Corsair

[e][h] Corsair

Unit Information

Type:

Medium Air Unit

Built From:

Stargate

Cost:

 150  100  25.2  2

Hotkey:

O

Unit stats

Defense:

100 80 1

Air Damage:

5 (+1)

Range:

5

Cooldown:

0.378

A. DPS:

13.23 (+2.65)

Energy Maximum:

200 (+50 Argus Jewel)

Starting Energy:

50 (+12 Argus Jewel)

Sight:

9

Speed:

4.963

Rocket Splash Radius

Inner:

0.078 (5 px)

Medium:

0.781 (50 px)

Outer:

1.563 (100 px)

Fall-Off is always the same. It is 100% within the Inner radius, 50% within Medium, and 25% within Outer.

Value refers to number of cells in distance. (px / 64)

(Air-to-Air inner splash radius never applies, interceptors are also immune to air-to-air splash.)

Description

The Corsair is a Protoss air unit that is produced from the Stargate.

It can only attack air units. The attack deals low explosive damage, but has a very short cooldown and deals splash damage. This makes it effective against clumps of enemy air units that don't have high armor, except the Carrier's Interceptor, which is immune to splash damage. It has an ability, Disruption Web, but this is almost never used in the current competitive metagame.

Compared to the other immediately available Stargate unit, the Scout, the Corsair is less expensive, is faster, and has greater stock sight range, ironically making it the superior unit for scouting.

Corsairs currently see the most play against Zerg. It doesn't see much play in the other matchups, as Terran and Protoss typically don't concentrate on air units in the midgame like Zerg does.

Upgrades

Disruption Web and the Corsair energy upgrade are almost never researched. The issue is that they must be researched at the Fleet Beacon, which is one of the most expensive buildings in the game. The Fleet Beacon is typically built to unlock Carriers, so once it's built, Protoss is better off spending their resources on Carriers rather than being cute with Disruption Web. If Carriers are not a suitable tech due to map or race factors, the 400 gas required to build the Fleet Beacon and unlock Disruption Web is better spent towards building the Citadel of Adun for the Zealot speed upgrade, which will then unlock the Templar Archives.

Disruption Web

200      200      50 (fastest) Unlocks the Disruption Web ability on the Corsair.

Argus Jewel

100      100      105 (fastest) Increases starting energy of the Corsair by +12 to 62, and maximum energy by +50 to 250. This allows a Corsair to cast Disruption Web twice quickly if it has 250 energy.

Abilities

Disruption Web

Cost: 125 Range: 9 Duration: 15 Casts a web of energy that disrupts all ground attacks coming from within the affected area. All ground units and structures (including Photon Cannons, Spore Colonies, Sunken Colonies, Missile Turrets and Bunkers) cannot attack while within the area of effect of the Disruption Web. Casters may still cast, but Spider Mines will not activate. It covers a 120x80 pixel area.

Competitive Usage

versus Zerg

Corsairs are essential in PvZ, as they are able to target Overlords and Mutalisks. Despite Corsairs dealing half damage to Mutalisks, Corsairs are still effective against them. Mutalisks are typically stacked, which makes them vulnerable to the Corsair's splash damage. Multiple Corsairs are also able to pick off Scourge with proper micro. Due to the effectiveness of Corsairs against these units, Zerg typically builds Hydralisks to protect their Overlords, and does not build more than a single control group of Mutalisks.

Corsairs are also the only way Protoss can get any scouting information once Zerg has upgraded Zergling speed. None of the Protoss ground units are particularly fast, allowing Speedlings to swarm any ground scouting unit.

However, Protoss must be careful to not overcommit to Corsairs, otherwise Protoss may fall to a Hydra bust timing attack.

versus Terran

Corsairs are rarely seen in the current PvT megatame, mainly because Wraith builds have diminished in favor of mech play. A single Corsair may still be built for scouting purposes as Protoss techs to Carriers.

Theoretically, Disruption Web may target Siege Tanks in siege mode, but in practice, Protoss just uses speed-upgraded Zealots to rush Tanks.

versus Protoss

Corsairs aren't used in this matchup unless the map has island expansions, as the Dragoon serves as the all-purpose attacking unit.

Note Regarding Attack Cooldown

The official Starcraft Compendium states that the Corsair attack cooldown is 8 logical steps or 0.336 seconds. After rigorous testing, it is believed the actual cooldown is 9 logical steps or 0.378 seconds.

Notable Games

vP

• Bisu vs Nal_rA, GOMTV MSL S1. Nal_rA attempted to make use of the Corsair in a semi-island map by deflecting multiple Shuttle harassment attempts.
• GuemChi vs Stork, ASL S5. Both players utilized mass Corsairs to attempt to get early air control on the island map Sparkle.