Starcraft 2 Trash Dump

What About Mechanics?

2011-02-09T13:54:00.001-06:00

Day[9] Daily #252 delves into the basic mechanics of Starcraft 2: Hotkeys, APM and Mouse Movement

[Guide] iEchoic's 2fact2port TvT

2011-02-08T00:57:00.002-06:00

Intro

I'm not one who likes using siege tanks in TvT. About a month ago, I began brainstorming a tank-less build & composition with the following properties:

- Must be able to react to all TvT openings

- Must be very mobile (and gain map control as a result)

- Must be able to do economic damage faster than other mobile builds (such as cloaked banshee)

The result is a 2fact2port opening that relies on a hellion + air composition. I've found that all Terran compositions can be beaten with only these units:

As of me writing this, I am a top 50 US player, and I estimate that I win 80-90% of my TvTs. This build has proven to be effective at a high level.

I have to mention that this build is very difficult to execute. This is not the type of build you read about, try, and immediately win all your games with. It took me several days to get the basics down, and even now I feel that it could be executed better by players better than I. The mechanics and game sense requirement to execute this is high - lower-level players will find it a good test of their mechanics, and players better than I can probably make it stronger than I can. However, if you have the patience and mechanics to learn it, I guarantee that it will give you a rich payoff. The road to shunning tanks is not an easy one, but it is a rewarding one.

Overview

This build utilizes two fast factories and then two fast starports. Infernal pre-igniter is researched as soon as possible. Fast 2 factories gives you a powerful early aggression-stopper (vs marines and hellions), and gives you map control.

A fast medivac is created to give a counter-attack and economic damage threat. This is a hard-counter to rushed cloaked banshees + bunker at front.

The 2 starports give you tremendous flexibility in countering terran openings. Banshees can be countered by simultaneously creating a raven and a viking, while dropping hellions. Reactored starport openings can be countered by actually creating 3 vikings at once instead of two. Marine/tank openings can be countered by creating vikings and banshees simultaneously.

Analogy to ZvT

The composition basically works the same as muta/ling/bling, and has a similar playstyle.

- Blue flame hellions act as the banelings (they kill marines, and are disposable)
- Banshees act as the muta air-to-ground attack (cleaning up ground units after banelings hit)
- Vikings act as the muta air-to-air attack (holding air superiority).
- Should it get to that point, battlecruisers can act as broodlords, countering thors (although BCs are much easier to get and are also quite good vs marines)

This build works for the same reasons muta/ling/bling does, and as a result, it has the same properties as typical ZvT. This means that:

- This build is more powerful on longer rush distances due to the mobility advantage
- Keeping map awareness and map control is very important
- Losing air control is bad (similar to how losing all your mutas results in you being vulnerable to drops and banshees)

TL;DR: Play like a zerg player. Keep that mentality in mind.

Build Order

NOTE: this build order is very weird. You must watch the replays in order to understand how it functions correctly.

10 supply
12 rax
13 ref
15 OC
15 make one marine, then queue another (only make 2 marines)
16 supply
17 ref
(supply counts discontinued from here - keep making scvs nonstop)
factory
factory
tech lab on rax
swap first factory onto rax
make 1 hellion & get preigniter
make 1 hellion on second factory
>> clear xelnagas with hellion
starport
starport
supply drop (see faq)
medivac
>> poke up ramp with a hellion, try to scout composition
>> build order discontinued here, starport production is dependent on opponent's composition

Why it Works

1) Map control

This build gains early map control over all terran compositions I am aware of. This allows you easy counter attacks (because you see when they leave their base), advance warning, and easy dropship counters. Your viking superiority + hellion mobility renders all enemy drops actually beneficial for you, because everything in the dropship will simply die and the dropship will get shot down, similar to how dropping vs a zerg player who has good map awareness generally ends with mutas killing your drop quickly.

2) Terran Symmetry

Terran units have a lot of symmetry.

Units that shoot air units
Marine (countered by hellions)
Thor (countered by battlecruiser)
Viking (countered by having more vikings, which is easy when you have 2ports)
Ghosts (are terrible)

Only four good terran units actually shoot up (discounting the battlecruiser, because BC is only viable after vikings). These units are all countered by either hellions or air units. Creating air units necessitates the use of one of these three units, and each of these three units must be built in a mass such that they do not die before killing off all air units.

From there, notice:

Air attacks by units that attack air units
Marine (very fast attack speed, low damage)
Thor (fires multiple low-damage rockets)
Viking (fires multiple low-medium-damage rockets)

What does this mean for us? In a late-game composition, upgrading air armor is very strong, due to the low-damage attacks of these units. In addition, these three units are infantry, mech, and air, which makes upgrading all three of them incredibly inefficient. Any one to two of these can be hard-countered with ease.

What else? Two of the three of these attacks (thor, viking) are mitigated by PDD. Since we are using ravens for detection instead of turrets, we have a natural synergy here, and create little inefficiency.

3) Economic Damage

Hellion drops are the most economically damaging harassment in the game. This necessitates leaving defenses in-base at all times.

4) Forcing responses

Banshees necessitate your opponent getting detection. This is either a raven (which is not efficient for him, because we're going to be controlling the air, and his raven will be dying), or an ebay + turrets, which creates inefficiency.

Hellions necessitate your opponent leaving defenses (non-turrets) in his base at all times. This creates additional inefficiency or economic death.

