• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 12:58
CEST 18:58
KST 01:58
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over0New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery!36Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week6Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles2GSTL Returns in 2026!45
StarCraft 2
General
SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? Weekly Cups (August 24-30): Patches' balance mod takes over Weekly Cups (August 17-23): Zerg dominate the week Daily SC2 Player Grid - feedback wanted
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament 2026 GSTL Announcement IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly WORTEX 2026 - Hungarian SC2 Finals Budapest
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 541 Binary Choice The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 540 Dodge This Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome
Brood War
General
ASL22 General Discussion Pros React To: Calm's Big Brain Play Vs Mini New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! BW General Discussion Starcraft vs Retro Category on Twitch
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro24 Group F BSL LAN Party - Kraków 29-30 August - OPEN SIGNUPS Escore Tournament - Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Replay Review Process - What do you do? Game Theory for Starcraft Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Browser Invoker Combo Trainer & Speedrun Simulator Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
Regacy Esports: The Bh…
regacyesports
Violent Games and Crime Rate…
TrAiDoS
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 4931 users

The LotV Protoss Help Me Thread - Page 69

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 67 68 69 70 71 75 Next
AusProbe
Profile Joined July 2012
Australia235 Posts
February 17 2019 18:31 GMT
#1361
Yes he did this in GSL vs cure on Port Aleksander. A really good example of it (even though he lost later, but that was a throw).
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-02-17 21:31:59
February 17 2019 21:31 GMT
#1362
what is the optimal response to 3gate proxy robo with prism in PvP when not playing SG? it's one of the few things i feel helpless against. my instinct is that i just have to chrono out my own immortals and prism and micro better, but i feel like when my opponent hits with the prism he is always able to start sniping stalkers/pylons before i'm ready to micro. anyone have general tips?
TL+ Member
Tempest
Profile Joined October 2015
United States147 Posts
February 18 2019 15:59 GMT
#1363
On February 18 2019 06:31 brickrd wrote:
what is the optimal response to 3gate proxy robo with prism in PvP when not playing SG? it's one of the few things i feel helpless against. my instinct is that i just have to chrono out my own immortals and prism and micro better, but i feel like when my opponent hits with the prism he is always able to start sniping stalkers/pylons before i'm ready to micro. anyone have general tips?


Are they getting an immortal as well or just the 3gate stalker with prism all in?

I play 3 gate stalker prism all in almost exclusively on ladder (I dont proxy the robo tho) and usually when I lose either they scouted my lack of expand for quite a while so knew hard aggression was coming and stopped probing or they get a great snipe on the warp prism. chronoing out 2 immortals is usually hard for me to deal with as well. Blink stalker also sometimes gives me a hard time, but I can usually hit before they have blink and 3 gate production, I think last time I lost to it the opponent was just better than me and would beat me with almost anything.

If they DO get the immortal, im not sure what the best course of action is, ive heard adepts mentioned but im not gonna recommend it because I haven't tried it. Someone else will probably be better able to give advice on this part.
Quick, think of some pithy cliche and toss it here
Mercy13
Profile Joined January 2011
United States718 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-02-24 16:39:13
February 24 2019 04:12 GMT
#1364
Diamond 2 protoss. Today I got wrecked by a Terran who went mass cyclones. If I moved out and their army was there I was kited to death. If the army was gone they would hit my expansions on the other side of the map as soon as I moved out.

After the game I asked them what countered that composition, and they said phoenix. That doesn't seem right though, at least once there's a critical mass of cyclones... has anyone else run into this or have thoughts on what composition to shoot for if a terran goes mass cyclones?

Edit: nevermind, it's disruptors : )
Tempest
Profile Joined October 2015
United States147 Posts
February 25 2019 18:01 GMT
#1365
On February 24 2019 13:12 Mercy13 wrote:
Diamond 2 protoss. Today I got wrecked by a Terran who went mass cyclones. If I moved out and their army was there I was kited to death. If the army was gone they would hit my expansions on the other side of the map as soon as I moved out.

After the game I asked them what countered that composition, and they said phoenix. That doesn't seem right though, at least once there's a critical mass of cyclones... has anyone else run into this or have thoughts on what composition to shoot for if a terran goes mass cyclones?

