EPTMy thoughts on B.NET 2.0
Interface:
The interface in SC2 is sexy and visually pleasing. I like the look but I don't like the chat interface. The main problem with the chat interface is that it restricts people. In b.net 1.0, you could go to a chat room and ask for a friendly but yet competitive game. But in SC2, you have to play the ladder and find opponents. You might say that I should make friends with these people who I ladder with but its extremely hard. The moment you start the game, you don't really have time to make friends with the player and assess their skill until the end of the game, but by that point the player would leave and just find a new game. And if I am losing, I might be too frustrated by my loss to ask for a game. Besides that, I really like the achievements you can accomplish.
My thoughts on each race:
Terran:
Terran seems to be the hardest to play. The reason why I am saying this is because of the way you macro in SC2. If anyone noticed by now, terran is the only race where you can actually que up units(besides stargates/nexus/robo from the protoss) ,which is bad for macro. Protoss has the warp gates where you build your core army and zerg has to use larva which cant be que'd up ever. At the same time, the mule can give you an excess of minerals if you forget to use them for a while which might mess up your macro. Another important decision is either use scan or the mule which also seems debatable. As for micro, it seems just like SC1, you need to keep microing units and make sure they don't die to just like a small mm group in SC1, but as the number of units in play increase, the micro becomes a lot harder. Multitasking seems to be the most important for terran to play on even ground with other races. (I will expand on this further)
Protoss:
Protoss seems to be the easiest of the three races. Protoss macro mechanic is simple. You can't que up your core units so you are always managing your economy as efficiently as possible. This ability can be a double edge sword due to the fact that you might focus too much on units and not save up minerals for an expansion. The chrono boost ability is awesome. The protoss have a unique feature which lets them either speed up their economy or their unit production. All the new units in the robotics are pretty awesome. The immortal and the colossus can be used depending on the situation and the warp phrism is the perfect unit for the protoss in terms of mobility. What better way to reinforce your army than to warp units in right next to your army. The sentry is also a great unit mostly for forcefield. The force field ability can win or lose the game in most big battles. The protoss might be easy to play, but just like SC1, they are the hardest to master.
ZERG:
God, do I feel bad for this race, but in terms of difficulty, I will give this race somewhere in the medium difficulty. The reason why I feel bad for them is because, the zerg are just too easy to abuse early game and mid game. Not only that, but man, their hatchery's and queens go down fast(From my personal experience). However, the zerg is one race you do not want to get in a macro battle with. If the zerg is left unharassed, you will see a swarm like you never seem before. And just when you think the swarm is over, you will see another swarm in just a few seconds. The zerg seem to have a easy time to macro whore drones if left unharassed, but ultimately they still need to decide when to make units and when to switch to drone production. As for what units to make, this still seems to be in the air for me. Any good combination of units seem to do that job for the zerg. As long as the units are diverse and you flank properly, the zerg have a easy time dealing with attack and deploying attacks. The queen inject is good ability for SC2, this is as close as you get to having actual mechanics in SC2, you need to constantly injecting just like how IN SC1, you have to be constantly be going through your hatchery's. The zerg is one of those races where you might hate playing them or love playing them depending on your style.
My thoughts on Terran Match UPs:
TvT:
So recently, it was brought to my attention a killer Build Order in TvT. Yes, I am talking about the 1 rax(core add one), 1fact(tech add on) and 1 starport(core add on) while saving your 1 scan for when you move out. If you add up the supply count in production, you will see the magic in this BO. 2 Marines, 1 Tank and 2 Vikings, thats a total of 8 supply. Yes, can someone say that they have found the magic BO just like 1fact 1 port in SC1. Now, this BO couters about everything if used properly. Banshee build, busted by the viking, some kind of early 3 rax aggression, countered by sieged tanks and marines and FE, very easily countered by tanks. So, somethings I wanted to try out in this match up are offensive mules. Now your saying, hey wtf is that? Well, its mid game and your opponent and you have like 3 or 4 bases each. And you both are splitting the map with tanks and such. I want to try out and see if you can scan them and start droping mules in their tank like to take out their own tanks or marines and then start moving in. If people already do this, please send me reps as I would love to see how it was used.
TvP:
This match up is tricky. As far as I can tell, terran just seems way to strong in this match up at sometimes. The FE from terran just seems too strong at the moment. I mean, I been having over a 75% win rate vs toss with this BO. You might say that they might crush you with an all in but thats not true. As long as you can get a lot of bunkers up and scout properly, you can hold off any push and decimate any protoss who tries to FE. Just like in SC1, there is a timing window when toss expands that your unit count and army composition should be better than theirs. For people who don't know the BO, its 10 depo 12rax, 15/16 oc, 17 depo to block off your base, CC in main and then add 4 more RAX when you get money and at the same time, you make marines and build your bunker at your expansion . If this BO is executed properly, terran just takes too much of a lead for toss to do anything. Maybe your telling me that I haven't played too much, and you might be true, but I been having very close games against protoss.
TvZ:
This match up is all about harass. Either its reaper harass, helion harass, banshee harass or thor drop harass , just keep the zerg busy. This match takes a lot of multitasking and seems to be really hard in terms of multitasking but its a lot of fun to play. Also, a group of marauders just seem to destroy a hatchery so fast. By taking out hatchery, you can delay zerg so much in terms of thier ability to macro properly. As long as terran can utilize the harass and keep an even footing with zerg, they will have a easy time playing against zerg.
I will do the rest of the match ups in a future blog entry.
Somethings I been noticing while watching streams or when I watch my replays. People just don't scout in SC2 as often as they scouted in SC1. I mean really, people are really bad at scouting. Most of my losses come from not scouting but that reinforces me to scout. SC2 is game where unit composition matters a lot and with little to no scouting, you cant make the right combinations to win a game. People expect the magic combination that might win people games. I am sorry to tell you, but that doesn't exist. I have won countless games just by scaning a few spots and seeing their unit combinations rather than make my MMM ball. If I don't see a observer, I will make banshees to snipe HT's/Colosus or If I see a FE from toss, i wont make any defensive structure like turrets and bunkers and switch to 6 rax with fast concusive shell, stim and shileds. If I scout roach ling, ill go marauder, and if i see baneling, ling, ill go helions. SCOUTING HELPS a lot so make sure you scout and get as much info as possible.
Another thing I notice is people que up units. Really, stop doing this, DON'T que up units untill you have to, like the very last second. Think about it like this, If you had those minerals, you can be spending it on something useful like another expo or upgrades or a higher tech. Sometimes, you will be in a pinch and have to que up units. Thats okay, but try to break your habit to que up units if you don't have to.
Finally, I leave you with one final advice, don't go over 65-75 workers. This is kind of tricky but you need units to fight, but when you have mostly workers, you can't win big battles with barely any units. This is especially true in PvZ I noticed. Sometimes, as toss I jsut get so greddy and start taking expos left and right that I forget i need units and not shit ton workers.
