EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7lSEu1h.png)
Why the build works and the Philosophy behind it:
This build is good because it relies on getting information, it constantly scouts around in order to make as few units as possible favoring tech and production for as long as possible, this way you can be really efficient about your resource management and as such your mid game will be much stronger.
The basic concept is that you use the oracle to pin them down until medivacs come out, after this point, the oracle simply becomes another observer with revelation, which you will have to use constantly in order to track down the terran's army (it helps a lot, try seriously not to lose it at least until vikings are out), this, along with 1 - 2 observers and the phoenixes should make your base incredibly difficult to harass.
This leads to an incredibly strong mid game where you will have a much easier time dealing with multi-prong attacks and drops given the mobility of your army!.
Opening: (any other stargate macro-oriented openings should do, this is just the one I do)
9 Pylon
13 Gate
15 Gas (x2)
16 Pylon (Put 2 probes on each gas)
18 core (when you have 14 probes mining, rally nexus to one gas, then repeat for the other, this is to make the build a little bit more efficient)
19 zealot (cancel it at 99%, this zealot is only in case they block the natural with an e-bay or if they are rushing you)
20/21 (@100% cybernetics core) warpgate and mothership core
22 pylon
@next 50 gas Stalker
@100% stalker, 2nd stalker or sentry (stalker for widow mines/reapers harass, otherwise sentry)
27 Stargate, sentry (2nd)
29 nexus
31 oracle
34 pylon and 2 more gates (3)
@100% Oracle, constant phoenix production (until you have 5-6)
~6 - 7 mins Robotics
@100% Warpgate Sentry, Zealot (x2)
~8:20 (or @100% robotics) Robotics bay, observer (1 or 2), immortal, 4th gate.
~9 mins forge (obviously you want +1 armor first and then max out ground weapons)
~10 mins twilight council (for Charge and eventual templar archives switch).
~11 - 13 mins Templar archives (this will depend a lot on what the terran is doing, more on that later).
Basically you want 4 gates, robo, robotics bay, forge, stargate and twilight council all done by 11 mins.
Scouting:
Scouting will have two (three if they went gasless expand) stages, the first one will be when your probe arrives at their base, this will tell you about any sort of proxy shenanigans and what not which this guide won't go into details, the important thing here is to scout whether or not they open rax/gas expand or gasless expand, since you can be a lot greedier vs gasless expand while gas expand has the threat of widow mines and reapers, which forces you to make an stalker with the mothership core and to adopt a defensive position. Against gasless expand, you can send your mothership core to their base to cast time warp on their workers and just gather some intel on his infraestructure. Eventually when the oracle arrives you can use it in combination with the mothership core for some effective harass but it's only optional, you don't have to do damage with the oracle, its just there to pin them down and scout.
Engaging the Terran:
Early Game:
Reapers: just make sure you have your mothership core hovering around your nexus and you should be fine, you shouldn't lose any probes against the reaper and if you control properly you can even cast a time warp in order to kill it, the reaper is there just for scouting so just do your best to zone it out while not overcommiting to it.
Widow Mines: This one is tricky, sometimes they will build a factory right next to your base, then lift it and land it inside your main to make widow mines from inside your base, in this case just keep the stalker and the mothership core near the factory to make sure they can't move to your mineral line without dieing on the way, its very rare from them to come with units towards the natural but if they do you always have photon overcharge, once the oracle pops up you can use envision and the superior range of the stalkers to eliminate the widow mines.
Widow Mine or hellbat drop: On this scenario it will take some micro from you but you should be able to clean it up with zero losses as long as you know the drop is coming (even if you don't, if you have good reaction you can still pull it off), basically you have to lift the widow mines/hellbats with your phoenixes before they burrow and clean it up with your ground forces, remember your oracle arrives at their base a little before this happens so it should see the lack of units and as such you should keep your army at your main's ramp to be able to effectively defend both areas.
Marines, Marauders, and other shenanigans: With the inception of the mothership core I have never seen this kind of agression anymore on the first 6 mins in the game, however, a stim pack timing before 8 mins is very scary with this kind of style since you will have very few units, and as such, if your oracle spots their army moving around ~7:15 or so you should be using your warpgates constantly. If it comes down it, you can use phoenix lifts on the marauders while casting photon overcharge/time warp/force fields and 1a to clean up the marines.
Mid Game:
Dealing with drops:
you want to have your oracle near the terran's base all the time, specially to see if they try to take a third to harass the worker building it a little bit and force them to pay extra attention because of it, try to cast revelation constantly on the terran's army, if you have 75 energy, use it!, it helps a ton. the Phoenixes should be patrolling the air near your main and your army should be parked between your main and your natural, your obs should either be used for detection (if they are really favoring widow mines) or for spotting, in which case you should send it to wherever it is that a drop is more likely to come from that isn't already covered by phoenix/xel'naga towers/revelation/oracle.
