PvP HotS: Broke the Matchup

PvP as we kno it from wings of liberty (WoL), exclusively centred around the use of colossus with a slight emphasis on Archon/Immortal with Zealots as buffer. As such the match-up looked as, follows:

Phoenix openings > Robo openings> Twilight openings > phoenix openings, where > indicates a slight advantage moving into the midgame.

Simply put these advantages were built on the number of options, or lack thereof, that one opening has vs another which ultimately leads to a stronger/faster endgame composition that all three openings would eventually funnel into, Colossus.

The biggest change moving from WoL to HotS, is the redesign of the Voidray. As such the end game hierarchy of compositions now looks like:
(Loosely speaking) VoidRay>> Colossus>> Gateway, where >> indicates a significant advantage when in direct engagement.

The VoidRay is now king, with everything else under it. However, unlike its predecessor the colossus, the counter to VoidRay’s aren't more VoidRays, but mass phoenix or mass stalker with storm, with the latter not trading very well given a correct split and an equivalent army value from the Void Ray player.

The main difference between the VoidRay and Colossus composition from WoL, is that the counter to Colossus was more Colossus, a ground unit and therefore easily manipulated through positional play and a variation of unit interaction. In contrast, the counter to VoidRay is the phoenix, a unit that can only be countered through more phoenix. (I understand stalkers can kill phoenix but it is irrelevant as I will show later.)

The build supply will vary with probe stacking etc. Try to build it as smoothly as possible with probes being the priority on 1 base.

Note I have decided to omit the mothershipcore from the build until 2 base. Although the mothershipcore has versatility and a place in gateway openings, it does not serve an actual purpose within stargate openings and actually leave you vulnerable to certain openings such as 3 gate pressure or 4 gate dt.

9 Pylon

Chrono probes 3 times in a row

13 Gateway, scout with probe.

15 gas

16 Pylon

18ish Cybernetics core (place it when you can afford it)

19 Gas

20ish zealot

21/22/23 Pylon#3 before Cybercore finishes

@Cybercore 100% complete: start and Chrono warptech

@100 gas: queue up Sentry and chronoboost gateway.

@150 gas: build Stargate

@ next 100 gas 2nd sentry

*Constant probe production until 20 on minerals and 3 on each gas*

*Add gates 2 and 3 as you can afford them without cutting probes after stargate*

*When sg is done chrono out 4 phoenix in a row*

*If no aggression is done scout with a halu phoenix/if there is aggression scout with real phoenix for dts and tech (if dts make oracle and 3 phoenix and out-produce him in army and take an expo with a robo)*

*When expanding the key is to watch his gas timings, gas deposit in units and tech choices. If you do not see any tech stay on phoenix gateway with msc. If you see tech go into immortal 1 forge gateway composition with 8-10 phoenix. Go into colo production as soon as you know you're not being 2 base pushed. The exception is if you scout a colossus bay/2 stargate transition, in which case go up to 2 stargate voidray/phoenix with a splash of immortals*

*Good practice is to leave 2 zealots on hold position at your ramp in case you miss a dt shrine*

This build allows for the ability to attain a significant number of phoenixes relatively quickly along with the safety-net of being able to allocate chrono differently depending on what you scout.

The above build is optimal if playing vs mirror Stargate openings, dt openings,robo openings and non aggressive twilight openings (not 3 gate pressure before teching twilight)

Variations of this opening due to scouting

Against 3 Gate Pressure/dBling Style

Currently it’s popular for your opponent to go 3 gate pressure/3 stalker pressure with mothership core into some sort of tech. Bling likes to go 3 gate 3 stalker rush with MSC into about 6-9 stalker pressure depending on what he scouts.

If you scout this or feel unsafe, you can modify the build above by making the second sentry before stargate and 2x chrono your cyber core, even adding the gates before stargate. Just forcefield the units out followed by your first warp-ins and you will be fine. It’s the same concept of holding 3 gate pressure in WoL with the exception you have to stand further back from the edge due to msc. Don't worry about the risk of losing the sentries to the msc, because with 2 chrono on the cybercore, warpgate will be finishing up, and he cannot risk over extending too far in with a slow unit like the msc(if he does snipe it with your first warp-in). The biggest thing when facing pressure is to



Against 3 Gate Contain Expo

Three gate contain into expo is probably the best option your opponent can do vs this build. Against the majority of 3 gate tech variations you will have more than enough army value to just pick up his units and fight your way out into your natural with 3 gate phoenix.
However there will be times where it is necessary to hold your ramp leading to a contain expo by him.
In this spot the best play is to counter his main with phoenix. It usually forces a nexus cannon and a warp-in of 3 stalkers. At this point he has the choice of coming back home with his contain or sitting in front of your ramp. If he chooses the latter, simply sit your 5-6 phoenix at his natural and deny the benefits of his expansion as long as possible. Due to a significant portion of his army being at your natural, he can't effectively deal with your phoenixes without you moving around his army and into the main sniping probes.
Your play vs a contain should be to get out colossus to break the contain and take an expo. Do not worry about the time difference between expanding, as your tech is superiorly progressed, and the amount of resources gained by your opponent by the expo lead does not offset the tech lead you have.

Against Blink Openings
Just open the standard way. Blink research time has been increased such that it will frequently be the follow up of 3 gate or 3 stalker rush openings, regardless the response is the same. Go up to 4 phoenix and have constant unit production out of 3 gates. It will be an easy hold.

Against Phoenix Mirror/Greedy Openings

If you can identify early on that your opponent is playing a non aggressive style you can be more liberal in your risk taking. There are some builds that are 1 gate 1 stargate expo if they feel a potential phoenix mirror. I am not going to post a recommendation as it is very game by game dependant. In general try reach saturation faster and save more chrono for phoenix production.

Due to the VoidRay being the most potent unit in a final army composition, all that matters is the potential to create them, instead of actually producing them. The most optimal way to make this happen is to mass the counter to VoidRays(phoenix), thus monopolizing the ability to produce them. In other words if you control the rights to make Voidrays you alone have the ability to produce colossus, thus forcing your opponent into an inferior tech choice.

In WoL Blink players could still take solace in the fact that they had more invested resources in an endgame tech path, coupled with minimal damage from phoenix due to blink openings, thus leading to a powerful mid/late game and a strong transition into colossus. However in HotS it is important to note that due to the progression of Protoss tech, it is not how much damage the phoenixes can do but merely the fact that one player has them. The implication is that MSC and blink provide good defensive capabilities but the resulting influx of resources cannot be allocated in an effective manner.

To exemplify this point let’s say player A opens SG and Player B opens non SG. If B goes Colossus, A can go mass VR, If B goes mass gateway, A can go colossus with phoenix, leading to the problems B had with colossus from wings of liberty. If both A and B go stargate it turns into a very fragile game where neither player has an incentive to move away from Phoenix production, and as such will turn into a mass phoenix vs phoenix with lots of ground units, where one single engagement determines that game.

Let me start by saying that although it is very favoured for the player opening phoenix, games will still be won with other openings and other tech choices, since Starcraft is not always about advantages. For those of you who are wondering why I have not mentioned the oracle, it is because it is always better to allocate the gas to phoenix. The times when oracles come in handy are when you need detection or want to do a counter swing vs a very aggressive 1 base protoss.