Starcraft II Tips

Im like rank 20 in my plat division now in 1v1 but its pretty hard for me to win a game in plat unless I am on point. I got about 50% win ratio now when I was steadily improving my w/l ratio in gold/silver but I think thats about where your supposed to be is 50/50 w/l if your in the "proper" place so I guess its ok.

I just wanted a nice 70%+ w/l like some of you guys

Plus half of you are in Diamond now.


SC2 seems to be an interesting game, you either are good and get better quckly. Bad and just get mediocre, and then there are just a few that manage to skill up. I think I may be one of the few but despite my skill up I am still nowhere near our better plat/diamond players in terms of APM and skill in the larger games. Once things get past maybe 1 expansion and you start having to scout, run 3+ bases, attack, defend. I get so lost and start to mess up bad.

 

I never touched my 1v1 league ._. I'll do it after my exams... This Wednesday >:3 Going on a portrait unlocking spree

 

I find it strange when I see guys with like 200+ 2v2 or 3v3 games plat/diamond and not even 1 1v1 game.

I guess some people really do not like the idea of 1v1 combat. For me though I think its the only way to judge how good somebody is in a game since in 2v2 or 3v3 or 4v4 they maybe are not too good and just have really good friends they play with.

We lost all our 3v3 games yesterday. Me TakeitEasy and one of his friends. I think I really frustrated him since like I said in those larger games I get sort of lost sometimes. he didnt like how we spawned double zerg 2x in a row either

 

Oh you guys are random players? o_o

For some reason, whenever I random, there's like a 75% chance of me being Zerg... It's probably a sign from the heavens

 

Yeah I converted to random a while back, figured it would make me a better player in the long run and add more replay to the game. Should get burned out 3x slower since its 3x more variety to the game.

Plus I did not want to get stuck in a situation where like 6 months down the road I am a Diamond level player with Protoss (my race of choice when I started and in SC1) and only bronze level if I had to use another race due to rules or request of my team.

Are there not tournaments and things where you are required to be random? Though I would never be in a tournament or anything.

It really is a lot harder to use random though, not only do you have 3x more to learn, you just do not specialize as well in your strategy. Like if I spawn protoss 3x in a row and then zerg on the 4th it takes me a minute or two to adjust to using a hatch and spawning overlords instead of pylons. Just how the supply and base structure works alone is enough to throw off your game some.


edit: here is my thingy majig

 

I've been randoming since brood war so I don't really have that problem. It's just that zerg's my absolute worst race with me forgetting to tech up to unlock units until quite late in the game. I'm also quite bad with certain match ups, usually mirror matches.

Overall, I am capable of using all 3 races actually but some just better than the other Probably just the way my mind works though that makes it easy

I do pick terran more often lately though since I'm trying to specialize in one before moving on to the other. Still attempting to properly use terran mech and even air units here. I never go air for all the races :s A bad habit of mine on relying plain ground forces which makes me lose a lot of games

 

I had a really fun match the other day, a guy tried to do what guess you call a fortress rush.

I scouted early and I found he didn't have a barracks so I panic and thought he was proxying. I immediately threw down a reactor and started pumping marines and started searching for the proxy.

When building my second barracks I saw the command center floating in, I attacked with marines and scvs. Got it down just before it finish the transformation.

Its fun to beat cheese tactics.

 

LOL planetary fortress rush? never seen it in person but seen videos of it. Seems like one of the easiest cheese tactics to beat I mean especially as terran you could just lift your base off and go mine somewhere else while he is totally screwed.

 

Hmm I'd like to start playing as Random but BLAH I hate Zerg so much.... Anyone have a basic "match runthrough" for zerg? Would be much appreciated!

 

Ok this is too funny, his opponent cannon rush him and believes he has won, except...
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Oh, if only he would stop bloody talking!

Funny game, though.

(Hint: watch that video ON MUTE!)

 

I was more interested in the game itself and I zoned him out 30 seconds into it.

Are people really as dumb as that Protoss person he was fighting?

 

Some people can be that dumb But really, asking for truce in SC2? LOL xD

 

That was pretty funny.

 

I didn't read all 77 pages, so if its explained somewhere in this thread, I apologize.

