How does energy get generated as Protoss in Starcraft 2?

Question

I often run out of energy when using Psionic storms and I then proceed to get decimated. Does it just come back on its own? Can anything hasten the process of how fast energy is accumulated?

Asked by Matt

Answer

Energy regenerates on its own for all units. The standard regeneration rate for the vast majority of units is 0.5625 per game second. The only exception to this rate is the point defense drone which regenerates at 1 energy per game second. You cannot hasten the energy regeneration rate.

Answered by en1gmatic325

Check more discussion of this question.

How to Combat Protoss Walling in a Zerg's Base

Question

Recently I had a game where I went for a risky Hatch-First build except before the hatch was close from being completed the Protoss walled off my main's base with pylons exactly like the picture below.

Then he continued to create photon cannons behind this wall. How do I combat this? I tried getting roaches up and moving spine crawlers up, however my spine crawlers miserably failed as he broke through one of the pylons and moved them to the spaces not covered by my creep in my main. How do I prevent this? How can I stop this after it has begun? Killing the probe I am sure would be the priority. This, however, can be a difficult deal when he protects the probe by the cannons behind it.

As a side note, I understand that many tournament maps have a neutral supply depot to prevent just this. Here is the link to the article.

Asked by Nick122

Answer

There's a very popular way to break out of this wall in called the drone drill.

Essentially you will be puling most/all of your drones and making them all focus a single pylon. It's very micro intensive, but you can break out of it very quickly.

Psystarcraft has a tutorial on how to do this here:

Answered by Sorean

Check more discussion of this question.

How should a Bronze Protoss defend probes mid game?

Question

I'm Bronze Protoss and I have an issue with losing lots of workers to harasses - either pure air or drops, usually not long after 1st expansion.

Being Bronze I only have one strategy - cannons on the mineral line (when I remember to do that) and maybe I leave a few stalkers behind too.

What options does a limited skill player like myself have? Should I continue with cannons and work on more aggression? How many defender units (if any) should I leave in my main and natural expansion? Any other advice on how to better protect my economy?

Asked by ZeroBugBounce

Answer

Try to have vision of your entire base. Place Pylons at the edges so that you know when a drop is about to happen. Keep an eye on the mini map.

This should give you more time to react.

When a drop happens and it is clearly targeted at your workers and potent enough to cause major damage evacuate. Just select all of your workers and move them away. At least momentarily. The short time that you don't mine is easily made up by saving most of your workers. Workers (unlike your gateway units) take a lot of time to built! Make sure your workers are on the way to safety and then get your army to defend against the drop. Once the drop is cleared don't forget to get your workers back to work (and don't forget to put them back on the Vespene too).

If the drop is small and early in the game you may also attack with your workers directly. For example if there are a couple Zerglings or a few marines and I can surround them with my workers I usually do. Later in the game this is usually not such a good idea since upgraded Zerglings or Marines with stim-pack can really cause havoc on your workers.

Scouting is another thing that is crucial in any game and it can give you good hints how likely worker harass will be.

As a Protoss player your army is better if you have them together. I wouldn't recommend leaving parts of your army behind. If you know that a drop is very likely, placing a cannon or two is more cost effective than leaving units and is also a safeguard against any cloaked units harassment (Dark Templar/ Banshee etc.).

Answered by pakl

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I effectively counter a cannon rush with Zerg?

Question

I was a victim of a cannon rush in my last Starcraft 2 game. I was playing Zerg and my opponent was playing Protoss. About four minutes into the match, cannons and pylons started going up in front of the only entrance to my base.

What is the best strategy for handling such a tactic? Massed banelings seemed to be pretty effective, but I couldn't get enough of them to break through.

Am I better off attacking the cannon cluster directly, or should I ignore it, push to mutalisks/brood lords and attack my opponent's base?

Asked by peaches

Answer

If he's got cannons + gateways just outside your ramp, chances are he has minimal forces at his main base. Get a few mutalisks and/or Nydus worms to harass.

You might want to build a second hatchery to facilitate unit production. The reason a contain (not a 'cannon rush', as you labeled it) works so well against Zerg is because they typically need that second hatchery to keep up with (or surpass, usually) their opponent's unit production.

If you can, use your overlords to scout -- a protoss cannon contain might be annoying, but until he expands, you're just as well off economically as him.

