I've heard many people complain that Protoss are the most overpowered race in StarCraft 2. Some reasons cited have been that Void Rays are "cheap", Immortals are "cheap", and Zealots are..."cheap". I actually got into a bit of a debate about this with a few friends of mine earlier today, hence this thread to get other opinions on the subject. I told them that everything has a counter, so there is no real way to be "cheap" in StarCraft.  
 
So I ask the Giant Bomb StarCraft community, are Protoss overpowered?

Naw, i don't think any race is overpowered.  I think there are strategies that exploit the strength of certain races, and THOSE can be cheap/overpowered....damn mass reaper builds...

no

I have heard people say Protoss is overpowered, people (like Brad) say that Terran is overpowered, and of couse that the zerg rush is overpowered... so that is true then they are all balanced.

Seems like the easiest to start with just because of warp gates, but I dunno, I've barely played any matches.

no
 
besides, void rays are not cheap, 250 min and 100 gas is not cheap!

There's always going to be something that people cry about being overpowered (to an extent, for me, that's EMP =p) but no, I wouldn't say Protoss is OP.

" I've heard many people complain that Protoss are the most overpowered race in StarCraft 2. Some reasons cited have been that Void Rays are "cheap", Immortals are "cheap", and Zealots are..."cheap". I actually got into a bit of a debate about this with a few friends of mine earlier today, hence this thread to get other opinions on the subject. I told them that everything has a counter, so there is no real way to be "cheap" in StarCraft.   So I ask the Giant Bomb StarCraft community, are Protoss overpowered? "

Protoss aren't OP, the Zerg are nerfed to shit.

Zerg are OPed in Korea, so I guess different regions are having different play styles.  

" If you scout Void Rays are pretty simple to counter. If you get caught off guard, sure, they can do a lot of damage, but if you know they are going down that road, you can quickly counter, Void Rays don't have a lot of health, and if you use the right unit for your race, you'll find they do little damage. "

No.
 
Void Rays are powerful, yes, but they are EASILY dealt with if you scout beforehand, just like any other build.
 
Just last night I got fuuuucked by a well-timed VR push because he saw I was expanding and starting to slow push with my tanks and marines. He popped into my base with 3 or 4 VRs and wiped all my barracks and factories.
Did he win because his VRs were overpowered? No. Did he win because I didn't scout his starport and left my base without any anti air? Yes.
 
So instead of raging and crying imbalance, I went to the replay and saw what he did and what I did wrong, so I could prepare better next time.

" @StarvingGamer: I can kinda see an argument for zealots being a little overpowered in the early game, because they're far and away more powerful (even cost for cost) than their competitor units. On the other hand, they are at the end of the day a melee unit, so I never find them that bad.

"As for Ghost EMP being overpowered... what about warping in templars and being able to instantly storm, which can actually kill units rather than just temporarily knock down shields? Or infestors which can fungal growth units, again dealing real damage and actually locking them in place making for easy kills in many cases. "

"Cheap" in my experience comes from what a player does, not the game itself.

I think the only thing that needs to be fixed with Protoss...as well as Zerg...are Stalkers and Hydralisks units' production time and cost.  They are too cheap and spawn too quick.  It's a massive problem in team play, as there is very little "strategy" and it's all about "I'm only going to build one type of unit...but I'm going to build 100 of them to overwhelm whoever I'm playing against".  Granted, the other team can do it...but there's no strategy in that to me. 
 
Other than that, I play Zerg, so obviously I'll whine about how I hate Zerg not having great defensive capabilities, as we have to build two types of defensive structures to cover ground and air while Protoss only need one kind of turret to do so, and it's available super early for super cheap.  I'd also bitch about how there needs to be at least one more tech step for void rays.  The thing is...that would just be me bitching to bitch because Protoss can be difficult for me to beat with Zerg.

I would say Terran are OP. The other two are fine. Terran's OPness (ha) leads to Zerg appearing underpowered, though.
 
Though fast VR + warping in zealots from low  ground pylon is super strong.
 
 

@jakob187

as we have to build two types of defensive structures to cover ground and air while Protoss only need one kind of turret to do so, and it's available super early for super cheap. 

