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I decided to start playing serious 1v1 games on ICCup. I'm D level Terran, and my current goal is D+. Since I believe there are many other players on this level hoping to improve, I made some harsh, critical analysis about my own weak points. Maybe sharing this can make people avoid my mistakes.
- Macro. I quickly realized that I won't get anywhere without at least average economy/production management. On this level, nothing is worse than being supply blocked or having little fortune in bank. Unless you are sneaky guy who cheeses like 70% of time, you just have to produce units, and while they are dying, produce even more. Simply speaking, on glorious D level you have to feel like USSR General willing to sacrifice thousands of Marines, Tanks or whatever he has just because there will be more stuff to replenish them. My weakest point is still taking/defending expos, but I'm working on it...
My macro is improving, but as I'm overcoming major obstacle, many minors arose on the way:
- Building placement. This is small, but annoying thing. As a rule, I should remember to place Supply Depots further from choke and production facilities clumped in a reasonable way. But usually, I rarely pay attention where I build something, too concerned about what I'm throwing down.
- Hotkeys. Aside from messing them up, I'm struggling hard to overcome bad habits and use the keys intensively. After entering mid-to-late game I frequently forget about my own keyboard principles which results with lack of control over scans, CCs, Vessels etc. Unfortunately, it often costs me games.
- Turtling. Very bad habit. I can recall myself TvZ when I scanned 3 Hatch Lurker attack and got 4 Bunkers in choke. When Zerg pushed, I just slaughtered all his units, but defensive approach never allowed me to move out with counter and I lost later, when his army was replenished. This was so bad: when I watched replay I had like 2x more food and clear way to advance. And I missed that chance.
- Decisions. Possibly the worst part of my games. Despite scanning, proper scouting etc. I rarely know what's going on. I can't even figure out who is better unless I'm either miles ahead, or he keeps smashing me like madman. Even won games are about who makes less major mistakes and from time to time I win only because I avoid suiciding my army while my opponent happily does so.
Right now, TvT is probably my best matchup, mostly because I find quite easy to drive it into mid- and late game, thus avoiding my early-game weakness. Also, I find methodical, slow pace of this MU really fitting into my style. Right now, I'm working hard to improve some agressive, harassing strats like 2 Port Wraiths or early Vulture drops, just to spice up my play a bit.
In TvP, the problem is relative lack of decent D level competition. Players often are in fact D- newbies who kept owning 1a2a3a (which won't work against me anymore), or they are much superior to me as they seek easy revenge after being robbed of C-/D+ dreams. I tried to play some 2 base timing pushes, but nothing too intersting about it, because it happened against plainly bad opponents.
My biggest concern is TvZ. My worst MU and a bit of a nighmare, especially against Lurkers. I play bio and all the time I get owned due to contains or runby's. Against Mutas, I can handle myself quite well, but Lurkers keep haunting me. Also, my APM definitely sucks and despite fairly good macro, I find M&M control very, very hard. However, I won't abandon my bio SK Terran, because I just don't feel playing mech openings and also, not every map is as good for Mech as Destination.
Finally, I'd love to find practice partner for weekends, preferably in European time-zone. As I said, I'm D level Terran with APM 90-120 (little to no spam). I have no racial prejudices: Toss, Terran or Zerg shall be equally good as long as you won't own me like F- player. So if you want to practice, drop me PM.
 
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Belgium9950 Posts
Well, you have a very realistic view of your own playing abilities, which is very important.
In my opinion, the more you improve your decision making, the closer the games will get and the more motivated you'll get to fix your more mechanical problems. Try watching every replay of every game you play right after you've played it and apply the same harsh criticism.
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You can analyze your own weaknesses and strenghts. Kudos!
Now just expound on what you are good at and work on what you are not so strong on.
Some aspects of SC come with time, so keep playing mass games and you'll eventually overcome all of your inabilities
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United States889 Posts
Well, lurkers would be a nightmare without at least decent m&m control. That's why D level players who can't handle lurkers bring tanks, and scan, abusing the range advantage. If you're committed to SK Terran, than you absolutely must learn to control your m&m with surrounds on the lurkers better, or get into a position where you can absolutely abuse irradiate. I wouldn't expect your TvZ to improve much until you get better at handling lurkers, because if you can't handle lurkers in the open field, you certainly can't handle them under swarm.
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On November 15 2009 04:22 Arrian wrote:
Well, lurkers would be a nightmare without at least decent m&m control. That's why D level players who can't handle lurkers bring tanks, and scan, abusing the range advantage. If you're committed to SK Terran, than you absolutely must learn to control your m&m with surrounds on the lurkers better, or get into a position where you can absolutely abuse irradiate. I wouldn't expect your TvZ to improve much until you get better at handling lurkers, because if you can't handle lurkers in the open field, you certainly can't handle them under swarm.
This.
Try a 2 fac build and see how that works for you (bio style but with 2 facs constantly producing tanks), usually steam rolls D players who are heavily reliant on lurkers (and D player muta micro is nothing to be scared of anyway  ).
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United States17042 Posts
the 2 fact style is much much easier on apm/multitask/mechanics than skT is. Try it if you want to improve without attempting to get the 300+ apm that's basically required to play true skT well.
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helps to go for a quick fast armor uppgrade against lurkers, you can hold two hits instead of one! saves alot of rines at D level
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United States17042 Posts
On November 15 2009 06:50 ThePhan2m wrote:helps to go for a quick fast armor uppgrade against lurkers, you can hold two hits instead of one! saves alot of rines at D level
but go fast +1 wep against muta! it helps a lot after the range upgrade, and if they go muta ling it's better to go +1 wep instead of +1 armor.
Although if you're having trouble against lurkers, go armor; if you have trouble against muta, go +1 wep
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Noooo!
Don't go +1 armor unless you don't plan on stimming.
Before you fight you should stim so your marines will die in 2 lurker hits even with +1 armor!
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On November 15 2009 08:33 Zortch wrote:
Noooo!
Don't go +1 armor unless you don't plan on stimming.
Before you fight you should stim so your marines will die in 2 lurker hits even with +1 armor!
Generally, the +1 armor helped my rines survive longer when I played terran. I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess it's because you're going to have a little time having your medics heal your rines before lurkers burrow. This of course, means the more medics, the more rines you'll cover but that small time frame is usually enough for the +1 armor to hold. Plus, unless 2+ lurkers target manually, which would be unwise except against clumped rines, you'll have decent time to heal up between volleys of spikes. 19 damgage, a second cooldown, then 19 damage gives a lot more time for medics to heal at least 9 damage (the difference needed to have a rine with +1 armor to survive 2 spikes) rather than 20/20 (11 hp needed to heal spikes).
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EPT
