Here's an idea I've got in my mind for some time, but I've never got the opportunity to utilize this. I don't know if this idea already is used by some players (it probably is), but I think it's pretty interesting. I thought about using a Warp Prism as a Proxy Pylon. It's 100 extra minerals, I konw, but it has a lot of extra advantages So if an attack gets worn off, most of the time you lose your proxy pylon (which costs 100 minerals). Instead of this, you can just fly away your Warp Prism Also, when when you've destroyed your opponents' expo, and are now heading for his main, you probably have to place another pylon, to decline the walking distance (which is another 100 minerals wasted). In this case, you just fly to his main. The last advantage, is that you can move your prism to their mineral line, and warp in some units, whilst attacking. So even if your attack gets repeled, you still did a huge amount of damage (if they didn't pay attention to it). Any feedback on this idea?
When proxy pylons are the most effective you can't afford a prism and when you'd be 'wasting' minerals on subsequent proxies you have so much minerals it doesn't make a difference. Plus you can't make immortals, observers, and colossi while you're building a prism. Plus handling the prism is extra APM during your retreat which you most likely won't want to spend, in which case it's a bad investment since they die more easily and cost more. Using this over pylons would look much neater but it's not practical enough I'm assuming.
I've used this before a few times. It can throw people off in the right circumstances.. I was playing on Shakuras Plateau cross positions against a Zerg, and he had me contained at the start with speedlings. He took both towers and had good map control. He was macroing pretty hard (droning) as with the map control it should be pretty easy for him to build units in time if I was to attack.. but.. I sent 1 zealot to each tower - to kill the zerglings - before sending the bulk of my army across, deployed a warp prism right outside his base, and had a very strong 4 gate push that he had little means to detect. He lost immediately. I've also used warp prisms to harass enemy's mineral lines many times. What works well is to load up 4 zealots, fly over to the mineral line and drop them off.. then warp in 2 or 3 stalkers right there. Focus down as many miners as possible before his army comes back then load up 4 of the units and fly away. You lose 2 or 3 zealots and kill 10+ probes easily. A very profitable exchange.
One thing that I do not like about warp prisms is the range of there power circle it is much smaller then pylons making it harder to warp in a lot of units as the space is quickly used up. But loading units in the Warp prism and then dropping and warping is very affective. Warp prisms are EXTREMELY weak so weak in fact that a zergling could kill one (8D) jk. This makes micro ing it very hard and dangerous. And also as said before they take much longer to get out and proxies are the most affective towards the beginning of the match as tier one units are the only thing out as tier units almost always dominate later in the game. But if you had the proper APM and could get it out fast enough sure it would be affective.
I tried this once and yeah...anything with an AA attack will blow it up in about 1.5 sec. That said, one thing I did not do is load it up, do the initial drop, then turn it into a proxy and start warping stuff in. Also, it could work if you have a main force that you push against the front door and then pull a prism around back to start warping in units while the OP main is engaged with yours. If your army is big enough then the OP can't afford to spare units to protect the back and if it's larger and he does pull untis pull the prism back and micro you main to either retreat or do as much damage as possible.
Warp Prisms are weak, indeed, but if you keep them behind your army, you can keep warping units. And about the small radius: it's enough to warp in 7 stalkers or so, just spam S-click ;D Also, gateways are used in the whole match, you'll always get tier 1 units, especially in a fight. Too bad I never had the possibility to test this ^^
That's fine if you can hold the front, but if your line collapses you have to choose between either microing the prism or the remainder of your army...I imagine most people would try to save combat capable units.
I use them quite often. I use them more for harass then proxy though, just cuz making the proxy pylon does give you extra supply to pump out a few more units before being supply blocked . I usually load up 1 HT 3 zealots, drop off close to minerals lines, storm the workers too kill them and the 3 zeals finish off the rest. Meanwhile i warp in zeals/stalkers for extra harass and fly away. Then my monster army comes storming through the front door while he has no money!! MWAHAHAHAHA PS: I wonder if i can drop a probe during the harass and make cannons off the warp prisms proxy then place two pylons behind the cannons before my warp gets killed off :O... OMG!! My brain just exploded.... must... try... now......
