• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:27
CEST 07:27
KST 14:27
  • 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] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10
Community News
Rollback Netcode in Brood War425.0.17 Patch Notes - October 7, 202621Weekly Cups Results (Sep 28-Oct 4)0SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup10StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026)78
StarCraft 2
General
5.0.17 Patch Notes - October 7, 2026 [Old] StarCraft 3 Reportedly in Development StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026) How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Weekly Cups Results (Sep 28-Oct 4)
Tourneys
ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event RSL 2026 Offline Finals LCQ Sign-Ups Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 546 Catch the Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble
Brood War
General
Rollback Netcode in Brood War [ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror TL Sidebar missing streams Bot on ladder Repalyzer - replay analysis app for StarCraft: Rem
Tourneys
[ASL22] Semifinal A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Semifinal B [ASL22] Ro8 Day 4
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do?
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Zero
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion! Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Escaping Into Video Games: G…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 9175 users

[D] PvT -- What gateway units vs marauder?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
icki.icki
Profile Joined March 2010
106 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-04 07:38:42
April 04 2010 07:06 GMT
#1
I know that immortals really help here -- but what are the ideal gateway units to be mixing in with your immortals when they go heavy marauder? Stalkers seem like a bad choice, since marauders get their bonus against them, but zealots have a helluva time catching marauders -- so should I try sentry immortal? Maybe sentry / zealot / immortal for clever fields and such?

Curious to hear what people think the optimum mix is here. Edit: After playing another few games, I think walling off your ramp with force field while you get a immortals out is absolutely the way to go; it totally shuts down their ability to rush with those damned early marauders until you have enough immortals out to deal with them, plus zealot charge.
avilo
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States4100 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-04 07:11:08
April 04 2010 07:10 GMT
#2
People seem to be doing very well with zealots/templar at mid-late game stages. And of course P are using immortals/stalker too a lot now.

I have seen more stalkers* in like the past 2 tvp I have played than all the tvp/pvt beta games I'd seen or played b4 that
Sup
Smoyf
Profile Joined March 2010
United States44 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-04 07:17:30
April 04 2010 07:16 GMT
#3
The answer is yo need all of the gateway units to deal with heavy marauder. Pure zealots will get kited, pure sentries/stalkers die too fast. You need zealots to take the damage and stalkers/sentries to hit the marauders if they try to kite your zealots. If you have enough sentries you can wall in the marauders so your zealots will tear them up.

If you know that someone is going to be marauder rushing you the best thing you can do is to fast tech to robo. Make a zealot while your cyber core is building and then build a stalker ASAP. An early stalker and zealot should be able to handle the first couple marauders he sends to your base if you micro correctly. If he focuses on kiting the zealot then your stalker will get free hits on them. If he focuses on your stalker then the zealot will hit them. Don't chase out of your base either, use the vision with the ramp to delay until your first immortal is out. After that baby is out any early marauders he has will die if he doesn't run them.

At that point something that I like to do (got it from a friend) was to make a warp prism and another immortal and send them into his base to harass. Destroy what you can, tech, supply depots, SCVs... since so many terrans go pure marauder he won't be able to shoot your warp prism down and you can just abuse it to really set him back while you tech up to colossus and build up your army.
I'll smoyf you up
icki.icki
Profile Joined March 2010
106 Posts
April 04 2010 07:37 GMT
#4
Okay, so I just fought this again and tried out going initially only zealots + sentries, and it worked really beautifully. On maps with a good ramp it's literally impossible for them to even get in your base once you have a couple sentries up, so it totally negates their initial push -- and then once you have like 3 immortals, 10 zealots, 4 sentries, 3 stalkers or something, you go ahead and counterpush. It worked very well for me.

I played two PvT back to back, got rocked the first one going stalker / zealot / immortal. Second I just walled off until I had a superior force and timing pushed with +1 and zealot charge, and took out his natural and then just sat back and took complete map control.
BigBalls
Profile Blog Joined May 2003
United States5354 Posts
April 04 2010 11:15 GMT
#5
sentry zealot is the answer. zealots do well vs marauder except for the stuns, sentries do relatively well vs marauders as well, but the key is force fielding behind marauders so they cant stun and run, trapping them so they have to fight your zealots.
if you guys could use google and post direct links to the maphacks here it would be greatly appreciated. - Nazgul
DarQraven
Profile Joined January 2010
Netherlands553 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-05 23:16:46
April 05 2010 23:13 GMT
#6
There is one problem with zealot+sentry: Reapers. By making only sentries and zealots, you are focusing entirely on blocking your ramp and holding off the Marauders until your big guns come out.
Problem here is that Marauders are produced from the same Barracks+Tech lab that Reapers are produced from. Meaning, all the Terran has to do to completely own your base is send a couple early marauders to get you to go sentry+zealot, then do a *free* switch to reapers and destroy all your probes. Only if you see this coming can you really build up enough stalkers to prevent terrible terrible damage©.

