Like the title says. Specifically been thinking ab vs Terran

How do you deal with mass cyclone atm? Stalker zelot? Immortal coloss? I rly don’t know how to kill it

Have you had any success killing drones with the buffed spores? My average exchange rate of oracles : drones is about 1:1 now xD

time to actually learn micro I guess

Just curious to see how protoss MMRs have or have not changed in the new patch. My guess is that the average MMR goes down about 1-200.

Trying to dust off the rust AND learn all the changes that were made since LOTV got going. I preordered it, played a little bit, then never really played enough.

So I'm unclear on the best uses for the "new" units since I never used them, and I tend to skip and ignore them but perhaps that's a bit silly - shield battery in Brood War was nice, so I'm seeing that building being useful, but adepts and disruptors, heck even oracles I'm not 100% sure what to do with them....

Also, watching a bunch of YouTube videos to learn more, I found Pig's bronze to GM series, which is helpfu.

Found these two helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NueP8Jeea3c&t=137s & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMYYSHfMcVQ&list=WL&index=10

this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZsHqDt__b8 showed me a couple things I already knew, but a few I didn't even know I didn't know! One of them was how to warp in quicker. After seeing Pig's suggestion to adjust your keyboard repeat rate to tweak your game, I thought, why do I have to click with my mouse for each unit warped in? Turns out.... I don't! Found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKAYPiCMdn8 (and watched the old one too).

I'm trying to force myself to learn hotkeys - I used them very well in Brood War back in the day, and started to use them in Wings of Liberty, but then for some reason fell into bad habits. I partially blame F2, lol.

I've always played all three races, generally gravitating towards Protoss (gravitation beam, get it? :) )

I think I need to stop jumping between them for a bit to really solidify my hot key skills. I was playing zerg a couple of weeks ago vs cpu to just practice mechanics, but then Terran kept melting my zerg. I should likely have put ultras in, I see now bro lords aren't as powerful as they used to be. So made the mistake of reading upcoming patch notes and saw Terran is the flavor of the month (or year or whatever) so I decided I'd buckle down and play them for awhile to get good with them.

Well, something happened to me - not even sure what....but I got jealous of something Protoss does, and switched back to Toss again. I'm going to try to stay here now - please keep me focused! :)

Sooo..... help I'd love from this community from the smart people here - only people with leet skills post, if you are too low MMR, please do not post in this thread (totally kidding! lol).

1. What is the best or suggested, or guidelines for hotkey setup? I don't mind learning new, but I don't want to go down a bad path. I can touch type with a keyboard, and like I said, Brood War - so you don't need to tell me WHY it's a good idea - I'm trying to figure out WHAT the setup should be and WHY. Maybe core, maybe defaults with a few added keys? Should I nix F2 as a crutch, or is it a good emergency key? What unit control groups, what camera locations, how can I use hotkeys to micro my casters (usually I win with A-move and good macro, but adding in even a little micro should up my game). I'm totally (as you can likely tell) overwhelmed and have analysis paralysis.
2. What are some good things to practice? I know there is a custom game for learning how to creep spread for playing zerg for example - and practice on micro is likely a generally good idea of course and working on tightening my timing on following builds
3. I need to know when to move out or harass - but not sure when. When SC2 came out, I had fun harassing to distract or cripple opponent's macro, or cheesing/rushing, etc. Now I feel like I'm tending to turtle, which is giving the initiative to my enemy, which is not ideal
4. What are some good ways to mess with my opponent as Protoss currently? Warp prism drop and warp in units? phoneix rush? oracle rush?
5. What's the general state of Protoss? I'm reading that they are not that great in high level play, but in lower leagues they are pretty good, possibly higher than the other two due to more straightforward play? Maybe I'm wrong, not sure
6. My absolute favorite mode is 2v2 ladder. I realize SC2 is balanced for 1:1, but I find it's really enjoyable to have a teammate, and 3v3 and 4v4 gets to be a little more chaotic since 3 or 4 players could hit just one - with 2v2 there is more agency per person in the game. Plus it allows for more interesting play with more than one race on a team. In Brood War I especially thought cloaked siege tanks were hilarious.
7. I've told you when I played and didn't play - any changes that I might not have picked up on that I really should know in the last years since lotv was released?
8. Is a full attack by protoss not really an all-in since you can warp units back to the nexus?
9. What's the best partner race for me if I have a friend play 2v2 and they are open to what they play? I'm thinking Terran to have diverse unit options, but not have annoying creep compete with my buildings, plus they can provide a gate for our walls.
10. Anything at all you can think of to give me for advice, tips, tricks, life-hacks for SC2 in general or Protoss in particular that I didn't already ask?

