On June 29 2011 04:49 blinkblue wrote: Two TvP Questions:
1. How do I properly scout and defend against DT drops? On 2base vs 2base, I scanned, noticed he was gateway short + not producing out of robo, so I got a turret at the front of my natural, but he started dropping in DTs and splitting them all over my base. My Starport had a reactor. Do I just swap it with a tech lab on a rax and go for raven?
2. How do I beat extreme amounts of chargelots with collosi support? Is the answer simply build mass marine with enough vikings to take care of collosi? It seems ALL of my bio gets ripped apart by chargelots.
1. If possible check the amounts of units the Protoss has, especially sentries. Quick DT drops will limit the actual army size of the Protoss due to the amount of money invested in tech. This is why sentry count is important. If the Protoss has only a few sentries that means the Protoss has spent a lot of gas elsewhere.
2. Blueflame hellions do very well against Zealots, but of course they are tough to mix in unless you are meching.
Of course large amounts of bio units with good upgrades and medivacs should beat gateway units, so in that case it is more about killing the Colossi with Vikings. It can actually be beneficial to trade armies if you know you can kill several Colossi, as it will take time for the Protoss to reinforce. Colossi counts of 3-4 start to get extremely dangerous and past that it is absolutely mad how much bio they can kill.
Another thing to consider is that chargelot/colossi is terrible for defending against drops or air units in general.
Are there any maps on which you can specifically practice larva injecting methods? I'm not talking about build order maps or whatever but I've seen Mr Bitter using a map where he demonstrates an (outdated) inject larva technique...
Edit: The wonders of posting... Guess he's using infinite resources map....i'll give that a go.
On June 29 2011 05:31 Absentia wrote: Are there any maps on which you can specifically practice larva injecting methods? I'm not talking about build order maps or whatever but I've seen Mr Bitter using a map where he demonstrates an (outdated) inject larva technique... Edit: The wonders of posting... Guess he's using infinite resources map....i'll give that a go.
If you're willing to wait like, 5-6 minutes, you could just make a game on a custom map (like metalopolis) and drone up and build a few hatcheries. I don't think the very easy computer attacks at all (in any way that a queen can't defend) so it shouldn't be too bothersome.
On June 29 2011 04:49 blinkblue wrote: Two TvP Questions:
1. How do I properly scout and defend against DT drops? On 2base vs 2base, I scanned, noticed he was gateway short + not producing out of robo, so I got a turret at the front of my natural, but he started dropping in DTs and splitting them all over my base. My Starport had a reactor. Do I just swap it with a tech lab on a rax and go for raven?
2. How do I beat extreme amounts of chargelots with collosi support? Is the answer simply build mass marine with enough vikings to take care of collosi? It seems ALL of my bio gets ripped apart by chargelots.
1. If possible check the amounts of units the Protoss has, especially sentries. Quick DT drops will limit the actual army size of the Protoss due to the amount of money invested in tech. This is why sentry count is important. If the Protoss has only a few sentries that means the Protoss has spent a lot of gas elsewhere.
2. Blueflame hellions do very well against Zealots, but of course they are tough to mix in unless you are meching.
Of course large amounts of bio units with good upgrades and medivacs should beat gateway units, so in that case it is more about killing the Colossi with Vikings. It can actually be beneficial to trade armies if you know you can kill several Colossi, as it will take time for the Protoss to reinforce. Colossi counts of 3-4 start to get extremely dangerous and past that it is absolutely mad how much bio they can kill.
Another thing to consider is that chargelot/colossi is terrible for defending against drops or air units in general.
Thank you, I appreciate the advice.
I seem to have a terrible time trying to count their army to see what they have, because it seems that people often have very different army comps than the next protoss, so fewer sentries doesn't necessarily mean DT/stargate/etc. I'll try to work on that, though.
Dropping vs chargelots makes a lot of sense. I'll try that.
I've just started playing the game after not playing for a few months. I'm just stating to get into the swing of things again(though I'm still in platinum, was in diamond before )
Anyways, what is the standard for PvP atm? IN the few pro games I've seen one or both players goes blink stalker. But I would think 3 gate robo would be standard. So what is it?
On June 29 2011 11:07 happyness wrote: I've just started playing the game after not playing for a few months. I'm just stating to get into the swing of things again(though I'm still in platinum, was in diamond before )
Anyways, what is the standard for PvP atm? IN the few pro games I've seen one or both players goes blink stalker. But I would think 3 gate robo would be standard. So what is it?
