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Void Ray (Heart of the Swarm)

From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki
This article covers the now superseded Heart of the Swarm multiplayer version of this unit. For other versions see Void Ray (Legacy of the Void) and Void Ray (Wings of Liberty).
For the Korean Protoss player, see VoidRay.
[e][h]Protoss Void Ray
Unit Information
Type:
Large Air Unit
Description:
Surgical strike craft.
Built From:
Cost:
 250  150  60  4
Attack 1: Prismatic Beam
Targets:
Ground / Air
Damage:
6 (+1)
12 (+2)
Bonus:
+4 vs Armored
+10 vs Armored (Prismatic Alignment)
Bonus DPS:
+8 vs Armored
+20 vs Armored (Prismatic Alignment)
Unit stats
Defense:
150 100 0 (+1)
Attributes:
Sight:
10
Speed:
2.25
Weak against:
Note: All time-related values are expressed assuming Normal speed, as they were before LotV. See Game Speed.

Description[edit]

The Void Ray is an airborne siege cannon for the Protoss that is built at the Stargate. Unlike the Void Ray in Wings of Liberty, its attack does not charge up over time. Instead, Prismatic Alignment can be activated to increase damage to armored units and buildings for 20 seconds. Although it no longer deals additional damage to massive units, the Void Ray still excels against armored targets with high health.

Notes[edit]

  • Once the Void Ray's beam is activated within its 6 range, there's an additional leeway of 2 if the target moves away.

Abilities[edit]

Increases Void Ray damage to armored units by 6 for 20 seconds. This does not scale with upgrades.

Competitive Usage[edit]

General[edit]

Due to their relatively low number of hit points, Void Rays have limited usefulness in the early game if anticipated by the enemy. Against Protoss, Stalkers can deal with Void Rays easily because of the ease of making large amount of Stalkers, unlike the time required to make Void Rays. Against Terran, sufficient numbers of Marines (especially with Stimpack), or properly controlled Vikings, can deal with Void Rays. Zerg players can build additional Queens until they are able to morph sufficient numbers of Hydralisks or Mutalisks.

In all these situations, Void Rays can still be used as a threat, forcing the production of anti-air units and keeping the opposing player inside of his or her base. If the player that is facing Void Rays is not aware of the incoming threat, he or she might be caught unprepared and thus there will be an opportunity to deal massive amount of damage.

Using Prismatic Alignment against non-armored units can scare an opponent into retreating, even though it does no extra damage.

Vs. Protoss[edit]

A very good counter to Immortals and Colossi, since they are both armored and cannot attack back. The Void Ray is a very good unit as the core of the army in the later stages of the game, as long as there are no large amount of Phoenixes on the field, this is because the other main anti-air unit is the Stalker, which is not supply efficient at all.

Vs. Terran[edit]

Is generally not used due to the standard composition of the Terran being very strong versus it, although versus an opponent that gets a lot of mechanical units like the Thor or the Tank, a few Void Rays can focus down the armored units very fast. One notable use came in the 2012 GSL Season 2 finals where Squirtle combined a Void Ray transition with his famous Archon Toilet to help combat Mvp's massive Battlecruiser fleet.

Another good use of the Void Ray is to make one or two of them to defend versus drops, since if a boosted Medivac passes right by a charged Void Ray it will barely get through with a very low amount of health, making the drop most likely to retreat, rather than continue while being so wounded. It is advisable to not make a Stargate just for the sake of Void Rays to defend drops, but if a Stargate has already been produced because of the opening, making a Void Ray or a few can be a good choice.

Vs. Zerg[edit]

Can be used in conjunction with Tempest and High Templar. Void Rays are an essential part of the ultimate Protoss deathball due to their high DPS, along with Blink Stalkers, Archons and Storms, they help keep Corruptors at bay and allow Colossi and Tempests to do their damage unopposed. Between them and Immortals, Void Rays are also more versatile as a late game counter to Ultralisks.

Some players have also demonstrated that the Void Ray's massive DPS after activating Prismatic Alignment can be very useful in sniping key tech structure. sOs demonstrated that against a Roach centric mid game, six Void Rays can quickly snipe a Lair and the Mothership Core can use recall to bring them home, setting back the Zerg tech tree with virtually no losses.

Gallery[edit]

Normal Void Ray attack animation.
Charged Void Ray attack animation.

Quotes[edit]

Void Ray's quotes (video and sound) - YouTube video.

Patch Changes[edit]

References[edit]