WGTour.com protoss strategies list (part 2)

11/27 MarshallFaulk's Protoss Strategy Guide [ B ]
11/27 Bifrost T&P vs any race by Manners [ C ]
11/26 Funky PvT. by Sh[A]dow-Song
11/20 PvZ on Island map by nl-FearSome
11/18 Starcraft Psychology by 03.SoJu
11/14 3 games toss vs zerG by nl-FearSome
11/09 Nifty PvT by GoSu)QuiKSilveR
11/07 PvT Unit stratagies and micro tips. by Changes


10/29 PvZ Basic strategies by PRobee
10/25 PvZ Fast Expo Part 2 by GoSu)QuiKSilveR
10/24 PvT get that wall by aGrrresiV
10/24 P v T Double Robotics Rush by yusuktoo
10/23 PvP, Mech by tN.DieSeL
10/23 My PvT- Standard by GiFtEd.ToSS
10/12 Reavers Reavers Reavers!!!! by GoSu)QuiKSilveR
10/12 General Tips And Strategies by Troku
10/14 The art of expansion by Jimram007


09/03 PvT good oldfashioned style by MTG890
09/06 PvT harras to fast dt drop with mas... by Changes
09/10 PvT Scout Rush into Arbiter Rush by MiStY
09/17 Protoss Evaluation by Eth
09/17 Protoss vs Terran by Eth


08/06 Reavers in PvP by WhyMeOhGodWhyMe
08/23 PvT Anti-Gundam Rush by CrazyCrazySCV
08/23 PvT - Advanced Early Play by Reno


07/10 My Protoss Vs Terran Part 1 by eR)RaY
07/04 PvT Rush Strategy by FoZzY.
07/13 PvT Fast CC Counter by MeTaLLicA
07/14 AniMe's APM/Multitasking guide. by Ada-


06/29 PvT Drop Darks by uN]TolosA
06/26 Hallucination: A forgotten Treasure? by Zherak_Khan
06/22 PvZ Cannon push against fast exp by Belcebubulis
06/20 1v1 PVP dts by 1ArmedMan
06/19 Art of PvP by GuMMiBeAR


05/30 pvz zealot/corsair/reaver strat by dildohead
05/07 here goes early-end pvt by ThaMediC
05/12 PvT DT Drop by SeXMachine
05/13 PvZ vs early exp zerg by 40BelowSummer
05/14 PvZ: 9 Pool by i.sKy)Syntax
05/14 Harrasment. by i.sKy)Syntax
05/18 PvT - Scout/Reaver strat by CopLin)Shayy
05/23 Dark Templar Rush by Phernando
05/27 P v T strat by loki®
05/28 Classic Reaver Drop by Phernando


04/19 The high templars by SSj_HyDra
04/21 PvT -- Annoyance and Containment wi... by Centi
04/21 PvP Strategy Options by eSsentiaLs
04/22 Some Tech Here by YURKA-
04/22 PvZ Strategy by eSsentiaLs
04/22 PvZ (Reaver Micro) by 1ArmedMan
04/23 Advanced Suttle Micro by Centi
04/26 Miss Used Dark archon by LikeWater
04/28 Protoss defense by SSj_HyDra

First of all, I don't really care what you think of me; so if you don't like me, don't read this. If you think I suck, or I'm stupid, or both, don't read this. I'm not writing this for the people who are going to message me on battle net saying "Your strat guide blew, you suck." So either, don't waste your time with this, or leave me alone if you didn't like it. Also, this strat guide isn’t going to teach you to be “gosu,” it may not even make you a better player, but you just have to realize that a lot of the things in here are based on speed, and intuition, I don’t know how much I could emphasize speed for it to make sense to you unless you actually go to a live event and watch somebody who is fast play. This guide isn’t aimed towards top players; it’s more at the level of average Bnet “X17er.”

I'm going to try to cover every aspect of Protoss on several different maps, my preferences on openings and such...I don't have a whole lot of experience considering I've only been playing this game for nine months, but maybe I know something you don't.

