When establishing your third base, you must wall off your single cannon.

Often times, zerg players will look to produce a round of lings to deny your fast third. This sim city is key in defending that pressure along with the void ray(s) and mothership core. At this point of the game, your ground army will likely consist of only three to four units which would just die to the zerglings; therefore, you need to be in position with the msc and void ray(s):



This style requires careful reactions and scouting on the protoss player's side as with most lategame-oriented PvZ builds. PvZ in HotS is a match-up of powerful hard counters and tech switches, so you always must be on top of your scouting through hallucination and stargate units. Here are the things to look for, but keep in mind that mastering this part of the game requires experience and game sense more than anything:

• The timing on the zerg fourth. If he doesn't take one shortly after scouting your third, expect some kind of pressure to come your way in the form of a roach/hydra, hydra/ling, or hydra/queen push. This isn't necessarily all-in, so you must account for the zerg's followup as well.
  
• The presence of four or six gasses has been long time scouting clue in this match-up. Six gasses usually means some kind of tech or a more passive roach/hydra; fewer gasses very likely signals an impending attack. Similarly, pay attention to your opponent's drone count and saturation: if a zerg stays around 60 drones he's looking to attack, 70 or 80 means you have more breathing room.
  
• Make sure to constantly check the zerg's rally point: often this is between his natural and third. Since it's very easy for zerg players to throw down buildings wherever, simply scouting his main base isn't enough to have a solid read. Keep tabs on his gas usage. If he did some kind of opening involving hydras or roaches and is now producing exclusively zerglings, be on the lookout for a tech switch to mutas. If he keeps up with his ground army, he will more likely transition into swarm hosts or infestors. The only reliable way of scouting the zerg's exact composition is to see the first batch of units being hatched and reacting immediately.

With all this in mind, let's go over what your reactions should be against all the zerg's possible styles. This is fairly straight forward ZvP, but it's useful to keep them in mind anyway.

Lair-based timing attack

If you scout a bust coming your way, immediately cut probe production. Depending on the branch you are following, you will need to cut your tech development and pump out whatever units you can. This means that if you did a two or three stargate opening, you need to make void rays while buying time for your gateways and charge to kick in. Do not try and reach templar. With a single stargate opening, on the other hand, you should try to get as many gateway units on the field as possible: delay extra stargates until later. In either case, warp in zealot/sentry as necessary: forcefields are key in surviving the most aggressive pushes. If they are doing a nydus-based build, try to be active with your stargate units to keep the nydus from going up too close to your base. Do not try to dual tech to templar and stargate until after holding his attack; in fact, in this situation you shouldn't even mine the gasses from your third. You will be needing the minerals for gates and zealots. This seems counter-intuitive because this style is extremely gas hungry, but it's mandatory for survival against committed attacks from the Zerg.

Mutalisk

Against mutalisk based builds, you need to make a choice on whether you want to get a good number of phoenixes, to engage in the muta/corruptor vs phoenix/void ray fight, or commit to a base-trade. The ideal scenario is when you did a stargate-heavy variation and already have several void rays alive; in this case, throw down a fleet beacon, get a healthy phoenix count up, and then use those and the void rays to zone the mutas and corruptors out. Meanwhile, you should also have a powerful zealot/archon/templar army on the ground which you can use to deny his bases: muta/ling won't be able to fight it head on thanks to your aoe and the corruptors will be a wasted investment. In a less than ideal scenarios you will just need to commit to a base-trade: if you either took some damage, took too long to read your opponent's intentions, do not have the sufficient tech in place, or simply are caught off guard and out of position. He still can't fight you head on thanks to your archons, storms and void rays, so try to eliminate his bases as quickly as possible while either making cannons at one of yours, or pulling probes to hide new buildings as necessary. This is the most likely scenario which will occur in your games; but in general, this should happen less frequently than with the colossus/phoenix/blink stalker play thanks to the early game investment in stargates and your faster third. The final, and least likely scenario, is being far enough ahead that you can predict the zerg's desperation muta switch, and catch him right before it kicks in. A great example of this situation is game 1 between sOs and Soulkey from their series during the WCS Season 1 final.

Swarm host

Swarm hosts are probably the greatest threat to this style. You desperately need colossi, but skipping a midgame robo means it will take a lot of time for that tech to kick in. Against this tech you need to buy time by moving out, harassing with zealots, and denying his bases. All this is to buy time for your robo play to kick in. Never engage straight up before you have a good number of colossi, or you catch the swarm hosts out of position. Instead, move out as soon as you are able and force him to burrow his swarm hosts. From here, swing in and attack from another angle. Keep this up until you have about three colossi, at which point your army has a better shot in a straight up fight. Take a fourth and try to stay even or ahead in economy: otherwise the Zerg will simply overpower you. This is the only situation in which teching to colossus is recommended before extreme late game.
Note that swarm hosts tend to be more popular on maps which are easier to control. On these maps, this style is also less viable: ideally you would like to have a big map where you can abuse the mobility of zealots and void rays while buying enough time for your greedy play to kick in before you can be threatened. Remember that rushing for ground based tech like swarm hosts exposes the zerg to void ray/recall harassment: if you don't see any hydralisk production move out with your skytoss units and see if you can deal damage.