Edit: nevermind, it's disruptors : )


You can also try to flank with zealots so when they try to retreat youre cutting them off. That coupled with collosi works pretty well for me.
Quick, think of some pithy cliche and toss it here
Tempest
Profile Joined October 2015
United States147 Posts
February 25 2019 18:19 GMT
#1366
Assuming im going Archon drop (classic modern oracle build order), I get a third up around 5:00, get some harass and scouting, etc.

What are the major ways to tell the difference between a 60 to 66-ish drone Hydra all-in VS a standard/macro hydra midgame into lurkers or whatever next transition is? The current issue im having is ill go double robo after storm to deal with potential lurkers, but if its the hard committed hydra multipressure I wont often get to utilize the second robo to make it worth it, and im not sure what the timings/tells to tell the difference between the two is. Ive attempted to hallucination scout to look for a lurker den a few times, but (if the hallucination doesn't get killed before scouting cause im mildly bad) im not sure what the standard timing is for it to be placed down (ive seen varied timings ranging across almost a full minute around 4200) and im not sure the best way to try to count drones when im being pressured, etc.

Anybody got any tips? Mainly the theory on how to scout correctly for this?
Quick, think of some pithy cliche and toss it here
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
February 25 2019 18:57 GMT
#1367
On February 19 2019 00:59 Tempest wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 18 2019 06:31 brickrd wrote:
what is the optimal response to 3gate proxy robo with prism in PvP when not playing SG? it's one of the few things i feel helpless against. my instinct is that i just have to chrono out my own immortals and prism and micro better, but i feel like when my opponent hits with the prism he is always able to start sniping stalkers/pylons before i'm ready to micro. anyone have general tips?


Are they getting an immortal as well or just the 3gate stalker with prism all in?

I play 3 gate stalker prism all in almost exclusively on ladder (I dont proxy the robo tho) and usually when I lose either they scouted my lack of expand for quite a while so knew hard aggression was coming and stopped probing or they get a great snipe on the warp prism. chronoing out 2 immortals is usually hard for me to deal with as well. Blink stalker also sometimes gives me a hard time, but I can usually hit before they have blink and 3 gate production, I think last time I lost to it the opponent was just better than me and would beat me with almost anything.

If they DO get the immortal, im not sure what the best course of action is, ive heard adepts mentioned but im not gonna recommend it because I haven't tried it. Someone else will probably be better able to give advice on this part.

i did mean the later version with the immortal, sorry. adepts do sound like an interesting idea though. and i appreciate the tips on defending 3gate prism as i do have trouble with that build too

anyone else have good replays or VODs of top pros defending the immortal version? offensive warpin and prism micro make this stuff so intimidating to defend as you have no natural advantage
TL+ Member
General_Winter
Profile Joined February 2011
United States719 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-02-25 21:31:14
February 25 2019 21:30 GMT
#1368
I’ve never cannon rushed anyone. I don’t think I wnat that to be my main strategy, but I do think it is probably something I should know how to do. Just to be able to mix it up, to guarantee quick games when I’m short on time, and maybe as a way to return good karma to the world after getting hit with 12 pool / dts / proxy rax allins etc.

If I dedicate 50 games to cannon rushing random people on the ladder am I required to hate myself?

Slightly more seriously, any pointers for keeping general skills in good shape and still improving macro while practicing more all in strategies?
Tempest
Profile Joined October 2015
United States147 Posts
February 26 2019 16:00 GMT
#1369
On February 26 2019 06:30 General_Winter wrote:
I’ve never cannon rushed anyone. I don’t think I wnat that to be my main strategy, but I do think it is probably something I should know how to do. Just to be able to mix it up, to guarantee quick games when I’m short on time, and maybe as a way to return good karma to the world after getting hit with 12 pool / dts / proxy rax allins etc.

If I dedicate 50 games to cannon rushing random people on the ladder am I required to hate myself?

Slightly more seriously, any pointers for keeping general skills in good shape and still improving macro while practicing more all in strategies?


You can practice great macro WHILE cheesing to be honest. While in diamond and master you can outright win with a cannon rush, many times in GM youll watch a streamer have to transition out of the cheese. Learning how to properly continue building back up at home while cannon rushing a zergs nat or third is good to practice.

Alternatively, you can just alternate between being a cheesey dude and a macro oriented dude.