For reference, I don’t know whose going to read this, so might as well make sure 
everybody understands what I’m saying…
PvP = Protoss vs Protoss
PvT = Protoss vs Terran
PvZ = Protoss vs Zerg
Natural = First expansion outside your main
2nd Natural = Second expansion outside your main, usually mineral only
Dragon = Dragoon
Robo = Robotics Facility
Obs = Observer
Zeals = Zealots
Cyb Core = Cybernetics Core
Fact = Factory
CC = Command Center
Port = Starport
USEast = Battle.net server
Psi storm = Psionic Storm
Rax = Barracks
Lings = Zerglings
Hydra = Hydralisk
Ultra = Ultralisk
Muta = Mutalisk
Guard = Guardian
Lurk = Lurker
Sair = Corsair

I had a big intro here about everything I was going to cover, but I decided all that stuff is too much work, so I am just going to go with what I’ve got, so I’m just going to delve right in, hope this helps…

PvP

The most important thing in this match-up is to get your probe in their main, and use waypoints (shift commands) to keep it alive while you continue to build in your base. This is extremely important because in order to counter your opponent's build; you need to first know what it is. If I'm playing someone who opens with a zealot rush, I will put my 2nd gate down right after I get my cybernetics core, and produce zealots from the 2 gates until I have 2-3, the protoss may already be rushing with their first one, that most likely means he will go for your probes, in that case you just need to keep his zeal away from your probes, losing just 2-3 can hurt u very much early game, another thing you will want to do is put down a shield battery. My style is very defensive, I play every match-up defensive because, well, it's probably the safest thing to do, and also I just despise cheese =[. But anyway, if you are playing 12/3 PvP always 2 gate before core because if you 1 gate you will lose to a zealot rush every single game, I've tried to explain that to many people after I beat them with a zealot rush in that position, it doesn't seem to stick. Otherwise 8 pylon 10 gate 12 core is usually fine. Okay from the point where you have the probe in their base scouting, the other guy has a choice, he can either do 1 of a few things, those being....

1 gate DT rush
1 gate robo/reaver rush
1 gate robo tech/DT drop
2 gate Robo/reaver
3 gate dragon
Or if they are crazy...4 gate zealot

Note*In all of these builds, dragon range is being upgraded right after the first dragon is built* If your probe is too slow scouting to get up the ramp in time, that means you need to do a 1 gate robo build and fast observer because if you have no idea what he is doing, you will have no way to counter it, otherwise your probe, if you micro it right should stay alive until he gets his first dragon, by that time you should be able to tell if he is going to 1 gate robo, 2 gate robo, or 3 gate. If I see a 1 gate robo build on temple, I will put down 1 gate and a robo as well, and expand right away to my natural. When a protoss does that build, it leaves them very weak, and if they were to attack me I would be able to fend off their 3- 4 dragons with my units and probes. Another thing you have to worry about is getting your reaver very fast, 1 shield battery and a defensive reaver help tremendously in a PvP choke battle. As long as you get your reaver out fast enough you should be fine. From that point I would put up 3 canons, or just leave 3-4 dragons at each nexus in fear of a reaver drop. You should not stop building probes the entire game, that is until you hit about 170 supply or so, I don't think I've ever had a PvP game go that long...Observers are the next most important thing, right after you get your first reaver you will need to get obs, if the other guy decides he's going to switch to DTs, or if he tries to double expand in counter, or if he leaves his minerals wide open to a drop, these are all things you need to be looking for. Mining from your main and your natural you should be able to keep 7 gates and a robo moving non stop. If my probe doesn’t see a robo, or can't determine what the other guy is doing, I will do a defensive 1 gate robo build, and get observers ASAP. From that point I can counter whatever he does with the builds I am about to tell you about.

