Colossus Bug: Surprise! I address the colossus bug, Harstem's video and balance changes for Protoss in StarCraft 2.--🐷 Second Channel for Learning Resources...
Actually I 100% agree with this notion. Just look at Aligulac’s balance reports. Blizzard abandoned this game and largely left the meta in a state where Protoss are weak, Terran are struggling and Zerg are OP as fuck. The only other times we’ve had metas this heavily skewed towards one race was during expansion launches and the game’s original 2010 launch, and those were kinda excusable given the context that players were playing a brand new meta.
Looking now, it’s easy to see why Protoss are so weak.
Gateway units aren’t that strong on their own and get melted by their infantry equivalents in TvP and ZvP. This is deliberate by design because Protoss is meant to have strong tech units that you can’t just spawn in anywhere on the map.
But to compensate, Protoss have shitty tech units.
The main reason why Protoss hard-lose PvZ is due to Lurkers being a no-skill overpowered unit. Lurkers have a range of 10 and absolutely shred anything on the ground that cannot match its range. What’s worse is that they deal far more damage to armored units so the units you’d expect to counter them get absolutely decimated. The fact that the Colossus now only matches the Lurker’s fully upgraded attack range due to a bug is a testament to how badly the dev team shafted Colossi.
Lurkers are so overpowered that the only reason Protoss are even relevant in the meta is because Void Rays and Carriers are ludicrously good right now.
Another issue is that Protoss only have three splash damage units which each have their own glaring weaknesses. Disruptors are hindered by a lengthy cooldown between casts, which have to be microed and can cause friendly-fire damage if anything goes wrong. Colossi have short range (despite the aforementioned 10 range buff bug) alongside a crippling weakness to anti-air because it’s also classed as an airborne unit due to its height. High Templar are only good against clumps of weak units, making them ridiculously strong in PvT but far less useful in PvZ.
Compare this to Terran who only have two (Siege Tanks and Widow Mines, three if you also count the Ghost exclusively in TvP) with far fewer weaknesses/shortcomings, and Zerg who also have three but none have the same level of weaknesses nor downsides that Protoss ones do (Infestors, Banelings and Lurkers), not to mention that Zerg also get two units that can shit out free units to harass the enemy on a regular basis (Swarm Hosts and Brood Lords) and which have the potential to force friendly-fire damage in ZvT.
The only time I can think of when Protoss were dominant was when Sentries were still relevant in the meta. Ultralisks and Ravagers provide easy ways to break down forcefields.
A zealot beats every zerg ground unit in a 1 on 1 fight except for 4 lings, an ultra, and a lurker (gets it down to 1/4 hp though). That’s in a vacuum of course, clumps of zealots limit surface area and then they do better and masses of roaches start doing better against masses of zealots due to the range. It’s also super frustrating to have upgraded lings, the counter to stalkers, and then have stalkers blink and run away without losing anything. I don’t fully buy the whole “gateway units are weak” narrative.
Actually I 100% agree with this notion. Just look at Aligulac’s balance reports. Blizzard abandoned this game and largely left the meta in a state where Protoss are weak, Terran are struggling and Zerg are OP as fuck. The only other times we’ve had metas this heavily skewed towards one race was during expansion launches and the game’s original 2010 launch, and those were kinda excusable given the context that players were playing a brand new meta.
Looking now, it’s easy to see why Protoss are so weak.
Gateway units aren’t that strong on their own and get melted by their infantry equivalents in TvP and ZvP. This is deliberate by design because Protoss is meant to have strong tech units that you can’t just spawn in anywhere on the map.
But to compensate, Protoss have shitty tech units.
The main reason why Protoss hard-lose PvZ is due to Lurkers being a no-skill overpowered unit. Lurkers have a range of 10 and absolutely shred anything on the ground that cannot match its range. What’s worse is that they deal far more damage to armored units so the units you’d expect to counter them get absolutely decimated. The fact that the Colossus now only matches the Lurker’s fully upgraded attack range due to a bug is a testament to how badly the dev team shafted Colossi.
Lurkers are so overpowered that the only reason Protoss are even relevant in the meta is because Void Rays and Carriers are ludicrously good right now.
Another issue is that Protoss only have three splash damage units which each have their own glaring weaknesses. Disruptors are hindered by a lengthy cooldown between casts, which have to be microed and can cause friendly-fire damage if anything goes wrong. Colossi have short range (despite the aforementioned 10 range
buffbug) alongside a crippling weakness to anti-air because it’s also classed as an airborne unit due to its height. High Templar are only good against clumps of weak units, making them ridiculously strong in PvT but far less useful in PvZ.Compare this to Terran who only have two (Siege Tanks and Widow Mines, three if you also count the Ghost exclusively in TvP) with far fewer weaknesses/shortcomings, and Zerg who also have three but none have the same level of weaknesses nor downsides that Protoss ones do (Infestors, Banelings and Lurkers), not to mention that Zerg also get two units that can shit out free units to harass the enemy on a regular basis (Swarm Hosts and Brood Lords) and which have the potential to force friendly-fire damage in ZvT.
The only time I can think of when Protoss were dominant was when Sentries were still relevant in the meta. Ultralisks and Ravagers provide easy ways to break down forcefields.
A zealot beats every zerg ground unit in a 1 on 1 fight except for 4 lings, an ultra, and a lurker (gets it down to 1/4 hp though). That’s in a vacuum of course, clumps of zealots limit surface area and then they do better and masses of roaches start doing better against masses of zealots due to the range. It’s also super frustrating to have upgraded lings, the counter to stalkers, and then have stalkers blink and run away without losing anything. I don’t fully buy the whole “gateway units are weak” narrative.