Man I am seriously pissed of right now, I buy a new expansive mic and it just stooped recording during mid stream. I didn't not notice this, so I kept playing the game until I beat the game.
Anyway it is not just the same playing the game agian which I was thinking on. Ok might actually make better statement and ideas etc. But the raw first impression(of a game I have played lie 100+ times before) its simply more true.
So basically here I will write the key points I said during the stages. Also it is epically annoying that it messed up the recording of the games sound as well. Who will play watch those videos now right? It is really an epic lose, I explained the meaning of life during part 3. But here you will only get the key points I made about the game.
Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel. Its the third game I have played as my It was better in the good old days streaming. Its a sequel to the Aero the acrobats games, where Zero was the villain’s right hand.
Stage 1 explained in part 1.
Stage 2 partly explained in part 2. Ok I got stuck at stage 2, and paused to think for a while. And after this my mic screwed me. Not much to say about Stage 2. I like how the game lets the user train on the dive gameplay before its more dangerous to do it,
Stage 3. Its a really interesting stage. First of its really hard, and I make this point like 10 times during stage 5. Stage 3 has short cuts who are not short cuts, kinda interesting. In one way it feels so evil, but it also feels so right. Tricking the users idea of that its always better to take the secret path. The lift rop thingy, annoyed the crap out of me, as it was just slowing down the game. The fire rop thing was really, really hard ok. really hard...
Stage 4 Jetski stage 1. This is what I am talking about in SP as well. Its a completely other gameplay games started having this during the snes generation and it a really good. I kept joking about how much I wanted to tyr and speed run all the time.
Stage 5 The thing is. I like stage 5 a lot, but stage 3 was a lot harder especially the boss on stage 5 is really easy. That i feel is the biggest blunder of the game(except where I got stuck). I did some amazingly good comparison to my empirical studies of fighting gamers so it was like a Eureka movement there. But really its not a good difficulty curve for the user. Otherwise I like how the game prepare the user for dive gameplay. Still it is kinda weird the dive on stage 3 was easier but a sure death. Stage 5 dives are harder but a mistake just cost a lot of time.
Stage 6 Jetski stage 2. This stage is honestly kinda redundant, It do reminds me of the stage 5 in Contra 3/super probotector, and actually maybe I got lucky and but it felt easier then stage 4. Well still it is understandable that its easier to use the same different gameplay again (in new games this would fell more disappointing I am sure). So it is nice that there is a mix,.
Stage 7 Its hard Ok. I died a lot, I got tired a lot. Starting to do many mistakes on the second part of the game. The game offers the classic, face every boss again kinda feeling, I am not against this I actually think its a good way to use the resource the game has. I want to emphasise that I talked a lot about how each Boss in the game is their own, Each boss is a different way to fight. We have the jetpack boss which I hated as a kid. Also note that Zero used a jetpack in the prequel games, there is some coherency which I explained that got lost (and I am to tired to write you can google that instead). And the last boss uses the classic game mechanic of, only being weak to his own weapons. Nothing wrong with using classic gameplay, especially here when it is only used once then its a unique gameplay right?
Anyway sorry that my mic died,,, and apparently removed the sound from the game aswell. I read that I might have to change its USB cord. hmm its really annoying because I did like 4 local test runs before to make sure the sound was good compared to the game sound etc. And then everything worked perfectly.
This is my first tutorial. I play with a friend that just started playing League of Legends. I will try to stream some more games in the future where fundamental gameplay strategies will be brought up.
Rengar is the newest champion in League of Legends. And he is pretty straight forward. During my first games with him, I lived streamed it. And it went decently well, later live streams of LoL will work out smoother.
Do no watch anyone of this vidoes-_- I just linked them here if you got nothing better to do. My first live stream of LoL. So its not a very good quality. Especially not the first, However, if you want to hear my direct first impression go ahead.
First thing I want to say about Rengar is that I think the tooltip of his unique item Bonetooth necklace. Should be improved for a more coherent design. Currently it is a really nice Aesthetic touch how it changes icon at the item location(users stash), but the user will also see the Bonetooth icon above her/his abilities: The buff bar. And here it says only the number of stacks. That one should change accordingly to the item icon, and possibly it could display the current buffs the items gives, while the item version should stay the same and display all the current and possibly later buffs.
