Starcraft 2 Terran vs Protoss Strategies
Out of all the match-ups, Terran players typically have the hardest time dealing with Protoss players, especially in the late game. That is where this Starcraft 2 Terran guide comes in – below I will be revealing some of the top Starcraft 2 Terran strategies you can use to help overcome the Protoss army.
Typical Terran vs Protoss Builds
Protoss players use one of two builds literally 95% of the time in TvP match-ups: they go for a gateway army (Zealot, Stalker, Sentry) and then back it up either with Colossi (most common) or High Templar and Archons (less common, but becoming more popular).
Good Protoss players also love to try to get out Armor upgrades very quickly, because this significantly reduces the effectiveness of Marines. For example, a Zealot with +1 armor and Guardian Shield (Sentry ability) take 1/3 of the normal damage against a Marine with no upgrades (due to having +4 damage reduction).
They then back up their armies with Colossus or High Templar (Colossus are strong versus Infantry but weak versus Vikings, whereas High Templar are strong versus Infantry but weak versus Ghosts).
Below, I will be going over the best Starcraft 2 Terran vs Protoss strategies available as well as giving counters both of these builds.
General Terran vs Protoss Strategy
In the Starcraft 2 Terran vs Protoss match-up, MMM (Marines, Marauders, and Medivacs) will be the backbone of your army. In no other match-up is MMM so strong than in TvP. However, there are a few things you need to consider.
One of the most important things in TvP is getting upgrades for your Marines and Marauders. Your upgrades make a huge difference for your MMM army, and help counter Protoss players that love to get out a fast +1 armor. Additionally, most Protoss players do not get shield upgrades, so as you get better and better upgrades, even if the Protoss player “keeps up” you will still get ahead in terms of upgrades.
Another thing to consider is that the Protoss player’s biggest weakness is their lack of mobility, whereas that is the Terran player’s greatest strength. You need to regularly do drops on Protoss expansions and constantly harass them. Before any major attack, send 1-2 Medivacs full of units off to 1-2 Protoss expansions and set them to unload. You do not even have to pay attention to them, but while this is happening, attack the main Protoss army to distract them.
Since your army is so much faster (stimmed Marines and Marauders are much faster than slow High Templar or Colossus), you can easily run away if you are outnumbered while your dropped units go to work on the Protoss expansions.
The final thing you have to do is scout out what the Protoss player is backing up his Gateway army with. I will be covering the appropriate responses to both builds below.
Dealing With Colossi
Dealing with a bunch of Colossus is very easy. Vikings are the perfect anti-Colossus unit choice; they deal bonus damage to Colossi and with the Viking’s long range of 9, they can attack from a safe distance.
What you want to try to do is when engaging the enemy is fly your Vikings over inaccessible ground (like water) where the Stalkers cannot reach. Then, when you attack, do not engage until the Colossi have been finished off. You can “attack”, then stim and run away, luring Colossi in range of your Vikings and picking off a few Stalkers with your Marines/Marauders with every attack.
Alternatively, you can just sacrifice Vikings (if you have a lot) to take out Colossi. Colossi are very expensive and take much longer than Vikings to replace; if you can take a few out, even if you lose your Vikings it is no big deal, as you can replace these quickly whereas the Protoss player cannot.
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Dealing With High Templar / Archons
The Ghost is the perfect unit to deal with both of these units. EMP drains shields by 100 and reduces energy, so all you have to do is hit these units with an EMP before the battle.
A simple way to do this is to cloak a few Ghosts, move in, and use EMP a bunch of times on the Protoss army. Once that lands, you can then push in with your MMM ball before they can recover.
Even better than using EMP though is using the Snipe ability. A Ghost can quickly take out a High Templar in just 2 Snipes, and once you get the macro down you can often sneak in 3-4 Ghosts and take out 6-8 High Templar in a matter of seconds, much quicker than the Protoss player can respond.
One way to help facilitate this Sneak Attack is to fly in a few Vikings, scan for Observers, pick off the Observer, pull the Vikings out (or sacrifice them) and then move in with Ghosts before the Protoss player can get out another Viking. Each High Templar is very expensive, so sniping them does a ton of economic damage to the Protoss player.
For Archons, remember that you need to hit them with 4 EMPs to weaken them completely. If you ever do manage to land that many EMPs on a group of Archons, you can then actually auto-attack them with the Ghosts to take them out if there is no detection around. Works especially well if you take out the Observers first with a few Vikings.
Starcraft 2 Terran vs Protoss Strategy Wrap-Up
One advantage of this match-up is that I feel that the ball is in the Terran’s court to lose this game so to speak. If micro with Ghosts is perfect, or if there are enough Vikings to deal with the Colossi, it is very hard for Terran players to lose this match if all else is equal (i.e. the Protoss doesn’t have more expansions).
Just remember the key Starcraft 2 tips: keep on the same number of bases and do not fall behind on Infantry and Armor upgrades for your Marines and Marauders and this match is very winnable.
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