EPTIntro
+ Show Spoiler +
Hello all-
Been a while since I have posted anything cool but I can assure you this build is nasty, even after the warpgate nerf. It's essentially a combination of 4gate econ cut and 1gate FE econ investment.. if that makes any sense at all. If you have been watching HuK stream or have been watching every single one of his vods (like me) you've seen this build quite a lot and see how it is so strong in tandem with HuK's aggressive warpgate pressure style. [edit
this is the build he used vs MMA game one in the up and down matches GSL MAY, too!!! So without further adieu.....
Been a while since I have posted anything cool but I can assure you this build is nasty, even after the warpgate nerf. It's essentially a combination of 4gate econ cut and 1gate FE econ investment.. if that makes any sense at all. If you have been watching HuK stream or have been watching every single one of his vods (like me) you've seen this build quite a lot and see how it is so strong in tandem with HuK's aggressive warpgate pressure style. [edit
this is the build he used vs MMA game one in the up and down matches GSL MAY, too!!! So without further adieu.....Build Order
+ Show Spoiler +
9 Pylon (10 CB nex)
13 Gate (2nd CB once 1st finishes)
14 Gas (can be on 15*)
16 Pylon (HuK makes it on 15 but if you're human you can't always make it on 15 w/o brief probe cut , and it's not like you cap yourself making probes with 16pylon ^^)
17 Core, mine gas with discretion**; WG @100% CC, dump ALL CB on WG
20 Nexus (19 if you lose the probe)
22 Initial Stalker (NO CB)
22 or 23 gateway }\
22 or 23 gateway } \ If he's all inning you, feel free to cut this probe for now
24-26 (depending on how safe you feel, make 0-2 probes but always 2 stalkers between 20 and 26 food) queue second stalker from gateway, do not CB
XX pylon when you can afford it, proxied. You do not need this pylon in your base; putting it in your natural gives him a free pylon kill. This pylon gives you the ability to kill him immediately after he tries to all in you and it fails.
100% WG, warp in 3 stalkers and poke with all 4
*With mineral stacking, you can get the gas on 14 without having to cut probes. However, getting a 14 gas is not necessary for this build as you are not trying to optimize your gas intake; you are simply mining 50 and then resuming once you put the nexus down. It's good practice to get it down on 14 without queueing the 15th probe, though.
**If you instantly box 3 probes and send them to mine gas, you might not have 150 minerals the milisecond you are able to begin your core. You only need to hit a few benchmarks with gas: 50 for WG, 50 for first stalker, 150 gas when WG finishes. You can usually satisfy all these while maintaining strong mineral economy by initally putting 2 in gas and then adding the third after you begin your nexus
Brief explanation about WG nerf
Before nerf, you wanted only 50 gas when your core finished to start wg. Now that you'll be starting your 1st stalker sooner, you want to have as close to 100 gas as possible when your core finishes; typically you'll have a little over 100 so just add them a little later or pull them once you have 100 then resume mining it a little after you start your nexus.
By doing this, you have a stalker that comes at a standard time to shoo away the scouting scvs and take a tower should you expect any funny business. Your 2nd stalker out of the gateway will not be able to join forces with the 3 you warped in and the first one you made out of the gateway immediately, but hell, you still have it xD
For those who might be wondering where this 175 mins/50 gas was suddenly found, let me explain it to you. Pre WG nerf your 2 gates would finish right as your wg finished with maximum CB (2 on nex; rest to wg). Now that WG will finish 20 seconds later (or less; I'm not sure if you have time to put an additional CB on it with the extended base time), you can start those 2 gateways ~20 seconds later. During this time you can accumulate the resources needed to poop out a stalker and a couple of probes ^^
edit: Keilah opened my eyes to this little adjustment. thank you kind sir!
13 Gate (2nd CB once 1st finishes)
14 Gas (can be on 15*)
16 Pylon (HuK makes it on 15 but if you're human you can't always make it on 15 w/o brief probe cut , and it's not like you cap yourself making probes with 16pylon ^^)
17 Core, mine gas with discretion**; WG @100% CC, dump ALL CB on WG
20 Nexus (19 if you lose the probe)
22 Initial Stalker (NO CB)
22 or 23 gateway }\
22 or 23 gateway } \ If he's all inning you, feel free to cut this probe for now
24-26 (depending on how safe you feel, make 0-2 probes but always 2 stalkers between 20 and 26 food) queue second stalker from gateway, do not CB
XX pylon when you can afford it, proxied. You do not need this pylon in your base; putting it in your natural gives him a free pylon kill. This pylon gives you the ability to kill him immediately after he tries to all in you and it fails.
