• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 08:22
CEST 14:22
KST 21:22
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview27Code S RO12 Preview: GuMiho, Bunny, SHIN, ByuN3The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL47Code S RO12 Preview: Cure, Zoun, Solar, Creator4
Community News
BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack2Weekly Cups (June 2-8): herO doubles down1[BSL20] ProLeague: Bracket Stage & Dates9GSL Ro4 and Finals moved to Sunday June 15th13Weekly Cups (May 27-June 1): ByuN goes back-to-back0
StarCraft 2
General
Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing DreamHack Dallas 2025 - Official Replay Pack BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S:Season 2 - RO8 - Group A Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Bellum Gens Elite: Stara Zagora 2025 $3,500 WardiTV European League 2025
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance
Brood War
General
BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Will foreigners ever be able to challenge Koreans?
Tourneys
[ASL19] Grand Finals [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET NA Team League 6/8/2025 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
LiquidLegends to reintegrate into TL.net
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Vape Nation Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 30670 users

[D] Defensive Mothership Usage in PvZ

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 05:24 GMT
#1


Please read this, as this is a product from procrastinating for an hour now. If you don't want to read, scroll down and look at the pretty pictures i took and the TL;DR

I want to discuss an almost extinct unit that will be gone by HotS, a massive and flippin slow support unit, a unit that has excellent spells, a unit that is just insanely powerful.

The Mothership
[image loading]
T.T sweet tears will be cried once you have gone away T.T

The Mothership, a massive, expensive, time consuming protoss ultimate unit has been considered as one of the worst units ever added to the protoss race that is already lacking in a strong air capital ship (A.K.A the Carrier). Many pros have used motherships in their offensive role, but what I'm most interested in is their defensive role. Lets take a look at the two spells it carries first.




1.Mass Recall Mana cost: 100

Duration: 2 seconds

Radius: 6.5

Hotkey:R
Instantly teleports units in a large radius to where the mothership is

2. VortexMana cost: 100
Range: 9

Duration: 20 Seconds

Radius:2.5

Hotkey:R

And, lets not forget the Mothership's passive ability:
Cloaking Field

Radius:5
The Mothership cloaks all nearby Buildings and Units.

Lets focus on the current PvZ meta game on large maps.

As Protoss, you would generally go FFE on large maps like Tal Darim and Shakruas, then go into either Stargate pressure, a blink stalker timing attack, 6 gate all in, or some kind of shenanigans to stop their 3rd base or do substantial economic damage to them. If you fail to do any damage at all, you probably are behind since the zerg is still making drones . If you do some pretty nice pressure, you could probably take down their third or kill a good amount of queens, overlords, and drones before you can head back home and prepare for another attack and take an expansion too since you've caused enough economic damage to the zerg that sets him behind. Generally on large maps, people like to use stargate since phoenixes and voidrays give excellent map control and scouting inside the zerg's base and forces them to make a good amount of spores, queens, and then force either hydras or mutas to stop the pressure that you are applying.

Now, what if you fail to do any damage?

60% Of the time, you're pretty fucked. But don't believe me, since around 83% of statistics are made up on the spot. Instead, my protoss brethren, look at your past replays of failed FFE into stargate transitions. If you make ONE stargate, your stargate units are stopped by good positioning of spores. Then, later, a whole horde of either hydras come over to your front door and start sniping everything, or, the most feared unit that zerg has:
Mutalisks.

Mutas. They rape phoenixes if you miss micro by just a teeny weeny bit, are easily mass produced thanks to the larvae mechanic, and are just hell to deal with if you have not a substantial amount of static defense, blink stalkers, or whatever unit shoots up into the air. If you go dual stargate, you have more phoenixes to try and zone out the mutas from entering your base, but you might eventually get run over just as he makes around 10 mutas because chances are, you're not going to have more than 4 phoenixes. So, you may ask, why the hell am i talking about stargates and the current metagame and stupid shit like that while not including the main topic? Well, i will present to you here, the solution to mutas just as your transitioning into your midgame tech: The Mothership.

"WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT YOU SKILLESS NOOB?" Oh man, let me explain:

The mothership has two active abilities, and one passive ability: Cloaking Field, Vortex, and Mass recall.

The Significance of Cloaking Field
Mutas are NOT Detectors at all. They can't shoot invisible units. When a mothership is placed smack right on top of a Nexus, the mothership can effectively cloak everything up to the minerals and assimilators.
[image loading]
What base?

You can get a mothership relatively easily and around a minute or two after mutas pop, and all you need is around 50 seconds to have energy enough for a Vortex. Since mutas must stack in order to be effective for zerg, a simple vortex that has 9 range and has a radius of 2.5 can easily suck up mutas for 20 seconds and stall for your stalkers/phoenixes to come and shoot everything that comes out of the black abyss that is the vortex. If you think thats not enough range, lets do some simple math :D. Mutas have 3 range. the whole probe/mineral line is around 6.5 range away from the mothership, but remember the mothership has a casting range of 9. So, if mutas want to shoot the probes, they must get at least 3 range to the probe which is around 9.5 range max away from the mothership. Now, a Vortex has a radius of 2.5, so you simply add on the range of the vortex and add/subtract 2.5 range of the spell to get the total range of the spell.

The Significance and Usage of Mass Recall
Mass Recall is one of the unsung heroes of SC2, because its one of the most powerful abilities ever brought to SC2, instantly warping a whole protoss deathball from one side of the map to the other. Take in for instance, this scenario: You want to take down a zerg base, but you don't want your army to be quickly taken down by ridiculously fast units like zerglings, roaches, infestors, mutas, or that kind of thing. You know if you go and attack that expansion, you will probably have to bring your whole army to take it down, but you can't afford to loose it. Your solution? Mass Recall.
[image loading]
FFUUUUUUUUUUUU-----

[image loading]
Hehehe, i got a trick up my sleve

[image loading]
HAH SUCKER! MY WHOLE ARMY IS STILL ALIVE :DDDD

Mass Recall allows you to get away from the stickiest situations imaginable, and is game changing too. Since Mass Recall only takes around 100 energy, you can split your army into two and take down two zerg expansions and then teleport them back to your base if there comes a counter attack from the zerg and allows you to easily defend your base while effectively denying expansions against the zerg.

You already have a stargate up, so why not invest an extra 300/200+400/400 to make a unit that helps you substantially in the mid game by literally protecting an expansion completely while protecting fragile mid game economy and save the lives of dozens of probes and lost mining time?


Too Fucking Long; Didn't read Shit.
Motherships can be used for a defensive role in PvZ against mutas and can pay off late game by saving your army with the use of mass recall.

A Mothership's cloak stalls harassment from mutas and can also stall attacks from zergs

Vortex can stall time for you to assemble your army together and attack



Come in and dicuss some ways in which a mothership is a terrible unit, its role as a defensive capital ship that hasn't been fully abused, and maybe even how Recall will be from Nexuses instead of from a capital ship!

Also, i will be re editing the OP as the discussion goes along and i will add to the bottom of this post interesting questions and theory crafting of the use of this magnificent unit.
attwell
Profile Joined July 2011
United States220 Posts
December 07 2011 06:12 GMT
#2
TBH I'm mad at myself for making motherships and using them offensively.

In reality it seems like they function best as defensive units, you can utilize all 3 of its abilities better than offensively where you can only utilize 2.

Great post
guanzo
Profile Joined September 2011
15 Posts
December 07 2011 06:28 GMT
#3
What about when the zerg gets 25-30 mutas and just snipes your mothership? By the time you actually get through the fleetbeacon, and build the mothership, the zerg will have had enough time to mass up mutas. You also have to wait for 100 energy before you can use any skills. It looks like the zerg will just be able to waltz in and snipe your mothership. He'll take some losses of course, but not nearly as much as you.

