Role: Medium Melee Harrasser

The Dark Templar is an assassin and generally avoids fighting in combat unless it has the advantage. There are two kinds of Dark Templar models: one of them is the classic version with a single Warp Blade and the other has a duel wield scythe. Both of these models have the same stats. Dark Templar are permanently cloaked units and deal heavy melee damage. Although they do have some survivability for melee combat, they cost signifcantly more resources than the Zealot.

Dark Templar are often sent behind enemy lines to destroy anything they can and flee when they become under attack. This tactic works well since it can destroy parts of the base that are not well defended and fustrate the enemy. Plus to counter any further harassing attacks, the enemy will need to spend several resources on detectors and defensive units. They are often loaded into Warp Prisms and sent to the enemy resources to kill any harvesters. Another tactic is to build a Dark Templar very early in the game and send it to an enemy base. Should that base not have any detectors, that single Dark Templar can cause serious damage. Dark Templar are also good for defending bases against enemy forces who do not have any detectors with them.

	Marine
	Marauder
	Zergling
	Queen
	Roach
	Zealot
	Sentry
	Stalker

	Siege Tank
	Thor
	Archon
	Immortal
	Colossus
	Photon Cannon

The dark templar are powerful psionic warriors whose forebears were exiled from the protoss homeworld of Aiur over a thousand years ago. The protoss who would eventually become the dark templar were banished for their refusal to join the emerging Khala, the communal mind link shared by all protoss, and the accompanying caste system enforced by the ruling Conclave of the protoss.

Some protoss rejected this movement, believing that their individual identities would be erased to further the suffocating rule of the Conclave. They even went so far as to sever the long nerve tendrils that characterize the protoss. This act symbolically and literally cut them off from the primal chord of their race. The Conclave saw these rogues as a threat to the new order and charged the Templar caste with hunting and destroying them.

The templar, led by the idealistic warrior Adun, could not bring themselves to slay fellow protoss and thus hid them. The Conclave's fears appeared justified when Aiur was lashed by a wave of violent psionic storms unleashed by the undisciplined minds of the rebels. The Conclave was not willing to punish the templar openly for their disobedience because doing so would reveal the existence of the rebels. Instead, the dissident protoss were loaded aboard an ancient but functional xel'naga vessel and launched into space.

The exiled protoss wandered far before eventually making a new home on the twilight world of Shakuras. They developed a solitary and independent culture, with individuals often widely scattered across space in their own ships, exploring and contemplating the mysteries of the universe. Over time these dark templar have learned to wield a very different kind of psionic strength than that of the Khala: the energies of the Void, the dark spaces between worlds.

The dark templar are most renowned for their ability to bend light around their bodies to become invisible at will, and a true master of the Void can achieve much greater feats than this. Armed with their potent warp blades, the dark templar are deadly and relentless foes, capable of crippling conventional forces with their devastating strikes.

Though severed from their homeworld and feared by their own brethren for many centuries, the dark templar never abandoned their love of Aiur. In recent times they were reunited with the protoss of their homeworld when the heroes Tassadar and Zeratul joined forces to fight the zerg Overmind. The Overmind was defeated, but the planet Aiur was ravaged in the process and so badly overrun by zerg that the survivors retreated to Shakuras. Now the protoss who were once exiled find themselves playing host to refugees from their old home.

Beta Patch 6

• Armor type changed from Biological-Psionic to Biological-Psionic-Light.