PvP probes w/ zealot

On December 26 2006 05:41 BluzMan wrote:
This makes sense if you went 2 gate vs 1 gate, but a little later in time, say, when you have 5 zeals or something. It is important that you keep your scouting probe alive. Then, order your zeals up ramp, and your probe(s) to mine from the enemy's mineral line that your scouting probe so kindly makes visible. Probes will go into mining mode, passing through all units, including zeals on ramp. Just when you're over them, press stop or attack, and they will be forced to move so that your zeals can climb up the ramp easily and fight with advantage in numbers.

If you just take your probes "to aid fighting zeals", what guarantees that your enemy won't just rally his probes to help his defense? In order to make a zeal rush successful, you must have a numerical advantage in the first place.

So its not that awesome as it seems, a good player will just back up his forces to his mineral line and use probes for defense. More than your 2, in fact. Unlike vs zerg, there's nothing that bad in letting your enemy up the ramp, as long as you are on par with troops.

On December 26 2006 09:04 Bill307 wrote:
First of all, probes with zealots in PvP is nowhere near as effective as in PvZ. Versus zerglings:
1. with 1 hit from a probe, a zealot can kill a ling in 2 hits instead of 3; and
2. since the lings outnumber you, probes can block some of the zerglings from attacking your zealots.

You get neither of these advantages in PvP. All you get is a small damage boost: they cost 1/2 of a zealot plus lost mining time, but deal less than 1/3 the damage and have less than 1/4 the HP. (although with good micro you can probably get them to deal more damage)

Moreover, even if your probes give you a significant advantage, your opponent (assuming he didn't proxy) can simply retreat to his main and pull a few probes of his own to nullify that advantage. But his probes will have to travel a much shorter distance than yours, which means he will waste less mining time than you.

Personally, I think that in most cases it would only give your opponent an economic advantage. Maybe it could be useful if you are attacking a proxy gater, though.

On December 26 2006 09:04 Bill307 wrote:
First of all, probes with zealots in PvP is nowhere near as effective as in PvZ. Versus zerglings:
1. with 1 hit from a probe, a zealot can kill a ling in 2 hits instead of 3; and
2. since the lings outnumber you, probes can block some of the zerglings from attacking your zealots.

You get neither of these advantages in PvP. All you get is a small damage boost: they cost 1/2 of a zealot plus lost mining time, but deal less than 1/3 the damage and have less than 1/4 the HP. (although with good micro you can probably get them to deal more damage)

Moreover, even if your probes give you a significant advantage, your opponent (assuming he didn't proxy) can simply retreat to his main and pull a few probes of his own to nullify that advantage. But his probes will have to travel a much shorter distance than yours, which means he will waste less mining time than you.

Personally, I think that in most cases it would only give your opponent an economic advantage. Maybe it could be useful if you are attacking a proxy gater, though.