EPT
So all-in-all since my last update where I was 59-42, I've gone 40-28 to reach 91-70 (medivac alamo, diamond). My net point gain over that time period was exactly 100 points, and my net rank movement was 0. Ended the other day at 12th place in my div, and that's where I am again. #1 in my div is 533 atm.
I played almost zero zergs in that time period. Mostly tvt I think, my worst matchup. I didn't even beat all the zergs I played. Managed to lose to a all-in z who went roach -> muta -> baneling, and it worked cuz I got lazy and a little greedy. But for the most part, zergs still represent free wins. I haven't even bothered learning how to mech yet.
So I said last time was gonna try avilo's tvp opening, port asap for raven while making marines + tank -> expo -> ghost. Well, I hate it. I found the build to be even less effective than gretorp's ghost/marine opening against various all-ins. However it gives a nice start against less all-inish builds. The quick tanks and ravens allow t to begin moving around with his army sooner. But the build simply lacks the pure marine count (and more importantly the universally useful ghosts) that gretorp's build was yielding.
So I started working on a blend of the two styles that would suit and fit me better. Basically the gist of it is getting maurauder/slow -> fact -> ghost -> port. If I don't know what he's doing I'll probably make a viking from the port and scout with it. If I know he's going 3-4gate I'll get a tank first/instead. If I see robo I'll get a banshee. If I see or think dt I can get a raven. Now it's true I can't make as many ghosts as I normally can with gretorp's build, but I'll have a slightly different army composition instead. A sieged tank or a banshee could be more useful than an additional ghost depending on the situation. I often end up getting 3rax with this. My 2nd rax might be before fact if I suspect early aggressive play, else probably after port.
First time I was trying the build I was making 2 marines, tech addon, 3 maurauders/slow, and attacking. This lead to great success for the most part, often I'd catch scouting/aggressive stalkers off guard and get free kills, sometimes I could kill several units, get some probe kills, and always get to scout atleast part of their base, etc. It was really nice. That is until I played this one funny guy (whose name I forget). I was caught up in the fantasy of this "new build" I "made", not really adjusting and adapting to the game, just blindly doing what I was doing. The end result was: my 3 maurauders get to his base (steppes, short distance) to meet 2 zlots and 2 stalkers, more than they can handle. I managed to miss a depot, and made a ghost as soon as I finished the depot. I lost all 3 maurauders to kill a single zlot or something. And then his voidray got there immediately after. My 2 marines and 1 ghost didn't quite stand a chance, and that's literally all I had rofl. While the depot certainly fucked things up, making 3 maurauders was obviously the biggest mistake. Before, they always caught p off guard to some extent, or at the very least I'd get a little scouting and get the hell out without losing any maurauder. I assumed thus that the 3 maurauder attack would always be ok. Not only was he able to make more than enough units to stop it (without scouting it), but his voidray came much earlier than I thought possible, all at the same time. I had to laugh pretty hard when he goes "GG MORON", cuz I really was being a moron that game rofl. I saw his 2nd gate timing, and for some reason decided fast ghost acad instead of 2nd rax would be a good idea, and made this absolutely useless ghost, etc. It was silly.
Anyway, I'm leaning towards making only a single maurauder with slow, but attacking with it anyway. This way I can still possibly catch units off guard, get some scouting in, maybe make him a little paranoid, all without compromising my marine count in case of a very fast voidray.
I don't know if it's the build/opening itself or just the attitude I've taken up as I grew as a player to develop this style/opening, but I'm winning a much greater percent of my tvps now. Often I win just by deflecting/crushing a stupid all-in, and being able to counter attack thanks to siege or something, or being able to safely expo asap while harassing with banshee or something, etc.
My army mix is pretty funny as I get into mid/lategame. I'll have something like 3tech rax, 3regular rax, a tech fact, and a reactor fact, and a tech port (a 2nd one very lategame for bcs), making ghost/maurauder/tank/hellion with banshees/medics either for some support or more often for harass. It's fun poking around with a banshee, drawing him towards it away from his main/towards his nat, and then stimmed marine dropping his main. Protoss like having their army move around to secure map control, so they're often vulnerable to all sorts of harass. Once I've got those upgraded hellions I can start making life hell for his expos' probes. As I get more gas I start making bcs. The tanks are very important. I don't have medics, and I don't have a huge marine/maurauder count. I have just enough units to do some damage, encouraging p to pursue me as I back up away from storm, drawing him into tank fire, at which point I get to spam emp and stim. If he keeps moving forward storming I can still back up, and he loses a lot. Those hellions are good for sniping hts too. Mass colos are still giving me trouble though (3robo type stuff).
I lost a lot of tvts. My thor/maurauder opening has been securing me a lot of losses. As such I've just shied away from going with any particular opening, opting to be more reactive and adaptive, relying more on my intuition to counter what he's doing rather than forcing some particular build to try to work in any situation (which isn't possible). I can't say much about tvt, my tvt is definitely still in a transitional state atm.
I don't want to upload a replaypack this time because there've been just so many changes about my play during the last block of time, and because a good many of them are patch 16 reps, which are annoying to watch. If I get my sleep shit working properly hopefully I can get a good ladder run in tomorow, and can make another reppack, of my best quality games yet, vs the best players thus so far. Or atleast, that's the idea.
I still really hate kulas. I swear all I get is kulas, metalopolis, and desert oasis. I don't mind metal usually, and oasis is free win tvz, but kulas is awful. First of all it's too goddamn dark. Especially with the day-time glare on the screen, I can't see shit in that map. Metal is pretty dark too.