Mass air necessitates mass marine, viking or thor. We are not forced into anything. We do not build turrets, we build a raven. Our raven, should we need to build one, has synergy against two of the three AA options for our opponent.

Reacting to Terran Openings

This is a reactive build. You must counter your opponent's openings. Your reaction to your opponent's style will take place in the form of changing the output of your two starports. Your factories will always produce hellions.

Think of your factories as your 'core buildings' and your starports as your 'reaction buildings'.

While there are more specific instructions below, here's some basic principles:
1) You must always have more vikings than your opponent at all times. This is priority #1.
2) All ground units except thors can be combated with banshees. If your opponent gets thors, you must get battlecruisers.
3) Do not build engineering bays or turrets, ever. You don't need them for air control, and you have a raven for detection.
4) Because your composition is reactive and your composition more mobile, you need to hold map control until your opponent pushes out at all times. As soon as your hellions pop, you need to control the xel'naga towers. This is crucial in fighting off certain pushes.

Marine/Tank opening

Tells: no bunker at front, marines only, should see tank on subsequent pokes

Your starports should open 1banshee1viking after your intial medivac. The viking is incase your opponent gets a viking or banshee, and the one banshee is to clean up the remaining marines and then the tanks. This is where controlling the xel'naga towers is very important. If your opponent moves out with his marines and tanks, you need to burn off a majority of the marines with hellions. The xel'naga gives you the vision to see what side of the unit ball the marines are on and get a good attack angle.

Once the marines are dead, roll in with your banshee and clean up, force a retreat.

Banshee opening

Tells: bunker at front, no tanks or marauders on subsequent pokes up ramp

Your starports should open 1raven1viking after your intitial medivac (swap with factory once preigniter is done). Your hellion drop will likely do huge damage, and dropping fast is a high priority. If the banshee arrives before your viking/raven pop, run your scvs away. You will do much more damage with your hellions than he will with his banshees.

Bio or possible FE

Tells: no bunker, but marauders produced.

Your starports should open 2x banshee after your initial medivac. Mass banshee + blue flame hellion mops up bio relatively easily. Research cloak ASAP. In the event of a FE, you need to be very proactive about banshee harass and hellion drops.

Thor opening

Tells: usually bunker at the front - can be hard to scout for.

This is the hardest opening for this build, but it is also the most rare. Several other openings like cloaked banshee opening is countered by the Thor opening, so I sometimes consider Thor a 'counter' build instead of a legitimate TvT opener.

You're going to have to go for an economy trade if your opponent attacks. As soon as his thor leaves his base, drop hellions and rack up kills. Open 1banshee/1viking. You really need to go all-in on this thor and do more economic damage to win. Send your SCVs on it, land your vikings if there is no air to shoot, attack with your banshees and hellions. If you execute it right, you should have done more economic damage than your opponent, although it's usually close.

Viking-heavy (reactored port) opening

Tells: hard to scout for, check starport upon hellion drop. Usually opens with one tank, no bunker

This build relies upon holding air superiority. If your opponent makes 2 vikings at once, make 3. Create reactors on your rax while creating vikings. You should not have a problem holding air superiority as long as you're proactive about scouting for it.

Lategame Compositions

I'll just use a flowchart here:

Link to high-res

Tips and Tricks

- Your barracks, even though not producing, can be incredibly useful. Use it to create reactors and techlabs nonstop, continually lifting to produce more for your factories and starports.
- Your barracks can also be used to lift and scout your opponent's base on scrap and close-air metal/LT.
- Air armor is your #1 priority for upgrades

FAQ

Q: Why the supply drop?
A: The supply drop gives you an instant benefit of 100 minerals, and a benefit of 50 additional minerals from the opportunity cost of not building a supply depot over the course of a supply depot build time. A MULE gives you 270 minerals over the course of 90 seconds. The supply drop is placed in the build at a key point where minerals are very tight. Saving 100 immediate minerals allows you to produce a second starport while continuing hellions - something not possible using a MULE.

Q: What are the expo timings?
A: I play this by ear. If your opponent is turtling, it's generally safe to keep expanding. If your opponent is being aggressive, keep producing. Think of it like a zerg player would. See replay vs ThisIsJimmy to see a quick 3rd base vs a turtling opponent or my game vs Sixto to see a more 1-base play.

Q: Why 2facts? Why not just make a reactor?
A: 2facts allows you to create 2x hellions while researching preigniter. It removes the inherent danger that comes with using only one factory to produce hellions. 2factories makes you much safer vs 2rax openings and early cheese, and gives you infrastructure for later down the road.

Q: Do you get cloak?
A: I only get cloak if I know my opponent will not have mobile detection soon (FE, bio), and sometimes not even then. Banshees are more of a combat unit than a stealth unit for me, although you can play around with this.

More will be added here as questions come in.

Replays

At the bottom of this section is the option to download a small replay pack of 7 replays. I've picked out a couple choice replays though, below.

This demonstrates a response to a heavy bio/FE play. Note how much my macro slips, going 1k/1k resources at one point. Also notice the quick 3rd base in response to his heavy turtling. Still a relatively easy win, despite getting minimal damage with the initial hellion drop.

This replay demonstrates a game vs an aggressive marine + hellion attack. Blue flame does a very easy job repelling enemy drops and punishing aggressive openers by killing SCVs.