1 gate DT rush

This is probably the weakest, and easiest to beat PvP builds...If I see 1 gate and a citadel going down, I will play defensive, and 1 gate robo to observer....some protoss will try to trick you, and get the citadel down just for zeal speed, and come in with 12 speed zeals...either way your 1 gate robo build is going to overpower him, because right when you get your obs and you see his base full of zealots, all u need to do is get 2 reavers and produce dragons nonstop from 2 gates. Another thing that is very important which u must remember is that if you suspect a DT rush, never search the other guys main with your 1st observer. I have made this mistake many times, and left my base empty with no detection, always scout your opponents main with your 2nd observer, and leave yours at the front. Leading off of a DT rush up the middle would be a DT drop.

1 gate DT Drop

You already suspect a DT rush, you have your 1 gate robo build already up, and have probably added your 2nd gate by the time your 2nd observer gets to his main. Then you see not only a Citadel, and Templar Archives, but a Robotics Facility is warping in. In most cases he will have no expansion, if he did that DT drop would just be a decoy, which means you know he's going to be coming with DT's. The most logical thing to do is build another obs, and place it over your nexus and minerals, and send all of your dragons except 1, who is blocking the ramp in order to keep scouting probes out, to protect your nexus. If you decide to get observer speed, you could use your obs and follow his shuttle as it leaves his base in order to pick it off as it heads for your main, or you could just sit back, and canon up with a slow expand. Pretty much as long as you stop his DT drop, you should have no problem winning the game, the other guy will be so weakened from all the tech that he won't be able to keep you from expanding and powering 7 gates.

1 gate reaver drop

Versus this, a fairly common strategy, I will put down my 2nd gate very fast and build dragon primarily, and a slow robo build. This is in order to be defensive against the 1 gate robo. Since I know they are going to be having a reaver very fast, I know they are going to have a choice to either attack, drop the reaver, or expand with it. If they attack, you should be fine as long as you hold position on your ramp and don't allow them to use an obs and a reaver to push up it. By the time their reaver is at your main, if they are attacking your reaver should be done. If they expand, that is your cue to expand as well, because a defensive reaver will always defeat an offensive reaver, you will lose if you don't expand fast enough to keep up with him, and you will lose if you attack. The only other option is a reaver drop. I do this in pretty much every game, place a probe at my opponent's entrance, usually by the natural minerals, then I place 1 dragon at my ramp, and use the rest to defend the reaver drop, that way you know if they are attacking, or expanding. If not, that usually means drop. Use your dragons to kill it, then use observers to determine if you can kill him, if not, you should expand, and power 7 gates.

3 gate dragon, or 4 gate zealot

The same strategy applies to both of these, I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you have very good reaver control, I don't, but it’s a very fun strategy to do, plus it eats these builds. Place your pylon at 8, gate at 10, gas at 11, cyb core at 12, first robo right when u get the gas, be producing dragons non stop from that one gate, put your 2nd gate down right after your first robo, just like a 2 gate robo build, then get a reaver bay, and get 1 reaver. From that point he should have either a bunch of dragons, or a bunch of zealots, either way with 1 reaver and 5-6 dragons you can hold your ramp fine. Then put down a 2nd robo, I usually won't build a shuttle until I have 3 reavers, I don’t mind taking the time to walk them out because it will allow me to expand if they already have. Just keep producing 2 gate dragon and 2 gate reaver, don't forget the +25 scarab attack upgrade, or the shuttle speed, they are both very important in this build.