Hi!

Am a 2.8k player.

Except the occasional phoenix colossus build I suck at, I know zero build order with Stargate first, let alone with Oracles in it.

E.g. I don't know what "2024 standard PvZ build" is, or any of other matchups.

And it seems that it's high time to learn a solid build that gives an oracle early to defend early pressure / all-ins.

Would you have resources for build orders to recommend?

Thank you!

I saw this game with Hero where he built 3 gates, I think he proxies the 2nd gate and rushed out a bunch of stalkers before warpgate (acxidentally wrote warp prism in the title).I can't find this game anymore. Does anyone have any idea what this build is? I've been doing my own version of it but want to see the actual build.

It doesn’t seem to matter what composition I make, it always seems to eventually just cave under Terran ball pressure, or mech. Fast upgrades and twilight unit pressure? Too brittle to tank or marauder. Fast charge and storm with upgrades? Marauder kiting with concussive, or tanks and libs. Robo? Colossus too brittle to any unit composition that isn’t solely marine, and Immortal and Disruptor just don’t cut it in exchange for cost and supply — Marauder, Liberator, Tank just too cost efficient. Not even worth mentioning any air unit comps. And I haven’t even mentioned the Ghost. What the fuck do we do?

Game is unplayable for me now that I die to braindead terran 1bases every single game.

https://drop.sc/replay/25798489
Roast me, been having a lot of problems with this. Is it the build? Thanks

I encourage my fellow Protoss players to stop and reflect on how these community discussions have worked out over the years. Is the game in a more enjoyable state for you to play in these days? Are pro games more to your liking?

I've seen many P players say similar things since the initial PTR notes, and I've shared in the frustrations. And then I remember how these patches feel so similar. I'm thankful for you all who comment and remind me about past patterns with balance adjustments. Then we're told by the rest of the community that us ladder plebs are in no position to comment on the balance of the game. Also, herO and maxpax aren't either because they're just not as good as Clem or Serral.

With this joke of a patch out today, I'm going to take a step back from the game for a while. I'm going to stop consuming SC2 content, and stop watching pro games.

There seems to be agreement that the Balance Council is corrupted by their own interests at winning the prize pool. So it's about money. I'm just one person, but I know how I contribute to that. I can just stop viewing SC2 creator content. I can stop watching pro games. Maybe it'll take 2-3 seasons. Maybe it'll take 6. Hey, maybe the SC2 winnings page on Liquipedia will end up looking more like the WC3 winnings page on Liquipedia. I think I'm willing to risk that if the alternative is to endure more of these kinds of changes.

It's not just this time. There were plenty of other balance patches before this. There will be more going forward if something big doesn't change. We've enabled this by playing (and watching) along.

I love how Starcraft 2 is a game that gives the community the chance to test huge changes of the game. Re-working abilities, creating new abilities, and changing the feel of the game that came out over nine years ago.

I think the most recent addition of the energy recharge ability is the clear example of that. Spellcasting in Protoss has unlocked a new style of play... Reactive casting. The ability to energy overcharge a high templar that is warping in and now spawns with two storms or three feedbacks is so fun and revitalizing to playing the Protoss race. Now yes, it did come at a cost... But we now have to learn to defend more efficiently. An oracle in the early game can now activate its beam in your base for over two minutes straight, yeah, pretty crazy... A sentry spawning with three forcefields, Amazing.

The hallucinated phoenix-- they new most busted ability in the game. Protoss now has scouting of your opponents base for the entire early game. Or the probe hallucination, which gives you four probes for scouting. Overall, though battery overcharge is gone, we now have tools to see what is coming at us and when, so we can better tailor our game plan to counter their build.

I really am a huge fan of the PTR and that we have the ability to truly play an entire different game for protoss.

