• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:36
CEST 03:36
KST 10:36
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection6Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview5[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2
Community News
[BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June2Weekly Cups (May 25-31): Clem doubles, 2v2 circuit heads toward finale0StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th151Weekly Cups (May 18-24): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League6
StarCraft 2
General
TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? What kind of tool would you be interested in? Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) WardiTV Mondays Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 529 Opportunities Unleashed Mutation # 528 Infection Detected Welcome to the External Content forum
Brood War
General
BW animated web series: seeking contributors 25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 FlaSh's ASL S21 Finals Review BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [BSL22] Non-Korean Championship from 13 to 28 June
Tourneys
[BSL22] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CEST [ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2
Strategy
Why doesn't anyone use restoration? Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread PC Games Sales Thread Summer Games Done Quick 2026! The Perfect Game
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine YouTube Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
Esportsmanship: How to NOT B…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 5364 users

Terran advice needed

Blogs > PandaCore
Post a Reply
PandaCore
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Germany553 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-23 12:20:48
March 23 2011 11:43 GMT
#1
Hi folks!

I'm on my quest of going Random and I need to buff up my offraces a bit.
I want to start with Terran because I already have prior experience with Protoss.

I hope that some kind Terrans out there will give me some advice.

So at the current state of the game, what are the more prominent builds I should work on for each match up? I browsed the TL strategy wiki a bit, but it's hard to tell which of those builds are outdated.

From my basic understanding I decided to go for a few builds myself, but not sure if they are viable:

TvT:
- 3rax (with currently no followup)
- Marine/Tank

TvP:
- 3rax as well (if they go colossus I add Starports for Vikings)

TvZ:
- Mech (Hellion/Tank/Thor)

I chose mech for TvZ because this is the build I have the most problems with in ZvT as well, while Bio always feels very fragile.

So should I change to a few more beginner friendly builds? Any other advice how to improve as Terran? Every input is appreciated

P.S.: I'm currently a Zerg diamond player, just to give you a rough estimate of the skill level.

*
I has a flavor
3Sung
Profile Joined March 2011
2 Posts
March 23 2011 12:15 GMT
#2
Since you're a diamond player I think you can handle those builds. I'd worry less about the build and more about what your plans for each matchup are (which you are beginning to do already).
happyft
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States470 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-23 12:39:05
March 23 2011 12:26 GMT
#3
TvP: 2 rax tech/reactor bunker rush aggression into CC + bunkers is safest build imo, although it's quite apm intensive. After that some like to then go mass rax off 2 base, others like to get fast reactor starport for fast medivacs to harass into a dozen vikings with mass bio. Personally I prefer fast medivacs as it contains the toss while I transition into 2 fact thors + double armory. (I've seen some go 1 rax gasless CC bunker, but it's riskier and takes skill to defend)

TvZ: 2 rax gasless bunker rush aggression into CC + bunkers is also safest here, nowhere near apm intensive as the TvP variant. From here if you choose full mech, I recommend getting 2 fact and rushing to get blue flame upgrade and making only hellions -- you will be able to hit their base with about 10-15 sec before their muta pop. Eventually you'll want to be running 4 fact + 2 armory or 5 fact + 1 armory on 2 base. Or if you go bionic, you'll want 4 rax (1 tech 3 reactor) 2 fact (2 tech) and 1 starport (no-add on) and pumping out marine/tank/medivac. The idea is you either want to do a 2 base all-in, or take a fast third and go for the long game, trying to secure strategic locations where you can deny zerg's 4th and take your 4th at your leisure. Also, learning how to marine split and when to siege your tanks is so key. (I think 2 base bionic all-in is easiest as you don't have to deal with hive-tech which rapes mech and deals very well with bionic. Getting caught offguard by broodlords is gg as bionic.)

TvT: many viable openers. 1-1-1 in of itself has many variants (viking/raven, cloaked banshee/raven/viking, blue-flame hellion drop, siege tank/viking, siege tank/medivac early aggression), 1 rax marine/reaper CC, thor rush, or MKP style (1 rax gasless CC into mass rax with mass marine and going expo crazy). The key is to learn how to take your second and third as soon as safely possible, and learning that positions is everything, literally everything. On most maps, taking the center xel naga with siege tanks is practically an automatic win in games of equal player skill. Learning when to engage tanks, when to flank, how to attack the enemy where he is weak -- all crucial TvT skills.

