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Thank you for the guide.
What are the advantages of using Stargate tech over blink stalkers to hunt overseers and complement the DT harras?
I think blink stalkers can only harass efectively a bit later than air tech, and it is harder to kill overseers, but blink feels like a safer follow-up strategy as you are alligned to upgrades and not so vulnerable to a 2-base hydra/ling bust.
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Canada13378 Posts
digging up an old thread by xDaunt wherein he outlines a PvZ opening that goes into pheonix DT style play but with more of a long term goal and more well thought out. Though the metagame was SUPER different at the time where rushing to mutalisks was very very popular. Z would go 2 base mutas into harass and then sometimes double expand behind it and drone thanks to the map control they had.
Edit ... Forgot the link it is below
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=149170
oh and please please please do not necro it asking xDaunt questions I havent really seen him around (he is in the LoL forum so I assume he focuses on that game now) so read, play with it then make a good post that make necroing the thread legitimate and worthwhile IF you necro it at ALL (which you probably shouldnt unless you are very very good at the game and can make some Serious contributions to the opening)
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On June 27 2011 06:31 Bladeorade wrote: I had someone attempt to do this to me the other day. I'll see if I can find the replay.
It appeared as though they were going a stargate exand, and he went to deny my 3rd with void ray/phoenix but I had enough queens to drive them away.
My normal ZvP is ling/infestor so my infestor tech was on the way. When he revealed exactly how many phoenix he had (and an additional void ray) I dropped a Hydra den.
I managed to catch his air in a fungal and killed them.
His DTs caught me incredibly offguard and he managed to take my 3rd down since it had low heath.
I fungaled every DT and killed them.
Then I went for a ling/hydra/infestor push with 5 infestors 8-12ish Hydras and speedlings (with+2 at this point I believe)
He had a handful of gateway units and 1 archon at his base since I killed all of his harassing units.
Either way I could not see this style of play doing well against infestor play and standard play is leaning towards infestors at the moment.
Phoenix do not snipe Overseers very quickly and the combination of infestors and hydralisks shut it down terribly.
Even though I was caught offguard by his DTs all I had to do was A move, any infestor micro was unnecessary I can't see this working at a high level. You shouldn't be able to fungal a bunch of clumped DTs. If used properly, DTs are spread out individually, not all holding hands.
Before I had to stop playing, I too started to work some sort of bisu-esque build out. Air + DT does work really well, because it allows you to get all of your tech out and infrastructure up due to the amount of time it buys you. It doesn't work on every map, and you need some distance, because the only thing that gives it trouble is the same thing that gave it trouble in broodwar: Super mega hydra bust all-in (and of course, if they are doing some insane 19 drone 8roach/ling all-in just spam cannons and make sentries). If you are active enough with your air units, you will be able to see a hydra bust coming.
Infestors really aren't a problem, because you can beat an infestor with micro (like the OP said, this is a very micro-intensive playstyle that requires a lot of multitask). Infestors are also not an aggressive attack/harass unit against protoss in the early and mid game, but rather defensive 'omg I need to stay alive right now' units. That's great! You don't want zerg to be making things like lots of speed roaches to come kill you. By the time zerg has his 74 drones and is starting to make units, we are starting to kill his drones. With good micro/multitask, you CAN kill drones off, and bring the count to about even. Now that your economies are relatively even, you have full tech and the same economy, with them likely pumping a lair tech army. That sounds like a scary pvz scenario for zerg.
DT follow-up to your air opener retains your map control long enough to keep zerg from comfortably being on his 3 bases (impossible to get a 4th if done right), much less moving out for an attack. Once you have all of your tech out ready to make your 2 base push, you can take your 3rd, just like in broodwar. Keep all of your harass units active and busy on their side of the map to keep them there. Try not to lose phoenixes! They are not Japanese kamakazi pilots! Retain your phoenix count as best you can. It takes a lot of concentration and multitask, but they are very powerful units. The difference between a normal corsair and a Bisu corsair, is that Bisu's are always moving around doing something, and he doesn't let them get killed, albeit much harder in BW with scourge hovering around.