Yeah, I'm going to go on a limb and say, thumbs down from Dave.

Mainly playing on asian NA / KR server. EU ping is just way too high for me.

Looking for a partner around the same MMR approx to practise early to mid game for 12 pool macro openers. Been struggling executing them against all-ins lately because the timings with 12 pool openings are completely different from standard ZvP timings.

Also want to get more practice against 2 base all-ins in general, and twilight openers

4 gate glave timing seems to be working against everyone (S1/G3)

But everyone gets big mad...why?

Silver player here, I have been rotating around the races for a while, been playing zerg the longest, and recently committed to terran. But I keep struggling with both of them, I get stuck on Silver for both (even though, because of how recently i played terran, it shows i'm master for terran, though mmr shows silver) and i tried protoss again after getting good with macro with the other two races, not sure if it's for me. I recently found out how to attach multiple keys to rapid fire, so i can do that thing with the warpgate. I like how zerg feels, very swarmy, but i like how terran macros, i can be a lot faster on things. Is protoss for me? I played a lot of coop and vs ai, it feels nice, but i currently know only one build order and am not very good at it. Any tips or should i commit to a different race.

Hello fellow magic dreadlock people,

I am playing Protoss on gold level and wonder why upgrade heavy styles are not played.

Something like greedy fast expand to 3 / 4 bases with late gases, 3 forges (2 vs terran, because of Ghosts) and chronoboosted upgrades.

Guys?

So i've been thinking about protoss as a race and how it is weaker than the other two in some specific ways and how it compensates for those weaknesses.
so obviously protoss have a fairly low dps from just regular units as they tend to be bigger doesn't mass up that well and shoot at a slower intervall typically and so the way protoss deals with zerg and terran is at first to outlive them with higher hp pools and such but when they (terran and zerg) manage to get enough units at a certain point their dps just melts protoss armies but their units are fairly low health in comparison so protoss have several splash damage options that they feel forced to rely on just to keep up in a head to head fight with main armies.

now this feels a bit like a crapshoot, landing your splash damage and protecting those specific units as they are very susceptible to being sniped or destroyed, or you simply miss or something, etc.

however what i've been thinking about, what could we do if we didn't rely on splash as the thing that evens everything up? and that leads me to the oracle and the sentry.
the oracle with its ability to find stealthed units and more importantly the ability of stasis wards, these do not only freeze a big chunk of army but it also creates a choke that the enemy has to pass through which is a double whammy and it lasts quite a while, it removes the amount of units they have for the time being and splits up their effective dps just by removing units from the equation but also further decreases the dps by creating that choke for the rest of their army to pass through and get killed piece by piece.
but the issue is that it's very simple to just trigger these stasis traps or destroy them outright which leads us to the sentry.

the sentry with hallucinations as a possible option is to just make a lot of fake units making it harder for the enemy to snipe specific units, such as disruptors and so on, but leaning on splash was the thing we tried to not use as a crutch, then the forcefield and the guardian shield are 2 very good options but i think they are being used very haphazardly or not at all as it stands, obviously zealots do not gain that much help in a fight with or without guardian shield and forcefields only lets the zealots catch up and hit the enemy however they get melted just the same and obviously spamming forcefields only to block your own path isn't the greatest use of forcefields.

but i think if you're using a mainly ranged army such as immortals and stalkers and maybe have some zealots depending on the match up to soak some hits or provide a back up impromptu forcefield when the normal forcefields time out eventually, the zealots can throw themselves at the enemy as a deterrent or help chase down the stragglers that are left over, but what i think how you should use force fields primarily is to set up chokes and a 2 way option, for example you pre-emptively put up a forcefield choke to let the enemy decide if they want to engage through it or to let their hatchery/command center get destroyed, and that is gonna be most fights. make it hard for the enemy to fight you on good terms, this way you don't have to worry about your special units getting sniped or your energy units getting emp'ed as they have already expended their energy before hand or that your units will just melt under an overwhelming force of high dps as it is gonna come through very sparingly making it easy to soak up at a more reasonable time frame for a protoss whos dps suck but got decent pick off damage so you can easily pick them off as they funnel through.

now i can't say this will work all of the time in all scenarios, neither am i particularly good at the game.
but it's just something i pondered over being a more reliable tactic to use over trying to play keep away with high templars and disruptors and colossi constantly, or relying on extremely heavy early game pressure to end games before the enemy makes it really hard to fight them head to head.

i could be dead wrong about this but for some reason it makes a lot of sense to me in my head and i'd appreciate your feedback/take on this.

