The Protoss Players Thread

[protoswarrior]

The key in all of it is to be able to take an expo WHILE he is trying to kill/harass another. Defend it like Gradius said, but try to make another one somewhere else (since he won't expect that to be happening). That enables you stay in the game even if you do lose 4-5 probes in the harass exchange.

Use stalkers and 1-2 sentries to defend and in that time, use your main army out there to do some econ damage to him as well. Just make use of your FF to protect vs lings, and Blink to focus down mutas. Proxy pyloning their expo or close to it is not a bad idea either. you can retreat, and warp in 4 zealots and hide them. Prep to defend your bases when u spot him moving out or just chasing you, then use the 4 zeals to slaughter probes while ignoring lings (shift queue attack targets).

Desert Oasis is very Zerg favored, but it isn't impossible to win vs them. Just dont lose too many probes and block ling runbys using FF on your ramp and cannons/zeals at your nat or expo.

EDIT: Getting Phoenix is not a bad idea either, but you need good control to use them though. Remember, they aren't corsairs, but they're close enough

[Norfindel]

Thanks, next time i'm playing there, i'll try to keep my base tight, cannon it and the expo, while building Stalkers.

Is it possible to quick expand with cannons + zealots (no gas), then take 4 gas at once, or is it suicide because Mutas will get too fast?

[protoswarrior]

It's very hard to not gas because if zerg scouts it he can go muta roach and fuck you over while you frantically try to tech and counter. Roaches would eat zealots alive while mutas go to town on your cannons and, later on, your probes.

The thing is... if you succeed in getting a fast expo, zerg is kinda screwed since you will have a mow-down army at your disposal with that preferential income.

[Drake Clawfang]

I had a fun PvP match the other day. It was on Scrap Station, or whatever it is called. I did a standard build to double and eventually triple Gateways, but he was proxy-ing me with cannons right inside my base. He was pushing into my probe line, and there were far too many cannons to destroy. So I took a gamble and sent two Zealots into his base. I killed a few probes, took some damage - one Zealot had only 1 HP left - and ultimately destroyed his Nexus using just the two Zealots. Back at my main base I mined a tiny bit more to get 400 Minerals and went and made a second Nexus at my natural. With all his resources piled into the proxy and a handful of Zealots (I had a few too), he said gg when he realized I had gotten a second base up.

[Todie]

yeah, that good work. although its always a terrible feeling getting caught off guard by a proxy, you should always try to hang in there.. those situations can be often be turned around!

[Drake Clawfang]

Here's an interesting game. I played very defensively, he kept raiding my worker lines but I replenished them and fought him off. I ultimately had eight Warp Gates ready to warp in reinforcements and I think I just out-macroed him, seizing both high yield expansions until I felt confident enough in my forces to push into his base. I still need to work on the macro though, I could and should have taken a third base. But I'm overall pleased with how I did. Rewatching the replay, I simply could not have made the final push into his base without the Warp Prism warping in reinforcements in the middle of the battle. It helped a lot and I overwhelmed him with Stalkers, Zealots and a handful of Immortals and Sentries.

A few times the lag screwed up my micro. I note these instances colorfully.

[Peanutbutter]

Here's an interesting game. I played very defensively, he kept raiding my worker lines but I replenished them and fought him off. I ultimately had eight Warp Gates ready to warp in reinforcements and I think I just out-macroed him, seizing both high yield expansions until I felt confident enough in my forces to push into his base. I still need to work on the macro though, I could and should have taken a third base. But I'm overall pleased with how I did. Rewatching the replay, I simply could not have made the final push into his base without the Warp Prism warping in reinforcements in the middle of the battle. It helped a lot and I overwhelmed him with Stalkers, Zealots and a handful of Immortals and Sentries.

A few times the lag screwed up my micro. I note these instances colorfully.

Very nice use of that warp prism there.

But as you say, you need to work VERY hard on your macro. You had soooooo few of those probes. You expansion and main were far from saturated.

Keep building probes, even if you build too many, so that you can always saturate a new expansion asap.

What league was that in, btw ? :=)

[Drake Clawfang]

Bronze.

Macro has always been my weak spot, even in the original SC. I never expand fast enough or often enough, and never make enough workers. I'm pleased with my early performance with about two dozen of them at my main. 6 for Vespene and what was it, 16-18 for the 8 mineral field? Sounds about right to me. But yeah, I never had enough at the expansions.

[Peanutbutter]

Bronze.

Macro has always been my weak spot, even in the original SC. I never expand fast enough or often enough, and never make enough workers. I'm pleased with my early performance with about two dozen of them at my main. 6 for Vespene and what was it, 16-18 for the 8 mineral field? Sounds about right to me. But yeah, I never had enough at the expansions.

For max saturation, you'd want 3 workers per mineral and 3 per vespene geyser. For max effectiveness you should have 2. But it's always better to have more, since you can saturate a fresh expo faster that way.

A good advice, is also that once you have an army, attack move it, and forget about it. Then macro up.
Once you get good at macroing, take a look on how your army is doing once in a while and perhaps micro a little.

[Drake Clawfang]

Don't have the replay but late game PvZ on Lost Temple the other day I did some pretty snazzy Blink micro. Ran into an expo on the other side of the map, trashed the Queen and caused a bit of damage, I may have destroyed the Hatch, can't remember. Anyway, thanks to an Observer I saw his army coming for me so I waited until they came up into the base, then Blink'd down the cliff to escape without a scratch. Blink'd to chase his units and keep up with them, Blink'd down the hill into my high-yield expansion to defend it, and when I finally attacked I sent a lone Stalker up the ramp for sight and Blink'd the rest up.

I have to use this ability more often.