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Hi all! This is my first post, so hopefully I haven't violated any rules posting!
I am having a terrible time vs roaches early game PvZ. I had heard that blink micro absolutely dominates roach play from many people. I have searched (as best I could) through the forums here for specific info on how to do this and didn't get anything.
Could somebody post a replay/advice on how to blink mirco down roaches? Is it simply just blinking a stalker to the back right after shields are used or is there something more? If not, I would love to see somebody dominate roaches with stalker blink-micro.
Thanks guys!
-JINX
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thats exactly what it is, you blink the stalker back when its shields are gone, and then you A-Move it back towards the roachs. theres a custom map called Blink Forcefield micro challenge, you should look it up. ( its 5 sentries and like 12 stalkers, and you fight increasing numbers of roachs with blink and a few forcefields.)
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The basic concept is blinking hurt stalkers to the back, so the roaches never actually kill anything, therefore maximizing the dps of your army. As numbers get bigger, its better to "peel" the first layer of stalkers isntead of clicking each individual stalker.
You can try darleigns micro challenge, there is alot of helpful micro situations that you can practice with
EDIT: Got ninjad 
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Ok, that's good to know! Thanks for your replies. If you guys have any good replays you'd recommend to see how it is done properly, I'd love to see them!
And... sorry to sound ignorant, but where would I get darleigns micro challenge?
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A little question to add, as I'm often afraid of making roaches vs blinkies - what's the consensus on the efficiency of blink vs hydras?
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On August 28 2011 08:07 Stardroid wrote:
A little question to add, as I'm often afraid of making roaches vs blinkies - what's the consensus on the efficiency of blink vs hydras?
You NEED to add lings or roaches to tank/pressure blink stalkers.
Stalkers TIE hydralisks in a 1v1 fight, no upgrades, so with blink and +1 or +2, blink stalkers will always come out on top.
You can also increase efficiency by fighting on creep so your rallied reinforcements join the battle faster.
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@Stardroid, hydras wreck stalkers blink or no because they match range when upgraded. It helps to have a small amount of roaches to draw fire though, even though hydras don't take extra damage from stalkers they don't exactly have a huge life reserve to begin with.
Honestly, roaches do more than fine when you get speed and attack ups, no amount of blink micro will save you from being outnumbered 2 speed roaches to each blink stalker.
To answer the OPs question though, make sure you engage in favorable spots, if you let the roach ball hug your stalkers in a corner you will lose convincingly. Blink your stalkers behind when they deplete their shields. when blink is on cooldown for everyone, start kiting. When the numbers get higher, you're better off boxing off the front slice of stalkers and blinking all of them back at once, your goal when microing is to make sure that only the very front few roaches are able to attack while you have 2-3 rows of stalkers able to fire.
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Thanks, but let's say 20 hydras v 20 stalkers - what numbers do you get with good blink micro? I'm terrible at it...
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Didn't know that HiredGoonThug, thanks. I thought the 0 losses thing was quite infinite (silly on reflection)
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Hydras will eat up stalkers with enough numbers, but in medium sizes with great blink micro stalkers will easily win. Star droid, it depends. It can go as badly as losing every stalker for only a few hydras or killing every hydra with minimal losses (see Idra vs MC, I forget what tournament).
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Many people will claim blink stalkers dominate roaches, while never actually playing the game in a level above gold. The idea is as stated in this thread, when the shields are gone, u blink stalkers back. However speed roaches are faster than stalkers, and will run right up next to your stalkers, then do so much damage in one shot that stalkers die without u even getting the chance to blink back. So in order to save stalkers, u have to start blinking them back before the roaches get on top of you. With high numbers of roaches, it becomes impossible.
The exception is when you mix sentries and use Forcefields with your blink stalkers. Then you can control how many roaches u face at once, and can blink back hurt stalkers much more eaisly.
