I tried searching for posts about this but couldn’t really find anything. If this was discussed before, sorry.
I am having some serious trouble countering Nydus+Swarm host builds as Protoss.
Usually they do it 2 or 3 base but I even got screwed by a 1 base Nydus Swarm Host all-in yesterday and well…that felt embarassing.
My intuitive response is just go air, avoid losing resources to free units, but the Queens are pretty harshly countering any attempts at that and the attack hits rather early.
I tried a stalker+immortal with a warp prism thing and I microd my heart out to hit the hosts/nydus with 2 immortals and a prism but the hosts have a ton of hp so they just didn’t go down. The guy didn’t even bother retreating them into the nydus, he just activated them 3 at a time and kept me away, then brought some queens and shut down the prism completely.
Do you guys have any other ideas that I could try?
I thought about maybe tempests or something but that takes far too much time. The 1 base guy hit me at 3:45 already which is pretty insane. I tried to harass with adepts but he literally walled off his main like cheesy void ray protoss used to back in Wings of Liberty.
The 2-3 base guys hit later but usually I expect Hydras or Roaches not Swarm Hosts, I don’t really know how to scout it in time. Hallucination could work I suppose. Open every game with a sentry? Or does that delay my tech too much?
I am diamond league btw.
Any feedback is appreciated.
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First, change your portrait to not Kachinsky.
What does that have to do with anything?
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It has to do with just about everything. Including no match history, no campaign, etc.
There is no real good counter to that build (just depend on luck - zerg must do mistake) so this is the reason why nobody answered you - except UBWemiya demanding to know your rank. If you tell him then he will just say “l2p” with no real help vs this build.
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I have seen a post on another forum that the author collected 7 games from Solar and Trap’s stream which PvZ involve roach-transit-to-nydus+swarm host, and Protoss managed to win only one game.
In that particular game, the Protoss opened with stargate and 3 oracles, choose HT as aoe damage. He used 4 methods against nydus+swarm hosts:
- Push early (with immortal, stalker and sentry) to force Zerg to build more roaches, which could delay nydus for more than 1 minute.
- Use air units (phoenix and void ray) to clear Zerg overlord around base so Zerg cannot build nydus too close to main base.
- Engage Zerg force away from own base in order to force swarm host to launch their locusts early, so they won’t do damage to Protoss’s mining base directly.
- Cloak base with mothership, however it came late and not important.
The 3-oracles opening also has several version. In this game he built 6 more warp gates before 2nd expansion, which Stats also used it to defeat Serral in ROG. All other 3-oracles opening failed at last.
If the Protoss manages to survive constant wave of locusts and build a large enough army to attack around 10:30 before Zerg build too many brood lord, he has a chance to win.
psistorm then counterattack. You need to force him to use locusts on defense and then back out. Once they expire, attack. He will have tons of dead supply in shs
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I learned a bunch watching Showtime play, as soon as he spotted nydus and SHs, he just leaves 2 or 3 zealots on patrol near the edges of your bases, I did it and it’s surprisingly effective.
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The best method is to prevent the Nydus from emerging the first time and then counter attacking (which means doing probe scout and a followup scout with adepts/halluc). If the first volley of the SH doesn’t get any damage done (i.e. you get them to waste it defending, which gives you the CD period to continue attacking and expanding as necessary) you’re already pretty far ahead.
Putting units on patrol around your bases is necessary to keep the nydus from being able to emerge. I highly recommend a SG and producing either some phoenix or 1-2 void rays (only 1-2) to snipe Ovis. The advantage of the VR is of course it can kill the nydus and prevent a roach all-in followup. The advantage of Phoenix is the mobility so even with ovi speed you should be able to kill them off.
Putting 2 cannons in each base can be helpful to give locusts something to focus on if the Z is doing fire-and-forget (No zerg worth their salt will do this, but if the cannons live they will be killing locusts at the very least which can make the difference between a dead nexus and a damaged nexus).
The key is to leverage the CD time of SH. As long as the SH are on cool down, as Mercurial pointed out, they’re just dead supply which means your army will always be “bigger” when it comes to direct engagements.
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That’s because I am playing on the EU but the EU forums generally are kind of empty from my experience.
What if they just plop down a Nydus while I am attacking the OV and pop out queens?
I tried sniping the OVs before but at a certain point it has too much hp for me to kill in time.
Different regions? Why u have to be so arrogant, passive agressive while being clueless
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i can tell you- there is no counter to it- casue nydus is still untouched by blizzard
Wait till you see Nydus/Infestor…oh wait…we did see it at the third game of Rogue/Trap…
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The problem is the SH design.
It should need to burrow before spawning the locusts.
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Stargate is not optimal due to buff to OV speed.
Currently, the best way to deal with Nydus is to scout. The best unit for this is sentry due to Hallucination. You should periodically scout your enemy to make sure you have time to switch builds.
if you see him doing something that could potentially be considered a Nydus rush, you should drop Templar archive in a safe location, Robo and multiple gateways (gateways should be positioned at the edge of your base(main end nat)to make sure that OV have a hard time finding space for Nydus).
Tips: do not block your main to nat ramp with buildings.
2 step is to spawn hallucinations and A-move them around your base to make sure that NO OV hide in the corner of the map. and periodically spawn them to intercept OV’s
Units that you should build are:
Zealots, Archons, Immortals, Sentries and some Stalkers(4 max). !do not forget about upgrades
Tips: do not go overboard with units.
If you have minerals and gas build WP and 2 Archons or Drop Dark shrine and 4 DT.
if he spawns Nydus in your base kill it ASAP and use Stalkers to harass OV. This most likely force him to stop or spawn Nydus outside your base.
if he stops attack him. if he spawns Nydus outside your base, Defend. In the meantime send Loaded WP to the edge of his base drop units from WP and Warp zealots, Stalkers and Archons.
Why has no one said colossus yet??? They counter locusts so hard it’s ridiculous.
Because most Nydus rush’s hit before Robotic Bay is completed and those it isn’t an optimal choice.
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In which World you have time to tech up to that, even if the meta was going for colo first
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