intense555 Profile Blog Joined February 2011 United States 472 Posts Last Edited: 2013-12-25 01:31:02 #1 Update: Well I think I I will not be able to do this in the 31 days because I did not plan for season ladder lock and will not have enough time to get into grandmaster before it. Therefore, I give because of this. I also did not enjoy playing protoss very much (compared to terran). My thoughts from my week 1 update blog still apply though.



Hello fellow TLers, 7 days ago I embarked on a journey to top 50 GM as protoss from terran (goal being 1 month), you can see the blog here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=438469

So for the first weekly write-up, what thing could be better to write about than my thoughts on the three protoss matchups after playing protoss for a week? Here is a picture of my winrates, as I will be refering to them in my write-up:





PvT:

What better matchup to write about first than PvT? Well, considering I came from terran to protoss it only makes sense (to me at least). Out of the build orders I wrote up in my first blog, the only one that had any lasting success was the PvT one (if you're too lazy to go back and read it, it is essentially expo->oracle->2 base templar all in/3rd base w/ macro). Right away I started winning games in this matchup. This is due to me playing terran prior to switching and protoss having an advantage at the highest level of play (its only like 55/45 but w/e). From my terran experience, I especially hated oracle expo builds into templar all ins, I had insane amounts of trouble holding them. Knowing this, I knew this would be the way to go if I were to do a speed run to top 50 GM as protoss. From executing to holding templar all ins, it feels far easier to be the protoss than the terran in that situation (from personal experience at least). After I had stopped losing probes to reapers and messing up on my build orders, I established a dominating winrate in this matchup (if you have watched my stream, you will know what I mean). From a balance standpoint, I feel protoss has a significant advantage in this matchup, it is very hard for the terran to prepare for all the timings protoss can do while there are very few that you must prepare for as protoss. This allows the protoss to be far greedier and therefore most of the time will get an advantage in the mid/late game unless the terran gambles and does a greedy build while the protoss does not punish it, then its an even game usually. If David Kim is reading this, I would recommend weakening Photon Overcharge, as it is unbelievably cost effective at defending and makes it so that there is almost zero risk against any terran opening. Nerfing Photon Overcharge would allow for more aggressive terran openings, while protoss can still be aggressive too but will also have to be weary of terran aggression which is of similar magnitude to the aggression that protoss can put on terran right now. Overall I feel this change would make TvP far less frustrating for terran players and far more entertaining to watch. If Dustin Browder is reading this, add more rocks (joke).



PvP:

When I first decided to switch to protoss, everyone said "Oh you will get smashed in PvP because other protoss players have more experience in the coin flippy matchup". At least to me, this is only very slightly accurate, but not really, I will explain why. At first I died to a few things that I felt were stupid (proxy gates, cannon rushes, dt rushes, other 1 bases, etc.), but after playing a few more games and watching replays of korean protoss PvP, I realized that there is two ways to play PvP: a gambling style or an intelligent style. First off, let me explain the gambling style. Gambling style consists of doing build orders, and hoping you get enough of an advantage to win with minimal amounts of reactions to your opponents strategy. Strategies of the gambling style include, proxy stargate, proxy gateways, 3 gate 1 gas attack, very fast DT openings, an illogically greedy opening, etc.... I think you guys understand what I mean by now. As for playing intelligently, this usually consists of opening stargate, with a few chrono boosted units, a hallucinated phoenix, or an early observer. For this style you scout constantly and try your best to know what your opponent is doing. This allows for you to punish greedy play, defend aggressive play, defend gambling styled play, or play greedier than your opponent (which I do not recommend doing, except at maybe top korean level of play, as you can usually punish greedy play and guarantee a win). I try my best to play the "intelligent style" I described, and therefore end up opening stargate because of it (as it is good at punishing and decent at defending, but the scouting is best part). If I execute my build correctly and scout properly, I never fall so far behind to the point where I can not win a game. It is definitely possible to consistently win PvP.



PvZ:

Well as you can see, I did not adapt as well in this matchup as the other two. This is not an entirely accurate winrate in my opinion though. Maybe a day ago it was, but today I feel that I finally figured out this matchup. The best way to play it (for me) seems to gate/forge fast expand into stargate (in order to scout, I usually will go 5 phoenix or an oracle to do this) into power units and a third base (in order to not fall irrecoverably behind economically, and not die to random attacks/timings). I do not feel as knowledgeable about this matchup as the other two, so I do not have as much to write about so I will cut straight to my thoughts on balance. Overall, it seems to be balanced. Protoss usually has an advantage in the early/early mid game and the early late game while zerg has an advantage in the mid game and late game. All of this is fine with me except that the advantage that zerg has in the late game is very dominant, although it can vary based on maps. The reason I feel that zerg is so dominant late game is because there is no way to effectively deal with large amounts of swarm hosts + static defense + spell casters. Protoss will keep losing things until there is nothing left. Chances are that on most maps if you dealt with their big swarm host army, you probably will not survive the mass muta followup. As for balance changes, probably a nerf to swarm hosts and buffs on other zerg units would fix the matchup and make the late game far less boring and more action packed. This is probably my favorite matchup to play after figuring out how to play a macro game today, but that last point I made about balance would be my only complaint (highest winrate does not always mean favorite matchup).



