The Protoss 4Gate strategy is useful in a variety of situations. The 4Gate is strong against Zerg and Terran players, but needs to be adapted for use in Protoss vs. Protoss games. As a protoss player, the 4Gate strategy will only be a foundation for your Starcraft II playbook.
Starting build order:
7 – probe
8 – probe
9 – probe
9 – pylon (Build a pylon near your bottleneck if you want to create a strategic block. The downside is that your probes must travel from the resource line or nexus to build new structures. Timing is everything. Send your probe to the construction point just before you have enough minerals to build).
10 – probe
11 – Gateway, Assimilator
12 – probe
Keep pushing the chrono on the probes until your first gateway is up. At that point, drop a cybernetic core and a tower. You want to start the cyber core warp at the time the gateway ends. When your cybernetic core is warping, send 3 probes to the Assimilator. The warp gate technology is 50 Minerals and 50 Vespane Gas. You want to start the tech upgrade as soon as the core is ready. As soon as the Warp Gate tech upgrade begins, focus your chrono boost on its cybernetic core. Continue building probes, pylons, another assimilator, and your fourth gateway. As long as you have extra minerals, train a Zealot, a Stalker, and a Sentry. When you have one of each warp in two more stalkers, a zealot and another sentinel.
While you’re training warp gate tech, send out a zealot or probe scout. You can send a zealot to your enemy to distract them. As soon as the zealot leaves your base, send out your probe. Place a proxy pylon close to the enemy’s base, but hidden enough that scouts won’t find it. The pylon will act as your power source to warp units near your enemy.
Advanced players should have the probe continue mining while a robotic facility is being built. Build a dropship and send it near the enemy base. It has a mode that will power the area around it. It acts as a moving pylon and drop ship. Don’t forget to continue building pylons or you’ll face the doom of the supply lockdown!
As your warp tech is running out, you should harass your opponent and teleport in more units near their base. Keep your nexus on a control key so you can get back to your base quickly. Terran players will likely have a drop ship waiting by your base for you to attack. Keep at least one stalker or 2 cannons in your base when you start attacking. He can use his warp gates to transport stalkers extremely quickly into a safe area. Attack the dropship first because it heals the units. At that point it should be easy to kill whatever was dropped, especially if you have a cannon next to your ore line.
Zerg players can also bury units right outside your base. If you survive the Zerg rush or Terran Drop ship, you should continue to transfer units around your opponent’s base. Be sure to use your sentinels to protect your units with a shield and keep stalkers at bay using force fields. Keep the pressure on your opponent. Try to kill their workers so that their resources are limited. At this point, your own mineral line may be running low. Choose to push another nexus nearby or go for the gold ores.
To end the game, Immortals and Dark Templars should be a good choice. A few Dark Templars can wipe out an entire force if they don’t realize a cloaked unit is attacking them. However, don’t push into this phase too soon. The Protoss four-door strategy should allow you to rank up while getting an idea of the right army layout for longer games. Keep pumping stalkers, zealots, and wards until you’re ready to expand.