The first question I always get is 'don't you just die to a tank/marine push'? This demonstrates the proper response. It is cleaned up with ease, and an easy win ensues.

Download entire replay pack (7 replays): link

Also see: vileDeathRow vs Drewbie (by PsyStarcraft): link

PvZ Phoenix->DT->HT

2010-09-02T16:54:00.001-05:00

Hey fellow Starcraft 2 Addicts

Its been a while since my last post. mostly due to the fact that I am looking for jobs, as well as have had nothing really exciting to post about. Before I get into the Strategy I am about to explain, I would like to give a congrats to HuK for winning MLG-Raleigh, and Morrow for winning IEM Europe. I would encourage you to check out GOMTV.net. They will be hosting a Starcraft 2 GSL and have streaming of all 6 days available for purchase, as well as VODs. personally, I will not be paying for a low quality stream or VoDs, since the price is a bit exorbitant for low income people, but I digress. If you do feel like spending the money, however, exceptional players like IdrA and TLO, as well as some amazing Koreans will be playing. If you have the time and money, definately check it out

Now, without further delay, lets get into this strategy.

I. INTRODUCTION

A new brand of PvZ.

Since the release of StarCraft II, I have seen a lot of posts from protoss players wondering about how to deal with muta/ling builds in PvZ. The crux of the problem is that, at tier 2, zerg will pursue one of two tech paths, each of which seems to have a completely unrelated counter to the other. Protoss almost needs phoenixes to effectively counter mutalisks, and a protoss player cannot compete against large hydralisk armies without either storm or colossi. I believe that I have found a build that enables protoss to deal with both possibilities. Better yet, this build also happens to transition very well into the late game and enables the protoss player to sustain A LOT of pressure on the zerg at all points in the game.

In a nutshell, the build that is outlined below is a 2-gate zealot pressure opening that transitions first into stargate tech (usually for phoenixes), second into chargelot/dark templar, and lastly into high templar. I’m not going to provide a detailed build order because a rigid build order is useless, for the purposes of this post, beyond building two gateways and your initial gateway pressure force. What you do thereafter is going to going depend upon how the game unfolds after the initial zealot pressure. The crux of this post is to discuss the transition into tier 2 after your expansion is up.

Though this post is going to have a lot of characteristics of a guide, I’m not entirely comfortable calling it a guide right now. The refinement of build orders down to a science isn’t there. However, I think that the basic concept behind the build is strong and important enough to present for further discussion and refinement.

Besides, when you get this reaction from another player, you know that you’ve stumbled onto something good.

II. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION FOR THE STRATEGY

Before I set out the build, I want to describe its theoretical foundation. Given how dynamic PvZ is, especially in the mid to late game, you can’t really understand, use, and appreciate a strategy like this one unless you understand its basis. So let me explain what I was considering when creating this strategy.

1. Playing passively against good zerg will result in defeat.

So what makes high level PvZ games different than lower level PvZ games? Conceptually, it’s very simple: good zergs know how to punish protoss players that play passively by leveraging their inherent macroeconomic advantage. A basic tenet of StarCraft II (or most any other RTS), is that resources invested into your economy today means that there will be more money available for bigger, more powerful armies tomorrow. As you know, zergs build all of their units, including workers, from a common larvae pool. Unlike terran and protoss, whose potential worker production is predominantly a function of how many nexii or command centers they have, a zerg’s potential drone production is a function of available larvae. Basically, a zerg can dedicate all of his unit production capacity drones, whereas terrans and protosses cannot. A good comparison to the zerg’s drone production capacity would be a protoss player that could build probes out of his nexus, gateways, stargates, and robotics facilities. Because the zerg can crank out drones so much faster than a protoss, the zerg can make an initial investment of larvae and minerals into drone production early on to quickly create a superior economy to the protoss player. The zerg player can then turn this economy advantage into a superior army that the protoss cannot beat. This is the primary reason why passive play fails. A protoss player must put pressure upon the zerg in order to win.

Guess what? There’s a second problem with playing passively. Zerg can endlessly accumulate larvae while they endlessly accumulate resources. What this means is that if you sit in your base for too long and let the zerg get a 200/200 army, he’ll amass so much larvae that he can instantly rebuild his army after any battle. A protoss simply cannot match that production.

Most protoss players understand these concepts well enough and apply them in the early game by opening against zerg with some kind of early gateway pressure. However, most of those protoss players fail to apply those principles as they transition out of the gateway pressure and tech straight to tier 3: colossi or templar. Getting either of these techs online is very time-consuming and resource-intensive, which gives the zerg a very large window to either attack you or expand his economic advantage. The principle purpose of this guide is to show protoss players how to minimize this window by squeezing a little more juice out of the protoss’s tier 2 tech and by using dark templar.

2. Zerg tech switches can result in instant defeat for ill-prepared protoss players.

Aside from granting zerg the macroeconomic advantage in worker production, the larvae mechanic also enables zerg to tech switch far more easily than either terrans or protoss. So you just killed off that pesky hydra/roach army with your zealot/stalker/sentry/colossus force. Great! Now ultra/ling and corruptors are flying up your ass and you don’t have a proper force to deal with it. Not so great! Zerg tech switches can be absolutely brutal because they often come with no warning. You won’t know what the zerg is building often times until his army shows up at your front door. Protoss has two ways to mitigate this danger.

