A look at Protoss in Heart of the Swarm

First off I must say that of course these are views based on beta gameplay, and are my opinion. Commenting is free so if you disagree or agree, please do leave a comment. Anyone who has any concept of what beta entails knows that most likely all of these units will be subject to change at one point or another, and that various abilities will be strengthened or weakened as Blizzard see fit. So with that in mind, I'm aiming to give more of an insight into the roles that they will play, focusing on their place in builds instead of the effectiveness of the unit.

While I am by all accounts a Zerg player, I infact originally played Protoss in WoL before swapping, and still occasionally dabble as a Protoss on the ladder, due to my love of innovative play, and the infinite fun you can have with a warp prism.

Protoss initially saw three new units introduced into their arsenal in Heart of the Swarm. However this has been cut down to just two now, as the Replicant was cut due to harming the diversity of play more than adding to it. The Replicant was a unit that could transform into a unit of the enemy's forces, allowing Protoss players to clone units such as Ravens or Siege Tanks which hypothetically opened up new strategies for the player, but instead resulted in opponents opting to not build such units as they were giving the enemy equal advantage. Not to mention the fact that cloning a drone or scv game the Protoss access to other races Tech trees and as such limited options for Terran and Zerg.

The Oracle

The Oracle is an expensive flying unit built from a Stargate, designed to give Protoss more options in early to mid game Harassment and serving as both a spotter and trapping unit in the late game. This unit does come at a price as it costs 150/150 and 3 supply, but it is well worth it. With high movement speed through use of it's ability Revelation, which reveals enemy units and buildings in a target area within Range 9, it makes tracking and spotting enemy builds and armies a simple task. The Oracle is a fragile unit, with not much more durability than a sentry, but front line engagements are not its priority. 

Added utility comes in the form of Time Warp , an AoE slow that reduces all ground units' movements within it's 3.5 radius by 50%. The use of this against opposing players' zealot heavy armies - stimmed marines, banelings, speedlings etc - is invaluable. Also it provides an escape mechanism from unfavourable engagements, countering the Marauder's Concussive Shells and the like. Combined with the Mothership Core's Mass Recall, Protoss sees an enormous boost in avoiding early game engagements that could prove costly for the player.

Also in The Oracles arsenal is a damaging ability in the form of Pulsar Beam. This energy costing attack can take enemy workers out in a couple of shots, but costs 25 energy to activate and 2 energy a second to maintain. Due to this, a common mistake is for Protoss players to overuse this attack to harass units, and then not have enough energy banked for Time Warps in battle or Revelation when it's needed. As such this attack should not be used freely, and only in cases where energy is in abundance.

The Tempest

One of the largest changes in playstyle from Brood War to Wings of Liberty was the unpopularity of the Stargate. In Brood War, Carriers were an essential part of the late game Protoss army but in WoL they have been dropped almost entirely in all forms of competitive play. Seeking to improve the popularity of Stargate play the Carrier was initially removed entirely from Heart of the Swarm in favour of The Tempest. However Blizzard have decided to place the Carrier back in play alongside the Tempest to see how the metagame develops for the time being.

 The Tempest is a long range artillery ship, with an attack range longer than that of its sight range, and infact the longest attack range in the game. It requires a "spotter" in order to function efficiently, a unit that provides it with the longer line of sight that it needs, much like the Terran's Siege Tank. The Tempest has a large amount of changes since the original beta, originally being an AoE, short range attack that was likely designed to counter mutalisk harass. However, due to the effectiveness of Phoenix's since the added range upgrade, this was deemed unnecessary. 

Dealing enormous bonus damage to Massive Air units, it provides a very powerful unit against Brood Lords and Battlecruisers. Also dealing damage (albeit less) to ground units, it provides a good counter to Siege Tanks and Swarm Hosts, being able to eliminate their threat from afar before they manage to do their damage. However their attack is no longer AoE, meaning application against Marine heavy armies, for example, is no longer as effective as it may have been. This lack of AoE also leaves it vulnerable to lighter Air units such as Vikings and Corruptor, meaning that positioning is an important factor. Due to the expensive nature of this unit (300/200), any units the opposition loses in order to take them down is likely to cost them half as much as it costs you to lose them. 

The Mothership Core

The Mothership has been split into two stages. Instead of access requiring a Fleet Beacon, you can now access the Mothership Core with only a Cybernetics Core built, giving the Protoss player a great deal more early utility. This unit has multiple uses. Firstly, its Photon Overcharge ability targets a Nexus and arms it with a 20 damage / 13 range attack that means that early expansions are a lot safer.

Another ability granted to the Mothership Core is the Mass Recall , teleporting the Core and all nearby friendly units to the target Nexus. This allows Protoss players to escape unsavoury engagements and quickly get back to base to defend against pushes. As is evident, the Mothership Core was intended to provide early game support and base defence that Protoss was perhaps missing in Wings of Liberty. Recently it has also been given the ability Envision which, for the price of 50 energy, turns the Core into a Detector unit for 60 seconds. With the long sight range of the Mothership Core this is a very effective tool in fighting Creep spread and detecting Ghosts / DTs, among other uses.

The Mothership Core also provides a very powerful tool in early to mid game agression, as it does not require a Stargate or Robotics Facility to get a flying line of sight unit. Early Blink Stalker play is a lot faster and easier to do, leading to it currently being an incredibly popular build on the beta ladder. It's uses like this that make it easy to understand why the Mothership Core was needed, as previously Protoss saw such little utility in the early/mid game. With the additions of the Core and The Oracle, they should see a lot more support for their units.

Personally I'm looking forward to the changes brought in HotS, and can't wait until it hits the mainstream tournament circuit. Thanks for reading, leave a comment below and follow me on Twitter @ceremonySC2.