Protoss "Tricks of the Trade"

The Story:

What makes SC so cool? It's all those fun combinations of attacks and units you can put together, the kick ass magic you can use, and the amazing battles you fight. Here's some of those little things the protoss have that are somtimes overlooked- and some downright nasty tactis as well.

Some Protoss "Tricks":

Laser battery?!  No- it's a shield battery!:
These rarely used buildings are incredible. What do they do? For 100 minerals and requiring a gateway, these buildings which build up energy will replentish all of you unit's shields two points for every 1 energy used. Simply put, they add extra life to you units.
Out numbered? Make it seem like you've got an army twice the size by running back to your batteries. This works even better if you leave a zealot or two to suck up enemy fire to cover your retreat.
This also works for your ships. Damaged scouts? They're fast (speed upgrade)- run away, charge up, attack again. Great for hit-and-runs.
Taunt 'em with hallucinations:
Need a bigger army? Well, often time you don't have the time and resources to wait and build up, so why not make it look like you have more units. Use hallucionation. This templar spell will create two copies of a targeted unit (works on anything- even enemy units).
There are almost endless posibilities as to what to do with this spell.
Will you create mixed attack groups of real and unreal units?
Will you scout with these units?
Will you have an attack of hallucinations? -- As a distraction, of course, for your actual army. Hallucions can't attack and take double damage. They also instantly dissappear when any spell is cast on them. One more note- hallucionary carriers don't have interceptors.
Will you 'triple' the number of your power units the scare your opponett away?
The choice is yours.
Double the pylons:
It's been written on many strategy pages- when attack protoss early, sacrifice units to take out the pylons near their gateways. This tactic is even listed as a great way to defeat protoss in Prima's Official Starcraft Strategy Guide! How wrong they are...
First of all, you'll easily be able to take out the units doing this.
More importantly, you'll want more than 1 pylon covering each gateway. When I build up in early game, I'll always have 3-4 pylons covering each gateway. Nothing'll take all of them out- so I can keep building zealots. Kill the attack, rebuild any lost pylons (unlikely), and counter-attack.
Bigger isn't always better:
Zealots pack a big punch. Don't think that they can't stand up to larger units in the game, and those that do more damage.
For protoss, zealots easily take out dragoons- their explosive damage type does 50% to zealots.
For terrans, zealots waste goliaths and simply run up to siege tanks, defeating them as well.
And for Zerg, zealots will take out ultras when outnumbering them 2 zealots to an ultra (several will survive, as well). In fact, 10 zealots can often kill 6 ultras.
"Suck it up!":
Protoss units tend to have plenty more hit points than those of other races. Use this to your advantage- more than simply living longer in a fight.
Want to take out specific units or other targets? Simple- run at it and attack. You're superior number of hit points (not to mention psi shields) will absorb plenty of damage- and you'll still defeat plenty of enemy units after you've completed your other objectives.
A few bunkers or cannons? Run right past!
"Charge!?":
Run right into fights. Your zealots will most likely form some kind of line as you charge into battle. Don't worry- this is an advantage of sorts! You're first few zealots to enter the fray will draw a large amout of enemy fire, allowing the following zealots to wreak havoc on enemy targets without taking any damage. (note: not as great vs. bunkers)
If you don't feel like even losing a few zealots, line them up paralell to the defending units.
Also, if you feel that your troops are seriously out of position, move them to a different location nearby. Make the defender take the offensive! Zealots seem much more powerful when on the defensive, and are fighting on their own terms.
Problems with "Superman":
So... you've barely won a fight. You've only got a few damaged zealots left. You'd love to finish off your opponett for good, but reinforcements haven't arrived yet. You know that they're building more units...
Remember that even a few injured zealots low on psp can still inflict some damage on your enemy. Take out some buildings, wait to kill new units, kill more peon units. Zealots- no matter what condition they're in, are very difficult to kill.

Some dirty tactics =) :

Stasised Arbiters:
This may very well be the nastiest tactic in the game. Believe it or not, arbiers still project their cloaking field when in a stasis field. When attacking with arbiters cloaking your forces, the arbier it surely your opponett's first target. Don't let him attack it!  Nothing, and I mean nothing (even nukes) will hurt something in stasis. Have everything cloaked stand ground and watch as your opponett can do nothing to stop you.
So... bring more than one arbiter along, and stasis one of them (be careful not to stasis other units). Incredibly deadly.
Nasty FFA tricks:
Want to confusre an ffa opponett? Hallucinate a power units of one enemy, and send them along on your nexy attack on another foe. He'll either think you're ganging up on him and go defense-crazy, attack you and you'll know about it ahead of time, or attack the player who's units you hallucinated. You gain a big advantage either way.
Create a diversion:
Draw defenses away. With real units... attack a huge group up units with a few zealots- giving your main force time to run into their peon units. It's even easier with hallucinations.
Many times, a player will send all of their units to eliminate even the smallest (or not even real) threat- allowing you to bring in you actual army on another flank.
Almost unstoppable in team games... :
Work with you allies. As protoss, don't expect the biggest kill total or the glory. Use your power to benefit your team! Use your "superman" zealots to attack enemy troops while an ally either walks right by or take a different route to a different target (mineral line). Your units may very well die, but hey, that player's been taken out of the game. This is VERY hard to stop. It just takes coordination...
"Inner Recall":
In a big fight, your opponett will often miss an arbiter sneaking behind his front line. Use recall to bring a group of units (a dozen zealots, some scouts, a few reavers) inside his town to do some extra damage.
"Plop!":
Shuttle-dropping anything. Protoss shuttles are quick, cheap (200 minerals only) and reliable. They're great to drop a shuttle of zealots (4 per shuttle) behind enemy lines or, better yet, reavers (2 per shuttle). The reaver drop is a favorite strategy of many a protoss player, because even 4 reavers can completely destroy an enemy army and wreck their town. Surrender is often a victim's only course of action.
Recall the unreal:
This rather strange tactic is often effective on more experienced players who have seen arbiters recall units into their town. Recall hallucinations. They'll send their troops to counter this worse threat, giving your actual troops a big advantange.
The "Mage Bomb":
Psi storm. Deadly. Able of taking out more than a dozen units per casting. Use it on the run! Run in with a templar, cast, run. If you can't get away, cast again (or perhaps a 3rd time if you can). Take out as much as you can. You're 50 mineral 150 gas templar will have done more than it's money's worth of damge. To make him more mobile, you can send templar around on shuttles if you'd like (templars are rather slow). I once had a templar with 88 (!) kills by using this tactic.
Origionally, this term was used in Warcraft 2. A player would build a mage for the sole purpose of running a suicide mission on his opponett. Upon being attack, the mage would cast blizzard on himself or enemy units, in an attempt to kills as much as possible before dying himself. It was very effective then, and it still is now. Templars are the only spell caster with a similar enough spell do to the same.

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