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Before I start, a bit of an introduction. I play on the SEA servers and I am a Silver level (Link to Profile: only got promoted 2 weeks ago) player. However, being from the Day9 school of thought, my mechanics are pretty decent. As he would say, I make Pylons and Probes from the beginning and my macro is pretty decent as well and my mineral count is never too high until the late game where it starts to bank up.
Which is where the real problem starts? Against Terran and Protoss, I have a clear idea of what to do and usually execute it to the best of my ability. I still do lose against those races but it is not because my basic mechanics were at fault. I can even provide a link to my profile in which all the losses recently are against Zerg. I am now at the point where I am happy if my opponent is not a Zergy because I get the feeling that it would most definitely be a loss.
I find the main problem is that I just do not know what to do these days against Zerg. My brain literally stops functioning if I go up against Z and my hands are almost frozen. I literally miss all my early game timings from the Pylons to the Gateways to the CBs. I do not know whether to make a lot of probes and miss on the one or two early zealots in case I get Ling rushed. I do not know whether to make a lot of zealots by going 2-Gate because Roaches simply rape me. And I definitely do not know whether to get the Robo early for fear of Roaches.
I know the Protoss metagame against Zerg is in a kind of transitional state right now with the Roach buffs simply ruining everything. But I still don't have any idea what exactly do against a Z player. The problem being he/she can put a lot of early pressure on me and still drone up with multiple hatcheries and larva whereas that is simply not the case with me.
So, any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated? (I am not posting any replays because this is a general problem for me and it has more to do with my mental state than anything else.)
Edit: Am uploading a few replays, so bear with me. 
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I don't mean any offense by this but I don't think your mechanics are nearly as good as you think. If your mechanics are skilled u should be able to easily dominate any bronze-low diamond zerg with a 4 gate push. What is your apm at? When you win vs protoss and terran oppoents is that off of 1 base timing attacks or cheese?
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I also have some trouble against zerg. The only build I know of which is good almost no matter what the zerg does is Nazguls Blinkstalker build. If done correctly, it usually comes down to micro.
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I am really sorry, when I meant my mechanics are good, I was talking about what it usually is at my level which is Silver. Which means I can macro pretty decently without missing production cycles and all that stuff which is what I wrote in my first post.
When I win against Terran or Protoss, it is usually by holding off rushes and taking expansions and overpowering them. I never cheese for fear of it being scouted and held off. Against Terran it is usually reactionary to see what he is going for and then responding properly. With Protoss, it is usually with overpowering in sheer number from a large number of Warp Gates. I did not mean to brag that I was great or something, I was merely pointing out that since I did learn by watching and executing Day9's basics, I meant that those basics are in place. My APM usually averages anywhere between 80-100 in a normal game at the end.
I actually don't know what to pull off against a Zerg because of the Roach buffs. As I said it is like a mental block where my brain stops functioning against Z.
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Well if your apm is between 80-100 I would think you should be dominating the silver league. My advice watch about 10 protoss vs zerg replays and find a strategy you want to learn. However I highly recromend you pick something that 1) isn't cheese 2) isn't only effective on a select few maps 3) Requires you to use your apm. I think your best bet is a 3 gate sentry expand. You can pretty much do it on any map (though it loses its effectiveness on maps like scrap station where there is so much room for lings and roaches to get at your base. Basic idea is
1) wall in with gate cybernatics core
2) make a second gas and get 3 gates/warp gate asap
3) make about 6 sentries and expand
Eventually your going to want to do a lot more than that, but for now I would suggest use that build. Get hallucination right after warp gate upgrade. Then scout if he is hydra or roach heavy go 4-5 gate 2 robo collosus, with mostly stalkers/colossus. If he is going mutas go 5 or 6 gate with blink while slowly teching to templar. You will probably lose a lot at first but you will at least have a game plan going into each game. Eventually you will figure stuff out, and slowly begin to understand the matchup better.
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Monk, Really thanks for the suggestion. It gives me a lot to work with as far as basic strategy against Z is concerned.
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post a replay mate. cant helpo otherwise
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Yes, while you say you will not post replays, posting one would help us see any very basic flaws in your gameplay. While I agree that watching Day[9] helps you improve your basics by A LOT, seeing a replay will help us notice any fatal flaws that you yourself may be blind to.
