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[G] PvP HerO's Safe Stargate Opener - Page 5

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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azuRe_
Profile Joined June 2012
United States8 Posts
July 31 2012 02:19 GMT
#81
There are definitely styles in which you want to get more than 3 phoenixes. Really it's better to use your own judgement from what you scout rather than to limit yourself to the frame of mind that you can never ever build more than 3. On occasion I go up to like 7 if, for example, somebody is doing some silly 1 base colossus stuff and I know I can do a ton of damage with more than 3, or if they're doing a 1 base allin I find more phoenixes to be sueful because their unit numbers will be smaller making lifts exponentially powerful.
DarkblueRH
Profile Joined October 2010
United States144 Posts
July 31 2012 02:50 GMT
#82
On July 31 2012 11:19 azuRe_ wrote:
There are definitely styles in which you want to get more than 3 phoenixes. Really it's better to use your own judgement from what you scout rather than to limit yourself to the frame of mind that you can never ever build more than 3. On occasion I go up to like 7 if, for example, somebody is doing some silly 1 base colossus stuff and I know I can do a ton of damage with more than 3, or if they're doing a 1 base allin I find more phoenixes to be sueful because their unit numbers will be smaller making lifts exponentially powerful.


Interesting point you make here. Could you possibly provide replays of these situations please? I'd love to learn more about the situations where continuing phoenix production beyond an opener into a legitimate mid-game composition can be beneficial.
RelentlessHeroes.com
Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6566 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-31 03:13:04
July 31 2012 03:12 GMT
#83
vs 1 base colossus all-in ( 1 colossus no range backed with 4 gateways ), the best move from that position is actually make void rays and 1 immortal to go with your ffs. they have to only make stalkers to deal with your void to ensure the colo can do enough damage before the void ray(s) focus them down
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
althaz
Profile Joined May 2010
Australia1001 Posts
July 31 2012 08:16 GMT
#84
I have done this build pretty much since I saw that daily. It's fun as hell to do and is as safe as an opening gets in PvP. As with all PvP builds, you need to be very active with your scouting so that you don't die (eg: don't skip scouting altogether as Day9 suggests unless you are way better than I am).

IMO, the only really dangerous thing this build has to face is a quick 1-gate expand into a zealot-archon timing, everything else can be dealt with if you play the rest of the game well enough (not saying nothing else is hard, but nothing else scares the crap out of me).

When spotting an expand, I would recommend expanding right after, unless your opponent is playing extremely greedily, then obviously you can just kill him, but I prefer expanding and being a little bit behind, econmically, but teching slightly faster. The thing with phoenixes is either your opponent can build excess stalkers (horrible units at fighting) or canons or let you scout every single move that he makes immediately. Unless your opponent has particularly good multi tasking, it's normally pretty simple to get a probe kill with almost every 50 energy you get.

You will be totally safe vs warp prisms, blink-obs is relatively easy to deal with (even if you can't snipe his obs he'll have to blink right onto zealot-immortal, which is not good for him) and have the ability to get fantasic reads on your opponent. A 30 second later expansion can be overcome with superior scouting and decision making in any matchup, but especially PvP which is a fairly tricky matchup.
The first rule we don't talk about race conditions. of race conditions is
ThePianoDentist
Profile Joined July 2011
United Kingdom698 Posts
July 31 2012 20:00 GMT
#85
what do you suggest if your probe at 5 mins sees a building stargate? i tried double stargate but found i didnt have the gas, should i deviate my tech path at all, say throw down a twilight for blink?
Brood War Protoss, SC2 Terran/Protoss
ZeromuS
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada13425 Posts
July 31 2012 20:21 GMT
#86
On July 31 2012 10:01 DarkblueRH wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 31 2012 04:41 cresse wrote:
Just wanted to chime in and say thanks to OP for writing up this build, it's very helpful as a zerg who loves mutalisks and switched to random. The mobility is amazing. The fact that you're pretty safe while doing it is even better! Naturally, however, every build will start to be figured out - in the interim, however, I will enjoy the overall viability of this build.


