2: Race Specific: ZergA:
IntroductionB:
Openings/CountersC:
Unit ChoiceD:
Late GameIntroduction:Zerg are the nastiest opponents a protoss player can face. They have so many different safe options, and they get very good free scouting at the start, which often adds up to putting toss in the hole right from the start, forced to play catch up the whole game. Luckily, if zerg doesn't put toss in the hole it isn't long before toss is busting out and rolling all over zerg with a hideously powerful army.
Here are some universal truths about the pvz matchup.
1) Upgrade: Upgrades are more important by far against zerg then against either toss or terran. I'll explain more about it in appendix c but suffice to say that whoever is ahead in upgrades has a big advantage, so upgrade early and switch to two or even three forges after you expand to your nat at the latest.
2) Micro: Unlike pvt and pvp which are often micro unintensive games, microing vs zerg is something that you will probably be spending as much as 40% of your time with. Every battle will swing hugely based on micro so it's almost always in your best interest to do so.
3) Scout: In pvt and pvp it's quite easy to keep track of the opponent's armies and power compared to pvz. You have to watch very closely what zerg is up to. Heres why: the amount of power they have is a lot more subtle. While you know toss and terran are always going to be steadily working their way towards saturating their minerals, zerg does not always do that. They can convert their drone production to army production in an instant or vice versa, meaning their power and mass fluctuates wildly compared to the other two races.
All that means that you have to scout zerg much more often and much more carefully, because information you have about them can be obsolete within a matter of seconds. While you can always guess what state a terran or toss is at pretty accurately even a couple of minutes after you last scouted them, there's no way to know where a zerg is at at any given moment because they could have totally switched tracks after you last saw them and headed in a different direction completely.
4) Don't Panic: Whatever happens in a pvz, keep your head. I've had some pretty strange looking comebacks in pvz games because it seemed so sure that I would lose. One thing that many toss players assume is that zerg always has more power because zerg is the 'power race'. Well that's actually not always true. I outmine zerg in probably a little over 50% of the games I have with them. Thing is, zerg often either wildly masses or wildly powers and catches you severely off guard with it. But if you keep your head and play it out, you can often get back on regular footing and even get into a good situation. 2 examples: I was 2 hatch hydra'd by an opponent who hit me before I had speed. I slapped down an extra gateway as he took out my slow zealots and built more. The speed upgrade kicked in just after he wiped out my defenses and I was down to fighting 8 hydras with zealots coming out of 3 gateways 1 at a time. Well I beat back his hydras with zealots coming out 1 at a time with the help of 12 probes (at the loss of only 4 probes, along with a bunch of hydras) Anyways after battling his reinforcements and adding a fourth gateway, here is our situations: I had 4 gateways, 1-0-1, speed upgrade, and about 26 probes. He had 2 hatcheries, about 14 drones, and hydralisk speed and range. Our armies were about equal. Obviously I went on to win the game easily. Many toss players would have left the game when faced with having to fight off hydras with probes, but I knew that if he attacked that soon his power would be very low compared to mine and I could very well be in good shape if I survived, so thats what I did and that's what happened. The second example is a game between Didi8[BG] and a strong zerg wcg player. Anyways at one point the zerg had 5 mining expansions to Didi8's 1. Toss player should leave the game right now? Well Didi8 kept his head and realised the basic fact of the mass/power equation. He left his base with his army immediately and destroyed the expansions 1 by 1, barely being slowed down by the zerg's tiny army. The zerg rebuilt the expansions but he had powered too hard. Didi8 kept killing them and won the game.
5) Keep Pressuring: Whatever you do, if you're ever ahead in mass, don't let it go to waste. Force the zerg to keep up in mass as much as you can or he will overpower you quickly. Don't hesitate to attack the zerg too much, even if you aren't sure that you will win the battle. A draw is just as good for protoss, because you're forcing him to mass, and, for zerg especially, massing takes away from powering. If you can't attack him directly, keep looking for ways to attack indirectly with dt drops, psi raids, or ovie runs with corsairs. If he is extremely well sunkened in, take the opportunity to cannon up another main. With 2 extra gasses, things look extremely grim for zerg.
6) Concentrate on good unit choice: Moreso then pvp and pvt, pvz is all about having the right units at the right time. While a goon is always helpful in pvp and pvt, its almost worthless in a pvz unless he has lurkers. Another example; you'll get massacred by a lategame switch to ultras and crax if you don't have a lot of archons -- even if you have a lot more power then zerg!
7) Remember the conditions that you want to face zerg in. You want to face zerg when you are in a defensive posture. You want to lure his forces into yours. This is because psi storm is so much easier to use when your templars are standing still and the enemy is moving towards them, rather then trying to psi storm with templars that have to move into range first. Also lurkers can easily defend a position, but they are very poor at attacking a position. As soon as possible, try to get an army into a containing position so that you force him to fight you in favourable circumstances whenever he wants to fight at all. Just remember to leave templar at home to defend against a drop. For more on this, see section 1i.
Openings and Counters:One of the difficulties protoss users have with zerg is the large number of viable openings zerg has when compared to the other races. I'll try to go over each of the possible zerg openings and the steps you should take to counter them. However due the sheer number of zerg openings against protoss it's very possible that I will miss something, or something which I dismiss as unviable may in the hands of a good zerg user actually be quite potent. In determining what openings are viable the only criteria I can use is things that I have personally actually lost a game to. I can say with confidence that my openings and counters sections on pvp and pvt are complete, but in the pvz game I have new things done to me every week so this is one matchup that practice and a knowledge of the fundamental theory of starcraft will serve you better then specifics. I will do my best however. Note that all build orders mentioned in these sections can be accessed in appendix b.
