Starcraft – How to best manage Protoss Observers in StarCraft 2

Yeah, the best way to scout is to try to keep your initial probe alive for as long as possible. Unfortunately right after your probe dies and your observer gets to your opponent's base there is a crucial time where you don't know what your opponent is doing above their ramp. It's unlikely that your proxy assimilator will be in a good position to see your opponent's tech.

I feel like this is a huge flaw to the game as protoss just have to play blindly. However it's not much better for zerg, they can only suicide an overlord in this early in the game. The overlord dies relatively quickly to marines too so it can be easy to hide one's tech such as in this game between Idra and Silver:

Terrans have the option of using reapers to jump through cliffs, using floating buildings which are either immune to the other races basic unit or have enough life to fly through them, or using a scan, which although it isn't a surefire way of seeing your opponent's tech, it does have a large radius and therefore likely can spot it.

Sucks not knowing whether your opponent is teching or has a mass marine ball :/

One thing protoss can do to even things out though, is to build a pylon in a hidden location far away from both players bases and to hide their tech there.

Let's examine the Infested Terran for a second (on an unrelated not, an Infestor can use fungal growth to do far more economic damage than the Infested Terran).

• Speed: 0.9375 (that's the same speed as a Queen off creep)
• DPS: 9.3 (which is actually more than a Marine)
• Hit Points: 50
• Range: 5

So they're slow, and flimsy, but do decent dps.

Depending on your strategy there are a couple solutions to this problem:

1. High Templar -> Between Feedback (for the Infestors) and Psi Storm for the Infested Terran you're good to go. Because Infested Terran are so slow, Psi Storm will destroy them
2. Colossus -> Always a good choice and with the Range upgrade you actually out Range them by enough they won't ever get near, though mind control can turn this against you in a normal battle
3. Phoenix -> Not the best choice as they tend to die to Infested Terran, but grabbing an Infestor is a very good tactic and the Phoenix will make short work of them.
4. Observer -> Strangely enough this unit alone will deal with most of your problems. As long as you have a nice choke, the Observer will spot the flimsy Infestors (80 hp).

Now assuming you don't have any of those things here are a few things to keep in mind: Chargelots tear Infested Terran apart, but even smarter, they run away faster than Infested Terran can follow. Little know fact is that the Charge upgrade increases Zealot normal movement speed. Infested Terran have very short life span (30 seconds) so if you can just stay away from them you should win easy. Another important point is Infested Terran attack very quickly so Guardian Shield is your friend (not to mention Force Field + wait).

When faced against Infestors you really need to invest in detectors. Though you may have had a run in with Infested Terran, the real scary weapon is the Fungal Growth. In addition to the 4.5 aoe dps, Fungal Growth locks down your units leaving them at the mercy of a Zergling attack or long range Hydralisk force (range 6).

If you spy a Zerg going Infestors, its always good to build an Observer or 2. One for your force and one to watch your base (Fungal Growth makes short work of Probes).

Edit: its worth noting that Neural Parasite (mind control) is an upgrade to Infestors, and that many Zerg skip it, or don't get it till late game. Given the power of Fungal Growth, and the short duration of Neural Parasite, its easy to see why.