Offense
Air UnitsSince the protoss can build very fast, air units are deffinetly a powerful way to destroy the opposition. I'll start with the basic bread and butter air unit for the protoss, the Scout. Scouts are a quick cheap and effective way to mobilize an all around attack force. Since scouts can attack air and ground, they are an ideal unit for cheap fast air forces. Utilizing the scouts speed, is a key to their effectiveness on the battlefield. They have the ability to outrun nearly everything. And with their speed, they can also make quick and powerful hit and run attacks on enemy forces and bases. As far as attacking forces goes, they are the most effective when it comes to the heavy air units such as the Carrier, Battlecruiser,and Guardian. Since all of these air units are not well known for speed, of attack of movement, scouts usually have no problem destroying them, as long as the outnumber the opposing force by at least 3 to 1. Which may sound like a lot, and could take a long time to build, but if you really think about it, they are cheap, and build fast, so really, the number isn't as overwhelming as it looks. Bases on the other hand, scouts are effective for a quick run to destroy the opponents minerals, and depots, but as far as an all out attack, unless thier numbers are extremely high, they usually don't last long considering that most players defend themselves. A good unit for such an attack though is the Carrier. The Carrier is incredible when it comes to the destruction of buildings, and heavy ground units. It can also kill the zerg's air bread and butter unit the Mutalisk with ease. Carriers are much more effective in one mass attack, than in waves and waves, due to waves being killed quicker and easier than one enormous amount of heavily armored fully upgraded attack fleet. Of course, you always want to have an observer tag along just in case your opponent tries to counter attack your carriers with wraiths or other cloaked units. Take note, that the carrier does not use a direct attack, instead, you have to make it build Interceptorswhich it releases in the prescence of an enemy. To go the extra distance with an air attack, i would definetly reccomend using Arbiters. These highly helpful air units are good for support of your air force in anumber of ways. One, they cloak everything around them that is owned by you except for buildings, and other Arbiters. Two, their Stasis Field will temporarily solve a problem of being outnumbered long enough to even the odds. Three, they still have a decent attack themselves, although not coming close to the power of the other air units, they can still attack while helping your force at the same time.For the fast, cheap, and effective unit that takes out air easily, go with the Corsair. A very effective unit when it comes to taking out your enemy's air force with little effort, and still lending support for the rest of your army or your allies. To compromise for their inability to attack ground units, they use the ability Disruption Web. This ability will prove to be extremely useful against mass ground attacks, although the area isnt as great as the Arbiter's stasis field, it posesses the ability to temporarily stop cannons from attacking your forces. That's right, it not only stops ground units, it stops cannons, and other such defenses. This will prove to be one of the most useful units in your arsenol.Ground UnitsAlthough im not a very big fan of the ground unit rush, I have had my experience with all of them, and have devised many useful strategies against all races. I'll again start with the most basic strategies. Although, the protoss ground units are powerful, and have excellent armor, they don't come without a catch which is their cost. But assembled in the right numbers, and with enough money, a ground force is very easy to build. Lets start with the Zealot. Although its melee(no range) and the most basic unit for the protoss, this is the Core unit for any ground force. Its powerful attack is 2 times stronger than a marine's, and 4 times stronger than a zergling's, thus making it the strongest basic unit in the game. The best way to utilize the zealot's ability is its effectiveness on heavy ground units such as the Terran Siege Tank, the Protoss Reaver, and other units along those lines. Since those units are extremely slow, especially the siege tank popping in and out of siege mode, the zealot dominates them. And when upgraded fully, they can take out nearly any defense. Which makes them easy to use, and easy to make. Of course, one should never send only a mass force of zealots into enemy territory, considering their inability to attack air units. Thus to support them, Dragoons are an easy and effective way to take out enemies' bread and butter air units. And, they are very effective against ground bread and butter units as well such as the Dragoon, Hydralisk, Firebat, and Goliath. They are also useful due to their heavy armor, and powerful weapon. Dragoons would most definetly be the backbone to a powerful Protoss ground force.Continuing on with the Gateway units, the next unit on the list would be the High Templar. This unit is not too effective when it comes to attacking buildings unless they are massed together, and since it doesn't have a direct attack, its best kept behind or in the middle of the rest of your force for support. Its most effective use is its ability Psionic Storm which will easily take out a mass force of enemy ground or air units. Hallucination is also a helpful ability to attack your enemies forces by duplicating a unit to fight for you. This is most useful when your inside of your enemies base, and there are some flagships, or Heavy ground units around.The next unit to come out of the Gateway would be the extremely useful Dark Templar. This unit is useful in a wide variety of ways. One, its cloaked all the time. Two, its melee attack is incredible. And three, its useful against any ground unit. I