100% WG, warp in 3 stalkers and poke with all 4
*With mineral stacking, you can get the gas on 14 without having to cut probes. However, getting a 14 gas is not necessary for this build as you are not trying to optimize your gas intake; you are simply mining 50 and then resuming once you put the nexus down. It's good practice to get it down on 14 without queueing the 15th probe, though.
**If you instantly box 3 probes and send them to mine gas, you might not have 150 minerals the milisecond you are able to begin your core. You only need to hit a few benchmarks with gas: 50 for WG, 50 for first stalker, 150 gas when WG finishes. You can usually satisfy all these while maintaining strong mineral economy by initally putting 2 in gas and then adding the third after you begin your nexus
Brief explanation about WG nerf
Before nerf, you wanted only 50 gas when your core finished to start wg. Now that you'll be starting your 1st stalker sooner, you want to have as close to 100 gas as possible when your core finishes; typically you'll have a little over 100 so just add them a little later or pull them once you have 100 then resume mining it a little after you start your nexus.
By doing this, you have a stalker that comes at a standard time to shoo away the scouting scvs and take a tower should you expect any funny business. Your 2nd stalker out of the gateway will not be able to join forces with the 3 you warped in and the first one you made out of the gateway immediately, but hell, you still have it xD
For those who might be wondering where this 175 mins/50 gas was suddenly found, let me explain it to you. Pre WG nerf your 2 gates would finish right as your wg finished with maximum CB (2 on nex; rest to wg). Now that WG will finish 20 seconds later (or less; I'm not sure if you have time to put an additional CB on it with the extended base time), you can start those 2 gateways ~20 seconds later. During this time you can accumulate the resources needed to poop out a stalker and a couple of probes ^^
edit: Keilah opened my eyes to this little adjustment. thank you kind sir!
Bro, this guy put an ebay in my expansion; imba.
+ Show Spoiler +
Once again, our old buddy Keliah has thrown us a rope. Upon the completion of your gateway, queue up a zealot. This serves two purposes:
1. You deny the extremely valuablue tidbit of information that is a clear tipoff if an scv is already in your base: you ARE in fact "making" a unit from the gateway. If he doesn't throw down the ebay, cancel it! Genius!
2. If he make the ebay even though he sees you are making a unit, which is pretty much a throw away of money for him because you're not showing 20nex, just let it finish and you have the strongest early game building killer (besides that one thing terran has; I've forgotten what is called... xD)
1. You deny the extremely valuablue tidbit of information that is a clear tipoff if an scv is already in your base: you ARE in fact "making" a unit from the gateway. If he doesn't throw down the ebay, cancel it! Genius!
2. If he make the ebay even though he sees you are making a unit, which is pretty much a throw away of money for him because you're not showing 20nex, just let it finish and you have the strongest early game building killer (besides that one thing terran has; I've forgotten what is called... xD)
Alej, how is this build like 4gating? wtfz? nexus?
+ Show Spoiler +
Good question! Short answer? The probe cut. Long answer- You cut probes at 20 and pool minerals; if you were 4gating you would pool 450 minerals on 20 probes while getting out a zealot and then a stalker (then a 2nd stalker afterwards). In this build, you pool 400 minerals for the nexus, and then 300 more for 2 gateways before resuming probes or making any units. So you're essentially doing the same probe cut and then pooling about the same amount of minerals (450 + 225 for units while 4gating vs 400 + 300 for gateways while HuKking). Also cool to note, while HuKking your 2nd and 3rd gateways go down at about the same time that your additional gateways go down when you are 4gating, and since you spend 2 CB's on the nexus and save the rest for WG research for both builds, you get your warpgate done at about the same time!
When should I use this build??
+ Show Spoiler +
Obviously, this build is not safe in every position on every map in the pool as you don't get your first unit out until you already have a nexus and 3 gateways building. Ideally, you want cross map spawns on Temple or Metal, any spawns on Tel'Darim or Shakuras, and I think you can get away with it on Xel'Naga, though this would requre additional testing.
If you scout no gas, this build is extremely safe and marines literally cannot hurt you provided you have good control with your stalkers. If your opponent is 1 rax expanding with no gas, this build is pretty damn amazing. With your 4 initial stalkers, you can put pressure on the T by smacking the bunker around a little bit (pulling back the one getting hit once shields are about to go down, of course) and forcing him to devote attention and minerals to repair. Also, the marines around/behind the bunker will fall really easily unless the terran is constantly paying attention to your pressure so you can usually pick a few off. And if your terran opponent does not make a bunker on the lowground, you can deny/kill the expansion and all of the marines. You can literally kill a terran in 8 minutes with a 1gate fe; it's pretty awesome :D
If you scout no gas, this build is extremely safe and marines literally cannot hurt you provided you have good control with your stalkers. If your opponent is 1 rax expanding with no gas, this build is pretty damn amazing. With your 4 initial stalkers, you can put pressure on the T by smacking the bunker around a little bit (pulling back the one getting hit once shields are about to go down, of course) and forcing him to devote attention and minerals to repair. Also, the marines around/behind the bunker will fall really easily unless the terran is constantly paying attention to your pressure so you can usually pick a few off. And if your terran opponent does not make a bunker on the lowground, you can deny/kill the expansion and all of the marines. You can literally kill a terran in 8 minutes with a 1gate fe; it's pretty awesome :D
I'm not sure if I can do this build because I don't have all the scouting information I need. What should I do?