One game try a proxy 3 gate, next game play standard, and alternate. Timing attack build orders are actually pretty good practice for getting crisp timings on your building placements, as in order to be successful attack everything has to be optimized very well. Hitting with chargelot all in 20 seconds later than optimal is DEFINITELY gonna be the difference between winning and losing games. Once you master that, learning how to hit an archon drop at 5:40 isn't much harder. The more you practice anything in this game, the better youll get mechanically overall.

Just don't be diamond in cannon rushing and gold 2 in macro, or else youll quickly get bored once people can defend your cheese and you lose every game.
Quick, think of some pithy cliche and toss it here
KetoWarrior
Profile Joined April 2018
3 Posts
March 09 2019 17:23 GMT
#1370
how to deal with lurkers? storm doesn't work, they insta kill the hight templars and immortals are really useless for that job.
ArtyK
Profile Joined June 2011
France3144 Posts
March 09 2019 17:33 GMT
#1371
On March 10 2019 02:23 KetoWarrior wrote:
how to deal with lurkers? storm doesn't work, they insta kill the hight templars and immortals are really useless for that job.


Go double robo immortal production. The usual chargelot-archon-immortal-storm works but you need a lot of immortals (8 minimum).
You can also abuse their lack of mobility by moving around, forcing unburrows, and harassing expands with warp prism chargelots.
Sup dood ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ KiWiKaKi | SLush | uThermal | PtitDrogo | SortOf | Clem ~ "I told my mom she should vote for me in Nation Wars, she said 'I dunno, I kinda want Finland to win'" – Luolis ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_NScWV9h8k#t=1h01m
TL+ Member
General_Winter
Profile Joined February 2011
United States719 Posts
March 23 2019 20:20 GMT
#1372
Does anyone have any guidance on how to handle early reaper aggression from T?

In this replay https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/10142850

I opened blink against a Terran who was eventually going for mech, but he opened with a reaper and it was a real nuisance until I had two stalkers out.

Reaper shows up in my base at 2:45 and just causes me a headache and kills a lot of probes, until I have two stalkers and can come at it from both sides.

Q1: How do I handle this? How to control my stalkers? How to control my probes? Should my building placement be different?

That's my main question.

Once I got to the mid game, my army control and macro despite being bad, were a lot better than my opponent's, so I basically had his number. And once he move commanded his main army into my stalkers the game was really in the bag.

That said, I would also appreciate any hints or tips on my stalker usage, army control or macro that you think would be helpful. Thanks everyone.



the p00n
Profile Joined September 2010
Netherlands615 Posts
March 23 2019 22:50 GMT
#1373
Master 3 random, I'm having a really hard time against hellions. They always seem to get in either by a medivac or just riding in. I've tried walling with limited success.

I just don't feel like I have any good options to defend against them. They are so cheap and expendable that even if I do kill ~4 while suffering minimal losses it doesn't really feel like a victory.
blooblooblahblah
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia4163 Posts
March 24 2019 01:17 GMT
#1374
On March 24 2019 07:50 the p00n wrote:
Master 3 random, I'm having a really hard time against hellions. They always seem to get in either by a medivac or just riding in. I've tried walling with limited success.

I just don't feel like I have any good options to defend against them. They are so cheap and expendable that even if I do kill ~4 while suffering minimal losses it doesn't really feel like a victory.


Well the first step is to know it's coming in the first place by scouting whether the factory has a reactor with your adept (easier to do on the maps where a reaper wall is possible, making it easier to send that first adept across). Now that you can't make cyclones from a reactor, it's safe to always go for a wall off at the natural if you scout a reactor factory. IMO, adding a shield battery that heals your unit at the wall and the some of the probes is a nice, safer option too cos sometimes the terran will keep the reaper alive and go for the grenade to dislodge your stalker from the wall and it can snowball real quick.

If you opened SG, you can use your first SG unit to look for the standard proxy starport locations, otherwise a neutral position with the stalkers and a well placed spotter pylon can work. There is a marine drop hellion build too so that's also something you have to keep in mind, but in that case their starport won't be proxied. Proxy hellion drop is a damn strong build that is harder to defend than to execute, but if you do sense it coming and hold it off well, it's a pretty decent advantage because it delays a lot of the trendy units atm, e.g. the raven. (technically they can put a tech lab on the proxy after the drop and go raven/cloaked banshee, but it's pretty uncommon and risky). The normal hellion runby isn't as committal and yeah it can be an insta-gg but there's no reason why you shouldn't scout it and react accordingly.