First, aggressive protoss play can “force” the zerg down certain tech paths, making his force composition predictable. For example, aggressive 2-gate openings will force either massed speedlings, roaches, or banelings, thereby delaying lair tech units and faster expansions. Getting a stargate and building phoenixes will discourage the zerg from building mutalisks and force him to build hydralisks.

However, even aggressive protoss play can’t entirely dictate what the zerg builds. To further mitigate the risk of losing due to a tech switch, the protoss player should build a force that can deal with anything that the zerg throws at him. Fortunately, the protoss player has such an option, which will be discussed below.

3. Spire tech is the most effective and deadly ZvP tech.

Massed mutalisks create huge problems for protoss players. Good zerg players will use the mutalisks to keep an ill-prepared protoss player trapped in his base, giving the zerg unlimited map control, which he will then use to take bases and establish an insurmountable economic lead. Let’s face it: protoss ground-based anti-air sucks. Period. Stalkers simply don’t do enough damage against air units, and they are not mobile enough to keep up with mutalisks, even with blink, when you’re ready to expand beyond your natural. Phoenixes are the only, consistently effective answer to mutalisks that protoss has for reestablishing map control. This threat of mutalisks is one of the primary reasons why this guide advocates building a stargate as the first tech building after a core. By creating an early phoenix force, the protoss player can effectively raise the opportunity cost that the zerg faces in transitioning into spire. In other words, the zerg needs a larger air force than he otherwise might need to effectively the protoss. This dynamic effectively discourages spire tech altogether.

4. Protoss units are at their best in smaller engagements.

This may be the most overlooked characteristic of the protoss arsenal. Because of the general crappiness of stalkers and sentries in terms of raw damage output, and because of the diminishing effectiveness of melee units (zealots) in combat against larger and larger masses of ranged units, the protoss army is not as effective in 200/200 combat as either terrans or zerg. Colossi and storm help level the playing field, but the core gateway units that will form the backbone of the protoss army are very weak in large-scale combat by themselves. This fact two has important implications. First, a protoss player NEEDS either storm or colossi to compete against large zerg ground armies. Second, all other things being equal (like equal production and economy), army trading to reduce the size of each player’s army is a good outcome for the protoss. While 20 zealots will not do well against 20 hydralisks, 10 zealots will absolutely murder 10 hydralisks. The chargelot, in particular, is the king of the late game when the initial large armies have been destroyed. This dynamic further lends to the effectiveness of aggressive PvZ play.

5. Protoss is the map control king of StarCraft 2.

Leveraging warp in, proxy pylons, warp prisms, fairly mobile gateway troops, and very fast stargate units, protoss has all of the tools necessary by the late game to establish and command map control. The warp prism, in particular, may be the most important late game protoss unit. Sneaky warp prism usage can absolutely shut down an opposing player’s late game economy by attacking and harassing expansions. Yes, zerg are pretty fast on their creep highways, but even they cannot compete with the ability to instantly build units in any psi field. This hyper-mobility from warp in arguably makes protoss the strongest late game race. To fully leverage warp in, this guide advocates a strategy that emphasizes gateway units over robotics facility units.

6. Feedback makes it incredibly difficult for a zerg to maintain detection over a battlefield.

This one is self-explanatory. Zerg’s only mobile detection are overseers, and they have energy. They are big, fat, ripe targets for feedback sniping. Once the overseers are gone, the zerg has no detection, giving your dark templar free reign to rape face.

1. Playing passively against good zerg will result in defeat.

So what makes high level PvZ games different than lower level PvZ games? Conceptually, it’s very simple: good zergs know how to punish protoss players that play passively by leveraging their inherent macroeconomic advantage. A basic tenet of StarCraft II (or most any other RTS), is that resources invested into your economy today means that there will be more money available for bigger, more powerful armies tomorrow. As you know, zergs build all of their units, including workers, from a common larvae pool. Unlike terran and protoss, whose potential worker production is predominantly a function of how many nexii or command centers they have, a zerg’s potential drone production is a function of available larvae. Basically, a zerg can dedicate all of his unit production capacity drones, whereas terrans and protosses cannot. A good comparison to the zerg’s drone production capacity would be a protoss player that could build probes out of his nexus, gateways, stargates, and robotics facilities. Because the zerg can crank out drones so much faster than a protoss, the zerg can make an initial investment of larvae and minerals into drone production early on to quickly create a superior economy to the protoss player. The zerg player can then turn this economy advantage into a superior army that the protoss cannot beat. This is the primary reason why passive play fails. A protoss player must put pressure upon the zerg in order to win.

Guess what? There’s a second problem with playing passively. Zerg can endlessly accumulate larvae while they endlessly accumulate resources. What this means is that if you sit in your base for too long and let the zerg get a 200/200 army, he’ll amass so much larvae that he can instantly rebuild his army after any battle. A protoss simply cannot match that production.

Most protoss players understand these concepts well enough and apply them in the early game by opening against zerg with some kind of early gateway pressure. However, most of those protoss players fail to apply those principles as they transition out of the gateway pressure and tech straight to tier 3: colossi or templar. Getting either of these techs online is very time-consuming and resource-intensive, which gives the zerg a very large window to either attack you or expand his economic advantage. The principle purpose of this guide is to show protoss players how to minimize this window by squeezing a little more juice out of the protoss’s tier 2 tech and by using dark templar.

