ArtOfProtoss
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General Tips PVP:
Early Game
Be Opportunistic and Aggressive
If you build you use a double gate build (10 gate, 12 gate, 15 pylon), you must Zealot rush. Do not let your Zealots build up on your choke. Besides slowing down your tech, you're not even utilizing the opportunity to kill a fast-teching enemy.
If you scout that his tech is behind yours, move out with your first one/two Dragoons. You're probably not to kill anything, not even a Zealot, but you will be harassing him, which can throw him off his game.
If you plan on Dark Templar rushing him, build an assimilator on top of his vespene mine. Possibly warping it in after it dies several times, this can seriously slow down his tech, and let you get DT before he gets observers. If you're quick your Probe should live infinitely against melee Zealots, and since he has no gas, he can never get ranged goons. Abuse that.
Be Macro Oriented, Sacrifice Other Aspects
Get your second Gateway quickly, normally before your cybernetics core is totally warped in. Don't tech in every which way. If you're going to use reavers don't warp in Citadel, concentrate on getting those Reavers fast, and pumping Dragoons. Don't worry about your peon count or a forge, or a citadel, or anything. Concentrate on Macro.
Set yourself up for that second expo, which will really pump up your macro. Get the largest number of goons at the quickest possible time. If you want to expo before your enemy, and be able to defend it, cut off your peon production (a estimate of when you should do this is, if you're doing a normal build: 10-15 supply before you expo) This will raise your PVP skill up inestimably, and is a real difference between great players and good players.
Macro out of two gates. While you might think that three gates will speed up goon production before your expo it really does the opposite: the investment of 150 minerals in another gateways being wasted because you will not be able to support that third gate. This of course assumes your goal is to play the game for more than 10 minutes--otherwise build a third gate, stop peons and rush him, containing him, or killing him when he tries to expo.
Be Smart, Understand What You're Doing
Basically this means only take risks when you mean to. If you want to vulnerize yourself to DT's, do so because you want to pump goons out of three gates like a mad-man, not because you forgot to build a robotics bay. If you want to early expo, do so out of desire, don't do it because you forgot a pylon and have built up minerals. Knowing what you want to do helps you execute better. If you want, and plan to pump goons like a madman, stop your peons, add a forge for attack, whatever, since you know what you want to do you can do it better.
If you're going to take a risk (like fast speed zeal, crazy reaver attack, fast forge(s), early expo, etc...), understand the risks you have opened yourself up too. Minimize the most probable of them. If you're going an early expo it is more unlikely he will reaver drop you, than it is that he'll just rush you with goons. Thus make sure your goon count is high.
Rushing
One of the many values of scouting is knowing off a rush. In PVP knowing, or not knowing when a rush is coming can win or lose you a game. If you see a robotics bay, no expo, and low peon count/discontinued peon pump, then you stop your peons, don’t expo, and get ready to stop the reaver siege. In the case of the reaver hit make sure to flank. Normally he won’t go for your main mineral field because if it was a hard rush, he doesn’t have observers yet, and for all he knows he could be running into 5 goons. Thus focus mostly on your defending the attack, not defending your minerals. In other cases of rush, like mass goon or upgrades, watch when he expoes, and don’t leave your choke. If you have to expo to keep up then keep some goons on the ledge overlooking the immediate gulley in range of possible attackers in order to give yourself the optimum defense. If he’s hard rushing you can afford to fall behind in the expo a little bit because he is behind on peons.
Mid Game
Upgrades are Key
Upgrades are one of the most key parts of mid-game, along with templars, and observers. While early game they were nice for a rush, mid-game they are a necessity. Even if templar archives were solely for +2 attack, it would be exponentially more advantageous to have it, than not. Simple mathematics lead you to this conclusion. For the price of about 1 goon you can get +1 attack. Multiply the attack bonus times the number of goons and you'll be doing allot more damage than adding that 1 goon would've done. Attack is the key upgrade this match up, but double forging for armor mid-game isn't the worst thing ever.
Naturally you'll need zeal speed, and storm upgrades, maybe even shuttle speed.
Attain Superior Positioning and Win
Unit positition is more crucial in PVP than it is in any other PV matchup. Earlier on Goon containing him in a semi-circle position under his ramp can work, but reaver drops, and reaver range make this tactic pretty weak, and this is represented in its basic non-existence in pro-play. Mid-game, however, positioning can be the deciding factor in a game. While you must always be aware of Reaver drops mid game, placing your units in front of his naturals choke, and unable to stop them, is still effective. Placing your units outside his main has many advantages: Since you're directly above his choke you have more room for your goons. Since he is in his choke he has less room for his goons. Thus you will have more goons firing at his goons, even if you have less goons than him.
