Starcraft 2 Sentry Strategy

Starcraft 2 Protoss Units --> Starcraft 2 (you are here)

I have decided to put together a guide on the best ways to use Sentry in Starcraft 2. This Protoss unit is a hallmark Protoss unit and mastery of this unit is essential.

I would go as far to say as good control of this unit separates gold league Protoss players from Diamond league and even low-Master's league players.

If you use this unit well, you win so many more games, particularly mirror match-ups and vs Zerg battles.

With that said, in this article we will examine Starcraft 2 Sentry strategy by looking at each individual ability first and then looking at the the race match-ups.

Force Field

Force Field is what makes the Sentry essential to nearly every Protoss army whether it is a 4-Gate timing push or 30 minutes into the game. When Force Fields are in play, good Protoss players will be able to use them for a significant advantage over their opponent.

The primary strategy these are used for is to create large walls in order to split enemy units up. For example, if you have a Stalker-heavy army and are going against a Zerg player with a lot of Roaches, you can quickly drop several force-fields down on the middle of his army, splitting them in half, allowing you to effectively divide and conquer.

Many players have had trouble using this simple Starcraft 2 Sentry strategy. What you want to do is bind Sentries to their own unit group (select all your Sentries and hit Ctrl + a number to bind them to that number).

When you are in battle, press that number to bring up your Sentries only. Give them a command to move forward, pushing them to the front of your army. Many people think they messed up their force fields but really their Sentries were just out of range. Make sure the Sentries have the last command to move forward and they will push everything else out of the way.

Next, hold the "shift" button and alternate between the "F" key and clicking the map where you want to place the Force Fields. Drag your mouse in a line where you want your wall to go, all the while holding the "Shift" key and mashing "F" and clicking furiously. With a little practice, you can easily draw a wall of 6-7 Force Fields in under a second.

Even low-ranking players can master this technique. Just remember it is better to overspend energy by making too many Force Fields than it is to have an incomplete wall. Also, remember that you are placing the wall in the front 1/3 to the middle of the opponents army, to cleave off a portion of the army. Do not try to build the Force Fields too far back or your Sentries will get attacked in the process.

Finally, make sure to move your Sentries back after they cast their Force Fields so they can take cover behind any Stalkers and Zealots you might have.

Force Fields on the Ramp

Another great way to use Force Fields is to use them on ramps. On small maps, a single Force Field can block the flow of traffic up and down the ramp. On larger ramps, 2-3 Force Fields is enough.

You can use this both offensively and defensively. On offense, when you attack a player's expansion, you can drop a Force Field on the ramp to prevent reinforcements from coming down and also to prevent harveters from fleeing into the main.

You can also do the opposite if the opponent's army is out in front of their base. Drop units into the main and force field the ramp. A good way to do this is to have Blink Stalkers and a Warp Prism. You can have the Blink Stalkers move out across the map with a Warp Prism, blink up into the person's base, and use the Warp Prism to warp in Sentries. Sentries spawn with enough energy to Force Field. This can often force a base-race situation so make sure you have a Probe in a safe spot.

Sentries also are a great defensive unit. Whenever an enemy tries to push up your ramp, let a few units come up then drop a force-field. By splitting the army in half (or just clipping a piece off the front), you get free unit-kills. You can keep refreshing this by having several Sentries on rotation. A few Sentries prevents any early game push from happening.

Guardian Shield

Guardian Shield is another great Sentry ability. It reduces incoming projectile damage by 2. This may not seem like much but it really does add up. Consider that a Marine only does 6 damage per hit and you can see Guardian Shield reduces base Marine damage by 33%!

Guardian Shield is most effective versus units with a low-damage but high firing rate. This includes Marines, Mutalisks, other Sentries, and Hydralisks.

Hallucination

Hallucination was an ability that previously did not get much play but I have seen it used a lot more in pro-level play. The first awesome ability is the hallucinated Phoenix. You produce 2 ultra-fast Phoenix which can quickly scout the entire map for the low cost of free!

The other good ability works in early pushes and that involves creating hallucinated Colossi right before pushing out. Normally hallucinations are ignored but since Colossi are a high-threat unit, players manually micro their units to attack them. If the player has no detection, he will not realize that they are fake until it is too late!

Sentry Vs Races

Against Zerg players, Force Field is an excellent ability. You can use it to stop any early "Roach Bust" by Force Fielding your ramp. Mid-game, it is perfect for a 4-Gate. If your enemy goes for an early expansion, you can 4-Gate and as soon as you move in, drop a Force Field on the player's ramp to prevent Drones from fleeing and reinforcements from streaming in. Keeping this Force Field up can win games outright a lot of the time. Late in the game, use mass Force Fields to split up Roach and Hydralisk armies.

Additionally, hallucinated Phoenix are a must on large maps as they can quickly scout to see if the Zerg is taking any hidden expansions. Since they can scout entire maps in 1 cast, you want to regularly do this to keep tabs on the Zerg player.

Against Terran players, Force Field is solid early in the game for preventing any 2 or 3 Barracks early aggression. Later in the game, Guardian Shield is an important ability as nearly all Terran players use Marines.

Against other Protoss players, Sentries are amazing as well. Force Field is a simple way to stop 4-Gates cold; pretend that you do not have many sentries and force field your ramp after your opponent pushes half his army up it. After you take that out, counter with your own army.

Since many Protoss do not get detection in PvP match-ups, hallucinating a few Colossi before pushing out with Gateway units is incredibly effective as well!

Conclusion

While it is much easier to mass Stalkers at first, mastering the Sentry is not hard at all and it will quickly become one of your favorite units once you get down the basic Starcrat 2 Sentry strategies!

Practice the force field wall regularly, drop force fields on ramps to prevent reinforcements, and keep Guardian Shield up at all times and you will be leagues ahead of any player in Platinum or below!