Dark templar (StarCraft)

"You could no more evade my wrath than you could your own shadow."

- Protoss Dark Templar

Dark templar are protoss stealth infantry. They were present as special units in the original StarCraft and could be built in the expansion.

Game Unit
Dark templar are represented as permanently cloaked infantry with extremely powerful attacks.

Dark templar are permanently cloaked, like observers, and their effectiveness is heavily dependent on it. If the enemy has adequate detection capabilities it is more efficient to attack with predominantly zealots. Although zealots deal significantly less damage, they are more likely to survive the charge and last long enough to make a difference (as well as being much less expensive).

Dark Templar used powerful warp blades, based on modified psi blade technology.

The single-blade design was originally intended for Zeratul's character only, but due to time constraints, the same unit design was used for all dark templar.

StarCraft

 * Main article: Dark Templar (Hero)

Dark templar could not be created in the original StarCraft. They were given to players as special units at the start of two protoss campaign missions. They had slightly different stats from the Brood War version, and could not create dark archons.

In Brood War, dark templar were buildable units (statistics apply to Brood War units). They were frequently used in rushes against terran, in which the attacking player tried to destroy their opponent before they could develop adequate detection. They are sometimes fondly referred to as "dt"s.



Strategy
Dark templar are both great harass units and great deterrents.

Dark templar can deter an attacker who doesn't have ready detection. In Protoss vs. Protoss, sniping the enemy's observers will force the enemy to retreat before even one dark templar. In Protoss vs. Zerg, keeping overlords away from the battlefield makes dark templar unstoppable. This naturally leads to the corsair/dark templar strategy, which dominated the pro leagues in 2007.

Dark templar are also fantastic harassers because they can kill probes or drones in one hit. Units that are killed in one hit do not send a "You are under attack!" warning to the opponent, which means a dark templar can frequently destroy a distracted opponent's economy without the opponent ever knowing what happened. Dark templar are thus one of the units protoss turns to get back in the game unless an opponent is prepared.

To get them into the opponent's base, shuttles are a frequent companion of dark templar. Shuttles can bypass frontal detection and base defenses and put dark templar right near the mineral lines, forcing the opponent to defend multiple fronts. It's not uncommon to see shuttles with even 4 dark templars or a few dark templar and zealots strike a base late in the game, hoping to eliminate the detection before help arrives.

Dark templar are frequently paired with an arbiter build against terrans, since they force the terran army to waste comsat sweeps to detect them and thus have none left when the arbiters arrive.

To stop dark templar, you just need detection. You can spot them through their shimmering blur – with practice you can distinguish dark templar from an observer based on it's pathing – and immediately build detection buildings such as cannons or towers to spot them. It's important, though, to have a forge or engineering bay up before a dark templar is spotted – on most maps you can't finish a forge and a cannon before the "dt"s reach your base and destroy the cannon, and then your nexus. Once detected, two of most units can destroy a dark templar without too much trouble.

Matchups
Dark templar don't fit the matchup patterns because they are weaker then zealots if detected. However, they will obviously destroy any ground unit while undetected.

In the Pro Leagues
Dark templars have had a long and varied history, alternatively seen as too expensive, too useless, to units of finesse and manipulation.


 * Bisu repopularized the dark templar in 2007 with his Protoss vs. Zerg "Bisu Build", which focused on getting dark templars in large numbers alongside corsairs to drive away the overlords. While rare by 2008, he is still known for using dark templar drops to devastating effect.