At the moment it looks like there aren't going to be any new races, but we do have a few new units confirmed. What are your thoughts of these three new units for Protoss? I don't like the sound of no Dragoons.

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Immortal


Before the loss of Aiur, veteran protoss warriors who had been crippled in battle could volunteer to continue their service by being transplanted into dragoon exoskeletons. Now, the dragoons of the past are all but gone. The sacred shrine that was dedicated to the creation of the dragoons was infested by the zerg and lost along with the protoss homeworld itself.

The remaining dragoons have become the immortals, refitted with twin phase disruptors and hardened energy shields that can shrug off the most powerful weapon strikes - though at the cost of leaving them more vulnerable to the pinprick attacks of lesser foes. The heavily armed and shielded immortals give critical fire support to the ferocious legions of zealots by eliminating enemy artillery and ranged attackers, allowing the zealots to close in and complete their work of destruction.

Protoss Immortals' shields are very effective against Siege TanksBut the loss of every immortal is keenly felt. These ancient warriors are a dying breed pledged to give their all in the end times of their race. They stand on the front lines of the final war, sacrificing themselves to buy their race a few more days or hours. Soon none will remain.

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Stalker


The Dark Templar are a branch of the protoss race that refused to surrender their individuality to the encompassing psionic gestalt of the Khala. In ages past they were exiled from the protoss homeworld of Aiur and left to wander the Void before they found a new home on the distant planet Shakuras.
Denied the support of the great forges and armories of their homeworld, the dark templar were forced to find new ways to defend themselves from a hostile universe. dark templar warriors learned new ways of war. By focusing their inner psionic strength and drawing power from the Void itself the dark templar learned to mask their presence and strike unseen from the shadows. The defiant exiles perfected techniques to spread terror and confusion among their enemies by assassinating leaders and destroying vital structures. Ultimately the dark templar came to rival even the mighty zealots in combat.
However, the overthrow of Aiur has proven that guile alone cannot defeat a foe as relentless as the zerg. Inspired by the ancient and honored dragoon walkers the dark templar have begun to build war machines of their own. The stalker is a machine controlled by the shadow-essence of a dark templar warrior, willingly fused into its metal body to protect his people.
Swift and deadly, stalkers have been credited with many fantastic powers in recent conflicts. Nevertheless the only one that has been witnessed consistently is the ability to instantly teleport or 'blink' from one spot to another. This ability enables stalkers to strike from unexpected quarters, catch a fleeing foe, or escape an unfavorable encounter.
Protoss Stalker's blink ability lets it scale up to elevated positions where line of sight is availableThe deadly particle disruptors mounted on the stalker's carapace are equally adept at crippling targets on the ground or in the air. Ambushes by groups of stalkers have brought fiery doom upon many attack wings that thought themselves safe from retribution.

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Phase Prism


years the Protoss have studied the nature of time and space. Through their painstaking studies and experiments protoss researchers have uncovered many of the secrets of the universe. Using psionic manufacturing processes, the protoss have learned how to create a robotic mind whose programming is built into the molecules of an advanced crystal lattice. This "crystal computer" is able to manipulate matter and energy with a precision no ordinary organic mind could comprehend.

The protoss use these "phase prisms" in several ways. Their primary function is to transport protoss forces on the field of battle. Both living and inorganic subjects can be transformed into energy, and their unique energy signature imprinted into the prism's crystal lattice core. Upon reaching the destination point the operation is reversed and the stored energy signatures are reconfigured into matter in proximity to the phase prism.

Phase Prism's power ability in conjunction with Warp Gates allows Protoss to quickly field reinforcementsA secondary but no less vital function of the phase prism is to act as a mobile focus for the protoss psionic matrix. Once the prism is deployed it will power protoss structures around it. In this configuration phase prisms are often used to temporarily replace destroyed pylons in a colony or enable the rapid establishment of a forward base of operations.

The Protoss Mothership is a beast, in the gameplay video it took out about 4 BCs, 4 missle turrets and a large group of marines. I hope this doesn't mess up the world of competitive play.

It's great to see the Dragoon replaced. Although it's a great unit in SC, it was very glitchy. At times it would freeze for no reason during games and the movement caused some problems("Dragoon Dance"). Immortal rushing will probably be a popular strategy in PvT, since early Dragoon pressure is common. I'd like to see the Terran counter to that because it seems Immortals kill tanks like nothing.

This message was edited by AznLiquid on May 21 2007.

Which is why Blizzard will limit you to only one Mothership at a time. Imagine if you could build like 12 though. That would be "total domination."

So far, the Protoss seems to have the most favorable upgrades. The new Terran and Zerg units don't seem all that great.

quote Phantasy

Which is why Blizzard will limit you to only one Mothership at a time. Imagine if you could build like 12 though. That would be "total domination."

So far, the Protoss seems to have the most favorable upgrades. The new Terran and Zerg units don't seem all that great.

The new units look great so far, I like how some of the new units are branched off from the current units in Brood War. I have to say that the mothership is definitely my favorite new unit so far.