Where can I find some good build orders? I'm new to the game, but from what I understand build orders don't take the strategy out of the game at all, they just help you have a good pattern to get started contingent upon whether or not you want to rush, be economical, go for bigger units end game, ect. Is that correct? Where can I find them? How do I know if its good? I play Terrin just because I'm completely new to the RTS genre.

 

heres a link to a SC2 tourney if anyones interested. Finals about to start

OMFG eSports Live - Starcraft II Live Stream (Online)

 

watch the videos from force (guess thats what you could call him)
heres his youtube channel YouTube - ForceSC2strategy's Channel

 

oh I feel proud of myself. I tried my first ranked game as Terran. I went the bio ball route as a test for my first game. I massed marines, got a second barracks, massed marauders as well. Grabbed some siege tanks, kept upgrading the infantry. got some medivacs. I then sent SCV's to grab *two* other resource locations while using the orbital commands to make uber supply depots and scout for him.

He sent a group of siege tanks, marines, marauders and a few thors. My defense killed them. I then spent 10 minutes making a huge bio ball from all the resources I was plundering. I sent the bio ball to him with level 2/3 upgrades, and they plowed through a wall of siege tanks, marines and thors. I guess my first game wasn't so bad. He sent his last set of vikings toward my base and my missile turrets shot them all down. Yay!

 

@IntenseIGFX: The place to go is Liquipedia.

But keep in mind, that whole website (and the corresponding TeamLiquid.net) is full of folks who have an unhealthy obsession with all things competitive Starcraft. While that may or may not apply to everyone at TeamLiquid, just keep in mind that most of what you read is going to be geared toward players in the upper echelons.

 

LOL. Just won my first game. I just pumped out mass marines, he left an opening in the back of his base, just dropped six dropships full of maxed out marines there and let 'em rip. A couple of valkyries for air support if needed. I was nervous about wasting resources on defenses at the beginning, but they were useful because it mitigated an early rush.

He was about on par with me skillwise though (not saying much) because units weren't far advanced. After 30 minutes most players have a full arsenal of maxed out battlecruisers. Not me though, lol. I'll take it though. Funny thing is at the begining he said he was going to put this video on YouTube. Wonder if its going up now.

I have to share it because I won, not that it's a demonstration of anything done right. It's boring and dirty but it worked.

http://www.mediafire.com/?kad1jk4dmhwu7ma

 

Valkyrie prepared!

It's Viking now.

 

Rockin'! I'm glad you didn't give up before you could see this day!

I'll take a peek at the replay after dinner.

 

Valkyrie, Viking, whatever. It's all confusing to me now with the change of units, strengths/weaknesses, etc.

 

Congratulations on your first(?) victory htwingnut Glad you didn't quit beforehand You'll definitely make a good player if you keep on working on it!

2 more days until I start my SC2 spree >:] Boo exams

 

Anyone see this?
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Above video made me lol xD

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How about this one?

 

Whoah, that was wild!

 

Hm... A song about SC2


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And the fan parody -slight explicit language warning-

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I can't stop laughing at this, it completely made my day... Reizo, for finding this, dang, you are a boss.

 

lol @ idra interview about siege tank/reaper nerf.

 

Played my first online multiplayer match last night! I'm very new to RTS's (SC2 being my first one) and I just beat campaign on casual last night. I have a few questions: (I play Terran)

1) Should I be bringing SCV's to the fights to heal my ships / vehicles?
2) Should I bring all my troops to every fight or should I always have a few sets of troops around at all times? (defending base, scouting around, ect).
3) For Terran, whats the best unit to scout around? Banshee?

I'll have more questions come up as I play more. I appreciate you answering it here because its a lot easier than scouting around through hundreds of pages of strats.

 

1) Yes! They will make a big difference
2) This is one reason why it's important to scout. Not bringing all your units could be the difference of winning/losing a main battle that will determine the outcome of the game... yet not defending your base could hinder you as well. I'd suggest you being all your troops to every fight for now (unless you have a bunker you'd like to leave marines in).
3) Scan Sweep from orbital command center. SCV makes good cheap scouts as well.

 

Saw this new tactic for anyone that plays terran. Build your turrets almost to completely finished then stop, so if he does decide to bring air to harrass, u can build it quick or if he doesnt, cancel it for more minerals.

1. A lot of people do use some scvs to bring into battle, mostly for repairing thors, or just to bring in as something else the enemy will target first before their main units, as seen by mouzMorrow.

