Starcraft II Set to Release July 27th!

That's about the worst advice I've ever seen anyone give unless your talking about how to win in Tin league if there's even one. All that's needed to destroy a "powerball" without even losing a single unit is massing hydras with banelings with two infestors thrown in that lay down fungal growth in the center of the "powerball" where you proceed to rush your banelings and snipe with hyrdras lol. Terran will lose its 50 marines quicker then then it took me to type this.

Also zerg is not a bad race to defend air harassment as spore crawlers and hydras are decent AA defense until you make a more appropriate upgrade to corrupters or level 3 upgraded hydras.

 

Is there any spreadsheet out there that gives detail on the units and possible suggested counter units? For someone who hasn't touched SC other than an occasional skirmish in ten years it would help immensely. I think I'm finally gonna delve into a game or two this evening. I expect to be completely demolished, but oh well, might as well learn now during beta and be a little better prepared when SC2 launches.

 

there are some good counters and strats in this thread, thanks!!

 

If you see me on tonight feel free to hit me up. I'm rolling in platinum leagues in 1v1 and 2v2 and I'd be more then happy to show you a thing or two. That really goes for anyone. BaconPie.BaconPie is my username. Hope to see you on.

 

oh god i lagged on my laptop Time for a change it seems >w>

The hotkeys are sorta different D: This will take some time to learn

 

Hey HT, and for anyone else if you wish to become knowlegable and very competitive these forums can provide a great home, in fact the team liquid forums are the central home for any new and strong play patterns.
Starcraft 2 Forum

The other key thing is to watch youtube videos, go on youtube and type in Starcraft 2 Husky or Starcraft 2 HD Starcraft and watch the shoutcasts they do in professional matchups. I would advise against watching any demos older then a month, the strategy used and the units have been pretty well changed by now. Man I can't wait to start playing again, lost my placement because of final exams -_-

 

exactly. higher level players can do amazing stuff with infestors and banelings with upgraded speed destroy marines so bad

hydas are very good anti-air but idk i tried using corruptors vs bc's and did not go well i though mutas would have worked better

 

played 2v2 with some friends, zerg/toss vs terran/toss, anyway I was zerg, tried hydras and corruptors vs a mass of upgraded BC's and got stomped.. what's good vs a group of battlecruisers??

 

from start till mid game, zerg has very little to no aa depending on style of play sorry if i needed to correct.

 

What's the cheapest/minimum GPU required to play this game on ultra settings? (what are your opinions so far in the beta?)
It doesn't have to be the highest resolution...but I'm used to 1280x800 on my current 15" notebook.

 

Really? That's the common and pretty good response to BC's. Perhaps your hydras werent upgraded to 3tier or you produced more hydras then corrupter? Mass corrupter + hydra is the only effective way with zerg to deal with BC's, perhaps you didnt just upgrade the units enough.

IDK even in platinum league where games rarely get that far they even use the upgraded hydra and mass corrupter response, maybe you didnt micro your units enough if the BC's started using the yamato cannon. Only few things I can think of, but I mean unfortunately that is the only realistic response the zerg has besides brood lords, but because the BC's have the yamato cannon they are inheritantly stronger then brood lords and are outclassed. Corrupters are on the other hand are thought of almost unfair towards BC's in advantage, but the key is you have to produce alot of them.

 

no, I knew I was outmatched since I had focused on ground upgrading, My corrupters definitely were not upgraded enough, maybe 1/2 so yeah. The BC's were fully upgraded lol, we didn't attack til late game. I was inquiring to see if corrupters were the best strat vs 10-12 BC's =) Thanks nobodyshero, it definitely was my fault, just checking to be sure I had approached it correctly.. just need more units + upgrades on my air.

 

Oh ok, 1/2 is not enough for 3/3 BC's for sure. There is no doubt corrupters are the arguably the best air unit period in mass. Their damage and fire rate if you have enough make them the best AA unit of all races along that you upgrade them appropriately. Anyway GL with your next matches

 

Cant wait for this game to come!! Have played the beta and am loving it!