General Strategy

A few other important things about PvP are watching for canons on your natural ledge, or dragons dropped on your natural ledge, protecting your minerals, this is most important in the 9 position considering both of your naturals have the same ledge. Using ledges in dragon versus dragon battles is extremely important as well, in the 3, 6, and 9 positions I will place 2 dragons on the opposite ledge, behind my minerals in order to get in extra hits vs 3 gate/2 gate dragon builds where I get attacked, as well as placing dragons on my ledge above the cliff...Ledges make a huge impact on the outcome of this match-up. Dragon suicides to kill nexii are another thing that you need to be judging on situation, the way I look at it is if I can kill the nexus, and lose no more than 4-5 dragons, then it was worth it, if you have to take your whole force and suicide it on a nexus only to lose your entire force, you are going to lose your nexus when the other guy decides to attack. I recommend carriers late game, although I have never actually used them in PvP because I usually end up using mostly zealots late game, if you have the time, or if you snuck an expansion to an island, it is very feasible to do 2 stargate carriers while holding your main. Another thing I see many protoss make mistakes with is mid to late game...25 minutes or longer...I will be losing a game by an expansion for quite some time, and realize all the other guy is building is dragons, he’s got a lot because he's pumping from 10 gates, but I realize that if I mix my zeals, dragons, and 2-4 reavers I can destroy his entire force, just a few zealots added into the mix can also divert reaver damage in a dragon/reaver battle, and it takes a lot of hits for a dragon to kill one zealot. Try not to make the mistake of forgetting zeals at this point, it is imperative to winning the game. One other trick I have picked up, which is kind of funny, that is, if your opponent has 1 zealot holding position on the ramp and you can’t get up, place your probe at the bottom of the ramp, and press stop, the probe will start attacking the zealot, and the probe will be out of zealot range, that way the zeal has to move, and you can go back down the ramp and run around him.

PvT

This is by far my strongest match-up, of course, since it is the easiest for Protoss. The way I’ve learned to play PvT is completely systematic. I win probably 90 percent of my PvT games, and I win them by following the steps I’m about to show you. Just like in PvP it is very important to get a probe in the Terran’s base, although if you are late to scouting or he blocks his ramp in time, you won’t be able to get in, in that case I do a 1 gate robo build and tech right to observer. Otherwise if you get the probe in the base, half of the time you will be able to keep it alive using waypoints until you can tell which one of the builds the terran is going to do, those being:

1 Fact CC
1 Fact Port
2 Fact
or hidden infantry

1 Fact CC

Most of the time it is very obvious a terran is doing this, even if you don’t have an observer. Pretty much every game I open with a 1 gate robo then add a 2nd gate soon after, unless they do a sort of a 2 fact build, but I will get to that later. In my opinion, the fact cc build is the easiest to beat, I think I’ve lost to it maybe twice in the last 3 months. When your observer scouts a fact cc, you should automatically expand twice, to your natural, and your 2nd natural(mineral only). I usually won’t have more than 2 gates until I have every nexus building probes. I usually hotkey my nexii to 0, 9 and 8 in order to keep constant probe production, because that is very important in this build. By the time you have both nexii running, you need to have a shuttle, preferably with a few zealots if he decides to tank drop, which your observer will be able to scout in most cases, and you need to get a forge and put 2 canons by each nexus in order to defend from vulture raids, that is unless you have an observer over his units and see nothing but tanks, in that case I would forgo the canons and tech straight to templar, although the biggest problem with this build is being able to mass fast enough to stop the terran’s initial attack, a lot of the times I lose my 2nd natural because the terran just has too much, but by the time that happens I will usually have about 10 gates building nonstop zealots, although you can tell how much money you have, you need to be adding gates as your money allows, I understand that some players are not as fast as others, which is why they will have less gates and so-forth. The mindset I am trying to get you in is that after you double expand and the terran fact cc’s, his choices are either vulture raid, tank drop, or a strong push. You are going to have to use your own judgment in determining which they will do, when I am playing a top USEast terran, I will usually defend all of them and power slower because they could pull anything. You are going to have to experiment with adding gates, but I could talk about how many you need, and when you should and shouldn’t build gates for hours, it is just something you will have to work out on your own. But now, the key to defeating the fact cc, while I am powering and building more gates, I tech to templar archives, and upgrade psi storm right away. I pop out three templar, load them in a shuttle, I probably have about 3 placed strategically around the map in order to defend incoming drops, and I put one zealot in, and head for the terran natural. If a terran fact CC’s, and you can storm drop them successfully, you won’t lose unless you do something drastically wrong. The 12 position is probably toughest to do, so there I enter from the top right of the map, run the shuttle through, and if they have any turrets up at all, I will just suicide the shuttle, because it’s worth those 3 temps and a zealot to kill all his SCV’s. I always drop the zealot first in order to draw fire from siege tanks, then the temps, and you have to be very quick, when I am dropping I will usually just click the unit profile instead of telling the shuttle to drop, because in that scenario it is harder to grab the templar and press T (hotkey to storm) with the shuttle in the way. Storm as many probes as you possibly can, and if you are able, get the shuttle out alive. At the 3 position I enter from the water area and drop up on the ledge and storm from there, most terrans will have a barracks floating and tanks positioned to defend it, which is why the zealot is so important. At the 6 position, it is pretty much the same as 3, you can usually get a better storm if you drop the templar on the ground near the minerals, although I usually lose the templar before I get a storm off, this is another thing you will have to experiment with, shuttle speed is pretty important if the terran is expecting it. I have played games where the terran built turrets on the ledge above in order to keep shuttles out, I just suicide my shuttle in that case, speed helps tremendously even though in a lot of my replays you will see I have neglected to upgrade speed =[. The 9 position is also tricky considering you can’t storm much from the ledge, I always try to get the templar down on ground level because you really can’t be successful unless you get a shot from there. If you haven’t won the game from there, and the terran continues to turtle, I recommend to storm drop again about 4-5 minutes later, and to keep doing it as much as the other guy will allow, what can he do if he has no SCV’s? Nothing but build more.

