The idea of using this build is to utilize minerals as an advantage over your opponent during the early game, thus being able to expand safely against a 4 gate. This is called the No Gas PvP for two reasons: 1) your first assimilator (and cybernetics core) is delayed); 2) you don't take a second assimilator until after you have a good saturation of minerals on your natural.
Hopefully other people will adopt this into their arsenal of PvP builds, as to help sway PvP away from that god awful 4 warpgate build.
This build was adopted from Adelscott, and shown to me in a Day9 daily.
The Build (not truly a build order but a plan of events) Early Game
Start with:
- Pylon
- Gateway
- Pylon
- Gateway
- Assimilator
- Pylon
- Cybernetics Core
This ordering seems pretty awkward; you go for 2 gateways then an assimilator? While the second gateway is being constructed you'll want to produce a zealot. Before the cybernetics finishes you want to end up with a total of two-three zealots, and as the cybernetics finishes you chronoboost out two stalkers -be sure to have some chronoboost! Once you're two initial stalkers are out, then you can spend 50 vespene on warpgate.
If you think your initial zealot can deal significant damage (kill a pylon, or at least two probes) then go ahead and chrono it out and attack. Once you end up with your three zealots and two stalkers attack and deal as much damage as possible. If you timed this right you should arrive just before warpgate technology is researched. Take this time to knock out a key pylon or two, or take down as many probes as possible.
Running up the ramp before he has warpgate finished with 3 zeals and a stalker, he only has 3 zealots!
I actually prefer to have my zealots arrive about 15-25 seconds before my stalkers, because three zealots running up your ramp will more than likely persuade you to spend your chronoboost on gateways -this is delaying his warpgate technology!
If you feel like you can overwhelm him and just win, keep chronoboosting from your two gateways, then add on two more so you have 2-3 once your own warpgate gets researched.
Ideally you want to at this point delay his warpgate tech, and kill probes. I've been able to get away with a 10 probe lead at this point in time.
If he ends up finishing warpgate while you are in his base, and you don't think it will be worth your remaining army to just attack probes while dieing, go ahead and retreat back to your natural (explained momentarily).
Expanding
You have a couple options while expanding. First, you can expand while you are attacking with your three zealots and two stalkers, following this up with two more gateways and a forge. This will allow you to have 4 warpgates worth of production (to match your enemy's), along with a couple cannons at your natural. A single cannon is usually sufficient if you've been able to knock some probes out. You really cannot skip this cannon! These cannon(s) are extremely cost efficient, so much so that a cannon will be able to protect your natural better than a stalker, or a zealot. The cannon is also great for detection against DT rushes or builds.
Keep that cannon alive!
Your second option is to add on your two additional gateways, and then expand. This delays the expansion but allows you combat a 4 warpgate rush if you weren't able to deal sufficient damage. Also, if you add on your warpgates before expanding, in the case that you can't hold your expansion you can cancel the nexus and fall back up your ramp. Worst case scenario: you end up with more probes than the other guy, and 4 warpgates. I wouldn't recommend transitioning into 2 gate robo, as you won't have the vespene to support robo units.
Extra Resources
Since you'll be taking a very quick expansion, you'll have a greater income than usual, and as such you are allowed leeway in what you spend your money on. Since you already have a forge, it's great to start chronoboosting +1 weapons once your cannon(s) are up.
After you have a decent saturation of minerals at your natural you can add on as many assimilators as you like. I usually like to add on all three all at once, and then throw down a twighlight council. The twilight council is usually the best avenue to choose, as you already have a ratio of 3:3:1 in terms of gateway units, the 1 being sentries (explained in the Key Notes section). I prefer a transition into mass blink stalkers followed by archons.
Transitioning
After a couple production cycles once your natural is fairly saturated you should be able to dominate in a head on battle. From here, you can expand or tech to anything of your liking. I prefer to get blink stalkers and about 4 archons. The archons are used to tank enemy fire (preferably collosus fire), and do pretty darn well vs zealots due to splash damage. This goes great if the enemy went one or two base collosus, since you can tank with the archons and blink into the collosus and snipe them. This works well since on two base with stalker production and 4 assimilators you'll have an excess in vespene.
Another alternative would be to go with mass wargpates after you take a third base, and harass with multiple warp prisms, or just go in with one massive assault warp prisming into the back of his base.
Transitioning from this build is really open ended, since if you did it successfully against a 4 warpgate you should come out ahead.
Against Robo Builds
HuK tries a collosus push against Adelscott!
Honestly, I've never played anyone that's gone with some sort of robo opening. This is because when players see your intial two gateways, they are expecting mass zealots, and they rush to match your gateway count. Once they realize you aren't zealot alling they switch to 4 gate. I can just imagine an early push of 3 zealots and two stalkers destroying a robo build since only one immortal should be able to get out in time, which is a huge investment at this point in the game.
Key Things to Note
- Since you are utilizing a mineral disparity between you and your opponent as your advantage, you are going to want only a couple sentries. You should have a ratio of about 3:3:1 of zealot stalker sentry, until you add on additional assimilators.
- Your cannon is also essential for detecting dark templar, so place it so it has vision of your ramp so that you can FF the ramp and block dark templars, if necessary.
- If you fail to deal significant damage with your first attack you will need to either add on additional cannons at your natural, or skip the natural entirely.
- Target key pylons powering multiple buildings, or probes, with your initial attack. If your units are going to die (perhaps his warpgate finished while you were in his base), then die while shooting down his probes instead of his army.
Why this Works
This build works for a couple reasons. Most players when seeing you perform this build will go along with the "standard" response, as in they are simply going 9 pylon 12-13 gate 14-15 assimilator. Once they see your second gateway, they also add on a gateway -usually after they lay down a cybernetics core (unless their core was going to be late due to poor execution on their part). At this point the enemy can either mine gas and try to stalker your zealot allin (because it looks like a zealot allin variation for a moment), or they will pull probes off of their vespene and try to match you in your supposed zealot production. Either way you come out ahead, as you'll have two stalkers along with your first push, then you'll also have a natural and 4 warpgates, which would destroy them if they had pure zealots. Assuming they keep mining vespene, they'll have quite a few less minerals since you delayed your assimilator, and this is good news for you, since you'll have more minerals to expand even though your army should be of greater value anyways.
Also, this build will destroy anyone trying to 4 warpgate without reacting to your early aggression, since the attack hits before warpgate is researched.
Replays (more may be added as I collect them) and VODs
This replay is of me playing vs a Protoss who quickly popped out three sentries to cover their ramp. I simply expanded and laid my cannons down -expecting a 4 gate to hit me hard. He ended up trying to DT expand, which failed due to the cannons.
This is a replay of me playing on the PTR server (need to use the PTR client to view) vs a guy that had a really strange 4 gate build. This replay's value doesn't go beyond the point of showing an example of good early defense.
This replay shows me utilizing my first zealot (I believe I chrono'd it out before cyber core) to knock out a pylon, followed up with early aggression. Note the probe desparity once I have a natural up.
AdelScott vs HuK on Lost Temple (Adel used this build). Note how few sentries Adel gets, and note when he starts +1 and lays down his twilight council.
AdelScott vs HuK on Metalopolis. This is a great example of early aggression, and gateways before the nexus. I actually think it would have been optimal to lay the nexus down first, although Adel was just playing it safe. This replay shows an excellent example of how to defend against a quick collosus push response from the opponent.
Here is a Day9 Daily on the AdelScott No Gas PvP!
Here is a VOD of AdelScott vs WhiteRa at Dreamhack, with Adel commentating (in French).
None.
