Dark Templar

Hightlights

• Attack Type: Melee
• Attack Damage: 45 (+ 15 after max upgrades) All Armor Types
• Speed: Attack (1.69) Movement (2.81) Sight (8)

Use of Dark Templar

• Attacks only ground units.
• Perfect for rushing your opponents, if they don’t have anti-invisible protection.
• The Dark Templars are the experts in destroying weak units with low health points.
• They can be warped directly on the battlefield, if you have a Warp Prism unit.
• You have to back them up with some support units, because are rather fragile.
• Very strong against SCV, Drone and Probe.
• Weak against Raven, Overseer and Observer.

Abilities

 

	Permanently Cloaked – This unit is always invisible.
	Archon Warp - Two Dark Templars can sacrifice themselves to create one mighty Archon.

Upgrades

 

			Protoss Ground Weapons – Increases the damage of ground units. Has three upgrades.
			Protoss Ground Armor – Increases the armor of ground units. Has three upgrades.
			Protoss Shield – Improves the shield armor of all units and structures. Has three upgrades.

Competitive play with Dark Templar

 

The Dark Templars can be a major economy devastating force, because they are permanently invisible and can quickly slaughter the enemy workers. However the major downside here is that these guys require their own structure to be warped in - Dark Shrine, which is considered an unattractive investment by the competitive players.

 

VS Terran

It is true that the Terran has an Orbital Command with scan ability, but this doesn’t render the Dark Templars useless. The Orbital is widely used for calling Mules, and your opponent will most certainly lack the necessary energy to use the scan for defensive purpose. You can also wait for the enemy to call a Mule and immediately move in for the SCVs. Even if your opponent uses scanner on you, at least he/she won’t be able to use it for scouting for a while.

VS Protoss

The Dark Templars are not recommended in the mirror match-ups, because the opponent can easily spot them with an Observer, which is a must unit. What’s more, even if your enemy goes for fast Colossi and ignore the importance of an Observer, he/she can still Chrono Boost the Robotics to quickly create one within seconds. You might think that if this happens you can also make the transition to Archons, but Colossi are cheaper and much more effective. However there is a Dark Templar rush strategy, but it is very risky and a proper Protoss player will counter it with ease.

VS Zerg

The Dark Templars are extremely efficient in this match-up, because the Zerg lack strong early detection option. The only options for the Swarm are the Spore Crawler (which is vulnerable to attack by Dark Templars and needs Evolution Chamber) and the Overseer. But the Overseer is very expensive and the Swarm is generally low on gas all the times, so most players either don’t morph Overseer or do it too late. Either way you get a pretty nice chance to devastate the opponent’s economy.

 

Countermeasures

 

VS Terran Build a few Turrets, but place them wisely in your base. If you are able to reveal them for a brief period of time, use a combination of Marines, Marauders and Reapers to kill them fast. Also you can use the EMP round ability of the Ghost, if you have any reason to believe that there are some Dark Templars.
	VS Protoss Send observers to patrol around your base. Build a few Photon Cannons and place them in key positions; near your minerals for example. Once revealed, kill the Dark Templars with a combination of Immortals, which are able to resist their massive damage and Stalkers, which are ranged troops and are very efficient in such situations.
VS Zerg Morph your Overlords into Overseers as soon as possible and send them to patrol around your base. Build a few Spore Crawlers and place them in good positions around your base for optimal true sight. Once you see some outlines moving, send some Banelings there and use their self-destruct ability. A few Mutalisks with an Overseer is deadly for the High Templar.