Daily Ladder-age #13: Zealot Harrasin'

Hey there again, time to get some more sexy dexy ladder analysis in for the day! I was initially planning on trying out a proxy tempest rush, but I decided that it'd be best to save it until I face a terran (for some reason I feel it'd work best on T)... also I faced a master, so I didn't feel very confident in trying out a build that may not work worth shit!

Inspiration for the build I tried out today is from a thread created on the starcraftII forums, aiming to out-meta the zerg by getting zealots out fast to harrass the zerg. It seems pretty potent, and although in my replay I didn't execute it all too well it still was more than capable of at least slowing down the zerg.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8414862062
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This is my own personal build that i've used fairly exclusively, i posted in in another thread but figured I would do it here as well to help more people.

9pylon outside natural
13 2x gateways walling off the natural as much as possible
16 pylon block at their nat
nonstop zealots and probes +pylons when you need
When minerals permit make gas then cyb core on wall

This is where the game gets really meta, most zergs will just build a hatch at their third when you block it so rally zealots to their third. if they don't do that, just have zealots defend the pylon as long as possible, play around with mineral line chokes. You should be able to defend it long enough to build a nexus in your natural before he expands. You will almost always win the macro game from here.

So here is my compilation. All masters league. A couple things to note, the build works best on 2 player maps for obvious reasons. On a 4 player map you can scout, your probe should reach them at 13 supply, if you find them first then go 2 gate, if you dont find them just FFE

When you scout go around their base first (but be quick about it!!!!!!) just to see if they 6 pooled, if they did youre fine, just defend with 4 zealots and expand

So anyways, here is the first replay just showing how truly safe it is. I actually messed up and didnt block his expo but was still easily able to harass and win

http://drop.sc/313317

This replay shows another variation. When I block the hatch but they refuse to go take an expo at their third. Again, the build is very safe against. 1. the roach counter attack 2. i even lost 2 zealots by getting surrounded like an idiot but it didnt stop my harassment

http://drop.sc/313318

Now this is the ideal variation, pylon block and they take a third. The replay should speak for itself how easily i destroyed him

http://drop.sc/313320

So yeah, if you can keep up with my 230 EPM, you will EZ zergs left and right with this

have fun

EDIT: I forgot 1 very important detail, your zealots will be in a line so this is how your decision making should go.

SAVE YOUR PROBE AT ALL COSTS VERY IMPORTANT. Most commonly zergs make 4 lings to kill your pylon, your 1st zealot will be alone and 4 lings can kill it with micro UNLESS you bring your probe, then the zealots will dominate 4 lings, pretty sure its in my replay me doing that. 2 lings is no problem, just a move your first zealot and probe.
If you see 6 zerglings then pull back your first zealot and probe and meetup with your second, then proceed.

It's really really micro intensive, i suggest you all practice your zealot vs ling micro, at the moment i can usually kill about 10 lings with 2 zealots without losing one. (because you stutter backwards. eventually meeting up with a full hp zealot to replace your hurt one)

Lets get into this game and check out what this build is capable of on a dry run!

replay : http://drop.sc/336159

The Game

Early Game
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As per directed by the build order, I open up with double gateways at 13 followed by a pylon block. I feel that perhaps I should have toyed around with the probe a little bit more before dropping the pylon, perhaps I could have saved even more time. The first overlord from the zerg scouts my queer opening right away.

BLAAAUHURHGHGUGH

My opponents reaction to scouting this was actually quite exceptional, throwing down a gas and roach warren as soon as he could afford it.

blup

The first couple of zealots pop out shortly, with the help of some handy dandy chronoboost.

Let's roll!

Again I must say that my opponents great reaction made this build quite hard to execute early off. The harrass is mostly aimed at combating drones and lings, not roaches. Until they pop out, however, my zealots get to party hard.

Yeye, slice 'n' dice lings!

I believe that I may have been able to take down his expansion had I continued zealot production past the initial 4. I also might have been able to surround his roaches if I had thought to move the zealots to the eggs while they were morphing... definitely a consideration for next time.

It's appropriate that they didn't name them "cockroaches" in sc2 because... well you know what their nickname would be.

Mid Game
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Extremely Akward Wall Mrk.I was erected by me, partly because I overreacted to the possibility of a counterattack, and partly because the opening is so wide that I messed up my wall in. EAW had to be destroyed via structure cannibalism to allow for a faster 3rd base.

Stop it cannon! NOoooooo!

My resulting 3rd base gets up at about 8:40... honestly not all too fast. I think that optimally the 3rd base should have been created very shortly after my harrass was ended. My follow up tech path is stargate play, and I decide to throw down 2 of them right away. My play using stargates and voidrays has been very, very lackluster recently, and I'm thinking that it might just be safter to get out a colossus or two and THEN start my voidray production instead. Still, I also must worry about the possibilities of mutalisks.

I figured out the 7th Chevron guys! We can get outta here!

Surprisingly enough, by the 11 minute mark I'm actually ahead of the zerg in worker count! This game probably could have gone so much better had I actually made more gateways to spend my minerals, but alas, until I'm fully saturated I feel so very starved on minerals.

Your lack of gateways is disturbing.

End Game
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Like all good things, this build must also end. The key ingredients to my upcoming defeat were A) lack of colossi, and B) lack of gateways.

My proud army!

At the point where I'm about to be attacked, I realize that my only production facilities are 2 stargates, 2 warpgates, and 1 robotics facility... on 3 fullly saturated bases, I'm pretty sure that I could be doing a LOT better. My minerals also start to soar because of my terrible macro.

VRHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Even with my severly lacking production, I might have had a chance at holding this attack off if I had used a little bit more micro. My colossus was immediately focused down, and without the AoE my voidrays were sitting ducks to the hydralisks.

We donat halve the powar!!!

I attempt to stay in, as usual, but get crushed by the follow up hyralisks that come rolling on in. GG!

Haha, voidray pieces strewn across the field!

All in all I really liked the opener that I tried out this game. I believe it can be pretty micro intensive, especially if it's tons of zealots vs tons of lings, but I think I'll be practicing this more for an alternate opener to use. Any protoss out there who are looking for an aggressive early game option may also want to give it a go! Thanks for the read, leave a comment and/or rating, and GL HF on the ladder yourself!

P.S.
Tomorrow I might not actually have time to write up a ladder report because of something I'll be attending... but since I still want some sort of dialy post created, I may just write up about my personal life (WHO CARES!?!?).

P.S.S.
Photogenic corgi

P.S.S.S
Dark Onyx is still around!
https://www.facebook.com/DarkOnyxFTW

Pssssssssssssssssst!
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Daily Ladder-age #13: Zealot Harrasin'

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