Areas Needing Improvement

Fealorin

United States21 Posts

November 03 2010 12:36 GMT

Hello everyone,

I am here because I worked my way up from Bronze League to Diamond League in all types of matches except 4v4 and I have come to that point in my Starcraft 2 life where I am only winning about half of my games from winning 2/3 games. The area I want to improve the most in is 1v1. I am currently holding rank 60 in my division. Occasionally I would fight my way up to rank 50, but then I would have some massive bad luck streak with being matched up against several Terran opponents in a row and losing because TvT is my weakest match. I am looking to improve my TvT game along with a few others.

In general another big problem of mine is that I forget what I am doing! I sometimes go off into starcraft theory right into the middle of my games and lose focus and go on auto-pilot and lose a game. I forget what I was doing and that leads to forgetting to do key things in a certain build order. I guess for this part I just need more practice with build orders. I've used all of my own build orders up until I hit 1st Place Platinum. Once I hit platinum, my build orders were failing and I wasn't staying consistent, and I was facing opponents that I didn't know how to handle. I guess I could use some help with learning more build orders and practicing them.

Next problem, I have terrible macro, micro, and APM skills. Ok, my micro isn't THAT bad, but my biggest problem is that when I am busy harassing or attacking, I forget what I was doing at home and I get distracted and side-tracked and it has really cost me some games. I would forget to queue more units, and I would forget to rally them, I would forget to build supplies and get supply locked, etc etc.

My next problem is scouting. I am absolutely horrible and terrible at scouting. This too has cost me many games. I don't know when to scout, how to scout, and how to figure out what exactly my opponent is doing when I do scout him.

My next problem is related to micro. I am terrible with hotkeys!! Absolutely terrible!! I forget what units I have hotkeyed and when I am put under pressure I press the wrong hotkeys and I have to look at my hotkey assignments and it ends up being slow response time. Same goes with when I am on the offensive and I have special units like say Ghosts in my mix and I want to EMP the protoss units, I forget what hotkey my ghosts are on and I forget the hotkeys for all the special abilities and it ends up being a slow EMP and bad timing with getting the rest of my army in to attack. I also have trouble learning the actual hotkeys for special abilities, I tend to end up just clicking them rather then hotkeying them which takes away from my APM also.

Another problem of mine is APM. You might be thinking that since I am in the Diamond Leagues I must have 100+ average APM. Not quite true for me. My average APM is around 70-100, which I think is considered noob. I guess the only way to fix this is practice practice practice.

I think this is about all I can think of with problems in my games. I am really looking to improve my gaming. In another thread I have posted that I am trying to engineer a new build order and perhaps many more build orders for all races. I appreciate any help I can get!

My Battle.net name is Fealorin.945. I mostly play Terran, but I would love to also work on my Protoss and Zerg play.

Thanks!

vek

Australia936 Posts

November 03 2010 13:31 GMT

Regarding hotkeys you should never have to look at them if you always always use the same setup each game. Obviously you need to find what works for you but here is what I use when playing Terran if you want to use it as a guide/inspiration:

BTW I use classic hotkey setup.

1 - Main army (Usually just MMM)
2 - Tanks
3 - Vikings/Ravens/Banshees
4 - Command Centers
5 - Production Buildings
6 - Medivac(s) for surprise/distracting drops
7 - Research Building I am watching

Since I always use the same setup I never get confused and hit the wrong keys etc.

I use 4 for CC because its easy to hit 4 SSS or 4 C for scan.
I use 5 for production because its in the middle of the keyboard and its easy to hit all unit production hotkeys when my hand has started in the middle

"5 FFFMM MM MM TAB T T TAB DW" is what a basic round of macro would look for me off 2-3ish bases.

If its memorising actual keys for units and abilities you are having trouble with the best thing you can do is (even in the middle of battle) hover your mouse over the thing you want to press but DO NOT click it. Force yourself to hit the correct key on your keyboard. Even if it causes you to lose some battles just do it. Within a week you will have every hotkey memorised.

Now for scouting

I'm not the best player in the world but I just look for basic things like these:

Zerg:
- Does he have a really fast pool with few drones? Lings incoming
- Do you see a baneling nest? Make 1 thor to sit in front of your MMM to soak damage, get tanks if you have none.
- Did he go air or ground? Thors smash muta, if you see a Spire don't mess around, I usually throw down 2 turrets in each of my mineral lines and get 1-2 thors. If ground stick with MMM with some tanks.