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On August 28 2011 08:12 PowerDes wrote:Show nested quote +On August 28 2011 08:07 Stardroid wrote:
A little question to add, as I'm often afraid of making roaches vs blinkies - what's the consensus on the efficiency of blink vs hydras? You NEED to add lings or roaches to tank/pressure blink stalkers. Stalkers TIE hydralisks in a 1v1 fight, no upgrades, so with blink and +1 or +2, blink stalkers will always come out on top. You can also increase efficiency by fighting on creep so your rallied reinforcements join the battle faster.
Personally, I perfer going Roach Hydra if I scout a Twilight Council. That way, if a Blink Stalker push ever dared enter my base, I'd just rip them apart.
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It's far more complex than just blinking individual Stalkers back. It also involves the following:
- Making sure that all your Stalkers are attacking.
- Target firing with an exact set of Stalkers to eliminate Roaches as quickly as possible rather than just letting them attack whatever (cause Roaches can tank so much better that way).
- Minimizing overkill (the Stalkers shots that are wasted on already dead units).
It's also important to not let the Roaches "get in your face", always keep the distance. Remember that you can still actually just move with the Stalkers, there's no need to stand in one spot and just blink individual Stalkers back.
Finally, don't get pinned in the back of your natural and fight there. The advantage of Blink is the ability to engage the enemy in a very forward position, especially if the Zerg goes Roach/Hydra.
And yes, Blink Stalkers can handle Hydras quite well if you don't slack on upgrades.
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Can you post a replay instead?
Your problem is almost certainly not going to be solved with blink stalkers. Blink stalkers are great vs roach but rushing out blink in the early game pvz is generally an all-in. 5gate 2 base +2 blink stalkers isn't all-in but that is a midgame timing. The answer to your actual problem is proper forcefields. That is either an attention, a build, or a micro problem. Can't narrow that down unless a rep is posted
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On August 28 2011 08:14 Stardroid wrote:
Thanks, but let's say 20 hydras v 20 stalkers - what numbers do you get with good blink micro? I'm terrible at it...
This is my own personal testing with unit tester... im not MC so don't take it for too much
20 vs. 20 ... 0/0 vs 0/0
off creep without range 14 stalkers left
off creep with range 9 stalkers left
on creep without range 12 stalkers left
on creep with range 4 hydras left
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I will post a reply of when I am having an issue with and hopefully somebody can tear apart my play and tell me what I am doing wrong. I get devestated when I try and expand early. (expo first while zerg does same)
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Replays are required in [H]elp threads. Just a little warning for the future 
Anyway, the common style (in a perfect world) is to blink back any stalker that loses all of its shields, the moment it does. This is nearly impossible. For your purposes, a good substitute it to look at the health bars, determine where the least blue is, box a small group and blink them back. It should help a lot
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Ideally you want to have forcefields as well, and preferably engaging off creep.
With the forcefields you don't even need a solid wall, you can just throw down a few almost haphazardly to ruin the roach's concave and it drastically turns the battle in the stalker's favour.
If you actually have well-placed forcefields that let you isolate groups of roaches and divide the army, you basically take no losses.
I think the forcefields are much more important than blink.
Zerg players really should have more zerglings to accompany their roaches or hydras, because not only do they own stalkers but they require a lot more (and different) forcefields than roaches.
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(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ How to improve your blink micro in 2 easy steps (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
Step 1: Play Osu!
Step 1.5: Upon following step 1, you should get Kawaiirice APM. If not, repeat step 1.
Step 2: You can now get into Grandmaster's with blink stalkers and forcefields. GG!
Seriously though, just practice (Osu or Starcraft, doesn't matter lol) until you can blink them back individually, it isn't THAT complex, and doesn't require 300 APM, more like 150 in-battle APM which is NOT that uncommon nor hard to accomplish.
Also, don't blink forward into battle unless they are retreating with a small army.
Unless you are HuK.
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Just watch out for infestor/ling or infestor/roach-hydra, it will absolutely crush blink builds.
Assuming you didnt blink of 1 base ofc.
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EPT