 

thats pretty true. until you get second level tech like hydras and mutas but getting an extra queen or two until then helps greatly vs early banshees rush

 

Man, I really suck. can't get used to all the new key combos yet.
Got my arse wooped a few times today

 

What key combos? LOL. I am just chugging along with what I knew (or thought I knew) about SC1 and get my butt handed to me. I move slower than I should, but also want to understand each unit, etc. It would be nice I had two beta keys then I could try it out on two different PC's side by side.

 

^ I think maybe he means the hot keys. A lot are changed from original and there's a lot available =) this was confusing me at first too.

 

Uhm, yea, that`s what I meant

Keep forgetting to make pylons, I`m building invisible ones with B P lol.
And the Overlords also...they just won`t spawn

I`ll get used to it eventually...

 

Haha yeah Dark Templars are powerful now. 46 damage I think? 10 of them can pretty much destroy anything. In the copper league, I eat everything with 10 DT supported by 6 carriers.

 

Gah, I can't win a single round. I even had 8 marines, my path blocked by supply depots, and six zerglings were able to break through a depot and destroy all my marines. What does it take? a friggin nuke? I would think 6v8 with the zerglings delayed for a few seconds would at least be able to fend off six measly zerglings.... guess not. And where's the firebat?

 

only in copper league...

 

Sounds like you're completely on the right track so far EXCEPT...
1-2 marines are optimal in the very start against zerg, after that you absolutely must must start producing either hellions if you're passive and allow the zerg to make a speedling rush, or produce reapers which are if you are aggressive and like to attack, be sure to upgrade to nitro packs so you can quickly have them fall back if you encounter a speedling rush. Hellions are absolutely overpowered compared to zerglings, its really not even fair.

After that the siege tanks are so overpowered in patch 11, anyway you cut it your macro play must involve siege tanks with siege tech, they are crushing everybody right now whether used offensively, or used defensively in which case its almost impossible to crack a siege tank defense with vikings for AA.


EDIT; Here's a recently casted patch 11 zerg vs terran game showing the prowess of reapers in the beginning and siege tanks with marauders in the latter game, though I thought the zerg played pretty poorly overall IMO. Note that neither player decided to wall off which is a bit of a mistake but was acceptable here because zerg decided to expand far too early http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juAVjK78r1E

 

Correct...

Anything above mid tier Silver league DT's in mass are pretty useless. My point was in high tier games against good opponents DT's are only useful in producing one or two of them to do economic harassment or use them to infiltrate the enemies frontlines and quickly take out a couple of siege tanks before being detected and commencing a larger battle.

 

Got one game in today, lost bad. It matched me against an upper ranged gold tier guy when I am mid rank copper.

It was probably the worst map for reapers and sure enough what do I get?? reaper harrasment from the start and it ruined the whole game for me. Every time I got a zealot out there to chance one off another was there to start picking off my probes. I had to train so many probes that I never got enough offense, when the harrasment ended because I finally got a cannon up, soon after it was a huge marauder/marine force at my door and gg.

I used to think zerg were the worst, but of the late its only Terran giving me a really hard time.

 

No offense dude but I said about 4 times in this thread chronoboosted stalkers are essential against reaper/speedling harassment. Zealots will time in and time out be outclassed by a nitropacked reaper.

 

Yeah he had me before I even had stalkers though, I was moving slow because it was my first game in a few days and I was half asleep.

I wanted to play more or less to relax and not be all high strung about it.

Again he was also rank 14 gold and I am like rank 26 copper, even on a good day thats not exactly a fair match up

 

someone want to give me some mid game and late game zerg strats? Mostly concerned with midgame units.. I've been going hydras and mutalisks.. I dunno I suck lol, lost 3 placement games so far, most recent one was closest one and I still lost haha. Not sure how to approach an attack. I did screw up though I had an infestor and wasn't able to MC a thor..

are ultralisks worth it? what are some good pairings for an offensive?

my early game usually consists of some zerglings (speedlings = speed tech'd?) and then I go for lair then spire for mutas.. I need to rework my entire gameplan I think.