There are other builds ofc that involve 1-2 hellions and they can be a bit annoyingly cos of how fast they hit but it really comes down to positioning of your units for the super early run-bys (and sometimes a bit of luck)
Ganzi beat me without stim. Ostojiy beat me with a nydus. Siphonn beat me with probes. Revival beat my sentry-immortal all-in.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-03-24 13:46:06
March 24 2019 05:15 GMT
#1375
On March 24 2019 05:20 General_Winter wrote:
Does anyone have any guidance on how to handle early reaper aggression from T?

In this replay https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/10142850

I opened blink against a Terran who was eventually going for mech, but he opened with a reaper and it was a real nuisance until I had two stalkers out.

Reaper shows up in my base at 2:45 and just causes me a headache and kills a lot of probes, until I have two stalkers and can come at it from both sides.

Q1: How do I handle this? How to control my stalkers? How to control my probes? Should my building placement be different?

That's my main question.

2:45 is a normal sounding reaper so you're definitely overthinking something here. step 1 is know where the reaper cliffs are. optionally step 2 is block the cliff with your first pylon and gate/core. if you don't block the cliff just build your gateway at your nexus. always chrono your stalker, and if you didn't cliff wall always rally it into or near the main mineral line. usually if you go gate nexus core stalker, which is standard, the timing works out so it's a little bit safer to keep probes in the main until 17 or 18 on minerals. this depends on map and how well you can predict your opponent's angles, but if you're feeling unsafe you can just wait until you have two units before you put probes in the natural and then put one unit in each mineral line

the other geniusbrain solution if you really hate reapers and feel like you're bad against them is to just open adept. terran generally doesn't have to be afraid of losing a reaper to one stalker unless he screws up or dives for a scout, but an adept is far more threatening due to the shade ability. he might still go full tryhard probe harass mode, but he can't be as confident about it against an adept, whereas badly positioned stalkers are juicy meat for reaper tryhards

basically, sometimes terrans just do the Thing where they spend 900 apm finding harass angles, and if you are lazy or out of position you will lose probes, even if you feel you're too high level to lose probes. this isn't really a build issue, and i doubt it's really about your micro either because microing against reapers is just common sense. run damaged probes and block access to mineral lines, that's all there is to it. it really is more about just having your shit in position and respecting the potential of the reaper as a unit

edit: when i wrote this i mistakenly referred to gate core nexus as standard when i meant gate nexus core, they're obviously both normal builds but i meant to refer to nexus before core. my bad
TL+ Member
the p00n
Profile Joined September 2010
Netherlands615 Posts
March 24 2019 09:37 GMT
#1376
On March 24 2019 10:17 blooblooblahblah wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 24 2019 07:50 the p00n wrote:
Master 3 random, I'm having a really hard time against hellions. They always seem to get in either by a medivac or just riding in. I've tried walling with limited success.

I just don't feel like I have any good options to defend against them. They are so cheap and expendable that even if I do kill ~4 while suffering minimal losses it doesn't really feel like a victory.


Well the first step is to know it's coming in the first place by scouting whether the factory has a reactor with your adept (easier to do on the maps where a reaper wall is possible, making it easier to send that first adept across). Now that you can't make cyclones from a reactor, it's safe to always go for a wall off at the natural if you scout a reactor factory. IMO, adding a shield battery that heals your unit at the wall and the some of the probes is a nice, safer option too cos sometimes the terran will keep the reaper alive and go for the grenade to dislodge your stalker from the wall and it can snowball real quick.

If you opened SG, you can use your first SG unit to look for the standard proxy starport locations, otherwise a neutral position with the stalkers and a well placed spotter pylon can work. There is a marine drop hellion build too so that's also something you have to keep in mind, but in that case their starport won't be proxied. Proxy hellion drop is a damn strong build that is harder to defend than to execute, but if you do sense it coming and hold it off well, it's a pretty decent advantage because it delays a lot of the trendy units atm, e.g. the raven. (technically they can put a tech lab on the proxy after the drop and go raven/cloaked banshee, but it's pretty uncommon and risky). The normal hellion runby isn't as committal and yeah it can be an insta-gg but there's no reason why you shouldn't scout it and react accordingly.