Atrocities i say!

Losers think everything is cheese. That's why they keep losing. No if its in the game and it works and there's a strategy to deflect it, its not cheese. And everything can be deflected. You just suck.

" @ryanwho: 2v2 is horrifically unbalanced. Early Reapers + Voidrays are Bullshit.  "

i think the game is really balanced, with everything having a counter (if scouted) zerg seem a little weak overall

" @Juvarial said:

" @ryanwho: 2v2 is horrifically unbalanced. Early Reapers + Voidrays are Bullshit.  "

Although I wouldn't say horrifically overpowered, I would say that me and my brother have won more than a few games with this exact strategy All it takes to counter is marauders / stalkers / hydras, but no one ever seems to bother. "

I feel like I've had it too easy whenever I use the photon cannon rush.  Maybe it was against shitty players though.

" Losers think everything is cheese. That's why they keep losing. No if its in the game and it works and there's a strategy to deflect it, its not cheese. And everything can be deflected. You just suck. "

The Protoss I've faced seem to be ripped to shreds by Ghosts. I feel sort of overpowered as a Terran because I can just use one unit to counter an entire race.

I was just beaten by a Zealot rush three minutes into a game before I even had a small group of Zerglings... Yeah, they could use a little tweaking.

" I was just beaten by a Zealot rush three minutes into a game before I even had a small group of Zerglings... Yeah, they could use a little tweaking. "

This by no means ends the discussion, but I regulary visit www.replayers.com and most high-level games are won by Protoss. This is usually done by the High Templars' AoE combined with Void Stalkers (and a couple of Zealots).
 
Protoss is definitely not a weak or underpowered race. Calling them overpowered is debateable though.

terrans are shitloads better

building units with the protoss is cheap.

Protoss isn't even close to OP  
 
Most wins with Protoss are due to excellent micro on the players part (storms and shields) 
 
Terran is the closet to to OP in all of SC2 at the moment. Zerg is worst,by far.

tldr but definitely not. 

" @FlipperDesert said:

" I was just beaten by a Zealot rush three minutes into a game before I even had a small group of Zerglings... Yeah, they could use a little tweaking. "

Or you should consider getting pool faster or a spine crawler or 2. "

Terran are just to easy to play right now.

I'm Cmdr Shepard and Protoss is my favourite race in the Koprulu sector

The way I look at it is, Protoss have some of the most powerful units in the game, but can be easily countered. Terran are the most versatile race, they have a broad spectrum of units that will help them against pretty much any strategy. Zerg rely heavily on scouting, because, as has been stated before, they are a reactionary race.  
 
Honestly, I think it all comes down to how you like to play, I enjoy all the races and their play styles, that's why I play random.

" I was just beaten by a Zealot rush three minutes into a game before I even had a small group of Zerglings... Yeah, they could use a little tweaking. "

Starcraft, and now Starcraft 2 are some of the most well balanced RTS games in the entire genre, it seems that a lot of new people are coming into Starcraft 2 now with a console mindset, where they feel they have the need to turn into game developers and demand nerfs and buffs, we've let Blizzard make these games for us, I feel we should give them a bit more trust when it comes to balancing.

" The way I look at it is, Protoss have some of the most powerful units in the game, but can be easily countered. Terran are the most versatile race, they have a broad spectrum of units that will help them against pretty much any strategy. Zerg rely heavily on scouting, because, as has been stated before, they are a reactionary race.   Honestly, I think it all comes down to how you like to play, I enjoy all the races and their play styles, that's why I play random. "

By the time a protoss player gets enough zealots to break my base entrance, I have hellions out that can LIGHT THEM ON FIRE! so, no, don't think the 'toss are overpowered. The only possible unbalance that I've seen in the game is that Zerg don't have a whole lot for useful endgame units, though with Nydus worms, they can make up for that by tunneling into your base and killing any sort of economy you had.

IdrA (that king of the beta winner, guy, zerg player dude) nerdraged at a Terran player and it would seem he thinks Terran are definitely OP or something. 
 
The nerdrage is at the start of this video and at the end, lolzy. Commentator reads out the nerdrage quite funnily. :D