Ultralisk

The Bisu Build is perhaps the most powerful macro style to deal ling/infestor/ultra. Not only do you have a great deal of tech in place to counter him, you will also have a powerful economy to respond accordingly. Furthermore, his lack of anti air makes him weak to void ray/recall maneuvers and his reliance on lings makes his army very easily killed by your zealot/archon/templar. Against this style, your greatest enemy will be the infestor. Infestors can lock down your zealots and templar before they can do damage and shut down your void rays. Make sure to be on top of your micro: prioritize feedback over storm and recall as necessary. You can play quite aggressively once you have your third base secured and fortified. Move out when your gateway production kicks in. If you can't hit a timing before around 14/15 minutes when his ultralisks come out (Naniwa vs Vortix), tech to double robo immortal and take a fourth. As usual, be on guard for any tech switch.

Passive roach/hydra/infestor/queen

The greatest threat to your army is once again the infestor. As written above, stay on top of your micro and your army should come out on top of any fight: especially as the game goes on and your army becomes more gas-heavy. Be on the lookout for mutalisk switches.

Compared to colossus based builds, this build is stronger against mutas and ultras, and weaker against swarm hosts. Against lair-based busts, it really depends on how the zerg and protoss builds match up. If you went for the three stargate style and the zerg does a hydra/queen timing, on a map with an open third, defending is almost impossible. On the other hand, with perfect play it's possible to defend most roach/hydra all-ins off a failed or partially failed dt opening: Naniwa vs TLO, Naniwa vs Vortix on Star Station. If you come out ahead in the early game, and the Zerg tries to all-in you, holding on will be trivial: sOs vs Soulkey on Neo Planet S, Vortix vs Naniwa on Derelict Watcher.


Your goal upon reaching lategame is to trade away your zealots and go for an unstoppable Void Ray/Archon/Templar/Immortal deathball. Eventually, you will always be forced to give away your low tech gateway units: zealots are better for this compared to the blink stalkers and expensive sentries used by colossus builds. Upon taking your fourth, throw down one or two robos and begin heavy warp prism harassment while using your zealots for runbys on isolated expansions. As long as the zerg player doesn't build swarm hosts, you should be able to skip colossus and rely on your storms/feedbacks as aoe to support your expensive skytoss units.

Compared to colossus/blink stalker play, this is a slightly more favorable situation against air based zerg armies featuring vipers or broodlords: you can more easily access the counters in the form of templar, void rays, and tempests. You are less favoured against swarm host play, because you need to buy time, avoid his army, and make something happen until you can switch into colossus. Adding a mothership for the cloaking field can also be useful this late in the game. Remember that against the popular “free unit” armies of swarm host/broodlord, immortals are a waste, so as usual stay on top of your scouting. At this point, you should be able to harass and pressure rather as well with any leftover phoenixes, oracles, or scout with sentries and hallucinations.

A useful tip is, when you have a huge economy, to build a very high amount of robos and stargates: about four to five of each. This makes handling any possible zerg tech switch much easier.

The Origin: Void Ray/Colossus Compositions

The roots of the more modern Void Ray/Chargelot/Templar style can be traced all the way back to Void Ray/Colossus compositions used in the early parts of WoL. The basic idea behind the composition was that colossus could melt everything on the ground while the void rays could clean up anything in the skies: effectively mopping the floor with any zerg army. Unfortunately, Protosses found themselves under too much pressure to reliably get this composition from roach max all-ins and more deceiving muta builds. When Broodlord/Infestor compositions became the norm, this style was officially dead in WoL. With the changes to various units brought with HotS, however, Void Ray/Colossus has seen a resurgence: Protoss players can play greedier than ever with the photon overcharge ability and rely almost entirely on their new and improved void rays to take out most aggression. While still somewhat viable, this more rigid, defensive composition has led to the developement of the more versatile Void Ray/Chargelot/Templar composition.

Void Ray/Chargelot/Templar relies on splash from the other side of the tech tree and puts a far greater emphasis on gateway units. As a result, it is a much more flexible and often times more aggressive style. From it's original conception in the early stages of HotS, it has grown tremendously in depth over the course of 2013.

The Early Days: Mass Void Rays

The very first Void Ray heavy builds emerged during the beta and in the first few weeks of HotS release. Squirtle and Creator notably employed this style heavily during the first matches in the first season of GSTL. These builds differ from modern styles because they focused extremely heavily on non-stop Stargate production, only teching to chargelot/templar very late into the game.