I say a mix of Stalker+Sentry+Zeal is usually the best. It is more prone to failure with bad micro (and possibly building placement - if you semi-wall your ramp with a gateway, the marauders can focus fire it while half your stalkers are out of range), but is a lot safer against a switch like this. If, for some reason, you don't see the reapers coming and have only zealots, it's GG.
Floophead_III
Profile Joined September 2009
United States1832 Posts
April 05 2010 23:25 GMT
#7
I'm not sure why people don't just go stalker + sentry which is reaper safe, air safe, tech safe, and perfectly safe vs mara rush cause of FF (cut off half his force then use stalkers to shoot from out of range of his guys on the far side of the FFs.) That should allow you to get a robo up at which point you can go to immortal/zealot and regain map control. Perhaps a respected toss can say why this is or isn't viable, cause I don't have much experience as protoss since a few patches ago.

If he goes for some sort of hellion play sentry/zealot is horrible. If he goes for air it's pretty weak as well cause sentries suck pretty hard vs banshees. I would advise against skimping on the robo as well because you're playing in the dark which is never good.
Half man, half bear, half pig.
icki.icki
Profile Joined March 2010
106 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-05 23:39:45
April 05 2010 23:36 GMT
#8
On April 06 2010 08:25 Floophead_III wrote:
I'm not sure why people don't just go stalker + sentry which is reaper safe, air safe, tech safe, and perfectly safe vs mara rush cause of FF (cut off half his force then use stalkers to shoot from out of range of his guys on the far side of the FFs.) That should allow you to get a robo up at which point you can go to immortal/zealot and regain map control. Perhaps a respected toss can say why this is or isn't viable, cause I don't have much experience as protoss since a few patches ago.

If he goes for some sort of hellion play sentry/zealot is horrible. If he goes for air it's pretty weak as well cause sentries suck pretty hard vs banshees. I would advise against skimping on the robo as well because you're playing in the dark which is never good.


You need to spend a lot of gas early in the game, so sentry / zealot is better really early in the game. You probably should go something like zealot, then stalker (for reapers), then sentry -- but the trouble is that for very pushes sentry force field can be such a lifesaver.

Anyhow, my point is that you never STAY zealot/sentry, but it can keep you alive for the first few minutes in a way that stalker / sentry can't.
Floophead_III
Profile Joined September 2009
United States1832 Posts
April 05 2010 23:44 GMT
#9
What happens if you run into 10/10/11 reaper rush though? You really should open with a stalker to be safe imo.
Half man, half bear, half pig.
icki.icki
Profile Joined March 2010
106 Posts
April 05 2010 23:45 GMT
#10
Yeah, but then immediately into sentry, imo.
Avius
Profile Joined October 2007
Iraq1796 Posts
April 05 2010 23:52 GMT
#11
I usually open up with a stalker and then vary my unit composition to what's needed. When I see him doing the rallypoint-into-my-base-marauder-push I usually mix sentries and zealots into the mix.

You might argue that zealots are crap against marauders, but it really forces the T to micro the shit out of his marauders, or they'll simply die. Plus they are a nice meatshield. Throw in a couple of FF here and there and you can pretty much hold off his first push. By this time I have 2 gate while throwing down my robo and usually I end up getting an Immortal relatively quickly so the push is completely denied.
aka. Samael
roymarthyup
Profile Joined April 2010
1442 Posts
April 05 2010 23:59 GMT
#12
for now i am assuming all terran are using fast marauder or reaper rush in platinum, so i use this build which is fairly effective against marauder terran rushes or zerg muta harass


replays:

vs terran
http://www.mediafire.com/?djh2lkzwkjz
http://www.mediafire.com/?ilzmuthm3oz





vs zerg
http://www.mediafire.com/?yjjly1tztn1





i won against both terrans



against the zerg i lost because he outmacro'ed me and i made the mistake of attacking when i should have waited 2 minutes to get 200food. i attacked when i was 169food and my enemy was 179food because i was retarded and wasted 1500minerals on cannons.

if i didnt waste 1500 minerals on cannons and waited for 200food before i attacked i would have beat the zerg because the zerg could not kill me if i just camped and turtled
icki.icki
Profile Joined March 2010
106 Posts
April 05 2010 23:59 GMT
#13
When you mix with sentries zealots become pretty decent -- and once zealots get charge they're practically a hard counter to MM in large numbers. Force field behind MM + charge == massacre.
Raydog
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States632 Posts
April 06 2010 00:04 GMT
#14
Actually if someone is doing a heavy mass marauder push, Immortals wouldn't be best. What you want is Sentry/zealot, with some stalker thrown in there, and instead of teching immortals tech to zealot legs. with good forcefields you can cut the Terran army in half and use charge to own the units, then back off, and attack the rest of the army when he engages.