Rengar really reminds me of Leonin and other cat people in Magic the gathering, which wizard introduced in the mirriodin expansion. I think its becuase of the white mane, but also the overall attidue, the whole pride thing.
Prideful cat warriors in Magic.
I mean Cat warriors are pridefull seems to be a theme.
They even have this equipment: the bolas, like Rengar’s third ability Bola Strike.
One more thing all this kitties with pride makes me think about is of course
Kitty pryde of the x-men,
Aesthetics: I like Rengar, hes commentary works good with his character. I really like the feel of the leap ability, note I mean how it looks. The user get this faded circle around, indicating the leap distance and it feels kinda stealthy. This part is really nice, then that he is a hunter, he looks like a hunter talks like a hunter (in that stereotypically nice way we gamers want). And this in conjunction with his own unique item that gets stack from kills its a great coherency. Then all the abilities also fits very well, first a classic damage increase, the roar, the hunter weapon and Bolas are pretty cool. However what I really like is the ultimate. The ultimate gives the user another vision, which is more red’ish, and it also gives this heartbeat sounds. This is a great modeless feedback, which is rare in games. It reminds me of Vanquish a game with amazing modeless feedback. Overall I really like the feel of Rengar. One thing it I don't like its this really good feel is at its prime at 14 stack of Bonetooth necklace, then you can always argue and say well that makes it more worth having max stack. And this is true but on the same time, to me he is really starts to feel right at 9 stacks - increased leap. However that is more in the gameplay problem (mainly balance).
9/10 - Especially I like the ultimate.
Gameplay:
Rengar is clearly an intended jungler. I have to say right away I surprisingly like Rengar a lot, I thought he was gonna be another no brain melee champion but its a really nice way how high is damage is but he cant really take so much damage so its really important to prowl after the weak targets. But OK, first his roles, it is still kinda boring he wont work as anything else expect jungle. While it is possible to play him top now, I am sure he will be reduced in damage and then that wont work. I have tested him several games as both top and jungler and there seems to be very few champion he can handle top. To play Rengar effectively you have to use the bushes a lot, so mid is obviously not gonna work. Then he do have high burst damage but not high overall damage (except late game) so its hard being 1v1 top or being 2v2 bot. However appearing and ganking people doing all your skills to do high burst that works very well.
Rengars first skill is really his passive its very interesting. Rengar don't have a passive its more a fight ability, and that's what I want more abilities less boring passives. However his special unique item, is a passive ability on it. So its more like he actually have a passive the Bonetooth necklace and then he have 5 abilities but 1 less item sloth. Great with some diversity from other champions.
OK lets start analyzing his “passive” then the Bonetooth necklace. At first glance it works like the know items, Mejai's soul stealer, Sword of occult and Leviathan . These 3 and Bonetooth increases from kills and assist and drops stack by death of the user. However Bonetooth is vastly different the user only gains 1 stack even on kills, which might be to low. It do takes quite some time to build 9 stack where it really counts. However while the 3 normal items makes the user lose 33% of the stack at a death, Bonetooth only reduces with 1. So clearly if it would grow quicker it would be to strong. Still this is really hard to say and I am sure Riot games have tested this back and forth. Because Rengar don't gain more damage from Bonetooth( well ok slightly from 3 stacks) but its more that he gains improved ability. So getting Bonethooth is really important and you should buy it eventually. But getting high stack on it. Its a vastly different buff then having the other items. Basically it makes Rengar be able to get to people quicker, the 6 stack is increased Movement speed and 9 stack is the leap distance, while 14 stack boosts the ultimates duration. All these 3 buffs are basically to make the user reach the opponents carry easier. You don't have to get the Bonetooth necklace, I will recommend that you do. The hard part as a player is to know when to get the Bonetooth I would say. However it is not like the 3 other stack items, as it only loses 1 stack per death. It can be bought while the team is not in the lead, and you can still gain stacks. I think this is really good otherwise it would be a pretty bad “passive” if you couldn't really utilize it if the team is not going good enough. So ignore that, what I am talking about is more when, to get it. When its the correct item decision, 800 gold could mean be better shoes, more damage etc. Still you don't want it to late as then it will be very late when you have a lot of stacks. I can’t give you an answer (this is not a guide) I might be able to after another 20+ games. But that's what I like with it, its a dynamic item/passive.
