PvP: we all know the feeling when we get supply block at 25/26 so our stalker/ sentry never came out on time. Lots of people choose to cut probe instead of scarifying the precious scouting/hidden-pylon-builder-probe but doing that simply make your mining less efficient which later will result a 25 mineral lack in to make a stalker which then you will have to make a zealot despite having 50 gas. It sounds like a little thing but its huge in PvP 4 gates vs 4 gates to have X zealot Y stalker vs X+1 zealot Y-1 stalker. The dps will be different, the meat shield will be different which later on will result a favor position depend on the combination with attacker/defender position. Often in time i also find my sentry 10 second late for another 10 energy for a 2nd FF just because i was in decisive to let my scouting probe go early.
PvT: scouting whether if there is a 2nd marine or not is a crucial information in this match up. Lots of people dont know that 1 marine cant kill a full HP probe so you will always be able to scout the add-on of the terran if you wished to by aiming to scout between the first marine and the 2nd marine finish timing. An alternative solution to this is putting a pylon blocking the add-on position of the barrack. what so problematic is that if the guy lift to another place, the building pylon vision is really limited which leave you 2 options: let the pylon finish or cancel it and kill your probe for information... hmmm, 100 minerals and supply block early game is huge.... DIE PROBE!!!!!!!!! DIE FOR A BETTER GOOD! Information to obtain: gas timing, rax timing, make sure no supply drop on depo, add-on on rax (or 2nd marine), sim city overall would be great for some 3 gates VR cheese.
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Joking aside, i think my PvP just reach a new level recently. I actually under stand how to FF vs 4 gate by now. The main purpose is still to isolate the units down the ramp with the units being wrap up ramp, not completely block everything out of your base until your immo finish. This actually change everything i have ever know about defensive styles vs 4 gates. When i watch Tyler vs Choya game 2 on shakuras, the forcefield from the defending player putting on the wrapping in zealot up ramp is a total panic forcefield which in my opinion lost him the game. In short, there should always at most 1 forcefield on the ramp when you are trying to defend vs 4 gates, at least 2 FF on ramp if you want to fence off blink attack (rare now). After learning this, i was actually overconfident in my vP builds such that i could show them everything i do and keep waiting for a 4 gate coming. There are failures occasionally but a 4PvP win in a row (yeah, blizzard gave me 4 PvP in a row, fuck ladder mmr system) give me a huge confident boost.
My current state of PvP is now push into mid game (not counting cheese games), where i either auto win since people fail to 4gate or start transition from 2 gates robo to some other stuff. One of the interesting style of mid game PvP i recently encounter alot is the 2 gate robo blink which i helped combatex taught his student. The build order is pretty simple, 3 stalker rush into robo with blink while pumping 2 obs. The lack in gas to execute this simply put you in an surplus of mineral which help you getting a proxy nexus while constantly being annoying blink in and out his base sniping pylon and tech structure. Despite 'defensive DT expand' is a blind hard counter to this build, there are not much scout-counter solution to this since you are constantly at a possibility of base trading without mapcontrol (he has more than 2 obs constantly). Normally people will try to hold with immo while switching to 3-4 gates blink all-in but one of the recent new development is that with the high obs count, they could snipe your obs during base trade situation and pump out 1 DT to finish the game. This has been executed by HuK, Response on Korean ladder as seen on their streams (HuK won HSC with this) (BTW, huge shout out to the best brotoss Response fighting on top korean ladder, cant wait to see him in the next MLG). This PvP style is extremely annoying since it is all about map/spawn favored base trading situation. The distant between your nature and how wide your main is also is a huge problem. Cross spawn on shakuras is the best map to do this as far as i know, I vetoed python also because of this (plus the infestor spamming on your 3rd business).
vP who dont use that gay ass snipe obs base trade DT style, I started to test out a 'new composition: archon zealot immo stalkers. The thoery behind this is creating as many 'layers' in your army as possible. Layers here are group of units making a concave based on their maximum range when engaging with the enemy's army. In theory, the more layers you have in your army, the less splash you take from colossus. This mean that after getting the ideal archons charge, you need to start blink stalkers production again (ideally stopping at 5~6 archons depending on map space for concave) with immo mix in for extra DPS/layer meat shield. This also creating room for a bit of prism drop late PvP but i have never dare trying that =_=. The biggest flaw i find when using such composition is the mid game air switch double star VR. Will never have enough stalker to counter any number that is greater than 6 VR. The archons immo simply helping VR to charge up vs stalkers. I still dont have much games where i went pass this point in game but yeah...
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Cant wait for BoxeR vs Yellow, 1 more day T_T.... hope it is not too 1 sided. Didnt Yellow played Protoss back in blizzcon and cannon rush a wc3 pro with a prism? It could be close if its PvT but i
still dont see Yellow winning if thats a ZvT specially after all the "LINE THEM UP" action happened in MLG =_=~~!
Yellow HWAITING!!!
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Bonuses for people who read this blog:
1/ Did you know if you cut probe at 14 you can get your nexus starting at 2:15 in game time? It is extremely early in PvZ and often give you a huge lead in probe count which then make your 6 gates came much earlier.
2/ Did you bookmark this? What the hell man? go and do it!
MORE BONUS
+ Show Spoiler +
3/ awesome flourish
4/awesome old kpop (if you know korean, its even better, if you find the live vid of this song after listening to it, prepare to get a bit shock )
5/One of the best manga/webtoon/manhwa/comic I have read for a while. The story is brand new with a unique flow as a combination of a battle manga and a psychology manga as a big picture. There were an old saying on how a korean could tell a story in 100 different ways just to bring different colors into the perspective and its totally correct. I am seeing webtoons/manhwa top out manga in the next few years.
http://www.mangareader.net/1757/tower-of-god.html
Came out weekly.
6/ Starboba is the team i will be cheering for this DotA2 tournament. I have been in touch with them since they was an unknow team. Was there when a member was thinking about quit gaming to make sure he doesnt drop out of university. Was there when they won their first major lan. Was there when POTM arrows hit their targets. GO starboba
peace!