Well this is my wall of text for week 1. For more often updates and other stuff related to this follow me on:



Twitter: https://twitter.com/SEEDintense



Twitch.tv (I have streamed 99% of my journey thus far so make sure to tune in, I will be streaming alot): http://www.twitch.tv/intensesc



Hello fellow TLers, 7 days ago I embarked on a journey to top 50 GM as protoss from terran (goal being 1 month), you can see the blog here: + Show Spoiler + So for the first weekly write-up, what thing could be better to write about than my thoughts on the three protoss matchups after playing protoss for a week? Here is a picture of my winrates, as I will be refering to them in my write-up:PvT:What better matchup to write about first than PvT? Well, considering I came from terran to protoss it only makes sense (to me at least). Out of the build orders I wrote up in my first blog, the only one that had any lasting success was the PvT one (if you're too lazy to go back and read it, it is essentially expo->oracle->2 base templar all in/3rd base w/ macro). Right away I started winning games in this matchup. This is due to me playing terran prior to switching and protoss having an advantage at the highest level of play (its only like 55/45 but w/e). From my terran experience, I especially hated oracle expo builds into templar all ins, I had insane amounts of trouble holding them. Knowing this, I knew this would be the way to go if I were to do a speed run to top 50 GM as protoss. From executing to holding templar all ins, it feels far easier to be the protoss than the terran in that situation (from personal experience at least). After I had stopped losing probes to reapers and messing up on my build orders, I established a dominating winrate in this matchup (if you have watched my stream, you will know what I mean). From a balance standpoint, I feel protoss has a significant advantage in this matchup, it is very hard for the terran to prepare for all the timings protoss can do while there are very few that you must prepare for as protoss. This allows the protoss to be far greedier and therefore most of the time will get an advantage in the mid/late game unless the terran gambles and does a greedy build while the protoss does not punish it, then its an even game usually. If David Kim is reading this, I would recommend weakening Photon Overcharge, as it is unbelievably cost effective at defending and makes it so that there is almost zero risk against any terran opening. Nerfing Photon Overcharge would allow for more aggressive terran openings, while protoss can still be aggressive too but will also have to be weary of terran aggression which is of similar magnitude to the aggression that protoss can put on terran right now. Overall I feel this change would make TvP far less frustrating for terran players and far more entertaining to watch. If Dustin Browder is reading this, add more rocks (joke).PvP:When I first decided to switch to protoss, everyone said "Oh you will get smashed in PvP because other protoss players have more experience in the coin flippy matchup". At least to me, this is only very slightly accurate, but not really, I will explain why. At first I died to a few things that I felt were stupid (proxy gates, cannon rushes, dt rushes, other 1 bases, etc.), but after playing a few more games and watching replays of korean protoss PvP, I realized that there is two ways to play PvP: a gambling style or an intelligent style. First off, let me explain the gambling style. Gambling style consists of doing build orders, and hoping you get enough of an advantage to win with minimal amounts of reactions to your opponents strategy. Strategies of the gambling style include, proxy stargate, proxy gateways, 3 gate 1 gas attack, very fast DT openings, an illogically greedy opening, etc.... I think you guys understand what I mean by now. As for playing intelligently, this usually consists of opening stargate, with a few chrono boosted units, a hallucinated phoenix, or an early observer. For this style you scout constantly and try your best to know what your opponent is doing. This allows for you to punish greedy play, defend aggressive play, defend gambling styled play, or play greedier than your opponent (which I do not recommend doing, except at maybe top korean level of play, as you can usually punish greedy play and guarantee a win). I try my best to play the "intelligent style" I described, and therefore end up opening stargate because of it (as it is good at punishing and decent at defending, but the scouting is best part). If I execute my build correctly and scout properly, I never fall so far behind to the point where I can not win a game. It is definitely possible to consistently win PvP.PvZ:Well as you can see, I did not adapt as well in this matchup as the other two. This is not an entirely accurate winrate in my opinion though. Maybe a day ago it was, but today I feel that I finally figured out this matchup. The best way to play it (for me) seems to gate/forge fast expand into stargate (in order to scout, I usually will go 5 phoenix or an oracle to do this) into power units and a third base (in order to not fall irrecoverably behind economically, and not die to random attacks/timings). I do not feel as knowledgeable about this matchup as the other two, so I do not have as much to write about so I will cut straight to my thoughts on balance. Overall, it seems to be balanced. Protoss usually has an advantage in the early/early mid game and the early late game while zerg has an advantage in the mid game and late game. All of this is fine with me except that the advantage that zerg has in the late game is very dominant, although it can vary based on maps. The reason I feel that zerg is so dominant late game is because there is no way to effectively deal with large amounts of swarm hosts + static defense + spell casters. Protoss will keep losing things until there is nothing left. Chances are that on most maps if you dealt with their big swarm host army, you probably will not survive the mass muta followup. As for balance changes, probably a nerf to swarm hosts and buffs on other zerg units would fix the matchup and make the late game far less boring and more action packed. This is probably my favorite matchup to play after figuring out how to play a macro game today, but that last point I made about balance would be my only complaint (highest winrate does not always mean favorite matchup).Well this is my wall of text for week 1. For more often updates and other stuff related to this follow me on:Twitter: + Show Spoiler + Twitch.tv (I have streamed 99% of my journey thus far so make sure to tune in, I will be streaming alot): + Show Spoiler + Aspiring Starcraft 2 pro for @mYinsanityEU, follow me on twitter @mYintenseSC