StarCraft 2 - Season 7 is live. Someday I'll ladder, honest

[Azuremen]

You can beat almost any combo of gateway units, including High Templar, with nearly pure Marauder Medivac, as long as you are upgrading the Marauders. At least at your level.

As for that replay, he one based that army. There is no way on earth he could have actually supported 7 gates and a robotics on 1 base. Of course, you kind of did the same thing, getting Banshees, Siege tanks, and marauders on 1 base, with double upgrades. And then you double expand because of poor macro, so you have almost no units after your attack fails. You also didn't continue to make SCVs.

Honestly, you should have thrown down some bunkers at your natural and had that tanked sieged in advance.

Try a 2 or 3 barracks into expand build against Protoss, with fast Stim and Concussive shells. That is a realistic build. And this Protoss you played is just, well, forever bronze I want to say.

 

[in.s@ne]

Oo a SC2 thread. My new home!

Been playing so much of this since I bought it, started out terrible in Bronze, now slightly less terrible with my SEA account on the verge of breaking into Gold and my NA placing in Platinum.

Casio I had a quick look at that replay. Against Protoss as Terran, as Azuremen already said, the 3 barracks expand (1 reactor 2 tech lab) is pretty strong. Your opponent certainly had some... strange ideas for builds.
Also you can pretty much forget about the factory in the matchup.

Main thing though, as always with lower league games, is to work on expansion timings and macro. It will come with practice though.

Also if anyone wants to add me, I'm usually on SEA as insane 721. I will reply eventually, I promise

 

[Jedi2016]

I started playing the demo yesterday. (I'm broke, so I'll buy the full game next week)

I've always sucked at RTSs, but I'm further along in SC2 because I've been watching some of the tournaments, so I had a pretty good idea of what the units are. I mean, I still suck, of course, just not as bad as it could have been. Still spend too much time trying to figure out what to build next, when to push, etc.

 

[Casio]

I'm now a Silver 4v4 player.

Go me.

Hopefully should be in Silver 1v1 soon....still losing stupid games I shouldn't, but that's the fun of it hey...at least when I lose I'm learning what I did wrong so I'm feeling that even when I lose I gain some more knowledge. (Still dealing with to much dodgy protoss crap though...., aka "oh **** I'm beat I'm going to make a crap load of cannons on my 1-base ramp and to turn a 15 minute game into a 40 minute one").

 

[Casio]

10 1v1 wins in a row, pretty happy with myself. (Lost a close match against my Gold Zerg mate, and then we got stomped in a 2v2....)

Anyway, I think it's party time. Now I think I'm playing above a bronze level, I actually enjoy being in bronze, because now I understand and can laugh at all the insane and bizarre strategies people implement.

 

[Azuremen]

Anyway, I think it's party time. Now I think I'm playing above a bronze level, I actually enjoy being in bronze, because now I understand and can laugh at all the insane and bizarre strategies people implement.

Like that guy that went 7 gates and a robo off one base?

Bronze level player is just kind of hilarious in my opinion.

 

[Casio]

Like that guy that went 7 gates and a robo off one base?

Bronze level player is just kind of hilarious in my opinion.

You'd be suprised (or maybe not), how many people don't know SCVs can repair ****, and you can ACTUALLY TARGET them. I had a game against a Toss where I expanded too early, didn't realise he was going to all-in me off 1-base, and I was about to GG. Anyway, as I saw him coming and just for kicks I turned my first CC into a planetary fortress, and managed to wipe out an entire army of Stalkers and Zealots, with 6-7 SCVs on it with auto repair, while his zealots were just swiping away at the fortress (While it was even turning into a PF...). Didn't even lose a unit. Then he rage quit'd.

I've gotten a lot of my wins off the same basic idea. Charge his front while taking out his workers at the rear. If he's expanding, I will as well and tech to two Banshee's and leave them to take out the mining workers while I storm the front with Marines, Marauders and a couple of tanks with siege (While also taking a safe expo). If not I'll drop some units with Medivacs while my tanks take apart their wall (Cause everyone in bronze walls against Terran for some reason). Even if I lose the frontal charge, I've basically killed his economy completely, and can just rally units into his base until he gets tired.

Actually want to thank a heap for the advice I got about putting too many things on one base. Now as I rule I generally never have more than 2 Rax (Depending on ramp/wall/race), 1 Factory and 1 Starport per base. Has helped a lot with my economy. As well as constantly producing units. Off 2 bases I generally finish the game with about 400-600 average unspent resources, which is a lot better than I was before.

