I dislike playing Colossi. Sure, they are awesome (in graphical design, story background, abilities etc), but in my opinion (warning: I'm silver 😉 ) they kind of force my opponents to build certain counters and this pushes the game into meta-game like "keep colossi alive long enough to make sufficient damage to turn battle in my favor". This is just plain boring 🙂
Given the circumstances, I'd love to completely avoid creating Colossus (for some time at last) to enjoy, examine and practice other possibilities and I'm curious:
Is there any unit composition/technique (in any race) that requires Colossi to survive/win?
Could its main purpose (frying masses of light, small units – Zerglings, Marines, Hydras) be handled with success by High Templars? (I enjoyed HTs back in the SC1 days)
Edit:
A few clarifications:
- by "reasonable" win-loss ratio I mean "not much worse or even comparable to that when using Colossus" assuming comparable conditions 😉 (theoretically);
- I'm aware of the fact that High Templar does require higher amounts of micro and careful aiming when casting psionic storms (I'm not afraid of that, I just enjoy HT)
Best Answer
So you don't want to build Colossus... how do you feel about 4 Gating? Because you could just 4 Gate All-in your way to Masters.
Actually judging by the latest oGsMC vs White-ra, you could just 4 Gate your way through the GSL
This question comes from a very weird place:
"I dislike playing Colossi."
Playing a lot of Protoss myself this is a very strange statement, since I love playing Colossi. They're fun to micro, they wipe out ridiculous 4 Gate/3 Rax play, and they make most Zergs look like idiots. But then I read a little further in to your answer and I see this:
"game into [a certain] meta-game"
So you don't dislike playing them, you dislike having to baby sit them. I can empathize with that. I also dislike having to babysit my expensive high tier units. I think the problem here isn't that you're building Colossus its when you're building Colossus. I'm going to guess your BO looks something like:
This is a very common BO for many Protoss: 3 Gate Expand into Colossus. But it is not the only one. You could, for example do 3 Gate expand into Blink Stalkers, or DT, or Double Starport. There are a verity of builds that can come out of a standard 3 Gate expand (or even the more risky 1 Gate Expand). So let's talk about those, and how you can use those.
Lately I've been watching Adelscott (vs IMMVP, or QXC) and he runs a very aggressive 3 Gate Expand into... more Gateways. This seems kind of weird at first, as most Protoss naturally evolve from there into Colossus, but actually Protoss Gateway units can be fairly beefy in their own right.
One of the keys to this long term, Gateway based play, is upgrades. Its not usual for a player like Adelscott (or Liquid`Nony) to go double Forge off two base to get as many upgrades as possible. This usually sticks them in a situation where they're up 2/0/2 to an opponents 1/0 or 1/1. One of the big benefits of having an upgrade advantage is that Zealots become extremely powerful when you have that advantage. I've seen pure Zealot forces eat through Marine/Marauder balls, just because they were up 2 Armor upgrades.
The other key item for your Gateway forces is the Twilight Council. I remember when Liquid`Nazgaul first demonstrated how abusive Blink Stalkers could be against EGIdrA in a show match. Blink Stalkers are an extremely powerful force, and most players will now work them into whatever build they're going. What many people forget though, is that Charge is just as powerful an upgrade. In addition to functioning as a gap closer (and a free hit since patch 1.3), Charge is also a speed boost to normal Zealot movement (from 2.25->2.75 a 22% increase). This makes Zealots a viable harassment option for unguarded expansions.
While often dismissed, you can see how transitioning into 10 Gateways off 3 Base can make a very fearsome force, but that's not all it allows you to do. With the high number of Gateways now, you can start supplementing your armies with DT. A very aggressive unit, Dark Templar can be used for mid-Game harassment just as well as Banshees. A simple Pylon near your opponent's cliff + Observer means you can start warping in DT to their back door.
Speaking of Observers (which by the time you get 3 Bases you should get a Robo), do you know what else builds out of the Robotics Facility (and is awesome)? Dropships! That's right, that old unit which was life changing back in Broodwars because you could drop 4 Zealots on someone's mineral line. Well, its still around. Only they upgraded it and changed its name to Warp Prism; but who cares about that, they also let you warp in Reinforcements! Its like they took a BW unit, made it a billion times better, and everyone ignored it. What's up with that? Well ignore them, Drop stuff. You know how Dropships make Terran annoying as sin? Well start dropping back on them. See how they like it, and when they don't make sure to take the time to lolz.
And sure, when you hit late game you can always throw down a few Colossus for old times sake, but chances are you won't get there because you'll be too busy winning.
PS, you can also go Stargates, get 1 Voidray, then 4-5 Phoenix, and annoy the heck out of people, dominate the air, so when you finally transition Colossus, his Corruptors/Vikings will be outnumbered. Just a thought...