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On June 27 2011 09:19 ZeromuS wrote:digging up an old thread by xDaunt wherein he outlines a PvZ opening that goes into pheonix DT style play but with more of a long term goal and more well thought out. Though the metagame was SUPER different at the time where rushing to mutalisks was very very popular. Z would go 2 base mutas into harass and then sometimes double expand behind it and drone thanks to the map control they had. Edit ... Forgot the link it is below http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=149170oh and please please please do not necro it asking xDaunt questions I havent really seen him around (he is in the LoL forum so I assume he focuses on that game now) so read, play with it then make a good post that make necroing the thread legitimate and worthwhile IF you necro it at ALL (which you probably shouldnt unless you are very very good at the game and can make some Serious contributions to the opening) xdaunts build is alot different from this. His is either/or Stargate or TC rather than DT/phoenix at the same time. His was more of an overall game plan.. a complete plan. I used to love using his build but the matchup was totally different at that time... the zergs were worse, corruptors still had mana pool, HTs still had amulet, 4 gate was still giving zergs trouble...
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Canada13378 Posts
On June 27 2011 09:43 Jayrod wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2011 09:19 ZeromuS wrote:digging up an old thread by xDaunt wherein he outlines a PvZ opening that goes into pheonix DT style play but with more of a long term goal and more well thought out. Though the metagame was SUPER different at the time where rushing to mutalisks was very very popular. Z would go 2 base mutas into harass and then sometimes double expand behind it and drone thanks to the map control they had. Edit ... Forgot the link it is below http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=149170oh and please please please do not necro it asking xDaunt questions I havent really seen him around (he is in the LoL forum so I assume he focuses on that game now) so read, play with it then make a good post that make necroing the thread legitimate and worthwhile IF you necro it at ALL (which you probably shouldnt unless you are very very good at the game and can make some Serious contributions to the opening) xdaunts build is alot different from this. His is either/or Stargate or TC rather than DT/phoenix at the same time. His was more of an overall game plan.. a complete plan. I used to love using his build but the matchup was totally different at that time... the zergs were worse, corruptors still had mana pool, HTs still had amulet, 4 gate was still giving zergs trouble...
xDaunts build/plan in the midgame provides phoenix as a way of denying overseers (or forcing many overseers - delaying Z tech) allowing the DTs to shut down scouting and denying bases where spores arent up (no creep spread). So eventually you do have pheonix and DT working together as well as more viable transitions. Sure corruptors have no mana now but if you transition into blink stalker/HT/Archon you wont really need air units so who cares about corruptors really
So while I know it is different the same kind of end goal is similar. Using Pheonix to help remove the overseer so that DTs could do more damage. I just feel that this is a safer and better way of achieving three related goals
1) map control in the early mid game 2) Getting DTs while being able to defend early attacks 3) being able to deny the Zerg any ability to detect DTs away from their base UNTIL they get Hydras to kill the pheonix allowing the overseers to survive
So in a sense I feel taking some lessons from the older xDaunt build and looking at the ideas in this thread can help us make a build that is viable right now. Personally Im having fun with the Forge FE into blink stalker/DT that HuK uses and that Day 9 talked about in a daily. I've been using it a bit and getting decent results as of now and that is with poor execution and at diamond level
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edit: woops wrong thread sorry
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On June 26 2011 23:55 Sweetness.751 wrote: I encourage people to watch the replays before saying it is a fail. Yes I agree the theory is not new, as Bisu had invented it long ago. However in SC2 I have yet to see a pro try and attempt something similar in a tournament setting, so in that sense one can say it is new.
As for the early push doing damage, yes it can be blindly countered, just like every strategy and build created. However you have the option of pulling back and not attacking just to force the Zerg to make units.