Also, what if he decides to harass bases where your mothership is not at? It's too slow to defend multiple bases.

Can i get a replay of this build? Preferably in the masters/gm level.
Elefes
Profile Joined September 2011
Russian Federation164 Posts
December 07 2011 06:32 GMT
#4
In PvZ you are so rarely in a position comfortable enough to invest 700/600 (jeeeeeeez!!!) and good 3 minutes (+some time to gain mana) instead of building extra stalkers, obs and warp prisms... (say, 200/0 + 2*25/75 + 4*125/50 = 750/350)
Considering how popular mass muta plays are, and how easy it is to snipe the ship (oh noes, me lose 3 mutas!) while expanding behind this mess....

IMO defensive usage of MS is not that viable. For the same price you can just kill his 3rd/4th, pressure, or deal effin mutas and finally expand and harass.
Very late game recalls and vortexes are almost must-have, but in an offensive manner. Also we'd kinda appreciate tons of replays instead of theory-crafting. Like, yo dawgs, I owned top-master zergs like nub babies 14/20 games with dat build! And we'll be like: ^_^ mumma is so good! Amazing guide luv luv luv. For now I find this guide less useful than the older ones.
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 06:36 GMT
#5
On December 07 2011 15:28 guanzo wrote:
What about when the zerg gets 25-30 mutas and just snipes your mothership? By the time you actually get through the fleetbeacon, and build the mothership, the zerg will have had enough time to mass up mutas. You also have to wait for 100 energy before you can use any skills. It looks like the zerg will just be able to waltz in and snipe your mothership. He'll take some losses of course, but not nearly as much as you.

Also, what if he decides to harass bases where your mothership is not at? It's too slow to defend multiple bases.

Can i get a replay of this build? Preferably in the masters/gm level.


Yep, i was just about to upload a replay :D, but it was against some high ish diamond who is nowhere near low master league.

When i do this build, i usually get a double stargate and start with 1 phoenix and 1 voidray, and then after i get about 2 voidrays and 2-3 phoenixes i start the fleet beacon.

Spire takes a while to finish, and even at the optimal time, you should already have around 4 phoenixes ready to go and stall time for the mothership. The mothership pops out around a minute or two after the first batch of mutas come out, and you have a choice of chronoing out phoenixes, adding on stalkers, and also have enough energy to defend using vortex.

There is no way in hell a Zerg can get 25-30 mutas anywhere before 15:00, unless you let his 3rd finish up and didn't do any type of damage to his 3rd. I'm not saying that its impossible, but if he does get 25-30 mutas (so effin common), get some air attack upgrades to stay on par with Mutas and you really have to try and control a small batch of 12 phoenixes to try and stop mutas ._.
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 06:38 GMT
#6
On December 07 2011 15:32 Elefes wrote:
In PvZ you are so rarely in a position comfortable enough to invest 700/600 (jeeeeeeez!!!) and good 3 minutes (+some time to gain mana) instead of building extra stalkers, obs and warp prisms... (say, 200/0 + 2*25/75 + 4*125/50 = 750/350)
Considering how popular mass muta plays are, and how easy it is to snipe the ship (oh noes, me lose 3 mutas!) while expanding behind this mess....

IMO defensive usage of MS is not that viable. For the same price you can just kill his 3rd/4th, pressure, or deal effin mutas and finally expand and harass.
Very late game recalls and vortexes are almost must-have, but in an offensive manner. Also we'd kinda appreciate tons of replays instead of theory-crafting. Like, yo dawgs, I owned top-master zergs like nub babies 14/20 games with dat build! And we'll be like: ^_^ mumma is so good! Amazing guide luv luv luv. For now I find this guide less useful than the older ones.


