Starcraft II Tips

If you just want to play 1v1s and not the others, just do the 1v1 placements and leave the others alone o_o If you want to be ranked in each of them, you'll have to do their all placements.

And yeah as Ennea mentioned, you can suck on purpose and bully people in the lower leagues but you can only win so much before you get promoted to the next league where you'll be the one being bullied. Besides you improve from playing a challenging game and not one where you mass up and just beat up someone's army

 

well im not that good anyway but any tips on how to make sure i get placed in the lowest league for all of them? im not much of a solo person ill probably stick to 3v3s, 4v4s

 

lol if you want to be in the lowest league for some reason, you won't need tips for that. You can simply just throw games, but why not just play normally and see where you end up?

 

well my friend did that and he got placed in platinum and hes way worse than me. so he played a few games and got his handed to him over and over.

and well sure i could throw games in 1v1 but i mean for the 2v2s, 3v3s, etc. what if my team pulls off a V? i dont want to resort to teamkilling or what if the other guys throw it? i dont know if they measure apm or whatever

 

Do "accidental" nukes on allied army?

 

I know people who have thrown all 5 games and none of them have gotten' beyond Copper from placements.

 

lol u know i heard that blizz is banning for teamkilling. not sure if this is true or not.

 

They shouldn't know you're nuking them and not the enemy, hence the word "accidental" I doubt they ban for team killing but meh. Just place a nuke or two in a fight and if they asked, say you panicked. If they get hit, they're the ones at fault for not retreating enough

Heck you can act like a total newbie, make lots of workers and very few basic units. If allies are being attacked, ignore their call for help and if you're being attacked, run away and ping like crazy. Chances are your allies might get annoyed and leave the game leaving you vulnerable to a loss

But whatever you do, don't act like a total -insert bad word here-

 

Is there any way to pre set the AI to a certain level and to random every time you add one rather than it always adding itself as medium and terran. Its very annoying every time since i play alot vs the AI that i have to set it to insane and random for every AI i set into the game.

 

infestors, duh

 

Infestors are not that great against Battlecrusiers because of the neural parasite nerf.

Mass corrupters, cost for cost, will beat Crusiers.

Hydras are also not that great against them either.

 

Indeed hydras are too fragile to fight against battlecruisers. However, if you couple corruptors and hydras, you'll definitely take down the battlecruisers faster than they kill your hydras. Especially since people tend to take down corruptors first thinking those are the real threat.

Heck you'll probably have few remaining corruptors ready to turn into broodlords with some hydras backing it up for a counterattack So that's not quite a bad investment

 

Since Neural Parasite is now 6 range, which is the same as a BC, the other BCs which are highly likely to be flying together, should be very close to the Infestor allowing for an easy kill.

The bottom line is you need both Corruptor/Hydralisk. BCs do kill Hydralisks quickly which is why you need 200 HP & 2 natural armor Corruptors to come in to Tank and deal damage. Corruptors also can kite Battlecruisers even though they have the same range. Corruptors use a single attack with a 1.9 cooldown versus BC's 6 damage .225 cooldown attack.
This means the BC is far more effective if it is not moving, as like most units it cannot attack while moving. However you can fire one volley from a group of Corruptors, run back with superior movement speed (Corruptor:2.9531 BC: 1.4062, easily slightly double the movement speed) then pop back in after 1.9 seconds. The only thing that stops that of course is Yamato Cannon.

Often times, BCs are not alone and it is highly likely you will see ground support. So despite well controlled Corruptors winning over BCs, you will still need Hydras or anything that can attack ground.

 

Really? This is whats wrong with the world. Complaining that you have to use 2 pull down tabs to get the settings you want! Cmon now.

 

Very true, except any halfway decent player has at least a dozen or so marines hiding underneath supporting those BC's. Which is why the idea of one unit "hard" counters usually doesnt work.

The player who can micro a mixed unit will usually always win against a player who just masses one type like that.

 

This.

This is exactly what happened to me. The combination of marines and marauders readily took down infestors trois

 

Anyone use sc2 manager?

Just wondering if there is a way to let it show ur APM while ur playing.

Kinda like the timer, except maybe apm too, for practice?

If you use SC2manager, it will save ur settings u have for each map.

Theres ways to practice with the GreenTea AI. Set it to easy or very easy and it will tell u the commander at the beginning so u know how to counter it.

very easy = 300 apm
easy = 600 apm
medium = 900 apm

The GreenTea AI is way smarter than the blizz AI.

I dont know for sure, but it also might get smarter the more u play it.

Always does different openings and stuff.

Also, when u select the game u want to play, it opens it straight to the map and lets you restart over and over so you dont have to keep going back and forth to the main menu.

Good way to practice opening techniques til u get them perfect.

Hope this helps!

