• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 20:15
CEST 02:15
KST 09:15
  • 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
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy7[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End9
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple1BSL Season 235Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon101Weekly Cups (Aug 30-Sep 7): herO thrives amid growing schism10
StarCraft 2
General
Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 SC2 AI Tournament 2026 Fall
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
Mutation # 544 Double Trouble The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses Mutation # 542 The Ascended
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder new ranked ladder hack? New 3v3 BGH Ladder (and more) on ShieldBattery! [ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy an AI researcher's take on the ladder bot
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 1 [IPSL] IPSL is Back With Winter 26-27! [BSL23] SM: Ret vs TerrOr -> DragOn vs StRyKeR [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation Diablo IV
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine All you football fans (soccer)! Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Gaming Intensity, Problemati…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Dreaming of BW patches (mod…
c3rberUs
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 9389 users

Ranking Builds By Difficulty

Blogs > Suichoy
Post a Reply
Suichoy
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Canada397 Posts
December 09 2011 12:33 GMT
#1
HardMacro's blog about comparing Starcraft to playing an instrument started me thinking. Piano pieces are ranked by difficulty. Thus, when you qualify for a certain level, you know what pieces are accessible to you and what pieces are beyond you. I think the same can apply to builds in Starcraft 2.

In Liquipedia, builds are categorized only by match-up and whether or not they are "cheese". But I notice that:

1) With regards to fOrGG's hellion-banshee build and MMA's mass drops playstyle, it is commonly remarked that these builds are accessible to these players only as they have superior multi-tasking.
2) The TL philosophy that you can improve at a low level through macro only assumes that low-level players are best off doing builds that do not rely on pressure or multi-tasking.

So people are thinking about it. But I guess there are two reasons why we haven't categorized the builds yet. One, there isn't much teaching literature and all the teachers are busy trying to be pro-gamers. Two, Starcraft 2 is young and not that many builds are discovered yet.

So I'll just go ahead and give my tentative grading of some common Terran openers.

Bronze-Gold: 3 Rax, BFH Drop
Platinum-Diamond: 1 Rax FE, 2 Rax, 1-1-1 Siege,
Masters: Banshee Expand, Reactor Hellion, Reaper Expand

How would you categorize the builds?

*
Caliber
Profile Joined August 2010
United States598 Posts
December 09 2011 12:42 GMT
#2
1-1-1 is pretty hard to pull off. id put it in GM level
FinestHour
Profile Joined August 2010
United States18466 Posts
December 09 2011 12:51 GMT
#3
This is just going to end up being a fat list of random answers with not much real discussion. And some totally opinion based arguments here and there, i can already see some protoss player angrily disagreeing to what the person above me said.
thug life.                                                       MVP/ex-
how
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States538 Posts
December 09 2011 13:19 GMT
#4
On December 09 2011 21:42 Caliber wrote:
1-1-1 is pretty hard to pull off. id put it in GM level


Way to add to to the thread.

I think it is an intersting question though. It is easy to say that 4gate can be done by anyone, and that you need to be really good to hellion FE, but I would be interested to see what people consider the gold-plat-diamond apropriate builds.
http://twitter.com/howsc
Emporio
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States3069 Posts
December 09 2011 13:29 GMT
#5
I think it's a bit naive to call any build Bronze-Silver, because if a player was capable of competently pulling off a non-stupid build, they wouldn't be in those leagues. I've seen Silver players 4gate and attack at after 7 minutes and still win because the opponent was even worse with their build.

Sure, 4gate is simple, so a low level player can make the buildings in the right order, but they definitely cannot actually do it right.


Even something like 6pool, does the fact that a better player can micro the lings and win games a Bronze player couldn't make it a Bronze build or a Masters build? Because on the one hand, it's so simple a bronze can do the build, and even make the pool at the perfect time, but perhaps only a Masters player has the micro to win against certain builds.
How does it feel knowing you wasted another 3 seconds of your life reading this again?
Itsmedudeman
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States19229 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-09 13:42:25
December 09 2011 13:42 GMT
#6
Certain rushes have different levels of exection, and that includes 4 gate and 1-1-1. Hero would probably hold a 1-1-1 from any foreign terran, and a 4 gate executed correctly can take you a long ways. A 4 gate from MC and a 4 gate from some high masters player are completely different.