2. Zerg tech switches can result in instant defeat for ill-prepared protoss players.

Aside from granting zerg the macroeconomic advantage in worker production, the larvae mechanic also enables zerg to tech switch far more easily than either terrans or protoss. So you just killed off that pesky hydra/roach army with your zealot/stalker/sentry/colossus force. Great! Now ultra/ling and corruptors are flying up your ass and you don’t have a proper force to deal with it. Not so great! Zerg tech switches can be absolutely brutal because they often come with no warning. You won’t know what the zerg is building often times until his army shows up at your front door. Protoss has two ways to mitigate this danger.

First, aggressive protoss play can “force” the zerg down certain tech paths, making his force composition predictable. For example, aggressive 2-gate openings will force either massed speedlings, roaches, or banelings, thereby delaying lair tech units and faster expansions. Getting a stargate and building phoenixes will discourage the zerg from building mutalisks and force him to build hydralisks.

However, even aggressive protoss play can’t entirely dictate what the zerg builds. To further mitigate the risk of losing due to a tech switch, the protoss player should build a force that can deal with anything that the zerg throws at him. Fortunately, the protoss player has such an option, which will be discussed below.

3. Spire tech is the most effective and deadly ZvP tech.

Massed mutalisks create huge problems for protoss players. Good zerg players will use the mutalisks to keep an ill-prepared protoss player trapped in his base, giving the zerg unlimited map control, which he will then use to take bases and establish an insurmountable economic lead. Let’s face it: protoss ground-based anti-air sucks. Period. Stalkers simply don’t do enough damage against air units, and they are not mobile enough to keep up with mutalisks, even with blink, when you’re ready to expand beyond your natural. Phoenixes are the only, consistently effective answer to mutalisks that protoss has for reestablishing map control. This threat of mutalisks is one of the primary reasons why this guide advocates building a stargate as the first tech building after a core. By creating an early phoenix force, the protoss player can effectively raise the opportunity cost that the zerg faces in transitioning into spire. In other words, the zerg needs a larger air force than he otherwise might need to effectively the protoss. This dynamic effectively discourages spire tech altogether.

4. Protoss units are at their best in smaller engagements.

This may be the most overlooked characteristic of the protoss arsenal. Because of the general crappiness of stalkers and sentries in terms of raw damage output, and because of the diminishing effectiveness of melee units (zealots) in combat against larger and larger masses of ranged units, the protoss army is not as effective in 200/200 combat as either terrans or zerg. Colossi and storm help level the playing field, but the core gateway units that will form the backbone of the protoss army are very weak in large-scale combat by themselves. This fact two has important implications. First, a protoss player NEEDS either storm or colossi to compete against large zerg ground armies. Second, all other things being equal (like equal production and economy), army trading to reduce the size of each player’s army is a good outcome for the protoss. While 20 zealots will not do well against 20 hydralisks, 10 zealots will absolutely murder 10 hydralisks. The chargelot, in particular, is the king of the late game when the initial large armies have been destroyed. This dynamic further lends to the effectiveness of aggressive PvZ play.

5. Protoss is the map control king of StarCraft 2.

Leveraging warp in, proxy pylons, warp prisms, fairly mobile gateway troops, and very fast stargate units, protoss has all of the tools necessary by the late game to establish and command map control. The warp prism, in particular, may be the most important late game protoss unit. Sneaky warp prism usage can absolutely shut down an opposing player’s late game economy by attacking and harassing expansions. Yes, zerg are pretty fast on their creep highways, but even they cannot compete with the ability to instantly build units in any psi field. This hyper-mobility from warp in arguably makes protoss the strongest late game race. To fully leverage warp in, this guide advocates a strategy that emphasizes gateway units over robotics facility units.

6. Feedback makes it incredibly difficult for a zerg to maintain detection over a battlefield.

This one is self-explanatory. Zerg’s only mobile detection are overseers, and they have energy. They are big, fat, ripe targets for feedback sniping. Once the overseers are gone, the zerg has no detection, giving your dark templar free reign to rape face.

III. THE STRATEGY

1. The Early Game

The real focus of this post is on Tier 2 and Tier 3. However, some discussion of Tier 1 is necessary on what a protoss player needs to do to position himself in the early game for what comes later. The protoss player should have one goal in mind in the early game: securing his expansion. There are a number of ways of going about this.

My preferred method is 2-gating, particularly when the zerg base is not too far away. The point of a 2-gate opening isn’t to the kill zerg early, though stupid zergs that go for a greedy fast expand build probably will die to your 2-gate opening. There are two main objectives when 2-gating. The first is to delay the zerg expansion. The second is to force the zerg to build roaches or zerglings instead of drones.

My preferred 2-gate opening is pylon on 9, gate on 12, gate on 14, pylon on 15-16, zealot on 16, and pylon on 18 => chronoboost 4 additional zealots out. Send your first five zealots over to the zerg base. Afterwards, start a 6th zealot for clogging the choke, start your first gas, and start a core. Getting the core is important at this point is important if the zerg reacts to your pressure with roaches. You’ll need the stalkers out ASAP to protect your zealots. Scouting on 9 is preferable so that you can check if the zerg is at a very far cross-position on a 4-player map. If he is, then you’ll want to skip 2-gating and opt for a fast expand build.