2 hatch hydra: This build order will ready a zerg attack force of hydras and lings almost invariably before toss has speedy zealots. Hydras vs slow zealots is obviously a huge advantage for zerg. If you know for certain that it is coming, a 1 gate tech to citadel with immediate speed upgrade followed by building 2 more gates immediately after you start researching speed and having 2 cannons at your ramp is a sure way to stop the attack while ensuring that you have the power to expand quickly. Meanwhile it also takes away some of the sting of him rapidly switching to lurkers. When building the cannons, put them back a little bit from your cliff so that hydras will not be in range to attack the cannon until they are halfway up your ramp. This will ensure that only 2 hydralisks at a time can fire on your cannons (since you will use your zealots to prevent him from climbing all the way up your ramp to the plateau). If you don't know this build is coming then you will probably have a decent number of slow zealots but not enough to beat his hydras in a straight fight. The best thing to do? First try to set up a flank on his hydras. There are different ways to do this depending on your start spots. At 3, 6 and 12 you should probably hide about half your zealots in your natural out of sight of his hydras and half of them a little back from your ramp on your main plateau. Flank him as his hydras are coming up the ramp. At 9 it's almost impossible to set up a good flank at your ramp though so you should let him climb your ramp and start hitting your gateways before trying to flank. It's very difficult to stop a 2 hatch hydra from 9 though so it's a good opening for zerg if you're at 9. If he has too much for your zealots to handle (and dont be over generous to yourself, unless you have more zealots than hydras you're probably in big trouble) then bring in probes right away to help fight. Remember that if you hold without much damage you're in great shape because he'll have practically no drones. Bring at least 12 probes, bringing only 4 does nothing for you. As a trick to help you micro these probes, try clicking on a mineral patch outside of your base (if one is revealed at the time) and sending in your zealots just ahead of the probes. They will move in a small clump and pass through all units. As they are moving through his hydras and starting to come out behind them, select the probes and attack move them. They will immediately spread out and because they are in the same spot as the hydras, the hydras too will be forced to spread out. The hydras will be unable to attack or move at all while this is going on, so the zerg player can do nothing while his hydras are getting hit by your zealots. When the hydras finally get themselves sorted out they will be completely surrounded by attacking zealots and probes and quickly massacred. I once defeated 9 hydras with 12 probes and a single zealot (with 2 more almost done, coming out of my gateways) using that trick. I had 4 probes and both zealots left at the end of the battle. Coupled with the fact that I still had more probes mining than he had drones even after losing 8, and its easy to see how I came out ahead even in such a desperate situation.
3 hatch ling: Zerg will probably only attempt this if you're doing a 1 gate tech build, most likely to sairs. You can hold your ramp with 1 gate zealots if you bring a lot of probes right away, or if you have a cannon. Otherwise you might be in trouble if you still have only 1 gate when he's attacking you. 3 hatch ling is usually only dangerous if you don't know zerg is doing it and leave your base with zealots to pressure him, do not produce non stop zealots from your 1 gate leaving you with insufficient numbers, miss micro the ramp battle and let his lings come up, or fail to bring in probes promptly when necessary. It's something a lot of zergs do if they are playing a series with you. That way from then on you'll be afraid to pressure him for fear that he is waiting to ambush your zealots with lings or run up your ramp and kill probes. If you do know this build is on the zerg's plate though, you'll massacre it easily. I'd go with a medium tech to sairs build with an early forge for +1 and a cannon on your ramp. If he committed to lings, your sairs will do pretty good damage before he can counter them, and then when he does counter your sairs he'll be too short on drones. Then you can tech to archons/dts and attack him or expand safely with a good lead in both mass and power.
3 hatch hydra: This is a pretty powerful build that was all the rage way back in 1.07 but lost favour after the increase of zealot power and hydra upgrades cost. Still, because it's now pretty rare, it can catch 1.09 toss off guard very easily and be quite dangerous. Basically he should have a hydra attack force ready just as you get speedy zealots with a slow tech build. This is a little earlier then most toss like their zerg opponents to be ready to attack and so often does a good amount of damage, but without sacrificing as much power as 2 hatch hydras. It's easy to counter though, just go with a 2 gate mid tech to templars, getting psi storm before zealot speed. You'll hold the attack easily and expand yourself. Upgrade vigorously and scout often. Protect your expansion with several cannons and get robotics in case of a lurker switch. When zealot speed kicks in you can probably safely attack as you should have 4 or 5 templar with 1-2 storms each. You'll know he's going three hatch hydra if you send a scouting probe and he already has hydras when you have about 6-8 slow zealots and a citadel starting, depending on your build. Also if you do a sair build and he already has enough hydras to protect ovie he either knew you were doing a sair build and so made a couple hydras to defend himself before resuming his powering or he was going to make hydras then anyways and was therefore doing a 3 hatch hydra build. How to check? Do a few fly by's with your sairs to see if he keeps on making hydras after he already has enough to protect his ovies. Note that this build will smoke pretty much any reaver builds quite easily (which is the main reason it got so popular--as a counter to Grrrr's insanely popular and powerful fast reaver build in the early 1.07 era)
4 hatch hydra: This is one of the more common zvp builds of 1.10, but that's not saying much when almost every zerg I play with regularly has about 5 or 6 different builds that they use on a regular basis. Zerg's attack force will be ready long after your standard 2 gate slow tech build is ready for it but it will be quite large and also be backed up by a lot of drones. If you micro well you should be able to contain an all hydra user (for a little while), and definately expand safely, but the zerg will endeavor to spread the battles out, forcing you to micro several fights at the same time. You can obviously only focus on one battle at once, so this is really to zergs advantage as unmicroed hydras vs unmicroed zealots/temp is zerg's advantage (provided there are reasonable numbers involved, obviously 3 zealots can easily take out 4 hydras if the zerg isn't dancing at all), while microed, the opposite is true . Toss should focus on trying to contain zerg and out power him, as a zerg hydra army trying to break out against templars is at a huge disadvantage. Zerg can stay in the game with drops though, so be wary. If you're 100 percent cartain zerg will do this build, trying a reaver rush is not a bad idea as you can get reavers into his base before or just as he is switching to hydralisks. That gives you plenty of time to kill drones.