There are other builds ofc that involve 1-2 hellions and they can be a bit annoyingly cos of how fast they hit but it really comes down to positioning of your units for the super early run-bys (and sometimes a bit of luck)



Thanks for the advice. I actually saw a relevant video just now in my feed, and I feel like it highlights the problem pretty well:



So throughout this game you can see P constantly fending off hellions (i.e. the drop @8:39), then at 9:00 some get in anyway and even though there were units there they still manage to get in some damage and then at 10:09 the hellions get in and do an insane amount of damage. Whenever I'm playing vs. T it just feels like he bukakkes me with hellions until he gets some in and barely pays for it.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-03-24 14:14:02
March 24 2019 14:06 GMT
#1377
On March 24 2019 18:37 the p00n wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 24 2019 10:17 blooblooblahblah wrote:
On March 24 2019 07:50 the p00n wrote:
Master 3 random, I'm having a really hard time against hellions. They always seem to get in either by a medivac or just riding in. I've tried walling with limited success.

I just don't feel like I have any good options to defend against them. They are so cheap and expendable that even if I do kill ~4 while suffering minimal losses it doesn't really feel like a victory.


Well the first step is to know it's coming in the first place by scouting whether the factory has a reactor with your adept (easier to do on the maps where a reaper wall is possible, making it easier to send that first adept across). Now that you can't make cyclones from a reactor, it's safe to always go for a wall off at the natural if you scout a reactor factory. IMO, adding a shield battery that heals your unit at the wall and the some of the probes is a nice, safer option too cos sometimes the terran will keep the reaper alive and go for the grenade to dislodge your stalker from the wall and it can snowball real quick.

If you opened SG, you can use your first SG unit to look for the standard proxy starport locations, otherwise a neutral position with the stalkers and a well placed spotter pylon can work. There is a marine drop hellion build too so that's also something you have to keep in mind, but in that case their starport won't be proxied. Proxy hellion drop is a damn strong build that is harder to defend than to execute, but if you do sense it coming and hold it off well, it's a pretty decent advantage because it delays a lot of the trendy units atm, e.g. the raven. (technically they can put a tech lab on the proxy after the drop and go raven/cloaked banshee, but it's pretty uncommon and risky). The normal hellion runby isn't as committal and yeah it can be an insta-gg but there's no reason why you shouldn't scout it and react accordingly.

There are other builds ofc that involve 1-2 hellions and they can be a bit annoyingly cos of how fast they hit but it really comes down to positioning of your units for the super early run-bys (and sometimes a bit of luck)



Thanks for the advice. I actually saw a relevant video just now in my feed, and I feel like it highlights the problem pretty well:

https://youtu.be/j5Ww8POHwmM

So throughout this game you can see P constantly fending off hellions (i.e. the drop @8:39), then at 9:00 some get in anyway and even though there were units there they still manage to get in some damage and then at 10:09 the hellions get in and do an insane amount of damage. Whenever I'm playing vs. T it just feels like he bukakkes me with hellions until he gets some in and barely pays for it.

you have to specify that you mean mech players dumping hellions in the midgame or people will assume you mean hellion openers into bio which is a lot more standard, i don't think anyone imagined you meant timings like 8-10 minutes

mech players do this with hellions because there's not much else to do with their minerals. yes, there is always potential for massive damage, and i too have lost games against horrible mech players because they desperately right clicked hellions into all my bases while massing liberators and shit like that, but it's not broken, just annoying.

so if we're talking about the midgame then you have a lot of options. the best thing you can do unfortunately is just work on your map vision (spread zealots, observers, etc) and minimap awareness so the hellions aren't already in the mineral line by the time you react. i know that's a "gitgud" answer but it's just the truth, you have to know where his shit is. other options include:

