Starcraft II Tips

I believe Henry Bollocks/UserEGO had his first seven games butt handed to him. Look at him now!

What league you are in is more or less determined by Blizzard's belief of your skill level. Every time you play a game, the system accordingly changes your perceived skill and acquires more confidence about this perception. If you know a little bit of stats, just think of yourself as a Gaussian distribution on a number line; you have a mean (your skill level) and variance (how sure Blizzard is about your skill level). As you play more games the variance will shrink.

 

I hope so, because losing all the time isn't fun. Makes it frustrating. I can be a good sport about it, but it also gets frustrating.

One game against protoss the opponent started to build pylons in my area right away. They built like six or seven, not sure how he got the resources that quickly. I sent some SCVs to destroy them. By the time I had a barracks up and building marines a couple cannons were already laying waste to my scvs and other units. I had to gg and get the hell outta there.

My problem is I only play about 5-10 games a week. I actually played my six matches yesterday in an hour and a half. Three of those were done in like 10 minutes.

 

Canon rush. The same thing happened to me during my placement matches. I'm still a newb myself, but a couple ways you can deal with and prevent that from happening are to block off the ramp to your base with supply depots and barracks or, if you notice it early on in your base, send a couple SCVs to attack the probe.

edit: Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'm pretty good about walling myself in 1v1. Seems that me and my friend have to coordinate a little better though on the larger ramps.

 

I did wall myself off, and he must have snuck in just before I placed the last supply depot that blocked the whole thing off, I'm pretty efficient at getting it done fast too. I did send a couple SCV's after him, but then he threw up pylons fairly quickly, remember protoss only need to initiate the building but don't have to stand there to construct it, so I sent some scv's after the pylons, all the while he started springing up pylons and cannons while I'm trying to micro and kill his worker using my workers so my income is very low. I eventually killed him but by that time the cannons were just materializing and it was game over there.

In hindsight I should have just pumped out marines because my barracks was about done, but my income was too low really. I had like one spot that my scv's could have gathered crystals safely away from the cannons but I was too frustrated to try to counter because he would have had an army at my doorstep by the time I got done finishing off his stupid cannon rush.

I think initial rushes like that are exploits, cheap shots, plain and simple. It should be fixed somehow by Blizzard. I don't care what anyone says, if you don't block off that first worker unit in time you're screwed.

 

Heh, the same thing happened to me. He got his worker in without me noticing and built the pylons and canons just outside my field of vision. I know I would've been better off going after his probes. No probes, no more building new stuff in your base. Pylons and canons would take lot longer to take out. That only works if you spot him early on though I guess. I think it requires a bit of resources on his end too. Had you survived it, I think you'd have been in a good position to destroy his base.

 

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I got tired of losing so I did something really stupid and it worked. Quickest game EVER (like 3 minutes)! LOL. Must see.

Desert Oasis.SC2Replay

 

lol! I like your opponent's comment at the end.

 

I call it the command center rush! lol.

edit: I guess this happens fairly frequently at least on YouTube.

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Whoa! It's Boxer!

YouTube - BoxeR vs IdrA in SC2

 

I have somewhat mixed feelings about being used in such an example!

Incidentally, I actually think practice league kind of messes you up when you go to ladder, with the "novice" maps and slower pace. New players would be much better off learning multiplayer in custom games.

 

I agree. Slower pace, blocked off entrances, etc. Then you get thrown into the pot and it's like

 

play against computers so you can learn basic shortcuts and learn the strategy before you play ranked matches.

 

I think they got the basic shortcuts and some strategy down. But the difference in practice league and normal games are quite noticable The maps with no rocks blocking your base from early rushes, slower pace of the game etc~

 

Anyone seen this yet?

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It is chaos to watch.

 

That is chaos, except stupid YouTube keeps pausing even though it shows it fully loaded. Too bad you can't download the video's directly.

 

lol saw that long ago It was funny

 

Download helper (firefox addon) is what you need...

