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Yay! I've just been promoted into Platinum, all my hard work since Season 4 started (100~ wins, I've pretty much doubled my wins as Protoss overall in this one season!) I'm really excited to be improving and playing better and better opponents. But since I've reached my goal, I'm facing a slump in my motivation to play. I've met my previous target, but I've never even played a Diamond player, so If my new goal is to be in Diamond I'm a while off =/.
So I'm making this blog to get my thoughts out there and written down, just the same as I'm sure most of these ladder blogs are. I'm not unique or entertaining but this doesn't matter, I'm only looking for a little good will and encouragement =). I'm a Protoss on the EU-Server, Character code Dujek-492 if you're around Platinum level and want to play some vP games or talk. It'd be nice to have some people around my level to talk to about SC2, my irl friends are all stuck in Bronze =(.
Basically, I've been reading lots of guides, playing a lot and following the scene closely for a while now and its paying off, I'm improving. I've been using 1 build in each matchup (except against random Zergs, against whom I can't FFE. Fuck you guys >: ) since thats whats recommended.
In PvZ, I Forge Fast Expansion But man I suck at this build. It feels like a coin flip, if they hit me with a lot of speedlings early on I just die, but if they don't I just crush them. I need to get better at scouting early and walling off properly. I think I'll take a look at some of the recommended wall-offs for each match and right them down somewhere, then use them every game. I really like PvZ, since S4 started its went from my worst matchup to my favourite. It's tiring though when you run into 4 zergs in a row, since every game seems to go on for 25+ minutes. I think once I get the early game down I won't have any major problems in PvZ stopping me from getting into Diamond. But I'll never know until I start facing those badass players.
PvT on the other hand feels really strange. I'm using 2 Gate Robo FE because it's pretty safe and macro orientated. And unless the Terran is very good, I can usually survive the early game and go on to win. Unlike PvZ though, I don't understand any of the timings, every game is literally just defend harass, get a 3-3 200/200 army then go kill him. I think I'll start having trouble with this matchup pretty soon, because I'm facing more and more well executed timing pushes that I don't know how to deal with. I've only seen one 1-1-1 (and it destroyed me), since its so popular, I think more Terrans will start using it and if they do I think I'm fucked :D.
My PvP is retarded, up until very recently I've been 4gating every game. It's very powerful and wins most games. But It's easy and good Protoss just hard counter it. I've basically been using it to delay learning how to PvP and though I enjoy the 4gate micro wars, I feel like the only thing I'm learning in PvP currently is how to stop cheese. I really don't want to hit masters and suddenly have to learn the matchup from scratch because 4gate stops working so I'm taking this opportunity (I've just hit platinum so a losing streak in PvP won't hurt my chance at being promoted.) to learn something standard/macro orientated. I'm learning this 3 Stalker Build and once I have that down I think I'll transition into some Robo Twilight play. I don't really know much about the matchup though so its pretty much hit and miss whether I can win with it or not. Time will tell.
I think I've just brought my own motivation to play back after looking at each matchup, I don't really think there's anything fundamentally wrong with my play that could stop me progressing so yeah I'm just gonna keep playing as much as I can and see what happens =).
Thanks for reading, I know there's a lot of these ladder blogs (I guess this is my road to Diamond! lol) and I know this isn't very interesting. But you know just writing your thoughts down helps sometimes, so even if no one reads this I'm glad I did it. I might update once I've played a bunch more If I feel like it.
Also, may I ask how you other Protoss players (or even Zerg/Terrans if a similar situation applies) dealing with Random players? I feel like I've seen a lot more of them recently (might just be because I've been playing a lot.) While before it didn't matter, since I've started to FFE vs Zerg I'm beginning to hate Randoms. When I find out they're a Zerg it's too late to FFE so I need to do another build (But wait lol, I have nothing, I stopped 3gate-expanding because I couldn't get it to work). I'm thinking about just 4gating against random Zergs to get the game over with quickly. Your thoughts?