I mentioned in the thread the opening is irrelevant, as long as whatever you do gets you to the final goal. I choose 2gate expand because I believe that having a mobile army as opposed to cannons is much preferred in my eyes.
I believe i've seen incontroll do this once.
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Wow; this seems like a really interesting build to try on ladder, seems really unorthadox and would take alot of zergs offguard. Especially on a friend who insists on going muta/ling against me it should work quite well.
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If I remember right there already was a thread about this. Long time ago tho.
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I'm glad after the initial flaming, that people are starting to consider this a real possibility and not so much of a gimmick. The xDaunt thread is helpful that Zeromus linked to at the top of the page. If you are at all curious as to another few pages on the theory behind the style you can check his thread out as well. He also has replays that can further document the effectiveness to this build.
Think of Terran when they get a Raven go mass cloaked banshees then 1-2 vikings to snipe your obs. People say its gimmicky, yet its almost impossible to save your observer. The only real way to counter it is to get several observers which is a huge gas sink, just like overseers. Thus delaing everything else you are doing.
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On June 27 2011 09:03 lucasesper wrote: Thank you for the guide.
What are the advantages of using Stargate tech over blink stalkers to hunt overseers and complement the DT harras?
I think blink stalkers can only harass efectively a bit later than air tech, and it is harder to kill overseers, but blink feels like a safer follow-up strategy as you are alligned to upgrades and not so vulnerable to a 2-base hydra/ling bust.
Stargate tech is more mobile in my opinion. They can hunt overlords that are over cliffs and hovering above groundless areas of the map. Also phoenix are faster than Mutas and are a good deterrent to Zerg's getting Mutas. Phoenix can scout much better than blink stalkers and can only be targeted by a handful of units (ie. Hydras, Corruptors, Mutas, Queens) thus means they can assist the DTs behind enemy lines without risking their own lives.
Though people wont admit it. Blink Stalkers are are very expensive. You wont be able to support more than 3-4 gates worth of blink Stalkers on 2 bases and still get DT's into the fray. However with 1 early Stargate, 100 gas for a Phoenix every 35ish seconds (depending on chrono), does not nearly deplete your gas reserves. And again what is the Zerg going to do when he sees your Phoenix harass? Send his slow Hydras off creep to save his new expansion? Or how about those corruptors that are slower and supposedly counter the Phoenix? Have you actually seen a Corruptor fight a Phoenix? Its an even trade, and you can run at any time.
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On June 27 2011 08:49 OminouS wrote: DT + Phoenix cost gas.
Zealots (the money sink) is useless against Z. In BW you could follow up with some speed +1 lots and then add HT. You need another building for the HT's aswell in SC2. I've tried variations of this build a lot in SC2, never really gotten it to work. I would love to be proven wrong though. And what exactly is wrong with +1 chargelots, exactly? Why is it "bad" in SC2? Void rays + air control makes the 'standard response' to mass gateway (roach/hydra, which are roughly equivalent but have range instead of charge, but do LESS dps) cause the zerg to cede map control. Holding map control with hydras against enemy air? What? I think a lot of protosses would happily fight a heavy roach hydra composition with whatever tech - (ideally zealot templar with DT/archon/stargate support, in this case.)
Is it that scary to not go robo these days? Is templar tech really that bad? Look at how bad hydras fare against storm, it's even more one-sided than hydra comps vs colossi! And it seems very costly - though it CAN pay off - for the zerg to wrestle air control back from the pack of phoenix.
I think the biggest kink in this strategy, especially compared to brood war, is a timing issue of getting your templar archives + storm in time for the zerg's midgame push. If you don't have a good number of storms, he'll walk all over you with mass hydra-roach. If you have enough storm for the hydras and can feedback/phoenix-snipe overseers, your Void Rays and DTs can respectively make it much easier to fight cost-effectively against the larger zerg army.
