Preface
Hello and welcome to my guide on how to effectively play Skytoss in HotS! I’ve been attempting many variants of this over the past week and so far this is what I’ve come across to be the most safe, well transitioned build. I figure because I’ve been doing quite well with it on HotS ladder I’d share it with everyone, and hopefully you can see the strengths Protoss have at the moment in HotS. I also do have a unique PvP build I’ve been working on as many on HotS who know me may have seen; however, I feel that build is not solid enough to warrant a guide just yet, though I may if enough people have an interest. I included a single replay on the build in the replay pack attached at the end.
Introduction
So without further delay lets go ahead and start with the basic “goals” of the build. This build is not exclusively Skytoss. That is to say, your road to getting the ultimate Protoss air army does not include only making air units the whole game. To be safe against good Zerg timings you’ll need a few transitions before entering the realm of air in a safe manner. Similarly, massing exclusively air does have its down sides and because of this we’ll be focusing on a combination of units and upgrades that allow us to have an incredibly strong army while abusing the mobility Protoss has in other ways such as Speed Zealots and Warp Prisms to buy us time for this army. To make this a little more clear I will outline the “Phases” of a standard PvZ game with this build and what you will be looking to accomplish, this will also serve as an index if you’d like to search for a particular phase that is giving you trouble.
Phase 1: Standard 15 Nexus Build into 4 Pheonix opener
Phase 2: Transitioning into Void Ray + Zealot
Phase 3: Adding the transition into Colossus
Phase 4: Adding the transition into speed zealots + Fleet Beacon + 3 additional Stargates + 4th Base
Phase 5: Starting Tempest/Carrier production + Warp Prisms (a lot of them!)
Phase 6: Harassment, army positioning, High Templar, MORE CANNONS!
Phase 7: ?? win
Phase 2: Transitioning into Void Ray + Zealot
Phase 3: Adding the transition into Colossus
Phase 4: Adding the transition into speed zealots + Fleet Beacon + 3 additional Stargates + 4th Base
Phase 5: Starting Tempest/Carrier production + Warp Prisms (a lot of them!)
Phase 6: Harassment, army positioning, High Templar, MORE CANNONS!
Phase 7: ?? win
The Opening Build Order
I’d like to note here that after a certain point in the game you should be adding your tech structures, upgrades, production and so forth when certain flags are set. For example: You are harassing with your phoenix and scout a hydralisk den. You know you don’t need many more void rays by this point. Therefore; work on your ground army. Because of this reactiveness in the build certain late game food references will not work very well. I will simply be giving you an idea of when you should be adding things and go more in depth with pictures in the Phase part of the text.
Build below:
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9 Pylon – + Show Spoiler +
Depending on the map your pylon placement does matter. Close position 2 player maps I’d encourage an in base first pylon in case of 6 pool. I personally scout 9 usually to check if they make 3 sets of lings and also assure myself a scout on their 3rd base. You need to check this between 4-5min.
15 Nexus
15 forge
15 pylon
17 cannon * + Show Spoiler +
cannon or gate first depending on how large the map is. Cannon first = more safe vs 4 ling run by
17 gateway
18 double gas
25 Core – stalker+warpgate on completion
28 Pylon * THIS PLACEMENT PYLON IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT: Hide this pylon in a location a double overlord scout will not see!
36 Stargate
38 double gas
40 Double Pylon on base perimeter to see overlords + 2x sentry
48 Start adding your Pheonix up until 4. With first phoenix start +1ground upgrade - + Show Spoiler +
(It should be about 7:20 in game by now and because you’ve done nothing you should be seeing a double overlord scout by now. Because of your vision and stargate placement you’ll be able to kill 2 free overlords while the zerg scouts absolutely nothing.)
~50 * Following first phoenix you want to add 3 gates IN VISION of the zerg scouting overlords
From here everything will be “goal oriented” so you don’t stick to Food for the whole game. This helps you understand what you’re doing a lot more, and doesn’t make you freak out when you’re off by a few food later.
- Once you can start warping in units you want to add all zealots, and at max, 3 extra sentry. At this time your 4 pheonix should just about be finished so add your mothership core when you have the gas. It will be important for defending on maps such as daybreak.
- Once your 4 pheonix have finished being made you want to fly out of watch tower vision range as well as normal placement for zerg overlords straight to their queens. Your goal with these is not serious damage, just 2 queen kills to buy yourself time. Try to keep them alive as best you can as you want to be scouting hive tech timing and you can even leave one at the Z 5th later so you know when to harass. Also, as you move out with phoenix IMMEDITELY start void ray production and a robotics. You’ll be aiming to get about 4-6 voidrays depending on when you scout their hydras.
- By the time your first void ray has finished you should have finished killing the rocks for your 3rd on a map such as Akilon Wastes. Expand right after these are killed and destroy the collapsible rocks. If you’re playing on a map such as daybreak after your first warp in of zealots send one to take control over tower and take your army to your 3rd and wall around your nexus. Again, you only want zealots at this point. Your next warp in will be half at 3rd and half at natural choke to stop ling runbys. Once that is secure simply work on establishing your 3rd defenses by adding 3 gates and cannons. Get the gas running immediately once your 3rd is up.
