EPTI find the closest 3rds to be a pick your poison situation: they are either unwallable (the weird "high ground") or mineral only (and costly to wall off with pylons). If I take the "high ground" 3rd for the early 3rd gas, I tend to get burned by speed vulture harass (before I have cannons up). And also if the T decides to do an aggressive early 2-base push (e.g., as in this replay), it's hard for me to get a good angle of attack, and I frequently get hemmed in to my nat. Often the two go together: vulture harass distracts me while the 2-base push moves out and then I get pinned. On the flip side, if I take the mineral only, I find it hard to get my arbiter tech out in time.
I know an effective solution is to get better at map vision and positioning of dragoons and evacuating workers in response to harass, and heading off an early 2-base push (cf. previous thread on this I posted)
But I wonder: is it safer overall (especially as an E rank scrub with limited time to practice mechanics) to take the further (but more easily wallable and including gas) expo as my 3rd?
Also feedback on my rep is welcome! I saw the 6 facs with my obs and immediately added gates and a shuttle, though maybe I should have been stricter with my probe cut, and I definitely should have been aware of being distracted by the vulture harass to miss the move out (not sure how much I could have slowed it with those spawning positions though). Probably also would have been good to just position some goons at the 3rd before cannons, and have better simcity at the nat.