In fact, this is basically the same issue that caused corsair-DT to fall into relative disuse - it became very vulnerable to a 5 hatch hydra early mass-unit timing bust. I don't know the timings offhand, but I think this will translate to SC2 as well, but the timing window is even bigger, because you need an extra minute and 200 more gas to get psi storm tech ready. Also your gas gathering isn't as fast because the opportunity cost of saturating 4 gas so early is a lot more expensive compared to saturating 2 gas in BW.
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I made this post in the simple questions simple answer thread awhile ago about this topic:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=187808¤tpage=118#2345
I believe it still stands. This build can work, but relies too much on surprise, catching the Zerg off guard, and in general the Zerg being thrown off. While this is great at lower levels of play, it's much tougher to pull off at higher levels. Especially now where we see much more early queens and faster creep spread, blind spores/defense at a zerg's 3rd, and more infestor play (infestors will absolutely shut down this strategy hard).
The main issue is that your army is great for harass, but can't do anything to actually kill the Zerg. You rely on delaying the Zerg for a huge amount of time so that you can get a humongous eco and tech advantage. But what if the Zerg defends relatively well? Then you have nothing to kill a roach army backed with some detection and anti-air. Zealots are crap against roaches, you won't have that many colossus/HT in time if at all, and your stalker/sentry count will be low.
Another part of this strategy seems to heavily rely on using the phoenix to kill the overseer. Someone compared this to vikings sniping obs. That's ridiculous. Vikings do a ton more damage, obs are so much weaker, and the biggest factor of all, the range on phoenix is 4 compared to the viking's 9. It actually takes awhile for phoenixes to kill an overseer, and if there are hydras underneath that overseer, you're going to lose half your phoenix. If there's an infestor underneath the overseer, you're going to lose ALL your phoenix. Then if you do manage to snipe the overseer without losing your phoenix, all you're going to do is to make the zerg run back to his base and come back with 2-3+ overseers. Then what are you going to do? Meanwhile your DTs kill at most 2 roaches and a hydra because DTs are slow and roaches have high HP.
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On June 27 2011 09:40 Gooey wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2011 06:31 Bladeorade wrote: I had someone attempt to do this to me the other day. I'll see if I can find the replay.
It appeared as though they were going a stargate exand, and he went to deny my 3rd with void ray/phoenix but I had enough queens to drive them away.
My normal ZvP is ling/infestor so my infestor tech was on the way. When he revealed exactly how many phoenix he had (and an additional void ray) I dropped a Hydra den.
I managed to catch his air in a fungal and killed them.
His DTs caught me incredibly offguard and he managed to take my 3rd down since it had low heath.
I fungaled every DT and killed them.
Then I went for a ling/hydra/infestor push with 5 infestors 8-12ish Hydras and speedlings (with+2 at this point I believe)
He had a handful of gateway units and 1 archon at his base since I killed all of his harassing units.
Either way I could not see this style of play doing well against infestor play and standard play is leaning towards infestors at the moment.
Phoenix do not snipe Overseers very quickly and the combination of infestors and hydralisks shut it down terribly.
