has a nice upgrade for the Colossus giving it a 50% boost in attack range so it can target from further away than most Protoss units.