Starcraft 2 Best Race (Ranked Weakest to Strongest)

Updated:

18 Jun 2021

If you play SC2, you will often see people discussing this single most exciting topic in the game: which race is the best?

The 3 races of SC2

Each race, of course, has passionate players defending the race’s honour giving solid arguments as to why their race is the superior race of the three. In different times and servers, we may see different races dominating the top of the ladder.

In this article, we will review the 3 races of SC2 to answer the age-old question of which race is the strongest.

Grandmaster League ladder ranking on SC2 official website: https://starcraft2.com/en-us/ladder/grandmaster/1

For the purpose of ranking the strongest race in SC2 at the moment, we will look at the Grandmaster leaderboard for the American servers for the current season (2021 season 2).

GM top 10 ladder ranking race distribution:

#1. Protoss : 7 players

#2. Terran: 2 players

#3. Zerg: 1 player

#3. Zerg

Zerg hydralisk

The featured race of the second expansion of SC2 franchise, Heart of the Swarm, Zerg is a mighty monster type alien race. Some argue they are humongous insects, others argue they are more like dinosaur or godzilla type of deal. Whatever the case might be, if you like to smash stuff with swarms of giant beasts, this is the race for you. With the swarm controlled by the overmind like Queens, they act as a hivemind to achieve a goal. Playing Zerg requires extensive macro. You need to spread that creep all over the map and expand like there is no tomorrow to reach 200+ supplies ASAP to crush your opponent as Zerg.

Top Zergs to follow:

Serral
Rogue
Reynor
Dark

<Zerg> is strong against:

Bio Terran if you utilize ling/bane/mutas or hydra/lurkers well
Mech terran if you utilize swarm host or brood lords well
Protoss army if you utilize hydra/lurker based army well

<Zerg> is weak against:

Turtling Terran with all the splash damage (tanks, mines) with good positions forcing you to attack into them
Protoss death ball with all the AOEs (storm, colossi, disruptors)
Early game harass from Terran and Protoss (helions, mines, oracle, void rays)

<Zerg> review and conclusion:

Zergs seem to be having hard time getting good results over the other races at the moment
Granted, early-mid game can be very challenging for Zergs to ward off all the potent harasses from Terran and Protoss
But if you can survive until the late game where you can build your maxed out army with a good map presence, not very many things can stand a chance against your ever-multiplying swarm
If you enjoy multitasking to expand all over the map and mass produce brute force army to crush anything that stands in front of your army, this is a great race for you
Check out players like Serral and Rogue to see how this is done

#2. Terran

Terran marines

Representing our own race, Terran is an exiled human race in a distant future. It was the race featured in the very first SC2, Wings of Liberty. Terran players pride themselves in a flashy micro using different ranged units like bio , banshee, and ghost, to name a few. Terran units are mostly, if not entirely, ranged units which gives infinite potential for fun micro. If you like controlling different sets of units to maximize damage output to your favor in a battle, Terran may be the race for you. I will warn you though, your wrist will hurt the better you get in Terran.

Top Terrans to follow:

Maru
TY
Innovation
Byun

<Terran> is strong against:

Low tier Zerg and Protoss ground units like lings, roaches, zealots, and stalker (well controlled stimed bio will crush them)
Enemy army attacking into well set up Terran army with strong seize line (if you are a Zerg or Protoss trying to attack into Terran base with tanks, bios, and liberators positioned defensively, good luck)
Unprotected bulky units like ultras and colossi-ghost snipes and vikings will erase their presence in a second

<Terran> is weak against:

Well utilized spell casters in each of the other races- Zerg’s fungal+banes and Protoss’ storm+ charge lots= Terran rage quit
Zerg/Protoss death ball with splash units in the late game
Dynamic transportation/army movement of Zerg and Protoss that breaks the positioning of Terran army(Zerg’s nydus and Protoss prism)

<Terran> review and conclusion:

Terran is famous for ‘complaining’ about how weak their race is compared to the other races (take it from a Terran, guilty as charged)
But, looking at the GM ladder top rankings, however, it seems like their complaining is not entirely without grounds; still doing slightly better than Zerg players, but Terran players also seem to be struggling quite a bit recently to secure wins against Zerg/Protoss
Army movement/positioning and micro is immensely important for Terrans to beat typically stronger/sturdier army of Zerg and Protoss
If you enjoy cool micro moves and multitasking to attack multiple locations at once, this is a great race for you (again, beware of wrist pains and hand cramps from having to keep APM over 300 the entire game)
Check out players like Maru and Byun for micro and TY for strategic army positioning/movement.

#1. Protoss

Protoss carriers

My Life for Aiur! Protoss is a noble and elegant alien race of the SC2 featured in the last and current expansion, Legacy of the Void. They can communicate telepathically and boast advanced technology and civilization that trumps any other race. In game, Protoss is famous for having the most expensive and strong, therefore, oftentimes most OP army. Units usually cost much more than the counterpart units from the other 2 races (for example, a pair of ling and a marine each cost 50 mineral while a zealot costs 100 mineral). So it’s not surprising that Terrans and Zergs have been ‘complaining’ about difficulty beating Protoss on the ladders. If you like building both a beautiful and insanely durable army to crush your opponent, Protoss may be the right race for you.

Top Protoss to follow:

Trap
Stats
Zest
SOS

<Protoss> is strong against:

Light ground based armies like Terran bio and Zerg ling/roach/hydra- Protoss special units with splash damage like high templars, disruptors, and colossi will shred them
Early game push from Zerg/Terran with shield battery/overcharge available-if you are a Zerg or Terran trying to attack into multiple shield battery protected nexus with an overcharge available, seriously, good luck
Zerg/Terran Air army in a air battle-Protoss air army is extremely versatile and durable (if you run into a completed Protoss air army with mothership, carries, void rays, and tempests, you are most likely not winning this one)

<Protoss> is weak against:

Early/mid Terran bio drops to relatively shield-battery-free location
Fighting on creep against healthy Zerg ground army
EMPs that essentially nullify storm and strip all the shields off of Protoss army

<Protoss> review and conclusion:

In the past, Protoss has been a race that generally have been doing OK when other races seem to be struggling; and this seems to be the case at the moment as well
With good unit composition and patient play, Protoss army is very hard, if not impossible to crack in many instances
The key to building the Protoss death ball is maintaining the healthy number of high value units like high templars, disruptors, and colossi throughout the game
If you enjoy meticulously building the perfect army that will bulldoze through essentially everything or trying out fun proxy builds to catch Terrans/Zergs off guard early in the game, playing Protoss will do the trick for you
Make sure to check out players like Trap and Stats to see what invincible Protoss look like or SOS if you want to try out creactive/crazy strategies

SC2 3 race logos

OK, so Protoss seems to be the ‘best race’ to play at the moment. But at the end of the day, the important thing is that you enjoy the game playing the race, any race. So, if one race seems cool to you, go with it! Because, any of the 3 races has a potential to be the best race that you will have lots of fun playing- and this usually leads to more wins and an increase in MMR.