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What is perfect play in Starcraft 2? What does -- or will eventually -- seperate the pros from you? This blog post will try to answer that question.
Terran
*Queue up a second unit just before the first unit finishes. To do this, you have to hotkey each structure separately to watch the unit's completion progress. Doing this for SCVs is crucial. Late game, hotkeying groups of buildings is the only way to keep up.
*Even late game, build tech lab units only from buildings with tech labs. To do this, you have to hotkey tech lab structures to a different key than reactor structures and naked structures.
*Never go above 50 energy on you CC unless you plan to (saving for scans, or saving to mule a gold base)
Protoss
*Queue a second probe just before the first probe finsishes. Similar to Terran, the only way I know to do this is to hotkey your Nexus. Dissimilarly, you don't have to hotkey each gateway, because you can't queue units in a warpgate. However, you would need to hotkey each Stargate and Robotics Facility.
*Never let a Nexus exceed 25 energy without a plan (saving to boost out an upgrade or special unit).
Zerg
*When building drones, build them out of the hatchery nearest to the mineral line you want to saturate. To do this, you have to build the drones out the desired hatcheries first, then select the mass of larva.
*Spawn creep tumors immediately. I would be interested to hear if any of you have any good methods for doing this, but I believe it's pure mouse speed.
*Keep one queen per hatchery, and never let it go above 25 energy without a plan (saving to stop an air rush with transfusion). I would argue that you need an extra creep queen, and you shouldn't have one queen fulfill both larva and creep duties.
When I started this post, I thought I'd be able to come up with more. And with less racial overlap. If you want to contribute, please post the things you think make up the ceiling of Starcraft 2 skill, and what you think the best way is to do them. I was extremely general, you can be more specific. Or you can just generally talk about what you think separates great players from average ones.
 
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Obviously one of the biggest thats incredibly hard to quantify is game sense/understanding. The better you pick up on subtle clues and know when you can add an scv there, or a probe there; having a sense as Z of exactly how many units you need to just survive an early protoss attack; knowing where/when/why to move your army to gain an advantage. All of these sorts of things really seperate decent from good and espeically good from great.
I really think thats one of the reasons Flash is so great. Yeah he has stellar macro and great multitasking but so do other good players like Jaedong, Bisu, etc; yet Flash stands far above anyone. I believe one of the things that accounts for this is his incredible knowledge and understanding. In a fariyl recent interview he talked about how BW is on his mind, and instead of straight up playing games all the time he spends some time just thinking through situations and trying to understand various aspects better.
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Well, even though this is pretty basic stuff, This is just a small part of what is keeping lower players low. Good tips nonetheless, but most of what you said is just basic macro, and macro is just one (big) part to winning a game. (I macro very well, but I suck when it comes to strategy)
I would say this applies to all races:
The ability to multi-task. Being able to attack the enemy's nat while dropping in his main, and also expanding will win games. This is where higher APM is almost a direct help. If you have a natural higher apm (not due to spam etc.) this will be easier to pull off.
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The points you mentioned seem like they separate bad amateurs from alright amateurs. Even half decent players can chrono boost constantly if someone told them to do so beforehand, but do they have the understanding of the game needed to chrono the correct units/researches?
It seems like there are a lot more important things that separate the pros from the amateurs.
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just a note: its actually not always a good idea to chrono boost probes as soon as you hit 25 energy on a nexus, sometimes chrono boosting constantly means your tech will be slower. Yes saving up chrono while at first thought would be stupid but its actually quite a good idea sometimes.
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On October 09 2010 07:27 FiBsTeR wrote:
The points you mentioned seem like they separate bad amateurs from alright amateurs. Even half decent players can chrono boost constantly if someone told them to do so beforehand, but do they have the understanding of the game needed to chrono the correct units/researches?
It seems like there are a lot more important things that separate the pros from the amateurs.
Chrono boosting the right things is crucially important, but I disagree with you about how easy it is chrono boost constantly. I have never seen a player (professional or otherwise) chrono boost even near perfectly in a game. I don't watch all that many SC2 replays, however. If you could post one of a three base protoss chrono boosting constantly I would appreciate it.
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You basically said it, there's not much more to add when it comes to mechanically capping skill. Perhaps add not missing depots? meh..
Hopefully, SC2 will end up offering enough strategic and tactical potential to keep the game interesting after a few years have passed. And I think it will. Already I feel like we have more different unit types in army compositions, which means more room for juggling and tweaking stuff, more angles to approach the game etc.
Not to mention there are two expansion sets coming; two major opportunities for Blizzard to take a step forward and make the game better.
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Basic Mechanics
Your economic harvesters - Build them constantly
Your units - Build them constantly
Scout on 9
Take ownership of the Xel'Naga towers
Scout consistently and before you attack
Expand before your minerals will run out (usually it is a beneficial idea to expand before they "appear" like they are running low)
Hot-key everything
Always scout around the map
Hot-key your units; preferably in 2 or more control groups
Keep your mouse and key speed consistent and fast (warm up, spam keys, and/or drag the mouse)
Always stay below 500 minerals and gas - build more production buildings if you start to creep up on minerals - translate those minerals into attack forces
Constantly build supply (even more important mid to late game)
When attacking, focus your attention on killing an opponents most expensive units.
Have a strategy ready before you enter the game
Execute a build order perfectly; try to get it right, without worrying about the "small things"
Know what counters what and how much you need i.e. your food count army vs. theirs
Upgrade your units early, and often - 1 attack/1 armor > 0/0, and so on, and so on
Check the energy on your base, and use it - this involves checking with your hot-key, "is a mule/chrono-boost/spit larvae" up?
And much more...
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On October 09 2010 07:37 -_- wrote:Show nested quote +On October 09 2010 07:27 FiBsTeR wrote:
The points you mentioned seem like they separate bad amateurs from alright amateurs. Even half decent players can chrono boost constantly if someone told them to do so beforehand, but do they have the understanding of the game needed to chrono the correct units/researches?
It seems like there are a lot more important things that separate the pros from the amateurs. Chrono boosting the right things is crucially important, but I disagree with you about how easy it is chrono boost constantly. I have never seen a player (professional or otherwise) chrono boost even near perfectly in a game. I don't watch all that many SC2 replays, however. If you could post one of a three base protoss chrono boosting constantly I would appreciate it.
With warpgates and a saturated mineral line, you are not left with much to chronoboost that late in the game anyway. The only real things that get chronoboosted that late are robotics units/stargate units, and upgrades. With that being said, what are you refering to when you mean "constantly"
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EPT