For example, things like not doing a functioning wall vs zerg. Not a complete wall-in, but your post indicates difficulties vs early zerglings and with a proper wall you can hold off almost infinite amount of zerglings with a zealot + 1-2 supporting units.
Things like this, so a reply WOULD help us in helping you.
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If you do choose to go with the 4 gate. Make sure to hide forward pylons in the event that you need to warp in reinforcements.
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Hey guys, I have posted three replays on GR and linked to them here. Two are against Zerg and you can tear me apart to pieces in them. But, I have to say that I have a mental block against Z. I have also uploaded a replay against a Terran (admittedly a not too great one) whom I beat. But it does show that I have decent macro for my level which is Silver.
Let the ripping apart begin!
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-167217.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-167220.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.gamereplays.org/community/uploads/repimgs/repimg-33-167219.jpg)
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as with most ppl in lower leagues, strategy/bo etc is rarely the problem. make sure to practice proper macro first (like making non stop probes). a lot of times when i see a lower lvl replay i see that they just kinda stop making probes at around 20/30 while a more realistic target is having like 60/70 probes on 3 base.
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APM really shouldnt be a factor as protoss until the high diamond, I manage to beat 1600ish players with 70apm as a protoss without too much trouble... its more about strategy and counters up until that point
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I have watched the first replay against the Zerg who went mutas into double evo chamber on one base, and I was more than surprised that you lost.
The execution of your 4-gate was alright until you turned them into warpgates. What you should have done is instantly warping in a set of units and move out to pressure/kill him. What you did was waiting unnecessarily long, getting Blink (which you never ever used) and moving out too late with an army that could have been substantially larger. Then you proceed into losing your entire base to 4 mutas instead of warping in a few stalkers which would have won you the game.
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ah wait now i watched the replays, here are some comments:
in general: after a very good start of constant probe production at around 30 you just seem to stop, ocassionally cbing 2 probes out. make sure this is constant and use cb on things like research.
especially in the game vs terran, you were very passive. now correct me if im wrong but at some points it just seemed that you were doing nothing more but building units out of your existing production facilities. I usually try to macro AND do something constructive such as:
-scout (and with scout i mean making sure you realy know whats going on: unit comp, expos, etc)
-harass/pressure
-expand
-or ofcourse just attack
you have decent apm but you dont seem to be focussing on micro. I saw that especially in your game vs terran you attacked with stalkers up front with the zealots being blocked behind them and completely forgetting about your colo! (it was around 17 min mark) this might not be fatal against that player but trust me, higher level players will rip you apart if you make mistakes like that.
now a bit more specific about the games:
vs terran:
-1st pylon is a bit late, no real problem ofc but its just one of those things that can slow a player down.
-you had to much money at some point
-if you had known about his unit compo you couldve gotten colo a bit earlier (skipping immortals)
vs zerg:
-your blocking of ramp wasnt tight enough. try this out: go to menu>options>gameplay>check show building grid. when you use this you can see the building grid devided into small squares when you are choosing building placement. try to leave an opening of 1 square, it should be enough for zealots stalkers and immortals. doing it like this allows you to completely block with 1 zealot.
-vs muta harass it can be really useful to just place 3 cannons between your mineral patch and nexus. make sure not to block your probes but these cannons will really hinder muta harass. adding +1 attack blink stalkers really makes mutas live's really tough.
the zerg player did kinda use a weird strat (1 base muta) and tbh with a well executed 4gate push you couldve crushed him. but overall i think you have very promising play, just keep the basics in mind and worry about finding the exact right unit composition later!
hope it helps, gl
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Yeah, I saw he was one-basing and getting fast Lair and decided that 4-gate should win it for me. I got blink because I knew he would go Mutas and thought that it would be good to have blink, but as you say I did not put it to good use. I think my hand kind of froze when I saw the Mutas in my base and I f***ed it up. Thanks for the analysis and any general tips against Zerg would also be of great help.
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B.I.G, Thanks for the comments and analysis and yeah I am working on a lot of things but my focus is on just getting the basics right because I am at Silver. I will definitely work on making those units do something instead of being passive as you have said and also try to get cannons behind my mineral line to help against those Mutas. Any general thoughts in how to open up against Z would also help a lot.
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Biggest advice I can give is for you to get hallucination. Scout the zerg almost constantly with hallucinated phoenixes.
You'll realise when he expands, how big his army is, what tech path he's going... etc.
