{"id":482,"date":"2013-08-25T17:21:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T00:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/starcraft.kevinleung.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2013-12-30T08:57:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T16:57:32","slug":"protoss-versus-zerg-strategy-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/?p=482","title":{"rendered":"Protoss versus Zerg Strategy updated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wow, PvZ feels like it has changed a lot over the past few months. Primarily, Naniwa&#8217;s 1 Gate Expand has changed how we think about the matchup, but the HotS meta-game has also settled since I first wrote up this guide. Here&#8217;s the new version you will see on the <a title=\"Protoss Strategy\" href=\"http:\/\/starcraft.kevinleung.com\/?page_id=262\">Protoss Strategy page<\/a>. As usual, let me know if you see any mistakes or have any questions or feedback.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Protoss versus Zerg<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of the 3 matchups, PvZ is the most dynamic. Whereas PvP is build order chaos and PvT generally plays out similarly, PvZ has safe economic openings into a variety of styles.\u00a0You should watch\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jjF0ulN5oMM\">this Apollo video<\/a>\u00a0for a solid way to play PvZ.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em>The Build Orders<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For almost 3 years, we thought Protoss had to fast expand in PvZ to keep up. Well, Naniwa showed us in HotS that we could also 1 Gate Expand. I still recommend a Forge Fast Expand (FFE) as your default build; you should learn how to fast expand, andit&#8217;s safer than Nexus first.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Apollo&#8217;s PvZ Forge Fast Expand (FFE)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>9 Pylon at wall (Scout)<\/li>\n<li>11 Chronoboost<\/li>\n<li>13 Chronoboost<\/li>\n<li>14 Forge<\/li>\n<li>16 Nexus<\/li>\n<li>16 Cannon<\/li>\n<li>16 Pylon<\/li>\n<li>17 Gateway<\/li>\n<li>20 Assimilator x 2<\/li>\n<li>Cybernetics Core<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Notes on these builds:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Send your 8th Probe down to the natural area to build the wall at 9 Supply. Look online to see how to wall on various maps<\/li>\n<li>You will probably see a lot of Zergling rushes, so definitely scout at 9. Build extra buildings and cannons to complete the wall and defend. If you don&#8217;t lose your Nexus or a lot of workers, you will be far ahead<\/li>\n<li>The followup for this looks roughly like Mana&#8217;s build below and is Apollo&#8217;s Colossus Double Forge strategy<\/li>\n<li>Tinker with the timings of buildings. The Nexus, Forge, and Gateway come in some order between 14 and 18 supply, so find what&#8217;s comfortable for you<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>An alternate build you can use is Naniwa&#8217;s 1 Gate Expand. Compared to the fast expand, your Nexus comes later, which is slightly less economic. On the other hand, you can&#8217;t threaten a cannon rush, so it&#8217;s less aggressive. But your tech comes faster, so you can cheese. You get the Gateway faster to pump out units, but you don&#8217;t have the Photon Cannon and wall to hide between. It&#8217;s just different, but it is more similar to the other match ups, so you may be more comfortable with it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Adapted Naniwa&#8217;s PvZ 1 Gate Expand (<a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/3497\/\">from HasuObs<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 15px;\">9 Pylon<\/span><\/li>\n<li>11 Chronoboost<\/li>\n<li>13 Chronoboost<\/li>\n<li>13 Gateway<\/li>\n<li>15 Assimilator x2<\/li>\n<li>17 Pylon<\/li>\n<li>18 Cybernetics Core, Zealot<\/li>\n<li>23 Warp Gate, Mothership Core<\/li>\n<li>Nexus<\/li>\n<li>Your secret tech<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Notes on this build:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 15px;\">The scout is optional in this build because your build doesn&#8217;t change with what you see<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Use the Pylon, Gateway, and Cybernetics Core to wall at your ramp. Put the Zealot on &#8220;hold position&#8221; in the gap<\/li>\n<li>Followup with <a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/3497\/\">Dark Shrine<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/2875\/\">Stargate<\/a>, or whatever else you like<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Once you feel comfortable dealing with Zergling rushes and cheese, I recommend that you try to go Nexus first. It&#8217;s greedy, but in StarCraft, you should always shoot to be greedy. Below is standard, if old; check out this <a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/3104\/\">replay<\/a> as well<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Adapted Mana&#8217;s PvZ Nexus First into Robo<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>9 Pylon at wall (Scout)<\/li>\n<li>11 Chronoboost<\/li>\n<li>13 Chronoboost<\/li>\n<li>16 Nexus<\/li>\n<li>16 Forge<\/li>\n<li>16 Pylon<\/li>\n<li>18 Gateway<\/li>\n<li>20 Cannon<\/li>\n<li>21 Assimliator x2<\/li>\n<li>26 Cybernetics Core<\/li>\n<li>28 Zealot (everything after is the transition)<\/li>\n<li>32 +1 Attack upgrade (with first 100 gas)<\/li>\n<li>Warpgate (next 50 gas)<\/li>\n<li>Stalker (next 50 Gas)<\/li>\n<li>Mothership Core (next 100 Gas)<\/li>\n<li>6:30 Assimilator x2<\/li>\n<li>7:30 Gateway x3<\/li>\n<li>Robotics Facility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Some of what you&#8217;re up against<\/em><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Mutalisks. If they hit critical mass, they will bounce between your bases and slowly pick you apart. The best counter is Phoenixes, but if you didn&#8217;t open Stargate, Blink Stalkers into Psionic Storms and Archons also works<\/li>\n<li>Roach\/Hydra with Vipers. The Vipers abduct your Colossi, and the rest of the army stomps on you.<\/li>\n<li>Zergling\/Baneling\/Roach all-ins. Don&#8217;t say I didn&#8217;t warn you. Use Observers, hallucinated Phoenix, and Oracles to scout<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>What you can do<\/em><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The Colossi\/Archon\/Void Ray\/High Templar Deathball. This is the dream. You should be up to 3 bases before you&#8217;re really putting it together, and you should harass in some way before then.<\/li>\n<li>Skytoss. This typically starts with Oracle or Phoenix harassment then transitions into a lot of Void Rays. Get Tempests if you see Brood Lords <a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/2100\/\">(replay 1)<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/1931\/\">(replay 2)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Sentry\/Immortal all-in. This is an older build but still effective. Get a lot of early Sentries with a lot of energy, a few Immortals, and then just reinforce for a big attack off of 2 bases before the Zerg economy has completely taken over. You can just take out their 3rd and Recall back, or if it goes well, just end the game. <a href=\"http:\/\/spawningtool.com\/2030\/\">(replay)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wow, PvZ feels like it has changed a lot over the past few months. Primarily, Naniwa&#8217;s 1 Gate Expand has changed how we think about the matchup, but the HotS meta-game has also settled since I first wrote up this &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/?p=482\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-build-orders","category-protoss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.spawningtool.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}