Mac Starcraft Strengths and Weaknesses of All Races:
Each race has it's own Strengths and Weaknesses...
I will briefly try to outline these and help you to
understand how you can minimize your races weaknesses, while exploiting
your enemies.
Protoss
Weaknesses:
The Protoss are a powerful race - but this power comes at a great
cost. The Protoss are by far the
most inflexable of the races. The Protoss require vast amounts
of resources leading to a
dependancy on multiple sources of resource income if they plan
to exploit their tech-tree. This is
the key to breaking any Protoss force. Any Protoss player which
hopes to maintain a sizable force
of powerful units requires at least two sources of resource income
- and he will go through them
relativily fast. It is a good tactic to nip these expansions in
the bud by preventing them from
establishing expansions. Crushing established expansions with
led to a protoss' downfall, as they
can no longer afford the expensive units to assault you with.
A Protoss player should have their
expansions well defended, and future expansions to ensured so
that they are never caught without
enough resources.
All Protoss buildings [except extractor and
nexus] must be made within the range of a pylon. This
limits where you can build.and whats even more troublesome is
that if the pylon(s) powering a
building is destroyed that building will no longer function meaning
it cannot train troops, allow for
a certian troop type(s) to be trained elsewhere, or attack in
the case of a photon cannon. It helpts
to build your buildings within the ranage of multiple pylons.
The Protoss require vast amounts of vespene
gas for their more powerful units. This is one of the
reasons why more than one colony is required - as the gas can
only be extracted at a certain rate.
By stopping the Protoss player from getting enough gas they can
no longer build many of their
most powerful units - especially carriers and templars.
The Protoss also have a problem with their
air forces. Although powerful - they are extremely
expensive - almost to the point of excess... The Zerg swarms can
easily handle a protoss fleet in
the hands of a skilled Zerg player. This is because a Zerg player
can overpower the Protoss with
sheer numbers. This is because a Protoss can only train one unit
at a time for each stargate
constructed [which arent cheap] while a Zerg can train 3 air units
at a time per Hatchery, not to
mention that the Zerg air units are cheap compared to the Protoss.
The Protoss are superior to the
Terrans in air power due to the firepower of the scouts and the
abilities of the arbiter... not to
mention carriers.
The Protoss however have a distinct problem
with the Terran Siege tanks which in large number
are devastating when combined with marine and goliath support.
There are a variety of ways to
attempt to deal with this problem... psi storm can work well as
long as you don't get in range of the
tanks - use more expendable units to draw fire, the best unit
to deal with a powerful terran force
however is the reaver. Zealots with leg enhancements can be effective
as well. If the Protoss player
has a superior air force they can hopefully dispatch the tanks
- but watch out for those goliaths,
they can really dish out damage to air units.
The Protoss are also vulnerable to large numbers
of hydralisks which Zerg players can create with
ease. When a ton of hydralisks spew their acid at your forces
you had better ensure that you have
reavers to counter this as well as the leg enhancement for the
zealots... this allows your zealots to
get in close and dispatch them quickly.
An EMP shockwave shot form a terran science
vessel will wipeout the shields of all protoss
buildings/units within a certain range of the blast... very nasty.
If you see a terran producing a few
of these try to take them out with some scouts.... science vessels
aren't cheap so you dont have to
worry about your enemy getting to many of them.
Maps with many elevations and ramps can be
a problem for the protoss. Reavers cannot shoot up
elevations and zealots get mowed down by ranged assaults when
they attempt to go up a fortified
elevation.
Strengths:
The greatest strength of the Protoss is their shields, found on
all units and buildings. These allow
them to take heavy punishment. Use your shields to your advantage.
A shield battery can increase
the effect of your shields by allowing you to recharge them instantly.
Very useful when you are
being assaulted. Shields also recharge over time.
The Protoss ground forces are second to none.
These units when on the offensive can mow
through anything if they are used correctly. When a Protoss player
engages you with a force of
land and air units you had better hope your are prepared. If you
are a protoss make sure you
upgrade your units... zealots become extremely powerful when upgraded.
The Protoss also possess a wide variety of
powerful 'spells' which have various effects. These can
be very useful especially psi storm which can wipeout formations
of enemy units. Hallucination is
also great for creating fake units that will draw fire from your
real ones.
Protoss probes can construct a building merly
by opening a "warp rift". This takes about 1 second
and the probe can go do other things like gather resources while
the building essential constructs
itself.
Protoss are more powerful on maps that do not
have elevations and are mostly flat. This is because
the melee units become much more effective. Protoss zealots when
engaging on level ground
have no problem reaching their opponent.
Terran
Weaknesses:
The Terrans tend to be a more defense of race... depending upon
bunkers and tanks to keep some
of the more powerful enemy units at bay. When it comes to firepower
Terrans need to make sure
that they choose their battles wisely and use their many tricks
to their advantage otherwise they
can suffer enourmous losses.