The very first series featuring a more modern style was sOs vs Soulkey in the WCS Season 1 Finals. These games, though unrefined compared to the games we see today, showed the solid game plan which has remained roughly unchanged since:

• Open up economically;
  
• Use void rays to secure a third;
  
• Add on charge and a lot of gateways;
  
• Get storm to defend versus later attacks.

In these games, sOs opted for a much later charge/templar tech switch in favor of getting lots of void rays off of three stargates. sOs took his third incredibly early off of only one void ray and his MSC while investing in +1 air attack and shield upgrades. Once he reached a solid six void rays, he cut stargate production and focused on getting a chargelot/templar composition to back up his void rays.

As with most things in Starcraft, however, this playstyle was solved. Unfortunately for sOs, it was actually solved in only one game by Soulkey. Taking advantage of the ultra defensive, mass void ray style, Soulkey went up to five bases almost instantly and began to get mass upgrades on almost no units before unleashing a massive wave of double upgraded muta/corruptor. Other zerg counters were later discovered as well: ling/hydra attacks designed to deny the third base, roach/queen/nydus attacks, hydra/infestor attacks, ling/infestor attacks, etc. Finding their void ray armies in shambles before their area of effect damage and warp gates kicked in, Protoss players were forced to find an answer.

Evolution of the Style: Less Stargates, Faster Tech

In the normal progression of playstyle evolution, Protoss players took the existing Void Ray/Chargelot/Templar playstyle and began cutting corners and getting greedier:

• Instead of three stargates, Protoss players started making two, and eventually all the way down to one stargate;
  
• Instead of the “safe” six void rays before tech, players started cutting at four, going as low as two or three initial void rays with some builds;
  
• Instead of committing heavily to air and shield upgrades, Protoss players began investing into ground attack upgrades earlier and earlier;
  
• Third nexus timings came earlier with fewer units used to defend it.

The immediate consequence of all this corner-cutting was faster tech in the form of zealot charge, storm, and earlier gateways: all of which allowed Protoss players to better defend the mid game timings plaguing the original playstyle. Altogether, this period is characterized by Protoss players using intelligent greed based on scouting and timings to secure a safer position in the mid game versus lair-based attacks and allowing them to step into the late game more comfortably.

More Evolution: Mid Game Attacks

The development of the newer, more refined gate expands allowed Protoss players to play more aggressively early in the game and force responses out of the zerg. Passive void ray playstyles also became more common and easier to exploit, so Protoss players decided to take a more aggressive stance in the early and middle stages of the game. Ultimately, the rise of these early pressures allowed Protoss to interrupt the Zerg economy just long enough to neutralize the power of later attacks that were plaguing the more passive playstyles.

With the ability to shut down almost all zerg scouting with scouting phoenixes and walls, Protoss began to exploit Zerg's lack of information with several attack timings. Many interesting phoenix-based attack timings and oracle openings evolved as a result. In conjunction with gate expands, several hybrid tech/warpgate pressures -- such as oracle/3-gate pressure or early DT plays -- were also developed or perfected, as is the case for the DT build. The purpose of these pressures was to allow Protoss to deal economic damage by forcing the Zerg to use larva and potentially shutting down the third base while equalizing in economy and tech. With the ability to do so, Protoss players were able to step into the mid game with slightly delayed -- but much safer -- void ray and/or twilight tech.

The Finished Product: Void Ray/Chargelot/Templar

In its final form, Void Ray/Chargelot/Templar encompasses a great many builds and styles. It's possible to open DTs, phoenixes, oracles, warpgate attacks, or even just plain void ray macro styles and still transition smoothly into this composition. It is a flexible, powerful, and versatile mid game composition when compared with its older iterations and has several points upon which different openings can converge.

Starcraft is turning wheel: the meta game shifts and slides constantly as counters, counters to counters, and even counters to those counters are discovered. As Zerg players figure out timings and progressively step into the future of ZvP, Protosses will once again have to adapt and find new ways to exploit their opponent's weaknesses. Luckily, Protoss has this time-tested composition that's likely here to stay. Happy zealoting!


Naniwa vs TLO Set 2 on Frost, from DH Winter

Naniwa vs Leenock Set 3 on Polar Night, from DH Winter

Naniwa vs Life Set 2 on Bel'Shir Vestige, from DH Winter

San vs HyuN Bel'Shir Vestige, from ASUS ROG Summer

San vs DRG Set 3 on Newkirk Precinct, from ASUS ROG Summer

HerO vs Hyun Set 2 on Whirlwind, from IEM Shanghai

Naniwa vs Hyun Set 4 on Frost, from IEM New York

Naniwa vs Life Set 5 on Yeonsu, from IEM New York

sOs vs Soulkey Set 2 on Neo Planet S, from WCS Season 1 Finals

Naniwa vs Jaedong Set 3 on Star Station, From WCS Season 2 Finals

Naniwa vs Targa Set 1 on Polar Night, from WCS EU Season 3

Naniwa vs Targa Set 2 on Derelict Watcher, from WCS EU Season 3