Probe Spirit Guide

Introduction

The probe spirit is a severely underestimated unit implemented into the Probe vs Zealot game. The probe spirit's main objective is basically to assist the probes in defeating the zealot. Whether the probe spirit decides to spend a majority of his time boosting the structures the probes make and slowing the Zealot when he arrives at the probes base, or the probe spirit could decide on a more aggressive playstyle and actively harrass the Zealot throughout the game. The gamestyle possibilities of the Probe Spirit are endless, and unfortunately a majority of players tend to view the Probe Spirit as an underpowered unit.

Becoming a Probe Spirit

There are two ways to become a probe spirit.

1. You are killed by the zealot, and you choose to assist the probes over the zealot.
2. You are "noob kicked" from the game and forcibly placed into the Probe Spirit position.

How to properly play the Probe Spirit

As I stated above there are endless possibilities on how to play the probe spirit. 

All credit is due to metcomposite for constructing this Probe Spirit guide on the official forums.

Most people when they die early and help probes just sit next to some miners. This helps a little, but it's really not the most effective you can be with probe spirit.

Here's a strategy with a little more impact:

* Follow the zealot to each base they visit. If you can tell which base the zealot is coming to, ping the base on the minimap and say "zealot coming"--this lets the probe upgrade their turrets in advance, which actually makes a huge difference (instead of the turrets not firing while they upgrade, they're already firing when the zealot shows up). * Disorient the zealot once he's attacking the wall. The fact that you're following the zealot to every base, means that most bases now effectively have two+ void type spells, which is brutal for the zealot. Constant disorients that follow the zealot to every base is by far the most powerful thing you can do to a zealot.

* If the zealot gets annoyed and tries to kill you, use your speed boost and lead them on a merry chase into the middle of nowhere, away from the factory where they upgrade or away from the wall they were feeding on; waste as much time as possible. You can also use cloak for the same purpose. In fact, if the zealot is taking the bait and chasing you, you actually want to encourage the chase by dancing behind them--waste as much of their time as possible.

* Probe spirits have a 10% damage bonus to turrets, but it has a pretty small range (3). Remember that you can trigger this from the lowground, though, so if the geometry of the base allows it, you can hug the wall of the base on the lowground and still buff the turrets, while also baiting the zealot into a merry chase. Don't prioritize this, though--10% is not that much, and 3 range means you need to get very, very close.

* If the zealot is being risky and staying a little too long, sometimes you can run up behind them and cloak to wall them in for five more seconds. This is very hard to get right as spirit--you need to be dead center on the ramp or the ramp needs to be very narrow; if you're off by a few pixels the zealot can run around you.

* If the zealot is at home shopping, even if they hold position, any time they buy and sell something their hold position will turn off and their autoattack will turn on. Use this to lead them away from the factory before they're done shopping.

* If the zealot really wants you dead, you will die (they can keep up with but not quite catch the speed boost, and they can still see the shimmer of cloaked units). You can waste a good 10 seconds using both of your abilities, and then hopefully you led them somewhere completely useless, so they need another 5-10 seconds walking back to somewhere useful. And then you respawn 60 seconds later, and get 30 seconds of invulnerability. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I don't have that much experience as spirit to draw from (I don't die early too often) but I think I've won literally all my games playing spirit this way (provided I get spirit early enough; 5-10 minute range). And the one time someone did this against my zealot was a very, very hard game. And if you have two probe spirits.....I did this once in a party and it seemed absolutely brutally unwinnable for the zealot (all bases have effectively three void-type spells, the probe spirits can split up when chased. The probe spirits can station one on either side of the factory to get a clearer idea of which direction the zealot is going). But that was only one game, hence wayyyyyy too early to declare "two roaming probe spirits breaks the game" or anything like that. But it certainly felt brutal at the time. Would love to hear other people's experiences.

Abilities

The Probe Spirit has a few abilities that will assist the probes in defeating the zealot.

Chrono Boost: Chrono Boost will boost the target structure for a few seconds with an increased production buff. For turrets it will increase the amount of attacks the turret outputs, and for generators the Chrono Boost will increase the amount of ticks during the duration of the boost. This skill is very valuable early game, and will assist probes in reaching a higher generator level more quickly.

Auras: Probe Spirits are packed with multiple auras to assist the probes. The first aura increases the damage of nearby turrets which allows the probes to either kill the zealot or prevent feeding more quickly. The second aura increases the rate at which the probes miners gather minerals. This can be extremely useful either late game or mid game to assist the probes on a more efficient economy.

Cloak: Cloak allows the Probe Spirit to become untargetable for a few seconds, and increases the movement speed of the Probe Spirit. This is incredibly useful in situations where you're required to escape from the Zealot quickly. This skill can also be used to trap the zealot at a choke point.

Decay (Zealot Slow): Decay will slow the Zealot's attack speed for a few seconds which will delay the rate in which the Zealot can feed, and will assist probes in repairing their walls if needed.