EDIT: I also want to post a picture when I get home of this Protoss second expandsion wall-off of Backwater Gulch. Which was done so well, that he couldn't even get his own units out.

 

[Casio]

So I've won another 7 or so games in a row, including against a high ranked silver, so hoping I go up in rank soon...

But I just had a game which I really should have lost. Guy dropped me and wiped out my entire orginal base, leaving only my main expansion which I managed to fortify with a PF, a couple of siege tanks, medivac and 3 marines in a bunker.

Anyway, while he was just cornering me off, I managed to pick up an scv, drop it at a far expo, and again so I had three. I was still heaps behind though. Using the 3 expos, managed to get 12 barracks, and just make marines, and SCVs. Completely stomped him with an endless supply of little men running across the map. Even took down a battecruiser in seconds.

Seems to me, you can win games by solely making marines? Maybe throw in a Raven to follow for detection of banshee/other cloaked units. But once you got a critical mass they just rip through bases in seconds....such a great feeling.

 

[Casio]

Trip-trip-triple post.

So I've won something like 25 1v1s in a Row now. Including against many players who were 'favoured' or 'slightly favoured'. How much do you need to win to be promoted ffs....???

Had my mate come around on the weekend and we had 11 straight hours worth of 2v2. Find the team experience really fun when you're actually in the same room. Also seems to be more variety in the match ups.

 

[granturismite]

I watch SC2 becuase my PC can't cope with it's requirements. I watched my first live stream last night, TotalBiscuit's "SHOUTcraft Invitational 2", followed by Day[9] playing some monobattles. Even though that was from 1am to 5am local time, it was awesome.

Should be able to play once I get a decent computer come October, but until then, I prefer watching SC2 to playing Age of Empires 3. I can't wait to get my ass handed to me!

 

[Casio]

Ok this is broken. Won my Season 3 placement watch against some noob. And I'm still in Bronze. This is like 30 matches in a row I've won 1v1. Including games where I've been matched against Silver and Gold league players. It's getting to the point where it's no fun. What the **** do you have to do to go up a league...

 

[Owen.C93]

I watch SC2 becuase my PC can't cope with it's requirements. I watched my first live stream last night, TotalBiscuit's "SHOUTcraft Invitational 2", followed by Day[9] playing some monobattles. Even though that was from 1am to 5am local time, it was awesome.

Should be able to play once I get a decent computer come October, but until then, I prefer watching SC2 to playing Age of Empires 3. I can't wait to get my ass handed to me!

TB's tourny was amazing, such an awesome guy. Day[9] is doing euro dailies all this week which is great.

Ok this is broken. Won my Season 3 placement watch against some noob. And I'm still in Bronze. This is like 30 matches in a row I've won 1v1. Including games where I've been matched against Silver and Gold league players. It's getting to the point where it's no fun. What the **** do you have to do to go up a league...

Does Bnet take into account your score? I've never really noticed how placement matches work. I know a "Destiny" got placed in Plat on Korean server after winning almost all placement matches, his MMR places him against master players though.

 

[Casio]

Does Bnet take into account your score? I've never really noticed how placement matches work. I know a "Destiny" got placed in Plat on Korean server after winning almost all placement matches, his MMR places him against master players though.

My little number score thing is I think 305. Maybe it does make a difference, as most people I play are higher. But 50%-60% of games I play now are against favored silver and gold players, and even a couple of plats. Which is good cause I like the challenge, and am still generally winning them, but then every other game is against a another low bronze, which just isn't as fun. If I'm being put against Silver/Gold and winning, then why still in bronze?

I'm tempted to do my placements on the NA server and see where it puts me.

 

[granturismite]

^
Is Battle.net broken maybe? I heard on a stream that it occasionally breaks and locks people in leages untill fixed. Maybe that's the problem. But it seems you're still being matched with equivilant players, so it's still working, just not the league promotion/demotion thingy.

Just a thought...

 

[Casio]

On another forum someone just said that the games during the lock-out period don't affect you're MMR rating thingy? Also that you're more likely to go up a division when you lose?!

 

[GTR3mh]

To all the doubters: Bronze to Silver in 11 wins. Most of my recent games have been against favoured silver players, so I was kind of expecting to get to the next league quickly. My TvP seems quite solid, as does my TvT, however my TvZ is horrible, if they do a good muta harass or contain me then tech to infestors/broods, I lose every time. My only luck has been against the ones who have been going cheese such as one bush roach and nydus.

