• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:44
CEST 11:44
KST 18:44
  • 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
ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview8
Community News
MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon225.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes28Weekly Cups (June 22-28): Zergs thrive in new patch2[TLMC] Summer 2026 Ladder Map Rotation05.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)99
StarCraft 2
General
MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon 5.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start) Is the larve respawn broken? ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play
Tourneys
Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! INu's Battles#17 <BO.9>
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 532 Nuclear Family Mutation # 531 Experimental Artillery Mutation # 530 One For All
Brood War
General
ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool First season(s) of tastosis gomtv gsl vods? Starcraft vs Retro Category on Twitch Best thing happen to StarCraft since Remastered? BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Grand Finals The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL22] GosuLeague Casts - Tue & Thu 22:00 CEST
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration?
Other Games
General Games
Dawn of War IV Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile
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
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Men's Fashion Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
How to clean a TTe Thermaltake keyboard? Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Listen To The Coaches!
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 6292 users

3 Rax play sustainable?

Blogs > LantisPlay
Post a Reply
LantisPlay
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Singapore53 Posts
December 12 2011 03:15 GMT
#1
I don't know what do you guys feel about my play, that was a win against a Gold terran.

I'd fare okay if it's a bio vs bio battle. FE is still very shaky and I'm not sure of it.

The question here would be if this 3 Rax build can sustain me for long. (i.e. Till higher leagues) or is the 3 rax opening just a build for beginners? Because I'm pretty comfortable with this opening. The expansion timing may be slightly longer, but I feel that with this I'm able to macro better and I feel more organised. Compared to if I go for reactor hellions or reaper, my macro would not slip as much if I go for 3 Rax.

Of course, if 3 Rax isn't the way to go for higher league play, I'll go back to learn a new build that's more

Any comments or ideas on how much more can I improve? Mechanics and macro wise that is... Also a bit on decision making.

Replay is here
http://mediafire.com/download.php?1ouhe47shye8h7g

Thanks a lot in advance!



*
vnlegend
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States1389 Posts
December 12 2011 03:34 GMT
#2
Would only recommend it against Protoss really. 3 rax is easily beatable with Zerg or Terran.

I'd suggest hellion/marauder as another build to learn, although it's not as good against Terran because of banshees. You'd start with 1 barracks, 1 gas. Make 3 marines, then a Factory and reactor on rax. Make a tech lab on Factory after it's done, then swap addons and make hellions/marauders, research stim. Keep the enemy in the dark with hellions to control the map and attack at the earliest opportunity (don't always wait for stim). You transition out of this by switching the factory back on the tech lab, and build tank/marines + expand or more barracks.
Marines > everything
TG Manny
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
United States325 Posts
December 12 2011 03:38 GMT
#3
You may want to consider 2rax and 1rax openers. Both of them are good economic openers, the former being able to apply some early pressure and the latter being extremely versatile.

I'd say learn 1-rax first, just to be able to read openers more consistently. 1-rax can hold ANYTHING given you scout what the opponent is doing well enough to react (how many bunkers? should I add a rax to defend earlier 1 base allins? etc) and then 2-rax can apply pressure to greedier builds like Hatch first v Z with a stim timing or early drop.

Singularity is at hand...
LantisPlay
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Singapore53 Posts
December 12 2011 03:58 GMT
#4
Thanks for the advice! I'll try out both of them soon.
TG Manny
Profile Blog Joined September 2011
United States325 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-12 04:01:56
December 12 2011 04:01 GMT
#5
Hey Lantis! I'm a silver terran and I'd like to just practice and imbue a few things that have made me successful lately to implement on how you think about the game. I'm probably about to rank up once my winrate stabilizes.

char code 140.
Singularity is at hand...
AcrossFiveJulys
Profile Blog Joined September 2005
United States3612 Posts
December 12 2011 05:29 GMT
#6
Hmmm, if you're already doing 3 rax which is essentially allin, why not 4 rax instead?
Fishgle
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States2174 Posts
December 12 2011 05:53 GMT
#7
All players of all ranks appreciate some good cheese!
aka ChillyGonzalo / GnozL
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6267 Posts
December 12 2011 06:36 GMT
#8
This is my opinion, and will probably be contrary to what alot of advice that people are going to give you (i.e. play a more economic focused game).

The 3-rax opening is not a great one but it will probably sustain you till the low Diamond levels against all races. In my opinion, refining and executing a build (even one as overly-aggressive as 3-rax) will give the biggest improvement results-wise for low-level players. Eventually you'll reach a plateau and it'll be a lot of frustration trying to advance further but at least you'll be much further up than where you started.

If you wish to advance to Masters and beyond, you'll need to play a more economic focused opening. You can try a 1-rax FE, 2-rax FE or 1-1-1 expand, etc. However, should you decide to choose this path, you'll encounter some pain and may even get demoted when you relearn everything that you currently know. After that, you'll face an arduous path but your potential ceiling will be higher. However, you may not really want to achieve this.

Thus, in my opinion, since you're not really at the top echelons right now, it's better to stick with my former advice, and play the 3-rax until you can do it in your sleep. You'll most likely enjoy the game alot more, rather than trying a more economic focused play and giving the game up in frustration.
jjhchsc2
Profile Joined December 2010
Korea (South)2393 Posts
December 12 2011 07:08 GMT
#9
On December 12 2011 14:29 AcrossFiveJulys wrote:
Hmmm, if you're already doing 3 rax which is essentially allin, why not 4 rax instead?


or 6 rax
Lee Ssang/ Lee Shin/ Kim Jung Woo/ Kim Min Chul/Jun Tae Yang/Park Soo Ho/Lee Jung Hoon/Choi Sung Hoon/ Moon Sung Won/Park Ji Soo/ Lee Ho Joon/ Jang Min Chul/ Kim Seung Chul/SaSe/IdrA/Ret Fighting! BW4Life
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 16m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
StateSC2 140
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 20633
Sea 1895
Shuttle 805
Larva 391
BeSt 380
Mong 378
Soulkey 142
Soma 133
soO 119
Leta 102
[ Show more ]
actioN 99
Dewaltoss 94
Killer 82
Mind 81
ZerO 73
ToSsGirL 49
Sharp 48
Sacsri 31
Pusan 26
yabsab 25
sorry 24
Bale 24
ggaemo 22
Movie 19
Hm[arnc] 19
Noble 16
Rush 14
ajuk12(nOOB) 11
Purpose 8
Terrorterran 8
Barracks 7
League of Legends
Doublelift6471
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1655
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King120
Other Games
singsing213
Livibee93
BEARDiaguz8
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick834
BasetradeTV249
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream246
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 93
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH305
• LUISG 15
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota284
Upcoming Events
CrankTV Team League
1h 16m
Bombastic Starleague
10h 16m
The PondCast
1d
HomeStory Cup
1d 1h
Replay Cast
1d 14h
HomeStory Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
HomeStory Cup
3 days
OSC
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

YSL S3
Douyu Cup 2026
Murky Cup 2026

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
SCTL 2026 Spring
XSE Pro League 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

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W1
CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
Escore Tournament S3: W2
ASL Season 22:Wild Card Qualifier
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Heroes Pulsing #3
Eternal Conflict S2 E1
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
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.