The whole point of opening stargate is to stop his 3rd or at least cause eco damage against him while getting a mothership, because its still ridiculously easy for a zerg to make his first batch of mutas pretty early w/o his 3rd base
Tazerenix
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia340 Posts
December 07 2011 06:38 GMT
#7
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 06:44 GMT
#8
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.
Tazerenix
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia340 Posts
December 07 2011 06:50 GMT
#9
On December 07 2011 15:44 LanTAs wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.

That completely fails to address one of the two points I made in that post.... Yes, of course you can get a mothership by the time mutalisks reach your base, but thats 180 seconds where you aren't making probes from a nexus, thats 10, almost 11 probes.
Elefes
Profile Joined September 2011
Russian Federation164 Posts
December 07 2011 06:50 GMT
#10
On December 07 2011 15:38 LanTAs wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:32 Elefes wrote:
In PvZ you are so rarely in a position comfortable enough to invest 700/600 (jeeeeeeez!!!) and good 3 minutes (+some time to gain mana) instead of building extra stalkers, obs and warp prisms... (say, 200/0 + 2*25/75 + 4*125/50 = 750/350)
Considering how popular mass muta plays are, and how easy it is to snipe the ship (oh noes, me lose 3 mutas!) while expanding behind this mess....

IMO defensive usage of MS is not that viable. For the same price you can just kill his 3rd/4th, pressure, or deal effin mutas and finally expand and harass.
Very late game recalls and vortexes are almost must-have, but in an offensive manner. Also we'd kinda appreciate tons of replays instead of theory-crafting. Like, yo dawgs, I owned top-master zergs like nub babies 14/20 games with dat build! And we'll be like: ^_^ mumma is so good! Amazing guide luv luv luv. For now I find this guide less useful than the older ones.


The whole point of opening stargate is to stop his 3rd or at least cause eco damage against him while getting a mothership, because its still ridiculously easy for a zerg to make his first batch of mutas pretty early w/o his 3rd base


But you mentioned that that's a transition after a failed stargate pressure, therefore he can either out-macro you or allin pretty effectively... If you don't fail and deal enough damage, you can transition literally into anything and Mothership is just an option, not necessary the best.
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 06:55 GMT
#11
On December 07 2011 15:50 Tazerenix wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:44 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.

That completely fails to address one of the two points I made in that post.... Yes, of course you can get a mothership by the time mutalisks reach your base, but thats 180 seconds where you aren't making probes from a nexus, thats 10, almost 11 probes.


2 bases only need around 40min probes to 60 max probes for saturation, and during that time of presuring you should always take a third base
Tazerenix
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia340 Posts
December 07 2011 06:56 GMT
#12
On December 07 2011 15:55 LanTAs wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:50 Tazerenix wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:44 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.

That completely fails to address one of the two points I made in that post.... Yes, of course you can get a mothership by the time mutalisks reach your base, but thats 180 seconds where you aren't making probes from a nexus, thats 10, almost 11 probes.


2 bases only need around 40min probes to 60 max probes for saturation, and during that time of presuring you should always take a third base

And your third base will be 180 seconds of probe build time behind on saturation because you spent all that time making a mothership, and your natural will be saturated significantly slower as your only saturating it with a single nexus instead of two.
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 06:57 GMT
#13
On December 07 2011 15:50 Elefes wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:38 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:32 Elefes wrote:
In PvZ you are so rarely in a position comfortable enough to invest 700/600 (jeeeeeeez!!!) and good 3 minutes (+some time to gain mana) instead of building extra stalkers, obs and warp prisms... (say, 200/0 + 2*25/75 + 4*125/50 = 750/350)
Considering how popular mass muta plays are, and how easy it is to snipe the ship (oh noes, me lose 3 mutas!) while expanding behind this mess....

IMO defensive usage of MS is not that viable. For the same price you can just kill his 3rd/4th, pressure, or deal effin mutas and finally expand and harass.
Very late game recalls and vortexes are almost must-have, but in an offensive manner. Also we'd kinda appreciate tons of replays instead of theory-crafting. Like, yo dawgs, I owned top-master zergs like nub babies 14/20 games with dat build! And we'll be like: ^_^ mumma is so good! Amazing guide luv luv luv. For now I find this guide less useful than the older ones.


