Adept

[e][h] Adept

Unit Information

Type:

Ground Unit

Description:

Ranged specialist. Can use Psionic Transfer.

Built From:

Gateway

Requirements:

Cybernetics Core

Cost:

100 25 30 (27) 2

Attributes:

Light, Biological

Attack 1:
(Glaive Cannon)

Targets:		Ground
Damage:		10 (+1)
DPS:		6.2 (+0.62) 9 (+0.9) Resonating Glaives
Cooldown:		1.61 (-0.5)
Bonus:		+12 (+1) vs Light
Bonus DPS:		+7.45 (+0.62) vs Light RGl 18.67 (+1.56)
Range:		4

Defense:

70 70 1 (+1)

Hotkey:

H

Sight:

9 (4 as a Shade)

Speed:

3.5

Cargo Size:

2

Strong against:

• Zergling
• Zealot
• Marine

Weak against:

• Roach
• Stalker
• Marauder

Description

Adepts are "highly trained battlefield commanders", warped in at the Gateway after the Cybernetics Core has finished. They were first introduced in Legacy of the Void.

Despite their low rate of fire, Adepts can punch a hole through Lightly-armored targets. In addition, they can project a Shade of themselves, a controllable copy of the Adept that is immune but which exists for a brief time. Once this timer is up, the original Adept will teleport to the location of the shade, or the shade can be cancelled and preserve the location of the Adept. Due to the speed and immortality of the shade, this makes for an ideal scout. The ability can also be used for more offensive purposes. If the shade(s) are sent into the base of an opponent, it may require the opponent to split their army to deal with the possibility of the shade(s) expiring and the Adepts dealing damage. If Adepts are used for extensive damage-dealing, it may be desirable to research the Resonating Glaives upgrade from the Twilight Council, increasing Adept attack speed.

Two defining features of developed armies in Starcraft are either they are extremely mobile but lacking power or powerful with less mobility. Two Stargate units the Phoenix and Oracle can harass where Adepts cannot, all three combined are even capable of defending almost all threats from both Terran and Zerg from the early to mid game. See Versus Protoss for why Adepts are not common there.

Adepts have no anti-air attack and are commonly produced alongside Stargate units like a few Oracles and many Phoenix. Phoenixes can control the opponent's air units, and their harassment, while also having the Graviton Beam ability to remove Armored units into the air and leave the Light units to be cleared up by the Adept's bonus damage. Most common against Zerg and Terran.

Spells

Psionic Transfer

Caster: Adept Cooldown: 11 s Duration: 7 s Hotkey: F Projects an invulnerable Shade that can move but cannot attack. After 7 seconds, the Adept teleports to the Shade's location.

The Shade moves faster than the Adept unit and can be selected and controlled. Shades can pass through units and Force Fields, but not buildings or other Shades. The Psionic transfer ability can be cancelled at any time before the teleport, when either unit is selected: when cancelled, the Shade disappears and the Adept stays in place and does not teleport.

Upgrade

Resonating Glaives

100      100      100 Hotkey: A Researched from: Twilight Council Increases the attack speed of the Adept by 45%.

Removed upgrade

Shield Upgrade

100      100      100 Hotkey: S Researched from: Twilight Council Increases the Adept's shields by 50.

Competitive Use

General

• Adepts are fast and good at harassing workers, which have the light tag and take bonus damage. They can shade around to vulnerable parts of the mineral line.
• They can be combined with other harassment units such as a Warp Prism or some Oracles in the early game to be able to pressure and harass two locations at the same time. A Warp Prism also gives an early Warpgate research timing for Adepts if the opponent has teched too hard or too greedy.
• Compared to the Stalker, the other ranged Gateway unit, the Adept tends to do better in the early game with its bonus against light units and low gas cost, whereas the Stalker does better in the midgame because it is more durable and can hit air units, amongst other reasons.
• For example, Adepts combine well with the Sentry's Forcefield ability for defense against Ground unit rushes, due to the Adept's lower gas cost. It may be possible to defend off of Gateways alone, depending on the size of the ramp you wish to defend. This effect is enhanced when Warpgate research is finished and was used in Wings of Liberty against a Stalker-based 4 Warpgate Rush to buy time for Immortals.
  • However, Adepts still cost less gas than stalkers, and as always Adepts may still be used to supplement other Robotics Facility or especially Stargate play.

Vs. Protoss

• The Adept opening is one of the reasons PvP is as volatile as it is; many PvP early games revolve around sneaking two Adepts into the opponent's main and killing probes. If left unchecked, these two Adepts can cause massive economic damage, potentially ending the game early.
  • However later in the game they do not necessarily make good harassment units, as they have inferior stats to chargelots in a runby, and the Adepts' ability micro becomes less useful.
  • While Adepts are strong against early Zealots and other light units, Sentries with forcefield could be an alternative defence against Zealots. Sentries can guard the ramp and force favorable engagements.
• The higher damage of the Stalker, its extra range (6, vs the Adept's 4 range), its armored tag, and finally the fact it doesn't require any other tech structures all reduce the effectiveness of the mass gladept aggressive style which is more common in other matchups. Should one player choose Adepts, it would be trivial for the opponent to simply swap to Stalkers and regain the initiative.
• As with other matchups, they fall off in the midgame as they are less effective than chargelots.

