Warp Gates - are they worth it?

Hey guys I was looking for some insight into the use and value of using warp gates instead of gateways. My favorite strat with Protoss involves a one gateway build, instantly making zlots and teching to stargate and quick attack with my handful of zlots (usually 5 or 6) and my 2 voidrays. If the quick attack is unsuccesful I'll either branch off to other tech (robo) or most likely just create another stargate, expand, and pump more air. EIther way my strat ends up going, it hardly ever involves using warpgates, my main issue with them being that they seem to take additional APM to actually click on the unit building and then click on the spot i want to warp them in. WHereas with the gateways I can just set a rally point, control group my gateway, and then pump away whenever convenient. I'm in Platinum and I see most other protoss players go straight to warpgates. Some buddies of mine who are good at protoss also said that warpgates are the way to go. What do you guys use? And in what situations are warpgates > gateways and vice versa. Any reponses are appreciated.

btw, I usually play random but my win rate with Protoss is much much higher than with either of the other races.

 

You are in platinum and don't see the awesomeness of warp gates?

Press W to select all warp gates and just click where you want to warp them in, the strength of this is limitless with proxy pylons and warp prisms, being able to bring in reinforcements within seconds, the same being for defending your base, being able to save your probes within seconds from the stray reaper for example, instead of waiting 30 seconds +

1 gateway is never enough... even if teching air or w.e, i honestly don't see how you are platinum, but warp gates are always better than gateways, having units in que is usually a bad idea imo, and if you use warp gates in your next 2 games or so, you will see why they are so good.

 

Hotkeys?

For example Zeals:

Press "W" -> All Warpgates
Press "Z" -> Zealot
Press Shift and click on where you want to build them -> Lots of Zeals in no time!

 

Yes warp gates also bring in your units faster then gateways do; the cool down is less time then a regular build in a gateway. As previously mentioned you can instantly put them where ever you have a pylon. This comes in excellent when you are running a proxy in someone’s base

I normally also research the warp gate the second my core comes in so I can have that ability as fast as possible. The next time you play against terran and you get harassed by a small reaper rush on your probes you will wish you had the ability to zap in a few stalkers in a matter of seconds. Also works great at protecting your expansion spots.

Gateways do serve a purpose though which is why you can switch back and forth between them. When you have someone blocked in and you want to have all of your units mass up in a certain place after being built instead of having to click on a area like you say then this would be a good use for gateways.

You can get you hotkeys down to the point where the extra micro on the warp gates really doesn't make much of a difference.

 

First of all, I don't care if you're going air or not, always make sure to have at least 3 gates at all times. They're only 150 minerals each, and especially later on in the game this shouldn't be a problem. Also, if your opponent pushes out early with say, Marines from a reactor rax, or a 6 pool, then you'd wish you had that second gate pumping out Zealots a whole lot sooner. I don't know how you got to platinum like this, but it sure is quite a weird play style. ^^

Maybe an inexperienced player in bronze wouldn't spot this, but any decent player has full sight in his whole base at all times. ^^

But still, the warp in is awesome anywhere on the battlefield. I find it most useful when flaking people. You attack the front of their choke with a couple units to make them move their army, then start warping in units from a Prism on the other side of the base. Works even better when combined with a few Rays to start on his buildings, while your warped in units reinforce those at the choke.

Also:

I'd rather spend 100 minerals to build and extra Pylon at your blockade, rather then having to wait for my new units to walk all across the map. Further, your opponent(s) might be busy building counters for the units you are using to contain him with. If you are in the process of having a whole bunch of Zealots walking across the map from your queued up gates, and he's coming out with some Banshees... you'd wish you had that Pylon or Prism near your block to quickly make some Stalkers, because those queued up units are walking straight into their deaths.

 

THank you all for the great responses. Old habits are hard to break, but I realize those warpgates can offer some great advantages and I'll have to get used to implementing them. Because of the tech required I realize I can't really make my initial push as fast as I'd like to, but perhaps I can still follow my same BO for early game (it really is quite successful I swear, maybe i just always get paired with noobs) and then tech up to warp gates for mid-late game.

THanks again

 

Well, the research itself is dirt cheap, since it comes for only 50/50.
The thing you'll want to think about, is at what point you build your Core.

 

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Warp gates are essential to a protoss build!!