+ Show Spoiler +
What I have seen HuK do when he has yet to scout cross spawn is he does not pull probes from gas at 50, he leaves them on so that he can play a standard opening in the case that he feels unsafe executing this. If his fears are expunged, he pulls them off gas and plops down the nexus. Very easy, very intuitive.
When can I not get away with this? How should I deviate?
+ Show Spoiler +
Because this build is best done with a 13 scout and on big maps, you can't always get all the information you need before expanding.
The only way I've seen HuK straight up lose with this build in a decent situation (it was cross spawns on shakuras) was against NaDa. NaDa opened up with a standard 2rax, reactor then tech lab, and pulled 5 scvs and just killed HuK.. HuK said that he could have added a cannon if he saw scvs pulled. Unfortunately, I haven't hit NaDa on the ladder recently ( -.- ) so I can't really know when one would add the forge/cannon and what would tip him off to know that this would be coming. So like with every build, there are plenty of deviations to be discovered through many many repetitions
After running a lot of tests with a teammate, we found that if the Terran scouts the protoss first and sees the gas pulled/lack of gateway unit building/nexus before he hits 16 food, he can effectively 2rack (12/16) with reactor tech lab and with 8 scvs put you in a very tight, but not unwinnable scenario. If this happens to you, wait for a 2nd round of WG cooldowns and bust the bunkers with 5 stalkers/3 zealots.
If you think back to HuK vs MMA game one, HuK scouts cross map first, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why- then last night after doing these tests it hit me--he feels extremely safe doing this build so long as the Terran does not scout him first. I mean, he ends up doing the build anyway but perhaps there are additional precautions that he takes when the Terran can scout him first.. though I am not sure what these are yet. One nice thing to know is that if the terran does not scout you fast enough to react to the nexus with a 16 barracks, you can hold his aggression easily even if he pulls scvs by pulling probes!
The only way I've seen HuK straight up lose with this build in a decent situation (it was cross spawns on shakuras) was against NaDa. NaDa opened up with a standard 2rax, reactor then tech lab, and pulled 5 scvs and just killed HuK.. HuK said that he could have added a cannon if he saw scvs pulled. Unfortunately, I haven't hit NaDa on the ladder recently ( -.- ) so I can't really know when one would add the forge/cannon and what would tip him off to know that this would be coming. So like with every build, there are plenty of deviations to be discovered through many many repetitions
After running a lot of tests with a teammate, we found that if the Terran scouts the protoss first and sees the gas pulled/lack of gateway unit building/nexus before he hits 16 food, he can effectively 2rack (12/16) with reactor tech lab and with 8 scvs put you in a very tight, but not unwinnable scenario. If this happens to you, wait for a 2nd round of WG cooldowns and bust the bunkers with 5 stalkers/3 zealots.
If you think back to HuK vs MMA game one, HuK scouts cross map first, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why- then last night after doing these tests it hit me--he feels extremely safe doing this build so long as the Terran does not scout him first. I mean, he ends up doing the build anyway but perhaps there are additional precautions that he takes when the Terran can scout him first.. though I am not sure what these are yet. One nice thing to know is that if the terran does not scout you fast enough to react to the nexus with a 16 barracks, you can hold his aggression easily even if he pulls scvs by pulling probes!
What can you transition into based on what you see?
+ Show Spoiler +
With your 5 stalkers you see.......
Wall, bunker + marines-
Most likely 1;1;1 all in, could be 1;1;1 expand or some kind of helion drop or fast tank play
HuK responds to this buy adding a robo and a forge; he puts one cannon inside of each mineral line and get a couple observers out and then immortals if he spots tanks. If the terran is all-inning, HuK cuts probes and essentially makes a swarm of zealots and absolutely destroys the push with zealot-sentry with stalkers to shoot down banshees and well-microed immortals to pick off tanks.
No bunker, marines + mauradors
Most likely 2rax expand, could be 3 rax
HuK will warp in 3 zealots to his proxy pylon and walk right up that damn ramp and kill him a terran. Alternatively, if there is a bunker or if you don't have tight enough timings to get your 7 units up the ramp in time, HuK adds 2 gates and keep up the pressure with 5 warpgates, eventually adding a robo, a forge, and a twilight council for charge and eventually teching to colossus and adding a 3rd at about 100 food (3rd timing is extremely situational, of course).