I love you <3

@ZeromuS - This actually seems to be the best way to expand vs a Phoenix player. Sets you ahead for the encroaching macro-game and gives you an absolute defense given that zealots are your only fear. Walling off is genius, going for the attack with 6gate blink at a nice timing is also genius. However, I don't believe going for the mass blink stalker push should be thought of as a "free win" as Alej had stated and a back-up plan should be thought of because if you don't outright win the game with the blink stalkers you'll lose the colossus war. Assuming worst case scenario, your opponent just masses immortals off two robotics facilities with sentries and zealots AND you were forced to blink forward on top of his immortals... You should just immediately lose the game to a counter attack or to a 3rd base because of the exponential decay in the strength of blink stalkers as numbers diminish and time goes on.


I do the 6 gate blink as a response to holding the pheonix all in. I already will have 5 gates up and a robo.

If they dont leave and decide to try and turtle I push with the 6 gates if he didnt do a robo variant, tech to collossus while pressuring if it was a robo variant with immortals to try and all in.
StrategyRTS forever | @ZeromuS_plays | www.twitch.tv/Zeromus_
StarscreamG1
Profile Joined February 2011
Portugal1653 Posts
July 31 2012 20:38 GMT
#87
I love Hero, but Hero and safe in the same quote, NOT POSSIBLE!
Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6566 Posts
July 31 2012 21:23 GMT
#88
On August 01 2012 05:00 ThePianoDentist wrote:
what do you suggest if your probe at 5 mins sees a building stargate? i tried double stargate but found i didnt have the gas, should i deviate my tech path at all, say throw down a twilight for blink?

you can't do double stargate off of one base, but double stargate off of 2 base can work if they do expand. make sure the nexus finishes tho..
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
ChoboDane
Profile Joined January 2012
Denmark98 Posts
July 31 2012 21:35 GMT
#89
There is no such thing as a safe build. All builds have weaknesses and can be exploited.
Yokoblue
Profile Joined March 2010
Canada594 Posts
August 01 2012 15:31 GMT
#90
On August 01 2012 06:35 ChoboDane wrote:
There is no such thing as a safe build. All builds have weaknesses and can be exploited.


Not when the only weakness is proxy and something really not standard like 2 gates masszealot or something..Then we can say it's "Safe".

It's called Safe becasue its safe against everything we know, and everything logic if its not known you will be doing that build..
Master League playing Protoss and Zerg
skorched
Profile Joined October 2010
United States81 Posts
August 02 2012 03:36 GMT
#91
On August 02 2012 00:31 Yokoblue wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 01 2012 06:35 ChoboDane wrote:
There is no such thing as a safe build. All builds have weaknesses and can be exploited.


Not when the only weakness is proxy and something really not standard like 2 gates masszealot or something..Then we can say it's "Safe".

It's called Safe becasue its safe against everything we know, and everything logic if its not known you will be doing that build..


And 10 gate pressure builds can really give this trouble as stated earlier.
I also wonder how this does vs a quick dt expand ( not the dts themselves)
But the inevitable Zarchon followup. Just seems like it would do well against this opening, but then again you have phoenix so you should see it well b4 the push comes.
I love the sound of Medivacs getting feedbacked.
CTangent
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
United States125 Posts
August 02 2012 14:56 GMT
#92
ROG ASUS spoilers HerO vs Elfi

+ Show Spoiler +
Game 1 of HerO vs Elfi was really interesting. Elfi basically did this build (with some small differences but the main idea was the same, stargate + fast robo). Elfi did ZERO damage with his 3 phoenix, so he decided to mass immortals and pheonix and transitioned into a brutal 1 base all in that absolutely crushed HerO's blink robo expansion response. He had enough phoenix to remove 6-7 stalkers from a fight at any time (and in fact caught 7 of HerO's stalkers on the map and lifted them so they couldn't escape). HerO warped in a bunch of sentries to hold but Elfi simply lifted and killed them.

Elfi's all in looked absolutely brutal and I was wondering, what was the appropriate response for HerO? If he overmakes stalkers, he gets wrecked by the immortals. If he doesn't make enough stalkers, he gets wrecked by phoenix.

Also interesting is how Elfi turned this safe opening into a brutal all in. Hopefully the VOD will be up soon because I, for sure, will be studying this game.
Shikada
Profile Joined May 2012
Serbia976 Posts
August 09 2012 13:32 GMT
#93
Really like this build. One concern that I always have with every build is, how well does it deal with cannon rushes and proxy gates. I mean, I know that's cheese, but some builds make them easier to hold, for example 11 gate into 3 gate pressure. With this build you make a 13 gate and take early double gas. After that it seems to me that you are doomed if you get cheesed.

