Carrier

Carriers are the principle warships of the Protoss. While not the largest or most powerful ships employed by the Templar caste, they see the most combat.

Carriers are large capital ships which deploy masses of Interceptor combat drones instead of fighters. These smallish, highly agile drones attack targets in rolling waves, delivering plasma pulses to enemy ground troops and aircraft alike. The Carrier itself can sit outside the range of enemy ground defenses while the Interceptors pound them into dust.

Carriers are one of the few cases where a Protoss design falls somewhat behind Terran technology, in one regard: Carriers are actually less durable than Terran Battlecruisers. However, Carriers are also faster, have longer attack range (except for the Battlecruiser's Yamato Cannon), and can have their shields rapidly recharged at Shield Batteries - while still delivering damage comparable to Battlecruisers. Ultimately, Carriers are at a disadvantange to properly used Battlecruisers, but otherwise are more versatile than those warships.

It may be that the Protoss do not view Carriers as heavy warships comparable to Terran Battlecruisers. Just as they consider their main fighter, the Scout, to be primarily a reconnaissance vehicle - despite being quite superior to the Terran's principle fighter, the Wraith - perhaps the Carrier is actually one of the lower-end capital ships of the Protoss. Regardless, it is certainly the one most used during combat, possibly because it is the among the largest vessels capable of being moved through a Protoss Stargate.

As with many Protoss technologies, Carriers appear to be heavily automated to reduce the burden on the Protoss themselves, who are not an abundant people. In fact, cutscene evidence suggests that Carriers have only a single crew member - the pilot. This can be gathered from a scene in which the Protoss High Templar Tassadar rams his Carrier (the Gantrithor) into the Zerg Overmind. This key event also halted the initial wave of Zerg forces in the Koprulu Sector.

The Gantrithor was a rare, modified 'supercarrier' which possessed conventional weaponry in addition to its Interceptor complement. It was capable of singlehandedly defeating a squadron of Behemoth-class Battlecruisers in open combat (as stated by Blizzard; game mechanics only permitted the vessel to have higher-than-usual HP, with 1300 vs 450 HP - including shields).

Record 694 - vehicle/ship class - Last update 12 Nov 2007, 08:44:13

Entry written by: Torvus

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