-wall the fuck out of everything, use the pylons gates and cannons you're building anyway to create massive walls protecting your outer bases from runbys
-if you expect him to drop them repeatedly there's no reason you can't make 2-4 phoenix, but most mech terrans i play just run them around the sides of the map instead of dropping
-obvious, but remember to seriously micro your probes, because if you let them clump and line up against blue flame your losses are going to go from 5 probes to 20 every time. it's tricky, but there are a few standard moves like selecting one probe and suiciding it to mess up the spread of his flame shot, or in dicier situations selecting like 3-5 probes and body blocking the mineral line by attacking the hellions so the rest can escape. if you're a fancy pants you can also throw down temporary buildings in your gas line to block, but it's really hard to time it right and still remember to cancel the building, so try at your own risk
-if you're against a turtle mech terran and you're not doing anything with your ground army at the moment then always keep it very very close to one of your important mineral lines, just absurdly conservatively close. as long as you scout and have map vision you should be good to reposition if there's a real push.
-if you know hellions are about to hit an empty probe line and you absolutely cannot stop it just recall or run the probes instead of always thinking you have to cover everything
-remember that mech players who do this shit are usually buying time to turtle, so in many cases you can recover even from really bad probe losses just by triple or quadruple chronoing out some more. be greedy whenever you can
TL+ Member
the p00n
Profile Joined September 2010
Netherlands615 Posts
March 26 2019 11:12 GMT
#1378
On March 24 2019 23:06 brickrd wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 24 2019 18:37 the p00n wrote:
On March 24 2019 10:17 blooblooblahblah wrote:
On March 24 2019 07:50 the p00n wrote:
Master 3 random, I'm having a really hard time against hellions. They always seem to get in either by a medivac or just riding in. I've tried walling with limited success.

I just don't feel like I have any good options to defend against them. They are so cheap and expendable that even if I do kill ~4 while suffering minimal losses it doesn't really feel like a victory.


Well the first step is to know it's coming in the first place by scouting whether the factory has a reactor with your adept (easier to do on the maps where a reaper wall is possible, making it easier to send that first adept across). Now that you can't make cyclones from a reactor, it's safe to always go for a wall off at the natural if you scout a reactor factory. IMO, adding a shield battery that heals your unit at the wall and the some of the probes is a nice, safer option too cos sometimes the terran will keep the reaper alive and go for the grenade to dislodge your stalker from the wall and it can snowball real quick.

If you opened SG, you can use your first SG unit to look for the standard proxy starport locations, otherwise a neutral position with the stalkers and a well placed spotter pylon can work. There is a marine drop hellion build too so that's also something you have to keep in mind, but in that case their starport won't be proxied. Proxy hellion drop is a damn strong build that is harder to defend than to execute, but if you do sense it coming and hold it off well, it's a pretty decent advantage because it delays a lot of the trendy units atm, e.g. the raven. (technically they can put a tech lab on the proxy after the drop and go raven/cloaked banshee, but it's pretty uncommon and risky). The normal hellion runby isn't as committal and yeah it can be an insta-gg but there's no reason why you shouldn't scout it and react accordingly.

There are other builds ofc that involve 1-2 hellions and they can be a bit annoyingly cos of how fast they hit but it really comes down to positioning of your units for the super early run-bys (and sometimes a bit of luck)



Thanks for the advice. I actually saw a relevant video just now in my feed, and I feel like it highlights the problem pretty well:

https://youtu.be/j5Ww8POHwmM

So throughout this game you can see P constantly fending off hellions (i.e. the drop @8:39), then at 9:00 some get in anyway and even though there were units there they still manage to get in some damage and then at 10:09 the hellions get in and do an insane amount of damage. Whenever I'm playing vs. T it just feels like he bukakkes me with hellions until he gets some in and barely pays for it.

you have to specify that you mean mech players dumping hellions in the midgame or people will assume you mean hellion openers into bio which is a lot more standard, i don't think anyone imagined you meant timings like 8-10 minutes

mech players do this with hellions because there's not much else to do with their minerals. yes, there is always potential for massive damage, and i too have lost games against horrible mech players because they desperately right clicked hellions into all my bases while massing liberators and shit like that, but it's not broken, just annoying.

so if we're talking about the midgame then you have a lot of options. the best thing you can do unfortunately is just work on your map vision (spread zealots, observers, etc) and minimap awareness so the hellions aren't already in the mineral line by the time you react. i know that's a "gitgud" answer but it's just the truth, you have to know where his shit is. other options include:

