[Megathread] StarCraft 2

[Wass]

Right... the Mothership core. Forgot about that we're playing hots now.

Core seems to be the best strat to me if you can get the nexus up before the units arrive at your natural.

[Sackman]

What's the point in Bronze League bashing? They're playing there for a reason.


If you like cut scenes and CGI and 20-25h of playing is enough bang for your 70 bucks, then a clear "yes, go buy it! from my side.


@Mutas A hand full of them is generelly no problem, build at least some base defense. If you let your oppenent mass them, it's your own fault.

To be fair you can't really stop an opponent massing mutalisks if they want to lol, if they have been droning up with speedling harass and whack out a macro hatch and have 20-30 larvae ready to go into some 2 or 3 base mutalisk play theres little you can do to "stop them massing" unless you have been playing early aggression (in which case they are unlikely to choose mutas anyway so that is moot).

What you can do however is get the appropriate response, thor or phoenix/stalker (blink preferably)

Mineral/Gas spent will always be higher for the zerg using the mutalisks provided you are using their counter.

[MerinPally]

I'll have a coffee then have another go, see what happens. All in the practice... more force fields... must admit, I rarely use sentries due to the high gas cost, and already finding myself gas starved sometimes when trying to macro and upgrade, hopefully won't make it worse.

[Deleted]

Right... the Mothership core. Forgot about that we're playing hots now.

Tell me about it i still want to go mass blink stalker for nostalgia's sake

I think if you definitely can't get the nexus up, stay 1 base and get the core out let him try to push in and overcharge the nexus while FF'ing him in. Will work on pretty much all maps except Korhal and maybe star station due to retarded base sizes. If he keeps pressuring past the first round of photon you should have enough units up by the time the next wave comes in to clean it up without, if you don't you should have a new overcharge soon. If he's really committing he's probably muling so you could consider hiding a shrine in the back and sending a dt to either harass his natural or his main.
If he does back off you can probably get a robo and then expand and go into your normal mid game.
Just need to work out what works for really and run with it, find a way to accommodate your build around the pressure.

All the 2 rax pressure i've experienced hasn't hit until just as my nexus is about to finish, in which case i just overload the nexus and use sentries to trap half his units in overcharge range and they usually decide to go into standard play after that.

But yeah as i say, see what works for you. I'd offer to help you by playing some terran, but i just don't get on with terran at all

---------- Post added 2013-04-07 at 03:58 PM ----------

To be fair you can't really stop an opponent massing mutalisks

You can chip away at them with a few phoenix if you scout it early enough. Just meta the opponent into thinking you're going to mass phoenix in response to his mass muta. You stop at 5 phoeonix. He either commits and keeps losing mutas to chipping from Phoenix or stops making them at all in which case those phoenix just pick off queens when possible.

I do kinda agree mutas are irritating as shit to deal with though. Unless you have Flash Mines...

[Wass]

To be fair you can't really stop an opponent massing mutalisks if they want to lol, if they have been droning up with speedling harass and whack out a macro hatch and have 20-30 larvae ready to go into some 2 or 3 base mutalisk play theres little you can do to "stop them massing" unless you have been playing early aggression (in which case they are unlikely to choose mutas anyway so that is moot).

What you can do however is get the appropriate response, thor or phoenix/stalker (blink preferably)

Mineral/Gas spent will always be higher for the zerg using the mutalisks provided you are using their counter.

What I like to do is to deflect the initial muta harass and if I see that they commited to super many mutas I just push straight across the map and assault the zerg base. Normally there is only a handful of zerglings/spines to defend as he pumped all his gas into those mutas. Pulling them back might save his skin, but he's gonna lose all for the cost of almost the whole terran army. He can defend the attack by doing this, but only sometimes. And it will cost him his mutaflock. So it's a win for the terran regardless.

[MerinPally]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJsS...D69BD9913AFB53

This is my new favourite When Cheese Fails. Your Father Is Awesome At Starcraft is close behind.

[Wass]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJsS...D69BD9913AFB53

This is my new favourite When Cheese Fails. Your Father Is Awesome At Starcraft is close behind.

Hadn't seen that one. Was amusing

[Deleted]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJsS...D69BD9913AFB53

This is my new favourite When Cheese Fails. Your Father Is Awesome At Starcraft is close behind.

I was about to ask is it the spine crawler one. Sure enough yes it is. Brilliant episode.

