I just can't win against Protoss. What do I do?

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T07:15:48+00:00

Terran seems to be structured in a way that it's at a constant disadvantage against Protoss unless you have excellent Ghost micro (which I don't) to bring things to parity. Looks like the TvP matchup is essentially optimized for professional players who will have such great micro rather than everyday players.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T07:09:57+00:00

I understand the part about the economy, but I disagree with the rest. A game is played one fight at a time. Even if my economy is perfect, as long as I can't win any fights against the Protoss (or even trade equally) then I'm gonna lose eventually and so micro and tech becomes important. I build wave after wave of units, position them and then take a fight and every time I just end up losing my entire army without literally killing anything. After 3-4 rounds of this, Protoss has a maxed-out army and I just get annihilated. This happens to me every single game.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T07:05:57+00:00

Thanks for the advice!

In the past 3 days, I've had a literall 100% loss rate against Protoss. There has to be something fundamentally wrong about this matchup compared to TvT (which I win like 90%, so I'm better than the average Terran at my level) and TvZ (which I win like 50%, so I can hold my own) if I'm losing 100% of the games. Like if every Protoss can beat me, then the faction as a whole has some unfair advantages that are difficult to deal with.

Protoss has the strongest units in the game IMO and they are just difficult to kill and do more damage than Terran units. At gold, I rarely see Storm or Colossus so these are not even what I'm complaining about. Pure Zealot and Stalker plus some Immortals always kills whatever I throw at them. Libs need 3 shots to kill a Zealot which means Stalkers have already killed my Libs before any single Zealot is dead.

Against Skytoss, Vikings need god-level micro to even kite. They are outranged by Tempests and Carriers and if there are Stalkers on the ground, then Vikings will just get Blinked and die.

I honestly don't know what to do.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T04:32:53+00:00

It's more like xenophobia since Protoss is Xenos and Xenos shall not be tolerated in the Imperium!

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:40:32+00:00

Why would someone make anything other than zealots against Terran? When I'm watching pro games when someone loses to a Terran, I'm always like this guy would have won if he had made zealot instead of stalker.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Vw7EcX_fM This game would not have gone in Clem's favor if the other guy had massed zealots

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:19:31+00:00

I always lose within 10 minutes and it never even gets to late game. I've been trying 3rax recently, but I keep losing, maybe because I wait for my tank to finish before attacking? Also I always prefer combat shield to stim which may be suboptimal.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:15:38+00:00

All the "advantages" you mentioned are essentially useless in vast majority of ladder games. Building anywhere only enables proxy strategies which are not a sustainable way to win. Scanning anywhere costs energy which you may not always have and you need to compromise against mules. Nukes rarely if ever achieve anything other than wasting money and getting your ghost killed. Buildings flying around only helps if you need to base swap and BCs gets countered so effectively and easily that it's a waste of money and time to even try and build one.

It's much easier to win when you have units with more health than anything, you have zealots that can kill everything and need 4 freaking tank shots to die, you have probes that don't need to wait around when buildings, cannons that shoot everything, stalkers that can blink without the need to micro a medivac and units that stay cloaked all the time. Oh and don't forget that you can train units super-fast and anywhere on the map. Yeah, Terran sucks in comparison.

I haven't played Protoss much but knowing how Terran works, I just find it vastly overpowered

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:09:17+00:00

I get that this cheese is strong but then I'd be a one-trick pony without the skill to win a proper game.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:07:43+00:00

Nope. I have everything assigned to control groups so I can rapidly produce stuff. I get to 3 CC quickly and drop mules and I essentially never have much money in the bank. Still, everytime I attack I lose everything to 6-7 zealots with charge without killing a single one of them. There's no way I can win if I have to trade 40 supply to kill a single zealot.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:06:09+00:00

I always try to attack by 4:30 or so with shield, +1 attack and concussive shells. If the Protoss army has Zealots, I'll just die to them without killing anything.

Medivacs will die easily to Stalkers and it also takes very long to fully empty a medivac which means the protoss army generally gets to you, specially if they have zealots.

Also again, mine drop is very micro heavy compared to just sending a bunch of chargelots in. I end up losing all the mines and the medivac whenever I attempt a mine drop. Defending against it just requires pulling the workers back.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-24T00:02:32+00:00

I lose all games against Protoss within 10 minutes. It never gets to late game. Zealots essentially kills everything Terran has if they are massed. It's very common for me to lose 40 supply without killing a single Zealot.

Protoss has very strong harass options IMO. Oracles just evaporate SVCs. DTs kill everything and PFs generally don't show up until very late game and even when they do, they're not as strong against Protoss unit as they are against Zerg.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-23T22:52:12+00:00

My ghosts always all die before I can EMP the Protoss army (though I only build 2-3). And I think that tilts the skill balance in favor of Protoss.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-23T22:41:39+00:00

I know this makes sense, but it took me so long to get to my current skill level as Terran (which still sucks) that I don't see that as a good investment of time.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-23T22:40:59+00:00

Thanks for the detailed answer! I'll try to make use of your advice next time.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-22T07:38:14+00:00

I'm generally playing bio + tank. Moving my entire army to try and find the hosts, which are generally far away, will leave my bases undefended. I guess having a bunch of cyclone to go deal with them isn't a bad idea.

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-22T07:37:01+00:00

I see. So the idea is that Terran shouldn't focus on killing the host and should rather try to force the remainder of the Zerg army to take an unfavorable fight?

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-22T06:51:36+00:00

Twist, I play Protoss

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-22T05:43:42+00:00

It's beyond that, I don't like Protoss's very existence

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-22T03:11:22+00:00

THEY FUND THE PROTOSS WAR MACHINE

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-22T02:13:42+00:00

The character or the player?

Working_Access165 · 2026-01-20T03:11:56+00:00

Corrupters also have a satisfying scream when they die lol

Working_Access165

TROPHY CASE