The whole point of opening stargate is to stop his 3rd or at least cause eco damage against him while getting a mothership, because its still ridiculously easy for a zerg to make his first batch of mutas pretty early w/o his 3rd base


But you mentioned that that's a transition after a failed stargate pressure, therefore he can either out-macro you or allin pretty effectively... If you don't fail and deal enough damage, you can transition literally into anything and Mothership is just an option, not necessary the best.


Everything is situational. Of course you shouldn't power out stargate units if he's going mass hydras but in this case, i think of the mothership as a new way to be able to deal with muta pressure and also stalling against zerg all ins with the vortex while getting out robotics facility units or a heavy gateway composition
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
December 07 2011 06:58 GMT
#14
On December 07 2011 15:56 Tazerenix wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:55 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:50 Tazerenix wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:44 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.

That completely fails to address one of the two points I made in that post.... Yes, of course you can get a mothership by the time mutalisks reach your base, but thats 180 seconds where you aren't making probes from a nexus, thats 10, almost 11 probes.


2 bases only need around 40min probes to 60 max probes for saturation, and during that time of presuring you should always take a third base

And your third base will be 180 seconds of probe build time behind on saturation because you spent all that time making a mothership, and your natural will be saturated significantly slower as your only saturating it with a single nexus instead of two.


You can do this, delay 10-11 probes or eventually loose 10-11 probes due to mutalisks. I'm not saying that this mothership transition is completely safe, but its a way of potentially loosing way less probes (since a mothership cloaks a whole expansion of 20-30 probes) while being able to pressure against zerg without too much casualties thanks to mass recall and vortex
Tazerenix
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia340 Posts
December 07 2011 07:01 GMT
#15
On December 07 2011 15:58 LanTAs wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:56 Tazerenix wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:55 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:50 Tazerenix wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:44 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.

That completely fails to address one of the two points I made in that post.... Yes, of course you can get a mothership by the time mutalisks reach your base, but thats 180 seconds where you aren't making probes from a nexus, thats 10, almost 11 probes.


2 bases only need around 40min probes to 60 max probes for saturation, and during that time of presuring you should always take a third base

And your third base will be 180 seconds of probe build time behind on saturation because you spent all that time making a mothership, and your natural will be saturated significantly slower as your only saturating it with a single nexus instead of two.


You can do this, delay 10-11 probes or eventually loose 10-11 probes due to mutalisks. I'm not saying that this mothership transition is completely safe, but its a way of potentially loosing way less probes (since a mothership cloaks a whole expansion of 20-30 probes) while being able to pressure against zerg without too much casualties thanks to mass recall and vortex


But the zerg doesn't need to commit to mutas at that point. If I saw a protoss rushing mothership off 2 base to counter mutas he clearly isn't going to be able to pressure. Just stop muta production, take 3 fresh bases and tech up.
LanTAs
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1091 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-07 07:11:44
December 07 2011 07:10 GMT
#16
On December 07 2011 16:01 Tazerenix wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 07 2011 15:58 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:56 Tazerenix wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:55 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:50 Tazerenix wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:44 LanTAs wrote:
On December 07 2011 15:38 Tazerenix wrote:
I feel like in the midgame the 180 build time seconds in the mid game for like muta defence is way too long to not be building probes from a nexus but in the late game I could see this being a great way of defending broodlord pushing on metalopolis and such.



The mothership should finish just as mutas get to your base or around half a minute later, it is quite viable IMO as an early defensive unit, but definitely in the late game the Mothership is a powerful tool that seems like nobody wants to use as a support unit in a defensive role.

That completely fails to address one of the two points I made in that post.... Yes, of course you can get a mothership by the time mutalisks reach your base, but thats 180 seconds where you aren't making probes from a nexus, thats 10, almost 11 probes.