Since you will have a lot of vision, you will also have to make a lot of decisions, when to switch to templars?, when to take a third?, usually 11 - 13 mins is a good time to do both, try to take your expansion not after 1 minute the terran started his, and start templar archives after you have 2 collosus. You can also neglect switching to storm and get up to 5 colossi while using a lot of phoenixes + stalker/sentry/archon support to deal with the vikings while masses of chargelots act as shield for the colossi (In late game, you will probably need both storm and colossi though).
Frontal engagements:
Your army composition should be 3 sentries, some stalkers, chargelots, 3 -5 colossi, archons, up to 14 - 16 phoenixes, all with 2/1 upgrades while the terran has 2/2 or in some cases 3/2, the things you should do, in order
1) Cast guardian shield
2) 1a
3) Cast time warps
4) Put down the force fields behind the slowed terran army
5) Storm them! (if you did research storm)
6) Focus fire vikings with stalkers/sentries/archons and the phoenixes
7) Once the vikings are down, you use the remaining phoenixes to lift the marauders
8) Warp in reinforcements
9) Chase down the terran, kill the fleeing medivacs with the phoenixes
10) Enjoy the rage :D
Tips:
- Do you even lift?, Phoenix lift!, remember to use it all the time!, lift marauders so they don't tank for the marines, lift widow mines dropping in your base, lift ghosts about to cast emps on your templars, lift siege tanks!, lift everything!!!!!
- Split your army!, if you have vision of his main army, then the only thing that could sneak by is a small amount of troops, as such, if they aren't in front of your base, there is no need to keep your army parked in the front of your natural, split it in half around your main and nat, or in 1/3s, phoenixes covering your main, mothership core covering your third and your main army covering your nat. Its better to be present with ten soldiers than to be missing with ten thousand.
- Make cannons, 1 - 2 per base, yeah phoenixes are cool but if they get to drop your base with 16 marines then your phoenixes won't be able to close the distance. Now 6 phoenixes, 2 cannons, and a warp in round?, that's what I'm talking about, it can deal with drops pretty effectively, don't neglect cannons!.
- templar switch!, you don't "need" storm, but at least mixing in some archons can definetly swing the tides of a battle where there are few to no ghosts, charge is a very important ability since when in combination with time warp and force fields it really increases the effectiveness of zealots. Also, dark templars are a great way to keep the terran from expanding beyond his three intial bases and the dark shrine is pretty cheap in hots, so why not?.
- Guardian shield!, it reduces greatly the damage output of marines (from 6 to 4, with no upgrades), its a very important spell early on and you must make sure you always have at least one activated when in majoy engagements!.
- With this build you will have very few units, so don't even try to poke with your intial units, if they take an incredibly fast third or go for double ebay you just have to take a third yourself or add a 2nd forge, you don't "need" to be ahead of them on economy and upgrades, since your advantage lies is on mobility (phoenixes, recall) and tech (colossus/twilight), just make sure you dont end up with 1/1 vs a 3/3 maxed terran army and you should be fine
Do not lose:
- The 3 sentries (DO NOT LOSE THEM)
- The first 5 phoenixes (I used to poke around with them and they just auto died to the marine ball by accident so I just keep them patrolling near my main)
- The first 3 colossi (They are the big laser guys that deal most of the damage, if you lose one for nothing, it will definetly hurt you a lot when the big engagement comes)
- The little forge that could (most of the time I only have one forge, but if they go fast third AND get double ebay then I add a 2nd one and chrono boost the hell out of both)
- Robotics bay and templar archives (you obviously don't want to lose the stuff that allows you to make the big scary stuff that vaporizes other stuff).
- Mothership Core, Yes, it's cheap, but having a 200/200 energy mothership core is a big difference than having one that just spawned, planetary nexus ftw!.
Replays:
1) http://drop.sc/327222 (I don't make phoenixes after my oracle finish, he drops widow mines in my base, gets a money shot and kills like 15 workers, then I play the game from behind, lose my sentries, then lose the game shortly afterwards).
2) http://drop.sc/327223 (I make two oracles instead of one, don't even do much damage, but get the info I need, shows how good phoenix lift is
)3) http://drop.sc/327223 and http://drop.sc/327221, both reps are from the same series (I play vs a terran who says screw it and all ins twice with his army + scv pull, defend it with ease, on bel'shir I even get storm for added fireworks ^_^, for some reason he decided getting trapped at my third was a good idea, turns out it wasn't~).
I think that sums it up
No TL;DR for you sorry
GO PWN THE LADDER!~
PD: I will ladder today and post replays of this, if any of you can link to a VOD where MC or another gosu pro-gamer does this kind of style please do so and I will add it to the OP.
PD2: I stream!, almost every day, specially on weekends!, www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/darkness2k11 or http://www.twitch.tv/RoHDarkness , I used to play with mobile internet (those modem things) with 500 ping and 200 kb upload speed but now I have fiber optic yeaaah :D. I don't have a mic right now but I answer questions on the chat so please come by!,