There is no precise timing for when you expand other than doing it when you have a decent force to defend the expansion. Of course, “decent” is a relative term that depends upon how many troops the zerg is building. Accordingly, you’ll need to keep tabs on what the zerg is doing by scouting semi-often.

If the zerg is committing to some kind of all-in, tier 1 roach, speedling, or baneling attack, then stay on one base, start your second gas, start your forge, and start a stargate as soon as you have enough gas. When the stargate is done, chronoboost out two void rays. If the zerg has a really big army at this point, consider throwing down a cannon or two to buy some additional time. Use the void rays to crush the zerg army at your base and then snipe the expansion that the zerg likely started. You should have an opening to take your expansion at this point.

On a side note, I build a forge before I expand to help guard against speedlings, especially on maps with open naturals. I also start my +1 weapons right away.

2. Transitioning into Tier 2 Aggression

Here’s where the fun begins. Assuming that you have just expanded, your tech path now is to build a stargate, immediately followed by a twilight council. When your stargate is finished, chronoboost a phoenix and immediately send it to the zerg base to see what he is doing. If you see hydra tech, cut phoenix production just long enough so that you have enough gas to start charge (chronoboost it) and begin a dark shrine. Afterwards, resume phoenix production until you have about 5-6 phoenixes. If you see spire tech or otherwise suspect muta/ling, thrown down a second stargate and keep pumping phoenixes. In both cases, begin increasing your gateway count as minerals allow. On a related note, your +1 weapons should be finishing about now. Go ahead and start +2 once your twilight council is done.

I’m not going to talk too much about fighting muta/ling. With chargelots and phoenixes being pumped from 2 stargates, you should have it perfectly countered and the zerg will probably switch into hydralisk tech fairly quickly.

So let’s talk about what happens when you have phoenixes and the zerg gets hydralisks. Now, when the zerg sees your phoenixes, he’s probably going to smile and start thinking , “hah! I have the perfect counter to this newb’s build!” Well, fortunately for you, he is sadly mistaken.

Assuming that you were proactive with timely starting your dark shrine and charge upon seeing the hydralisk tech being started, you should have a sizeable chargelot force, 5-6 phoenixes, a few dark templar, plus a few sentries/stalkers in support by the time that the zerg has enough hydralisks and roaches to be frisky. You should be fairly safe from attack with this force.

Once you have 3-4 dark templar, it’s time to go on the offensive, preferably attacking the zerg’s third if he has started it. Believe it or not, you should actually have army superiority at this point even though you do not have either colossi or storm. Why? Because the zerg probably will not have more than 1 overseer readily available, which you can easily snipe down with your phoenixes and sentry/stalkers. From there, just use your dark templar, mixed with your chargelots, to take down the zerg’s ground army. The trick is to mix the dark templar in with your main force of chargelots. This makes the dark templar hard to notice and target. Even if you lose everything except your dark templar and phoenixes in exchange for wiping out the zerg’s ground army, that’s ok. However, that outcome is unlikely unless the zerg has stayed on 2 bases and focused on massing troops.

After this initial battle, you should be taking your third and researching storm tech to prepare for the late game. Make sure that you sustain your phoenix force. Keep at least 5-6 at all times to discourage tech switches to mutalisks.

3. A New and Improved Tier 3 Protoss Deathball

Let's play a game called "Pop Goes the Overseer."

Perhaps the best part about this build is that it cleanly and easily transitions into an army that is incredibly difficult for a zerg to counter. Your late game army will be composed primarily of chargelots, dark templar, phoenixes, and high templar, with varying numbers of sentries, stalkers, and archons in support. As at tier 2, the dark templar are the key to making this composition work. Utilizing your phoenixes and feedback from your high templar, any number of overseers will be dead at the beginning of any battle, giving your dark templar free reign. This means that, unlike stalker/sentry/colossus deathballs, you will be impervious to ultralisks (dark templar take down ultralisks VERY quickly). In fact, this composition is so effective that it is almost unfair. Just watch the replays below.

Because your army is gateway-based, you can really abuse your mobility with warp in as the game drags on and players have to take expansions that are further from their mains. If you can, remember to make one phase prism for this very purpose. Keep the pressure up on the zerg and make him earn every expansion. If you can, hit him in multiple places at once by sending your phase prism to one spot and your main army to another.

Lastly, don’t forget to use your dark templar to camp expansion sites!

IV. FAQ
Q: What inspired this build?
A: I developed the build backwards. While playing against a friend, I stumbled onto the effectiveness of using dark templar while sniping overseers with feedback. From there, it was just a matter of figuring out how to get to the point where you can field the tier 3 army described above. More importantly, I hate 4-gating and refuse to play that way in any matchup other than PvP (where I have no choice sometimes). This build, unlikely 4-gating, is inherently badass and fun to use.

Q: Where are the colossi?
A: Honestly, I don’t like colossi that much for the same reason that many other players don’t like them: they’re boring. More importantly, however, I think that colossi are too easy to counter at higher levels of play. Zerg have gotten very good at exploiting the time that it takes to build 3-4 colossi to get a huge economic advantage. Also, zerg are very good at getting enough corruptors to absolutely shut down colossi. For these reasons alone, I prefer high templar and storm tech.

Q: Can zerg counter this?
A: I’m rated at about 1050 in diamond league. Once I get into tier 2, I basically never lose to zerg when I use this build. I think part of the problem is that most zerg haven’t seen this type of build before (all they see is stupid 4-gate play or colossus-centric stuff) so they don’t know how to respond.

