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Having trouble with banshees as protoss

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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1 2 3 4 Next All
Ender Wiggin
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada19 Posts
October 11 2010 18:08 GMT
#1
Up to now I encountered banshees as these harrassing units where they flew around and got some probe kills. However, thesedays I see more and more terrans using the banshee as a main part of their army.

The two strats that I am mostly losing to are
1) The polt timing attack <- this seems to hit at around the 9min mark
2) Hellions into double starport banshee <- general same timing

Since i loose to these every time now i know how to scout for whenether a banshee will come or not. The problem is even if I know it is coming I cannot seem to find a solution to fend off the timing push. Also in the polt timing attack the PDD's practically make my stalkers worthless. I tired to make the terrans waste energy but the terran just waits untill he can cast another one and attacks.

The build I usually go for in pvt is the onegate FE. It would be appreciated if someone could tell me generally what to do when you know banshees are coming. Maybe cutting probes to get more units??.. By the way im a 1400+toss
Ender Wiggin
specs
Profile Joined September 2010
United States22 Posts
October 11 2010 18:16 GMT
#2
As a terran player who usually does the hellion drop then banshees i can tell that you can protect yourself with one or two cannons at your mineral line and stalkers. the hellion drop is a counter to your FE it will beat you most if not every time.

one good way to tell if a terran player is doing this strat is the barracks. if he does not have a tech lab on his rax by the 3-4min mark i would prepare for a hellion drop followed by banshees.

the other problem i cant comment on because I have never used that strat.
KingofHearts
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Japan562 Posts
October 11 2010 18:16 GMT
#3
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.
moshi moshi~
Agenda42
Profile Joined October 2009
United States112 Posts
October 11 2010 18:23 GMT
#4
Well, the problem for me here is that when i see banshee plays coming I stay on one base. Defending marine/banshee pressure without being able to use a ramp and before colossi or storm are up, that's hard stuff. On maps with a less open natural like temple, you can probably do acceptably well with forcefield micro.

In terms of defending the raven plays, I think it's important for you to have some map control. I almost never fail to die when a PDD is dropped within range of my nexus, but you can skirmish well with forcefield in the open field.

I am increasingly going for early phoenix against any build with a fast factory. As I see it, fast factory means either hellion drop, tank push, bancheese, or raven pressure. Phoenix is good against all of these plays. I'm not sure this is a viable option off a 1 gate FE opening though.
whoopadeedoo
Profile Joined June 2010
United States427 Posts
October 11 2010 18:23 GMT
#5
I posted this somewhere else, but it's applicable to your question:

If you scout a starport with tech lab, you know for sure banshees and/or ravens are coming. For me, whenever I see a tech-labbed starport, I put down a stargate, but some other toss players will only stargate if they see two starports. Phoenixes make quick work of both ravens and banshees and can patrol your base's perimeter when they're not engaged, helping with medivac drops. Phoenixes are also pretty good at taking down PDDs should you have to since they fire at a decent rate and 2 shots per round.

Regarding specifically PDDs, these really nullify stalkers, so the key here is to engage the terran army away from your base (making terran throw down a PDD where he didn't want to). Sometimes with enough stalkers and phoenixes (and esp sentries), you can "power" your way through PDDs and still win, but the safest way is to simply dictate where terran uses his first PDD. IOW, don't camp around your base if you know this push is coming. Once you make terran waste his PDD away from your base, move back out of the PDD range and engage his PDD-less army.

The ground army composition against this should be zealot heavy with a couple of sentries for GS (FF behind marines to prevent kiting if you have spare energy after the GS). Stalkers and phoenixes should deal with the ravens and banshees, and the zealots and sentries take care of the marines.
Arch00
Profile Joined July 2010
United States233 Posts
October 11 2010 18:24 GMT
#6
On October 12 2010 03:16 KingofHearts wrote:
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.


You do realiize that the pdd still fulfills its purpose if you focus fire it, right?
www.twitch.tv/arch00 ~ Arch.391 SC2
Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
October 11 2010 18:27 GMT
#7
I'm not a Protoss player at all, but logically thinking I'd imagine that a few Phoenix + Zealot-Sentry(instead of Stalker)-based ground army should fare decently well. Might need to get Charge quickly, though.

(I could be totally wrong here but...)
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
noD
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
2230 Posts
October 11 2010 18:30 GMT
#8
well give #2 a credit to iechoic (I think ppl using 2 is using his build xD), only way I lost was due proxy dark shrine, since i wasnt expecting DT destroyed main army (pure marines) while banshees alone ended up losing to it. But I guess best choice is fast phoenix indeed ...
Ender Wiggin
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada19 Posts
October 11 2010 18:31 GMT
#9
The problem here it seems is that to block this you either have to not take an fe or go stargate tech. With not taking an FE I seem to get rolled over with bio and with a stargate since I have to get a robo + stalkers + sentries + the stargate with phoniexes i do not have enough gas to make an army that can take on the banshee marine army.
Ender Wiggin
blagoonga123
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States2068 Posts
October 11 2010 18:31 GMT
#10
I find that if i do hellion drop -> 2port banshees i lose 100% of the time to a 2-3 void ray push, mainly because i am bad at scouting and don't see it coming.
FOOL! Pain is my friend! Now let me introduce you to it!
sob3k
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States7572 Posts
October 11 2010 18:32 GMT
#11
On October 12 2010 03:16 KingofHearts wrote:
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.


