Protoss Tutorials: Exploiting The 4 Gate Timing Attack

[@trippalhealicks]

This is the definition of "uber micro." Holy cow. You just gave me so many ideas and inspired me to practice and implement so many new techniques into my game. Thank you!

[@Estradarsaysmoo]

As you might have noticed, placing a pylon where the watchtower can see it is sub-optimal. A good location could be to place it on the edge of the gold expansion (you can warp across the ravine).
There are several good counters as terran, one is to use fast marauders with concussive shells, another to go for fast tanks (build tech lab on barracks and lift/switch). You can have 3-4 tanks with siege and 12-20 marines when the 4-gate push arrives.

[@Cracie097]

man i cant thank u enough for posting this. i just applied both 4 gate and the phoenix strat in 3 games and it worked flawlessly 3 - 0 so far so good.. every 1 i played didnt know what to do to the phoenix strat.

[@Haytyd]

i am so switching to protoss and playing this build Thanks HD :) I love that even if it doesnt work you can switch into anything and still have a strong force. Ive seen Whitera start with something like a 4gate but when he sees its going to be a big game he pumps out 8 or 9 so i like this one.

[@sumie-masen]

@crystalcape It is a general rule of thumb that 1 mining base can provide enough for only 4 gates to be constantly producing. If you want more gates, get an expansion.

[@wonCrash]

Just so people know... the typicaly 4 gate build actually opens 12 Gate, 14 Assim, Cyber at 17, Pylon, and then 3 more gateways at 150 minerals each. Typically you don't need to get the 2nd gas until the after you throw down before you throw down the 4th gateway.
If you CB your Warp Gate one time, it typically works out very nicely, finishing right as your last Gateway warps in.

[@boreopithecus]

@ICEInterphace Clicking a lot is generally a good habit. When moving a unit to a location it's good to first issue a quick move order in the general direction, then reposition your camera and give a second more precise order. This way your unit starts moving a little sooner and gets to its location a little faster than had you first moved your camera and clicked the final destination. Constantly clicking isn't "necessary" but it will keep your fingers warm in case you need to react quickly.

[@namelessfire]

This strategy is quite effective and it's awesome particularly because I'm Protoss player primarily. However four gate needs to be addressed in the future.

[@kennyc002]

@Balgore8 The guy expanded when he pushed with the roaches. It was a delayed expansion tactic that backfired because he couldn't contain HD long enough to secure the expansion (due to the 4-gate strategy).

[@Ketaara]

HD, started the beta since phase 2, first time playing an RTS multiplayer. Playing Terran. Top of silver league atm.
Since you posted this video I have yet to see a Protoss player do anything other than 4 gate.
Before this was posted I was having trouble with Protoss because I'd see many different builds and it's hard as Terran to counter any of them unless you see them coming.
Since the people in Silver league seem pretty bad at stopping the scout, I've won 4/5 of them today. Thanks!

[@atdsutm]

good job spreading this on the internet, now i will see a ton of protoss players

[@Pokedude1013]

Good tutorial! Don't spoon feed them, let them learn!

[@HDstarcraft]

@FrzN
Yeah, you can get that assimilator before the Cybercore. I think it may actually be slightly faster :)

[@Jelysniper]

Also, provided you properly scouted a definite 4 gate, you make up your mind as to whether:
1. follow up on the 4 gateway counts.
2. cboost your 2 gateway and have a slight early lead in army size JUST before his 4 gates start pumping out.
1, your best option is to take the fight as late as possible near your base/ramp so that you buy time to match up his size - then its a micro battle
2 gives you 1min+- army adv and you NEED to attack and keep that adv up and keep the pressure up.

[@ShepardToTheStars]

@DualSoccerace
Caster Micro Tip: Put casters in a seperate control group. If they dont have an attack, make sure you press 'S' before you cast, so they will stop and won't barrel into the enemy.

[@Zeachrome]

@Evological While controlling your worker, hold shift while giving commands. Example:
I'm controlling an SCV. I want him to build a supply depot, then automatically get him to gather minerals after hes done building the Supply depot. While shift is down, I start building the supply depot, then I right click the mineral patch. Make sure that your worker is always targeted.

[@GretzkyTheWonderDog]

HD! I think you should hold a contest to see who can come up with the best opening catch phrase for you!

[@ChristopherJYen]

Usually assimilator before the 15/16 pylon. an early sentry is also useful, as it gathers energy and will be full by the time you hit.