 

Not to burst your bubble but isnt that considered an illegal hack to starcraft 2? And therefore not to be talked about on these forums...

 

I don't believe hacked programs are really illegal. They may be against the EULA, but those don't usually hold much weight (if any) in court.

Hacked hardware, like phones, is a slightly different issue, though I believe the latest ruling said that if you bought the hardware, it's yours and you can use it how you like.

 

In no way is it illegal to use a tool to help you play a game offline that you purchased.

That would be just like saying anything that is talked about as far as modding a notebook on this forum would be illegal or even an add on for wow players is illegal.

 

If you want to get better you shouldn't spend so much time playing any A.I. Just play people. It's not too hard finding people your skill level anyway.

 

I totally agree with that, but for the time being, im in africa. The net is too slow to even try and it blocks battle.net anyway because it "takes up too much bandwidth.." lol

I am looking for ways to play with some of my friends here. ( I wont mention how, bc it might be too "illegal")

Japanese military is here so Im talking with some of them to see whatsup.

 

Lol I'm just saying i play ffa alot against the A.I for fun, now usually thats me setting each one to random and insane every time i start a game. Its pretty annoying if you play as much as me.

 

To be fair, games are technically licensed, not sold. But again, that's what the EULA claims, and it's been a point of heated legal contention for over a decade (actually, dating back to the origins of copyright law). But that's a story for a different thread.

------

ON TOPIC, though!

How does one counter void rays?

I don't mean what units are generally good against them. What I mean is, what if your opponent has 4-5 of them in your base, firing on your CC/Nexus/Lair, and they're already charged up?

Obviously, the best counter is to use lots of small units (hydras, stalkers, marines) so your opponent doesn't get charged up beams. But once the beams are charged up, they can cut through a force of stalkers like butter, and hydralisks and marines won't fare much better.

On the other hand, if you don't engage until the beams die down, you lose your base.

So what's a good strategy to coax your opponent into letting his beams down so you can build or use an effective counter?

 

Intimidate him with a scary looking mass that he runs away and loses his charge? There's actually close to nothing you can do actually unless you have a large amount of anti-air enough to one shot them one by one by focus fire.

Try to do a counter attack on their base and hope he pulls back his void rays to defend is one I can think of but that's a risky move and he might just repel your attack without pulling back his void rays. However, if he can't micro well enough, he might just forget to control his void rays long enough while defending that they lose their charge in which, during that time you can attempt to macro enough anti-air to eliminate them.

 

I usually end up sending my anti vr units in two packs...try to lure them away from the buildings they are firing and building their charges at. The luring part sometimes makes them lose their charge and then you can bring your second group to attack. I would say works about 20% of the time. Otherwise, its what Reizo said.

 

The best anti void ray rush is not to let him get void rays. 4 gate toss usually wrecks him. As well as an early marauder ball.

 

My MM and 4Gate has been destroyed of the late by people putting up a ton of static defense.

So then you have to tech change to air and they will be ready for that with AA and more Air units than you. I hate this situation.

With protoss I can pull it off but with Terran or Zerg if they got too far ahead of me I may be out of luck.

I had a great counter once where somebody had a ton of static and was teching up. Observer for vision and about 30 stalkers with my 4 gate and used blink to get them all in the base. However it was a 2v2 and when I got into the base I was greeted with more static defense and seige tanks all over behind building sets making them impossible to get too before I was toast.

 

Well phoenixes are a good method to counter siege tanks provided they lack anti-air. Just pick up the siege tanks and snipe them quickly

 

Yeah, they had AA and foot troops though so it would have been hard. The pheonix can be very strong though due to that ability and I didnt know they were in that base untill it was too late, it had AA all over I had to run my observer into the AA and do the blink at the same time sacrificing the observer to get into the base.

I may need to start getting some AA near my mineral line when against terran. I had have 2 or 3 games where they just dropshipped a a handfull of stimpacked marines/marauders right into my workers and its like instant GG.

 

Will you be my friend and play 2v2 league with me please?
I need someone good to learn from

 

I'm actually an extremely bad player myself and require a lot of learning But sure I can practice around. I tend to play custom games though so I'm really rusty on the actual game

I'm on the SEA region though o_o

 

Cracklings and Ultras with upgraded melee does wonders against another zerg player, esp when they go roach hydra:yes:

 

i tried that once and the roach hydra owned them since it was all ranged most of the lings were dead before they got to attack.

Lings are best as canon fodder or they wreak massive damage on a base without proper defenses.

7 pool ftw since I play random now when ever I get zerg on a 1v1 and its a small map I can almost always win with a zergling rush.

 

I'm finding that upgrading units is much more effective than simply massing units early. Two hatcheries lasts me until around 95 pop, three crawlers are a great defense against early rushes and even attacks with well balanced groups.

But man are banshess annoying!!!