Q: Do infestors counter this?
A: There are a couple of games included in the replays where the zerg gets infestors. The infestors don’t really make a difference.

Q: Won't roaches counter this?
A: Not necessarily. Roaches will give anything that is zealot/chargelot reliant a lot of problems. However, you can easily adjust your composition to deal with roaches by adding some sentries, stalkers, immortal, and/or void rays. All of these are readily available units that you can build on the fly.

Q: Won’t the zerg be able to kill you before you get high templar if he brings multiple overseers?
A: I don’t think so. Each overseer is a very large investment. Think about it this way: for every overseer that the zerg builds, he will have 2 less hydralisks in his army. Thus, 3 overseers roughly equals 6 hydralisks. That’s a very significant investment. Specifically, it’s an investment that a zerg will not make unless he knows that there are dark templar on the field. Even if the zerg does build those three overseers, he will have a significantly smaller hydralisk force. This means that your chargelots will be more effective against his ground forces (see principal #5 above). In short, early dark templar, when combined with phoenixes and chargelots, create a very ugly mid-game Catch-22 for the zerg.

Q: So what are you going to do when zerg learn to burn all of the mana on their overseers?
A: I’ll counter by either getting faster blink on my stalkers, increasing my phoenix count, or adding a void ray or two to burn down the overseers faster.

Q: Your Tier 1 discussion sucks because....
A: As I explicitly state in the discussion of the build, what happens at Tier 1 isn't important. This build is about the Tier 2 and Tier 3 transitions. These transitions are triggered once you secure your expansion. How you get to that point is up to you. I included my 2-gate opening as a preferred method of getting the expansion up. If you think that you have something better, go for it. I personally don't believe that there is a 1-size fits all Tier 1 build order PvZ. FE, 2-gating, and 1-gate core all have their uses depending upon the map and proximity between bases.

Q: When should I get my robotics facility?
A: I usually forego the robotics facility until after I have templar tech online. Observers aren’t that critical in PvZ when you already have phoenixes. The phoenixes can scout what the zerg is doing. You only need observers if you think that the zerg is looking to abuse burrowed/tunneling roaches. That said, it is nice to have observers to kill off creep tumors.

Q: I can't make this build work!!!
A: Yes, this can be a difficult build to use. Anything that involves phoenixes requires practice and finesse. Keep trying it and you'll eventually get the hang of it.

Q: You don’t even have phoenixes in half of your replays!!!!
A: Yeah, those are my earlier games when I was still tinkering with the build and focusing upon getting storm out faster. However, I included those replays anyway because they have good late-game demonstrations of how the build operates at tier 3 (sans phoenix, of course).

Q: Dude, the zergs in your replays suck....
A: Unless you’re like 1100+ Diamond, the zergs that you’re playing aren’t much better (I’m sitting at about 1050 right now). That said, I reviewed all of the replays and noticed that I fairly consistently had more workers than my zerg opponents. The two-gate opening, in particular, often resulted in me having a nearly 10 worker lead early on. Nevertheless, the point of this isn’t to highlight how good (or crappy) of a player I am. The point is to showcase a very strong PvZ build. Because, in MOST of the battles, the army sizes were fairly similar (I had trouble keeping my minerals down at times), you have a good opportunity to see how effective the build is. Besides, I want players who are better than me to take the ideas from this post and expand upon them. That's the whole point of this post.

Q: [From Joe Zerg Player] I hate you for posting this.
A: Hey, let’s focus the hate on terrans.

V. REPLAYS

+ Show Spoiler +

With patch 1.1 coming, we need to give zergs something else to cry about!

RainyMood.com

2010-08-28T15:37:00.000-05:00

RainyMood.com

MLG Starcraft 2

2010-08-27T16:23:00.000-05:00

Major League Gaming is starting their weekend stream of the MLG-Raleigh Tournament, featuring Halo, World of Warcraft, Tekken 3, and most importantly, Starcraft 2. Come watch pro players like NonY on Protoss, and Qxc on Terran compete for a $7000 prize pool.

You can watch the stream free here or if you would like to upgrade to a HD stream, you can do that for $10. If you have time this weekend, you should definitely check this out, as notable Starcraft 2 personalities, such as Day[9], Husky, and HDStarcraft will all be casting the matches.

the tournament is Best of 3, Double Elimination, allowing for players to prove themselves on a National Stage across America. Join me and other Starcraft 2 fans in the stream today!

Starcraft 2: Collectors Edition vs Standard Edition

2010-08-27T01:46:00.001-05:00

If you have not yet purchased Starcraft 2, or have been waiting, there are multiple venues to Purchase through. I will provide some links through Amazon at the end of this post.

Basically, there are two different versions. a "Collector's edition" and a "normal edition" The CE is extra, however, it comes with the original Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War on a flash drive, as well as a comic book, a book of concept art, as well as dvds which go behind the scenes, and detail certain parts of Starcraft 2 in the making. The CE also includes certain in-game perks which are otherwise unavailable, such as the Night Elf Banshee, Tauren Marine, as well as a few other exclusive portraits. It also includes an achievement which is otherwise unlockable.

