Immortal

"We shall serve forever."

- An immortal

The immortal is a protoss cybernetic war machine.

Overview
Immortals stem from dragoons. Their pilots live in a sterile nutrient solution saturated with microscopic machines, which helps preserve their mangled bodies. The machines repair aging tissue, destroy any foreign matter that might penetrate the cockpit (usually due to hull breaches) and regulate the pilot’s heart rate, brain activity, and biological functions.

Armaments
Immortals are outfitted with two twin phase disrupters as their primary attack form; they give critical fire support to legions of zealots against ground targets, deployed when the protoss are faced with heavy enemy firepower. These blasts can easily punch large holes in heavy plating, but their limited field of fire prevents Immortals from engaging aerial targets. When deployed, immortals give critical support by eliminating enemy artillery and ranged attackers.

The hardened shields used by immortals are created by intertwining spectrums and wavelengths of varying intensity. Through this, these shields are incredibly dense, able to mitigate powerful impacts such as siege tank rounds or the blades of an ultralisk, through energy dissipation. When the remaining dragoons were turned into immortals, the protoss decided to outfit them with these shields in an attempt to further preserve their most ancient and venerable warriors. However, the shields only activate when struck by powerful attacks, which leaves them more vulnerable to the pinprick attacks of lesser foes.

History
Historically, crippled veteran templar could volunteer to continue serving by being transplanted into dragoon exoskeletons. This honored tradition was broken by the fall of Aiur when the shrine dedicated to dragoon creation was infested by the zerg. Following the, crippled templar were transplanted into the new immortal exoskeletons instead. The first were in service by 2502. The remaining dragoons were transformed into immortals.

Ultimately, immortals are a dying breed. Soon, none will remain. By 2506, only the most revered heroes of the Templar were allowed to become Immortals, due to the resources required to produce them.

Game Unit
The immortal is geared against small groups of armored targets. The hardened shield allows the immortal to survive even when outnumbered by units with slow but powerful attacks; conversely faster firing units, typically dealing low damage per attack, work well against immortals. In the campaign, immortals are good defenders against Maar and other hybrids.

Immortals dropped by warp prisms may conduct raids against enemy structures and expansions.

Immortals are a good counter against roaches and ravagers. If a zerg player is using these units in excess, immortals can be considered a core unit.

Legacy of the Void
In Legacy of the Void, the hardened shield trait is removed, replaced by a barrier ability.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Immortal Quotations

Wings of Liberty
Immortals are usable in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty protoss mini-campaign, available during and after the "A Sinister Turn" mission.

Development
From a gameplay standpoint, immortals were conceived to act as "meat shields," as per its hardened shields. However, it has been found that players used them more aggressively than initially conceived.

The immortal's barrier ability was temporarily removed during development. It received a buff during the Legacy of the Void beta in order to encourage warp prism drops. The barrier originally gave the immortal 200 HP.

Known Immortals

 * Khastiana

Trivia
As an Easter egg, the immortal's portrait occasionally showed a "goldfish", although it appeared more often than it should. As a joke, Dustin Browder called the fish "Herbie".

In the retail version the goldfish can be seen occasionally, but there's a long time between one and another appearance. It can be seen if you open the immortal portrait on the map editor's visualizer.