PvZ How to beat a 6 pool? - Page 3

I personally do what used to be a WhiteRa-esque building placement, with my first pylon/gateway at the nexus/behind the mineral line, and then my second pylon/cyber core at the ramp, finishing with my second gate whenever necessary

I have never lost to a <11 pool with this without a clear micro/scouting error on my part. I scout after gateway (unless FFE-ing on Taldarim, Shakuras or Antigua). Part of what make this so great is that when people see that there is no wall, they often just make all zerglings and never drone up thinking that I mistakenly thought they were Terran or something. Once they are held off and have 6-7-8-9-whatever drones left, easy win.

You place your first pylon nestled in a choke formed by you minerals, your gas or wherever so that as few lings would be able to hit it as possible. An example of this would be on xelnaga, spawning at the north, placing the pylon between your eastwards gas and the edge of the base. You then place the gateway touching the pylon just south of it, so only one face of the pylon is accessible by lings (and they have to walk all the way around the mineral line to get to it)

You then place your second pylon/cyber at the ramp as usual. Depending on when you scout it will dictate what happens next.

I'll use Typhon peaks as an example, since that is 4 player with reasonable rush distances.

You scout first (after gateway), you'll see it before you place your second pylon, however if you were planning to, you would have already spent your 3rd chronoboost on the nexus. Put the pylon back to support your gateway, in a spot that forces a choke for your zealot if possible. Place cyber core similarly as well. If you see more than 6 lings, and feel like you must, pull off gas either once you have 100 gas or just leave 1 probe on. This is so that you can immediately start warp gate and a stalker once you feel safe. Just keep the zealot in your mineral line, if the lings try to come in to fight, use the zealot + 3-4 closest probes to fend them off, mineral walking probes which are being hit. Once you are safe (for me this is usually with 2 zealots+a stalker), you can make your 3rd/4th pylon at the ramp ready to wall normally with gates 2/3.

Lets say you scout him at the second position, your second pylon will just be finishing up or may be completely finished (depending on 15/16 pylon, and specifics to your scouting, you should always pull back your scouting probe the second you see no creep, don't let it walk all the way into the base and back out, that wastes precious seconds). If it hasn't finished, cancel it and replace it back at the gateway as before. You should cancel the probe in production and start a zealot, taking you to 18/18.

If the pylon has finished, just go to 19/26 and pull 5-6 probes to ward the zerglings off the pylon until zealots come out, start cyber core back towards nexus after 1-2 zealots as before. If for some reason the pylon is going to go down, say you didn't react in time or he splits his lings (and is producing >6), replace it back at the nexus. Use the minerals pooled to start your WG and a preliminary 3rd pylon. Keep ~175 for when the pylon finishes so you can start probes production and a zealot/stalker again (situational) once the pylon finishes

Say you scout him last, your cyber core will have been started. This one relies entirely on whether he is producing >6 lings or not. Keep your scouting probe near his hatchery, and check what comes out of the larvae. If its only 6 lings, keep the cyber core there, you will have to pull 6-7 probes along with your soon to finish zealot and ward the lings off. Once your second zealot finishes, you can send the probes back to mine. He will run around with lings and make a dart for a probe in the mineral line every now and then, just pull the 2-3 outer probes into the middle of the mineral line and you'll be fine until the stalker comes out.

Say he makes >6 lings (and you scout him last), you'll have to cancel the cyber core, replace it back towards the nexus, and likely a preliminary 3rd pylon there as well, since your second will very likely fall. You may want a second gate (definitely if you get supply capped), but otherwise do the same as before, keep your zealots in the mineral line.

One game a situation came about that he produced something like ~16 lings with ~10 left and kept me contained with my 2 zealots and a stalker in my mineral line. He was being very cautious to not follow my stalker back into the mineral line and doing an all round good job, he was starting to drone up again and eventually started a hatch. I was content sitting in my mineral line, I had gateways coming up around my mineral line, with WG almost done. I simply 4gated him with a proxxy pylon set up by my scouting probe, making 4 zealots at a time.

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This building placement taxes your micro and decision making far more than normal responses will, but I definitely believe it is better, largely because you can often make them fully commit to all lings and at the point unless you have a major cock up you win with a late 4gate.

If he does say a 14 gas/pool, or simliar, you can play as normal, just getting up your second gateway earlier than usual if he pokes with >4 lings

If he goes hatch first, I'm toying around with not walling in at the top of the ramp at all, just placing gates 2 and 3 on the low ground forming a wall for my expo. No wall makes it far easier if you're caught off guard by drops/nydus/mutas and don't have something like blink yet, because units can come back into your base far more quickly than if they are forced back single file