Answered by Raven Dreamer

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I counter a turtling Terran?

Question

I'm playing Protoss but i always have the same problem when facing a Terran:

As I get my death-ball, expand and do all the usual things, the Terran just turtles non stop. He gets about 12 siege-tanks in his base and about 20 vikings. Once i can't stand that turtling any more i just decide to engage with my entire army ( even a mother-ship ). And then as i arrive at his main my bowl just gets crashed and splashed by all the siege tanks. Btw, did i tell you, that he also surrounded his whole base with 20 missile-turrets?

I want to know how to break this, or any other turtling build.

Asked by DailyDoggy

Answer

I love to turtle, and I can tell you it's the kiss of death against anyone but the computer. Unless the two of you have already mined the entire map dry, you can nickle and dime him to death with little trouble. Remember, every mineral you force him to spend, he can't replace, while you have the resources of the entire map to draw from.

Things to do:

Hallucinate, Hallucinate, Hallucinate. Make a couple of carriers, and give them each four imaginary void ray friends, and then pick a small hole in his turret net. Remember, death of a thousand cuts. If he counters with his vikings, teach him the very important lesson: the Phoenix is king of the Air-to-Air. Don't listen to the haters. The phoenix may not be able to stand toe to toe, but they don't need to, and this type of fight is perfect for them. Don't be afraid to take losses, you can afford them. Phoenixes are also great for harassing the tanks. Lift 'em, and punish 'em. Gas heavy units are priority targets in a turtle situation.

Immortals. They are made to take down siege tanks, so use them. Unless he's got a bioball hidden in the back, he won't have a good counter.

Mothership. Use it for the warp, and it should put enough of the tanks out of the way to let you kick in the door, and at a very reasonable cost.

Remember, the turtle is the weakest option. Just expand, tech, and tear him down.

Answered by Satanicpuppy

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I combat mass Void Rays as Protoss?

Question

I play PvP games with a friend of mine. Neither of us is very good, but he usually wins because he has played more than me. Thing is though that he rarely does anything other than build a bunch of void rays and come have his way with me; he rarely rushes with anything else.

What should I be building to counter this? My inclination is to build stalkers but I am unsure of the exact build and I'm too much of a newbie to know when I should be building what.

Edit: Up until he attacks me, he keeps up a good defense at his base. Last time I played him he blocked his ramp with cannons.

Asked by Muhd

Answer

There are a few things that you can do to kill a void ray rush, mass stalkers that target fire can counter his void rays. Just shift+right-click his void rays and they will drop like flies.

If you let him get that many void rays then it's your fault he wins, if you scout early that he's going void rays just 4 gate him. He will have a tough time holding against you. Most protoss players should have this build in their build all the time, though higher ranked/skilled players will know how to hold it off properly.

Watch this video about Pylons & probes to be able to macro up effectively. Your macro can beat him straight up, even if he cannons in. Immortals destroy cannons so you can get a few of those and break him. Or you can abuse the fact that he only has cannons up front and use a warp prism in the back/side of his base and just warp in a bunch of stalkers and destroy the inside.

If he goes that defensive you can also abuse the fact that he won't be expanding and expand quickly. Get up another base quickly and out produce him. Because he's so heavily invested in static defenses he won't have a big mobile army. That means you can freely and for the most part, safely expand. Just make sure you know where he is at all times. A few observers outside his base can be very handy.

Answered by Sorean

Check more discussion of this question.

How can you micro stalkers vs. zealots?

Question

I'm trying to micro a few stalkers against a few non charged zealots.

I see a lot of players move their stalkers away, then hit, then move away, then hit, and so on.

How do they micro as such? Do they use the Move, Stop, Move, Stop commands, or some other technique?

When I try to do so, it really seems like there's a lag between the time the Stalker stops and actually attacks. But when other players do it online, they attack as soon as the stalkers 'stops', seems like they're not even stopping...

Asked by Wadih M.

Answer

Move, then attack-move away, then as soon as they attack, issue a move command followed by another attack move. They won't stop moving until they can fire their shot. Then they will fire instantly and you are free to move them again and repeat.

Answered by StrixVaria

Check more discussion of this question.

When is an Archon better than two Dark Templars?

