Starcraft 2 Protoss Counters

Starcraft 2 Counters List --> Starcraft 2 Protoss Counters

Protoss players have a weird relationship with counters. Like all races, they depend on having a good army composition.

However, moreso than any other race, Protoss have a lot of expensive and high-threat, but vulnerable units. Rather than building an army that counters the enemy's forces, Protoss players tend to take this one step further, building an army that can adequately protect their high value units and allowing those high level units to do the heavy lifting no matter what the opponent gets.

What I mean by this is that practically every mid to late game Protoss army includes either Colossi or High Templar. Even air-based builds typically use a few High Templar on the ground. The reason for this is that the Colossus's default attack and the High Templar's Psionic Storm both do huge amounts of area of effect (AoE) damage. No matter what the opponent gets, these two units will deal big damage if the opponent does not kill them quickly.

However, the Colossus is extremely slow and does best when attacking from a distance, making it vulnerable without Gateway units acting as a meat shield in front of it. Meanwhile, the High Templar also needs support of its own, as it has low HP and no default attack.

As a result of this dynamic, Protoss players always need to be thinking about the best way to protect their high-power units moreso than which high-power units to build.

For example, if the Terran is getting Marines, Marauders, and Ghosts, you know that the Colossus is the appropriate counter. The Terran sees this, and adds Vikings to their army, as Vikings counter the Colossus. You could look at this situation and think to avoid the Vikings entirely by cutting Colossus production and switching over to High Templar and Archons. Unfortunately, this Terran player already has Ghosts in their army, which are strong against HTs and Archons.

So what to do? Rather than stopping the production of Colossus, you can take steps to counter the unit that kills your Colossus by adding a different unit to the mix. In this example, the Terran is using Vikings to counter your Colossi. Blink Stalkers are good versus Vikings, so rather than cutting Colossi production, you might just add enough Blink Stalkers to kill off the Vikings before the Vikings can kill off your Colossi.

Strangely enough, rather than cutting Colossi production, it might actually be more effective for you to increase Colossi production when faced with Vikings! More Colossi means that the Terran will not be able to take down all of these Colossi before losing their Vikings to your Stalkers. If you can kill off all the enemy's Vikings before the enemy can kill off your Colossi, you now have all of your surviving Colossi to use against the Terran's bio forces. With no Viking support, the Colossi are at an advantage, particularly if you have Sentries ready that can cast Force Field.

This entire dynamic is amplified by the fact that high tech Protoss units take a long time to build and are very expensive. Each Colossus is 300 minerals and 200 vespene gas - you cannot just throw them away because the Terran opponent produced a few Vikings. The time it takes to build also may prevent you from tech switching entirely based on your opponent's actions.

This sort of thing only applies when your opponent is using a balanced army in an attempt to stop your forces. Specific unit counters still work when your opponent tries to mass 1-2 units. For example, if your opponent goes mass Mutalisk, you definitely want to get out the Phoenix.

Starcraft 2 Protoss Counter Chart - Updated for Heart of the Swarm

Below, you will find two charts. The first chart describes Starcraft 2 Protoss counters (Protoss Unit Weaknesses). In this chart, all of the units on the left side of the column are weak against the units in the right side of the table.

Note: If the word "soft" appears next to a unit, it means that this is a soft counter. This means that the counter is not a landslide victory but that one unit is slightly favored over the other.

Note #2: All counters are relative and fluid. For example, a single Colossus will die easily to 12 Zerglings if caught in the open field. However if your Colossi have Force Field support and Zealots to tank for them, then Colossi can quickly melt away Zerglings.

Note #3: Counters may change as a match goes on and units are upgraded and research is unlocked. For example, in the early game, a very well-microed Stalker can take down 5+ Marines due to the fact that a Stalker is faster than the Marines and the Stalker can outrange the Marines. Meanwhile, once Combat Shields, Medivacs, and Stimpack comes out, the Stalker no long counters Marines.

As a result, take all counters with a grain of salt and do not consider any of them a rule of thumb.

Weakness Chart: The column on the left lists a Protoss unit, while the 3 columns on the right provide units that are strong against the Protoss unit on the left. Click on the Protoss unit name to be taken to a page that specifically discusses the best way to counter that particular Protoss unit with units from all three races.

In the table below, I have put together a list of what Protoss units counter the units of other races. In other words, the units in the left column are strong against the other units in the same row. This table details Protoss Unit Strengths.

*Dark Templar not nearly as effective if detection is present.

By memorizing these two charts and changing the units you are building accordingly, you will have a lot more success on battle.net when playing as and against Protoss.

If you have trouble remembering all of these races, a great way to speed up the learning process is to print out these two charts and keep them near the computer when you play. When you get a peak at your enemy's army when scouting, reference this chart and build units accordingly.

Just by learning all the Starcraft 2 Protoss counters, you will significantly improve your gameplay. However, learning counters alone is not enough to be great at Starcraft 2. The Osiris Method provides the only complete Starcraft 2 training program that can take you to the top of the ladder ranks without any further experience.