Be aware that the best way to break this is with templars. You must, then, at some point in the game, when you sense or scout he has templars and storm, move your goons away from this liability. This, though, does not make keeping your men close to his base useless. On the contrary you should still set up a spectacular flank outside his base. Just make sure you have observers, and watch the mini-map carefully: You don't want him moving some of his troops out and attacking one third of your flank, and getting positioning back. If you watch your flank carefully, and time your attack move right, you should still be delivering much more damage than him, even if he has more troops. This is because: 1 You flanked him right outside his choke and not all his goons can fire. 2. His middle goons and zealots cant' fire because they're stuck in the middle.
Finally if you find yourself out-gunned, and at positions like 12-3/3-12, use the walls of Lost Temple to help you. There should be a wall right before your base: Lure him through it and use the room to allow more of your goons to fire than his can, because of the tiny space.
Finally if you find yourself out-gunned, and at positions like 12-3/3-12, use the walls of Lost Temple to help you. There should be a wall right before your base: Lure him through it and use the room to allow more of your goons to fire than his can, because of the tiny space.
Finally, if you either are watching out for reavers drops more, or are unsure of your superior troop count, at least set up a flank outside your base. You can even use the large temple opening as a choke of sorts.
About Peons
A lot of PVP is based on peon count. If he you are being attacked, and it looks like you’re going to lose, stop production. If you’re going to win, pump constantly, and get ready to expo. If you ever lose probes, to reavers or templar drops, build them constantly. Even if this detracts to other fields of your game, like macro, or unit control, peons are worth the negatives.
On the other hand, don’t get carried away. If you are planning to hit the punk hard with 5 gate fast speed zeal, then don’t pump peons. Don’t go too far into mid-game pumping peons. First you’re going to want to stop production at main, then your expo. Only restart pumping peons when you start warping in another nexus, in which case switch your 0 hotkey to that new nexus and pump from there.
PVP is a game of peons, knowing when to stop, and knowing when to start.
Early Game
Be Opportunistic and Aggressive
If you build you use a double gate build (10 gate, 12 gate, 15 pylon), you must Zealot rush. Do not let your Zealots build up on your choke. Besides slowing down your tech, you're not even utilizing the opportunity to kill a fast-teching enemy.
If you scout that his tech is behind yours, move out with your first one/two Dragoons. You're probably not to kill anything, not even a Zealot, but you will be harassing him, which can throw him off his game.
If you plan on Dark Templar rushing him, build an assimilator on top of his vespene mine. Possibly warping it in after it dies several times, this can seriously slow down his tech, and let you get DT before he gets observers. If you're quick your Probe should live infinitely against melee Zealots, and since he has no gas, he can never get ranged goons. Abuse that.
Be Macro Oriented, Sacrifice Other Aspects
Get your second Gateway quickly, normally before your cybernetics core is totally warped in. Don't tech in every which way. If you're going to use reavers don't warp in Citadel, concentrate on getting those Reavers fast, and pumping Dragoons. Don't worry about your peon count or a forge, or a citadel, or anything. Concentrate on Macro.
Set yourself up for that second expo, which will really pump up your macro. Get the largest number of goons at the quickest possible time. If you want to expo before your enemy, and be able to defend it, cut off your peon production (a estimate of when you should do this is, if you're doing a normal build: 10-15 supply before you expo) This will raise your PVP skill up inestimably, and is a real difference between great players and good players.
Macro out of two gates. While you might think that three gates will speed up goon production before your expo it really does the opposite: the investment of 150 minerals in another gateways being wasted because you will not be able to support that third gate. This of course assumes your goal is to play the game for more than 10 minutes--otherwise build a third gate, stop peons and rush him, containing him, or killing him when he tries to expo.
Be Smart, Understand What You're Doing
Basically this means only take risks when you mean to. If you want to vulnerize yourself to DT's, do so because you want to pump goons out of three gates like a mad-man, not because you forgot to build a robotics bay. If you want to early expo, do so out of desire, don't do it because you forgot a pylon and have built up minerals. Knowing what you want to do helps you execute better. If you want, and plan to pump goons like a madman, stop your peons, add a forge for attack, whatever, since you know what you want to do you can do it better.