Hey y’all I’m a terran playing trying to get my toss to diamond. I’m playing a robo colossus/disrupter style vs Zerg and my midgame is going really well then they get ultras out and I get stomped. What units do I make? I don’t have my ghosts idk what to do lol

Mothership arrives in your main base at 5:19 and recalls 6 zealots and 2 void rays.

Opponent's base is completely walled off so you couldn't scout but you can't help but assume some sort of air cheese like oracles.

So, I open oracle and see my opponent building phoenix. Both 1 gate expand, same time nexus, same eco. I assume it's not worth it to start phoenixing yourself since the opponent started first. What is a good course of action in this case?

4K MMR

Hey y’all Terran main here trying to get my toss up to snuff. It’s actually making me realize why y’all hate Terrans. It’s like 80% one base all ins here in plat and I still die with 8 shield batteries. Anyways I digress

I’m really enjoying doing pigs B2GM (the old one) stalker disrupter vs Terran. I’m wanting to do it in PvP. I just have no idea what I’m doing in PvP. What units counter me? How do I get vision when they’re also using observers (zealots?). Also is there a disrupter style vs Zerg?

Hi I am plat-dia toss I always struggle into this style it feels like the T bases are next to uncrackable due to sensor towers meaning they can always match your army movement with their siege units and they slowly expo to many bases until a gazillion ghosts shred my army. Just played a game on ghost river I was full 5 bases going to 6, opponent was 4 base; I lost cause I kept trading very poorly into his setup as I wanted to use my income lead until he walked across the map and killed me - on maps like this should I just wait until they mine out and have no choice but to expo? I know on other maps I could go up to like 8 bases and it doesn't matter if trades are dogshit because of the income lead, but I'm not good enough to defend those exposed bases from drops.

So what units can we make to trade well into these setups that doesn't involve just sitting there waiting for them to max and move out - I am generally decent at spending my money and making probes so if there is a way to trade positively, or at least even, I feel like I should come out on top compared to people at this rank who float 3k all the time. Is tempest the answer? or phoenix disruptor? Blink dt?

Question from a D2-D3 protoss who never takes down rocks, usually building a CIA army.

I have this issue. For example, in PvT I put pylons on the map, observers around my base and in the opponent's base. My army on the map to see if I can catch my opponent's army out of position. But then a drop falls on my main and it gets more damage dealt than I should have received, since I should have seen it coming.

I do everything well, but not watching the minimap regularly. I don't know how to do this and I want to improve this aspect of my gameplay. How do you get used to warch the minimap?

Don't get me wrong I respect herO for being one of the pros to raise the flag of Protoss but based on my observation and shout casts (Lowko and SCHL) he really is becoming sloppier from time to time. I mean he IS good no doubt on that, but some of his plays has small but many mistakes and he is selling most of his matches bcs of it

Hey, I am returning to the game after a few years (though I never played a lot) and currently sitting in plat 3 mmr. I am playing mostly chargelot immortal archon. When I get into a longer game I almost always win but I die a lot to rushes, especially pvp proxies and 12 pools. Some questions:

When do I 1 hate expand vs 2 gate expand? I have been 1 gate expanding in all matchups is this too greedy?

When do I wall off main ramp instead of natural?

Thanks

Hi, first post here for me, please be nice ^^

I am trying to get back to sc2, my level is Gold 2, and i am following Vibe's B2GM Protoss serie. It is difficult... Usually, I win every macro game but I die on almost every cheese or early push (especially against Terrans and Protoss)... Here is my last example : PvP, I scoot an early base expand so "no danger" I build no shield battery, as Vibe's said, because I saw 2nd base and I focus on macro and eco. It seems to me that my gate is almost always working, I also get an immortal but then a group of Zealots suddendly arrives and kill everything in a few seconds. Here is the replay :

https://drop.sc/replay/25706573