have used this unit in a number of different ways, and i have found that its most useful purpose is to totally destroy your enemies base. The dark templar's ability to destroy buildings surpasses all other uses of it, although, its use for taking out enemy ground forces is also useful, why take out the force and leave your enemy alive, when you can put him out of commision without ever really entering the heat of a fight? Of course, usually one force won't do the job the whole way, but, as i said with the scouts, they are expendable, by the time you are making enough money to send even one force of these in, im sure you'll soon have enough money to send another. Another use is for support of your forces. In the front line of your force, is will they prevail in support, when your trying to push through a wall of siege tanks, your dark templars will prove to be the best way to do it. Now moving on to the more advanced units and heavier units, let's look at the Reaver. Now this is an unbelievably powerful unit against ground units and buildings. With its incredible attack power, and range, its best used inside an enemies base. Here it can really show what it can do. A single squad can have the ability to do more damage than any other means of attack in the protoss arsenal. One squad can nearly take out an entire base, sometimes they can pull it off. If they dont, then they caused some serious damage to the base. Usually preventing the person from building anything else, even units. Pushing through a wall of cannons is another practice that the reaver excels at. Since its range is much higher than a cannon's, reavers can take out a cannon defense without even getting scratched. And preventing the rest of your troops to have to take their chances with the cannons. Supporting your units in ground to ground combat is also very useful with the reaver. As long as the reavers are on the inside of the rest of your force, they will take out anything on the ground that even dares attack your force. Take a note though, that a reaver does not use a direct attack, you have to make it build Scarabs which is kind of like its ammunition.Now moving back to the Gateway unit High Templar, when Two High Templars Fuse, they summon an Archon. An Archon is a powerful unit, posessing the ability to attack air and ground, it makes for an extremely versitile force. Building a force of Archons can be counterproductive though. If the force fails to do its job, which is a heavy assualt unit, you will have lost large amounts of money. Thus the best way to use these, is to complement dragoons and zealots in an attack. Your Archons can dish out massive amounts of pain on any powerful enemy before it can kill your more vulnerable units. Last but not least, we look back at the dark templar. Alike the high templar, when two dark templars fuse together, they summon a Dark Archon. I don't reccomend using many of these units. 4 or 5 should be more than enough, since they have no attack, but they can use their ability Mind Control. This ability forces an opponents unit to permananly fight for you. The best effect for this ability would be with fully loaded carriers, transports, or reavers. Other than that, there is really no great use for this unit.Lets move back to the arbiter, not only is it highly effective for an air force, it may prove to be more useful in support for your ground units. Using its ability Recall which will instantly teleport a force from one location of the map to anywhere that the arbiter is. The best use for this, is right in the heart of the oppositions' base. Recalling can be done a number of different ways, such as Reavers and Dragoons, which are the most popular ways of utilizing the ability.DefenseGround DefenseThere are many ways to defend yourself and your allies while playing as the protoss. Their advantage is the versatility of their Photon Cannons. This building is a very vital defense for any base. The best strategy i have disvovered is to Make a line of cannons 3 cannons thick, and behind it put a whole bunch of reavers for extra defense. This is the best ground defense I have devised yet and so far it hasnt been beat by any ground units so i highly suggest that you try this strategy. Take note though your cannons are strong, do not rely on them fully to defend your base against ground units, keep a relief force nearby to give your base the extra defense that it may need. Defending with units is another way this can be done, it is a lot easier on money then just building a mass cannon farm all over the base. But remember that it takes population to do this. The best ground defense as far as units go are Reavers and Dragoons together. These will easily accomplish defending your base without a problem. Zealots are also helpful against the big guys like tanks and hydralisks and such.Air DefenseNow lets look back at the cannon idea. As cannons are extremely predjudice when it comes to ground units, they are the same when anything tries to fly through, above or around them, they will attack anything that isnt your ally or your own units. As far as the air defense goes, as I said before, dont rely heavily upon the cannons to do all the work, because it wont work. Keep a relief force of Corsairs or Dragoons nearby just in case your cannon defense starts to look grim. Now when there is a way to defend ground with units, there is a way to defend air with units as well. Since the protoss units all have their pros and cons, and some can attack from the ground into the air and others cant, and some units can take out the biggest and the best of the flagships without worrying about losing a few units, dont be afraid to lose some smaller units. This is starcraft, that is the whole point of the game. So just build corsairs and dragoons, and you wont have any problem at all defending and attacking simultaneously with your units without ever worrying about building a single cannon, although it is highly reccomended.