I imagine it would take a lot of resources and time just to build one, so I don't think it will change dynamics that much. I have faith that Blizzard will do things right.

Yeah, they balanced the original so well, I don't see them messing it up this time.

I've only seen the first two videos, and am watching the two right now.

But from what i've seen so far they look awesome.

Interesting to see the Battlecruiser have multiple cooldowns. During the final battle of the Gameplay Video, it was able to shoot both its Anti-Ground and Anti-Air lasers at the same time and with seperate cooldown times.

The Phoenix was also interesting. It shot a 2-round burst at the marines, but only shot single round bursts at the Mutalisks earlier in the video.

Hmm, now that I think about it, I wonder if there will be any new evolved forms of units (such as the current gaurdians, lurkers, etc). It would be nice to see another evolved form of mutalisks.

the zerg renders ive seen are pretty crappy. Theyre makin hydralisks look like a blob with a huge head and sickled arms

Yeah, but it's pretty obvious they're focusing on Protoss right now. Probably a placeholder model.

I, personally, would like to see a different kind of Zerg Queen. Not just one that flys around annoying other units, but actually does something, like the new Protoss Mothership. A new kind of Carrier would be nice for the Protoss and some better units for Terran, seeing how it doesn't have that much good stuff. Tanks maybe and Battlecruisers, but not much else.

Here are some new units according to IGN.

quote ign.com

Zerg

Zerglings: Yes, we know, the Zerglings aren't new, but they do get a new ability in StarCraft 2. Each one of these little monsters can be ordered to enter a brief transition state, mutating into suicidal bombs. In the bomb state, Zerglings roll across the landscape and take on a greenish hue, and prove particularly deadly.



Terran

Reapers: These guys look a little like Marines, but carry dual machine pistols and function differently. Since StarCraft 2 uses the same kind of tiered maps as in the original, you still need to move units up or down ramps to reach each level of the battlefield. Reapers have jump jets allowing them to hop down or up a tier, making them effective tools for exploiting weak spots in an elevated base.



Protoss

Zealot: Right, Zealots aren't new, but their charge ability is. Blizzard wanted to make the psi-blade wielders more effective at chasing down fleeing foes, or quickly closing in on ranged attackers. The charge allows them to rapidly advance a short distance, and works as a passive ability.

Immortal: This unit activates a near impenetrable shield when under heavy arms fire. During the demonstration at WWI, Blizzard showed how Terran siege tanks were nearly powerless against Immortals, since their heavy tank blasts activated the shields. As a contrast, Terran Reapers' small arms fire made quick work of these guys.

Colossus: Think of the recent film War of the Worlds and you'll have a good idea of how this new unit looks. Their long legs allow them to easily traverse tiers of land. Equipped are a set of dual lasers that can make quick work of smaller, poorly armored units such as Zerglings.

Stalker: A quadripedal unit that can blink, or teleport, forward a short distance. From the WWI demonstration, there seems to be a rather quick cooldown on this ability.

Pheonix: New flying unit, capable of overcharging its weapons to unleash a barrage of projectile volleys. The demonstration showed four of them simultaneously initiate this ability, ravaging a swarm of Zerg Mutalisks. Players need to be careful when engaging the overcharge, as the Pheonix cannot attack or move for several seconds after performing it. Go, death blossom, go.

Warp Ray: Another new flying unit. These guys blast a continuous laser that increases in damage output the longer it fires. We saw a group of these things take out a Terran Battle Cruiser pretty rapidly. Though they're effective against heavily armored foes, they can still get shredded by small arms fire, like that from Terran Marines.

Mothership: Only one of these can be present on the battlefield at a time. They have three powerful abilities, the first of which is called Time Bomb. Unleashing this attack surrounds the ship in a translucent spherical field capable of stopping incoming missiles. When the field times out, the missiles drop to the ground like harmless Tic-Tacs. The second ability, called Planet Cracker, fires a battery of laser beams (the Protoss like lasers, apparently) at the ground, quickly wiping out whatever's lurking underneath the ship. This ability is particularly useful because the mothership can be ordered around while the Cracker fires, acting like a tornado through a trailer park. The final ability is Black Hole, which, as you might expect, tears a hole in the fabric of "insert nerdy science-fiction term" and actually sucks in whatever units surround it. In the demonstration we saw Blizzard trigger a black hole around about four Terran Battle Cruisers, wiping them out within a few seconds.

Phase Prism: These things can transport Protoss units quickly across the battlefield. They're also capable of acting as replacement pylons, powering all structures within range should a pylon be destroyed.

They're clearly focussing on the Protoss first, they'll release new units for Terran and Zerg as they work on them. Mothership looks unbelievable to be honest, I was in awe watching the gameplay vids.

Yeah, it only seems like Protoss has all the new stuff because they've only shown Protoss. So don't jump on the race bandwagon yet.

hmm the mommy ship would be a good replacement for carrier if they gave the mommy ship the ability to let off interceptors and could act as a temporary "Nexus" if your original nexus got pwned. hey btw how the fork do you use the campaign editor in starcraft? its hard as hell for me to use it, like wen i place units, they are gone right wen i start the game! reel annoying.