[@OrdoMallius]

thanks allot husky now protoss will own me even more

[@Default2009]

@mayhempk1 If you continuously make use of your production units, 1 base that's saturated will generally only be able to fund 4 gates. That 5th gate will just be sitting around most of the time. For efficiency purposes, it's better to have 4 gates per base.

[@Don612Juan]

@DoodeWarrior macro is building mass buildings and units and not controlling a single unit, but your whole mass at once, whereas micro is controlling a couple units or buildings at a time. Zerg is meant for more macro, protoss is meant for micro, terrain is between

[@OutFrame]

It's funny how he was reluctant telling us this strategy then in the end he was like Oh, crap! now regretting it lol

[@LeaTelamon]

@Bocko123 That's why scouting IS important. If HD had seen an early spawn pool when he scouted the first time and saw zerglings, then he would've been forced to adjust and start pumping out more zealots than he did, but alas, the zerg player did not do an early push and allowed HD to easily build more gateways. This build is good especially against players who like to turtle and tech up because it allows for such fast unit production. All strategies work if you know how to use them.

[@hatoup095]

Just tried this strat and it worked like a charm.

[@electrostatic1]

Also, you can get the assimilator while the gateway is warping in and still have enough for the cyber core the second it finishes.

[@Magzillas]

I like how everything becomes "cheese" when it becomes a dominant strategy. I've honestly seen someone call cheese on a hellion run-by.

[@T3cowboys]

@GeringL I appreciate the response. This is definitely something that seems to work well as others are suggesting this strategy as well. Sounds really good. :)

[@FaLLeNaNg3L82]

i LOVE those tutorial videos... they are so helpful!

[@TheGear4ever]

i used this and i held 2 enemy's attacking my base with some teamate help. it was PT our team vs PP there team. We held off 3 attacks and countered and destoryed them. thanks for the video it saved me a game from a zealot rush

[@Jelysniper]

Ok, I can comfortably point out a few things for you which might help.
1. Make SURE you check his number of pylons when you scout with your first probe, its so easy to be 4gated because you dont check the pylon count.
2. your 1st stalker is what helps you detect proxy pylons. make sure you search VERY thoroughly around your base for proxy pylons.
3. If you have gone a 2 gas build and hes gone a 4 gate, increase your zealot count and sentry, and trap them in the ff.

[@pyroticmaniac]

@tchsathlete to make sure there's no error. the difference between having a worker go to the wrong spot or not is huge.

[@Appleguy2456]

Thank you so much! Im a new player and learning lots of stuff from you!!!

[@Paradician]

To those viewing this looking to build 4-gate themselves. This video is six months old and the 4-gate push shown in this video is a lot weaker than today's variants (not HD's fault of course, the build has evolved over time). The warpgates here finish at about 6:30 game time, today's versions finish at about 5:45 and you HIT the opponent at six minutes. Go and study those instead, they're a lot harder to defend against!

[@Tsukou]

@TheAllAroundKid It's not just handling a few units and a lot of units. Macro, or macro-management, is looking at the big picture, and creating an army composition that both counters your opponent's style, and/or is devastating enough to simply blow through the enemy. It's also about expansions, and economy.
While Micro, is simply the control of your army, positioning, backing them up, and using things like forcefield to create superiority in the battle itself.

[@FrzN]

HD: you can get an assim right before a cybercore, I always have enough right after the gateway is done for the cybercore. This in turn allows for a faster gateway research, so you can pull off proxies a lot faster.

[@thoroth_]

Thanks a lot for the video HD, it really helped a new protoss player like me.
Do some more like this in the future!

[@TheKerplode]

Cool. I look foward to using this strategy when I get the game, as I am a strictly Protoss player.

[@Zipley1234]

@kubel83 you sure can! with this build, you get units fast as hell. you have to make sure you place the unit within a power field supplied by a pylon. also, you must wait for cooldown.

[@A3onstorm]

@CastorKrieg Lol i was confused about this too. It's because this video is ingame footage captured with some program, whereas when you watch a replay on the 'faster' speed setting (which is the normal speed setting ingame), the seconds tick by as if you were playing normal. ie. Each second on the timer is more like 0.7 seconds or something. If you notice it takes him 12-13 seconds to build a probe, whereas you'll find that in your replays, a probe takes like 16-17 seconds to build.