1 Fact Port

I play against this somewhat the same way I play against a 1 gate reaver drop. Always 1 gate robo with fast observer against this, in a lot of cases it can help pick off the dropship before it gets to your minerals. On temple, most terran players will open with 2 tanks and fast siege when doing this build, but every once in a while they go for vultures, either way you should have what it takes to stop it. Producing dragons off 1 gate get a shuttle after you have 3-4 depending on your mineral count, I am not a build order player so I usually have no idea what probe number I’m at once I get to some point, when I get the money I build the stuff, it’s as simple as that…Well anyway, a lot of terran’s are going to try to be like boxer and do the dropship trick where they hide the 2 tanks in your base, then send the dropship to another side to make your dragons follow it. If I see a dropship just hovering around my main, I will never go after it because a terran is in a hell of a rush in trying to kill your probes with the tanks. I always leave my dragons near the mineral nodes no matter what, you should do the same. Also building pylons on the outskirts of your base are good in detecting drops coming in. Once you have fended off the vulture or tank drop, you are going to need a shuttle very fast, and an expansion. Terran is weak after failing at a fact port drop, so you will have plenty of time to expand and power before they attack. There is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to stop the drop, if they get more than 5-6 probes, and they are a good player I wouldn’t continue playing because you have lost. There are many different things you could do from that point, but I don’t want to get into all of them, so I will just go from the point after you stop the drop. Like I said before, a quick expansion with a shuttle and a few zealots. The terran is either going to expand, put down another fact and power a 2 fact push, or continue to attempt dropping, a good terran will be able to do 2 of those things, in most scenarios I will continue to power my 6 gates, which I just put up after I get my expansion running. I usually will contain a terran with about 8 dragons up until I see him moving out of his main with one of my observers, the second biggest part to PvT is attacking the terran before he gets set up, he is weakest on the move, which is exactly when you want to attack. As he is moving out, it would be good timing for your first storm drop on his natural, if he has not yet taken his natural, use your templar to storm his tanks as he is moving out, if you have an expansion and he doesn’t, it’s not worth wasting the storms on his main since you have the advantage economy wise already, and have probably a bit fewer units. One thing that differs from player to player in PvT when you get to the best players in the world, some are primarily dragon users versus terran, and some are primarily zealot users. I have been told I have no skill because I use zealots rather than dragons, which sort of proves to you how much more they own in most cases. The thing I dislike most about using dragons is their inability to attack a sieged terran force. If the terran is pushing the middle very slowly, and powering and reinforcing the push, with 80 percent dragons you aren’t going to be able to stop that, it is just too powerful with mines mixed in. I tend to build no more than 6-8 dragons in any game, if I don’t know the map too well I will lean more towards 12-16 just in case of a terran making a mistake, rendering them defenseless against a flank. But I will talk more about micro once I get out of the counter section.