Question

With High Templars, you merge them when their energy is low. When would you merge two Dark Templars to form an Archon?

Asked by ripper234

Answer

Archons are good against air and ground and do splash damage. If your opponent has countered your cloaked units with a detector unit then I would merge. I almost never use dark templars over High Templars because I think High Templars are a lot more useful and versatile.

Answered by Mark

Check more discussion of this question.

ZvP How to Defeat FFE? [closed]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How to counter Protoss' fast expand as zerg?

Lately I have had trouble while playing Zerg defeating a Forge Fast Expander. The trouble is that I can't break his walls quickly or easily. I have tried searching for strategies online about breaking a FFE however no good results appeared. I did beat one by using a Nydus canal but the player wasn't quick enough to respond and surely could have defeated it if given a few extra seconds.

So what are some good strategies to defeating a Forge Fast Expander as Zerg?

Asked by Nick122

Answer

The correct way to beat FFE is not to all-in or go for early aggression (which can work but is gimmicky and not reliable) but to expand faster yourself. Think about what your opponent can't do when he FFEs... correct, punish you for greed.

Take for example games of stephano where he gets his third as early as 4:30 and that way has a far stronger economy that allows him to just overwhelm his opponent with the sheer number of roaches whenever the Protoss tries to be aggressive.

The usual followup to that is to tech up to hive and break the wall with infestor/broodlord/corruptor.

Take a look at this Day9 episode which - while focussed more on lategame - still shows some early/midgame stuff.

http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-429-p1-stephano-s-zvp-late-game-style-6009413

Answered by dbemerlin

Check more discussion of this question.

How do I recover from a cannon rush as Protoss?

Question

Yesterday I was cannon rushed as protoss.

I know the best way to counter it is to just not let his probe build the first pylon, but somehow I missed it and when I realized what was happening it was already too late (he had like 4 cannons already built just outside my vision).

Assuming this starting point, what should I have done?

I got pissed so I gg'ed and played another game, but first I tried building a few immortals to try to destroy the cannons, zealots wouldn't cut it -- and all I did was waste resources.

Should I just have abandoned my main base and try to attack his base with a few zealots? I assume he would've had cannons there too.
Should I have re-built my base someplace else?

How do you recover from this situation?

Answer

Dealing with a cannon rush as Protoss is very different from dealing with it as Zerg. Creep prevents the placement of buildings in a lot of places, so a cannon rush against Zerg is largely used as a contain. This is not true for Protoss.

A number of people have suggested countering, or getting up defense, or expanding, but against a standard cannon rush (8-10 Forge) chances are you don't have time for any of that. He should be finishing his first cannon around the same time you are finishing chrono boosting out your first Zealot. With a very early cannon rush like this, if you do not catch him throwing down that pylon, you will not survive. He's made a huge economic sacrifice and this will be an "all-in" for him.

This is a very scary situation to be in and even at high levels (~1200 Diamond) a fast cannon rush like this a guaranteed win if its not scouted (and still 20-30% effective when it is). I'd recommend the following recourse:

1. Don't panic. Disaster management is a very important skill and if you panic you won't handle this well
2. Don't pull all your workers. This is a classic mistake, as he'll just let them target his Pylon, throw down a new one and cancel the old
3. Kill the Probe. This is usually hard (as you only have probes) and you'll have to pull workers off and micro a surround. Since Probes can build far more than you can destroy this is your number 1 target. This will be especially hard since he can avoid any surround by just clicking on minerals (workers get unit walking while harvesting). Keep attacking him and pull in more Probes as needed.
4. Throw down a Gateway. You should catch him before you'd normally do this so this should be one of your first instincts. Probes can't do enough damage to buildings, you'll need this to clear them out.
5. Don't cut Probe production. While you'll shift your chrono boosts to Zealots (save them while waiting for you gateway), you still need to build your economy. The goal of fighting off this rush is to survive and come out ahead. If you cut Probe production you will not come out a head.

I highly recommend you practice against this with a friend. Go on Lost Temple and have him sneak a pylon in the back of your base so it over laps the cliff. He'll follow up by putting his forge on the low ground and his cannons on the high ground (that means 2 probes). If he gets out his first two cannons before your Zealot arrives, restart. You want to nip this in the bud.

Check more discussion of this question.

