A look at a new Protoss Unit: The Oracle

The oracle is one of the 3 new Protoss units that will be introduced in Heart of the Swarm. Initially, the Oracle was to have a handful of abilities that had to be cast by the player. This is still true, but they aren't all the same abilities. Currently, the Oracle has 3 abilities: Revelation, time warp and pulsar beam. This unit brings the harrassing abilities that protoss players have been wanting as of late. As well, it is the only unit in the game that becomes a disco ball when told to dance.

Firstly, the oracle has the revelation ability, which costs 75 energy to cast. Revelation simply reveals what the enemy has in a certain area: buildings and units. This ability works similarly to a scan like the terran have, but seems relatively unnecessary with the existence of observers. If revelation also worked to reveal cloaked units, it would seem much more useful. The oracle did originally have an ability that would cloak allied units briefly, but it was removed shortly after its introduction.

The next ability the Oracle has is Time Warp. Time warp is an interesting ability, similar to an AoE concussive shells. It is an AoE ability, cast on the ground beneath units which, when applied to the units, slows the everything within the area. It also costs 75 energy to cast, and is the ability that was added to give oracles a use after being strong harass units. This ability should suit it well in the mid – late game, when death ball armies are present.

Finally, the third ability of the oracle is the Pulsar Beam, an ability unseen in starcraft 2 before. It is a channeled ability, costing 2 energy/second, and causing 25 damage/second to buildings. It can only be used on buildings and, in large enough numbers, makes oracles incredibly powerful.

Until relatively recently, the Oracle had an ability entomb that most protoss players were excited for, while everyone else was dreading it. Entomb would encase mineral patches in forcefield-like things that prevent them from being mined. They had a temporary life span, and could be killed by the enemies units. This was quickly removed by Blizzard when they realized the fact that it was quite imbalanced and could cause ridiculous amounts of worker damage.

For example, the player could entomb 7 of the 8 mineral patches, then drop a storm on the one patch not entombed, causing massive aoe damage to the now clumped workers. Things like this are why betas are necessary.

The Oracle, one of three new air units, provides a diverse role for the protoss in Starcraft two and will hopefully become a staple in the air-protoss style of play. Hopefully the three new units, mothership core, oracle and tempest will add some much desired feasibility in air protoss style.