2 Fact

I guess this would be the toughest build to beat just because even if you do the right build, you can still lose the game to a good tank pusher. When I see terran doing a 2 fact, I have a choice of a few builds to do against it, the one I do the most goes like this…gate, cyb core, gate, robo, observatory. I then get a shuttle immediately after my first observer, and after my 6th dragon is built I get 4 zealots real quick, right after your first 2 zealots are done is probably when he will decide to attack, that is when most attack me, I will usually contain them with my dragons and make them push slowly until I can get 4 zealots in my shuttle to drop. From that point I look at the situation with my observer and determine if I want to continue to power and make him push slow, or to make an attempt at pushing him back right there. I will usually wait until he unsieges to move forward, then I will drop the zealots near the tank which is farthest away, and send my dragons in simultaneously. As long as your micro isn’t horrid, your attack should kill most or all of his units. Pretty much every terran I’ve seen expands as they are making their first push, so he should probably have a CC either already in his natural, or floating to it by now, which is about the same point I expand, and tech to psi storm in order to storm drop. Of course there are always other things you could do, such as a 3 gate dragon build, but the only problem I find with that is it is harder to hold expansions, and defend from terran ledge drops, as well as stopping mid game pushes, if you prefer to use dragons, you should do that. Otherwise from that point it is really up to you on what to do, you could contain and expand to another main, or continue to power and try to destroy his next pushing force, it really depends on each individual situation, what makes the pros pros is their late game intuition, early game as well but it is much, much tougher late game.