Standard for PvP is coinflip - 4 gate or stargate > robo (unless you sacrifice eco i.e. 10gate) > Dts > stargate/4gate.
I've just started playing SC2 and I'm having a hard time with the mechanics (I've never even played a Blizzard game before). I want to build good habits from the start, so I have a few questions about camera control!
How important is it to utilize the "Base Camera" and "Jump to last Alert" camera hotkeys? I only need to know if they are absolutely essential, or if they are useful but objectively neither superior nor inferior to other methods of camera control, or if they are generally inferior to other methods of camera control.
On June 29 2011 11:07 happyness wrote: I've just started playing the game after not playing for a few months. I'm just stating to get into the swing of things again(though I'm still in platinum, was in diamond before )
Anyways, what is the standard for PvP atm? IN the few pro games I've seen one or both players goes blink stalker. But I would think 3 gate robo would be standard. So what is it?
Standard for PvP is coinflip - 4 gate or stargate > robo (unless you sacrifice eco i.e. 10gate) > Dts > stargate/4gate.
Huh, that sucks. I hope it settles down to something at least somewhat standard
I'm a bit embarassed to ask this as a platinum, but what's a decent BO for a forge fast expand vZ (on like shakuras or altar? Liquipedia has one with like a 14 nexus which just doesn't seem right.
On June 29 2011 12:09 PigglyWinks wrote: I've just started playing SC2 and I'm having a hard time with the mechanics (I've never even played a Blizzard game before). I want to build good habits from the start, so I have a few questions about camera control!
How important is it to utilize the "Base Camera" and "Jump to last Alert" camera hotkeys? I only need to know if they are absolutely essential, or if they are useful but objectively neither superior nor inferior to other methods of camera control, or if they are generally inferior to other methods of camera control
Neither are essential. Base camera is useful for backspace injection and probe chronoboosting (see http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=125725), and quickly jumping to your base in the early game. Other than that, base camera doesn't see much direct use.
Jump to last alert tends to not be used because alerts frequently overwrite each other, especially as the game goes on. Many people typically rebind space to something else, e.g., base camera or a general camera bind.
I've just started playing SC2 and I'm having a hard time with the mechanics (I've never even played a Blizzard game before). I want to build good habits from the start, so I have a few questions about camera control!
How important is it to utilize the "Base Camera" and "Jump to last Alert" camera hotkeys? I only need to know if they are absolutely essential, or if they are useful but objectively neither superior nor inferior to other methods of camera control, or if they are generally inferior to other methods of camera control.
Jump to last alert is unreliable. As Kambing stated already, they tend to overwrite each other, and although you want to jump to a location after hearing an alert, you could easily have been brought to one that happened right after the one of interest, but did not sound.
As a basic mechanic to get down, you should be looking at your minimap and clicking there, not only for enemy units movements, but also to click at locations of the alerts.
How do you wall off on tal'darim alter as terran on different positions. If you can explain/pictures that would be great. I seem to lose most of my games due to a lack of wall. Or you can suggest games/replays that show smart/skill wall offs.
When defending early hellions what is better: speedlings+spine crawlers or roaches?
I am a high masters zerg with good mechanics but I don't have the best build orders.
I do a 14 hatch 15 pool, gas when pool is 50% build, get roach warren @50 gas then make 6 roaches as the warren finishes and go attack with the roaches. Against gas before rax hellions I have to micro queens to defend hellions and roaches to attack which I have no problem doing whatsoever. It often does damage to weaker terrans but good terrans can hold it off and be ahead.
But is there a better way? I can get shut down by a fast banshee or a bunker with 1 marauder.
Ive seen some GSL zerg's use pure speedling and 1-2 spine crawlers to defend the popular gas before rax hellions.
Are speedlings a better choice vs gas AFTER rax hellions so that ling speed will finish in time? Are speedlings overall a better choice?
Any information you have about defending hellions would be appreciated!
i am a terran player and i am wondering if it is worth it to put all your production on one hotkey and just tab through... it seems to me like its harder but i wonder if it is worth the change
On June 29 2011 14:31 Isaac wrote: How do you wall off on tal'darim alter as terran on different positions. If you can explain/pictures that would be great. I seem to lose most of my games due to a lack of wall. Or you can suggest games/replays that show smart/skill wall offs.
