I would like to nominate 4kmonk! His posts are great even for Masters player. Here are his awesome guides:
+ Show Spoiler +PvP: MC defensive 3 gate: + Show Spoiler +On July 22 2011 14:56 4kmonk wrote:Hello, this is NrGmonk and today I will be teaching you a defensive 3 gate build. This is yet another viable defensive PvP build that hold a 4 gate. oGsMC, widely considered the world's best protoss as of the writing of this guide, uses it almost exclusively as his macro PvP build. Be warned though that this is a very advanced build and has a high difficulty of execution. After 15 games, my success rate was 33% while after 30 games it was only 75%. I was making both execution mistakes and not accounting for every little thing that could go wrong. Again, this build is not for a casual player, as the timings are razor thin and any one small mistake will cost you the game. However, with the help of this guide you should do better than I did, as not only will I teach you the build order, I will go through it and mention exactly what you should be paying attention to at each point in time. When to do this build:+ Show Spoiler +This build is an all purpose build for when you think your opponent could be 4 gating you. Do not use it if he's mined too much gas or used too many chornoboosts on his probes. Build order:+ Show Spoiler +9 pylon *chronoboost probes 12 gate *cb probes 14 gas, mine gas immediately after 15 plyon 16 cyber 17 or 18 zealot 21 stalker 21 warpgates *cb x 4 on warpgates cut probes at 24 supply or 20 probes ----- Before this point, this is the normal protoss opening
24 or 25 pylon in back of base 24 or 25 gas, mine gas immediately after 24 or 25 probe 24 or 25 stalker 27 probe 28 gateway 28 gateway resume probe production 30 sentry *cb sentry at 5:13 32 pylon 34 sentry 36 stalker 38 stalker -----
Notes: -You can abandon this build midway at any time during it when you make a read that your opponent is not 4 gating. This can be your opponent not being aggressive -If your opponent gas steals you, attack the gas and continue with the build. -You can make a slight alteration of the build by either delaying or not delaying your 3rd plyon. Delaying your 3rd pylon sells more to your opponent that you're 4 gating while not delaying the 3rd pylon allows you to get 1 more probe out in the long run. Keep in mind that if your opponent's scouting probe leaves your base extremely early, you don't have to make this choice. Important timings:+ Show Spoiler +For future references, these are the important timings of this build versus the standard 4 gate. These timings are also useful for someone trying to immitate the build.
4:20 Your first stalker comes out 5:00 Your second stalker comes out 5:30 Your first sentry comes out 5:40 Your second sentry starts warping in 5:45 Your second sentry warps in 5:45 First wave of your opponet's 4 stalkers warp in 5:55 Second and third gateways finish 6:05 Your 3rd and 4th stalker start warping in 6:10 Your 3rd and 4th stalker warp in 6:12 First wave of your opponent's 4 zealots warp in
Pylon build time: 25 seconds Train of thought during this build:+ Show Spoiler +4:20-4:50 Chase the enemy scouting probe and scout the inital vicinity of your base for pylons.
4:50-5:10 Be careful during this moment as there is a timing where you only have 1 zealot and 1 stalker and your opponent can possibly have 1 zealot 1 stalker and a probe at your ramp to build proxy pylons. Take a stance slightly in front of your ramp and immidately target any probes that try to approach your ramp.
5:00-5:50 During this time frame you have 1 zealot and 2 stalkers, which gives you map control on your side of the map. At 5:45 your opponent's first wave of units warp in and it will take about 5-10 seconds to get to your base, at which point you lose map control. Use this map control to aggressively scout your side of the map for units and pylons. However, do not leave your ramp vulnerable to any enemy probes. A probe building a pylon at your ramp or in your base before 5:20 is usually gg as he will be able to warp his first wave of units in your base. Thus on some maps such as xelnaga caverns where there are multiple paths to your base, you have to play slightly more defensive whereas on a map like shattered temple or shakrus plataeu, you can have your units more forward. Your goal at this stage is to delay the proxy pylon at your ramp as much as possible. His first wave of zealots warp in at 6:12 at the earliest and pylons take 25 seconds to build. Thus, any one second the proxy pylon at the ramp is delayed past 5:47 means that the first warpin is delayed by that many seconds. However, if you cannot delay this proxy pylon, it's not the end of the world. Do not chase your opponent's units. Chasing them may let you get a free zealot, but you risk the chance of your army getting cut in half or your opponent throwing down proxy pylons at your ramp, both of which are not worth the zealot.