Also, MLG this weekend, along with the GSL finals. Exciting stuff for sure, shame I'm somewhat busy this weekend, or I would be watching an awful lot of it.

 

[in.s@ne]

Casio: My understanding is that you cannot move up and down leagues during lock-out period, but your MMR does still change. So when the lock-out ends and you re-place for season 3, if your MMR is suitable for the next league up, up you go.
It can take a while to move up and down leagues though, it's quite a difficult thing to do.

 

[Casio]

Casio: My understanding is that you cannot move up and down leagues during lock-out period, but your MMR does still change. So when the lock-out ends and you re-place for season 3, if your MMR is suitable for the next league up, up you go.
It can take a while to move up and down leagues though, it's quite a difficult thing to do.

Yeah, now I think it's literally broken for me. Kept playing and winning, and now all of a sudden I'm playing 'favoured' opponents who have won 7 career wins in Bronze (I have well over 100). Despite me losing only 2 1v1 games out of about 60 in the last month. Oh well...I'm thinking of trying the NA placement matches and see where I end up. Maybe just SEA is broken...

 

[in.s@ne]

My SEA seemed to be working OK, eventually your MMR will work itself out and things will go back to normal. They can be favoured if they've just placed and weird things like that. I'd stick with SEA, as NA at these times can be a bit odd...

 

[Casio]

My SEA seemed to be working OK, eventually your MMR will work itself out and things will go back to normal. They can be favoured if they've just placed and weird things like that. I'd stick with SEA, as NA at these times can be a bit odd...

I've uploaded a replay of one of my most recent wins (Against a Favored opponent), if you have time would you mind checking it out and seeing you think I still am actually a bronze skill level, or any tips to improve some more? Realise I had an SCV sitting around for a bit at the start that I forgot about, but all and all I thought it was pretty solid.

 

[MuRRe]

I've uploaded a replay of one of my most recent wins (Against a Favored opponent), if you have time would you mind checking it out and seeing you think I still am actually a bronze skill level, or any tips to improve some more? Realise I had an SCV sitting around for a bit at the start that I forgot about, but all and all I thought it was pretty solid.

LOOOOOOOOOOOL.
You are the terran player correct?
The Protoss didn't start mining until 25 seconds.
Yeah, thats BAD
Im gonna make a list of things you have to improve (mind I'm Gold, but changed from toss to Zerg).

1. BUILD more SCVs. Serious man. In the first 15 minutes there basically have to be a SCV building at ALL times. You can stop for a couple of seconds while building your first Rax.
Unlike Zerg you can't explode with SCV's, you are confined to building one SCV/CC at all times.

2. Look up a BO (build order). First Rax on 10 is a little early if you aren't gonna push out. Usually you should build your first Rax at 12.
Here is a basic BO.
10/11 - Supply Depot (1)
12/19 - Barracks (1)
13/19 - Refinery (1)
15/19 - Marine (1)
15/19 - Orbital Command Upgrade
16/19 - Supply Depot (2)
For more info:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Terran_Strategy

From here on you can do whatever you feel like. For example a a FE.

3. Build SCV's at all time (can't emphasize this enough, building your economy is essential). You have 17 SCV's after 8 minutes, NOT ok sorry.
Focus more on macro, this will get you SO far in the long run.

Mind, I'm no expert but I can see alot of flaws that are quite easy to improve on.
Focus on this:
1. Building SCV's at ALL time.
2. Keeping money low.
3. Never be supply locked.

When you can do these three things and then learn to hold off cheese and early pushes you can go FAR.
At our level (Bronze-Platinum) things like army composition doesn't matter too much if you macro better than your opponent.

So, focus on macro and when you feel you get better you can start incorporating for example drops.
If you want any further help from don't hesitate to contact me.
Remf.457

 

[Azuremen]

Yeah, now I think it's literally broken for me. Kept playing and winning, and now all of a sudden I'm playing 'favoured' opponents who have won 7 career wins in Bronze (I have well over 100). Despite me losing only 2 1v1 games out of about 60 in the last month. Oh well...I'm thinking of trying the NA placement matches and see where I end up. Maybe just SEA is broken...

This is likely because you were playing extremely poorly initially so your MMR is very, very low.

Play on NA, you might have a better connection over there as well. And you can watch my people play sometime and maybe learn some stuff from moderate Masters play.