Even though I was caught offguard by his DTs all I had to do was A move, any infestor micro was unnecessary I can't see this working at a high level. You shouldn't be able to fungal a bunch of clumped DTs. If used properly, DTs are spread out individually, not all holding hands.Before I had to stop playing, I too started to work some sort of bisu-esque build out. Air + DT does work really well, because it allows you to get all of your tech out and infrastructure up due to the amount of time it buys you. It doesn't work on every map, and you need some distance, because the only thing that gives it trouble is the same thing that gave it trouble in broodwar: Super mega hydra bust all-in (and of course, if they are doing some insane 19 drone 8roach/ling all-in just spam cannons and make sentries). If you are active enough with your air units, you will be able to see a hydra bust coming. Infestors really aren't a problem, because you can beat an infestor with micro (like the OP said, this is a very micro-intensive playstyle that requires a lot of multitask). Infestors are also not an aggressive attack/harass unit against protoss in the early and mid game, but rather defensive 'omg I need to stay alive right now' units. That's great! You don't want zerg to be making things like lots of speed roaches to come kill you. By the time zerg has his 74 drones and is starting to make units, we are starting to kill his drones. With good micro/multitask, you CAN kill drones off, and bring the count to about even. Now that your economies are relatively even, you have full tech and the same economy, with them likely pumping a lair tech army. That sounds like a scary pvz scenario for zerg. DT follow-up to your air opener retains your map control long enough to keep zerg from comfortably being on his 3 bases (impossible to get a 4th if done right), much less moving out for an attack. Once you have all of your tech out ready to make your 2 base push, you can take your 3rd, just like in broodwar. Keep all of your harass units active and busy on their side of the map to keep them there. Try not to lose phoenixes! They are not Japanese kamakazi pilots! Retain your phoenix count as best you can. It takes a lot of concentration and multitask, but they are very powerful units. The difference between a normal corsair and a Bisu corsair, is that Bisu's are always moving around doing something, and he doesn't let them get killed, albeit much harder in BW with scourge hovering around. Sorry I wasn't clear, he had 5 DTs, I had 5 infestors. I got 2 in one fungal, 2 in another (not holding hands just barely close enough to get hit together) and 1 alone.
He focused down my hatchery and then spread them to run away but I caught them in fungals and surrounded with speedlings.
How you can claim infestors aren't a problem is beyond me, they detect and prevent phoenix harass and also destroy armored units. They are not only a defensive unit, I am very active with my infestors and if you couple hydras and lings with them the only thing that stands a chance is either mass colossus (so many that NP is ineffective) or high templar.
Neither of which are possible to have out in time for a push like I am saying. At best you could have a handful of high templar without storm and 1 Colossus since you are going stargate -> twilight. I think even having 1 would be iffy.
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saying infestors counter this doesnt apply since currently they counter every single protoss composition. however ling/bling does ruin this build and thats one of the most commomn strats vs. p currently.
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Fungal > DT and Phoenix
Don't need overseers to see DTs when I got fungal.
2base Roach/Hydra push > DT/Phoenix harass.
I'm not sure how you'd survive early/mid game...
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On June 28 2011 04:02 johngalt90 wrote: saying infestors counter this doesnt apply since currently they counter every single protoss composition. however ling/bling does ruin this build and thats one of the most commomn strats vs. p currently. Oh so because infestors are good it doesn't apply?
Makes sense.
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I used this style back in September. Much has changed and the hardest part about this build is dealing with hydra timings.
if you want to watch this style in action heres a game i played back in september on a smurf. my biggest problem with this style was as I said hydra timings, so templar are the natural choice due to lack of early robo. I usually would open and transition into surprise double robo colo after a pheonix/dt/gateway comp. Might be good with archons now. I kind of abandoned the style with the roach range buff. I do think it would transition quite nicely into a zealot/archon mix in the lategame. + Show Spoiler +http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/74825-1v1-protoss-zerg-xelnaga-caverns
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I think this strategy could do great on big map but not like this, FE canon and chronoboost probe, making stargate at a very good spot where he cant find and chronoboost voidray then pheonix and then throw tech to dt, when u warp the first 3 dts, u had 3 gate, go on with pheonix (except if infestor) and go blink stalker of 6 gate, zerg will be to busy making spore crawler,queen and hydra. ideally having 12 phoenix and taking up hydraswith a great harass, as well taking expand when harassinf dt is really great, because almost always opponent when pull back when dts are out to protect his eco.
main problem of this start is that phoenix make zerg make -> spore crawler > dts. For sure its 100% loose if your opponent knows ur strat but if you catch them off guard it can stress them and make them mistake, but also its very hard to pull out because it requires to micro ur macro ur pheonix and each dark templars,,, also as many said, very weak to roach ling all in...
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