It's the most fragile race in the game

Could you clarify please?

I think the ZvP matchup is a shithole because Toss is more or less forced to do 2 base allins all game to keep up which becomes problematic at high level when zergs are extremly talented at holding off said allins

Sure. In every non PvX matchup, it's ok to lose units constantly, trade units, lose economy etc. In any protoss matchup, losing units is basically game over. Protoss generally needs all game to build up units and tech. If you can kill a Protoss army once, you've generally won the game, or are way ahead. Late game, protoss can throw zealots and stuff away. But in the early-mid game, protoss is extremely fragile. 1 bad blink, forcefield or engagement and it's game over. The units are relatively slow, so positioning is very key. Despite forcefields being very good. If you don't have great forcefields, you're toast. And for a new player, with low apm, a lot of games can be lost very easily. I realize that at higher levels, once protoss have mastered forcefielding etc you can make different arguements. But, forcefields are basically a crutch to the race.

Another thing is that, any early game pressure screws up protoss completely most of the time. Especially if you can kill off sentries or stalkers.

This post was edited by Sigzz on Nov 19 2012 09:53am

So it seems the consensus is:
1) Terrans specialize in defense
2) Zergs specialize in offense
3) Protoss are the inbetween, but reliant on few units?

Not exactly. You can think of it as.

1) Terran is the most versatile race.
2) Zerg is a very greedy race, and by this I mean you need to be greedy with drones in order to keep up or be ahead.
3) Protoss is very fragile, and it's usually better to be defensive and turtle due to the high risk of losing units early on.

This is not to say one race is better etc.

This post was edited by Sigzz on Nov 19 2012 10:02am

Protoss at the highest levels needs precision the most.


Nope, it needs fixing
1) Terran has to be agressive, to cause enough damage to safely enter the lategame being ahead, cuz if you are not, your chances aren't too high if you are not a god.
2) zerg is a reactionary race, you react to your opponent's plan, and try to get ahead, to the lategame, where you dictate the course of the game.
3) protoss is the defensive race, you have to turtle in most of the time(you can go all in too though), tech up, hold agression, and then walk out with your deathball and massacre shit without losing anything.

This post was edited by Cpt_Ghost on Nov 19 2012 10:19am

1. Play random 1v1s or 2v2 teams if you have a friend that can teach you the basics of SC2 (if you don't know already)
After getting comfortable with the units, race mechanics you can decide which race you want to play and focus on.
2. Learn basic 1 base builds on each matchup XvT, XvZ, XvP to work on basic attack timings and from there you can learn a safe expand build vs each matchup.
3. Unit Preloader helps a lot with some minor lag issues on bnet, other than that the best warmup would be the first ladder game that you play.
Placements, ranks, leagues really don't matter when you're just starting off and getting used to the game so until the basics are built into your system you don't need to worry about losing games here and there.
4. Pro streams don't really help much until you know enough about the game to know builds, build counters, meta game trends etc.
That being said there are a lot of people in every league below high masters that tends to freelance their game strategy and if you are just mirroring what pros do on their stream you wouldn't know how to react properly in such cases.
Best thing to watch would be Apollo's youtube channel he does a show couple times a week where he goes through a replay of a non-pro game where he breaks down the game step by step, its the by far best thing to watch in terms of improving.
5. Good luck!



Terrans are extremely mobile and have a strong early/mid game, their units are very versatile and flexible and with micro they can be extremely cost efficient.
Zergs can play very economically greedy game and hold early aggression relatively easy, given that they're actively scouting with overlords. Their lategame is unnecessarily strong but their early/mid game can be extremely powerful as well. Their units are not as versatile as Terran units but the ability to have an instant tech transition in the late game make it extremely dangerous to play a macro based late game against Zerg. Zerg needs to constantly scout early game and be prepared to be punished if they play greedy.
Protoss have strong and units but not really cost efficient until an army ball is assembled. Protoss has the strongest mid game imo, very strong against Terran and good against pre-hive Zergs but losing a Protoss army is much worse than losing a Terran/Zerg army because of how gas dependant every unit is.

there is nothing wrong with this.

you don't need special builds for each race, just do same opening with a smooth transition into what you need to do.

got a friend that 18 cc's every game into 2 rax with add on every game.

Ask Ryan he is the master of progress in this forum.