[MerinPally]

Hold everything, nothing else matters. Just saw "How To Train Your Dragon" and I almost cried, it's one of the best films ever. I don't think I've cried since I was like 11 and I've had a few family funerals in the meantime as well. Fuck Starcraft when Toothless is about.

[Wass]

Hold everything, nothing else matters. Just saw "How To Train Your Dragon" and I almost cried, it's one of the best films ever. I don't think I've cried since I was like 11 and I've had a few family funerals in the meantime as well. Fuck Starcraft when Toothless is about.

I like how this is not relevant to Starcraft at all but how I still can relate.

Yes. It's a very good movie. :')

[MerinPally]

Ok, this is what I was meaning when I said it looks like a 2 rax FE except it really wasn't an FE and he'll just stream units into my base. This one was a bit slower than some that I've had but he massed a few more units, but I stuck to the getting some sentries just to hold it back and did for a nice while. We seemed to expand at the same times too, and although I handled drops absolutely appaulingly as I'm not used to seeing repeated ones, usually I get one then they give up, because I'm playing bad people. So, because I had to do some economic recovery and was trying to macro up ready for an attack, I foolishly neglected a cannon at mineral lines just to deter a bit.

If I'd remembered the MSC existence (hmrph) then it might have been a bit less painful, same with if I'd got the forge as soon as I saw the medivacs. To be honest if I hadn't made such an appauling engagement off the back of what I saw with my observer, I might well have won. If I'd stayed back we coulda fought on the ramp where I'd have instant reinforcements, my zealots might not have got trapped and be useless, and I think I was building a colossus... 1 giraffe and even in the middle that battle woulda been mine. Grrr, threw it away.

http://drop.sc/320921

[Schalde]

I really dont understand this system. im in platinum now. my score is 107-96 and i do not even meet any diamond yet. dont know why im not getting any promotion. i have a friend who went from gold too platinum with a score of 14-13 and yesterday a clanmate which got promoted with a score of 90-89. do i really have too win +20 more game?

---------- Post added 2013-04-08 at 08:47 PM ----------

nevermind got promoted now

[Wass]

Schalde, since you have a positive W-L ratio you're on your way there, but your mmr is going up slowly. It's not a matter of how many wins you actually have, but what kind of wins. Just keep fighting. That's all you need to do. It's about improving anyway - your rank on the ladder is not really all the glory in the world.

Ok, this is what I was meaning when I said it looks like a 2 rax FE except it really wasn't an FE and he'll just stream units into my base. This one was a bit slower than some that I've had but he massed a few more units, but I stuck to the getting some sentries just to hold it back and did for a nice while. We seemed to expand at the same times too, and although I handled drops absolutely appaulingly as I'm not used to seeing repeated ones, usually I get one then they give up, because I'm playing bad people. So, because I had to do some economic recovery and was trying to macro up ready for an attack, I foolishly neglected a cannon at mineral lines just to deter a bit.

If I'd remembered the MSC existence (hmrph) then it might have been a bit less painful, same with if I'd got the forge as soon as I saw the medivacs. To be honest if I hadn't made such an appauling engagement off the back of what I saw with my observer, I might well have one. If I'd stayed back we coulda fought on the ramp where I'd have instant reinforcements, my zealots might not have got trapped and be useless, and I think I was building a colossus... 1 giraffe and even in the middle that battle woulda been mine. Grrr, threw it away.

http://drop.sc/320921

I'll take a look at this tomorrow. Heading to bed now.

[MerinPally]

I really dont understand this system. im in platinum now. my score is 107-96 and i do not even meet any diamond yet. dont know why im not getting any promotion. i have a friend who went from gold too platinum with a score of 14-13 and yesterday a clanmate which got promoted with a score of 90-89. do i really have too win +20 more game?

It goes off your mmr, not your win/loss ratio or anything like that. From what I remember the mmr is a hidden stat (that bit I know) but how it's calculated I'm not 100% sure and neither is anyone outside of blizzard. You can roughly work out from how many points you're on in your league:

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft...le.net_Leagues

Reasons your friends may have been promoted early is if they didn't play the season before - or, if you didn't play the season before and they did. I don't think that's the case as I believe they reset mmr for HOTS. Gold to Plat is a WHOLE different ballgame from Plat -> Diamond. Also, you have barely over a 50% winrate. That's showing the system works because it almost aims for you to get 50% by putting you against similar skill players. Get that up higher if you want to proceed up the leagues, 50% isn't going to get you promoted, that's whats needed to keep you where you are.

