Stats, its the most standard Protoss so his builds are the most applicable to any level of play, whereas Trap has much more builds designed to exploit GSL level metas or crazy level control ones (2,3 oracle builds for example) Zest relies a lot on mid early timings, although storming your opponents with masses of gateway units and an occasional storm is always fun.

Atlan___

Germany38 Posts

February 03 2021 10:17 GMT

Has

ejozl

Denmark3487 Posts

February 03 2021 10:30 GMT

Probably Zest, he's the build master. I also think timing attack builds is a good way to learn Starcraft.

deacon.frost

Czech Republic12129 Posts

February 03 2021 10:41 GMT

Both Trap and Zest have builds which are depedent on you having a god tier control. Zest IMO more than Trap. Especially Zest who often plays a turn base SC2 - he has his micro turns and macro turns

So, unless you have a good unit control I would recommend Stats, the most standard Protoss you can get since Rain departure.

Ben...

Canada3485 Posts

February 03 2021 15:49 GMT

Stats definitely. Learning how to play in a reactive and flexible way first is hugely beneficial as it will allow you to identify and handle a lot of different situations easier. Once you have this solid foundation, then mixing in specific timing attack build orders is pretty simple to do.

Something you'll notice the more you play is that it's easy to tell when you are playing against a build order player versus someone who plays in a more reactive way. The NA ladder is crammed with terrans that play build orders like this. They have their one build order timing attack they do every game and they don't deviate from it. They are typically very good at this build order but the second they are thrown off their game at all or their build order is interrupted, they completely fall apart.

I guess to note, when I say playing reactive, I don't mean playing without a game plan. By playing reactive I mean adjusting what your plan is based on new information.

iMECH_KolosS

Canada61 Posts

February 03 2021 15:55 GMT

Actually, I'd ask the question differently. Is your goal to get to the top of the ladder ? If yes, then check who's mostly on top and copy his style, but personnally I'd study all of them and try out their approches in each matchup to see which one feels more fun/potential for you. For instance, your PvT could be from Maxpax, your PvP from Trap and your PvZ from PartinG.

In my case, learning BO's or strat that I hate just to get higher on ladder makes me not like the game as much. Plus, people like BeastyQT who gets to GM doing stupid random strategies indicates that theoretically, it's possible to get top of ladder by doing almost any style as long as you practice it a lot. Personnaly, if I like the style, I enjoy practicing on ladder.

Tldr: Find the styles that you enjoy the most, this will help you be motivated to practice and eventually get better results.
You can learn from any player.

MarianoSC2

Slovakia1855 Posts

February 03 2021 17:10 GMT

#10

On February 03 2021 19:41 deacon.frost wrote:
Both Trap and Zest have builds which are depedent on you having a god tier control. Zest IMO more than Trap. Especially Zest who often plays a turn base SC2 - he has his micro turns and macro turns

So, unless you have a good unit control I would recommend Stats, the most standard Protoss you can get since Rain departure.

Yeah I thought as well that Zest had the best control until I saw what Trap managed to achieve in PvZ. That is the matchup where you really have to have perfect timing pushes and god tier control to achieve success. And Zest PvZ kinda sucks...

To the question, I would recommend to start with Stats to learn the basics of standard play and then you can decide what kind of playstyle you want to have.
If defensive macro, then stick with Stats. If super aggressive timing pushes and more focus on micro, go with Zest. If a balanced playstyle, focusing on your macro and mix it up with some timings and aggression, go with Trap.

jimminy_kriket

Canada5529 Posts

February 04 2021 03:09 GMT

#11

Harstem has a very good youtube channel with guides on many different builds/styles so you can pick what you want and go from there. Hushang also has a very good youtube channel.

MinixTheNerd

200 Posts

February 04 2021 03:27 GMT

#12

I know its been a while since he was in peak form, but I always preferred CJ herO's approach to protoss. He just understood how to leverage his position/aggression to dictate the pace of the game to his terms, and that truly was what made protoss scary even back in the MC days.

FataLe

New Zealand4531 Posts

February 04 2021 07:39 GMT

#13

It's Stats. Learn the fundamentals of Protoss first, then you can try exploiting it.

FFW_Rude

France10201 Posts

February 04 2021 09:57 GMT

#14

Rage inducing => Has !
Otherwise Stats.

Aurora.dd

3 Posts

February 04 2021 13:36 GMT

#15

Really depends on your skill level and what you're trying to achieve. Zest's builds are in my opinion, almost not replicable on ladder. Nowadays he often relies on his gamesense and control to do things like basetrading against Terrans (he actually lost a lot trying to do this in the earlier half of 2020), playing a mass gateway into fast-storm style in PvT which is actually really vulnerable to any kind of 2 base Terran all in.

Stats is currently not very remarkable in any of the matchups in terms of his builds. They all seem pretty "meta" (i.e. colossi in PvT, teching into late game for disruptors/tempests/blink dts and the 2 stargate void build vs Z). Maybe its good to learn these "standard builds" for ladder if you want to improve in the long term.

Trap is definitely the best Protoss right now and can pretty much do any Protoss build in the book. If you want some slightly "off-meta" builds that are still very functional in a normal ladder game, you can look at what Trap does.

The European Protosses are also worth watching. Maxpax recently developed this interesting build in PvP, whereby you go immortal phoenix after a fast nexus. Harstem's channel is also a good place for players to learn about the game in general.

ytherik

199 Posts

February 04 2021 20:56 GMT

#16

I guess in current meta you can just do:
+ Show Spoiler +

https://streamable.com/5hsa5j

ThunderJunk

United States726 Posts

February 04 2021 23:27 GMT

#17

On February 05 2021 05:56 ytherik wrote:
I guess in current meta you can just do:
+ Show Spoiler +

https://streamable.com/5hsa5j

Thank you for this. An excellent, succinct summary of the finals.

Chris_Havoc

United States600 Posts

February 05 2021 01:34 GMT

#18

If it was me I'd try to learn the best aspects of all three with a bit of sOs added in too for the off-meta mind games to keep my opponents guessing.

neptunusfisk

2286 Posts

February 07 2021 12:53 GMT

#19

Watch stats for the defending and zest for the attacking, when you master both you will become trap

Yoshi Kirishima

United States10366 Posts

February 08 2021 03:59 GMT

#20

I don't see anyone mentioning him, but Patience's play makes a lot of sense to me personally when I was looking for Protoss to study.

Zoun's builds would also work well on ladder if you just want to learn 1 fun build for each MU.