What are all the powers of the Protoss Mothership?

Question

Could I get a full list of all of the Mothership's powers, and what its advantages are in StarCraft II?

Answer

It can:

• Cloak buildings and units near it
• Use Vortex with 100 energy, temporarily removing any units that get too close (friendly or otherwise) from the map for 20 seconds, and
• Mass Recall, transporting your own units from somewhere else on the map directly below the mothership. This can be used offensively or defensively to great effect.

Despite what the Blizzard page says about it, it cannot

• Use "Planet Cracker"
• Use "Time Warp"

Check more discussion of this question.

Protoss Counter to Infestor w/ Infested Terran

Question

So I recently ran into a guy playing huge numbers of infestors. He would show up near my base and start pumping out infected Terrans. Like MASSIVE amounts. My Zs took care of them but I ended up losing lots of Zs. Then the guy would quickly leave and come back again later.

I responded by building towers to try to help with defense and Observers so I could try to detect his infestors earlier but the infestors move so fast and they can toss those guys so quickly I couldn't catch them.

My question is how would I have countered this better? I assumed since they were burrowed that air units would be worthless. I know for sure that Voids are useless since the infested terrans make very short work of them.

Answer

Let's examine the Infested Terran for a second (on an unrelated not, an Infestor can use fungal growth to do far more economic damage than the Infested Terran).

• Speed: 0.9375 (that's the same speed as a Queen off creep)
• DPS: 9.3 (which is actually more than a Marine)
• Hit Points: 50
• Range: 5

So they're slow, and flimsy, but do decent dps.

Depending on your strategy there are a couple solutions to this problem:

1. High Templar -> Between Feedback (for the Infestors) and Psi Storm for the Infested Terran you're good to go. Because Infested Terran are so slow, Psi Storm will destroy them
2. Colossus -> Always a good choice and with the Range upgrade you actually out Range them by enough they won't ever get near, though mind control can turn this against you in a normal battle
3. Phoenix -> Not the best choice as they tend to die to Infested Terran, but grabbing an Infestor is a very good tactic and the Phoenix will make short work of them.
4. Observer -> Strangely enough this unit alone will deal with most of your problems. As long as you have a nice choke, the Observer will spot the flimsy Infestors (80 hp).

Now assuming you don't have any of those things here are a few things to keep in mind: Chargelots tear Infested Terran apart, but even smarter, they run away faster than Infested Terran can follow. Little know fact is that the Charge upgrade increases Zealot normal movement speed. Infested Terran have very short life span (30 seconds) so if you can just stay away from them you should win easy. Another important point is Infested Terran attack very quickly so Guardian Shield is your friend (not to mention Force Field + wait).

When faced against Infestors you really need to invest in detectors. Though you may have had a run in with Infested Terran, the real scary weapon is the Fungal Growth. In addition to the 4.5 aoe dps, Fungal Growth locks down your units leaving them at the mercy of a Zergling attack or long range Hydralisk force (range 6).

If you spy a Zerg going Infestors, its always good to build an Observer or 2. One for your force and one to watch your base (Fungal Growth makes short work of Probes).

---

Edit: its worth noting that Neural Parasite (mind control) is an upgrade to Infestors, and that many Zerg skip it, or don't get it till late game. Given the power of Fungal Growth, and the short duration of Neural Parasite, its easy to see why.

Check more discussion of this question.

Countering MMM + Vikings as Protoss?

Question

I was in a match on Blistering Sands versus a Terran that was going MMM. I naturally built Colossi, and to counter he got Vikings. Granted, in that match I was really bad on letting my opponent have intel (he owned both watch towers from about 6 minutes in), but I'm not sure what to do. Do you simply attack before he gets many Vikings? Or is there a Protoss unit that can down them effectively? I had at least as many Stalkers as he had Vikings but they couldn't protect my Colossi enough so that they would survive. (Maybe that's just my bad micro though :P)

Answer

As Protoss you have the ability to tech switch (due to warp gates) significantly faster than a Terran player. While Protoss has the ability to defend Collosus from Terran with stalkers or (not recommended:) phoenix there are smarter choices.

Instead of attempting to counter them, you could instead exploit what his army -doesn't- have. (If you have an hour to spend, watch this day9 video where Gretorp discusses the value of exploiting what an army is lacking, not what counters it) Your Collosus tech was built to counter his MMM. Is it the only solution to MMM?