+ Show Spoiler +
(~3.2K masters)
Pur3Vengeance
Profile Joined October 2010
United Kingdom18 Posts
March 23 2011 12:31 GMT
#4
as a Zerg player I can tell you that the best way to go mech TvZ is to make sure that you deny scouting of the factory completely. If you have a couple of marines to snipe overlords, and keep the zerg from seeing it by scouting the front, and couple of BF Hellions or a Thor push can do significant damage.

If you scout it as Zerg you just need to throw up a few roaches and it does very well against mech
Good luck
PandaCore
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Germany553 Posts
March 23 2011 12:44 GMT
#5
Thanks for the input so far! Especially to happyft for the detailed notes for each build

Can't wait to test these and get demolished by bronze players in the beginning (happened a few times already because I didn't want to end it with the first attack and then kinda fell apart with unit composition) :D
I has a flavor
The KY
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United Kingdom6252 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-23 13:21:41
March 23 2011 13:20 GMT
#6
TvT:
- 3rax (with currently no followup)
- Marine/Tank

TvP:
- 3rax as well (if they go colossus I add Starports for Vikings)


In TvT I'm of the opinion that the 3rax is bad. Anyone going for marine tank (i.e. most people) can crush it if they are only a little careful with their tanks, then contain you for infinity.

In TvP I am also of the opinion that the 3rax is bad. I think it's so important in TvP to get an economic lead with as few units possible, therefore I find a much, much more fluid build is the 2rax expand (one tech, one reactor); you can put on pressure with your early MM while getting up a CC and then 2 bunkers at the nat. If you learn the timings for DT rush and 4gates it's an unassailable opening. Against 4 gates it's important to use early marines and marauders for early map control, pick off any units he's stupid enough to bring out of his base, stop that forward pylon going down for as long as possible. Then when he gets his 4gates worth of units to 2 bunkers the protoss just has to...go back. Or die. Providing you've placed the bunkers correctly, otherwise he can try some run by stuff.
But if you hold it off, and it's not hard with practice, the 4gater is left with no economy and 4 gateways while you have 2 bases and can go for more barracks, medivacs, whatever.
happyft
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States470 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-23 15:05:44
March 23 2011 15:05 GMT
#7
Btw anybody know what the bobthebuilder build is? I've heard it mentioned a couple times in punishing greedy zergs.
Masq
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Canada1792 Posts
March 23 2011 16:06 GMT
#8
TvT
3rax in tvt is pretty terrible. Try either:
-1rax gasless expand into multirax
- standard 1/1/1 tank viking

TvP
- try 2rax expand

TvZ
- try marine expand into marine/tank/medi
- or try 2rax into mass marine for fun.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PiGosaur Cup
00:00
#85 (PTR Edition)
PiGStarcraft636
CranKy Ducklings60
davetesta28
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft636
ProTech85
Nina 40
Temp0 31
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 4076
Rain 3320
Artosis 563
Noble 27
NaDa 19
Dota 2
monkeys_forever419
capcasts109
NeuroSwarm103
Counter-Strike
taco 177
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox680
Mew2King79
Other Games
summit1g12960
Day[9].tv1452
shahzam570
C9.Mang0568
Maynarde121
ViBE121
UpATreeSC40
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick942
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP11
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21147
League of Legends
• Stunt201
Other Games
• Day9tv1452
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
7h 24m
Kung Fu Cup
9h 24m
Maestros of the Game
13h 24m
Classic vs Lambo
Clem vs Maru
Replay Cast
22h 24m
The PondCast
1d 8h
Maestros of the Game
1d 13h
Serral vs Rogue
herO vs SHIN
OSC
1d 20h
Replay Cast
1d 22h
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
[ Show More ]
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
OSC
4 days
Wardi Open
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL Season 22
2026 GSL S2
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
Acropolis #4 - GSB
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
Maestros of the Game 2
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Murky Cup 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026

Upcoming

BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Douyu Cup 2026
Heroes Pulsing #3
Heroes Pulsing #2
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.