With enough games you'll need to scout less and less because of the subtle things you learn when you only see a small portion.
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oh thats easy, just 4 gate the bastards to death 
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As a bronze/silver zerg. (high bronze.. mostly play silver players) I can tell you, as a Zerg if a protoss tries anything clever or cheesy i crush them easily. If they do a simple 1base 4 gate it rolls me everytime, much to my annoyance. Its mostly my own bad play, but simple 4 gating is probably enough to defeat the majority of low lever zerg just due to how messy our macro can be (talking low level zerg)
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Loss Against Zerg - 1:
-1 base Zerg loses to 1 base Protoss, when it comes to "resource war" - protoss units are more powerful and general concensus is (or seems to be) that Zerg needs 1,5 bases for every protoss base, in order to win. Because Zerg is 1-basing, you should be in no hurry to kill him. "Base trading" (see who kills each others base off first) is usually very bad idea, unless you are 100% sure you can win.
What I'm trying to say is: GO DEFEND when mutalisks come out. Or, at least kill them and go back to attacking. Leaving mutalisks alone is a mistake.
In case of this game, killing the 4 mutalisks and then returning to killing your enemy would have been enough.
Also, I'm not sure if your wall at your ramp is really tight enough? It's difficult to tell. You should only have 1 square room to move through. It is enough for even stalkers and immortals, but this way you only need 1 zealot to defend it vs zerglings. This way if you move out of your base with main army, zerglings can't just run in and kill off your probes.
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Loss against zerg 2:
-This time wall seemed good.
-You should REALLY stick around with your scout probe and see if he is expanding. If no expansion is coming form Zerg, you can be certain that some kind of early rush/attack is incoming. This way you can prepeare for it. In this case you could have built extra gateways, maybe even robo facility or cannon(s).
You would have had more than enough time to build a sentry while warping in more units from your extra gateways (3-4 total at least). If nothing else, instead of a stalker.
You REALLY should spend that money you have, at the beginning of the game every piece of resource counts. Having 300 extra minerals means 2 earlier gateways or THREE extra zealots you could have had. 100 extra gas is 1 extra sentry to block your ramp (while you wait for extra troops), or to split enemy roaches in 1/2 while they run up your ramp so that you only have to deal with 1/2 of them.
This "sticking around with probe to see if he expands" applies to loss #1 too, you can run the probe around in circles forever until first zerglings arrive, even then off-creep you can outrun them for a while if you have HP left. If zerg has no units you can even run in and see what tech structres he is doing. Use shift + click to insert multiple waypoints that the probe runs around while you do other stuff in your base.
Keeping count of enemy expansions is always important, but vs zerg it is absolutely ESSENTIAL, because if zerg expands you will fall behind very fast unless you do something about it. More advanced, platinum-diamond players need to learn how to prevent and/or force zerg to not expand but silver/gold players need to not worry about it too much.
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Win vs terran:
-I like to stick around with the scout probe to see if terran attacks or expands early.
-Observer scout for attacks and expanding was very good, imo. Just REMEMBER, a moving observer is easier to spot than a not moving one. Even if something is invisible other player may see the visual distortion graphic it has, and then knows to throw a scan on it.
-You should ALWAYS build troops from warp gates. You seemed to forget to do so now and then.
-Too much money again. Building lots of probes is good, but using the money is as important! You noticed this too after few minutes, but this is why you should constantly build troops (and probes and pylons): then you know exacly how much production you can support, and when you afford to add extra, like upgrades or more troop buildings.
-Poke the enemy around now and then, with a couple of units, observers or some other means of scouting so you know what they are up to. You could have ended the game at 17min mark or earlier if you had scouted enemy, seen he is weak, and just killed him. You had a 60 food (!) lead. With periodic poking around you can also keep track of his expansions, which becomes very important in higher leagues. I'm not saying you macroing up is WRONG, but sometimes not attacking gives enemies time to recover from losses. Your enemy had 2k mineral and 1,5k gas at 21:22. If he had played well he may have wery well caught up with your army size by now.
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Anyway, I think your basic macro and BASIC strategy were ok. If you refine it a bit you will skyrocket upwards from silver. TL;DR would be that I think you can improve your macro a bit (spending the money more wisely), and that you might be sometimes too aggressive when it's fatal, and too defensive when you don't need to or shouldn't be.
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....yeah, I was bored.
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EPT