 

it simply requires you not to forget to place your units because they are autobuilt but there is no queue..... and I do tend to forget this Protoss are a lot about micro now

 

warpgates are simply wonderful midgame, when you can just do click, click, click, click and bam, you have 4 units already. Also, a good way to incorporate your push into the warpgate, is as soon as your gateway is done, start building zealots. Then, when the cybercore is done, research warpgates, but keep producing units at your regular gateway while its researching. Then, if your first attack fails, you have the warpgates up and running, and you can get your army back together.

 

warp gates are awesome, for exemple you can loose you army and build it in like what? 1 or 2 mins thats awesome, or even i thought about a tactic geting a prism allways with you, your units will attack you prism will be at the back summoning more units

 

So I had the same question as the original poster. And I'm fully conviced that warpgates are the way to go after reading this thread and finding out that you can select all your warpgates automatically by just pushing "w". I feel so stupid. I kept making them an actual control group.

Anyways, I guess my only question is how does everyone stay on top of building units?

My initial instinct is to just try and warp units in every chance I get. But I'm pretty big on micro during battles, and I do well enough to make them last a good while. So this could lead to a lot of time not making units.

Any suggestions?

 

I was skeptical of Warp Gates until recently, but now I love them. Although it depends on the game I almost always go to Warp Gates as soon as I can. There is really is almost no disadvantage to using them in excess. I've repelled near game-ending rushes with some smart Warp Gate usage. You can mass significant numbers of troops very quickly to keep the pressure on the enemy or recover from a battle.

They're especially useful once you have two expansions up; you can basically churn out Stalkers and Zeals constantly. Extremely useful in pressuring the enemy.

 

I agree completely, I'm just wondering if there's some type of system people use to make sure they're using their warpgates effectively as far as cooldown usage.

Also, I've noticed that when using gateways, I think you don't need as many. But when people use the warpgates, they'll build 8-12 of them. So maybe this is a way of offsetting missing some of the warpgates' cooldowns to replenish your troops faster?

 

I've recently incorporated warp gates into my Protoss strategy (I had to do SOMEHTING when they nerfed my voids) and it's worked wonderfully. The main thing that makes warpgates part of nearly every game is their cost - extremely cheap. I can go with a normal fast unit/ rush type build, and simply research the tech as soon as my cyber pops without ever really "feeling" it's cost. I can keep pumping units all the while, and whenever I make a push or expand it seems to be a great time to upgrade the gateways, so after the battle I can replenish quickly as well as reinforce expos quickly to fend off harass. I've even begun building pylons around the map to warp in close to opponents expos/main for pressure (really reduces travel time). My favorite move these days in 2v2 with a Terran is to build a proxy pylon right oustide a ledge of the main (away from the choke), have the terran do a scan right by it and then warp in units right there (especially DTs) and bypass their choke/defense completely.

 

Yes, they are very worthy. You can use them as a early defense or attack, you can use them in midgame, imagine if you have to wait for a zealot, or you can just warp it in when you need it.

 

I didn’t use them much at first but now that’s the first Tec I go for. I love making proxy pylons and keeping the pressure on my opponent.

 

you said that you played as random right? so you must have seen the zerg creep and expanded it as it should be. This, as a zerg gives you map control and vision, i always keep expanding creep in every direction possible and i keep unborrowing my spine cralwers and advancing until i have boxed in the opponent. It is the same thinkg with pylons, you keep building more and more and you have your army on the edge of your pylons and keep warping units in to advance, and it is better than zerg since zerg still have to walk al the way from the main base up to where your rally point is. i dont know about terran cause i hate them.

Also, in mid games i try to make every building that will unlock a unit from the stargate, templar archives, shrine, cybernetics core, so that whatever the opponent gets, i can produce the unit to counter it in 4 seconds. For example, the zerg oponent is going mass mutas, so i get stalkers, he changes to lings and hydras, and in 4 seconds i have high templars with psionic storm ready to kick his *** and maybe a couple of dark templars for the lings.

they are so OP, and you can chrono boost the time it takes to be able to produce units again.

il see if i can get you two reaplays in the afternoon, one of zerg creep usage and one of the pylon expansions and rapid change from one type of unit to another as protoss

 

I saw some guy playing an 24 gate build(that's not gateway at 24, but 24 ****ing gateways, and that's before the 15min mark) and he could summon an army before you could snap your fingers. I think there's much unexplored about toss still and cool usage of such abilities can rise in the future.