5:50-6:12 This is this part where we actually try to defend the 4 gate. The first part is keeping your marco up. As soon as you confirm a 4 gate, build a 4th gate, cut probes, and remember to build units as soon as you can and pylons as soon as you need them. You actually don't need th 4th gate, but it's a nice safety precaution. Plus, your booming economy should be able to support 4 gates. Next, initally position your army so that your stalkers can hit his proxy pylons and get free hits on any units that attempt to run up the ramp.
The next part is extremely important: Do not get trigger happy with force field. Many people spam forcefield on their ramp and die when they've made too many sentries and they've run out of forcefields. Between 5:50 and 6:12, your opponent will only have 6 stalkers and 1 zealot, nothing more, probably nothing less. If your opponent does not try to run up your ramp, do not forcefield the ramp. If he does, idealy you want to forcefield 2 units above your ramp and micro back so that the enemy stalkers on low ground can't hit you. Forcefielding 3 units in is a bit dangerous and forcefielding 4 units in will probably lose you the game. This is one of the difficulties in executing this build: perfect forcefields.
6:12-~6:30 Your opponent will try to warp in his first wave of zealots at 6:12 or when his proxy pylon at your ramp finishes, whichever one comes second. Forcefield the ramp as soon as you see any warpins or a unit try to run up your ramp. Alternatively, forcefield your ramp at 6:12 or when his proxy pylon at your ramp finishes. The logic behind this is that you either force him to warp above the forcefield and get bludgeoned by stalker fire or you force him to warp on low ground.
6:30 onwards From this point, just keep forcefielding during warpins or if units try to run up the ramp. Keep making stalkers unless you see you won't have a forcefield coming up and in that case make a sentry. If executed correctly, this build should not have to build anymore than 3 sentries. If you feel safe, resume probe production and add a tech building. Blink is generally the best transition since you've made so many stalkers but robo can work as well if you're deathly affraid of dts. Common mistakes:+ Show Spoiler +Overextending your first 3 units and losing them Venturing too far from your ramp and letting proxy pylons get thrown down Bad decision making on forcefields Missed forced fields Not morphing warpgates and warping in units in time Not being aggressive enough with first 3 units Bad army positioning during the 4 gate attack Advantages and disadvantage over other defensive PvP builds:+ Show Spoiler +Currently the other popular defensive PvP builds include the following: Defensive 4 gate Quick 2nd gas into 3 stalker rush IMYounghwa 3 stalker roboOther 3 stalker rush builds Geiko's defensive 3 gate1 gas 2 gate robo openingAdvantanges: Looks exactly like a 4 gate, so it will force a macro player to play more defensively if he wants to be safe. Many more probes than other builds: can go up to 26 at 6:00 Does not include a walloff in the build. Does not depend as much on denying a proxy pylon. Gets a 2nd gas and a fairly fast one. Does not care as much if your gas gets stolen. Does not lock you into a specific tech tree, ie blink. Disadvantages: Requires 2 sentries whereas other builds do not. You may have to build that 2nd sentry if for some reason you're not 100% sure he's 4 gating. Doesn't get as much gas as some other safe builds. Very difficult build to pull off and not forgiving for mistakes. Example replays and vods:+ Show Spoiler +FAQs:+ Show Spoiler +Does this build work on talderim altar? No.
How does this build do vs Adelscott's no gas 2 gate build? This question is irrelavent as you scout adelscott's build way before commiting to this build.