2. It depends on the situation. If you know the opponent is using banshees to harass and you have no turrets up, it might be wise to have a few marines around, but if u know the enemy is bringing all his forces, bring all yours.

3. At the beginning of the game u will notice a timing window when u first need to scout with ur scv to make sure what ur opponent is doing. After that, any way that u can scout is best, whether it be cloaked banshees or scanner sweep.

Also, you may be interested in watching videos of matches on youtube or live streams on teamliquid.net. Day9, HDStarcraft, HuskyStarcraft, PsyStarcraft, Blizzshouter etc are all nice replay casters on youtube. Day9 actually goes into full depth of every match of things you should and should not do, so he is prolly the best first solution.

 

1. during fights? heck no.keep your econ going.
2. Every bit helps. If your troops get slaughtered chanced are your base is next anyway. Always keep your barracks flowing.
3. SCV. You should be scouting early with it when you have somewhere around 8 or 9 SCVs. Its better to lose a SVC than a banshee running into a army or somthing.

im a noob rts player but this is pretty much what ive picked up on watching the pros

 

Do remember that Helions can also make a cheap and yet effective scout due to their speed and they can take slightly more punishment than the SCV. They can also double as harrassing units early on in the game. Simply run in, scout while shooting the workers once or twice then run out and get repaired.

Scouting should be done as much as possible. Note that you not only scout to know about the opponent's tech but also to know when he's expanding and where. If you catch him expanding, chances are his army might be slightly smaller than yours so you can harrass that expansion and attempt to deny him which should set him back a bit and set him to go defensive in which you yourself can expand safely. However, do not over extend yourself and lose your whole army attempting to deny the opponent of the expansion but rather try to keep most of your army alive. If you lose your whole army there, chances are your opponent might counter attack and finish you off.

Oh and the SCV part, bring them if you have expensive units you can't afford to lose like thors and battlecruisers. If you have a mostly mech army, bring one or two. Please do prioritize economy early game. Bring SCVs if you have any to spare only or if there's a short interval of you wiping out your opponent's forces but you're left with mostly red healthed mech units

 

I just want to agree and say scouting/harassing with Helions is a great idea, though it may take too much micro for someone just starting out. But definitely a good suggestion worth repeating

 

Hellions are beastly.

Just 4 of them with pre-igniter can own 30 workers with 4 shots.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I've been watching ForceSC2.

 

That seems like too much micro to me. It sounds good, but trying to manage your scv's that closely is bound to screw you up, especially if you're a noob (trust me, I'm the ultimate noob).

One question though, is there a good site, or reference for each race to counter units from another race? Just general reference, I know it can vary, but knowing what best units to counter with sometimes is a big help.

 

wingnut, we should do a for fun 1v1 where we have truce for say 10 minutes and then when we both agree the truce is dropped we have an all out war with our built up forces

 

htwingnut, did you play the built-in challenge mini-games? The first three are designed to show you how to counter what with what, with units from each race.

Also, liquipedia has information on counters to some common builds.

 

do i have to have SC2 to watch the replays posted in this thread?

 

Sounds good, but the outcome will be you having a handful of carriers and a dozen dark templars to my dozen marines. I'd be up for that though. Maybe later this evening if you're free. Again depends on my kids and if I fall asleep before them or not, lol.

Thanks. Maybe I'll try that and check out liquipedia.

 

Yeah, It does require some more apm, but just something to think about when ur playing or practicing.

I dont know exactly a site that offers this but im sure there is one out there, dont know if liquidpedia does have counters to individual units or not and cant check on this computer.

You need sc2 to watch the actual .sc2rep files.

 

AKA no rush 10 minutes lol

 

For me that'd be about 8 minutes longer than I'd usually live! Bonus!

 

. thanks for the info.

 

Yeah, a raw recording of a game kind of requires a game engine to run.

 

Hey check out this thread for some interesting tacticsto use, as well as watch out for!!

[D][Craft]The Creative Plays/Ideas Thread.

I never thought about the proxy evo in zvz, or that lifted buildings repair faster. pretty nice stuff in there.

 

I had the worst harassment ever the other day in a 2v2 it was T/Z vs Z/Z where they both zergling rushed me but if that was not bad enough they sent two drones each and built spine crawlers in my base, so I had to focus on the lings or the spine crawlers. I actually fended off the first wave and got all the spine crawlers but the 2nd wave was too much.