Infantry Builds

PvZ

Frankly, this match-up on temple makes me sick, Zerg has so many different choices it is very hard to get the right counter to what they are doing, and if you do, you still have to be able to micro very well to kill their troops. I play as little PvZ on temple as I possibly can, I have been playing most of my PvZ on Incubus recently, I find it a lot more fun, and chances of winning are a little better, but either way, Zerg is > Protoss. Anyway, I am not going to even talk about the Temple aspect of this match-up because it is so completely 1 sided. Flat out, a Protoss player will never be able to beat a good Zerg player on Lost Temple. The only possibilities are luck, if the Zerg pools a little late and your zealot rush is successful, or if you are in the 12/3 positions, which the Protoss player should never lose. Anyway, I like Incubus for PvZ, so that is what I will base my PvZ land map strategy on. Before I get any further, I wanted to say that PvZ is nothing like PvP or PvT, it requires much intuition, and speed…one thing rolls into another, there aren’t separate parts where you know your opponent is going to do one of only 2 or 3 things, anything could happen, and you will need to learn to adjust and adapt to certain situations, I will try to talk you through a few of them, but I really can’t teach you how to adapt, that is something that you get with experience, which I will talk about after this. Incubus has no ramp, so I will open with a zealot rush every single game, the fact that there are ramps from the natural to middle ground gives Protoss a huge advantage early game. My normal build is a 9/10 gate zeal rush, which would be pylon on 8, gate on 9, gate on 10, pylon on 11, and continue to produce zealots as you use 1-3 probes and your zealots to attack. I don’t know how many times I have seen people screw up zealot rushes miserably, so I am going to explain how to do this right now. There are five components to a zealot rush, if you do them all right, you MAY have some success. Number 1, producing probes non-stop, if you have gaps in between building probes your tech will be slower after the zealot rush. Number 2, producing zealots nonstop, obviously another important part, you must reinforce or your rush will lose every time. The point of the zealot rush is to kill the hatchery, yes, but there is another goal that you want to reach if you can’t kill the hatchery. As Protoss, you want the Zerg to be producing lings as much as possible, you don’t want to give him the opportunity to build drones in order to power harder, so if he gets down a sunken, what I like to do is keep my zeals inside one of the two ramps connecting the natural to mainland, that way lings can’t surround your zeals, and have a big disadvantage when making an attack, this will force the Zerg to continue to produce zerglings, rather than powering drones. Number 3, pyloning on time, this is probably just as important as micro because without pylons you won’t be able to pump out more probes or zealots. When I am rushing I always try to pylon about 5 down from the next maximum, so say I am at 12/17, which is when I would pylon, always pylon before you build zeals, it is more important. Number 4 would be rally points, you want to get very familiar with where you place your rally points and make it most comfortable for you to get to the units and probes, you will lose so much time microing if you forget to set these. And number 5 would be the micro part of it, which I can’t really help you with. I will talk a little bit more about micro near the end of this. Most of the time you won’t end up killing the Zerg’s hatchery, if you do, you probably won, so I don’t need to go into what to do from there, the next thing is get 1 canon down near the entrance to your main, not at the entrance, closer to your nexus, but out in front of your gates and tech buildings, this is to defend from lings running through, and from a fast lurker build. Either the Zerg is going to have 2 hatches or 3 hatches from this point, either way because it is a ground map I upgrade +1 attack at the forge as fast as I possibly can, I usually get an assimilator after about my 6th to 7th zealot unless I feel I can overpower the Zerg with a 3 gate zeal build, that decision is going to have to be up to you. Anyway, I put down a forge immediately after the assimilator gets started, and a cyb core. You are going to need to be scouting every 2 minutes or so checking for lair, hydra den, upgrades, hatch number, and spire. If they have only 2 hatches from what you can tell, your best bet is to go 2 gate and get 1 quick corsair to scout, because you really have no idea what they will do. Right after the stargate gets started, get a citadel, and upgrade zeal speed. If your sair sees a spire only, you could either put down a 2nd stargate and build 2 stargate sairs, or get a templar archives real quick, and get 2 archons. The sairs are probably better if you are sure he is going mutas, like he already has a few, but if you see no mutas, and you see a hydra den as well, he is probably just trying to trick you. If you see hydra den only, and no lair, expect 3 or 4 hatch hydras, in that case you need to get psi storm real quick, and be ready to storm like crazy, I usually have about 2-3 temps to every 12 zeals. If you see only 2 hatches, 1 is a lair, and a hydra den, expect lurkers real quick, and forgo psi storm and tech right to robo and observatory. I will usually get dragon range and stop building zeals as well, a 3 gate dragon build with obs will beat any 2 hatch lurker build any Zerg can do, with the right micro that is… Zerg will probably try to contain you with the lurkers, you need to kill them as soon as possible before he gets an offensive hatch down, that can be a killer to most Protoss. After that point, you can either expect a mass hydra, or an ultra/ling type of build. Constant production of units, and upgrades is extremely necessary to win the game. Against hydra your best bet is going to be dragon reaver and psi storm late game, there is no way a Zerg can micro hydras against reaver and templars, it can’t be done. Ultra ling really can’t be stopped unless you have the right unit combo. By the time you get your 2nd expansion down, expect ultra ling to come that is unless you know the other guy has no melee attack upgrades, and seems to be leaning towards guardian/devourer. At my 2nd expansion I will usually put down 2 robotics facilities, and a reaver bay, upgrade shuttle speed, and both reaver upgrades at the reaver bay, and pump reavers from the two robos, you don’t really need a shuttle unless they are using hydras, in which case your force needs to move faster. Against the ultra ling, your force should mostly contain zeals, archons, DT’s, and reavers, a few dragons is always good, and one unit that is used so seldom is the dark archon. I can’t tell you how useful it is late game, not only against queens and defilers (feedback), but probably the most underused spell in the game, maelstrom. Believe it or not, 2 maelstroms and a few storms on a pack of 6-8 ultras is devastating to a Zerg, especially with reaver hits. This spell is also extremely effective against hydra users because it messes up hotkeys. Yes, when you maelstrom a Zerg force, his hotkeys get lost, only some units are in the groups, and he has to use drag and scroll to move the rest of his units away, which is prime time for free storms. I always use maelstrom against hydras before I storm just because the Zerg won’t be able to move his units out of the way in time. Zerg’s other late game choice is the guardian, or guard/dev combo. When you see guardians, first instinct should be to put down 2 stargates and start building sairs, I will usually build about 4-6 sairs to fend off the first set of guardians, Zerg usually don’t start to build devourers until after they see sairs, so once that happens, you are going to need a lot of dragons, and templars. Lings usually accompany guards, so DT’s will be needed as well, Protoss can’t beat Zerg without the right combination of units, its just as important as building non-stop probes.