If you're going to take a risk (like fast speed zeal, crazy reaver attack, fast forge(s), early expo, etc...), understand the risks you have opened yourself up too. Minimize the most probable of them. If you're going an early expo it is more unlikely he will reaver drop you, than it is that he'll just rush you with goons. Thus make sure your goon count is high.
Rushing
One of the many values of scouting is knowing off a rush. In PVP knowing, or not knowing when a rush is coming can win or lose you a game. If you see a robotics bay, no expo, and low peon count/discontinued peon pump, then you stop your peons, don’t expo, and get ready to stop the reaver siege. In the case of the reaver hit make sure to flank. Normally he won’t go for your main mineral field because if it was a hard rush, he doesn’t have observers yet, and for all he knows he could be running into 5 goons. Thus focus mostly on your defending the attack, not defending your minerals. In other cases of rush, like mass goon or upgrades, watch when he expoes, and don’t leave your choke. If you have to expo to keep up then keep some goons on the ledge overlooking the immediate gulley in range of possible attackers in order to give yourself the optimum defense. If he’s hard rushing you can afford to fall behind in the expo a little bit because he is behind on peons.
Mid Game
Upgrades are Key
Upgrades are one of the most key parts of mid-game, along with templars, and observers. While early game they were nice for a rush, mid-game they are a necessity. Even if templar archives were solely for +2 attack, it would be exponentially more advantageous to have it, than not. Simple mathematics lead you to this conclusion. For the price of about 1 goon you can get +1 attack. Multiply the attack bonus times the number of goons and you'll be doing allot more damage than adding that 1 goon would've done. Attack is the key upgrade this match up, but double forging for armor mid-game isn't the worst thing ever.
Naturally you'll need zeal speed, and storm upgrades, maybe even shuttle speed.
Attain Superior Positioning and Win
Unit positition is more crucial in PVP than it is in any other PV matchup. Earlier on Goon containing him in a semi-circle position under his ramp can work, but reaver drops, and reaver range make this tactic pretty weak, and this is represented in its basic non-existence in pro-play. Mid-game, however, positioning can be the deciding factor in a game. While you must always be aware of Reaver drops mid game, placing your units in front of his naturals choke, and unable to stop them, is still effective. Placing your units outside his main has many advantages: Since you're directly above his choke you have more room for your goons. Since he is in his choke he has less room for his goons. Thus you will have more goons firing at his goons, even if you have less goons than him.
Be aware that the best way to break this is with templars. You must, then, at some point in the game, when you sense or scout he has templars and storm, move your goons away from this liability. This, though, does not make keeping your men close to his base useless. On the contrary you should still set up a spectacular flank outside his base. Just make sure you have observers, and watch the mini-map carefully: You don't want him moving some of his troops out and attacking one third of your flank, and getting positioning back. If you watch your flank carefully, and time your attack move right, you should still be delivering much more damage than him, even if he has more troops. This is because: 1 You flanked him right outside his choke and not all his goons can fire. 2. His middle goons and zealots cant' fire because they're stuck in the middle.
Finally if you find yourself out-gunned, and at positions like 12-3/3-12, use the walls of Lost Temple to help you. There should be a wall right before your base: Lure him through it and use the room to allow more of your goons to fire than his can, because of the tiny space.
Finally if you find yourself out-gunned, and at positions like 12-3/3-12, use the walls of Lost Temple to help you. There should be a wall right before your base: Lure him through it and use the room to allow more of your goons to fire than his can, because of the tiny space.
Finally, if you either are watching out for reavers drops more, or are unsure of your superior troop count, at least set up a flank outside your base. You can even use the large temple opening as a choke of sorts.
About Peons
A lot of PVP is based on peon count. If he you are being attacked, and it looks like you’re going to lose, stop production. If you’re going to win, pump constantly, and get ready to expo. If you ever lose probes, to reavers or templar drops, build them constantly. Even if this detracts to other fields of your game, like macro, or unit control, peons are worth the negatives.
On the other hand, don’t get carried away. If you are planning to hit the punk hard with 5 gate fast speed zeal, then don’t pump peons. Don’t go too far into mid-game pumping peons. First you’re going to want to stop production at main, then your expo. Only restart pumping peons when you start warping in another nexus, in which case switch your 0 hotkey to that new nexus and pump from there.
PVP is a game of peons, knowing when to stop, and knowing when to start.