I tried this build and it failed. What did I do wrong? Post the replay and I'll tell you.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. Grammar/spelling/formatting corrections are also welcome. Also, if you liked this guide, be sure to check out my PvP Robo twilight guide. NrGmonk.151 PvP: Robo twilight style + Show Spoiler +On July 22 2011 14:56 4kmonk wrote:Hello, this is NrGmonk and today I will be teaching you a defensive 3 gate build. This is yet another viable defensive PvP build that hold a 4 gate. oGsMC, widely considered the world's best protoss as of the writing of this guide, uses it almost exclusively as his macro PvP build. Be warned though that this is a very advanced build and has a high difficulty of execution. After 15 games, my success rate was 33% while after 30 games it was only 75%. I was making both execution mistakes and not accounting for every little thing that could go wrong. Again, this build is not for a casual player, as the timings are razor thin and any one small mistake will cost you the game. However, with the help of this guide you should do better than I did, as not only will I teach you the build order, I will go through it and mention exactly what you should be paying attention to at each point in time. When to do this build:+ Show Spoiler +This build is an all purpose build for when you think your opponent could be 4 gating you. Do not use it if he's mined too much gas or used too many chornoboosts on his probes. Build order:+ Show Spoiler +9 pylon *chronoboost probes 12 gate *cb probes 14 gas, mine gas immediately after 15 plyon 16 cyber 17 or 18 zealot 21 stalker 21 warpgates *cb x 4 on warpgates cut probes at 24 supply or 20 probes ----- Before this point, this is the normal protoss opening
24 or 25 pylon in back of base 24 or 25 gas, mine gas immediately after 24 or 25 probe 24 or 25 stalker 27 probe 28 gateway 28 gateway resume probe production 30 sentry *cb sentry at 5:13 32 pylon 34 sentry 36 stalker 38 stalker -----
Notes: -You can abandon this build midway at any time during it when you make a read that your opponent is not 4 gating. This can be your opponent not being aggressive -If your opponent gas steals you, attack the gas and continue with the build. -You can make a slight alteration of the build by either delaying or not delaying your 3rd plyon. Delaying your 3rd pylon sells more to your opponent that you're 4 gating while not delaying the 3rd pylon allows you to get 1 more probe out in the long run. Keep in mind that if your opponent's scouting probe leaves your base extremely early, you don't have to make this choice. Important timings:+ Show Spoiler +For future references, these are the important timings of this build versus the standard 4 gate. These timings are also useful for someone trying to immitate the build.
4:20 Your first stalker comes out 5:00 Your second stalker comes out 5:30 Your first sentry comes out 5:40 Your second sentry starts warping in 5:45 Your second sentry warps in 5:45 First wave of your opponet's 4 stalkers warp in 5:55 Second and third gateways finish 6:05 Your 3rd and 4th stalker start warping in 6:10 Your 3rd and 4th stalker warp in 6:12 First wave of your opponent's 4 zealots warp in
Pylon build time: 25 seconds Train of thought during this build:+ Show Spoiler +4:20-4:50 Chase the enemy scouting probe and scout the inital vicinity of your base for pylons.
4:50-5:10 Be careful during this moment as there is a timing where you only have 1 zealot and 1 stalker and your opponent can possibly have 1 zealot 1 stalker and a probe at your ramp to build proxy pylons. Take a stance slightly in front of your ramp and immidately target any probes that try to approach your ramp.
5:00-5:50 During this time frame you have 1 zealot and 2 stalkers, which gives you map control on your side of the map. At 5:45 your opponent's first wave of units warp in and it will take about 5-10 seconds to get to your base, at which point you lose map control. Use this map control to aggressively scout your side of the map for units and pylons. However, do not leave your ramp vulnerable to any enemy probes. A probe building a pylon at your ramp or in your base before 5:20 is usually gg as he will be able to warp his first wave of units in your base. Thus on some maps such as xelnaga caverns where there are multiple paths to your base, you have to play slightly more defensive whereas on a map like shattered temple or shakrus plataeu, you can have your units more forward. Your goal at this stage is to delay the proxy pylon at your ramp as much as possible. His first wave of zealots warp in at 6:12 at the earliest and pylons take 25 seconds to build. Thus, any one second the proxy pylon at the ramp is delayed past 5:47 means that the first warpin is delayed by that many seconds. However, if you cannot delay this proxy pylon, it's not the end of the world. Do not chase your opponent's units. Chasing them may let you get a free zealot, but you risk the chance of your army getting cut in half or your opponent throwing down proxy pylons at your ramp, both of which are not worth the zealot.
5:50-6:12 This is this part where we actually try to defend the 4 gate. The first part is keeping your marco up. As soon as you confirm a 4 gate, build a 4th gate, cut probes, and remember to build units as soon as you can and pylons as soon as you need them. You actually don't need th 4th gate, but it's a nice safety precaution. Plus, your booming economy should be able to support 4 gates. Next, initally position your army so that your stalkers can hit his proxy pylons and get free hits on any units that attempt to run up the ramp.