Unseen Predator is Rengar’s “passive”. But as mentioned it is really an ability. Its actually pretty simply, Rengar gain a leap for his normal attack if he is in the bushes. As mentioned this looks really cool, and it can be stacked with his Q ability Savagery, as Savagery is a self cast buff increasing the next basic attack and boosting the attack speed by whooping 50%. So these 2 abilities are clearly in synergy. The player charges up Q before jumping someone at a gank normally. One thing I like about Unseen Predator is that Rengar will keep doing it to people that run in bushes when he is in a bush himself, this means he can for example flash inside a bush and then leap to them if they are on the other side of the bush or that you can get off multiple leaps as they are running slowed in a bush. This creates a dynamic where suddenly always running into bushed to escape is not always the best choice. And this is really good, a champion that mix up the normal gameplay.
His third ability is Battle roar ( it is really not much to say about Savagery). Battle roar is clearly indicated to be used in jungle, it do give some sustainability to top as well. Battle roar does moderately to low damage but gives armor and magic resistance. Making jungler easier. And of course workable when you gank people.
His fourth ability is the Bola Strike, which also is pretty straight forward it in itself, it does damage and slows the target for 2.5 seconds.
However Rengar has his own game resource called ferocity which makes him gameplay be very much more complicated. Which I like of course. Its time the user uses an ability he gains 1 stack it goes to 5. Having 1-4 stack gives you nothing expect the fact that its better being at 4 then 1. Without this game resource Rengar would be so boring, like give him mana and remove the last passive bonus--- would be sad. But now instead its a great design, because reaching 5 means the user can use any of his abilities right away(expect the ultimate) regardless of their cooldown. And with added bonus. The added bonus is of course important so its a very hard choice sometimes what will be the best to use. Q means its much more damage, W means you gain back 15% of max HP so using Battle roar while jungeling alone is kinda obvious. And E roots the opponent for 1 second and then slows them. But what I like the most with this is that it gives a way to double an ability. By gaining 5 stacks in jungle and then ganking you can first root-slow them and them slow them again as soon as the slow goes away, or you can jump in and do a super strong Q attack followed by another pretty strong Q attack to do insane burst damage.
And all this is even more important as the ultimate gives the user a full max ferocity and Rengar becomes stealthed for a short duration. However he can also leap to anyone during the stealth duration and he can see everyone. This makes ti so easy to jump on their carry and then take the decisions of - do I need to go max damage or should I slow so the other who are close and kill etc. To me it feels like playing Rengar is pretty straight forward but on the same time you need a really feel of the game flow. Its a lot about finding the weak targets, either people who are alone which you can solo or people that with your double CC will be caught off guard of the rest of the team. And his ultimate has a really shot cooldown at level 3. Which is great it makes late game battle be so much about finding your prey and kill them and run to the next weak prey.
Furthermore because of the use of ferocity it feels like you have a combo meter when you play him. So jungleing feels more enjoyable. Maybe I am jumping on the bandwagon of “new is always better” (Stinson B, 2010). Rengar currently for me is by far the funniest jungler to play late game. And early game one of the best.
So based on jungle gameplay and by a lot of nice aesthetic touches. I will give him
10/10 - you will definitely see me play him more in League of Legends.
Hehe-- to not make myself seem like the worst game designer ever( as I “have” to write pages after pages for a analyzation) I can summarize PvT in one sentence. Proactive set up, into a very reactive gameplay.
