Hi guys,

1st real post here. Thanks for those who are reading. I like Protoss most and I am most comfortable with it. I think Terran might be better, but I don't know their builds or tech tree or anything except their tanks own me bad

Anyways here, after my initial build (not sure what its called or if it's something I just BSed) I'm not sure what to do and how/when to expand. Specifically:

1. When do I expand? What units should I have guarding it relative to my main army? What buildings should I build first? I usually go for pylons + nexus + cans + assim.

2. When do I attack? I can't really get up the terran ramp once he has a freakin walls set up I get owned by tanks. This is why I go for arbiters to recall but by then the terran expands like 10 times and covers 80% of the map. Then I die.

3. I read the guides, but I have a hotkey question too. I hotkey 1-0 my nexus then my scouting probe is 1. After that my gates are 4,5,6 and other expansions may be 7-0. This means 1-3 are free for units, but what about micro? Do I have to just click individual units? For example I noticed I lose a lot of templar because I do a-click and my temps freakin just go in to die lol. I like to bind them to separate keys but I don't have anymore left. I think this part is a major block to my progress.

I don't want to write too much and your feedback might answer my questions so thanks for reading! I appreciate the help!

- grateful newbie

I'm too lazy to watch replay.

Lost Temple is a horribly imbalanced map. Really old. Try newer maps like Python, Destination or Blue Storm

1. You should expand as much as you feel comfortable with. With observers, you should know the general size of his army. Unless your too far behind in unit count, you should be able to expand safely. You don't really need cannons except against vulture harass. Pylon walls work wonders. Assimilators are important if you need the gas for something like air tech. The general rule is to be 1 base ahead of Terran though you don't have to rush your natural that much.

2. If he has a wall with tanks behind, you really shouldn't attack unless you're doing something like a bulldog with a shuttle with zealot bombs. Attack only when he pushes out or with carriers if you're using them. You should look for weak spots with observers and check for any expansions and attack them.

3. Don't know much about hotkeys. I barely use em. You shouldn't be losing too many templar though. Grouping them with your army is fine. You should have enough dragoons to defend against most snipes from vultures. A-move will usually get the dragoons and zealots in front with the templar in the back. If you see one moving forward too much, just storm with it and run it back. Alternatively, you could use a shuttle to move your templar around in.

Wow thanks so much! Yeah I'm going to stop playing LT...replay probably isn't worth your 10 min anyways . Last time I played SC was like 4 years ago and I played LT back then. I guess LT favors T and Z? Anyways I will play python from now on.

Also, thanks for the answers to the Qs. Yeah now that I think about it, the templars are slowest and get there late...I guess I should have plenty of time to micro them and storm then retreat or merge.

Lost Temple is T dominated. Regardless of who you are. But yeah, you're going to want to learn some basic build orders. Vs Terran, it's pretty standard (I believe, I could be wrong) to do a 1 Gate Core (found here)
or a more aggressive 2 gateway opener (found here)


as for which race is best, don't tell anyone but protoss is secretly the best

but no, each race has it's distinct disadvantages and advantages, and they all rough out to be pretty equal. stick with toss

btw keep looking on teamliquid's sc wiki, you'll find a lot of great stuff

pvt: stay 1 base ahead of terran. 2-3 cannons to stop vulture raids nexus first should be fine because vults suck at killing buildings


dont. you cannot break a terran wall quickly unless you bulldog, which is a strategy specific for breaking a terran. if the terran turtles, just expand (a good rule is to always stay one base up a terran. late game, youll probably have like 2 more than them) and get your tech up. wait till he moves out, and crush his army with stasis. odds are, youll both lose your armies, but thats good because youll have lots of expos and you can actually replace your army.


ok, i personally dont like 1 to be a nexus because it makes it hard to push p for probe. maybe 0 for nexus initial is better, then going to 8-0, and in the beginning, 9 as scouting probe. if you have temp trouble, you can just put them in a shuttle. when your army moves out, take the shuttle and right click a unit and it will follow it around. 7-0 isnt needed for expos- you wont be always needing to pump probes from 4 nexus. with that freed up, 567 can be your initial gates. 1234 is army. cool trick: you can bind a location on the map like a hotkey with shift+ f2-f4. with this, you can tap f2-f4 and go to a mass of gates late game and then produce from them.

gl

Again, thanks for the tips guys. Gonna try some of them out. I played 5 more games yesterday on Heartbreak ridge and Python and got raped in all but 1 against another newbie who I tried to cheese and failed, but it distracted him enough for me to move in through the front. I think I need to play safe first and stick to the build order and try to just remembering to keep pumping out units and making more gates when I have more cash.

I'm going to try the F2-F4 trick.