The next part is extremely important: Do not get trigger happy with force field. Many people spam forcefield on their ramp and die when they've made too many sentries and they've run out of forcefields. Between 5:50 and 6:12, your opponent will only have 6 stalkers and 1 zealot, nothing more, probably nothing less. If your opponent does not try to run up your ramp, do not forcefield the ramp. If he does, idealy you want to forcefield 2 units above your ramp and micro back so that the enemy stalkers on low ground can't hit you. Forcefielding 3 units in is a bit dangerous and forcefielding 4 units in will probably lose you the game. This is one of the difficulties in executing this build: perfect forcefields.
6:12-~6:30 Your opponent will try to warp in his first wave of zealots at 6:12 or when his proxy pylon at your ramp finishes, whichever one comes second. Forcefield the ramp as soon as you see any warpins or a unit try to run up your ramp. Alternatively, forcefield your ramp at 6:12 or when his proxy pylon at your ramp finishes. The logic behind this is that you either force him to warp above the forcefield and get bludgeoned by stalker fire or you force him to warp on low ground.
6:30 onwards From this point, just keep forcefielding during warpins or if units try to run up the ramp. Keep making stalkers unless you see you won't have a forcefield coming up and in that case make a sentry. If executed correctly, this build should not have to build anymore than 3 sentries. If you feel safe, resume probe production and add a tech building. Blink is generally the best transition since you've made so many stalkers but robo can work as well if you're deathly affraid of dts. Common mistakes:+ Show Spoiler +Overextending your first 3 units and losing them Venturing too far from your ramp and letting proxy pylons get thrown down Bad decision making on forcefields Missed forced fields Not morphing warpgates and warping in units in time Not being aggressive enough with first 3 units Bad army positioning during the 4 gate attack Advantages and disadvantage over other defensive PvP builds:+ Show Spoiler +Currently the other popular defensive PvP builds include the following: Defensive 4 gate Quick 2nd gas into 3 stalker rush IMYounghwa 3 stalker roboOther 3 stalker rush builds Geiko's defensive 3 gate1 gas 2 gate robo openingAdvantanges: Looks exactly like a 4 gate, so it will force a macro player to play more defensively if he wants to be safe. Many more probes than other builds: can go up to 26 at 6:00 Does not include a walloff in the build. Does not depend as much on denying a proxy pylon. Gets a 2nd gas and a fairly fast one. Does not care as much if your gas gets stolen. Does not lock you into a specific tech tree, ie blink. Disadvantages: Requires 2 sentries whereas other builds do not. You may have to build that 2nd sentry if for some reason you're not 100% sure he's 4 gating. Doesn't get as much gas as some other safe builds. Very difficult build to pull off and not forgiving for mistakes. Example replays and vods:+ Show Spoiler +FAQs:+ Show Spoiler +Does this build work on talderim altar? No.
How does this build do vs Adelscott's no gas 2 gate build? This question is irrelavent as you scout adelscott's build way before commiting to this build.
I tried this build and it failed. What did I do wrong? Post the replay and I'll tell you.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. Grammar/spelling/formatting corrections are also welcome. Also, if you liked this guide, be sure to check out my PvP Robo twilight guide. NrGmonk.151
Here are some of his posts:
+ Show Spoiler +On August 24 2011 22:34 4kmonk wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2011 21:16 Huntz wrote: I don't know if it's been discussed, but how do you guys deal with drops?
Lately I've been going heavy gateway style (1 gate FE > 2 more gates > forge/twilight > +1armor/charge > 3 more gates > templar (or vice versa depending).
Pre-templar I honestly do nothing about it as I rarely have more than 1 stalker (I just make zealot/sentry). I usually get hallu to scout if I see no gas or a marauder, else a robo for 1 basing. If just hallu I don't really feel comfortable not having my army at the front, should I be OK with this?
After templar I put my warped in templar in my mineral lines or in the path of a drop for feedback on hotkey 3 and then after some random time (haven't really figured this out, when they have more energy) I switch them to hotkey 2 with my army and warp in new templar for drop defense on hotkey 3 again. It's a bit hard to manage though and its tough if double medivac drops come.