 

doesnt work half the time. I have a better way (PM me if you need it)

 

Hmmm, this may seem like common sense to most of you guys, but I've realized something. I used to worry about when my base was getting attacked, and would always try to defend it even when its a hopeless battle. So I started to full bore mine the crystals and gas at my home base right from the beginning, set up only basic defenses, then expand to a gold crystal location as soon as possible and fortify that to the hilt.

Now I just let them attack my main base with little to no management on my part, because at least I've taken a decent amount of resources from it, it forces them to expend resources and time attacking my base while I'm mining gold crystals and have a crapload of crystal resources so as Terran I can crank out a hundred marines in no time, level them up and attack their main base before they can draw their troops back to defend it decently.

Against the protoss I realize micro of marines / tanks / whatever to destroy all pylons first, probes second, then you can just mop up as long as you have a second wave of units on hand so your initial attack units can just go autonomous and if they die oh well. Of course you have to do this relatively quickly before they expand too far and their main base has become a skeleton and have more than one expansion.

Maybe its just the crappy low level bronze group I'm in, but it's worked successfully with all my games 1v1 against protoss since I tried it.

 

Mass marines and siege tanks is actually an excellent strategy provided that you know how to time the attack and do a bit of micro It's not that hard to pull off anyways and simply raped anything the zerg can send to you

 

Not necessarily just mass marines, but really more about expansion. Make them take your main base, thinking they're winning, and even if you don't have much gas you can mass marine and few tanks with siege ability and max level up your marines. And I was talking mainly against Protoss. Haven't had much zerg run-in yet. I think most newer players tend to stick wtih Terran or Protoss.

I don't know why players make terran out to be such a horrible race to play. If you're comfortable then run with it. I'm sure I'll get bored of them and want to try something else. Until then I'll keep pushing with Terran. The thing I like most about marines is they are cheap/expendable, and have both ground and air attack ability, when leveled up it takes special powers to destroy the mass and straight attacking won't do it espeicially if they're accompanied by a few transports.

Protoss zealots are strong, but once your opponent gets airborne its death from above.

 

Hey guys, new to this thread. But have you guys tried doing the 3 rack build as terran?

Simply owns up most people easy style.

 

3 racks early push is really common to see everywhere when you go against terran It's simply very powerful as an early push but if you properly defend against it, you can easily counter it

 

Agreed. 3 rax is the only thing I do/know how to do. And it's pretty effective.

Edit: lost to reizo again...

 

-pokes farful for lulz- :3

I've really been trying to do the 1/1/1 build or as Husky says, the "Destiny Cloudfist" build but I can never time the resource gathering properly especially with gas :/ I'm usually 1-2 minutes later than it's supposed to be

Also wanted to learn the mech build

 

Haha, terran mech is pretty bomb, especially versus zerg... I feel like zerg only has one option versus that, magic boxed mutas + banelings. haha =( poor zergies =(

 

There's also infestors but ghosts kills them easy :/ Roaches die so quickly to marauders and broodlords are so slow they always get sniped :x Ultralisks can't even get near the Terran army

 

lol, yeah it's sad isn't it? I feel t is way op versus z =(

 

How do y'all go about learning units and such? I just learned this weekend that creep tumors are invis and you need a detector to kill them. I still don't really know what infestors/ghosts/ravens/(insert more units I never see here) do at all since I never encounter them... At least I know the names of these units now and what they look like. I remember the first three times I encountered a banshee, I thought they were medivacs, and thought medivacs could shoot and heal.

Edit: First time I encountered burrowed moving roaches, I got quite confused too.

 

Against AIs. Watch replay on AI's point of view. You know what you're doing against them at that time so you can pretty much figure out which one's invisible and which one's not.

