I have a strategy I want to develop in Starcraft 2. The opening builds and strategies that I usually employ are created by professional players far better at the game than I. However I got an idea for a strategy, and this time I have no strict and specific build order to follow. I have to develop and test and hone timings on my own to discover if the build I want to create will actually be viable. I may need to abandon this build if testing proves it won't work. But without testing, it isn't Starcraft, it's Theorycraft. The next few posts on this blog will document the development and testing of this build, with replays and possibly commentary videos included.
"So what's the damn build already?!"
This is a Protoss vs Zerg strategy for the Protoss. The typical Protoss style which I use to great success is the Blink Stalker + Sentry + Colossus death ball, with a 3rd base Dark Templar/Archon transition. Extremely safe and well-rounded strategy. It's good against just about everything the Zerg can throw at it and transitions well throughout the game. But is this the BEST strategy against everything Zerg can throw at the Protoss? I'd like to find out.
In a nutshell, what I would like to develop is a strategy involving Immortals and High Templar. Immortals are one of my favorite units and I feel like they are criminally underutilized. With 50 damage against armored targets and a hardened shield, Immortals are serious threats to any armored unit. Typically we only see these in large numbers against Terran mech - Tanks and Thors - but both Marauders and Roaches are armored as well. With the standard Protoss PvZ strategy, the answer to Roaches is Stalkers and Colossi, neither of which is particularly strong against the Roach. Combined together, however, they can do OK. I want to do better than OK! I want to wreck roaches entirely. And with the Immortal in larger numbers than we ever typically see, I believe that is possible.
So the Immortal will be the key to defeating mass roach, but what about anything else the Zerg throws our way? Zerglings and Hydralisks are light units with high DPS which circumvent the Immortal's hardened shield. In the standard Protoss strategy, the Colossus deals with these two threats. If the Colossus count is very low because the Zerg keeps making Corruptors, Hydralisks and Zerglings can be devastating to the remaining Stalker army. It can be hard for a Protoss to deal with a Zerg who overmakes Corruptors and then masses Hydralisks. Alternatively, many Zergs will play with Zerglings and Mutalisks, or even Zerglings and Banelings. There just isn't a strong answer to large masses of Zerglings using a standard Protoss strategy. There are only ways to do OK against these Zerg strategies and eke out an economic victory. That's not good enough for me. I want to crush my enemies!
That's where the High Templar comes into play. Psionic Storm will melt Zerglings almost instantly. They soften Mutalisks substantially, and are a critical way to keep the Mutalisk count low enough for blink stalkers to deal with them. Storm deals with Hydralisks because they can't micro out of the storm easily, and don't have a lot of health. What storm is weak against is armored targets - the Roach, the Brood Lord, and the Ultralisk.
It is my belief that the Immortal deals with armored targets better and the High Templar deals with light Zerg units better than the more general-purpose Stalker + Colossus army. Now that I have this strategic concept, I need to fashion a gameplan around it. What are my goals with this build?
1. A safe fast expansion
-I want to win a game of any length using this build. The units I need to make require a lot of gas. I'll want three bases reasonably quickly both to get the economy I need for the units I want, but also to stay even with the Zerg's economy.
2. Immortals in time to fight mid-game Roaches
-If we scout Roaches, we need to be able to create out Immortals in time. This means a reasonably fast Robotics Facility.
3. Ability to scout the Zerg's tech in time to determine my Templar timing.
-What the Zerg is doing determines whether I start to go mass Immortal or High Templar off of two bases, and when to start getting Templars. I need to scout what Zerg does soon after taking my natural expansion.
I now have a very basic set of goals that my build needs to meet. As a general framework, we're looking at some kind of reasonably fast expansion to open. I'm going to elect for a 3-gateway Sentry expand, which is a standard and very safe Protoss expansion build. I feel that forge fast-expanding is too map-dependent and too risky at this point in the development of my build.
Upon taking my natural expansion, I need to scout the Zerg's tech, or optionally to force the Zerg's tech. There are four ways to do this:
1. Hallucinated Phoenix
-For the reasonably small cost, we can research hallucination and send fake Phoenixes across the map all mid-game long. This is a versatile and long-term scouting solution, offering more uses later in the game.
2. Observer
-We could build an observer to scout the Zerg with. The problem I foresee is that this is a slower scout method and we want the observer to be with our army. We also may want to utilize the Robotics Facility for Immortals early and often.
3. Poking the Zerg army
-Poking at the Zerg army will force him to make units and show what units he's building. This is a strategy we ideally want to do all game long to control the Zerg's economy. The issue with this method is that the Zerg can hide tech, like Mutalisks or Hydras, until it is too late to spot.
4. Forcing Roaches with a Zealot + Sentry attack
-I like to think of this as the Huk method. Upon expanding, we want to attack with pure Zealots and Sentries and a proxy pylon. Against a Zerg making Zerglings or small numbers of roaches, this attack can actually win the game, but our ultimate goal is to force the Zerg to make large numbers of roaches. The timing will hit the Zerg before Mutalisks come out. The issue with this method is how risky it is. Forcefields have to be perfectly placed and the Zerg can blindly kill the Protoss by building a lot of units early.
I'll need to test all of these methods, but my goal is a tactic which will determine what the Zerg is doing and give me time to respond via 2-base Immortals or High Templars. What timings I need to learn to defend specific midgame Zerg attacks I will have to discover through testing. The next question is when and how I will take my third base. With the standard Protoss style, the key timing is when the first Colossus is produced, because it immediately gives the Protoss some amount of safety. Without Colossus, it seems like a key timing will be the completion of Storm research, perhaps the completion of forge upgrades, or the beginning of double-robo Immortal production. This is something I need to discover through testing.
So now I have a basic framework for a build order, based on the goals of my desired strategy. 3-gate Sentry expand, some method of scouting, a robotics facility, and then a response to scouting - either double-robo Immortal or High Templar and Storm. After one of these responses, at some point, we need to take a third base. Once taking a third base, we can complete our Immortal + High Templar gameplan. Potentially we can move onto stargates or Dark Templar. This is when we might get Archons out, as well. This is the build order I intend to figure out through testing and playing with practice partners. Stay tuned for the next post, detailing my testing and experiences developing and refining this build order further.
Any diamond-level Zerg player that wants to assist this process by acting as a practice partner should message me on Battle.net! My ID is "GomJabbar", my character code is "678".
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