Protoss:
- Fast Cybernetics and saving chrono boost? 4 Warpgate rush, be on the lookout for sneaky probes, don't do anything silly like expand - Marauders are great to defend it with.
- Fast Stargate? Void Rays incoming, get a Starport with a reactor asap to get 2 Vikings out, this should be enough to make Protoss give up on Voids, just transition into MMM after you defend it. If the Void Rays arrive super early you can defend 1-2 of them with Marines/Stim. Don't waste gas on Marauders in this case.

Terran
- The most important thing to look at with Terran in the early game is what addons they have, tech lab could mean Reapers or possibly Marauder stim timing push. Starport with a techlab means Banshees (1-2 turrets at mineral line will shut them down unless they are going all in Banshees).

The main thing with Terran is just keeping on your toes and trying to stay ahead, if he tries to expand either punish it if you think you can or take an expansion of your own. You always want to be dictating the game as Terran, if you play passively you will stay in the game quite a while but then just eventually lose. Try to make your opponent react to what you are doing either through timing pushes or just being a pest with constant drops in multiple locations and harassing his main/mineral lines whenever his army is out of place.

If you ever don't know what your oponent is doing use scan, it is the hidden talent of Terran (aka maphack). I have 1 or 2 SCVs patrolling every expansion on the map so I always know when one is being taken.

Also try to always have every Xel'Naga watchtower on the map and ALWAYS know where the bulk of your opponents army is either through scans or poking and prodding with your army. Also never commit to an attack unless you are absolutely sure you are going to win, always scan up ramps before you charge in, there is nothing worse than losing your whole army to a bunch of tanks.

Edit: Can't believe I forgot about what was going to be my most important point

MICRO

Just don't do it at all.

I'm dead serious here, wasting time microing is one of the biggest detrements to any player with low APM (myself included).

Would you rather waste time keeping 2 extra Marines alive through super awesome micro only to lose later on because you didn't macro reinforcements or have 2 Marauders, 6 Marines and 2 Tanks on the way?

DO NOT WATCH THE BATTLE.

Just don't do it. I was so guilty of this for YEARS playing Brood War. Watch one of your replays with the FPVOD thing activated and the unit production tab open. When a battle occurs I guarantee your SCV and all unit production flatlines - I used to do this all the time.

What you need to do is quickly assess if you can win a battle or not within 1-2 seconds. Scan quickly and decide if you can win. If you can - siege your tanks, throw down a PDD, stim and attack. Then FORCE yourself to do something else, build units, rerally production buildings, add reinforcements to your control groups, TAKE AN EXPANSION (best option most of the time, seriously try it). Once you have completed your task, go back to the battle. If you are winning soundly, make another push forward and then go and do something else again. If your forces are looking a bit sad pull back for a bit - never throw away your army.

Firereaver

India1701 Posts

November 03 2010 14:57 GMT

Excellent response. I think this is a really good guide to mid to high-diamond level play.

SubtleArt

2710 Posts

November 03 2010 16:51 GMT

On November 03 2010 22:31 vek wrote:
Regarding hotkeys you should never have to look at them if you always always use the same setup each game. Obviously you need to find what works for you but here is what I use when playing Terran if you want to use it as a guide/inspiration:

BTW I use classic hotkey setup.

1 - Main army (Usually just MMM)
2 - Tanks
3 - Vikings/Ravens/Banshees
4 - Command Centers
5 - Production Buildings
6 - Medivac(s) for surprise/distracting drops
7 - Research Building I am watching

Since I always use the same setup I never get confused and hit the wrong keys etc.

I use 4 for CC because its easy to hit 4 SSS or 4 C for scan.
I use 5 for production because its in the middle of the keyboard and its easy to hit all unit production hotkeys when my hand has started in the middle

"5 FFFMM MM MM TAB T T TAB DW" is what a basic round of macro would look for me off 2-3ish bases.

If its memorising actual keys for units and abilities you are having trouble with the best thing you can do is (even in the middle of battle) hover your mouse over the thing you want to press but DO NOT click it. Force yourself to hit the correct key on your keyboard. Even if it causes you to lose some battles just do it. Within a week you will have every hotkey memorised.

Now for scouting

I'm not the best player in the world but I just look for basic things like these:

Zerg:
- Does he have a really fast pool with few drones? Lings incoming
- Do you see a baneling nest? Make 1 thor to sit in front of your MMM to soak damage, get tanks if you have none.
- Did he go air or ground? Thors smash muta, if you see a Spire don't mess around, I usually throw down 2 turrets in each of my mineral lines and get 1-2 thors. If ground stick with MMM with some tanks.