 

Mass Muta is deadly in good hands but not often do I think a game gets that far. Most of the pro games I have seen on youtube quickly get a big mass of zerg & roach. If the game taps on longer they get hydras/roach.

 

Nah ultralisks are roundly condemned lol. It's like the most worthless tier 3 unit ever, its range is terrible, its movement is slow, its just the worst tier3 unit ever basically.

Mutas + hydras is meh mid-late, maybe in the beginning mutas are OK but mid tier you definately need to shift away from mutas and mass roaches up. If anything you should be massing roaches first THEN pair them with hydras later if you use mutas. If you play terran there is nothing more beautiful then roach+hydra+baneling+infestor+ zerglings in front to either flank them or take the initial volleys of hits. Research burrow and you can just pop right into a mass of tanks or marines and wipe them out pretty easily. Infestors are great because 1. You can MC thors, marauders or tanks or if they should go heavy M+M you use infestors to fungal growth.

Starting to think we should get a What's Your SC2 Strat? thread going ^^, bounce some ideas of what works and what doesnt and help our NBR sc2 players.

 

Well, I barely had time to build those marines before he was knocking on my door. No time to build anything else. I was shocked how quickly the match was over. Completely mismatched. How can a bunch of marines be outmatched by fewer zerglings when the marines have ranged attack and are armored. Oh well.

Also, that YouTube video, wow, lots of micro management. Tons of it. Wow.

 

marines aren't armored but i think marauders are

 

My last match was against a terran. He kept mass attacking me with Thors. When he lunched his first wave I was sure to die but my 3 void rays + some photon cannons manage to hold them off until I got a Dark Templar on the field. He fortunately had no detector. After his 3rd wave, I sent 4 DT on his base and KABOOM

 

Excellent to hear!!! Even in plat league DT's are still being used, if only 1-4 at a time.

I don't want to be responsible for an entire starcraft 2 strategy thread but I might have to make one if no one else does!

 

I just beat someone with 3 DT. He rushed battle cruisiers but my 3 DT were faster to destroy his base than he was to destroy mine.

Against Protoss, you need to have detectors at every strategic points. DTs are easy to kill, but they are cloaked and hit hard.

 

It's true. What's funny is I just watched a couple of professional games where as terran he built missile turrets (for DT detection) in the middle of the map where his units were collecting right before he went to attack. DT's are very difficult and costly to counteract if you time the attacks right.

The key is either to use them right in the beginning, or do them at the way end when he thinks he's scouted you out as far as it can go and thinks if you haven't built a DT shrine almost at the end of the game you would never do it now.

 

ahh im gona get my butt handed to me when i play this game. everyone's a pro already.

 

I will just play the custom map for SC2, I get wooped in almost every blizzard ladder game, last one was WC3, simply can't get used to building stuff while microing my units in a battle.

 

I highly doubt that was a professional game. Any decent Terran would be able to scan an area instantly with their Orbital Commands.

 

Probably because you would only scan if you know you are getting attacked by DT, and by the time you know, means you are already attacked, means you are already taking some losses, especially with DT's insane damage. I think he don't want any losses.

 

Finally finished my placement matches D: God I have tons of things to learn and improve T_T

 

Or maybe because besides what fzfh mentioned as terran you have to appropriate your MULE orbital money wisely. For one it was professional, for two he had already been wasting money on tons of scans because of earlier DT attacks and for three he had wanted to use the orbital command money to send down mules for his expansions.

But hey don't take my word for it watch for yourself, YouTube - StarCraft 2 - 129 BratOk vs HasuObs TvP On Lost Temple
Hasuobs is the one of the worlds best protoss players and the terran player mustve been doing things right because he won.