-wall the fuck out of everything, use the pylons gates and cannons you're building anyway to create massive walls protecting your outer bases from runbys
-if you expect him to drop them repeatedly there's no reason you can't make 2-4 phoenix, but most mech terrans i play just run them around the sides of the map instead of dropping
-obvious, but remember to seriously micro your probes, because if you let them clump and line up against blue flame your losses are going to go from 5 probes to 20 every time. it's tricky, but there are a few standard moves like selecting one probe and suiciding it to mess up the spread of his flame shot, or in dicier situations selecting like 3-5 probes and body blocking the mineral line by attacking the hellions so the rest can escape. if you're a fancy pants you can also throw down temporary buildings in your gas line to block, but it's really hard to time it right and still remember to cancel the building, so try at your own risk
-if you're against a turtle mech terran and you're not doing anything with your ground army at the moment then always keep it very very close to one of your important mineral lines, just absurdly conservatively close. as long as you scout and have map vision you should be good to reposition if there's a real push.
-if you know hellions are about to hit an empty probe line and you absolutely cannot stop it just recall or run the probes instead of always thinking you have to cover everything
-remember that mech players who do this shit are usually buying time to turtle, so in many cases you can recover even from really bad probe losses just by triple or quadruple chronoing out some more. be greedy whenever you can


Thanks man. Yeah I suppose it's not 'broken' but it feels like that haha. Hellion has probably been my most disliked unit since sc2's inception
insitelol
Profile Joined August 2012
845 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-03-26 12:02:56
March 26 2019 12:02 GMT
#1379
Regarding hellions problem...

My honest opinion is that walling against terran may backlash you hard in certain scenarios. Terran just can go mass bio and destroy all your production for free. So you just lose your game right there. And overall hellions do not need any kind of counter. It's all an overreaction. Just put a single SB per mineral line preemtively (when your natural probe count is around 12 ). Defend with 3-4 stalkers per line. SB is such an obvious solution i dunno what to add. It cockblocks banshees, marine drops and hellions. Too good not to be used. (low/mid masters experience).

With SB in the mineral line you are pretty much safe even against 4 hellion runbys. Just make sure to focus fire one of them when they approach. Makes it much harder for terran to do significant damage with 3 or less.

Overall, i just feel that hellions only work on unprepared players and is the worst possible opening for terran who seeks to do early damage, marine/mine drops could be much more deadlier.


Less is more.
General_Winter
Profile Joined February 2011
United States719 Posts
March 27 2019 14:24 GMT
#1380
Following up to the two above points, if I wall off the reaper jump points with pylon and gate, does that leave me more vulnerable to hellions than I would be if I constrict my ramp, or natural choke, or even just build pylon and gateway to make a choke with my gas?
Prev 1 67 68 69 70 71 75 Next
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Monday Night Weeklies
16:00
#61
RotterdaM602
TKL 203
IndyStarCraft 191
SteadfastSC99
BRAT_OK 87
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 555
IndyStarCraft 191
TKL 185
SteadfastSC 86
BRAT_OK 75
MaxPax 51
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 5053
Shuttle 930
Mini 254
Horang2 193
HiyA 190
Liquid`Ret 99
Dewaltoss 89
Mong 71
Hyun 52
Bale 27
[ Show more ]
Aegong 25
Hm[arnc] 19
soO 17
Shine 17
Free 13
yabsab 11
Britney 0
Dota 2
Gorgc6389
Counter-Strike
fl0m5572
x6flipin578
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor196
MindelVK8
Other Games
Liquid`RaSZi2231
singsing1476
Beastyqt515
XaKoH 159
Sick155
ArmadaUGS115
C9.Mang0103
Trikslyr56
QueenE37
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV26
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• mYiSmile151
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
• Reevou 0
StarCraft: Brood War
• Pr0nogo 6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV1690
League of Legends
• Nemesis2543
• TFBlade899
Other Games
• Shiphtur286
• imaqtpie0
Upcoming Events
GSL
18h 2m
OSC
20h 2m
PiGosaur Cup
1d 7h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 18h
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
2 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
3 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
OSC
5 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 2026 LAN: Kraków
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Light Tournament 2026

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
RSL Revival: Season 6
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Escore Tournament S3: King of Kings
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Acropolis #5 - GSB
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Calamity Invitational
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
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 © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.