Protoss:
- Fast Cybernetics and saving chrono boost? 4 Warpgate rush, be on the lookout for sneaky probes, don't do anything silly like expand - Marauders are great to defend it with.
- Fast Stargate? Void Rays incoming, get a Starport with a reactor asap to get 2 Vikings out, this should be enough to make Protoss give up on Voids, just transition into MMM after you defend it. If the Void Rays arrive super early you can defend 1-2 of them with Marines/Stim. Don't waste gas on Marauders in this case.

Terran
- The most important thing to look at with Terran in the early game is what addons they have, tech lab could mean Reapers or possibly Marauder stim timing push. Starport with a techlab means Banshees (1-2 turrets at mineral line will shut them down unless they are going all in Banshees).

The main thing with Terran is just keeping on your toes and trying to stay ahead, if he tries to expand either punish it if you think you can or take an expansion of your own. You always want to be dictating the game as Terran, if you play passively you will stay in the game quite a while but then just eventually lose. Try to make your opponent react to what you are doing either through timing pushes or just being a pest with constant drops in multiple locations and harassing his main/mineral lines whenever his army is out of place.

If you ever don't know what your oponent is doing use scan, it is the hidden talent of Terran (aka maphack). I have 1 or 2 SCVs patrolling every expansion on the map so I always know when one is being taken.

Also try to always have every Xel'Naga watchtower on the map and ALWAYS know where the bulk of your opponents army is either through scans or poking and prodding with your army. Also never commit to an attack unless you are absolutely sure you are going to win, always scan up ramps before you charge in, there is nothing worse than losing your whole army to a bunch of tanks.

Edit: Can't believe I forgot about what was going to be my most important point

As terran, how do u handle macro hotkeys? Like if I have 4 rax, 1 with reactor 3 with tech lab, and 2 factories with tech lab all on 1 hotkey is it possible macro effectively like that? Or should i have my rax, factories, and starports as different hotkeys?

aidnai

United States1159 Posts

November 03 2010 18:12 GMT

^ all production buildings on 1 hotkey, use tab to go through the different groups.

reactors/techlabs: build units that require the tech lab first (i.e. marauder first, then two marines).

Fealorin

United States21 Posts

November 04 2010 00:34 GMT

What I've been doing lately is using 1-2 for main army, 3-4 production, 5 CC's, 6-0 special units.
I use QWERTY grid keys too, i find it much easier to hotkey. I've been getting better at macro, and not worrying about micro so much, but I still forget some times. For scouting, lately I've been patrolling a couple marines between open expansions and been using flying barracks for deep base scouting. I figured a scan theoretically costs almost 300 minerals, and a barracks is only 150 and lasts longer. My APM is also going up =D! At some points I hit 300+ Thanks for all the advice!

vek

Australia936 Posts

November 04 2010 01:43 GMT

Also another thing I forgot to mention is upgrades, even having 1/1 against a 0/0 army will give you a huge advantage, upgrades are a thing I see a lot (not all) of people on ladder completely neglect and they sit with 0/0 the entire game.

Even I'm guilty of not finishing my 3/3 sometimes because I forget/get distracted by other things. Upgrades are seriously important though.

I'm not sure how good you are at keeping on top of upgrading but it is another thing to consider when improving your play.

A good idea is to make upgrades part of a timing push. Just make up a timing push in your head like:

"When I am at 2/2 bio I will kill his natural"

It really really helps a lot to have even a simple plan like this in the back of your head. Some trigger that goes off in your brain so that you know exactly what you want and need to do.

Eventually you will start memorising what timings work well against what but to do this you have to experiment.

It doesn't have to be upgrades, one of my favourite timing pushes is when I get my first Medivac and Viking out of a Reactor Starport.

I move out and get a feel for how big my opponents army is. If he is over extended I punish him by sniping an expansion or picking off units/tech. If not I either try to contain him while I expand or just fall back to my main/nat if I feel my army is under threat of being overrun by a superior force.

Remember a timing push doesn't have to win the game, the idea is to secure an advantage and hold on to it. When I move out with my first attack I'm only looking to exploit weaknesses. Sometimes you do win early if your opponent has done something silly like expanded 3 times or if they are bad but going all in with any timing push is always risky.

Fealorin

United States21 Posts

November 04 2010 23:09 GMT

I usually keep on top of my upgrades pretty well now also.

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