Once the Terran player has exposed his viking tech you can switch to high templar easily through warp gates, a direct counter to the MMM ball. (I'm assuming this is fairly late game) By doing this, your Terran enemy has wasted resources on Vikings which have very little utility against a Protoss ground army.

Abuse the fact that you can switch tech's faster then the Terran and make him counter you. High level Zerg's are amazing at this! You have the ability to set the momentum of the fights where Terran is looking to seize the moment when his ball can finally overwhelm you.

If this seems like a lot of work, out number his vikings 2 to 1 with stalkers + blink, but expect him to be able to snipe a few colossus due to his amazing 9 range.

Hope this helps!

Check more discussion of this question.

Does the sentry's Guardian Shield protect units from ranged attacks if the attackers are inside the shield?

Question

Let's say army A has 5 stalkers and army B has 5 stalkers and a sentry.

If the sentry is in the middle of army B and throws up a guardian shield while army A is still well outside the radius of the shield, obviously army B will take reduced damage from A's ranged attacks.

If the A stalkers sacrifice the time and health to walk inside of the guardian shield, literally standing right next to B's stalkers, are their attacks still reduced by the sentry's shield?

Answer

Guardian shield confers the damage reduction to all friendly unit inside its radius, regardless of the location of the source inflicting the damage. It doesn't matter if the enemy is inside or outside the shield.

EDIT: some ranged units (specifically hydralisks and roaches) have an alternate attack animation when they are in melee range. This attack does not count as a ranged attack - so it is not affected by guardian shield or point-defense drones. Moving these units into close proximity with the units defended by the guardian shield can be beneficial, then, but again it has nothing to do with whether the attacker is actually inside the guardian shield or not.

Check more discussion of this question.

StarCraft II - Protoss Mothership powers?

Question

Could I get a full list of all of the Mothership's powers, and what its advantages are in StarCraft II?

Answer

It can:

• Cloak buildings and units near it
• Use Vortex with 100 energy, temporarily removing any units that get too close (friendly or otherwise) from the map for 20 seconds, and
• Mass Recall, transporting your own units from somewhere else on the map directly below the mothership. This can be used offensively or defensively to great effect.

Despite what the Blizzard page says about it, it cannot

• Use "Planet Cracker"
• Use "Time Warp"

Check more discussion of this question.

Which Zerg units beat that ball?

Question

Which Zerg units would be good to counter that Protoss group?

Answer

It depends on what tier you've reached at this time:

• 2: roach + corruptors - classic
• 2: baneling drops are pretty good against stalker heavy army, muta will take care of collusus
• 3: broodlords + mass roach / infestors

Some hint when you want to attack:

• harass opponent so it move this ball... and ball will become line or two smaller balls
• attack from different directions at once (in this case - flying from minerals, one group from N and another from W) so opponent will move army and not attack you for split a second. Plus 3 sentries will not be able to wall-off all front

Check more discussion of this question.

How do you decide what to get first, Forge or Twilight Council?

Question

Once you have a decently size ground force (~ 6 troopers?), you want to start upgrading them, right? Now ... if you're seeing some concrete threat like Mutas or Tanks, then you'll want a specific upgrade like Blink or Charge.

But ... assuming you haven't found any concrete intel at this point, what do you lay down first, Twilight Council or Forge?

While Forge in itself isn't that expensive, you can't seriously plan to build both Forge and Twilight Council and and have enough minerals / gas left to buy upgrades at both.

One advantage of Twilight is of course enabling High/Dark Templars. So ... how (and when) do you decide which of them to get first?

Answer

I'll try to cover as much as I can in this answer.

As I stated in my comment it depends on what race you are playing against, what you scout, and when you are trying to get both these buildings. Map size also factors into your decision as well.

Since you are referring as to having to make a choice, I'm going to assume that you are trying to do this off one base on a relatively smaller map so all answers below will be tailored around that assumption. If it's a big map (like Tal'darim Alter) you can quickly get a second base and do something like a +1/+1 + charge or blink attack.

So what race are you playing against.