- If you see hydralisks by this time you need to constantly warp rounds of zealots. Otherwise, you don’t need many – This will lead to floating a bit of minerals; however, it’s completely okay. You should be fine with the Nexus cannon and voidray production.
- Once your robotics finishes add 2 observers to queue to be spotters on the zerg army movement as well as a Robotics Bay. You’ll have a little extra gas due to the fact you’re only making VR and Zealots, but that’s okay! You’ll use it soon.
- Colossus range + Colossus once they’ve finished being constructed. Your goal is 4 Colossus. You should roughly have 3 Void Ray by this time. I recommend going to 6 void ray unless they went straight corruptor; in such a scenario continue VR production into the next steps. At about 4 VR Start mass zealot production from your 6 gate You’ll need zealots for securing your 4th so just dump your minerals now. Start +2 ground weapon and +1 air weapon – From this point on you will be doing ground weapons and air weapons until +3 At which time you’ll get GROUND SHIELDS and Air armor.
- Once you have your voidray production finished(~6) you’ll add a twilight council as well as a fleet beacon. And this is when the very important transitions start. You need to cannon essentially the whole front entrance to your 4th, start speed lot upgrade, and add 3 stargates all while securing your 4th. This is a lot all at once, but it times out very well for the Z timing attacks. If you have the gas add your warp prism speed now. We’ll be using them very soon. You should be at roughly 150 supply by now with your colossus, void ray, zealot army. Once you start the cannons at 4th base you no longer need more zealots unless an attack is incoming.
- If the zerg is going for a hydra/roach exclusive timing you need only VR zealots and colossus, I advise 2 tempests at most in this case as they’ll be transitioning into full corruptor soon. If they’re going for infestor hydra roach when your fleet beacon is finish add ~5 tempests as they do great work vs weak units with zealots in the front.
- As you’re securing your 4th you should be at about 3 colossus, I recommend a 4th if they have a ground army but if you’re in no danger you can stop making them and go straight into warp prisms from here. You want at least 1 active warp prism on the map, though I strongly advise 2; and practically non-stop production of them from here on out. Similarly, proxy pylons are great. This is very micro intensive because you’re teching so hard, harassing, and macroing – but you NEED to do damage(stop a zerg from getting a 5th) to buy time for the next step
- Start harassing with speed zealots/warp prism and go into your carrier production now. If they’re constantly trying to trade with you units are a priority. If you’re left alone however you can add Templar archives at this point because you are not in danger and you’re the one about to get aggressive!
- As you’re nearing max(180/200) you want to just start running the zealots you produced earlier straight to the zergs 5th base while warp prism harassing their main. Always keep ~20 food free for harassment. Add gates with your extra minerals as there is huge time between each carrier production cycle. Keep making zealots and harassing huehuehue. Likewise, use your army to clear creep when you see them come back to their main giving them less and less map presence.
- While doing this you’re going to want to expand your ultra super awesome cannon wall to your 5th base and prepare to take that. While clearing your useless supply up add Templar back at your cannon wall to start accumulating energy.
- Your goal is to have 3-4 colossus ~5 VR ~6 templar 2-3tempests(usually no need they sux)and the rest carriers. If you see mass mass corruptor only get get more VR and archons as well. They’re pretty good.
- From this point it’s just choking the zerg out. Essentially, a reversed play of ZvP in WoL. The more bases you get after your 4th slowly add more stargates in case you trade in a big fight. Just remax on the same stuff above while continuing your harassment.
Chronoboosts
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I won't go too much into detail as you can just see in the replays for yourself. However, you should be using all chrono boost on probes after your expo finishes until stargate is done. At which point all is then spent on pheonix.
From there you will only spend chronoboost on Void Ray -> Colossus Production -> Upgrades -> Warp Prisms -> Carriers/final air stuff
From there you will only spend chronoboost on Void Ray -> Colossus Production -> Upgrades -> Warp Prisms -> Carriers/final air stuff
Phase 1
super badass pictures to go along with the build order and goal orientation above - click them twice to get full screen images! :D
Phase 2:
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Phase 3:
Phase 4:
Phase 5:
Phase 6:
Phase 7:
Daybreak Version:
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Hopefully this serves as a general guideline for how to safely tech to Sky Toss in HotS. If anyone finds the guide to be too cluttered in some spots or wants to modify anything feel free to send me a PM or something. I may update this with more replays at a later date depending how much I'm able to play since I start school on Monday.
Here are some replays of how the build can pan out in different situations, and hopefully can be used as a good demonstration regardless of your league:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gsg3cj75b9m9kmp
I also included one replay of the PvP 11gate build I am working on.
If you'd like to watch me doing these builds, VoDs or anything else you can find my stream page & twitter here:
http://www.twitch.tv/kyo7763
https://twitter.com/Kyo7763