Most PvT is all about placing units at different locations and then wait and react to what the Terran is doing. PvT from the Protoss perspective is extremely stressful. I would say its the most intense gameplay out of all the match ups. I know a lot of people that believe TvP is the hardest match up. But I think its PvT because when the Terran is aggressive and does it correctly he/she is everywhere.
At its core PvT its very interesting. The Protoss army is generally really, really weak in the early stages of the game. So its all about having a really good defence. Still Protoss can do a lot of quirky plays just before midmid game(when Terran gets stim etc). For example Dark Templars or one of my favorites Sentry drop.
What I like the most with PvT is how fun but also very frustrating the late game is. All the High Templar versus Ghost battles.
But overall then its a very defensive gameplay, and I actually feel its to much defensive gameplay. Because protoss cant really do anything against the Terran player until he/she has a huge army. The only thing that can be done is several different all ins. And sure there are a lot of all ins that can be done, but it feels kinda wrong that protoss cant be more aggressive if they wanted to.
For me this feels a little like playing Guile in Street fighter, I want to sit in a corner and shoot sonic boom all the day long(I have received so much angry mails from people about this---) and I don't want to go close, but when you play at a high level you know that sometimes you have to mix up the game and so forth. But when playing Protoss its more like you cant really leave the corner, there is no mixing it up. So while I personally favor this methodically defensive control play PvT feels a little boring sometimes because I really want to be able to mix it up more. Also Protoss has a huge problem with the transitions in PvT its really hard to do other units then what you already have. For example the research time on psi storm is way to long to just suddenly have High Templars, and why many often get a lot of Archons while waiting on it. Carrier builds way to slow and void rays are not that effective altought ,many Terran I have faced recently has gone huge numbers of Marauders, so I kinda want either Void Ray or Carrier. But its really hard to build up that number of needed stargates.
This is mainly because of 2 factors, the mentioned long build/research times. The other main factor is that Terran are so aggressive they will be attacking you constantly, dropping on the same time and/or cloak Banshees. PvT is amazingly frustrating my biggest pain is when I have a lot of gates, and I love my gates I usually have a huge number of gates. So I can warp in 10 new High Templar's but he will be at my door all the time, so I cant even gain enough energy for 1 storm. Of course you have to build HTs before but they have died or used their storms in the constant battles.
I truly hated to nerf o Hts, I do agree that it was way to good because you could warp in and storm right away with the Kharadyin Amulet research but as it is now. You have to get that Colossus count which makes the game more boring, and its such a nerf for protoss really as the main problem having the big death ball is the ridicules pain all the drops are.
The biggest reason I think is behind the strength if banshe is not the cloak, its a problem in some games where the player not at all goes for observers but its rare. The biggest problem is that Protoss cant kill the banshee outside the base waiting to fly in, same goes for drop attacks. Because Protoss never get stargates, how often is even the mothership used even do its like the best you can have for that food.
I predict that in the hearth of the swarm, drops and banshee will lose their strength in the meta game because protoss will go more air based from having a better air unit: Tempest and the harass from oracle seems much stronger and easier to execute then Phoenix or void rays against Terran.
OK it might sound like I hate PvT, I don't at all actually altought some situations can be a little frustrating mainly for me its how Terran can rebuild an army out of nothing as their units are so strong in small numbers compared to a small number Protoss army after huge battles where both armies have been wiped out. PvT has always been my best match up overall over the years it was also my best match up back in Starcraft 1(however right now my PvZ is insane).
I feel very comfortable defending and I love the 200 versus 200 army fights. So whats the good points of PvT?.
First of there are all this mentioned cute plays the user can do. With many alterations, I have started going back to this void ray + 3 gate actually. Because I have recently faced a lot of 1.1.1 and then the Terran has fewer marines to handle it. But I wont go into all these different 1 bases builds or possibly 2 bases all ins. For me that is not the PvT, you should play or what I play I always wants to reach the late late game. I play a very heavily macro oriented game. Still the reason for this is that the user cant really do anything else, expect then all ins.
However then the macro oriented game is very enjoyable as long as you do it correctly. I mean of course its very frustrating when the Terran drops you at 3 places at once, but on the other hand when you have like 1 HT at each base and feedbacks all 3 medivacs and perfectly defends that, man that is such a great feeling. This is really how the PvT plays out, you have to set up defence positions. I usually have 1 canon to per base eventually. And defend, when you have defend you can either get more bases or attack. There is one thing I love in PvT, and that is Terran players that drops fro the sake of dropping. Either they drop at bad locations, e.g my army stands next to them. Or just 1 drop at a time that never works really. And sometimes Terran does this huge mega drops 4-5 medivacs full of units. And I think this is really where that match up is fun for Protoss because as long as you defend that you know you can go and crush his/her base or prevent a third fro going up.
And this takes us to a very important part of playing the Protoss against Terran. Map control, caters often say, “wow look at his map awareness” and of course map awareness is very important as a protoss, I would say its the race that need it the most. But map awarness its almost impossible to utilize without map control. Which protoss usually gains from observers or in my case usually DTs.
For me this is very much like playing any control character in a fighting game with game resource mechanics, Testament, Dormammu, Dr.Strange, Bridget etc. Its a very important part of the gameplay to always have as much vision as possible, for example a lot of players will drop pylons a little everywhere to spot drops or even to warp in Stalkers to deny drops before they reach the base.
But this also means that PvT is pretty hard, the user has to always be so aware of everything that happens, PvZ is similar to this to. This is really the core of Protoss gameplay, have good vision, have descent position and building placement and defend when you see stuff happening.