2 bases only need around 40min probes to 60 max probes for saturation, and during that time of presuring you should always take a third base

And your third base will be 180 seconds of probe build time behind on saturation because you spent all that time making a mothership, and your natural will be saturated significantly slower as your only saturating it with a single nexus instead of two.


You can do this, delay 10-11 probes or eventually loose 10-11 probes due to mutalisks. I'm not saying that this mothership transition is completely safe, but its a way of potentially loosing way less probes (since a mothership cloaks a whole expansion of 20-30 probes) while being able to pressure against zerg without too much casualties thanks to mass recall and vortex


But the zerg doesn't need to commit to mutas at that point. If I saw a protoss rushing mothership off 2 base to counter mutas he clearly isn't going to be able to pressure. Just stop muta production, take 3 fresh bases and tech up.


As protoss, you can still use phoenixes to scout around with phoenixes and you should always poke in his base to see his tech path and possible expansions. Now, this is where the beauty of the mothership comes in.

If you're not commiting to mutas, then zerg is either going to go roach hydra, or ling infestor since you already have spire and a lair and a bunch of lings. You can easily send a handfull on units to the scouted expansions, lets say deny one or two, and even as lings surround your army you can recall back tobase while taking minimal losses.
nazdrovie
Profile Joined October 2011
27 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-07 08:16:54
December 07 2011 07:23 GMT
#17
Defensive mothership has been around for a while in PvZ, Kiwikaki has been using it that way since release, there are a few points in the original post which seem very off though, or plain wrong.

First of all, you present the mothership as a new way to deal with muta pressure but mutas already are a build order loss against stargate tech, because the protoss can build a second stargate the instant he sees spire and mass enough phoenix with chronoboost to beat mutalisks.

Mothership istelf can't kill mutas unless the zerg makes a mistake and goes in range of the mothership and gets caught in a vortex, which should reasonably never happen against competent players.
This means the vast majority of the time the ressources you sink into the fleet beacon and mothership (about700 / 650 i think) would be far better spend getting more phoenix which can actually kill the mutas, force the zerg into a defensive posture giving you map controll and harass some workers/overlords/queens.

On December 07 2011 14:24 LanTAs wrote:
Mutas. They rape phoenixes if you miss micro by just a teeny weeny bit, are easily mass produced thanks to the larvae mechanic, and are just hell to deal with if you have not a substantial amount of static defense, blink stalkers, or whatever unit shoots up into the air. If you go dual stargate, you have more phoenixes to try and zone out the mutas from entering your base, but you might eventually get run over just as he makes around 10 mutas because chances are, you're not going to have more than 4 phoenixes. So, you may ask, why the hell am i talking about stargates and the current metagame and stupid shit like that while not including the main topic? Well, i will present to you here, the solution to mutas just as your transitioning into your midgame tech: The Mothership.

This is the paragraph that really makes me cringe, because as I said earlier, adding a second stargate when you scout spire tech is pretty much build order win, while teching to mothership is a huge gamble, if the zerg just makes a few corruptors and snipes your mothership just as it finishes you end up wasting 700min 650gas for nothing which will, in most cases lose you the game right there.

Not to mention, if you tech straight to mothership most good zergs will either 2base hydra all-in before you can ever get your mothership or a colossus out, or get a douzen corruptors to snipe your mothership before it can ever reach the amount of energy needed to cast vortex. Making mutalisks in that situation just doesn't make sense in anyway.


I guess what I'm trying to say is no, getting a fast mothership isn't safe, nor is it going to make you any safer against mutalisks, this build can still work in lower leagues where players don't have such a good understanding of the game, but once you hit master league, Zerg players can and will shut it down extremely hard.