Also a fast tech to sairs build usually gives you 1 or 2 ovie kills against this build as well as giving you all the scouting you could possibly want. A fast expand build if you and your opponent are at the 12/6 or sometimes even 3/9 and 9/6 spots is safe against this build, but be warned that a good zerg will obviously scout your fast expansion and do a different build. As always against hydras, upgrade vigorously.
1 base tech builds: 1 base zerg builds gained a lot of popularity in the late 1.09 era, especially at the progamer level, headed by revolutionary new zerg players like Cho JJa and Crystal[INCA], as well as seasoned vets like Yellow. The theory is that zerg lair tech is even more dangerous then zerg power. I'm not so sure about this but it is definately dangerous. Zerg 1 base builds invariably aim to contain you with either lurkers or mutas first, and then expand to their natural. If you know which it is you'll rape the zerg rather easily. The problem is that you have to prepare for both because no matter how much you try to scout you just won't get an inkling of what zerg's up to until it hits you. Therefore the only thing to do against a 1 base zerg techer is to play extremely conservatively. You want 2/3 cannons up around your mineral line with another in position to support both them and an additional cannon protecting your gateways. 2 cannons at your ramp is also a must. Hopefully you positioned your buildings so that your cannons have overlapping roles and you don't need to actually build 6 cannons. Cannons are too slow to make after you scout lurkers leaving his base, and they also help immensely if he's 2 hatch hydraing. Get zealot speed but not a templar archives and get a robotics. By the time you get all that up plus about 6-8 zealots and a goon whatever he's got should arrive at your base. Also have a probe scouting the exit to his base. If he's going lurkers that probe will have to tell you, so if he leaves his base with lings but you don't see a lurker, send more to check. The sooner you can find out what way to commit, the better. Hold your ramp with zealots and send out another probe with the mineral trick right away to see if it's lurkers or not. If it isn't, cancel the cannon(s) at your ramp and the observatory (if possible) and start an archives right away, because if it's not lurkers its mutas. As soon as you see mutas, make an archives and pull back your units to cannon protection. Don't worry about lings climbing your ramp, your zealots and cannons should make short work of whatever he can have by that time. Once you get a couple archons made you can safely expand or attack. If it's lurkers for sure, your cannons at the ramp should hopefully deter him (but lurkers are strong and might overpower the cannons). Do not cancel cannons around your minerals unless you are going to have observers and sufficient (as in a minimum of 1.5 goons per lurker) very soon. Otherwise you leave yourself way too open to a lurker drop, which often follows a failed frontal assault. When the ramp fight starts, whatever you do don't sit on your ramp and let his lurkers kill your zealots en masse. Run away all but 2 of the zealots and your goon. Those 2 zealots can help to keep him from running up your ramp just as well as 8 zealots can, since lurker splash will kill 2 zealots or 8 zealots in just about the same amount of time anyways. Since your base is peppered with cannons you can probably hold the attack without incurring much damage until your observers pop out. Also switch to ranged goons production right away. Once you kill his first few lurkers and you have an observer and some ranged goons and speed zealots, you can expand or attack safely (depending on his defenses, army size, and numbers of drones, which will all be relative to the mass power equation, of course). Also, if he is doing a lurker build and chooses to expand behind it while containing with lurkers, make a shuttle with your robotics and drop goons on his cliff as you are breaking out. Those 2 ranged goons will be a real bitch since he probably won't have mutas and may not have overlord dropping researched for a little while yet. Just make sure you pay attention with the goons that he doesn't get a sunken built to protect his mineral line as the goons will ignore the sunken until it's complete, focusing instead on whatever hydras and drones that are in range. Keeping that sunken from completing is important. (Though if he has 6 hydras shooting at you obviously you don't want to sacrifice the goons just to kill the sunken). A sunken does 40 damage and outranges a goon so it will probably win easily in a straight fight, even though it's shooting uphill (although shooting uphill can be funny, sometimes sunkens hit every time, sometimes they miss 8 shots in a row).
1 base tech builds force you to play very defensively which can seem like you are way behind, but every cannon you make more then pays for itself as long as he really is doing a 1 gate tech build. Where things go awry quickly is when he fools you into thinking he's doing a 1 gate tech build but he is actually powering. Obviously those 5 cannons don't help you one bit if you need to pressure him as he is pumping out drones and hatcheries like mad. So always scout enough to make sure you know when he is expanding.
5 hatch power: This build will most likely involve zerg not even teching to lair until quite late, but instead relies on masses of hydras and lings or sunkens to expand to his mineral only and then to another mineral only and then to another main, etc etc. This can be very intimidating to inexperienced toss users, but actually it's pretty weak at the top levels of play. Whatever build you do, it will probably fare pretty well against this as long as you pressure the zerg when your build reaches the apex of it's mass. For example if you do a fast tech build you'll want to pressure very quickly, if you do a slower tech build you'll pressure a little later on. This style of zerg play is usually known as Sauron zerg and usually tends to linearally increase both mass and power. However zerg is less efficient than toss and terran when he builds linearally. The way to get the most out of zerg is alternating timed surges of mass and power. For this reason there will be a point when your own forces are superiour to his and an attack will damage him or expanding will be quite safe. Which you do depends on the zerg of course. If he is using lots of sunkens, expand rather then attack, if he is using lots of lings and hydras, attack before expanding. Simple. A side note: waiting for the apex of your mass to attack can often be a mistake, as any good zerg has a good idea of when you will ideally be ready to attack him. Therefore I often attack zerg before I'm 'ready' to, just to be unpredictable. Often times hitting him with 8 slow zealots right now, rather then waiting 1 minute to hit him with 11 speedy zealots can hurt zerg more. Because sometimes, it's that last minute that he is using to morph 6 hydras into lurkers, or something along those lines. This is a real judgement call though, because other times you will just get massacred by an ambush force. I can't say it often enough: any decent player can substitute years worth of top level intuition for some basic scouting and get the same effect.