If you do not want to splurge for the collectors edition, the the regular edition includes all necessary aspects to play the game. You just don't get those few covetous perks I mentioned earlier. Either way, you get a phenomenal and truly rewarding gaming experience out of Starcraft 2. Many people see it as just a game, but it is also a tool to help you refine your multitasking, and strategic analysis, which is an integral part in just about every career you will be pursuing. It helps to instill certain ideals such as "If you are high on monetary reserves, you are in trouble." Basically, this means, in a business context, if you have a lot of money that you have not invested into lucrative operations, then it is basically useless in comparison with other companies in your niche or field. That being said, money spent on non-lucrative, or wasteful spending, ends up hurting you in the long run as well.

Knowing and understanding concepts like these are integral in most careers, and playing Starcraft with a higher level of understanding will help you to achieve just that.

PvP 10 gate and more

2010-08-26T17:52:00.002-05:00

The main issue surrounding this post today is the Protoss vs Protoss match. very recently, in mid-low diamond league, an abundance of Protoss have reverted to the 10/10 2gate. while this build might seem like it would be effective, due to the early pressure timing, I assure you it is nothing more than a cheesy all-in. "Why is it a cheesy all-in?" you may ask? simple. . . if it is scouted, it is easily countered, so it relies on the element of surprise or stupidity from the opponent to succeed. I would say it is all-in because you have to significantly cut probes to get your 2 gates out, both at 10, but then you don't have the probe income to support anything more than constant zealot production off 2 gates. basically, if your attack fails to cause economic damage to the enemy, whether it be probe mining time, killing probes, pylons, or gateways, you will lose the game to any competent player.

That being said, I am providing a replay of myself and another player in a PvP. I scout his 10/10 gate and easily counter it. I'll let you see what ends up happening.
replay

I tried a random match today, only to roll zerg. I was against another zerg player, and of all mirror match ups, I believe the ZvZ to be the most uninteresting, non-dynamic game. basically, we started off on one base. . . proceeded to ling/baneling each other to death. If we tried to tech to another unit or Lair, or expand, then we would have end up being overrun by the opponent's all-in. I think the only viable non-ling/bling maps would be scrap station, and other big 4 player maps, as long as the players spawn in cross positions. Any closer, and the two players are too susceptible to ling/bling. What a boring fucking match up. Is that the game you intended to make Blizzard? One that makes players AUDIBLY GROAN (and not in a pleasurable context) in 33%* of their match ups? If so, then great fucking Job. FIX ZERG.

That being said, Zerg isn't even my main, so I guess I really shouldn't fucking care, however, if it deters players from choosing Zerg, then something needs to be done, as I actually enjoy being pitted against Zerg on occasion, especially good ones.

PvZ-Scrap Station

2010-08-25T22:44:00.001-05:00

Just finished a PvZ on Scrap Station today. I was Protoss in the 2 'o clock position. He was Zerg in the 12 o' clock position. Everything seemed to be starting off standard. No 6 pools or spine crawler rushes in sight. His drone happily sits in my base, waiting to see what I do. He watches me throw down a Cybernetics Core after gate, then scurries his drone off. My thought is "I bet he goes hatch into mass ling/baneling to try to get an all-in timing attack before I can get teched to robo." my scouting probe confirms this, so I cancel the cybercore, and dropped 2 additional gates to start pumping zealots. I continued to produce, and, as I suspected, his ling/baneling timing came, but I had more than enough units to repel it.

replay

Here is the replay, for those who choose or want to watch it.

%^&* noob tryin to all-in me. hahaha. learn to standard play dumbfuck zerg. If you had expanded, and used your units to push out instead of all-in, you probably would have had a chance that game, seeing as you used your ultralisks effectively.

SC2 Streams to watch for rage

2010-08-25T16:47:00.002-05:00

Want to watch people get pissed off at Starcraft 2 Live on stream?

I have provided some sources: Catreina
Catreina is a lesbian, transsexual Starcraft 2 player (male to female, if anyone is wondering) who frequently rages at her opponents on stream for beating her, and consistantly ignored her children for Starcraft. Hilarity insues every time she gets cheesed, or bested in a match.

-Orb-
Orb is a starcraft 2 player who loves to scream Imbalance every time he gets bested. He has been known to consistently trash talk his opponent in chat during the game, while ignoring micro mechanics of fights. He will also interact with his audience, only to call them noob trash, and tell them to GTFO.

When either of these players are streaming, they are well worth a watch. Both interact with their audience. Both rage pretty hard, both play protoss, and both think they are better than they truly are.

The StarCraft Two - Idra gets 6 pooled in HD

2010-08-25T16:40:00.001-05:00

The Commentators suck pretty bad, but in this video, we get a good look at one of the most well known SC2 nerd ragers, Idra. Check out the video, for some lulz.

Following

2010-08-25T16:36:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, if you like what you see, be sure to click the little follow button over to the right of the blog posts. its somewhere over there above the ads. Basically, it allows you to see when I've made a new post on your RSS and blogger feed, and you can come back and enjoy the nerd rage once more.

I'm 12 and what is this?

2010-08-25T16:01:00.001-05:00

Okay, I'm not 12, but what is this?

Simple, its a place for me to rant about noobs on Starcraft 2. If you cheese, this blog is about you. Specifically, when it beats me, or I eat it. Prepare for trash talk and berating on your trash play.

Much more L2Play Noob hilarity to come.

In the mean time, for Starcraft 2 goodness, check out Team Liquid and F*** my starcraft. For Strategy and nerd rage, respectively.