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Terran advice needed

Blogs > PandaCore
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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 I browsed the TL strategy wiki a bit, but it's hard to tell which of those builds are outdated.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.
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