Infestors are rarely used but usually seen against marine marauder balls, Ghosts you'll see them more often in a fight against protoss and Ravens, quite rare but usually seen in high level games due to them being mobile detectors and capable of providing point defense drones

But really, those mind games doesn't work as well on AIs. They quickly scan you before you even can get the jump on them

 

Ravens are also very very good versus clump units... Hunter seeker missles ftw. =D

 

Too expensive and your Raven will get shot down if you bring it into close enough range to fire a hunter seeker missile.

 

Theres a game casted by HD or Husky that show cases a professional gamer go pure ravens. Completely obliterated an opposing mechanized terran. Think it was a game played by koreans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pdLjI0_DQs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VK_be6Ogto&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3QJPOehk6M&feature=channel

 

Same kind of thing happened here from an earlier post. Ravens + marines = win. Who woulda thunk? I didn't realize those seeker missiles were so effective.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...504868-starcraft-ii-tips-117.html#post6758761

 

I loooove their anti missle thing too. So helpful against turrets

 

Thing is, mass ravens require lots of micro and deep thought of what to do as well as resource management which I doubt most newer players are capable of doing ._.

 

True. I use one or two of them to drop turrets as kind of an advanced warning system and maybe soften up the incoming enemies, plus use them to follow my units as a cloaked unit detector.

 

yo lets play reizo so i can 6pool you

 

Sure Go ahead. I'm really easy to get caught by 6 pool

 

Well, also hope (in TvT) that your opponent never, ever gets Ghosts. One EMP = game over. Protoss has Feedback, both are abilities that don't require additional research to aquire. Zerg... Zerg.... just get mass corruptors? I dunno.

 

Zerg can just mass hydras and spread them Or use the magic box trick with mutalisks and nullify most of the hunter seeker damage.

 

whats your name and code, is it still the same?

 

I clearly need to get caught up on all this speak, 3 rax, 6 pool, wt?

 

kbs, info's in friends list database Bakatora

3 rax is basically a build where the terran player goes aggressive with an early attack. 6 pool is a zerg cheese strategy where the zerg player doesn't produce any workers until he has 200 minerals, make a spawning pool asap and then produce 2 workers and save minerals for early zerglings.

 

building a spawning pool at 6 (six) supply and building 3 barracks

 

Which race are you using?

If Terran, get lots of marines when you scout out that he's making a void ray. 4-5 early marines will scare a single void ray away allowing you to make another 4 or so when he's making a 2nd void ray. During that time, attempt to get missile turrets to further thwart his plans or tech to starport and get vikings.

If Zerg, queens. Don't underestimate the queen's ability to defend. Having more than 1 queen per hatchery isn't exactly a bad idea. You can use the extra queen for transfusion and creep tumors. If you scouted a protoss attempting to go for a quick void ray, quickly make more queens and extend creep to your expansion to allow the queens to get around faster. Attempt to tech to hdyralisks or spire ASAP.

If Protoss, get stalkers and chronoboost that warpgate out quickly. Stalkers will easily kill a void ray and having 2-3 stalkers by the time his first void ray is out will prevent him from easily attacking your base.

A few things to note are that you should never allow a void ray to get fully charged up or if it does, focus fire it ASAP. Also, as soon as you chase away or kill the void rays, chances are that he's quite behind in ground army due to the cost of void rays so do not be afraid to launch a quick counter attack. You should have a ground army that can take care of a few stalkers and zealots by that time.

 

How many queens do you tend to have when the void ray comes? Usually 2-3 queens will scare it away or kill it. Just use transfusion on the weakened queen

 

I'm having so much trouble playing as Zerg.

I literally cannot survive a mid-game 2 Thor, 4 hellion, 2 Banshee, 2 Raven (full energy), 15 - 20 Marine, and 8 SCV push.

It's impossible for me. I've tried going mass ling/baneling/muta, mass roach/hydra, fast infestors, and mass queen/static defense. It is gross how well this push works.

 

Broodlords would help if you can tech that far ._. Snipe the helions since they tend to be further ahead than the rest of the army. Is it just me or do most zerg players tend to get 2 types of unit mixture mostly? Like muta-ling, roach-hydra etc