Are templar the best option? Or would 4 blink stalkers be preferable?
I guess I can split my army in my mineral lines once I have an obs on his army (he's not attacking), is this a good idea?
What is your opinion on cannons? I usually get them if he's got banshee and like 90% if cloak because having 4 obs (base/base/army/his army) is no fun. Otherwise it randomly depends how annoying his harass is, if im floating, etc. Also the placement? I saw Oz vs. Rain at mlg and oz had his cannons with templar in the path of the drop, I guess to kill the medivac. Is that better positioning than the mineral line?
How many obs should I make? I keep getting caught with my pants down by cloaked ghosts =/ (1 for his army, 1 for his base, 1 for my army, another in the late game?) Often I only make 1. Slow down a bit. You ask a billion questions within the span of a post. You're more likely to get a response if you're not all over the place. I'll address the your main theme of the drop issue. The best way to stop drops is vision. Watch towers, observers and pylons. With vision you can where his army is or where it isn't. You can then optimally position your army to where it needs to be. Watch common drop paths; if you don't see units pass by those paths, you don't need units there. If you see his main army, judge how big it is versus how big it should be. You can then make a guess if there's a drop on the map. Without a robo, you'll have more trouble with vision. An alternative solution in this scenario would be to pressure the terran front so he feels he can't commit to a drop. Unit composition to defend drops actually doesn't matter as much. You can use blink stalkers or chargelots + templar or dts. All can work.
+ Show Spoiler +On August 22 2011 19:01 4kmonk wrote:Show nested quote +On August 22 2011 15:40 MuffinFTW wrote:So, I played another PvP, I thought that I could hold off a 1 Colossi timing attack with phoenix. So basically, I got charge + I think 7 +1 air Phoenixes and still lost. Can anybody tell me what to improve on/how I could win against Colossi without having to go Colossi. I was going to tech to Archons, but I just assumed it wouldn't be out in time... Replay link: http://replayfu.com/r/h4cTH You invested in too much stuff that wasn't units. Twilight + charge + cannon + +1 air attack + 5 extra probes is all unnecessary. With your first poke up his ramp, you see 2 sentries and 2 stalkers. That's enough to rule out dts until you phoenix get to his base to scout. If you want to expand and hold a 1 base allin, cut out all that crap. I count 850 wasted minerals and 400 wasted gas. You'd be much much better off turning those unit zealots and stalkers. None of that stuff kicks in in time for you to hold off the allin. After you scout that he counterexpanded, then you can gradually add all of that stuff. Also, it's a misconception that if you just get phoenix and he just gets collosi that you automatically win. You have to actually do some damage with those phoenix. This can be demonstrated in a recent game between socke and mana from the iem cologne tournament on metal. Socke hides 7 phoenix and tries to allin mana with immortal gateway phoenix vs 3 collosi + and expansion. Socke loses badly. The strength of the phoenix versus the collosi is if you invest so many resources into collosi, you won't have enough gas to make sufficient stalkers to defend the phoenix harrass. For a strategy that stands toe to toe with collosi, check out my profile for the robo twilight strategy, which is by far the most common strategy used in korea atm.
+ Show Spoiler +On August 19 2011 09:24 4kmonk wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2011 08:28 Larias wrote: Tips on holding roach rush after a forge FE please. Do I need a 2nd cannon?
Usually I only try Forge FE on huge maps where everyone does it - taldarim and shakuras. I've recently been trying to FFE on some of the new maps that have small chokes, but I find it difficult to hold off fast roaches. What units should I be making to defend against the roach/ling attack? You should have scouted his main before a pool finishes. If so, check if he has a gas. If he does, hide your probe somewhere and go back into his main at around 4:00. Check his gas again. Are there still drones on it? How much gas has he mined? If he's mined more than 100 gas, then you should suspect a roach or baneling allin. From there on, you need at least 2 well placed cannons. Do not hug your cannons against other buildings. Instead, place them one space behind those buildings so that roaches cannot target them. Chorno out sentries and block any holes into your base with gateways/pylons as he kills your buildings.
He also analyzes a lot of replays (so much lovely advice) in The Protoss Help Me Thread (just look at his profile.)
He's also an active poster.
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