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
PvP is the shit match up everyone hates. However I really like PvP I used ot hate it but I love it now. Because before it truly was only 4 gate versus 4 gates. I didn't lose many PvP I simply always went a defensive 4 gate and beat the opponents 4 gates. But this made the match up stale, boring etc. After Blizzard nerfed warp gate tech the match up become really great. However a lot of people hate it, and I do believe I know why. The thing with PvP is that its so full of cheeses, if you go to any podcasters pvp game. Its very easy to find comments from viewers asking for no PvP games etc. I think these people are wrong as the better people play the better the PvP game is. But their mentally is very negative because they have a lto of experience with shitty cheese games.
And I truly think PvP gameplay experience is something Blizzard should fix. So many of the games are that, “Oh I am gonna win with my proxy gates, OH! Shit he have canon rushed me BG”. But truthfully this mainly is because people cant play PvP properly so they have to resort to using cheeses, the canon rush the proxy gate or the Korean 4 gate. When I see for example a canon rush I just laugh, its a Free win. IF you know how to deal with it. It’s easy And this is the problem, for game I would say. Because a lot of the viewers are in that beginner place they do not have enough experience to deal with all these cheeses that PvP is so filed of. And they get a very bad impression of the gameplay as a whole. I like PvP because its a crazy micro battle. I always goes for a 2 zealot + 1 stalker build and it such an micro intense fiesta from the start of the game, probe battles zealot vs zealot. I love watching my replies and just see all the dots on the mini map at the early stages of the game. So really PvP is intense this leads people to lose, they need to cheese. One thing I really have experienced is that people are often really sucky when it comes to late late game PvP because they don't get there. What to do with 3+ bases. At lower ranks to me it seems like the users never get to even remotely late game, expect 2 bases pure colossi armies,. PvP is a very hard nut to crack, but I like it as its truly is like the best player almost always wins(expect all the cheesers). Lastly when we are on PvP is how strong the Sentry is! The Sentry I would argue and say its the best Map Control unit in the game, while its very important unit in both against Terran and Zerg. It affects PvP the most as both user has them, but its more that each users expects the other users to have them. And as Sentries can block of Chokes etc, it really makes the gameplay kinda stiff. I mean all mirror matches feels more mano a mano, but for me PvP feels that the most. It think its the very low number of units, and with a lot all this extra stuff hidden pylons etc. PvP in my eyes is like a hidden gem, its really, really great when you are good at it, But otherwise you will hate it. I believe PvP surely has scared away a number of users from Starcraft 2, users that likes the control gameplay especially but then comes PvP which is like the opposite and they just hate it. I think that is really evident to, in how people play on the ladder. They get a PvP and they cheese just to get rid of it, either they get a fast lose or a fast win, because they love PvZ and they love PvT that's what they want to play. One last thing about this, I assume that why the map pool is what it is right now, one of the factors is to reduce effective canon rushes, as its just so few maps where you can do them.
Myrmonden’s PvP Build
As noted PvP is very scary, DTs are scary cheeses are scary and so forth.
One note right away I can say is that late game Dark Templars are really strong. Sending out those Dark templars in the late game when the opponent has a death ball moving around somewhere else can be very effective, regardless of what has happened, regardless of that he/she has robotic facility for detection( and he/she will have that 99% of the time late game). Dark Templar can be very effective always keep that in mind, get canons and I mean canons not 1 canon. 1 Canon can easily be killed of by a couple of DTs I often support DT attacks with a couple of zealot to tank the canon damage.
Its kind hard to explain my personal build in PvP becasue I kinda go with the flow.
I have a very set start build. Chrono bosst out probes 2 times. Save energy to chrono out zealtos and 1 stalker.
When I have built a 2 zealot 1 stalker army I will move out and often set a lot of pressure. It is not uncommon for me to win with just these units. Its a very good start set of attack. And a lot of where the problem of pvp becomes for people. Because after this the game will be constant battle. PvP is really interesting as I describe earlier it will be one person trying to attack a lot and one trying to defend. As can be seen replay first I we will have a skirmish in the middle with our early units. This is extremely common having a 2-3 versus 2-3 units in the middle of the map. And when it comes to my build its crucial to take out his/her probe to not prevent a Korean 4 gate. Other 4 gate attacks such as a standard 4-5 gate all in. I can simply walk to him and kill him (usually) with the 2 zealot 1 stalker, of course its a little more complicated I will always had gates so I have 3 gates out from this and then take tech X. So if he take as lot of damage from my first units I will spam pylon in his base and warp with 3 gates to win. But more interesting(as can be see in the replay) is how I will defend for the rest of the game against his stalkers. What can happen is that this might swap that I instead attack his base. This is how PvP as its core is.