2 base tech: This is the third alternative in the 'big three' of popular 4 hatch hydra builds and 1 base tech builds. It is perhaps the most common build of the three at my skill level. I don't distinguish between 3 hatch tech and 4 hatch tech builds as the difference is quite negligible to the toss user. Generally the zerg player will have a fourth hatch somewhere near completion as his tech is starting to come out. As with 1 base tech builds it's very hard to tell just what it is you're going to get hit with, but unlike 1 base tech builds you'll have enough time to prepare that you don't need to mass cannons. You have to play this the same way as you'd play a sauron zerg or 4 hatch hydra build because you won't be able to tell which it is until he actually hits you with something (if he expands to his mineral only before attacking with something though it's almost surely sauron zerg). For that reason I have a standard build order for 1 base zerg and a standard build order for 2 base zerg. The exception is of course if you went sairs. Then you will (probably, because deception happens) know if he's going mutas or not, although you won't be able to distinguish between lurker/hydra or pure hydra unless you actually see a lurker. A lair does not mean that zerg is planning on lurkers right away because he could be getting it for ovie speed alone (since he'd need it to attack you if you went sair dt) or for getting 2-2. If you know for a fact he is going mutas (as in you see not only a spire but also more than token mutas or scourge, since a fake spire is always possible, as is a scourge assisted lurker contain) then go with 2-3 cannons at each mineral line (you'll almost always expand before a 2 base zerg's lair tech kicks in) and morph several archons. Then you'll be safe to attack and probably kill him. If you know for a fact it's lurkers go with 2 cannons at your main on either side of the minerals, to give your probes time to run away in case he drops you, and 2 more at your natural just underneath the cliff with an observer spotting the high ground for them and a templar or 2 sitting nearby. Switch to mostly ranged goons production. Definately make at least one shuttle. If he cliff drops you you'll have to rely on ferrying zealots to your cliff while storming him and using ranged goons and the low ground cannons for backup. You should be able to stop him from stopping you from mining. You'll have a lot more probes mining then he does drones most likely (if not then he'll be weak enough in mass that an attack would probably damage him beyond repair). Eventually he'll give up trying to take your cliff and you'll have huge numbers of zealots, ranged goons, and templar. At this stage he will almost always be trying to set up a contain on him. If you've prepared adequately, played smartly, and not been crippled by his initial thrust, you should be able to break his containment force with decent numbers of troops left over. Contain him and expand if you can't finish him off with an attack. Unless he has mad sunkens you should be able to keep him out of his mineral only. If he does have mad sunkens, take another main. Also, if he went mutas, check with sairs or obs for guardians, as a guardian fork is a very likely game saving attempt by zerg at this point. If he is going that route (indicated by morphing hive with spire, greater spire, or lack of significant hydra/lurker production) acquire a minimum of 2 gateways and start saving up mana with your templars, positioning them around your base at likely places to be attacked. Upgrade sair attack. Proceed as normal otherwise, acquiring another main if his base is too sunkened in to be attacked.
If you don't know for sure what he's up to (between pure hydra, muta, or lurker) then you'll want probably 2 cannons at each mineral line (the cannons at your natural can double as cliff defense) a few observers, and more templars then archons (since you can always merge archons if necessary later, but you can't unmerge them). If he's going muta your 2 cannons will hopefully hold him at bay for a couple seconds, giving your probes time to escape and your archons time to arrive and chase away the mutas. If he's going lurkers you'll have to play defensively until you get enough ranged goons, but that won't be too long, and if he's going hydras you'll probably be unable to attack him for a while until you can mass several more speedy zealots and templar, but you'll be able to hold your natural and keep him from expanding more then once. A well timed break out will probably let you expand to your own mineral only and take out enough of his stuff to get well back into the game. Also, dt's patrolling the empty expansions will probably slow down his powering quite a bit. Unless he's going mutas, going for psi raids is probably a good expenditure of your time in almost all situations. However if he's attacking you often be careful of loading up templar and zealots into a shuttle that you need to defend yourself. More then once I've lost the game because the templar that could have saved my natural are sitting in a shuttle half way to the zerg's base.
That's about all the effective openings I can think of. The grand total? My count is 9 viable openings there. It's a lot to learn about for sure. Zerg was definately the last race I learned to play against with confidence.
While I'm about it, I'll explain 3 toss openings that attempt to take the initiative away from zerg, and why I think they generally fail.
Fast expand builds: There are 2 variations of fast expand builds available. The gateway first expansion relies on defensive zealots with cannon/battery backup to hold. The best counter to this build for zerg is a 1 base tech rush to lurker drops, which have a high probability of taking toss's cliff and raping his home minerals before toss can defend it. The other variety used is the forge first build which holds the early attack using only cannons and techs to sairs with mass amounts of cannons to hold any 1 base zerg tech rushes. The best counter to that build is to grab your natural and another main and sunken up, then tech to hive and go nuts with crax/utlra/defiler. If zerg correctly counters you it's basically an autolose situation so don't try it against a decent zerg. Exceptions exist though, depending on the map. Reach and Legionnaire popularised a very effective and safe fast expand build on Guillotine, while failing to fast expand on The Bifrost is more unusual than not.