 

Yeah banshees and tark templar can do a lot of damage to a unprepared player.

I had a DT rush when I was terran and I never get detectors with terran for some reason. I got them up fast enough to defend my base but my workers were all dead so the rest of the game was consant keep up. Was a 45 min game and super close. I got 4 banshee on him later and did a good amount of damage, he had cannon and tons of stalkers but after I took out the cannon I got in there. I did not know till after replay that he had an expansion though so all the damage was in vein.

 

I wasn't in gold on my other account long enough to judge but in bronze at least I have noticed zero scouting. I think that's the main reason I'm winning honestly. A few question:
Are all the AA towers balanced?
Are the bunkers, crawlers, and cannons balanced?
When you enter a base after destroying thearmy there, should your first target be the workers, or unit buildings? Any specific buildings?
Why do protoss players not use Archons, templars, and carriers?
Past 50 population, does build order still matter? In terms of "do I expand and get workers or build forces?"
Can you make control groups with any other keys? Anything past six is a stretch; what do pros do?

Noob questions I know

 

Don't know about the Anti-Air towers but as far as I know they're quite balanced. 20 damage per hit for all of them. Same with the ground static defenses except for bunkers which has varying damage output depending on your unit inside.

After destroying the army, main priority is usually the workers but if you're confident in your building killing abilities, snipe the command center and then aim for workers. Then take out the building that you find most problematic (If you lack anti-air, take out starport etc). In the case that you know your opponent is probably massing something like battlecruisers, aim for the fusion core then your choice of starport to deny the next cruiser or Command Center. But usually at this point of the game, your opponent's main will have run out of resources so go for the unit production buildings as that will slow down your opponent's army reinforcement.

Archons are quite... Easily focus fired. Damage output is only good against biological units so it's basically an anti-MMM or zerg unit but the cost of it is not worth it. Short range and slow attack speed too. Templars, it depends on the players but they probably lack the microing ability to be able to use the high templars effectively. Dark templars are simply fragile if enemy has detectors though they can deal good damage if left unchecked. Carriers are sorta... Weak-ish... Compared to other race's capital ships. It's not exactly cost efficient unless you have a mothership and maybe lots of stalkers to back it up and keep it alive. I find them unable to fend for themselves properly until you get a certain amount.

Build order doesn't really matter after the early stages of the game as far as i know as from then onwards, it's a matter of scouting and countering instead of rushing for certain units. That is unless you're the one doing the aggression in which build order may still matter. I tend to expand when I'm on the offensive and made the opponent go to turtling mode since at this point, the opponent won't launch a counter offensive. Do not overextend yourself though since they might wipe out your initial army and do an actual counterattack.

Numbers 1~0 are the only ones that I know of. Pros, probably got used to moving their fingers around very quickly that they can access the numbers really quick. Either that or find the most efficient control group for you. I personally do 5 for all command centers, 6 for main army buildings (Barracks if i'm going for MMM, Factory if mech), 7 for Secondary army buildings (if MMM, you'd need medivacs so 7 is starport). For army it's 1~4 but usually if your build doesn't require much micro like MMM in which you'd only need 1~3 at most, you can shift your production buildings to the left so CC is 4 barracks 5 etc. Specialist units like High Templars, Ravens and Ghosts are usually on key 3-4 for me in case i need quick access to their abilities. I use the end control keys (Like 0) for things I don't move around much but prefer to have access to in worst case scenarios like observers which i want to move around once in a while or when i really need it with my army

Then again that's how I find it most comfortable.

 

If it is early game usually going for workers is best to hurt the economy. Even if they get backup and take you out you should slow them down enough to come back again with larger numbers.

But late game sometimes I would go for buildings before workers, like say you see 3 stargates building something I would go for the pylons or something before the workers so that I can kill what ever is about to spawn and then go after the workers.

Leave some units at the exit ramp is there is one to kill any fleeing wokers.

 

thanks for the response.

So even under the grid option there is no option for a different control group option? Hum...time to do some googling.

 

Prot players do use Archons, templars, and carriers. Usually people will morph high templars after using all their energy.

If a prot player even builds a stargate, they should be looking forward to producing a carrier if the game goes on long enough.

As far as Past 50 food, I would say you should be working on counters around then so as long as you know build orders to counter what the enemy has do it.

For zerg it does matter bc ur still going to build an infest pit, hive, ultra den, etc. if the game goes on long enough. Its a little different with prot/terrain, because they actually have to build the buildings to produce units faster.

Never be afraid to step outside ur box and try new things that u saw someone else do, but if ur new id say stick to the basics of things until ur comfortable.