TL DR: to answer your question:

You already have a stargate up, so why not invest an extra 300/200+400/400 to make a unit that helps you substantially in the mid game by literally protecting an expansion completely while protecting fragile mid game economy and save the lives of dozens of probes and lost mining time

Because those "extra 700/650" aren't free and I'd much rather get 6-7 phoenix or 5-6 phoenix with an air upgrade which can easily beat even 15 mutas, as opposed to making myself extremely vulnerable to any kind of pressure in the time it takes for me to get a mothership out (forever).

And this is coming from a guy who used kiwikaki's mothership build as his standard PvZ build at master league level for quite a while.
Fairwell
Profile Joined July 2011
Austria195 Posts
December 07 2011 18:52 GMT
#18
On December 07 2011 14:24 LanTAs wrote:
You can get a mothership relatively easily and around a minute or two after mutas pop, and all you need is around 50 seconds to have energy enough for a Vortex.


It takes about 88.88 ingame seconds to regenerate the missing 50e on the mothership for the first vortex. Maybe you can fix that number in your description.

Apart from that, the mothership itself is a very good defensive unit in pvz for a price of 400/400. The problem is that you need to have opened with a stargate already (otherwise stargate + fleetbeacon will come really late and cost you a ton more, making it impossible to secure a decently fast 3rd vs mutas for instance) and if you ever lose it, you need to wait another 160sec + time for energy to regen. That's why it's not standard, if you could just make it on the spot and a lot faster there would be no reason to not get a mothership in basically every pvz macrogame.

I really like people playing around with motherships, unfortunately it will be gone in hots. Since protoss will probably be more likely to get a fleat beacon in hots (assuming tempests will be a good overall useful unit unlike the carrier with its very specific role) it would be a really smooth transition, but then blizzard decides to just remove it from the game.
K3Nyy
Profile Joined February 2010
United States1961 Posts
December 07 2011 19:08 GMT
#19
There was a thread on defensive Mothership PvZ so that Protoss can take a safe 3rd.

It's still very underused I feel, with the exception of the Archon tiolet. Hopefully more people will use it after this guide.
Sceptre
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada130 Posts
December 07 2011 19:28 GMT
#20
Not related, but are you pGLantas on the ladder?
Ah, go Puck yourself.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
GSL Code S
09:30
Ro8 - Group A
GuMiho vs MaruLIVE!
Solar vs TBD
Crank 350
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Harstem 222
ProTech82
EnDerr 51
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 15882
Calm 5398
Rain 5028
Bisu 2297
Horang2 1485
Jaedong 861
BeSt 451
Pusan 443
Last 247
Mini 174
[ Show more ]
Snow 174
Soulkey 160
ZerO 144
TY 124
Light 102
Hyun 81
PianO 80
Dewaltoss 70
ggaemo 68
ToSsGirL 66
Shine 51
hero 51
[sc1f]eonzerg 48
Aegong 36
Killer 32
Mong 30
Icarus 24
Sacsri 22
sorry 20
JYJ20
Movie 19
Barracks 18
Sharp 16
sSak 15
HiyA 6
zelot 6
Dota 2
qojqva775
420jenkins538
XcaliburYe447
Fuzer 237
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss827
x6flipin667
markeloff100
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor160
Other Games
singsing2670
B2W.Neo1356
DeMusliM433
Crank 346
XBOCT247
crisheroes201
XaKoH 129
Lowko48
ZerO(Twitch)21
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream9714
Other Games
gamesdonequick445
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• WagamamaTV141
Upcoming Events
Online Event
11h 38m
Replay Cast
13h 38m
GSL Code S
21h 8m
herO vs Zoun
Classic vs Bunny
The PondCast
21h 38m
Replay Cast
1d 11h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 22h
OSC
2 days
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
SOOP
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Cheesadelphia
3 days
CSO Cup
3 days
GSL Code S
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Wardi Open
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
RSL Revival
6 days
herO vs sOs
Zoun vs Clem
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 17: Qualifier 2
BGE Stara Zagora 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
2025 GSL S2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.