StarCraft 2

Race: Protoss
Role: Infantry
Built From: Protoss Gateway
Supply: 1
Cost:
Build Time:
Health:
Attack:

Description

A classic StarCraft unit armed with psi-blades and protected by heavy personal body armor. These warriors have trained since their youth and it shows as they fulfill their heavy assault troop role. The Zealot is a ground based, Protoss melee infantry unit. Like all Protoss units, the Zealot is equipped with a personal protective shield which effectively adds to his health, turning him into an early-game tank, of sorts. Because of this, in many games one Zealot will do the work of two or three basic Terran or Zerg infantry. The Zealot is also equipped with two powerful psi-blades as a method of attack.

Being ground based, the Zealot cannot traverse gaps, and it cannot climb walls, however it does have one notable ability, called Charge. This is an autocast ability - meaning you do not need to manually use it, it will be done automatically - and it allows the Zealot to quickly close the distance between itself and other units by rushing towards them. This does not make the Zealot invulnerable or allow it to cross otherwise impassable terrain, instead it simply moves very quickly to attack units within a certain range.

The Charge ability is invaluable when facing ranged units, as it prevents "kiting". Kiting is the technical term for the classic move-back/attack-once/move-back micro tricks seen in many strategy games. As the Zealot can quickly close the gap between itself and the ranged units, the opposing army does not have time to move back, as the distance will simply be closed once again in a short space of time, and attempts at kiting may even prove counter productive.

Traditionally, the Zealot has high attack and health counts, making it an excellent defender of choke points, a key feature of the original Starcraft. In Brood War and its predecessor, ramps into bases could often be defended by one or two Zealots. This would block the enemy's advance up the ramp and only allow one or two melee units at a time to be within attacking range of the Zealots. As they are more powerful than other basic infantry, the Zealots could easily crush any ramp-based offensive by taking on the opposing forces one or two at a time.

When assaulting a ramp, however, Zealots are rather limited, and require open space in which to effectively use their Charge ability and attack enemy forces. This makes them an excellent choice for maps with wide open spaces and no choke points or ramps into bases - indeed, many strategies on maps with large base entrances could revolve around Zealot rushes and early Zealot massing. As well as only being able to advance one or two at a time, the Zealot's charge ability will also be useless on ramps as they presumably cannot Charge through units and buildings, meaning that while two melee units hold the line, the Zealots will not be able to get to any ranged units above the ramp. It has been confirmed that the Charge ability is an upgrade that will replace the classic Leg Enhancements upgrade, which means that while Zealots have great bursts of speed, they are overall slower than their classic Starcraft counterparts.



Back to Protoss Units
Starcraft 2 Forums
Protoss Strategy Forum