I've played vs. numerous high level Terrans who try a marauder semi-all-in (even bring SCVs), and they say they can beat immortals, but not zealot legs.
Shew
Avius
Profile Joined October 2007
Iraq1796 Posts
April 06 2010 00:08 GMT
#15
Against heavy Marauder semi-all-in you should always be getting the legs upgrade, no doubt, but imo after the robo. The Obs and Immortal are just way too important to miss out on.

But I digress, the OP is asking about gateway units and Zealot/Sentry(+Stalker) is doing the trick for me. I always get 1 Stalker in the beginning just to be safe against the Reapers and to kill off the scouting SCV.
aka. Samael
Feefee
Profile Joined November 2009
Canada556 Posts
April 06 2010 00:18 GMT
#16
The only thing that I don't like about sentry/zealot (and I agree they work well against marauders), is that one ghost can completely screw up your plan of cornering the terran. And without forcefield even speed upgraded zealots get quite hurt by marauders.
I suppose you just have to time your colossi to come out by then or be careful with your sentries
icki.icki
Profile Joined March 2010
106 Posts
April 06 2010 00:30 GMT
#17
On April 06 2010 09:08 Avius wrote:
Against heavy Marauder semi-all-in you should always be getting the legs upgrade, no doubt, but imo after the robo. The Obs and Immortal are just way too important to miss out on.

But I digress, the OP is asking about gateway units and Zealot/Sentry(+Stalker) is doing the trick for me. I always get 1 Stalker in the beginning just to be safe against the Reapers and to kill off the scouting SCV.


Oh, totally agreed about the leg upgrade post-robo; you need obs and immortals ASAP. I was completely not making sentries, which was just a monumental mistake.
Chairman Ray
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States11903 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-04-06 00:46:09
April 06 2010 00:42 GMT
#18
I have never lost to a marauder heavy army before.

My army consists of 50% stalker, 30% zealot, 20% immortal with a couple sentries.

The rationale is that Immortals and stalkers have very high DPS vs marauders, but marauders have even higher DPS vs Immortals and stalkers. A zealot can tank a marauder for 16 hits, which is a long time, and a microed marauder can kite a zealot until he dies. So in each scenario, the marauder wins out, but when you combine the two, it's different. In a hybrid army, marauders will fire at the zealots first. That means Terran has very low DPS against you, but you have very high DPS against them. Stalker/immortal can shred through MM in the time that MM just kills your 5 or so zealots. If Terran tech switches to air, having 50% stalker will deal with that easily while you pump out more stalkers. If Terran tech switches to mech, you have more than enough immortals to deal with it. If Terran masses marines, the couple sentries will enable your stalkers and immortals to deal with them.

The most important part is having an observer. That way, you can counter Terran's army before they realize what's going on.

EDIT: Take this with a grain of salt since I haven't actually played a top Terran player yet. This just works versus 1000-1500 ELO people.
mint_julep
Profile Joined October 2009
United States254 Posts
April 25 2010 18:58 GMT
#19
icki, what about when there's no ramp on your map to FF?
I hope Plexa's sig is right.
zZygote
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
Canada898 Posts
April 25 2010 21:05 GMT
#20
On April 26 2010 03:58 mint_julep wrote:
icki, what about when there's no ramp on your map to FF?


I would then consider walling off the choke with your stalker/sentry/zealot. Then chronoboost the hell outta that immortal. At most they would have 3-5 mara's with either 1-3 marines. You can easily counter push or expand cause your at an advantage for his early investment on gas.
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
08:00
OSC Elite Rising Star #21
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
BeSt 298
Mind 63
Bale 30
Icarus 11
ZergMaN 9
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm203
League of Legends
JimRising 725
Other Games
summit1g7486
Coldzera 690
WinterStarcraft616
C9.Mang0308
Sick172
febbydoto14
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick749
BasetradeTV187
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2120
League of Legends
• Rush1065
Other Games
• Shiphtur528
Upcoming Events
Big Brain Bouts
4h 33m
Rex vs INexorable
GgMaChine vs HeRoMaRinE
Reynor vs herO
Online Event
6h 33m
AI Arena Tournament
11h 33m
BSL: Ladder Tournament
13h 33m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 4h
Patches Events
1d 9h
BSL Open Qualifier
1d 13h
BSL Open Qualifier
1d 13h
OSC
2 days
WardiTV Weekly
3 days
[ Show More ]
PiGosaur Cup
3 days
The PondCast
5 days
Online Event
6 days
Korean StarCraft League
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Copium Cup

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Acropolis #5
HCC Season 3
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
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
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.