 

I just lost one game, and then won a game. The game I won was against somebody in gold, so it promoted to me from copper to bronze rank 24... so now I have to fight tougher guys :/

I have one many copper games and move 2 or 3 places, just because I ran over this gold ranked guy who must have had a bad game or tried a new race I skipped like 70 ranks.

 

I did placement match and went straight to gold :/ But really I think i should be around the copper/bronze level

:x I really need to find a partner for 2v2s though instead of playing randomly and hope your ally's good :/ Where'd that NBR SC2 beta player list go >:[ I need friends!

 

Vicious I believe I read somewhere similar to WC3 that there is a "behind the scenes" ranking you have whether or not what league you are and will match you against others near this hidden ranking. So you may have been already a "gold league" player even being in bronze/copper league, but beating a gold showed that you actually are capable of moving up to the given league.

 

new patch today #12.

Balance Changes


PROTOSS
Forge
Build time increased from 35 to 45.
Life and shield values decreased from 550/550 to 400/400.
Mothership
Vortex now removes Force Fields within its area of effect.


TERRAN
Thor
Radius decreased from 1.375 to 0.8125.
Model size reduced to match new radius.


ZERG
Roach
Supply count increased from 1 to 2.

User Interface


Several Hotkey changes have been made (German client only).

Bug Fixes


Fixed a crash which sometimes occurred when quitting the program.

That crash when quitting was annoying glad they fixed that. And i hoped they fixed (P) not pausing when watching a replay. It will only unpause for me

 

lol Thor got smaller

But forge is easier to kill now? >:[ wth

And yay for roach being 2 supply

 

Yeah that crash was really annoying at exit. Noticed it was fixed today.

 

Ranked games are always random though, no?

And you can be matched against someone not in your division?

Also, I guess I should start playing with another team than the Protoss. DT strategy is just too funny in the Copper league. People don't seem to get the hang of building detectors, even after I killed his 3 first waves with cloaked units.

 

Got all but my last placement match done today for 2v2. Im not going to place very high I do not think.

My very first 2v2 game my teammate times out from the very start and it was 1v2 mind you I just started to learn hotkeys too and dedicated myself to them so that messed me up also.

Out of the next 3 games I was top player in 2 of them and won, but the next one I had a failure of a teammate that let me run the whole game. Both opposing players rushed my base and I held them off by myself on 4 seperate attacks, but the zerg player eventually got to my drones and took out my economy so then I couldn't defend, so I asked for help and he is just like "sorry dude".... I look at his base and he has like 5 marines and that is all despite not being attacked even one time... but he could have atleast send those marines to help...

so hotkeys! an important topic. I turned on grid mode since I did not know the old hotkeys other than a few and it did not take me that long to get used to it. Hitting T for attack feels natural already and I have gotten the hang of shift que for build and stuff, though in some situations trying to press the hotkey and use shift together is a bit hard so I end up not using shift.

I have not seen my game get better due to starting to use the hotkeys, infact its worse it slows me down and for some reason takes my mind out of the game thinking what to build or what to do next and instead I think about the keys. Not sure how to explane it but I just do not play as well. However given time that should go away.

My biggest problem is navigating with mouse scroll is so much slower than the arrow keys for me. Not big distances where you click on the minimap, I mean like say I want to set my rally point for my barracks to my ramp. I can find that ramp and be done in seconds with the arrow keys, with the mouse its slow and clumsy, and if I go the wrong way I have to go all the way across the screen before it scrolls the other way.

If action gets really heated I go back to click & arrow keys out of nature and do a lot better but I am training myself.

Next I need to learn the other hotkeys like binding groups of units or structures to the number keys.

As it stands now even with me being fast on the hotkeys it was just as fast for me to click, I think I wont see the advantage until I start to micro units more like trying to cast spells with a high templare while sending in zealots to attack. Thats the kind of stuff that I expect to be a lot easier/faster when I master the hotkeys.