Microing, Intuition, Speed, and Spending

Microing

Trying to teach someone how to micro is pretty much the same idea as trying to teach someone how to shoot free throws. I can sit here and tell you what to do all night, but no matter how much I tell you, you won’t be able to do it right without practice and repetition, I have had people tell me that I have a unit hack because my dragons only take half the damage that their dragons do in a battle, after we had about the same amount. It is probably because you aren’t familiar on how to do it, I suggest playing micro wars daily, I have probably played it 200 times, and many consider me, as well as myself, a crappy microer. Watch replays, see how other the pros do it, and try to copy them; I can’t really give you any more advice on this.

Intuition

I have mentioned this many times throughout this guide, it is probably a new concept to many of you, what I am really trying to say is that there are so many things going through my head about when to do certain things, why I do them, and what the purpose is. I could write 100 pages easy on that, but I don’t think you would want to read it. Anyway, this is what separates the pros from everybody else. When I was talking to Rekrul and Spikes about writing this, they were telling me how I should do my best to emphasize intuition, and how important it is, I don’t really know how else to explain it other by example. Say I am expecting a Zerg to be expanding to another main, so I send 3 DT’s across the map, without scouting, maybe he will have a hatch there, maybe he won’t, but by sending those 3 DT’s, maybe I killed the drone that was going to expand there, now he has to power harder from what he has, it may have won me the game… Or if you expect the Zerg to lurker drop your cliff, you build canons ahead of time, and use a sair to spot for them. There are so many possibilities this could go on forever, the best advice I can give you is just analyze the situation, look at where you are in the game, and what options does the other guy have, he can only do 1 of 3 or 4 things, so protect from those things, then attack when he is weak.

Speed

Spending

Closing

06/20 1v1 PVP dts by 1ArmedMan

06/19 Art of PvP by GuMMiBeAR

05/30 pvz zealot/corsair/reaver strat by dildohead

04/19 The high templars by SSj_HyDra

04/21 PvT -- Annoyance and Containment wi... by Centi

04/21 PvP Strategy Options by eSsentiaLs

04/22 Some Tech Here by YURKA-

04/22 PvZ Strategy by eSsentiaLs

04/22 PvZ (Reaver Micro) by 1ArmedMan

04/23 Advanced Suttle Micro by Centi

04/26 Miss Used Dark archon by LikeWater

04/28 Protoss defense by SSj_HyDra

05/07 here goes early-end pvt by ThaMediC

05/12 PvT DT Drop by SeXMachine

05/13 PvZ vs early exp zerg by 40BelowSummer

05/14 PvZ: 9 Pool by i.sKy)Syntax

05/14 Harrasment. by i.sKy)Syntax

05/18 PvT - Scout/Reaver strat by CopLin)Shayy

05/23 Dark Templar Rush by Phernando

05/27 P v T strat by loki®

05/28 Classic Reaver Drop by Phernando

07/13 PvT Fast CC Counter by MeTaLLicA