Having trouble vs Proxy Pylons & Enemy Harssing Workers

I don't know how to counter a proxy pylon, let alone know when it's coming. I just played a game on Scrap Station and the Protoss player I was up against (I'm Terran) used a proxy pylon to destroy me. There's no way I can get a suitable wall up in time to defend against any sort of rush on such a large choke, and I can't produce nearly enough Marines to combat a quick rush by Zealots when the Protoss player focuses purely on working up to a Zealot proxy rush, while I'm pissing away minerals on spamming more workers, building refineries for gas, etc etc.

I also don't know how to counter the whole "my probe attacks your SCV while he's building". I spend WAY too much time chasing these god damn workers around when they're attacking my exposed SCVs while they're building and it delays everything -- causes me to stockpile minerals, pull my worker off building, and pull one or two off the mineral line to deal with the "threat" before I can get my first Marine out. It's frustrating that SCVs are so exposed and helpless against this kind of harassment, especially when all it takes is a simple right click from my opponent but it requires so much more of my attention and effort to swat it away.

Any tips are appreciated. I was told to pull an SCV from the line and put it on auto repair near my SCV constructing the building to more easily counter the worker attacking my building unit, but I've yet to put it to use.

 

Well part of the problem is that the SCV needs 60 HP. The Planetary Fortress rush is not a significant enough reason to say that Terran workers need to be nerfed when they're the only worker that remains exposed during building. It's just not fair.

The second part of the solution is to micro effectively. You've got to scout well and deny that proxy pylon, or at least know where it's coming from. If you sit some Marines on it you should be able to kill anything that warps in while killing the pylon.

At such an early point of the game your best chance is to cost your opponent as many minerals as possible for harassing you. So don't give up on it yet, the solution lies in better micro.

 

jon, I agree that the SCV should still have 60hp but I think the reason it was changed was an all in scv/marine rush being done in korea that when microed well was apprently unstopable for zerg and toss not a PF rush

 

probe:
just send one of your mineral SCVs after the attacking probe, he normally starts to run away or tries to kie the SCV so jsut ignore it then.

wall; rush:
Get your wall up faster then, dont build refineries (build them later), build baracks, depos or bunkers to block the entrance then 2 marines. If you blocked the entrance you are safe for now, when he comes with 4-6 zeals and you just pumped out only 2 marines send your SCVs in to repair the buldings while you are attacked, when he sees you are reparing and you have marines he will proly withdraw and wait.

I mostly go air on scrapmap.

another thing is, his main wont be very well protected if he uses a proxy pylon and builds near your base. You can try to get reapers fast and harras his main.

 

One worker to attack the offending drone, one worker to start building the barracks again and injured worker retreats to mineral line, if he follow you there all workers attack instantly killed.

You sound like you don't scout. As soon as your first supply depot is done, use that drone to scout immediately. You will quickly discover the protoss has no buildings at base and then you should be putting your wall up immediately as you know whats coming, this is so important in fact that you should take as many scvs as you need off minerals to put up supply depots, second barracks whatever you require. Even a in process of being built wall wall is sufficient to allow 2-3 marines to hold off a couple of zealots. Should do the trick.

 

Thanks for the replies all.

I agree on the SCV thing. They need some sort of armor if anything that reduces damage taken by other workers, that would also solve the problem rather than giving them straight up more HP, although I'm not sure how easy that would be to implement.

As far as scouting goes...I do scout -- I scout after I build my first supply depot at 10 supply. I have only played Terran thus far however, so I don't really have a good handle on what Protoss/Zerg bases should be looking like by the 2/3/4 minute mark I suppose, so a proxy rush is hard to spot. The solution seems to be noticing that there is a distinct lack of buildings -- I'll keep that in mind!!

Thanks for the tips!

 

Yup, the easiest way to identify a proxy cheese is not by actually finding it - its by noticing the lack of gateways in an opponents base.

If you're already building a barracks and he hasn't dropped a gateway yet, you know something is wrong. That is unless he's building a forge, then he's not doing a proxy rush.

 

This, mostly. If the forge drops before a gateway in 2v2, there's a also a decent chance he's going to proxy cannons on your gatherers.

People who proxy cannons will get that probe in the corner of your base either immediately off the start or at 7/10 so that they can get there before depots drop at the choke. Always nice if you can sneak in before any buildings are up to see you.

 

Regarding the proxy rush, if they do it right, scouting at one depot will not be enough. If done properly they will have a probe in the corner of your base before you even move to build the first depot. Next step is they build a pylon in a corner, you must rush them with scvs at this point or your in for a tough time. If the pylon comes up then the next step is they box it in with 2 gateways, probably by the time they come up your barracks is also up, BUT the difference is they saved a warp speed (sorry forget the name of the spell) that increases zealot built time so they will have 1-2 zealots out very quickly. Now your in a marine, zealot micro war that you will probably lose, or at the very least suffer severe economy losses.

I think to counter this you have to have an scv out at the entrance of your base basically by 7/10 or maybe even earlier to make sure you spot it, and short of using a bunch of scvs to rush the pylon I'm not sure what can be done. It would be alot easier to counter as zerg or protoss I think. If anyone has any better tips for how to counter this as terran it would be appreciated.

 

I don't know if this has been said yet, but you can wall off from worker scouts by simply laying down buildings, leaving just the foundation until you can get around to it.

Also, stick only one worker on their worker if they are trying to run around in your base with their scout. Chances are he is messing up his macro moving his worker around in your base, while you are simply just losing a worker. Just have to watch out for him actually turning to attack you, then you should run back into the mineral line, and he will probably not chase. If he does just surround him.

If it is outside of your base, and you notice it before he gets a force, the Pylons are always the take down priority.

If he does get a pylon down in your base just keep an eye on it until you get a Marine out, at which point you are free to kite his zealots as they come, which will be slower then Marines.

 

I've noticed a lot, I MEAN A LOT of Protoss players decide to put proxy pylon or do cannon rush. Being a Terran player, I naturally block the choke but the thing is that some of them send a probe in as soon as the game starts. So what I decided to do is to make supply depot, use that SCV to scout my base and pull another SCV and proceed to make barracks. After checking my base thoroughly, I than scout with the SCV that checked my base. If I do spot a pylon of some sort, than I pull all my workers off and kill it off. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO KILL OFF THE DAMN PROBE.