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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 States25551 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 States6565 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
Canada5502 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.

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