The Terrans lack a powerful air force. Although
battlecrusiers are powerful they are extremelly
expensive, take a LONG time to train and are easily destroyed
by scourges or protoss scouts.
Wraiths are also weak when their cloaking abilitiy is nulified....
Terrans also have a problem dealing with some
of the other races more powerful units... such as
the Zergs Guardian which can inflict massive damage on Terran
players - especially if the
guardians cannot be attacked by land units [positioned over water/space].
Reavers also pose a
great threat to any Terran offensive against the Protoss.
Terrans have a distinct disadvantage when it
comes to training their more powerful units. For
example a factory is required to train tanks and goliaths - however
the factory itself costs 200
minerals and 100 gas.. this limits how many factories one can
produce... while the zerg can
produce at least 3 units at a time and 3 more with each expansion
and the protoss train nearly all
of their units from the gateway which costs only 150 minerals
and no gas... so a large number can
be built.
Masses of Zerg Hydras can overrun Terran defenses.
The only chance a Terran has against a ton of
hydras which isnt that hard for a skilled zerg player to get are
bunkers backed by siege tanks [in
siegemode] and stimmed marines.
Strengths:
Probably the greatest strenght of the Terrans is there mad defense...
bunkers, tanks and missle
turrents can make an Terran stronghold a very unappealing target....
Terrans are the only race in starcraft that
can repair their buildings and mechanical units.
Although the Zerg regenerate [both buildings and units] and the
protoss shields recharge [troops
can recharge instantly at a shield battery buildings cannot] overtime,
Terrans are the only ones
that can actually repair this damage fast with a resource gathering
unit. This allows you to heal
your units [mechcanical] fairly fast, as well as bunkers and buildings.
Multiple SCVs will cause
damage to be repaired faster.
Terrans also have the unique ability of being
able to move their main buildings to another
location. This is great incase you are rushed and want to fly
your buildings somewhere and start
over. It also lets you rearrange your town and set choke points.
And when a terrans resources run
out they can fly their command center to some more resources instead
of building another
command center.
Terrans are also the only race capable of building
a building anywhere they want to [except on
certian terrain] without worrying about their buildings being
on or near anything else.
Terrans are much better at maps with elevations
and ramps. This allows terrans to setup defenses
at the ramp so that enemy units cannot enter the base without
taking extreme losses. Also tanks
and work wonders when shooting off elevations - when a tank is
dropped onto an elevation within
the range of an enemy base the results are excellent. When a terran
sets up some bunkers and
marines on a ramp leading to their base not much can get by it,
the defense becomes even harder
to break when the Terran uses tanks as well.
Zerg
Weaknesses:
At the start of the game a Zerg player can find themselves vulnerable
to the power of zealots -
which really mow down zerglings. Marines can be very dangerous
as well if the Zerg player does
not make enough zerglings or get hydras soon enough. Stimpacked
marines fairly early on
[especially in large numbers] can REALLY mow through zerg defenses
In order for a Zerg to build a building they
must sacrifice a drone. This isnt really that much of a
disadvantage but it means that you have to tack on the cost of
50 minerals for the drone then the
cost of the building itself. This can be a bit of a burden at
the start of the game when you must
sacrifice resource gathering units.
Creep. The zerg are limited to building on
their creep [except gas extractors and hatcheries]. This
limits where one can build especially since only hatcheries and
creep colonies can expand the
creep for you to build on.
Zerg don't have any great defensive units or
buildings like the Terrans or Protoss. The spore colony
is a good defense against air units however the sunken colony
isnt that effective. [but with the zergs
great offensive capabilities who needs defense eh?]
There are also a few key units that can really
mess a zerg up if they aren't prepared. Siege tanks
and reavers are great at killing off the zerg land units. The
splash damage and range of these units
will really take out your charging forces.
Bunkers are hard for a Zerg to get by unless
they have a lot of hydras, ultralisks or guardians. If the
bunkers are backed by tanks then the Zerg will either need a massive
force of land units or
guardians.
Strengths:
The Zerg have a lot of powerful units. Guardians are great at
destroying a defensive player and
ultralisks, although rarely used, have 400 hit points and deal
a base of 20 damage [29 fully
upgraded +3 points each upgrade] making them extremely hard to
take down.
The Zerg also have an advantage at unit production.
A hatchery can make 3 units at a time [max]
and each additional hatchery can also make 3 units at a time...
this really allows a zerg to fully
exploit their resources and create hoards of units.
Zerg have the unique ability where their buildings
and units regenerate hit points over time at no
cost. Zerg also have the ability to burrow many units underground
where they cannot be attacked
or spotted except by detectors.
Zerg are excellent on maps with a number of
starting positions that matches the number of players.
This allows the zerg to deduce where the enemy is and bring the
full might of their rushing abilities
into action. Zerg can benefit from elevations as well suffer.
Hydralisks guarding an elevation or
ramp are extremely effective... however when attacking a ramp
or elevation [especially terran]
heavy losses usually result.