Marines and Bunker/constructing bunker on lowground
This is gasless expand. What you do now is you HuK them, as in picking off the building scv on the bunker (if he doesn't get it started in time to have it finished when you get there) and sniping marines without taking hull damage on stalkers. If you can take the bunker down, you have denied the expansion and have pretty much won the game if all he has is marines. If he gets the bunker up in time, you can add 2 more gates as in the above example, or take your additional gases and tech very quickly, as you are pretty safe from an attack because the terran delayed his gas and therefore his medivac tech.
Wall, bunker + marines-
Most likely 1;1;1 all in, could be 1;1;1 expand or some kind of helion drop or fast tank play
HuK responds to this buy adding a robo and a forge; he puts one cannon inside of each mineral line and get a couple observers out and then immortals if he spots tanks. If the terran is all-inning, HuK cuts probes and essentially makes a swarm of zealots and absolutely destroys the push with zealot-sentry with stalkers to shoot down banshees and well-microed immortals to pick off tanks.
No bunker, marines + mauradors
Most likely 2rax expand, could be 3 rax
HuK will warp in 3 zealots to his proxy pylon and walk right up that damn ramp and kill him a terran. Alternatively, if there is a bunker or if you don't have tight enough timings to get your 7 units up the ramp in time, HuK adds 2 gates and keep up the pressure with 5 warpgates, eventually adding a robo, a forge, and a twilight council for charge and eventually teching to colossus and adding a 3rd at about 100 food (3rd timing is extremely situational, of course).
Marines and Bunker/constructing bunker on lowground
This is gasless expand. What you do now is you HuK them, as in picking off the building scv on the bunker (if he doesn't get it started in time to have it finished when you get there) and sniping marines without taking hull damage on stalkers. If you can take the bunker down, you have denied the expansion and have pretty much won the game if all he has is marines. If he gets the bunker up in time, you can add 2 more gates as in the above example, or take your additional gases and tech very quickly, as you are pretty safe from an attack because the terran delayed his gas and therefore his medivac tech.
Post a replay or gtfo!!!
+ Show Spoiler +
I'll upload some of my own, but if you want to see this build executed by some one who can pull it off 20 times better than I can, head on over to http://www.justin.tv/liquidhuk/videos and check out HuK's VODs
Here is such a sample. He does the modified version that has been adjusted for the WG nerf.
http://www.justin.tv/liquidhuk/b/287559032
Game starts ~1:15:00
Note that he mines gas normally and doesn't cb his WG as hard. He apparently saves the CB for a faster 2nd round of stalkers for which he has exactly enough gas, but gets supply blocked
This is what happens when your opponent tries to break the expansion with tech-lab reactor ( versus reactor - tech lab)
http://replayfu.com/download/gkS50g
Here is a pretty humorous game ^^
It shows what happens when you try to double tech lab rush one who is HuKking.
http://replayfu.com/download/20QhDs
Here we see why 2 maurader + 1 marine push off of 1rax expand is suicide against this build (especially with rush distance.)
http://replayfu.com/download/xNP14
Against 12/16 rax with reactor-tech lab using post wg modified build
http://replayfu.com/download/wQTHqt
Againt reaper expand into 2 additional rax then factory
http://replayfu.com/download/rs9hhf
Against 1rax fe into mech
http://replayfu.com/download/Q402bv
Against gasless 1rax fe
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16323
Here is such a sample. He does the modified version that has been adjusted for the WG nerf.
http://www.justin.tv/liquidhuk/b/287559032
Game starts ~1:15:00
Note that he mines gas normally and doesn't cb his WG as hard. He apparently saves the CB for a faster 2nd round of stalkers for which he has exactly enough gas, but gets supply blocked
This is what happens when your opponent tries to break the expansion with tech-lab reactor ( versus reactor - tech lab)
http://replayfu.com/download/gkS50g
Here is a pretty humorous game ^^
It shows what happens when you try to double tech lab rush one who is HuKking.
http://replayfu.com/download/20QhDs
Here we see why 2 maurader + 1 marine push off of 1rax expand is suicide against this build (especially with rush distance.)
http://replayfu.com/download/xNP14
Against 12/16 rax with reactor-tech lab using post wg modified build
http://replayfu.com/download/wQTHqt
Againt reaper expand into 2 additional rax then factory
http://replayfu.com/download/rs9hhf
Against 1rax fe into mech
http://replayfu.com/download/Q402bv
Against gasless 1rax fe
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16323
Youtube vid!
+ Show Spoiler +
Check out this video Cecil made that goes over a modified version- CB'd stalker before nexus
Thanks Cecil!
Thanks Cecil!
Thank you for reading. . Happy HuKking!
aLeJ
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/HuK's_1gate_FE_(PvT)