Then after all this defending is done, the player get into a stage where the protoss can attack usually out from having 3 bases. So first of all clearly the user needs to enjoy playing like this, I do, but I can also understand there are many people who hate playing Protoss. Defend, defend, Defend get a death ball move out. But really at high level of play the Terran should also have a huge death ball, the bio ball. So not realy. Protoss versus Terran has this stigma, that the protoss player just Attack move and wins. I disagree completely it is such a battle between either defending the colossus from vikings or the High Templar vs Ghost gameplay. And I think its here where PvT really gets hard but also funny to play.
And its interesting that even during this battles, the protoss are much more of a reactive player, he/she will throw storms where the Terran will be based on the Terran players movement, while the Terran more hunts the ghosts. Of course its not like this every battle, every game but usually even during mas food battle Protoss is more of a reactive gameplay.
PvT at late game is very micro oriented battle towards spells. Which is kinda weird in on way, the user get used to it, I am used to it so to speak. But compare to other games or then other match ups. Its such such a heavy spell battle, force fields,guardian shield, feedback, and Psi storms versus Snipe, Emp and Point Defense Drone.
It makes it hard for the user in either side of the battle.
But I like it, It do requires a lot of thinking and it can get very annoying if you accidentally grouped all the High Templars. However when it its goes smooth for both players it becomes a very good battle.
Its all about hitting those right storms, or feedback ghosts while avoiding being emped. Blink to get Vikings or medivacs , get good forcefields to trap bio units and to feedback medivacs or feedbacking point defense drones/ravens.
The battles becomes so much back and forth. You throw some storms he moves back, he throws down a drone you move back to. Its a very interesting gameplay altought extremely stressful and frustrating at its time.
Myrmondens’s Protoss Versus Terran Build
What build I use at ladder?
I only use 2 builds really. DT rush and a HT rush build which still involves DTs.
My gameplan is all about having 3 bases before Terran does and defending until I have max food from 3 bases and then go and kill him basically. I get here by going really fast DTs.
What is great about DT opening is that even on a high ladder I can get off many free wins by using them. So first of all that's a good way to reach up the ladder. Secondly and what is the actual goal is to get map control. I contain the Terran with my DTs and take a really early third. And on the same time I will prevent him/her from getting a third in the near feature by having DTs stationed at the expand location.
But the best part and how I play Protoss versus Terran is that I have such a lack of units. I can sit at 3 bases with 2 Dts 1 Stalker. That's my units. However what both my build includes is that I get an Archive as soon as I started warping DTS. And then I only get Zealot and High Templars for quit some time which will be able to defend when the Terran moves out.
And make no mistake this army can DEFEND! You cannot move out with this army and attack him. If a Terran drops me, which usually fails as I have HTs. Then I can move out and contain him so he/she cant get a third but that's only because I know he/she has a huge lack in units.
The different choice of builds depend on the map distance, and what kind of map it is. At a 2 player map I will often go for the 1 base DT rush. While at a 4 player map I go the the 15 nexus into HT Rush.
Whats important to understand is that DT rush is bad ass good-_- Because while I do get my DTs I will have an expansion up. 2 gate is enough so that expansion is dropped pretty early. But of course the HT rush is even stronger then I get my third up while the DT is attacking and these DT only comes slightly later then what they do from 1 base, and now instead I will take a third base while this is happening. And most importantly the HTs wil be out already as well.
Both this build are pretty successful I got something around 70+% win ratio. But its not much to say about the 1 base, basically you chrono boost probes whole game, never chrono boost warp tech if you don’t spot an early attack. Get 1 stalker out as soon as possible to deny scouting and very importantly sit outside his base with this 1 stalker (always do this regardless of build). Hide the tech, so the Terran cant scan it so easily. 1 gate 1 nexus 1 gate.
The Ht rush is much more interesting and if you can get this build of uninterrupted its such a good build.
15 nexus
-constant probe chrono boost
2 gates right away build zealots to defend his/her marine attacks which is a pretty common, he/she will probably try to punish you early expand. If not scout to see its not a Terran going for tech, - Hellion banshee harass etc Then you need units before the Dts. But this is rare.
- Important step --- Get 4 geyser really quickly as soon as you can.
When Twilight Citadel is finished, build both Archive and Shrine.
Attack with DTs - some free games but most of the time they will do zero damage.
However the Terran is contained, one DT at the choke so teh Terran cant leave, 1 at the normal third. Take a third base during this.
Normally The Terran will attack shortly after defending the DTs , however storm is already done and you should have around 4-6 Hts with at least 6 storms because this build involves warping in 2 HTs before going for storm tech, then they will have energy for 2 storm each. As the DT will contain you don't need to go for storm the second the archive is finished.
Defend the attack or possible drops.
Now here is a very important step that for both builds.
Get 2 robotic facilities right away. Get bay, start doing double colo. The Terran will have loads of Ghost in the next big battle, so its important to get colossus.
This is the build basically, as long as you defend the third base its almost always a win. I lose a few times after defending the third anyway if the Terran does like triple drops etc and I am to slow to move my workers/units.
This build is hard countered by an old build no one ever does on ladder anymore, which is marine + early ghost. I remember this build was pretty common the first months. But I haven't seen it in any game this season, so its safe to assume the Terran wont go for it, if he/she does you lose. Ghost can Emp and reveal DTs and they wil of course Emp the HTs, and the Zealot will die to fast without any shield to mass marine. (This Terran build is hard counter by decently fast colossus and as robotic is the most common protoss build, Terran players don't for go for it.
- In the next entry I will reveal my 90%+ win ratio PvZ build