 

[Casio]

The Protoss didn't start mining until 25 seconds.
Yeah, thats BAD

Hence why I'm getting frustrated when I find these guys are 'favored'. But thanks for the advice.

2. Look up a BO (build order). First Rax on 10 is a little early if you aren't gonna push out. Usually you should build your first Rax at 12.

Maybe it's just SEA, but 80% of the people who I match up against seem to cheese. Every Zerg I play 6-Pools or Mass early Roach. Most Protoss do dodgy crap like cannon rushes, or proxygates. Terrans generally aren't as bad. I find that if I get a later Rax I'm too open to these sorts of attacks.

I've been watching a bit of MLG and really like how a lot of the time the players go for an early expand straight off the bat, like the 2nd or 3rd produced structure, and then have good Macro games. Every time I attempt an early expand like that I have 15 tier 1 units and 15 workers at my base...oh well.

 

[MuRRe]

Hence why I'm getting frustrated when I find these guys are 'favored'. But thanks for the advice.



Maybe it's just SEA, but 80% of the people who I match up against seem to cheese. Every Zerg I play 6-Pools or Mass early Roach. Most Protoss do dodgy crap like cannon rushes, or proxygates. Terrans generally aren't as bad. I find that if I get a later Rax I'm too open to these sorts of attacks.

I have been playing some matches lately, maybe I have been lucky but haven't met too many cheesers.
Against 6 pool you can
- either wall off (this of course the best solution)
- micro your SCV's as best as possible while your first Marine is building.

Now, I would still advice you going/learning standard BO's.
Holding of cheese is dependent on almost solely ONE thing, scouting.
Yes I know, it's sucks but it's the best way (scouting that is).

As for holding against early Raoches, I guess bunkers and SCV's to repair them. Should do it?!

So instead of putting down that rax at 10, scout your base for Probes (if you are up against Toss).
Send out an SCV at after you built your Supply Depot (make it a habbit).
TRY and practice keeping the scouting SCV alive at the same time your building SCV's/Supply Depots/Expanding/Teching.

Again,
1. Keep money low
2. Build SCV's
3. Don't get supply blocked.

It's sounds easy, but it's not.
But trust me, when you start getting it down and start to hold the cheese it will be more fun to play, you will crush people in >Plat and your skill will rise exponentially.
The more things you do automatically the easier it is to incorporate new things.
In the end you will be able to start to make strategic choices depending on what you see your opponent doing instead of focusing on macroing.
But I advice you, don't do a 10rax cause YOU think it will be a 6 pool but because you KNOW.
Keep practicing.

 

[Azuremen]

Maybe it's just SEA, but 80% of the people who I match up against seem to cheese. Every Zerg I play 6-Pools or Mass early Roach. Most Protoss do dodgy crap like cannon rushes, or proxygates. Terrans generally aren't as bad. I find that if I get a later Rax I'm too open to these sorts of attacks.

Really it just comes down to scouting and knowing how to react. The amount of cheese you are dealing with is mostly a function of the level you are playing at - most players at the Bronze through Platinum levels don't really understand how to play a long game or do much else, so they just do that over and over again and it works often enough that they have so-so MMR (relatively speaking).

And lol at cannon rushing a Terran.

Dealing with rushes is really dependent on scouting and making sure you have SCVs ready to repair when the attack starts, not pulling them once you realize you are in trouble - too late by then.

I've been watching a bit of MLG and really like how a lot of the time the players go for an early expand straight off the bat, like the 2nd or 3rd produced structure, and then have good Macro games. Every time I attempt an early expand like that I have 15 tier 1 units and 15 workers at my base...oh well.

That isn't an early expand. Being able to smoothly pull of a fast expand is a matter of scouting and knowing exactly what you can get away with in each situation. But it really requires solid mechanics to take advantage of a fast expand, which I wouldn't be too worried about at your point.

 

[GTR3mh]

I've been playing more recently, and I definately think I have the necessary skills to be at least a high platinum player. I did all my placement matches on the NA server and won them all, ending up in Plat there. Also got a feat of strength, which is pretty nice.

However, one thing I've noticed is that my 1 base play is quite bad. I can generally hold early aggression that isn't an all in and still get a relatively early expansion up, but when I get cheesed by cannon rush or DTs, I have a tendancy to lose. I am a Terran player, so I really should be able to deal with this sufficiently.

A game I lost to by DT rushing was lost by me MULEing just before he came in, which I can only presume was pot luck from the Toss. However, the fact I didn't scout it was worrying. I sent a rauder in, but it got killed and I had no scouting info. I think if I had made an early push maybe backed up by a bunker it would have been different, but I just didn't see it coming.