 

3v3 zergling rush is awesome
Battlecruisers are ridiculously good
2v2 is way more fun and even more variability makes it great
It is possible for 1 person to comeback against 3 players with mass battlecruisers

What I've learned today

 

Yea I've had 3v3 games where both my partners died from early rush. Ended up just sharing control and letting them micro my reapers around the map while I macroed up at my base. The other teams zerglings didn't stand a chance to 10+ reapers being microed by two people.

 

Yeah thats a good idea shared control, I have only used it a few times with NBR people I never use it with my random games because I never know what they will do with it.

 

LOL.

That was Beyorn and Me right?

I had fun that game, microing reapers.

Also GGs SilO

 

Just had a wonderful game 1v1 about equally matched.

This is the map where your base has 2 exits one of them goes into a natural expansion with rocks.

I actually bunkered in some this game with a forge first rather than opening with a 4 gate and then quickly got an expansion in the bottom corner rather than that natural.

Started my 4 gate and 2 stargate and a robotics for observers.

He also had a ton of static defense but when I went on the offensive he was just starting to build at his natural and I send 4 void rays in from the outside edge of the map where he had a hard time reaching me.

By the time he got there i was charged up and went crazy on him with the void rays. Took out a good portion of his forces and part of his base.

Then I had a proxy pylon right there on the other side of that expansion island and put an observer over the gap.

15 Slakers blinked them into his natural witch acted as a back door and took out most of his base and all his forces. He had a big strong force that attacked my base at the same time, but he had no idea that I had the expansion so he leveled my base and managed to kill all my stalkers, then immediately he saw me blink 15 more into the base and he GG'ed on me.

I just imagine how that looked from his point of view seeing all those guys just magically teliporting into a rather odd spot in the back of his base, he felt so locked up and secure and I found his opening.

I moved up from rank 50 to rank 5 in my league I imagine I may get promoted back to gold soon because I am winning more than I am losing in silver.

I win every game I spawn as zerg on a small map, seems like almost nothing beats a zergling rush.

I also have lost 2 games to cheese tactics if you want to call them that. Both of them rush techniqes both terran.

First. I was zerg and decided not to rush and he came right into the entrance of my base almost right away and started to build bunkers before I knew it when I had my first zerglings he had a bunker with 2 marines in it and a scv for repair. He managed to kill my guys and then come attack harvesters between my spawns, by the time I got a big group of 6 zerglings out that may have been enough to take out that bunker he had a 2nd scv and 2nd bunker going up and 4 marines in the first one.

I was pinned down bad and now way I could beat it.

I tried spine crawlers but that didnt work :/


The next technique is a reaper rush, but a way I never seen it done before. Just like the Protoss proxy pylon rush he sent his first SCV to just outside my base and pumped SCV till he got there, than built a Barracks outside my base and then went for Gas.

Soon as the Barracks finished he got a tech lab and pumped out the reapers. I was protoss and actully went for the proxy pylon rush.

So as his first reaper killed my probes I had 3 zealots after his.

I killed all his guys way faster but the problem is that all he had to do was lift off his base and he was unable to lose the game, he then took out all my workers and base.

It became a base race that I could not win since I had no way to kill his base with zealots in the air. When my few zealots came after his barracks he was able to easily kite them to death with the reapers.

It was almost a impossible to beat TvP strategy unless you knew it was coming you maybe after to fend it off with cannons or something. I dont think you could get stalkers fast enough.

 

I just found out about void ray fazing and it can prove to be devastating to the worker line if left unchecked o_o Takes a lot of practice though and i keep on misclicking and end up moving my void rays instead of attacking >.<

Man SC2 really has some interesting mechanics

 

fazing? you mean building up the charge between targets? I just go for the main base once they are charged they stay charged between targets as long as its not a long wait.

edit nvm see how it works. I guess that would be good if you run into a mob of units with your void rays but I think going for a structure to charge up first is still more effective if you can since it seems while fazing the laser level does not build.

 

Actually I tested it on 5 supply depots (Big targets easier to try on) and it does charge the laser level but it takes like 5 times longer than normal o_o So maybe it's your choice if you can do it or not and what you're facing against. It's perfect to do if you're surrounded by a few marines and you have no time to charge the lasers properly. But really, charging it up when you can and just kill anything with normal attacks do work better in the long run I guess...

 

for proxy reapers, did you scout him and see an empty base with gas? you would definitely have to see it early to prevent it from working. Basically, there is a 13 second window for him to have reaper control assuming the buildings are built in order for both of you (pylon -> gateway -> cybernetics -> stalker) (supply depot -> barracks -> tech lab -> reaper). If he did a proxy barracks, it should take him a few seconds longer to get the first reaper out (or at least it can't be faster). Also, he needs 75 gas to get the reaper rush going, and you only need 50 to stop it. So, he has to sacrifice minerals for gas earlier... it seems to me like the timing will work out. You may not be able to prevent him from getting to your probes, but if you run them away, he might be worse off than you even with ~2-3 probe kills.