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The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

I've always strived to be the best player I could possibly be, and by doing so I pidgeon holed myself into doing one build in every matchup and desperately attempting to "perfect" it.

Watching Proleague has opened my eyes. Especially from a Protoss perspective. The goal of being a professional Starcraft player is not to be the "best player you can be", it's actually much simpler: to win. Proleague players seem to understand this more than anyone else I've ever seen in Starcraft 2's short history. I think this is also emphasized by the fact that the matches are all best of 1s.

Is it better to have a plethora of build orders up your sleeve? Or is it better to perfect one build order and be so great at it that nobody can touch you? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The answer seems to be in my case that the former is correct, more specifically, for Protoss players.

Players like Flash can do the same thing every game and still have massive win records, but is this possible for any Protoss counterparts? The only player I can think of who can do this is Rain, but that's only for the PvT matchup. His PvZ has recently taking a beating as zerg players are figuring out how to destroy his standard phoenix macro play. He recently resorted to using an immortal all in on Neo Planet.

I've personally made it my goal to diversify my strategies as much as possible, to become as unpredictable as i can, and by doing so, I think i will become a smarter player. I feel that mechanics as a Protoss player can only get you so far, and a greater focus needs to be placed on strategies and build orders. Recently when playing Petraeus on ladder I said I didn't want to reveal my build orders against him, and that I was confident in my PvZ at the moment thanks to the new builds I've created/stolen. What was his response? "I wouldn't rely on build orders in tournament play". Followed by "Oh wait, you play Protoss".

I think this shows that Zerg players in particular are more fearful of Protoss who have a plethora of builds up their sleeves rather than ones that try to perfect specific styles. When I'm playing at an ACL, my PvZ starts off fine. I'm doing well, even. However, as the tournament progresses, and Zergs learn the builds that I am using, they start to become VERY ineffective.

What are your opinions on predictability in Starcraft 2? I personally feel like Protoss is the race that benefits the most from meta-builds and also suffers the most from perfecting one style. This means that Protoss players have to be constantly thinking of new ways to adapt to the metagame in order to survive, but in doing so, we can show great results (think SoS).

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

Totally agree! Protoss have strong builds but they are easily blind countered! Like purposely saving scans for DTs that you didnt see coming... Or blind spores and 4 hatch before pool against gateway expos....

Having a wide variety of strategies keeps your opponent thinking about what you are going to do and you won't die to blind counters and stuff.

Having said that, perfecting 2-3 strats per race would be better than having 10 lousy, poorly executed strats.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

I think toss doesnt take much skill i mean what does it matter how many builds you can do when all you need is a move?

Re: The dangers of being a
 

sick name drop

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

This is a really big eye opener for me, having fallen into the staleness of perfecting one Protoss build for each matchup, even going so far as to use a different build on each server for some reason.

I transitioned to Zerg and found it extremely enjoyable to play but frustrating at times having to learn and adapt, I much prefer Protoss, being the one making the smart aggresive plays that dare the Zerg to learn and adapt to it.

After reading this, I feel like going out there and developing more of my OWN builds and refining what I want them to do for me.

Excellent read Pezz, +1 from me!

Re: The dangers of being a
 

If you think protoss needs more than one build, you've clearly never tried double robo immortal allin buddy.

Hit me up if you want to learn.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

agree 10/10

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

Mechanically, most protoss players I feel are weaker at every level since the race itself doesn't punish you for having bad mechanics (so many full energy Nexuses, even from pro players esp. in the foreign scene - imagine if a zerg didn't inject/spread creep or Terran didn't scan/MULE).

But I wonder if its a problem with the race itself or just a lack of skill on the Protoss' players part since I can't remember a game where that player did everything well yet still lost.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

Is changing up between making voidrays/cannon rushing switching builds? You do that a lot.

Jokes. Your pvz builds are disgustingly good now. Good thing I can just baneling bust every game.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

It's funny how deluded some people are when it comes to balance lawl.

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

Very nice read pezz, I have to agree especially in the PvP and PvZ matchup, that build orders gotta be mixed in! It can be a little deceiving on ladder since repeating one build does work there.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

SPOOK FOR PRESIDENT

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

spook i reported you to nirvana enjoy ur ban

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

I think this goes for all matchups for every race. There is a counter build to every build in the game and if any build is in the metagame long enough gets figured out, so being ahead of the metagame is essential to being a champion. People who win championships are doing something different to everyone else, they're not just doing the same shit because it's too easy to play against if it has been around for a while.

From the Zerg pov all the best Zerg players are also doing unique strategies and also, similar to you after I have been watching proleague ZvX games you realize there are so many different strategies out there, this game is incredibly complex and I think people often underestimate the complexities and go with the same BO all the time. Life, Soulkey, Leenock etc ALWAYS do crazy metagame strategies or bring something new to the table and it makes them incredibly hard to play against. The only top top Zerg I can think of who consistently uses "standard" strategies is Violet, but he definitely does not see as much success as the others that I mentioned.

Basically if you know exactly how your opponent is going to play, there IS a counter strategy even if it's not figured out yet. It will get figured out eventually though.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

10char

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

Pezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Re: The dangers of being a
 

This was a pretty good read, very interesting how people view there match ups.


haha...

Re: The dangers of being a "standard" Protoss player in sc2.
 

I'm a year (and an expansion) behind the meta-game but everything you've written was my opinion on PvZ for the entirety of my playing days. The edge zerg will get on you if they have a read on you that you're for sure going to play standard or in a particular way is ridiculously large compared to the edge you can get on them if you know they will play safe and standard in WoL. Unless you're vastly superior to your opponents, you cannot just play super standard and consistently out-play your opponent. From what I hear of TvZ it was very similar for terran in WoL as well.

However, again, I'm a year out of the meta-game and from the changes that occured in HotS I'm actually quite sad I'm not still playing because it seems as if late game PvZ is now much, much more favorable for protoss than it was in WoL against infestor brood.

Regarding PvT I feel like it was always much more possible, and if anything protoss was in the 'zerg' situation of that matchup, where it was up to terran to do something, as if both players just played 'standard' with the protoss feeling safe, it favoured us rather heavily.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

Against zerg that might be true but vs Terran I don't think quite as much. Anything can be metagame'd if you're good enough to notice how to and execute it properly. Rain has a ~90% win rate in that matchup for a reason, he can read the terran brilliantly and knows how to achieve consistency no matter what they are trying to do.

It's worth pointing out that Ray uses a very small set of strategies when he plays but he's the best Protoss southern hemisphere so... yea there you go.

Re: The dangers of being a
 

...Wat