Terran If you are playing terran that is going a heavy bio start, a forge is a good choice with a small zealot, sentry, and stalker army. Getting a quick +1 armour will reduce marine damage to zealots to 1 with a guardian shield up (Guardian shield reduces damage by 2, zealots start with 1 armour, marines attack for 5) making them that much stronger against against a bio army.

If you scout them and they're going a tech route then it will boil down to what you plan on doing with your army and what path you will be choosing. Archons and storms do significant damage to a terran army late game. The same can be said if you go with colossi and upgrades if they don't have vikings either.

Zerg This is a tough one to make a choice because zerg can swap so quickly with their army composition. The safer choice between the two is to go forge first with a +1 attack upgrade. The +1 attack allows for zealots to 2 shot zerglings instead of 3. This increases the effectiveness of zealots versus zerglings by 33%.

That said, if they go roaches and you're heavy zealot, they can be kited forever on and off creep so you need to make sure you are fighting on your terms. A few sentries thrown in will stop them from running away so you can deal your damage. It does also mean that blink stalkers will have a significant advantage over roaches as well. Even charge would work too. But it depends on what their army composition is so you sort of need the most well rounded army possible.

Keep in mind, late game, storms are very helpful versus the swarm.

Protoss Again this comes down to army composition. If it's a stalker vs stalker fight, the player with blink will win (assuming properly blink micro).

If one of the players goes the colossi route later on, the one with the forge early with early attack upgrades will destroy the army of the guy that doesn't have the upgrades.

This mirror match-up is difficult to theorize without scouting information. If you see a forge upgrading you need to get one in response, if you fall behind you will lose. It really depends on what you plan on going for a build.

Generally speaking though forge is the safer bet. You can get quicker upgrades, and if you scout a Twilight council and dark shrine you have access to dropping a cannon to save you from Dark Templars as well without having to spend the money on a Robotics Bay and get an observer.

Check more discussion of this question.

Dealing with the dreaded Terran Base Race

Question

In my recent games, I've been having a lot of trouble with Terrans who refuse to engage my army even if it arrives knocking on their doorstep (I play Protoss mostly), because they know that they will always win in a base race. If I arrive at their base and start killing their workers and buildings, they simply go to my base and do the same.

This usually happens around the early-mid push so both players have mostly tier 1, maybe a couple tier 2 units out, but it's even easier once they have Medivacs because they can fly out of their base unharmed and land in mine.

What I've noticed is that there is far less risk for them leaving their base unattended. Why?

• They can simply lift off a lot of their buildings which can't be killed fast enough by stalkers, since I also need an approximately equal number of zealots to survive tier 1.
• Even if I kill all their workers, then leave to return and defend what's left of my base, they can recover from the economic loss quite well with MULEs.
• Terran t1 units tend to do kill buildings faster anyway.
• Killing Pylons cripples the Protoss player much more than killing Supply Depots hurts the Terran. I end up being supply blocked and my warp gates have no power so I can't produce anything, while he can still make at least a few things from his barracks.

Options I've tried:

• Leaving 2 or 3 sentries at my choke to slow them down. If I look away for even a second, the Terran player has already stimmed and taken out the sentries before I can block them off with force fields.
• Taking out their workers and the command center, then heading back to my base. All my Pylons and workers are already dead and he's probably had enough time to kill my Nexus, so game over, as he can still produce a few marines at least while all my warp gates are unpowered and I am supply blocked.
• Leaving behind a portion of my army. It's too difficult to split up the army, because my offensive force won't kill his base fast enough and my defensive one isn't big enough to defend from his force.
• Letting my base die, continuing to kill his and chase his flying buildings around the map while attempting to 'Farm-hide' Pylons or Nexuses until I kill all of his buildings, or possibly engage his army and hope to win. I usually end up losing when I try this as he's still been able to produce several more units from hidden barrackses while my warp gates are unpowered.
• On ledge and cliff oriented maps, like Desert Oasis where the Terran likes to use drop ships a lot, going Stargate first instead of Robo and trying to gain air superiority. The terran just uses their superior ground army to beat mine, and leaves behind a few marines in their base to deal with the Protoss air units.
• Sitting in my base, never leaving it until I have at least a couple Colossi with the range upgrade. Okay, this works most of the time but a two-way turtle-tech-fest is really boring.

