Well the problem now is that I'm a Zerg player and I hardly ever touch Protoss. So I did the next best thing.
I called in a friend of mine, Gemini, and asked him on help on how to deal with the Early MMM ball.
Here's our interview.
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Hi Gemini, how are you today?
Oh I'm just peachy.
So, many players in the lower tiers nowadays are having problems dealing with early MMM balls and have no idea how to deal with the large balls of bio and healing. Whats your advice on it?
So basically what the deal is with this, is that since Marauders are so damn good against all the gateway units, you're basically forced to get some of the more fancy units such as Colossus, High Templar, and Archons.
If you're having trouble dealing with say, a 3rax MM pressure in the first 10 minutes of the game, all you can hope to do is have a few sentries, and Force Field the ramp like no other. Then, as you're doing that you should be teching to Colossus as soon as you possibly can. Then once the first colossus gets out you should be able to hold off the initial push. Push him back a little bit, and look to expand.
After you expand you're gonna want to also go for HT's. Storm is the most critical thing against MMM. Feeback as well so the Medivacs can't heal. Then once your HT's are out of energy morph them into Archons.
Dealing with this kind of composition is very micro intensive, so that's why I'm thinking lower league players are having troubles dealing with it. They need to have precise hotkeys and very good unit control to quickly be able to storm and 1a or pull back if needed. If you're too slow, the very easy to maneuver MMM ball will just dodge all your storm and completely decimate you.
Charge is also extremely helpful and should be gotten shortly after storm or around the same time if you can afford it. Try to expand as much as possible, don't wait for one expansion to run dry before expanding again. You also want to try and keep the Terran from expanding as much as possible. A good way to do this is probably after your 2nd expansion, put pylons around the map for easy warp in harassment locations. You can easily have a few HT's and chargelots ready at any expansion any time to deny and kill of some SCV's.
You also want to try and push as hard as you can. If you see you're pushing him back, try and push even further. The thing I've realized with PvT is that you can't really let up. You have to continue to try and push him back as far as you can while constantly bringing more and more reinforcements in. Another reason why I think lower leagues are having difficulties dealing with this.
It basically comes down to the right unit choices (Colossus, HT's, Archons, Chargelots, anything) and good micro. And good focus.
Is there a build order?
I wouldn't necessarily say there's a "build order", because I don't want it to sound that specific. Because what a lot of lower league players will do is see a build order, and think they need to follow exactly what it says, and if it doesn't work instead of trying to change it around and fix it up, they just abandon it and say it doesn't work. Which is why I don't necessarily like giving out exact build orders. Except for the 9 pylon, 12 gateway, 14-15 gas, 16 pylon, 17 core, 19-21 gas which should be followed as the opener for basically every game. If I would have to do a quick overview of the strategy then this is how it would go.
Hold off any initial pushes with Force Fields and quickly tech to colossus. After you push him back, expand and go for templar tech. Keep expanding and adding on more gateways and upgrading and always making more units. That's really the basics of what you should do. It's up to the player to adjust this into his own liking, which is what a lot of lower league players don't necessarily do, and I want to encourage this.
Do you have a cast on your Youtube Channel that deals with this problem?
I have one I believe, but it's a bit old however I'll link it anyway.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92OSdIZY9j4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_20638&v=6X3ypDFn18s&feature=iv
I also have a replay that greatly shows this in action, so If you're willing to watch a 52 minute replay then here it is: http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/74969-1v1-terran-protoss-metalopolis
Any last words of advice to Protoss players who are still in bronze and are aiming for diamond?
Just learn to macro first. Get a good set of hotkeys that are comfortable, and just learn to keep your money low before anything else. Also, Day9 is a very good SC legend that you should watch to learn lot's of new stuff. You can search him on youtube or tune in to his Dailies on http://Ustream.com/Day9tv every Sunday - Thursday at 7:05 PST(-7 GMT). Shameless plugging
Thanks Gemini for your words of advice and encouragement.
No problem, always glad to help out.
Gemini is a Diamond League Protoss player from the NA server who does shoutcast on his channel which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/GeminiStarCraft. Besides doing casting Gemini also contributes and helps lower league players on the SC2Armory forum.
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I found that rather interesting and quite enlightening. It definitely would help my Protoss play when ever I decide to use them Gold Armored Aliens xD.
For all you Protoss players out there I hope you've liked this interview and that its helpful to all of you.
This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off.
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