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The recent defeat of Rain to Sharp at the KSL Season 2 Semifinals highlights the importance of mine dragging. Rain was weak in this respect, sacrificing most of his army of zealots by running them onto the mines.
Definition of mine-dragging:- liquipedia.net
Here is my take on what Rain could have done to take mine-dragging to the next level:-
1. Firstly, by incorporating the use of a shuttle to drop a zealot on a field of mines (and in mid/late game with shuttle speed)
So, instead of sacrificing his whole or half of his zealots to the mines, which would be better used as a tradeoff against tanks, he could have incorporate or sneak in a few shuttles loaded with a zealot or two each at the position cluttered with most mines, dragging them and sacrificing only a few zealots before engaging an army of tanks and vultures head-on.
Here is an example of Soulkey (offracing and mine-dragging a zealot into an army of tanks, at 13:28 of the video below).
www.youtube.com
2. Secondly, by incorporating zealot with charge (or chargelots) onto the tank lines to draw the mines onto them.
Below is a short clip on Best mine-dragging using charged zealots against Upmagic.
www.youtube.com
Furthermore, Rain should have noted that mine-dragging with dragoons is only efficient when the said dragoons are not within range or proximity of the sieged-up tanks.
In conclusion, if Rain could improve on his mine-dragging, it could make his PvT even more formidable aside from being a feared opponent.
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Mine dragging alone is not the reason Rain lost, come on now, Sharp just played better this Bo7 and this is the end of it. It is an indeed important micro trick, to be able to use spider mines against the Terran but that pales greatly in comparison to skills like macro and decision making. And also, there are not any chargelots in Bw, you're mistaken. Bw zealots have a speed upgrade and they just move faster in general. In sc2 they move slow as usual and then when an enemy is nearby they quickly close the distance, hence the charge thing.
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It's also a matter of whether the terran lets you do that or not. In the Best vs Upmagic clip, Upmagic not only has his tanks near the mines, but he gets caught unseiged. Sharp's mine positioning was pretty great, especially on circuit breaker after he moved into the center.
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It is an indeed important micro trick, to be able to use spider mines against the Terran but that pales greatly in comparison to skills like macro and decision making.
I agree that macro and decision making are more important, but I do not think that Rain lacks in those areas, maybe in one of those games against Sharp where he opted for carriers and gets pushed back/ punished by Sharp. What Rain is lacking is in the micro side where in critical army engagements which decides the outcome of the game, he often suicides his zealots into groups of mines, and not just against Sharp, but also against Mind and Sea in the Round of 16 matches.
If he would have microed his zealots better (with mine-dragging if possible), then it would have been a different outcome. Note that I'am not discrediting Sharp. He played a brilliant match but I felt that it was Rain's micro and perhaps a few decision mistakes which costs him the match.
It's also a matter of whether the terran lets you do that or not.
It all depends on the positioning of the mines. Sharp's mine positioning is great but however, he can be caught off-guard since he relies heavily on mines to deter Rain's army advancements. What I meant is that Rain could have sneak in a few zealots by means of shuttle dropping on the mines (to deter the mines, if not possible to mine-drag on tanks) before engaging with an army of tanks and vultures.
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On December 16 2018 18:39 JoinTheRain wrote: Mine dragging alone is not the reason Rain lost, come on now, Sharp just played better this Bo7 and this is the end of it. It is an indeed important micro trick, to be able to use spider mines against the Terran but that pales greatly in comparison to skills like macro and decision making. And also, there are not any chargelots in Bw, you're mistaken. Bw zealots have a speed upgrade and they just move faster in general. In sc2 they move slow as usual and then when an enemy is nearby they quickly close the distance, hence the charge thing. charge is also a base movement speed upgrade in SC2, but yes ofc you're right that "charge" isn't in BW
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That awkward moment when an SC2 player that is probably sub 1500 MMR comes out with an analysis of what rain could have done better and that analysis offers two basic aspects of micro that everyone knows.
I don't want to come off as insulting you for thinking about the game, especially if you figured this stuff out on your own. Thats honestly impressive if so. However this is basic stuff any BW player or fan knows very well. You're preaching to the choir here.
The shuttle thing is usually reserved for small breaks, but there are reasons to make a shuttle or not. In big engagements a shuttle for zealots isn't worth it. Already need to use arbs, and if you're going to have a shuttle use HT. Smaller situations you can use a shuttle, but it depends on many things.
As far as dragging mines into tanks with zlots...great if you can, but proper minefields and micro can nullify the ability to do this.
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On December 23 2018 00:45 brickrd wrote: charge is also a base movement speed upgrade in SC2, but yes ofc you're right that "charge" isn't in BW
Ah, I am happy to be corrected on that. I must have forgotten how sc2 zealots move when charge upgraded. But then again, I did not play much Sc2, some games in HotS and the protoss there never felt like bw protoss to me but more like a bw terran and was thus totally unappealing to me.
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On December 24 2018 19:58 JoinTheRain wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2018 00:45 brickrd wrote: charge is also a base movement speed upgrade in SC2, but yes ofc you're right that "charge" isn't in BW Ah, I am happy to be corrected on that. I must have forgotten how sc2 zealots move when charge upgraded. But then again, I did not play much Sc2, some games in HotS and the protoss there never felt like bw protoss to me but more like a bw terran and was thus totally unappealing to me. it wasn't that way in HotS, they added the passive speed increase in LotV
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