Reaver drop builds: This is usually desperation ploy, or an attempt to prep the competition in a series. It has a fair chance of working out ok vs most mediocre zergs, but most good zerg players will be able to scout this ploy and counter it accordingly. All they need is 2 sunkens at each expansion together with a 3 hatch hydra build or a 1 base muta build to take you out easily. If this catches them totally off guard they can still recover, though you'll probably be ahead by quite a bit.
A variation of the standard reaver drop build is a hidden robo build. I do this against terran occasionally but very rarely against a zerg in a serious game. The idea is to build a robotics somewhere close to the zerg base and tech up to a reaver drop from there. Meanwhile in your own base you do some standard build like a quick tech to templar or whatever. Let his ovie see it and let him prepare for it accordingly. Whatever you do don't tech to sairs because the zerg might counter your sair build the same way he'd normally counter a reaver build. Anyways this will greatly increase your odds of getting a reaver to his base without him suspecting a reaver drop, thus greatly increasing your chances of the reaver killing lots of drones. However there is always a chance that an ovie might accidentally wander over top of your hidden robotics thus ending the game right there. A good player will notice that you have less stuff in your main base then you ought to and wonder what you're up to. He'll increase his scouting efforts and probably find your hidden robotics before you can drop him. He'll also probably start making hydras sooner then normal since hydras counter just about every strange attack the toss player can throw at him.
DT/Sair build: This build actually isn't so bad and I use it a lot from far positions. Maybe mostly because you really do need to do something desperate to hope to win from those spots. Generally you will have a sair or maybe 2 and 2 dts started in your gateway and 4-6 slow zealots with this build. Using only that material you expand right away (your nexus should be at least half done by the time your dts start coming out, depending on where the enemy army is). This expansion comes a lot quicker for protoss then anything but a fast expand build. If you kill all of the enemy's ovies that are around your base with your sair then he won't be able to attack you because of your dts. The hope is that you can get a good army going before he can attack you. This is very risky because of 3 factors. He might already have a lair by the time your sair comes and if he does and if he is thinking you might be doing sair dt he might start ovie speed research right away while switching production to pure hydras. Then he'll probably be able to attack you before you're ready and run you over. Or he might expand himself to another main and he might have an ovie already there in which case all he needs to do is get some hydras under that ovie to protect it before your sair gets there to kill the ovie. If the hydras get there and the ovie still lives he'll be able to expand right away there and you won't be able to stop him, leaving him ahead in power still. Worst of all he might have an ovie near your base somewhere hidden that your sairs don't kill. Then he can attack you with hydras right away ending the game right there. This is still a somewhat risky build but if a few things go your way it can work. It depends a lot on luck, but that is a big improvement over depending on your enemy to make a mistake, as the above 2 strats do.
Your last major decision: To Zealot Rush, or Not To Zealot Rush, Or, Toss's Two Main Openings:
This is a big choice and may affect the tone of the entire game. Neither choice can be said to be any more popular than another, but you will find that they go in cycles. As of the writing of this guide we are at the apex of the zealot rush cycle. Most pros and more amateurs are zealot rushing now rather than teching. As a result, almost every single zerg will assume a zealot rush is coming by default. Therefore I very rarely zealot rush. The zealot rushing decision goes to the heart of the mass/power equation. You sacrifice rapid powering by slowing probe production, possibly using them in your attack, and slowing your tech significantly. In return, you hope to also slow down the zerg's powering, and possibly damage him if he over powered. The advantages of a zealot rush are many. It puts the zerg into a more defensive mindset, which may cause him to add more sunkens than he needs or expand slower than he should all game long, without even really realising that his decision making process has been altered to his detriment. It is usually safe, as most maps have provision for your zealots to retreat to a safe location if he does ambush you, allowing you to retain cost efficiency and prevent a deadly counter. It also helps immensely to prep the competition for a series. The drawbacks to zealot rushing also exist. For one, there is virtually no chance that any zealot rush will deal significant damage right now because zerg's today are playing very safely, expecting a zealot rush. Also, if you mess up your micro, you will be signifcantly behind, giving up an advantage in mass and failing to translate it to a power advantage. Your alternative here is a fast tech build. I tend to favour this approach heavily as of right now, but a year ago it was the opposite because every toss was teching, causing many zergs to overpower and gain an advantage right off the start. Fast expand builds come in a couple of flavours. If you do zealot rush, you will almost always be forced into the fourth template opening.
1 gate sairs:
This build acquires corsairs extremely fast and almost guarantees at least 2 ovie kills. It leaves you very short on material however, which has a couple of implications: a, you may be overrun by a 3 hatch ling. You will definately be overrun by a 2 hatch hydra. You will not be able to stop him from freely grabbing his mineral only if he expects this build and prepares properly. This build is awesome from long positions however. While your sair is building, add a citadel, forge, and second gateway with the mineral build up you'll start to see. If your sair sees evidence of mutas or lurkers, put down cannons in the appropriate places right away. If he is teching that fast, he will be short enough on drones that you will remain ahead in economy without expanding right away. If zerg has many drones but only low tech units, put up a cannon to defend your ramp and natural (placement depends on positioning and what temple you are playing on, see basically any rep of mine or any other decent toss for hints) and expand with the help of dark templars, ala the aforementioned dt/sair expansion build. With any luck you remained ahead of zerg in economy. The next stage will be his inevitable lair tech assault, which you will of course have adequately scouted with your sair and adequately prepared for with cannons, if you intended to not lose the game. Then will come his inevitable lurker containment combined with mad dash for resources in an attempt to regain economic superiority. What follows will be a direct result of how well you prepared. Ideally you will have observers, more probes, and a larger army. Putting 2 and 2 together we should see that with anything more than horrendus micro you will be able to break out, stop zerg from having any other mains and hopefully his mineral only as well, take your own mineral only, and another main if he has too many sunkens to assault his mineral only, and cannon that up, prepare for late game guardian/ultra forks, and go nuts with archon/psi storm/heavily upgraded zealots.