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EU Hi-plat here (was top8 last season, then lost motivation even when beating tons of diamonds, but thats enough of that)
Against zergs, I usually find 3gate push with +1 attack timing very useful, if you scout that the zerg is fast expanding, make some zealots with stalkers and some sentries, your army contribution should look like this:
2/5 zealots
2/5 stalkers
1/5 sentries
Your attack should come between the 7:30 and 8:30 mark, and you should be able to destroy the zergs expo and then expand yourself and make a couple more gateways, according to what you scout he is doing.
Then while taking your third (13-15min mark) make sure that you have charge/blink on the way (whichever suits the situation) and then tech to your liking (I usually start making colossi out of 2 robos at 3 bases) and keep scouting to keep those pesky mutalisks out of your base.
I hope this works, has been working for me so far.
edit: You might even be able to end the game with your first attack, but don't count on that.
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Hoping to do the same. Your post was pretty interesting, because those are pretty standard builds, that don't work as well for me. I guess I need to refine them then :/
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Congrats bro keep it up and remember to be a NICE guys when u play we dont need anymore BM players :D god im so high right now i never write in these things :D GLLGGLLG
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Something to keep in mind, is that the difference between Gold --->Platinum is greater than Platinum --->Diamond. I remember a thread showing a bunch of pretty intense graphs showing all the different leagues macro/multitasking statistics compared to each other. And Platinum and Diamond were really close. Gold wasnt too close, and Masters was a lot higher.
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Also, may I ask how you other Protoss players (or even Zerg/Terrans if a similar situation applies) dealing with Random players?
If I'm queued vs. a Random player, I'll just send a super-early scout (like on 9) and locate them, then do something suitable for the race they're playing. The games are usually somewhat easier from that point than playing someone who plays their race exclusively.
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On November 20 2011 13:32 DyEnasTy wrote:
Something to keep in mind, is that the difference between Gold --->Platinum is greater than Platinum --->Diamond. I remember a thread showing a bunch of pretty intense graphs showing all the different leagues macro/multitasking statistics compared to each other. And Platinum and Diamond were really close. Gold wasnt too close, and Masters was a lot higher.
Gold to Plat and Plat to Diamond are about the same, over a long average.
http://i.imgur.com/i2yuU.png
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Congratulations man, Masters T here.
for stopping the 1-1-1 try going Phoneix, Chargelots. Its pretty effective, when scouting the 1-1-1 build immediately try to throw down a stargate get about 6ish phoneix, scout and harass. Then aim for chargelot, sentry with upgrades aiming for Collosis.
What the push should look like is, you are gonna crush the ground army which is (marine tank, scvs) and all thats left is going to be banshees/raven, then when all the marines are gone, come in with your phoneixes to clean up. Or if you think theres too many tanks bring in phonexis to lift all the tanks to make the cleanup easier, just becareful of losing them because if you do banshees rain surpreme.
Hope that helped a little. 
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For your PvZ opening FFE, I believe you need to get used to using forcefields to defend against heavy ling aggression. Early game I really believe that's all you have to defend properly. As a zerg player myself a protoss player with a decent amount of sentries really scares me off from attempting any sort of all in. Also on maps like Antiga Shipyard, Shakuras Plateau, Tal’darim Altar LE; Watch for nydus openings by placing pylons on the outskirts of your main. I honestly have won SO many ZvPs by simply nydusing 2 base ling when I find an opening as they are trying to tech to stargate.
With the recent uprising of pylon blocking builds this has even further increased my chances of success due to all the minerals they invest in pylons/cannons in front of my main. Forcefields are truly the answer to these problems, if I can't nydus the main, I often attempt to baneling bust the front, but if sentries are present this is no longer viable.
I hope this helps you get to diamond, GL HF!
Source : High Diamond Zerg who plays Master's frequently.
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EPT