[@ComradeDumDum]

@dashawnthl its the number of probes. If someone says 13 14 15 it means that you should be getting a gateway at the time that you have 13 14 or 15 probes

[@godlessandlovingit]

@ikbenolaf2 A lot of protoss like to wall off with 1 zealot filling a small gap. A lot of times the zealot is is "holding position" he will attack any enemies that get in range of it but will not chase them, so marines can shoot at it and kill it easilly, or zerglings can go to the other side of the wall and work on the building while the zealot sits there, if the zealot moves you can micro around it and get inside the base easilly.

[@ertytref]

I love how Hd's probe gets owned by drones at the very start.

[@VKingMD]

@Deorain If you have a lot of bonus points then that could happen. Also I think the improved the placement system because when I first started out in phase 1 having not played starcraft in years I won 5/5 games 3 of which were due to disconnecting, and I was thrown into top division. Phase two I lost 1 of my placements but was put into plat anyway.

[@xxqbHizO]

builds like these are the reason why I scan as terran :P

[@Dlehelacopter]

@miketh33 The skill involved would be the high apm (actions per minute) required to pull off certain builds faster, as well as the incredible micro to gain better positioning in fights. Pros for sc2 have been ranging between 180-240 apm of "essential" actions, meaning they don't make unnescessary spams... basically they're doing 3-4 things every second that they SHOULD be doing. Thats the skill portion of the game.

[@Purge058]

@SuperWarZoid the after cyber core is always the point where they choose their tech/build(assuming they aren't doing gate early pressure). One thing you might want to do as terran is throw down a scan a bit after that cyber core is going to finish and you can see their tech before it gets pumping/upgraded. Other than that, early raven/viking for scout if you do fast starport cause you probably won't get a scv scout in late game.

[@CloyMc]

@rikelf: it does... cause he cant scout in future ur base (if you decide to do something else) and he is maybe supply blocked like the caster here, after he lost is pylon.

[@Paradician]

And to anyone looking to defend against it... the clue is the early scout. You can always scout when the core finishes (he's got no way to kill your scout before then): If, at the exact time when the core finishes, he's got one gateway, one gas, and the Nexus has got over 50 energy on it, it's a 4-gate. Grab some units and keep pylons from going up near your base, and you've already half crippled the attack. (the strongest variants rely on proxy pylon for supply as well as power)

[@Thwowspieler]

@SagInTheBag
he explains at 1:19 what the counter off the 4 gate is.
static defence + pumping out forces

[@mjw665]

Awesome vid man, I already loved protoss yet another reason too.

[@Luburium]

@simengrs No, He is accumulating APM. And it's not 16 to fully saturate you need 22 incl gas, 16 for mineral line.

[@c2thew]

there's a cool trick on youtube where a guy shift click's his stalkers in order to blink all of his units to go into the opponent's base. it's actually a very powerful tactic to do a direct attack into your opponents base.

[@solgast]

*TERRANS*
For the cheesier snack!
Let's kick some ass and chew bubble gum!
Best of all... *SCAN!!!!*, Adapt... Harass! Then simply stable your base before showering the protoss, with the secret. The Reapers combined with Cloaked Banshees! it's the biggest anti proxy build I have to tip you guys with.
Cheers
Kris

[@Oreoclan]

@nzt15 If you want to do a 4 Gate, you need to make sure your build is optimized, meaning you get your Warp Gates and Warp tech at the same time (6:00 minutes ish). From there, you get a small amount of Zealots (since they'll likely be walled in, get more Zealots if they aren't) and some Stalkers and Sentries (use Force Field to split his army, otherwise use Guardian Shield).
Otherwise, do either 3 Gate Robo or 2 Gate Robo, and get an early Sentry to protect your ramp until you get an Immortal.

[@slim5782]

love your tutorials keep making them ;)

[@BFGfreak]

1. Speed tech to ghost while pumping out marines and/or marauders
2. Emp toss attack
4. Profit

[@shaqino]

The Assimilator can be a little earlier. i usually make the first BA after gateway, and second one after Gateway completes

[@427557]

Thank you HD, finally I got 4 gateway explained :) srsly, winning every game I play now :p And against lesser skilled opponents I usually get up 6-8 Warpgates into proxy Pylon and then I attack (due to "6 pool" rock blocks im relatively safe on some maps)

[@Mafffee]

@Evological Hold shift, place a building down and right click on a mineral patch.

[@trMurlucky]

amazing, thanks man really appreciate you sharing your experience!

