Adept

"Glory to the Daelaam."

- An adept

The adept is a protoss ground ranged unit introduced in Legacy of the Void.

Overview
An officer class of infantry, adepts are highly-trained battlefield commanders who serve as ranged specialists.

Adepts specialize in dealing with lightly-armored threats. They are lightly armored, as adepts prioritize speed over protection. Armed with glaive cannons and psionic amplifiers, adepts are also well versed in psionic transfer. Their agility and refinement have made them central figures in the Purifier army and among many protoss forces.

History
Adepts were originally intended by Hierarch Artanis to replace former Judicator Caste leaders with Templar. By 2505, they were a recent addition to the Daelaam's arsenal, and Dominion Intelligence had recently gained knowledge of their existence, with the Dominion Marine Corps possessing little battlefield experience against them. They were designated as primary targets in the event of any hostile encounter.

Adepts were deployed during the End War, when groups of Templar volunteered to adopt Purifier ordinance refined by Phase-smith Karax. This ordnance allowed the Templar to amplify their psionic potential and project their minds for teleportation while weakening their enemies. Adept ordinance would continue to be used by the Daelaam, but never could reach the optimal performance of Karax's original prototypes.

In a short amount of time, the psionic amplification techniques of the adept were reverse engineered by the Tal'darim, and incorporated into their arsenal, equipped on their most promising warriors.

Versus
The adept is a slow-moving core gateway unit with a ground-only ranged attack and normal movement speed. This unit utilizes its psionic transfer ability to teleport to nearby locations. It is designed for harassment. This is especially true against enemy resource lines, especially in the early game, where the adept can bypass base defenses. Adepts do well when paired with zealots, as both have a similar resource cost. The zealot is more durable, while the adept has a stronger ranged attack, especially against light units.

It is intended that the adept serve as a core unit option in mid/late game, taking on roles once held by the zealot and stalker, and in some cases, doing better. Its psionic transfer ability is distinct from the stalker's blink ability, in that blink is more focused on twitch-based micro, while psionic transfer is based on the timing and positioning of the teleport. The adept can be controlled independently from the copy it generates. Use of the psionic shade can help the adept retreat, but if executing a "move" order, the adept will automatically stop to use the shade. Thus, the "move" order will have to be executed again if the adept is to keep retreating.

Legacy of the Void
In the Legacy of the Void campaign, the adept is one of three variants of the ranged warrior unit that the player can choose in the war council, the other two being dragoon and stalker. It's the only biological unit of that role, and the only biological unit of the Purifier faction.

The adept has higher hit points, move speed, attack damage and range, and resource cost, but lower attack speed, than its multiplayer equivalent. Its attack can also hit air units. Its ability makes enemies take more damage if they are touched by psionic transfer.

Co-op Missions
Fenix can build adepts in Co-op Missions. These adepts are mechanical. His adepts can summon shades that can deal the same damage as their summoned. Fenix can download the Talis champion into one of his adepts, increasing its stats and giving it a bouncing auto attack if researched. Fenix's adepts can attack air and ground units.

Adepts can be utilized by Amon's forces. Their stats are identical to their campaign counterpart, and can also attack both air and ground units.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Adept Quotations

Development
The adept was a protoss unit in early builds of StarCraft II. It was a ranged attacker, but was cut during development for being too similar to the marine.

During the Legacy of the Void beta, adepts had an upgrade which gave their attack bounce damage. It was removed as it wasn't generating the "micro interactions" Blizzard was hoping for.

It received a buff to its health as it was weaker in gameplay than the developers had anticipated.

Blizzard has considered allowing an option to trigger when the adept teleports per its psionic transfer ability. However, they feel that doing so will make it too similar to the stalker's blink ability.

Known Adepts

 * Praetor Talis
 * Talis (Purifier)

Trivia
A purifier adept skin is available for StarCraft II players who purchase the digital deluxe or collector's edition of Legacy of the Void.