Any advice here?
Kentisc
Profile Joined June 2012
Belgium9 Posts
August 09 2012 22:51 GMT
#94
I have used this build in my last 3 PVPs and I must say, it really works well!
Only gold though, but I was able to get a 100% win rate thus far.
EU Protoss - Gold League
SidewinderSC2
Profile Joined November 2011
United States236 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-12 09:03:02
August 10 2012 01:36 GMT
#95
I will tack my support onto this thread. The opener absolutely resurrected my PvP.

The comment I'll add onto this thread is that I don't understand when it's best to expand instead of stay on 1 base and attack. It seems like Stargate all-ins are way too strong for expanding to actually be worthwhile. From what I can tell, the typical tree of responses is:

DT Expand > 4gate + Phoenix all-in
Gateway Expand or Blink Expand > 4gate + Phoenix all-in, or 3 Immortal + Phoenix all-in depending on timing of expo
Blink Obs > ~3 Immortals, kill obs, push his army around, all-in with 1 rangeless Colossus
Stargate > More and more Phoenix, 4gate Gateway (mostly Stalker) all-in when he expands

Whenever I have expanded with this opener, it just puts me into a pretty lame circumstance where I'm either on equal footing or behind in economy. Whereas whenever I stay on 1 base and just attack and micro well, I crush them really hard.

Mid-Masters NA by the way, roughly 1150 point MMR.
Coyote420
Profile Joined August 2012
United States8 Posts
August 31 2012 19:09 GMT
#96
Doing a quite similar build, though possibly less safe becuase I go for gas first then gateway I find it not too hard to hold off gateway pressure. For one when their rush hits you would have 1 or 2 pheonix and the zlot sentires defense. You can either counter with the pheonix while you ff your ramp and keep them from gaining vision on the highground or you could simply lift up some stalkers and focus fire the other units still on the ground. I find that works well because then they have less things potentially shooting at you and then you can counter with the pheonix, start producing robo units and expand comfortably.
"Let me pray not to be shelterd from darkness but to be fearless in facing it"
Wingblade
Profile Joined April 2012
United States1806 Posts
August 31 2012 19:13 GMT
#97
On July 07 2012 19:13 Makuly wrote:
This build is great HOWEVER as in pvp the coin flip does take its toll. going 1gate stargate will most definitely die to a 4gate/3gate pressure, if you survive it's because the aggressor is bad.
if he goes blind DTs you're screwed as well, going 1gate stargate THEN robo you wont have anything for detection until later on, it's just not possible.

Other than that this build is good! But keep in mind, there is no safe pvp build order im sorry to say


1 gate into star then robo is actually just fine to hold a DT rush. DTs can't hit the field until like 7:30. More than enough time to get that detection.
PartinG fanboy to the max, Rain/Squirtle/Dear/Scarlett/Bbyong are cool too. I don't always watch Dota2 but when I do I have no clue what's going on. GOGO POWER RANGERS
See.Blue
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States2673 Posts
September 30 2012 15:19 GMT
#98
Great guide, gonna try this now, thanks!
Rad
Profile Joined May 2010
United States935 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-10-01 05:46:46
October 01 2012 05:45 GMT
#99
This guide won me my first match in the EG kingston hyperx tourney, thanks so much :D I learned it and practiced it all day today (also thanks to day9, which I rewatched and hadn't really paid attention to the build order the first time I saw it). So fun, the other guy was also doing this exact build, which I scouted around 5m like suggested, saw 2 zealots and 2 sentries so knew it was the same. Pumped extra phoenixes, waited for his phoenix attack, and got the advantage, then expanded and held with zealot immortal sentry and decent lifts (could have been better in hind sight). Not sure if this is the ideal counter, to pump a few more phoenixes and get air control, but it certainly worked for me (me as plat vs masters player :D).
See.Blue
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States2673 Posts
October 05 2012 23:39 GMT
#100
If I'm playing against a robo player, and I expand then he expands, can I usually just go kill him? I should have close immortal counts but can lift all of his... I'm just a little unsure of my decisionmaking out of this.
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