My own build then its really important to push into his base with these first units. What I want to do, and why I am pretty successful in PvP( think I have around 66% win ratio), is to know his tech and respond accordingly. He goes Blink I go immortals, he goes robo I go Phoenix and if I see Phoenix I go Blink. This is the fundamental, then if its a map where Blink is harder to defend I tend to go my own Blink. The hardest choice, you have from this is when to take a second base. There are key factors that makes the natural follow up to be to take a an expansion. This is really hard in PvP. From my build its mainly if I do a lot of damage with the first 3 units but not enough to just make more units to win. Its very hard to read, what I can say about this is simply play enough games watch enough of your replays to know when the opponent is weak but not enough weak to die.
Generally when you play PvP its very important to note how big the opponent armies and how many sentries he/she has. As I talked about Sentries are so strong in PvP battles until enough archons or colossus are on the field. And I want to emphasize “enough” number of massive units. Sure if you have 1 colo you can walk up the ramp, so 1 basing is not easy anymore. However I have many, many times been able to forcefield between massive units especially purely archons who are in the front is not enough. Still Archon + zealot works great as the zealot will be able to reach. But you can still force field away the stalkers etc (Why a pretty common build is pure zealot + archon). Sentry count is very important in those mid battles when either player tries to take the first expansion.. And I really think that when you use a Phoenix play picking up sentries and killing them is almost always more important then killing probes.
(Really) Late Game: Its very hard to explain, because I feel its not much to say. Basically get enough colos like 20+... A big problem and why people feel PvP is boring is because what counters 1 colousus let me tell you 2 colousus counters 1 colusous. That is really one of the main boring factors. A player can of course go like mass void ray but its pretty ineffective against stalkers, but the main problem is the transition protoss has a hard time just building up a air force suddenly.
There is one thing that is really important to get in PvP which is the Mothership, the clock can be super annoying and a vortex can be used to group together colos but mainly to remove half his/her colo count and kill the rest. Almost each very very long PvP I have on the ladder turns into a world of the war scenario 10+ colo each 1 Mothership each and some ground units. I have many times tried to go like Phoenix to counters the colos, for a while I tried it extensively when the Phoenix had their 2+ range upgrade and it do work but only when the colos are in small numbers like 1-2 or then it works really good actually but more your ground army will be killed instantly. Having 200 food with Phoenix in it can do 1 really good thing. Killing of observers injunction with having a Mothership can be a huge win.
A last thing I feel a lot of protoss player misses is to add more buildings. People generally add in more gates. But when you are sitting on 4+ bases you can easily have 4+ robos. In the typical giant colo battle, 2 things can happen really. Either one army gets completely devastated and that armies owner has lost the other common occurrence is that a few colos are left for the winner. When the opponent has like 4 colos left and can keep warping in units, you can also warp in probably the same amount of units. But your colo count will be completely owned when they spawn out of the robotic facilities. This is very common, but if you have like 4-5 facilities. You can take yourself out from this as his/her units will have to walk to your main. And of course if this happens out on the field having a huge colo production you can quickly force another huger battle but now having more colos. This is common to see in pro games at lower scales, when its 1 vs 2 robos. And after a big battle out in middle of the map(most of the time) the player with 2 robos can make a lot more colos and win the game. In ladder games you can get into this 5+ bases games, so get more stuff. I am surprised to see so few player ever builds more robotic facilities. It is not that costly you have the resources.
http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=269746 This game kinda summarize the typical PvP gameplay. Defend 4 gate, be very aggressive with blink stalker for a week I went blink every game regardless because its safe and gives control of the map. Into using DT+ an attack. And this battle shows how important position is in Pvp to.