But generally the hardest builds are ones that require a lot of harass and micro.
mizU
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States12125 Posts
December 09 2011 14:56 GMT
#7
I think you should incorporate follow-up versus execution of opener...
if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
Deleted User 61629
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
1664 Posts
December 09 2011 15:04 GMT
#8
--- Nuked ---
AimlessAmoeba
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada704 Posts
December 09 2011 15:34 GMT
#9
Reactor Hellion is absolutely not a masters-level build. It isn't that difficult to swap a rax/fax and time out your tech.

Although I suppose the masters skill shines through when you know how to properly followup that build. Then again, maybe I just see the build a lot because I play zerg and every terran thinks that they're MMA when they play a zerg.
Mazaire
Profile Joined July 2011
Australia217 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-09 15:40:10
December 09 2011 15:39 GMT
#10
Well anyone can do a build, but its how good you do the build. for example anyone can ling muta, but a bronze player isn't going to macro and multi task as well as a GM player. Same thing goes for the six pool. you can six pool at a bronze level or a GM level, it really depends of a few things like control, game awareness, macro and multitasking.

i mean yeah a GM 6 pool might hit at the same time a plat one would, but the GM followup will be at a GM level, not a plat level. I feel this applys to EVERY strategy.
"No matter what event you go to there are so many koreans, like a swarm. Even if you beat three or four, there are like 10 others waiting." - Socke
SlimeBagly
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
356 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-09 18:38:58
December 09 2011 18:38 GMT
#11
pff.

Anyone that thinks reactor hellion is hard to pull off should have to try defending it as zerg.
mutalisks are awesome!
Blazinghand *
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States25562 Posts
December 09 2011 18:42 GMT
#12
On December 09 2011 21:33 Suichoy wrote:
Bronze-Gold: 3 Rax, BFH Drop
Platinum-Diamond: 1 Rax FE, 2 Rax, 1-1-1 Siege,
Masters: Banshee Expand, Reactor Hellion, Reaper Expand

How would you categorize the builds?


I mean, I guess it really depends what you mean. Is a BFH drop solid in bronze-gold? Sure, most people will react poorly, or slowly, and lose all their scvs. However, any sort of quick drop and hellion control is really hard, because hellions are quick, their flame is difficult to aim, and are pretty bad unmicrod.

3 Rax stim is pretty easy to execute though.

2 Rax pressure, Reactor hellion, Reaper expo, and banshee -> expand all fall into the category of "I'm doing something and i'm also expanding" which is very difficult. That being said, all of these builds are builds I'd recommend to people in the lower leagues because they're all pretty solid and safe, with the exception of banshee expand which requires you micro the hell out of a banshee without losing it or letting macro slip.

1-1-1 is easy, though. I'd consider this build and its variants to be viable all the way down to the lowest level. When I was first learning how to play, doing this build felt so much more natural than pressure builds, expo builds, or low-tech all-ins, because it dumps gas easily and lets you use high-tech, sweet units.
When you stare into the iCCup, the iCCup stares back.
TL+ Member
Alejandrisha
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States6566 Posts
December 09 2011 19:21 GMT
#13
we have threads about how difficult it is to follow orders of constructing buildings and we wonder why the koreans are running circles around our bitchasses
get rich or die mining
TL+ Member
jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5542 Posts
December 09 2011 20:46 GMT
#14
lol well said
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
Zorkmid
Profile Joined November 2008
4410 Posts
December 09 2011 20:56 GMT
#15
On December 10 2011 04:21 Alejandrisha wrote:
we have threads about how difficult it is to follow orders of constructing buildings and we wonder why the koreans are running circles around our bitchasses


모든 래더 포인트와 대회 경품 돈들을 우리에게 속해있다.

User was temp banned for this post.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 9h 46m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
JuggernautJason88
SpeCial 31
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 1945
GuemChi 1475
Artosis 641
910 31
Dota 2
monkeys_forever494
NeuroSwarm119
febbydoto2
Counter-Strike
minikerr25
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox97
Mew2King69
Other Games
summit1g10522
Liquid`RaSZi3713
JimRising 588
shahzam525
C9.Mang0329
Maynarde141
Livibee70
SteadfastSC68
CosmosSc2 23
Vindicta7
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1003
BasetradeTV40
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 108
• mYiSmile19
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22575
Other Games
• Scarra930
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
9h 46m
Afreeca Starleague
9h 46m
Light vs EffOrt
OSC
11h 46m
PiGosaur Cup
23h 46m
Kung Fu Cup
1d 10h
The PondCast
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
Korean StarCraft League
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
GSL
5 days
[ Show More ]
Yamato Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Super Anchor Qualifying S3
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - GSA
Calamity Invitational
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
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.