Also, within leagues there are different divisions and some divisions are higher than others. There will be some which house the worse players in that league and others with some better players. Depends on what division you're in as well because if you're at the top of a good one then fine, promotion - but top of a bad one and you've gota keep working, prove you're good enough.

[Wass]

Also, within leagues there are different divisions and some divisions are higher than others. There will be some which house the worse players in that league and others with some better players. Depends on what division you're in as well because if you're at the top of a good one then fine, promotion - but top of a bad one and you've gota keep working, prove you're good enough.

This I have no idea of. Do you have any source for this claim? I kinda need some proof to believe this.

[MerinPally]

This I have no idea of. Do you have any source for this claim? I kinda need some proof to believe this.

I'll try find some I'm pretty sure I read it back when I was first playing SC but I can't remember if it was last year when I played a bit or the year before that (I played, took a looong break, played again, loong break). I might be wrong but that's what I was believeing, that some divisions were harder than others - I mean there's the chance that could happen naturally but I was under the impression it was designed said way too. Otherwise, especially in a league like gold (32%) you can't assume that everyones going to have the same ability seeing as it's such a huge number of players, gota be a subdivide in there.

[Ighox]

I'll try find some I'm pretty sure I read it back when I was first playing SC but I can't remember if it was last year when I played a bit or the year before that (I played, took a looong break, played again, loong break). I might be wrong but that's what I was believeing, that some divisions were harder than others - I mean there's the chance that could happen naturally but I was under the impression it was designed said way too.

You are right, http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=169830 is a good source for it.

[Brusco86]

Hey guys, high Diamond league zerg player here, (currently rank 5) I'll be around monitoring this thread if anyone has any questions of sorts I'll try and help.

If anyone's curious how I've gotten to this point I'll summarize what I try to do in each of my match-ups real quickly.

I always scout after 9 overlord, regardless of match-up.

ZvZ
A lot of early game aggression with lings and blings. Usually can end the game early there, but if not, and I scout mutas I'll go early 3rd with infestor/roach/hydra and spores at all bases to defend. Usually will make the opponent ragequit due to chain fungals on a big pack of their mutas.

ZvP
My best matchup by far. I'm currently always going 15pool/16hatch/22hatch. I get 4 queens and 4 lings at the start. at 6:00 min i put down double extractors in main. 6:30 I put roach warren down. Lair tech then mass roaches. If i scout a immortal all in i cut droning early and get hydras with speed FIRST.

ZvT
A lot of lings/blings/mutas with a couple roaches around the 6:30mark to stop helions/firebats from wrecking my... everything. I try to push around 15min with a LOT of lings/blings/mutas. If he has a big biomine army i try and do my best to micro around all the mines and do some damage while teching to ultras.

Hopefully this helps someone, as I said before I'll be around monitoring this thread and seeing whaddup.

EDIT: My Twitch stream is here>>> http://www.twitch.tv/brewsko I usually stream when i play for my friends on skype but if you have any questions or just want to see me play stop by.

[Sackman]

Schalde, since you have a positive W-L ratio you're on your way there, but your mmr is going up slowly. It's not a matter of how many wins you actually have, but what kind of wins. Just keep fighting. That's all you need to do. It's about improving anyway - your rank on the ladder is not really all the glory in the world.



I'll take a look at this tomorrow. Heading to bed now.

It is and isn't. When that end of season comes rolling about, you want to place high in your division. All these little divisions matter. I probably max out as a diamond league player. Probably will never get higher. So to me it's about getting a good position in diamond.

[TheRabidDeer]

Also, within leagues there are different divisions and some divisions are higher than others. There will be some which house the worse players in that league and others with some better players. Depends on what division you're in as well because if you're at the top of a good one then fine, promotion - but top of a bad one and you've gota keep working, prove you're good enough.

They stopped doing this like 8 months ago.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=366727
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/715...eason-9_6_2012

EDIT: Masters zerg on NA, dont feel I belong there but you can get there with standard openings and good macro and reasonable responses. My micro is probably sub par and responses are meh because my scouting sucks. But my mechanics with injects, creep tumors, drones and overlords are good which lets me win games.

ZvP: 14 pool into earliest hatch possible
ZvT: Hatch first into 4 queens
ZvZ: Either hatch first and keep an eye on his drone count at his natural if he FE'd or cheese. Pro tip: 1 base +1 roach nydus wins games.