It is true that I do play mostly against my buddies and that they have a higher probability of opting for a base race than in your average 1v1 quick match vs. unknown opponents (although in Diamond league I've faced a lot of people who do this as well). But I want to know if there's anything I can do to prevent every single P vs. T game from turning into this.

Answer

It sounds like you're building a large army and using it to gain map control, but then are falling prey to things like drops and backdooring.

If you have map control your first thought should never be: Crush my opponent, as you're essentially sacrificing an advantage (map control) for an unsure victory (because he doesn't control the map doesn't mean he can't take you). Instead your thought should be: take the map. I think you'll find this change in philosophy will lead to situations where you have a much more powerful economy than him and you're able to kill him with attrition.

Now if you're falling prey to things like BD here is a quick check list for you:

• Are you scouting? an Observer should be the first thing you build out of Robo. If you don't go Robo, a Hallucination works just as well. Sometimes scouting means sacrificing some Zealots in a pointless charge to just get inside his base.
• If you're scouting, are you seeing it coming? Overlords on the edge of your base, Starport with Reactor + 3 Rax, all of these are indicative of certain strategies you should watch out for.
• If you see it coming, how are you responding? If you have map control that means you should be able to respond quickly. Shutting down these back door attempts is often a bigger victory than a straight up conflict
• Finally, Do you have map control? If you don't have map control that means he does, and if he's beating you with map control then your problem is not "how do I deal with a base trade?" but rather, how do I regain the advantage.

Check more discussion of this question.

When should I build a Stalker as my first unit over a Zealot, and why?

Question

I have been reading some answers here and it was reference that for the Protoss, a stalker is a more "recommended" first build over a zealot.

Why is this recommended or for what situations? Stalkers have less HP and Zealots are strong against zerglings and can overwhelm marines.

Please list 1v1 and 2v2 scenarios, and explain as though I am a beginner.

Answer

As mentioned in the Reaper question. You need a stalker to deal with early Reapers as Photon Cannons tend to set you back by too much. However, there is no reason it has to be the first unit you build.

Since a Stalker requires a Cybernetics Core (60 second build time) and it in turn requires a Gateway (which can build Zealots with a 33 second build time) you can easily build a Zealot while waiting for the Cybernetics Core to finish.

So the better question is: "Why wouldn't you?"

• A Zealot costs 100 Minerals and 2 Psi to build.
• A Stalker costs 125 Minerals 50 Gas and 2 Psi to build.

Obviously if you can't afford another Pylon and only have 2 Psi to spare it makes sense to cut the Zealot. But consider also the costs to build a Stalker: A Vespean Assimilator (75 minerals), Probes harvesting Gas instead of Minerals, the additional cost of the Cybernetics Core (150 Minerals). These all add up. That said you can (if you play decently) afford both.

Other things to consider. Once your stalker is built what are you going to build next? "Standard" play is usually to add on another Gateway (150 Mineral cost). By cutting that Zealot you can start building a second Gateway before your Stalker is ready. You'll probably also need more Psi at this point, and a Pylon has the same cost as a Zealot. Its worth noting that you should have a better economy once the Stalker is finished (you were building probes this whole time right?), so these things will still be affordable.

So to answer your unasked question: Should you cut the production of the first Zealot?

Try it out! Play a couple times where you build both, and where you only build the Stalker. How much Minerals do you have? Does it feel like enough for the rest of your game plan? Would 100 Minerals help you? Would you rather have that Zealot to help block your entrance?

This all depends on what your strategy is, so what you need to do is try both and decide. They're two options and there is no correct answer.

For reference material here is Tester vs IntoTheRainbow in the Razor King of the Beta Tournament.

• Game 1 -> doesn't build a Zealot before his Stalker
• Game 2 -> builds a Zealot first then a Stalker

Check more discussion of this question.

Can the Protoss Mothership Mass Recall Allies' units?

Question

If so, there's a wicked opportunity in 4v4 to mothership rush to an enemies base and recall 400 units into his base!!!

Answer

Yes it can. Here's an excerpt:

Mass Recall teleports a group of friendly Protoss units within a 6.5 radius of a targeted area directly to the Mothership's position. Such a teleportation can occur from across the map

It's a really useful ability, however the problem is you need a mothership to use it. Considering it's such a late game unit, it normally doesn't show up in a match, although it can be game changing if it does.

Check more discussion of this question.