[@cali619life]

proxy is necessary, and you already need to have a sentry out early so it has enough energy to shield up your units. after warp gate technology is ready you open gateways, warp in 4 units then they take off to enemy base. By the time your units are almost there you proxy in the next 4. if you don't win at this point you must transition immediately to mid-game. which means you better scout or get an observer to counter-build. also get your second!

[@Zeachrome]

@tyty861 You've killed them off with the 4 gate before they manage to mass air units. Even if they manage to fend it off, your robotics/stargate should already be on the way as well, which means that you got an observer/phoenix for scouting, which means that you can get the units to counter him.

[@Zeachrome]

@An2quamaraN Something like that. Just make sure that you scout your opponent before moving out, so that you can get an idea of the units he has. The whole point is that you can mass out units in the early/mid parts of the game faster than your opponent. As long as your opponent is not 4 gating as well. Keep in mind that if you fail, you'll be miiiiiles behind your opponent in tech. Example: If you fail to 4 gate a zerg which goes for a 14 hatch or something like that, you're screwed...

[@gunslinger3333]

@phatmeat7
In PvT; Protoss should be walling off their ramp. Getting a Zealot immediately to block the small opening.
2 Gateways should be up and you pump out the necessary Zealots and Stalkers to defend the line whilst spending spare resources on creating additional WarpGates.
If you held the line... the opponent is quite far behind in the game. You need to quickly counter and catch him trying to transition or expand.

[@Thurrak]

if you put down the extractor first before the second pylon you can have enuf gas for warpgate and a stalker as soon as your core is down

[@Ghostfacechiller]

@Phokya0 If watching replays there is a button on the right you can select health bars. If during a game, you can hold down the alt button for temporary health bars. Im not sure but there may even be a permanent feature in the menu options.

[@Zeachrome]

@TheBillyBobGuy Depends if your teammate is going for a similar strategy. The 4 gate is not a rush, but you'll be crushed hard if you're playing against two decent opponents and you're attacking alone.

[@TheMoocow2009]

@CovanantSC2 Actually, you only need about 2.5 per mineral patch, maybe even a little less, for full saturation. Any more than that barely helps at all.

[@Felixemperor]

Was actually looking how to use warpgates as im really new to starcraft. but this strategy looks amazing I'll see if I can play protoss better now ;)

[@Ooooo336]

@mrjsincerity as HD said, u'll simply build lots of static defence spine crawlers as Zerg, bunkers and siegetanks as Terran

[@youngminii]

@427557 If you're sure you crippled him, then yes it's always a good idea to just fall back and expand. You have to remember to keep up your army production as a counter-attack/all-in(DT/Muta/Banshees) tactic might be on the way. Make a cannon or two (you should have a forge by now) around your mineral lines because the best way for your opponent to get back in the game is to harass your mineral line. Also, you should only add on 2 extra warp gates per expansion as you want to tech up too.

[@ThatOneHxCKid]

@pyroticmaniac personally I never cut making probes.
Or try not to cut making probes.
Having a lot of probes is never a bad thing. Once you make an expansion you can easily carry them over from your main.

[@aragenn]

im a big protoss fan thanks for this tutorial will help me :)

[@Wakizashi88]

@Jubaxz Well its a problem only in the novice maps it wont really work that well like that, but u can make a robotics bay and get a warp prism and use it as a "pylon" outide your base

[@DarwinsBeerReviews]

@CuriousMoth I had no problem with that. I do actually like seeing what it looks like to play.

[@goundof]

Ofcourse 2 GateRobo is a solid counter so this is cute

[@AmbientXVII]

if these tuts are for lower end players, youll need to talk more in depth on what to build on each supply like what husky did in his very early beta tuts :) You should write down the build order in the description box. The build order should be in the post game lobby anyway so it should be easy :)

[@tychiuntan]

@T3nonexpert
in general, if u r playing against a turtle-ing player, gaining map control + mass expend would be the safest option, especially if u r a zerg player. If u play terran, siege tanks would do, and lets not forget the power of nuke as it one shot cannons. hope it helps.

[@VKingMD]

@yazuak pretty much yeah produce units. The goal is to punish your opponent for making workers rather than units. If you have home field adv and you see it coming its defendable.

[@ILikePizzaTh]

@ProjectD13X he means the supply, which is the number at the topright of your screen. Since you dont have military yet, it will just be the probes making the supply.

