New to Starcraft 2, Assistance please?

Hi there, i'm pretty new to starcraft games in general, i've been playing since it was released.. 5 days ago i think? But theres a few things i'd like to know from better players.

I hope you guys dont mind helping me out. I've been playing protoss so i'd like to get comfortable with them first.

1. I've been using a few guides to get started concerning what to build first, but after i get my cybernetics core and whatnot i'm pretty much on my own, i've got no idea what to build up first, or what to upgrade first. Does anyone have a basic outline? Not so much "Build this, build that" just more of an overall path.

2. What are protoss' "best" units? As in what can i make most use of and what should i use most?

3. What is the maximum number of drones i SHOULD make? (Not CAN make)

4. What are protoss' weaknesses? To add to that, what are their strengths?

5. Warp gates, should i always turn my gateways into warp gates? They seem pretty useful but i'm not sure if there are situations where i shouldnt upgrade them.

6. Best times to use the speed-up thingy on the nexus? I always find myself forgetting to use it.

Any other useful tips are appreciated. Thanks.

 

#6 is easy.

use it as early as possible to get more probes out faster, early game is THE most important part of the game. then use it as well to speed up your first couple of zealots.

 

1. Personally, I go for a 9-pylon, 10 gateway, 10 assimulator, 12 pylon, 13 cyber core and I don't build zlots, I go straight to pumping out drones for ecomony and stalkers. However, the drawback to this is ling rush. If I believe myself to be getting rushed, I will completely block off the ramp by building a 2nd gateway beside the other (I always build by the ramp) however, I will cancel the gateway at about 90% completion because I really dont want to block myself in. It's just for the extra time to get the stalker out, stalkers + 3 drones can fend off 6 lings easy.

Overall, economy is what you need. You should never get supply blocked unless someone killed a pylon, and never stop making drones, not even for a 1/5th of a second, never stop. 28-30 per mine area including gas. However after 22 you should have an expansion going up. It's important to transfer 2/3rds of your mineral drones over to the new expansion (you never want your main to run out of minerals until you have a 3rd expansion up and going.

You should never have more then 300 minerals saved up at a given time (early on) unless your going for a nexus, if you find youself with 300+ get another gateway/pylon or twilight council. You might also start thinking about geting a obersver too.

2. protoss don't really have a "best" unit. Everything is situational. Most players silver-platnium do all out stalkers, which when you get to diamond, it's easilly countered. I like to favor pheonex's, high templars, and sentrys because I'm pretty good with controll groups and macroing, force field blocking and psi storm really hurt mass amounts of people if you can pull it off. And I use pheonex's for harassing and picking off scouts like overlords, and with a observer, really good against annoying DT's to just pick them up and kill them in the air.

I once went 45 sentrys and got halucination, and made 90 collosus in the middle of a huge 3v3 battle, 2 players lagged out., sadly, both my partners LOL. I won the game though.

3. Maxium, 30 per harvest area including gas. Don't stop making them.

4. Protoss strength and weakness's are extremely situational, it would take an essay to explain them all.

5. Always get warp gates, it's actually the thing you should chrono boost, 3 times if you dont need immediate troops coming out of the gateways.

6. Chrono boost should be used at 10/18, and again EVERY cooldown. Once you get warp gates, use it mainly for drones/upgrades. Don't underestimate upgrades, get a forge, upgrade your units.


Best of luck.