Vs. Terran

• Adepts can use the Psionic Shade to spot without going out of position and taking damage. For example, looking at the high ground of a Terran Supply Depot Wall-In to scout addons. This is especially strong against a Reaper and to an extent a Reactor Hellion opening which both rely on the Reactor.

• Adepts have the potential to snowball in PvT against bio, particularly against drop play and/or when paired with the gas heavy Phoenix. When faced with a hyper aggressive Terran who sends unrelenting Medivac waves, feeding their army to the Phoenixes and Adepts in very small manageable chunks where the Protoss player can end up overwhelming the Terran at the midgame.

Vs. Zerg

• When combined with an early wall-in, Adepts are effective at preventing early Zergling rushes due to their effectiveness against light armored units.

• Adepts are used as a follow up scout after the Probe , this ensures that a Protoss player has the ability to see the Zerg player's plans by way of the shade ability. Using Psionic Transfer gives the Adept the ability to scout and/or escape any Lings attempting to kill the Adept. This would also allow the Protoss player to potentially inflict early game damage by killing a few Drones either by using the shade to dive into a mineral line or by using shade as an escape tool.

• An early Adept push with Resonating Glaives, either rushed or after a Stargate opening, may do tremendous economic damage to the Zerg. In the case the build forces out Roaches, the Adepts should not commit to a straight up fight, but instead use their Shades to pressure the Zerg. This is because a follow up Roach counter-push is potentially deadly to the Protoss.

• A mid game Gladept Immortal Sentry timing is another way to use Gladepts. The ranged nature of the Adept allows it to attack units that have been blocked by Force Fields.

Quotes

Quotes
Built	Selected	Annoyed	Move	Attack	Under Attack
Glory to the Daelaam. The Firstborn shall persevere.	Give us your command. Let your will be heard. Aiur shall be reclaimed! Yes, Executor? Where shall we march? Combat awaits. We serve with pride. Na jakar me'nah.	We are the stewards of the hierarchy. Aiur will be reclaimed, at any cost. Some Templar identify as a shield, stalwart and unbreakable, defenders of truth. Others see themselves as a weapon, powerful and precise. I say, why not be both? With the right training, anyone can be in two places at once, but their mind must be fully open. Oh, and they need a psionic amplifier. That helps too. Chasing after your own shade is a pointless endeavor. I mean it moves so quickly! Why yes, you could say I have some skill. [laughs] What? Just because I'm called an adept doesn't mean I need to brag about it. I'm here. [SFX: psionic transfer sound] I'm there. [SFX: error noise] I'm... still here. At least for a few more seconds.	Faith before fear. It shall be done. We are of one mind. The Templar march. Let none deter us. To glory! Por zalah! Forward.	I am the will of the Hierarch. May your death be swift. To glorious battle! Spare none who oppose us! Victory for the Firstborn! For Selendis! Glaive cannon armed. Eradication.	I have met the enemy! Glorious combat is upon us!

Patch Changes

Balance Update #1
Health changed from 80/60 to 90/90. Upgrade changed to a health upgrade instead of providing bounce damage. Upgrade now adds 50 shields to Adepts. Adept can cancel the shade ability at any time. When you cancel, the shade disappears and you don’t teleport. Damage point reduced from 0.4 to 0.167

Balance Update #2
Weapon damage point changed from 0.4 to 0.167

Patch 2.5.5 Balance Update #3
Replace shield upgrade with an upgrade which reduces attack period by 45% Health reduced from 90/90 to 90/60

Patch 2.5.5 Balance Update #4
Adept health reduced to 60 shield and 80 health from 60 shield and 90 health.

Patch 2.5.5 Balance Update #6
Adept shields increased by 10.

Patch 3.1.1 Balance Update
Damage reduced from 10 (+13 light) to 10 (+12 light)

Patch 3.8.0
Shade vision reduced from 9 to 2.

Patch 3.12.0 Balance Update
Maximum Health reduced from 80 to 70.

Patch 4.0.0
Shade sight increased from 2 to 4.

Patch 4.1.4 Balance Update
Adepts will continue with their last issued command instead of stopping after using Psionic Transfer.

Patch 4.2.0
Adept attacks will now have orange projectiles once Resonating Glaives has been researched.

Patch 4.8.2
Gateway build time increased from 27 seconds to 30 seconds. Warp Gate cooldown remains unchanged.

Patch 4.11.0
Resonating Glaives reworked. Instead of increasing attack speed of the Adept by 45%, it will increase the attack speed of the Adept by 60% for 6 seconds after a completed Psionic Transfer.

Patch 4.11.3
Resonating Glaives upgrade effects reverted. The Resonating Glaives upgrade will now increase the attack speed of Adepts by 45%.

External Links

• Legacy of the Void Beta Preview - The Adept was mentioned in the LotV Beta Preview as a new Protoss unit.