[@T3cowboys]

@jackface0410 I definitely expected that. We aren't that good at StarCraft, but these videos help me a little. I could probably lose to a normal level computer, although I haven't tried yet. The initial rush is what usually makes me lose. First StarCraft turned me into a bit of a turtle Terran. Works out great until I wait too long to grab an expansion. At what supply should I start making an expansion if I plan to go 2/1/1 for the first few minutes?

[@yoduh99]

@artemoonlv
obvious answer is to not let the ghost get the EMP off as theres nothing you can do afterwards.
hard counters: HT feedback, phoenix, or void ray.
i dont know what the range for EMP is but upgraded colossi could also be a counter.
other then that, micro your army better so they don't move in a ball and all get EMP'd if it does go off.

[@billygurnt]

hd aint about catchphrases cuz he's the professional one

[@Pho6oZ]

@QQitsHarry its awesome that he teach things, but the problem is that now we will have massive 4 gates on the way of toss battlenet, but well we will see what to do to counter it out

[@Nfinity4231]

the counter to this is
zerg: spine crawlers with roaches
Terran: early tanks and mauraders
Protoss: good wall off and cannons

[@InfestedChris]

I just tried this strategy, and it works very well. But I found that if I got pushed with an early aggressive player that I couldn't get my warp gates and the pylons to make this effective. So I changed out some things by pumping out zelots right off the bat to help with that. But once I had my 4 gate warp in, it was all over. They can not produce faster then this.

[@An2quamaraN]

@Paradician So the best counter to this is to chrono boost the stalker. Your 4gate will be 10-20 seconds late but not scouted at all.

[@LostBelowLife]

@PimpJogi yes 6 pool with a reinforced second 6 pool, = a 12 pool
proper positioning can stop the 6 but after the second 6 they will be able 2 destroy buildings if u do not have ranged defense or excess zealots.. witch if ur rushing to 4 gate u wont have many ground early early in

[@epicham08]

nice. i'm new to sc2 and this is pretty informative and helpful. Thanks. :)

[@battlefever91]

@tivook probably very well, depends, if you scout an early double vespine you would chrono boost a stalker and put him in your mineral line and be wary of possible reaper harass.. other than that it would work all the better because reapers are expensive and slow down early ground attacks on the terrans part

[@DrrrGreenthum]

LOLed when HD said that he was affraid to post it coz every protoss will beat his zerg now :D:D:D:D

[@SaisonExprie]

@Seraphimaltair 4 gate is outdated due to patching. Blizz recognized it's effectiveness and slowed it down. The weakness to what you're going is, if you're push doesn't work, you're done. Most players are going to be expanded or expanding by the 6-7 minute mark and that's when he attacks here, but now that this build is slower, your opponent will have a 2 base economy, if not already, and will be able to outrun you in economy and suppply. Plus robo tech needs 2 bases for gas.

[@deadly1317]

Also HD, with that proxy pylon if he steps on the Xel'Naga tower he'll see it. I would suggest putting it down near the side of the gold so you can warp in towards his expo or go towards the middle of the map :D Hopefully HD will see this.

[@pkermage55]

@UvsBC All you have to do is go to your controls and add keybind grid, if I properly remember...

[@prograham]

@ParrryHottter Yeah I want to know why this is good against Zerg too since shouldn't he be scouting with overlords as well?

[@T3cowboys]

@Youscale Thanks you very much. Definitely seems incredibly smart to gain map control while he go defense mode. I'll definitely keep this strategy in mind. :)
I'm not really sure about the point defense drone. That would be really awesome if that's how it worked. It's worth a try. I highly doubt it though.

[@Jelysniper]

new players watching this, this is indeed a very good tutorial video, but its play style of the 4 gate is definitely outdated to where protoss is standing now.
The build is slightly off, you must be able to pump your warpgate upgrade as soon as you get your cybernetics, and also the attacking timeframe is a lot slower, so for all you new protoss players, please be introduced of the play by this video, but not to copy it, there are newer tutorials for 4 gates out there, if not i'll make one.

[@DestroNoobkilla]

Nice guide. But one Question:
Do you have the tourette Syndrom or why are you selecting your starting probes like you try'in to smash 10 flys up at once?

[@Wand7]

@luppi11101 Micro is the control of units, macro is the creation of them.

[@Ghostfacechiller]

@QQitsHarry I wouldnt worry to much about it. The strat has been used for some time now. I think people are used to it.