Arbiter

[e][h] Arbiter

Unit Information

Type:

Large Air Unit

Built From:

Stargate

Requirements:

Arbiter Tribunal

Cost:

 100  350  100.8  4

Hotkey:

A

Unit stats

Defense:

200 150 1

Damage:

10 (+1)

Range:

5

Cooldown:

1.89

DPS:

5.29 (+0.53)

Energy Maximum:

200 (+50 Khaydarin Core)

Starting Energy:

50 (+12 Khaydarin Core)

Sight:

9

Speed:

3.720

Description

The Arbiter is a late-game Protoss air unit that is produced from the Stargate. Building it requires an Arbiter Tribunal, which is unlocked from the Templar Archives, thus placing the Arbiter the very end of the Protoss tech tree.

It has an attack that is somewhat similar to the Dragoon, but it deals half damage and has a longer cooldown. Therefore, the attack is just a throw-in bonus, and the Arbiter is built for its abilities instead.

It has a passive ability that cloaks nearby friendly units, as well as two powerful spells, both of which must be researched. A notable feature is that the Arbiter has remarkably high health for a spellcaster unit, which allows it to take a good amount of damage in order to cast its spells in ideal positions.

In the current competitive metagame, Arbiters see the most play against Terran when the map favors Arbiters over Carriers. It sees little play against Protoss and Zerg.

Upgrades

All Arbiter upgrades are researched at the Arbiter Tribunal. The Arbiter's passive cloaking ability is included at stock.

Stasis Field

150      150      63 (fastest) Unlocks the Stasis ability on the Arbiter.

Recall

150      150      76 (fastest) Unlocks the Recall ability on the Arbiter.

Khaydarin Core

150      150      105 (fastest) Increases starting energy of the Arbiter by +12 to 62, and maximum energy by +50 to 250.

Abilities

Stasis Field

Cost: 100 Range: 9 Effect-Radius: 3 Duration: 44.1 s Freezes targeted units. Units in a Stasis Field cannot move, attack, be attacked or be affected by spells for the duration of the stasis. This splits the enemy army, allowing for a more favorable engagement.

Recall

Cost: 150 Range: Anywhere Effect-Radius: 5 Teleports all friendly units within a 5x5 area of the targeted location to the location of the Arbiter after an approximate 1.3s delay. The Recall may be stopped during the momentary delay by destroying the Arbiter. In team games, allied units can't be recalled.

Competitive Usage

As the Arbiter requires a whopping 350 gas to build, and 450 gas to build the Arbiter Tribunal and research both spells, Protoss must consider whether that gas is better spent on High Templar. Therefore, the Arbiter is best used in situations where High Templar aren't as effective. This causes the Arbiter to be most useful in PvT. Tanks in Siege Mode outrange the High Templar's Psi Storm cast range, but Tanks can't attack Arbiters.

versus Zerg

Arbiters aren't built in this matchup. The passive cloaking ability isn't very useful, as Zerg has Overlords for detection. The gas is better spent on more High Templar. However, some maps may force players to explore the unexplored - see Notable Games for a treat.

versus Terran

Arbiters see the most play here, as they are able to successfully break a Terran mech defensive line. Stasis Field can disable a good number of Tanks without being exposed to Siege Mode fire, allowing the rest of the Protoss ground army to engage the remaining units.

The Arbiter's other ability, Recall, is also a major threat. As the Terran mech defensive line is slow and cumbersome to move, Protoss is able to threaten the possibility of just bypassing it and casting Recall at an enemy base. The idea is to damage or destroy the base before the Terran army can move to successfully defend it. Some Terran players will lay Spider Mines near their buildings as a pre-emptive measure, or build additional Missile Turrets so that the Arbiter doesn't sneak through.

Another tactic, although less employed, is using Stasis Field on a unit on a ramp to block reinforcements. The Terran can, however, use an SCV to "glitch" the frozen unit off the ramp. This is done by ordering the SCV to mine a mineral patch, and cancelling the order when it floats on top of the unit on the ramp.

Terran may use a Science Vessel to counter the Arbiter, as it has detection to negate the Arbiter's passive cloaking ability, as well as EMP Shockwave to disable the Arbiter.

versus Protoss

Arbiters are currently not seen much in this matchup. The gas is typically better spent on High Templar. Historically, in some older maps like Destination, where a split map stalemate often occurred, Arbiters saw some play.

Notable Games

• Stork vs. Flash, Outsider, Shinhan Bank Proleague 08-09
• Reach vs. Nada, Heartbreak Ridge, Shinhan Bank Proleague 08-09
• Stork vs. GGPlay, Andromeda, Shinhan Bank Proleague 2008
• Cool vs. Pusan, Tau Cross, Shinhan Bank Proleague 2007 Round 1
• Jangbi vs. Stork, Destination, Lost Saga MSL 2009
• Queen vs. Best (PvZ), Death Valley, ASL Season 19, RO.8, Match 1 Set 4, 2025

Trivia

If a lone Arbiter without attack upgrades attacks a Carrier that has 5 armor upgrades (i.e. 3 armor upgrades, 2 shield upgrades, or vis-a-versa) it is impossible for the Arbiter to kill the Carrier. This is because the Carrier regenerates 1+ shields before the Arbiter attacks each time, due to the slowness of the Arbiter's attack. Since the 0.5 minimum damage calculation in the game engine only applies if you do not hit Shields first, the Arbiter can never damage the hull. This is the only known interaction in the game where a unit can attack but cannot kill another unit. This has no practical use in competitive gameplay.