lol...what are you talking about?
In Hungry Hungry Hippos there are no such constraints—one can constantly attempt to collect marbles with one’s hippo, limited only by one’s hippo-levering capabilities.
Ender Wiggin
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada19 Posts
October 11 2010 18:32 GMT
#12
Hmm it seems i might have to go stargate first into robo
Ender Wiggin
chuninexam
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada56 Posts
October 11 2010 18:36 GMT
#13
If you are looking to counter banshees then build phoenixes..
whoopadeedoo
Profile Joined June 2010
United States427 Posts
October 11 2010 18:38 GMT
#14
On October 12 2010 03:16 KingofHearts wrote:
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.


Doesn't matter what you target. The PDD can not be taken down by projectile fire before it's energy is used up, regardless of health. That's the whole point of the PDD.
Reason.SC2
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada1047 Posts
October 11 2010 18:38 GMT
#15
On October 12 2010 03:32 sob3k wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 12 2010 03:16 KingofHearts wrote:
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.


lol...what are you talking about?


Maybe he means to target the PDD with sentries? They aren't affected by PDD, and its HP are pretty low so they can get rid of it pretty quick.

On another note, can one feedback a PDD? I haven't tried this in-game.
Ender Wiggin
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada19 Posts
October 11 2010 18:40 GMT
#16
On October 12 2010 03:38 Reason.SC2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 12 2010 03:32 sob3k wrote:
On October 12 2010 03:16 KingofHearts wrote:
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.


lol...what are you talking about?


Maybe he means to target the PDD with sentries? They aren't affected by PDD, and its HP are pretty low so they can get rid of it pretty quick.

On another note, can one feedback a PDD? I haven't tried this in-game.


didnt think of target firing a PDD with sentries before
Ender Wiggin
whoopadeedoo
Profile Joined June 2010
United States427 Posts
October 11 2010 18:45 GMT
#17
On October 12 2010 03:31 Ender Wiggin wrote:
The problem here it seems is that to block this you either have to not take an fe or go stargate tech. With not taking an FE I seem to get rolled over with bio and with a stargate since I have to get a robo + stalkers + sentries + the stargate with phoniexes i do not have enough gas to make an army that can take on the banshee marine army.


FE is great against this build. And you do not need to open with stargate to deal with it. With FE, you build your standard 1 zealot 3 stalker opener, then you expo and drop down one more gate and a robo, then another gate. Go poke the front of his base to see if there is a bunker or mass marines (dead giveaway that he is going 1/1/1 opener), and if you see this, warp in zealots and sentries at this point instead of more stalkers. The stalkers you built thus far will hold back the earliest banshee harass. If/when a banshee first harasses you or if your ob scouts them (or tech-labbed starport), put down your stargate and CB out a few phoenixes while warping in more zealots.


On October 12 2010 03:32 Ender Wiggin wrote:
Hmm it seems i might have to go stargate first into robo


No, you robo first. You need it in case he goes cloak harass. You should crank out two obs ... one to scout his base (look to see if there are tech-labbed starports) and one around your army and/or mineral line to prevent cloak banshee harass. Again, the timing is such that it is ok to get robo before stargate. You only stargate if you see a tech-labbed starport (and some people won't even stargate unless they see two such buildings).
whoopadeedoo
Profile Joined June 2010
United States427 Posts
October 11 2010 18:46 GMT
#18
On October 12 2010 03:38 Reason.SC2 wrote:
On another note, can one feedback a PDD? I haven't tried this in-game.


Prior to 1.1, you could. Not anymore.
PaPoolee
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Netherlands660 Posts
October 11 2010 18:56 GMT
#19
On October 12 2010 03:38 Reason.SC2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 12 2010 03:32 sob3k wrote:
On October 12 2010 03:16 KingofHearts wrote:
manually target the pdd. it's very low on health. and blink stalkers?or archons.


lol...what are you talking about?


Maybe he means to target the PDD with sentries? They aren't affected by PDD, and its HP are pretty low so they can get rid of it pretty quick.

On another note, can one feedback a PDD? I haven't tried this in-game.


You used to be able to feedback a PDD, Blizzard removed it .
Ente
Profile Joined October 2010
Germany1795 Posts
October 11 2010 19:10 GMT
#20
I can give u some feedback from the terran point of view.
My cloaked banshee build against toss is 1 barracks into 2 fast starport so my cloaked banshees enter ur base at the 7 or 8 minute mark (at least I think that was the timing - not 100% sure)
You have to get either observers or 2-3 cannons in ur mineral line to defend that - early stargate would crush non cloaked banshees but against cloaked banshees you lose your whole economy.

Personally I dont like helions that much in PvT cause well placed stalkers just demolish the helions and I get my banshees much later. In addition I think its VERY hard to hold your fast expansion.

By the way can someone explain that timing attack with the PDD it sounds really well [ :.
lol acc: Entenzwerg EUW http://www.twitch.tv/Entenzwerg league of legends stream (challenger EuW)
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