The game I got cannon rushed, I pulled my SCVs to kill the pylons, but he built too many and I couldn't get the probe killed. I lost out on the scouting contest because I scouted his base last and he scouted mine first. By the time I saw the forge the probe was already in my base. Once one of his cannons finished, I floated off and tried to macro up, but had to wait until siege tech to break his cannon line in his base. What I didn't realise is the nearly dead probe still in my base had expanded in there without me realising, so I thought I had a contain but really didn't. I also attribute this loss down to pot luck with him managing to keep the probe alive and saturate my old main and getting out critical mass of voids.

Another game I lost to early mass reaper with a transition into mass rax units. It was just a quirky tactic that caught me completely off guard. He managed to kill enough of my workers while expanding behind it multiple times, putting me too far on the back foot.

Also played a bit with a Zerg player I know. He managed to catch me with a ling rush when I was going to put on pressure, and in a second game a roach rush I wasn't prepared for.

These have been my only recent losses. Every game where I have been able to make it to the midgame on equal or better terms, I have not lost. Last time I lost a game that got to midgame was about 2 months ago, back when I was still finding my feet. Does anybody have good ideas for dealing with this kind of early pressure? My build tends to be a defensive two rax into factory and expo. First pressure usually comes at 5-7 minutes with my early army, I don't just turtle. I would love some tips on dealing with early cheeses, all in and abstract pressure tactics. I feel that once I have this flaw in my gameplay sorted, I will soar to high platinum and beyond. My macro and micro are quite good for someone with as little experience as me, I just have this one weakness. Replays can be provided if you want to see how I play.

 

[Casio]

Curious if any of you have been following the IPL and have any thoughts on Idra's latest antics?

Personally I have kept on practising making SCVs blah, blah and getting a lot more ahead economically. Feels good when 10 minutes into the game if I'm still floating no more than 200/200 at a time (Always have the lowest unspent resources by far in all my games).

Have been playing a lot more of 2v2 with my mate and finding it really enjoyable. Especially when you're on late at night, semi-drunk and the other team is too. Had some real good quality banter. A lot of strategy that isn't in 1v1 with interesting unit mixes. My friend is Toss so we are predominately a TP team. Though later in my drunken nights I'll switch to P and don't do half badly. Helps with learning Protoss units and what to scout too I think...

Another game I lost to early mass reaper with a transition into mass rax units. It was just a quirky tactic that caught me completely off guard. He managed to kill enough of my workers while expanding behind it multiple times, putting me too far on the back foot.

I've actually done that a few times when bored on maps where it's easy to jump in and out. I read that 3 Reapers one shot a worker, so if they're not expecting it you can kill 3-4 and make a get away. Wait a bit, jump back in. I'm not sure how many you need to kill to make up for the cost of reaper, but one guy I played placed 2 bunkers behind his mineral line, so I count that a win for me.

 

[Casio]

Alright, so a slab of beer:

Plus 5 hours of 2v2.

Equals:

#1 on the ****ing ladder.

EDIT: GOT SILVER PROMOTIONN

 

[Owen.C93]

MLG is in this weekend. GOGOGO.

http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/live/sc2_red

 

[Casio]

Been trying to watch some MLG but times don't align that well....

Anyone have thoughts on the possible 1.4 patch? Particularly in terms of balance changes.

Balance

General
Unit vision up ramps has been reduced by 1.


PROTOSS
Immortal
Attack range increased from 5 to 6.

Mothership
Acceleration increased from 0.3 to 1.375.

The Mothership’s Cloaking Field no longer cloaks all units instantaneously, but rather adds units to the cloak field over time (maximum of 25 per second). This should alleviate “Mothership Lag” issue when a Mothership comes online.

Stalker
Blink research time increased from 110 to 140.

Warp Prism
Shields increased from 40 to 100.


TERRAN
Barracks
Build time increased from 60 to 65.

Hellion
Infernal Pre-Igniter damage upgrade decreased from 10 to 5.

Raven
Seeker missile movement speed increased from 2.5 to 2.953.


ZERG
Infestor
Fungal Growth damage changed from 36 (+30% armored) to 30 (40 vs Armored).

Overseer
Morph cost decreased from 50/100 to 50/50.

Contaminate energy cost increased from 75 to 125.

Ultralisk
Build time decreased from 70 to 55.