2 gate sairs:
This is a far less common and far safer build that I love to use as a substitute to 1 gate sairs when the positions are too close to make that strat entirely viable. 2 gate sairs is also nice because very few zergs have seen it, know what it looks like, and know how to properly counter it on the fly. Your basic build order is gateway, assimilator, core, gateway, stargate, plus some other stuff like maybe a forge somewhere, depending on your scouting of course. At very close spots, like 12/3, you might go gate, gas, gate, core, or even gate, gate, gas, core (with halted zealot production after the first 2), in order to be safe and to keep zerg honest. The idea here is to still get sairs fast enough to get 1 or 2 ovie kills and good scouting information while simultaneously having a big enough army to seriously hurt a zerg that was looking to counter a 1 gate sair build, or at least still secure an expansion and not be too much further behind where you would be if you had single gated, while also being 100% safe against any kind of ling build up. This build perfectly counters so many of zergs typical responses to the 1 gate sair that it's probably my favourite. I guess it also helps that I didn't copy it from anyone else, and any strat you don't steal from anyone else has an extra sweet flavour to it when you win with it. Examples, a typical zerg response is 3 gate lings. 2 gate sairs will give you more than enough zealots to easily hold your ramp, plus your sair will still kill some overlords, plus you will be able to rapidly transition into a very powerful zealot/archon/dt counter force that more than likely cripples zerg. Another response is the overpowering 4 or 5 hatch build that protects the overlords with 1 or 2 spore colonies, or maybe some token hydras, then goes nuts on powering possibly to another base. If you leave your base with your 5 or 6 zealots and your goon when your sair is ready, not only will you kill some ovies, you'll also break into his natural and kill many drones, force him to sunken up like crazy, and obliterate his power advantage. Then you can easily expand with dts/cannons and be way ahead. Even if zerg plays it right, and powers right, having enough hydras to hold both your sair and your frontal assault, but enough drones to stay ahead economically, if you are careful you can still expand and hold with cannons and zealots, adding an archives and robo fac to complete your defenses and stay even in power. Zerg also might be going mutas or lurkers. Your sair will be soon enough to scout it in time for you to counter it. Just don't try this build against a single base zerg, as his tech will guarantee that your sair does nothing, leaving you behind him and slower when you cannot afford to be.
2 gate archives tech:
This build is a popular alternative to the sair rush. It assumes that zerg will be adequately prepared for a sair by starting hydras early or putting up spores, and aims to capitalise on the economic edge that preparation gives you. By zerg preparing for something which you will never throw at him, the hope is that he has wasted enough time and minerals that you will be able to get ahead with a straight land force. The basic order here is the same as with a 2 gate sair build, only substituting a citadel and archives for stargates and corsairs. Also this build often adds a second forge early and always gets ground upgrades right away. You will have been scouting the enemy with probes to see where he will be vulnerable. If he has made many drones but few sunkens, you will be attacking him with a large speedy zealot force as soon as is feasible (sometimes even before speed is finished, as discussed in the intro). You will almost always get held by lurkers or mutas (when you don't catch him with his pants around his ankles and win outright), but you certainly must try to stop drone production and do damage while you can, then save your remaining zealots to help protect an expansion. One other tip here: make 2 dts as your first two templar tech units unless you specifically need an archon to hold a muta attack. The 2 dts will be very helpful in your attacking phase, as they are very strong against lings and sunkens, which are likely to make up much of his defenses, and more importantly because they can kill drones in one hit. A single dt can kill drones as fast or faster than 3 zealots. That makes them worth their weight in gold if you can get through zergs defenses and into his drone lines. Many a game can be won by your dts racking up 6-12 kills right there before zerg can even react. Then, if they survive the fight, you can use them to scout the other mains and keep the zerg's power in check. Or if you're feeling cheeky, you can stick them in a shuttle and ferry them up to his main for more drone killing goodness later on. The other alternative is if zerg is adequately protected with sunkens or with fast tech like lurkers or mutas, or just low power and high mass on hydras, is to skip zealot speed for a while, go right up to templars with storm (with archons first if mutas) and expand quickly with cannons. Because he defended a) against your sair rush that never materialised, and b) against your zealot attack that never came, he will be behind you in economy even though he expanded faster, putting you comfortably in the lead provided his lair tech counter doesn't damage you to any extent (which, with your storm, archons, and cannons, it should not). The key to pulling this build off is to disallow his ovie to spot it. Except for your first 3 zealots holding your ramp, hide all additional zealots in a corner of your base out of sight of the ovie until your goon can kill it or get rid of it. Also, before killing his ovie or getting rid of it, allow it to see you making a stargate, then cancel the stargate when it's out of sight and make the citadel (or make the citadel before cancelling the stargate, so long as he won't see it and you can afford to).
3 gate slow tech:
This build often follows a zealot rush, and because of that it makes a zealot rusher more predictable, which is one thing I don't like about zealot rushing, for all that it is necessary. It doesn't necessarily have to, of course, but mathematically it makes by far the most sense. Basically, this build has many of the same aims as a 2 gate archives tech, but by necessity it is slower. Your attack will come slower (as stranding a large number of zealots in the middle of the map without speed can be suicide), and you will be way more vulnerable to any of zerg's lair forks. The upshot is that one possible way to mix it up with this build is to expand fast with cannons only. It's risky in the extreme as hydras can abuse a toss with slow zealots and no storm, but it can be pulled off. That gets you a relatively fast expansion, coming quite quickly off a failed zealot rush. Hopefully with the psychological effects of the zealot rush, you will be able to pull it off. In addition it puts you in a very good situation during the breakout phase, since you'll have relatively large numbers of zealots and dragoons. The other nice thing here is that if you successfully hide your additional zealots from his ovie, and your intentions from him, then when your attack does come, it will be that much more devastating.
