The Protoss Warp Ray was released on Blizzard’s website yesterday, and it looks pretty damn cool.

Here’s the official description:

A warp ray is a ship virtually built around a single gigantic power source: the prismatic core. This device seethes with energy drawn from two realms: the Void, which is truly understood only by the dark templar, and the psionic matrix, which underpins the technologies of the Aiur protoss. In combination these two energies form a self-sustaining reaction of terrifying potential.

The warp ray is described as a “new capital ship” with the capability of potentially replacing the Protoss carrier as the flagship of the Protoss Airforce. While this is unlikely (and obviously not true in SC2), it does give some insight into the level of power of this vessel. I would imagine that it would be difficult to tech to both Carriers and Warpray’s at the same time, and that they would require different prerequisite buildings. From the initial screenshots and videos, the warp ray looks terrifyingly powerful, leveling terran buildings with relative ease.

The power behind the warp ray lies behind the amount of time it is focused on a unit or building:

As the prismatic beam is held on the target, more of the focusing array becomes aligned, and up to three individual power streams combine together. Over a few seconds the beam’s intensity and power grow exponentially. Few enemies can withstand the awful power of the prismatic beam for long: even large and heavily armored targets like buildings or battlecruisers are incinerated in moments.

It appears that it takes a few seconds for the Warp Ray’s beam to fully charge up to the highest rate of damage. The combined power of a group of these mini death stars is devastating, as seen in this battle between Terran Battlecruisers and Protoss Warp Rays:

However, it’s weakness lies in the fact that it can only target a single unit at a time, leaving it heavily vulnerable to smaller, massed units, as seen at the end of the video. Warp Rays should definitely be backed up with a ground force capable of holding these smaller units at bay.

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• Protoss Warp-in Function Explained
• Protoss Phase Prism - New Starcraft 2 Units
• Protoss Stargate - Starcraft 2 Buildings