Unit Analyis: Sentry

Today I'll be analyzing the sentry. The sentry is of course a protoss unit and I would argue perhaps one of the most useful units in the protoss army. Any serious protoss player I'm sure would agree. It has many uses and can be utilized in many different ways to help bolster the impact of an army or protect it from others.

The sentry has 2 default spells: guardian shield and force field, as well as one that can be later researched: hallucination. On top of all of that, the sentry also has a beam attack that can hit ground or air. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage, but enough to make an impact for sure. As you can tell already, the sentry having these skills and even being able to attack bake it an extremely valuable unit. They are a bit expensive for early game units at 50 minerals and 100 gas, but this is because they are not meant to be massed in large quantities, but rather used as supporting units much like the infestor for zerg. It is however, much easier to get them out before an infestor.

First I'll explain the abilities it contains and how they affect gameplay, then I'll go into specific uses for them. The three abilities are:

Guardian Shield:

Guardian shield costs 75 energy and provides a shield of 4 range all around the sentry. It reduces incoming ranged attacks by 2 damage to friendly units. Note: this does NOT help against melee attacks, hence it will NOT help against zerglings. It creates basically a small shield around the sentry that affects all nearby friendly units that happen to fall within it.

Force Field:

Force Field also comes stock loaded with the sentry and costs 50 energy, lasting for 15 seconds. It is also a smartcast move meaning that only one sentry will fire if you have multiple sentries selected, so you must repeatedly tell them to create forcefields if you want more than one.

Hallucination (must be researched first):

Hallucination must first be researched at the cybernetics core before use for 100 minerals and 100 gas. It costs 100 energy to use with hallucinations that last 60 seconds or until dead. It allows the sentry to create 4 probes, 2 high templars/stalkers/zealots, or 1 archon/colossus/immortal/phoenix/void ray/warp prism.

All of these abilities are useful in one way or another and can easily be utilized strategically. It is first important to survey the field in which you wish to use your sentries and manage their energy wisely. Perhaps the most commonly used as well as effective tool is the Force Field. 

This move allows you to create force fields that block off enemy movement. It is used most effectively at choke points or to give your units stronger positioning. For example, if you are attacking an enemy base and his reinforcements are outside of the base, it would be very simple to create one or 2 force fields that block off his ramp so his units cannot proceed up and you can continue to wreak havoc in his base or pick off his army from a distance. Another example would be to place forcefields around your stalkers against an incoming zergling attack to prevent a surround. These are only a couple of example, but I'm sure you could use your imaginationa nd think of similar situations in which this would help.

The hallucination is much harder to use as it requires a lot of energy and key timing, and it must also first be researched. Hallucination is a good idea for creating heavy units to confuse your opponent such as colossi or archons so they focus down on them first, giving your real army time to whittle away at enemy forces. Another good usage is to create an early phoenix or warp prism hallucination to scout and harass the enemy base before air units are even seemingly possible. This could possible disorient, confuse, and event rick your opponent into thinking you're doing a different strategy than you really are.

Lastly is the guardian shield. It is an important asset to the protoss army, but is much easier to handle and requires far less micro than force fields. It should be used when the enemy army has a large amount of ranged attackers and definitely not when there is a large melee force attacking you. It only reduces ranged damage.

As you can see, the sentry has tons of options available and can aid any protoss army in innumerable ways, especially with some good micro and patience.

Unit Analyis: Infestor

Hey everyone, so in line with my recent updates, I have decided to switch things up a bit from my usual posting. I'm going to start a new series of updates analyzing specific units and their abilities as well as effectiveness in all aspects of the game.

I've decided to start off with possibly my favorite unit, the infestor!

The infestor is an extremely useful unit and is basically key in any micro intensive zerg army. Its uses are numerous and can be used in a variety of ways, whether it actually be on the front lines of the battlefield or running into a base for harassment.

What you'll need: 

An infestation pit
    -Also enables research of Pathogen glands and the Neural parasite upgrade.

Pathogen glands give the infestor an extra 25 starting energy which could be just what the doctor ordered. Neural parasite allows the infestor to use the neural parasite ability which allows it to control an enemy unit for 15 seconds. (Note: does not work on ultralisks)

I will now focus on its abilities and explain the usefulness of each.

Infested Terran: These units are extremely useful for harassment or general base destruction. With 3 or 4 burrowed infestors it becomes trivial to sneak into a base and unleash these infested terran to wreak havoc on the enemy mineral line or production buildings. Also they can be used in a pinch to bolster your army if needed in that last part of the struggle in battle. They move very very slowly and will eventually die off by themselves, so it is always recommended to place them near the point of attack.

Neural Parasite: This allows you to control an enemy unit for 15 seconds, including all upgrades it has current access to. This can be extremely useful for mind controlling tanks or other heavy units with a lot of splash damage. It works on every unit except ultralisks and I recommend using it on heavy units (e.g. thors, tanks, battlecruisers, carriers, etc) or using it to mindcontrol a specific unit that is greatly helping the enemy such as a colossus. Something you should definitely not forget is to kill the unit before the cooldown runs out otherwise it will ravage your own army or kill your infestor. Note that this can also be used on workers, but is really not worth it unless you somehow manage to snag a probe. The effect runs out much too quickly for it to be used effectively on an scv. Also, you sitll have to tech up and you are tied down by your original food source so it's really just not worth it.


Fungal Growth: I would argue that this ability is by far the best ability the infestor has available. Fungal growth works over a small area of effect and completely immobilizes the enemy while damaging it over time. It's kind of like the old defiler moves wrapped into one (except the dark swarm cloud). It doesn't last too long, but long enough to do heavy damage. This used in conjunction with long range splash devastates smaller armies like MMM ball or infantry in general. It can be used on any unit and is very easy to actually kill lesser units with it, such as marines or zerglings. Use this against tightly packed, dangerous in group units such as massed marines/marauders or basically any zerg unit. It is especially effective against large groups of mutas since classic strategy makes people bunch up their mutas as tightly as possible. This fungal growth really makes or breaks some zerg armies. I highly recommend its usage against MMM ball and zerg armies in general. Against protoss it's a bit more difficult, but can work well nonetheless especially with zealots.


I think that about does it for the infestor. Hope this helped some of you think of new plans!