Hidden Zealot Rush:
I love this build for tournaments because it's just so evil. The execution is extremely simple yet so very effective against even high level players. Basically, you will show the enemy overlord a standard 1 gate tech build, but with a probe off in some innocuous location, as close as possible to the zerg base, you are building 2 more gateways. After his overlord hopefully leaves your base as your core completes (fearing a dragoon), you take your probes off of gas and stop probe production. Pump zealots from 4 gateways for another couple of seconds and attack when you have around 10-12. He'll be at a point where he can handle 4, tops. Then you win. It's worked so often it's amazing. There is a danger though. If he chooses to react to your single gate tech with a 3 hatch ling build, you've probably lost, as even 4 gateway zealots are no match for lings in a straight fight.
Unit Choice:vs pure zerglings: zealots, with archons added in as soon as possible. (consider making a sair or two to ovie hunt)
vs pure hydras: zealots, with templars added in as soon as possible.
vs mass hydra/ling: zealots with templars and archons, emphasis on templar (in other words only merge an archon when two templar run out of mana in the middle of a fight)
vs pure muta: 3 cannons around mineral lines, 1 or 2 more protecting tech and gateways, and archons. Once you have enough archons to go toe to toe with mutas and if he still doesn't switch away from muta, keep a few templar around and try to storm them, but always have enough archons to win a head to head fight. Sairs are not the best choice against mutas because of the scourge threat, but they can work ok.
vs muta/ling: cannons and archons, zealots as well if he forces an offensive against sunkens (by powering very hard)
vs muta/ling/hydra: enough cannons to hold the muta at bay until an archon can arrive (2 or 3 at most) with your other minerals going to zealots and your gas pretty evenly split between templar and archons
vs pure lurker: ranged goons/obs with the odd templar if you have excess gas.
vs lurker/ling: ranged goon/archon/obs
vs lurker/ling/hydra: ranged goon/zealot/templar/archon/obs (more templar if he has more hydra, more archon if he is more ling)
vs lurker/ling/hydra/muta: same as above but with even more extra obs (as mutas/scourge are very effective at picking them off)
vs pure ultra: zealot/archon (possibly sair/dt as well, in certain situations. For example your enemy might not have upgraded ranged attacks at all, not planning to have to use any hydras, meaning that he will be reluctant to use them and meaning your sairs will be more effective. If you just happen to have 2 stargates, massing a few sairs and dt could be worth a try anyways, especially if your desperate. Also sair/dt make a good hit crew on an expansion, as dts take out buildings and drones so quickly)
vs ultra/ling: zealot/archon/cannon (also possibly sair/dt)
vs ultra/ling/hydra: zealot/archon with only a very few templar unless we're talking about 78 hydras and 2 ultras. Archons are absolutely must have units against ultras. If you don't have close to as many archons as he has ultras you are probably in big trouble unless your upgrades are far superiour. The problem is that a fully upgraded ultra takes only 10 damage from a fully upgraded zealot, while it takes 33 damage from a fully upgraded archon. Not only that but archons have splash damage, making them great for lings, and they attack much faster then zealots. I'd say that attacking wise every archon is worth at least 5 zealots, and since 5 zealots can't easily attack the same ultra while 1 archon certainly can, and lings around the archon, it's probably worth more then that. The temps are there only to keep his hydras at bay. Storm is nothing compared to an archon vs lings and ultras. I'd say that if you max supply you'd want maybe 4 temps at the most, the rest of your gas being archons. Also many people think that dts are a good choice against ultras and lings. Well they aren't really. They just don't have enough hit points. Your average dt gets off only one swipe before dying to 3-3 crax or ultras. However, if the enemy is lax about ovies or you're doing a good job with sairs, dt's may certainly work well a time or two. Also if the heat is on and you just don't have time to build temps and then wait another few seconds for them to merge into archons, dts may be your only choice (as zealots just can't do enough damage to seriously bother ultras with ling backup)
vs ultra/ling/hydra/lurker: same as above, but you have to mix in some goons and a lot of obs.
vs guardians + other unit choices: you should mix in some range goons and build at least one stargate the second you get wind of guardians. Guardians are far too much a nuisance over your nat cliff without sairs. In a center fight, goons and templar can pull their weight but sairs certainly help too. You'll never have a chance in a battle for control of an island without sairs if the enemy is using air forces at all on you.
vs queens + other unit choices: depending on what your queen using opponent likes to do there are different things to try. Either way, mix in a few ranged goons as a deterrant. If you have a stargate already a few sairs won't hurt but otherwise don't bother. If he is ensnaring your zealots a lot to make them worse against hydras, simply keep them spread out more when not in battle and be ready to storm his lights out. If he's broodlinging your templar a lot, build extras. In most cases zerg simply cannot stop toss from psi storming by broodlinging temps. You should just have too many. Try to protect the ones you have with cannons and ranged goons where possible. If you think your micro is a level above his you can try going da's with feedback but it's almost impossible for that to work well given that queens are fast flying units and their spells range is barely shorter then feedback. Queens are not really dangerous so don't sweat them.
vs defilers + other unit choices: at all costs avoid goons obviously and go easier on the cannons since they won't be much help against lings under darkswarm. If you think your micro is hot stuff then da's casting feedback is one option. Otherwise just keep your guys spread out as much as possible (to minimise plague damage) and be ready to storm any orange clouds he throws up. Remember that your zealots and archons don't care about swarm. DT assassins can also work, as usually the defiler leaves the protection of the main army while moving up to cast it's spell, so the dt can get a chance to kill it off if the zerg doesn't know it's there. Defilers are dangerous in the hands of a good player so watch out.
vs muta/scourge/devourer/guardian: If its a land map, goons, temps and archons may be enough if he blew guardian money on air superiority. On islands you'll want sairs and carriers, and templar backing you up wherever possible. Watch out for defilers.
Late Game:Late game against zerg is the hardest late game to play for protoss in my opinion. While you must micro every battle carefully, you also must attack zerg often and in many different places while macroing perfectly and being careful never to be caught off guard. Your mouse speed will be more important here than anywhere else.
First a note on the pvz meta game. Almost all pvz's play out according to the same template. Knowing the template and understanding how it obtains will vastly improve your protoss vs zerg game, and almost certainly results in mid level zerg players accusing you of hacking. The game takes a few very pronounced and clearly defined stages:
1: protoss initial move and zerg counter move. This basically is the decision of the toss to either zealot rush or not, and the zerg's decision of how to meet that rush or tech, mass/power wise.
2: zerg initial move and protoss counter move: This entails the build order the zerg decided on, be it 1 or 2 bases, mutas or lurkers or hydras, how much mass and power, etc, as well as how well protoss is able to scout and defend against said move.
3: mid game build up: By now if both players are still alive, protoss has a well defended natural expansion with a minimum of templar and observer tech, while zerg has finished his initial (almost always lair tech) assault and is now attempting (with varying degrees of determination) to contain toss and secure his mineral only base. Zerg may also be going for another main at this point, especially if he forewent lair tech or only got a few token units.
4: breakout phase: Toss has been mining from his natural for a little while and is ready to face the zerg head on and attempt to break out. For this phase toss must have an adequate number of observers, usually 4-6 depending on how determined zerg is at killing them, they should have vision upgraded, and toss should also have a large number of dragoons with range upgraded. Zerg will almost invariably be using lurkers as his primary containing force. If zerg is instead electing to go with a low tech based containment, sauron style, which can be equally dangerous, toss will need to have many archons and zealots instead of dragoons, and a few high templar as well. Having more than 4 high templar at this stage is a waste unless zerg is switching to guardians, in which case many many storms will be required. But templar are an inherantly defensive unit, while archons are inherantly offensive, so for the breakout phase, archons are usually preferred.
5: late game: this is pretty much everything that's happened after toss has broken out of zerg's containment. General tips and advice for what to do from here follow.
One trick I like to employ is very simple, makes a lot of sense, and, yet, is still almost never done. When scouting with your first probe, once zerg gets lings it's time to run away. Most players run home. I run to the opposite main though. Assuming the lings aren't chasing me, I now have another sprung scout to use at any time. Thats not all though. Suppose you can scout a whole main for the entire early/mid game, prevent zerg from expanding, and give yourself 16 supply, all for the low low price of 200 minerals? It would be more than worth it. So do it, by building 2 pylons, over each the hatchery placement areas for the main and natural of the zerg's most likely main expansion point. Now they will sit there scouting for you, and also block the zerg from making expansion hatcheries, or at least force him to make his first one in a worse position. If he wants to expand there, he will have to send zerglings to go kill it. Letting you know exactly what his intentions are and delaying his expansion by a minute on average. That's more than worth the 100 minerals it cost you. Plus you now have vision of minerals outside your main, turning your probes into a far more deadly fighting force, or allowing them to run away from mutas or lurkers more efficiently. Then there is the possibility of turning it into a hidden tech or hidden gate zealot rush. All good things.
It is absolutely essential that you remain ahead of zerg by at least one upgrade at all times. This is because of the way Blizzard balanced the game: 1-1 zerg is better then 1-0-1 protoss since its cheaper for toss to be 1-0-1. But 1-1-1 toss is better then 1-1 zerg because it's cheaper for zerg to be 1-1. Luckily this means that it is indeed possible for you to be at least one upgrade ahead at all times, even when zerg is 3-3, because 3-3-3 toss is approximately 1 and a half upgrades ahead of zerg. Shield upgrades are not as valuable as armour and weapons, but valuable enough to warrant getting them (especially against zerglings and mutalisks, but go 3-0-3 first unless you have 3 forges). Shield upgrades are also necessary to defend against crackling drops. Why? Because shield upgrades are the only thing which help your buildings. Bringing crackling damage down to 5 from 8 makes a big difference. It means that it would take him 16 lings to do damage in the same amount of time as 10 would without your shield upgrades. It helps your cannons a lot, which are otherwise not cost effective against cracklings. In fact I believe that three 3-3 cracklings dropped beside a cannon can kill it. That's half the cost of a cannon.
It is also absolutely essential that you have saved up your templars at this point. Do not lose any templars carelessly at any point, because you will need every one in the late game. Also construct templar with every peice of spare gas you can muster, rather then dragoons and dts (unless you have specific reasons to produce those units, such as a guardian switch, continued use of large numbers of lurkers, on in the case of dt's, lax overlord usage, or good opportunities for dt dropping). At some point almost every zerg player is looking to switch to ultra/crax. At that point you're going to be glad for every templar you have, so you can turn them into archons. Archons are absolute must have units against the dreaded ultra/crax combo, particularly if zerg is also using defilers. Obviously archons can attack under darkswarm which is nice, but what's far nicer is that archons are unnaffected by being plagued. Your zealots will be practically worthless once plagued, but archons will fight at near 100% effectiveness. Also, as I have said before, archons are the only things which can deal damage sufficiently to hurt ultralisks. DT's work if the enemy is short on lings or ovies.