One easy way to assess any area for wall-off purposes is to turn on the "show building gird" option in gameplay, which shows you about 2-3 squares past the building you're placing so you can tell how much space there is between where you'll place the building and the nearest wall/non-buildable area.
As far as Tal'darim goes, place a depot right against the cliff at your entrance, then a rax, then a depot. This should work in any position, you just have to position it correctly against the cliff.
On June 29 2011 13:37 Hyyde wrote: What basic zergling micro is there or is it often best just to let them swarm?
If you want to use lings to get a good surround on an army and stop it from retreating, click the lings past the army until a single row of them are covering the retreating army's rear, then a-move. If you just a-move into a retreating army you're more likely to get kited, as the lings will trickle in to do damage a few at a time. This way you'll get more of them to start hitting at once. Abuse this when you have a numerical superiority on a smaller army with no method of retreat such as non-burrow roaches, gateway units without blink or lots of FFs, terran bio without medivacs or stim).
Um, other basic micro would involve splitting before an engagement against splash units (banelings, hellions, tanks, colossi). Specifically, against banelings, pull back your lings from the banes and engage the banes with only a few lings at a time while fending off his lings and moving your banes around. Feel free to hold position so your entire ling army doesn't aggro a baneling and die.
Against hellions, never engage them in a line or a clump. Try to maintain a nice spread and get a surround on the hellions. Fighting in small chokes where your lings can bunch up against a large number of hellions (4+) all firing in a single line is disastrous and should be avoided. Engaging them in open spaces where your greater speed can get you a surround is key.
Against colossi it's pretty much the same, but you're most likely going to be fighting colossi AND forcefields with lings, which do terribly without infestor support. This is why you usually see hydra/roach/corruptor against colossus, but the ling/infestor strat can work very well too thanks to fungals, neural parasite, and ling speed and DPS.
On June 29 2011 15:08 TheGreenMachine wrote: When defending early hellions what is better: speedlings+spine crawlers or roaches?
I am a high masters zerg with good mechanics but I don't have the best build orders.
I do a 14 hatch 15 pool, gas when pool is 50% build, get roach warren @50 gas then make 6 roaches as the warren finishes and go attack with the roaches. Against gas before rax hellions I have to micro queens to defend hellions and roaches to attack which I have no problem doing whatsoever. It often does damage to weaker terrans but good terrans can hold it off and be ahead.
But is there a better way? I can get shut down by a fast banshee or a bunker with 1 marauder.
Ive seen some GSL zerg's use pure speedling and 1-2 spine crawlers to defend the popular gas before rax hellions.
Are speedlings a better choice vs gas AFTER rax hellions so that ling speed will finish in time? Are speedlings overall a better choice?
Any information you have about defending hellions would be appreciated!
There are three things to guide whether to go for roaches or not: 1) Is the entry point of the hellions open? 2) Is he trying to kill you with them? Or simply trying to assert map control? 3) Do you want your third as the terran takes his/her natural? The more 'yes' that is in the answers to questions 1, 3 and the first part of 2 is the more likelihood that you will need roaches. For example: On a map like shakuras where there is a double ramp outside your natural, you can basically wall it off with spines, evo chambers, and queens to defend so you will be 100% safe against harass that is not supported by a medivac. This will allow you to go strait for your spire without sacrificing any gas for anything, making your mid-game mutalisk force much more potent. However, say you are on metalopolis close air positions. This would mean that taking your third is going to be rather easy, so you will likely want to go for it before lair as your opponent is landing the orbital. This, combined with the open natural, means that you will need something that can zone territory better than spine crawlers and queens, and with the blue flame becoming ever so more popular a raw speedling defense will not be enough to cover 2 open bases. More about the second point: basically if your opponent is just going for 4-6 hellions on one reactor-fact then delaying mutas for roaches is kind-of a waste. There are, however, some completely ridiculous 2fact builds that will pump a completely stupid number of hellions at you, in this case you are fine going with roaches because defending the attack without damage will put you ridiculously far ahead.
On June 29 2011 13:37 Hyyde wrote: What basic zergling micro is there or is it often best just to let them swarm?
If you want to use lings to get a good surround on an army and stop it from retreating, click the lings past the army until a single row of them are covering the retreating army's rear, then a-move. If you just a-move into a retreating army you're more likely to get kited, as the lings will trickle in to do damage a few at a time. This way you'll get more of them to start hitting at once. Abuse this when you have a numerical superiority on a smaller army with no method of retreat such as non-burrow roaches, gateway units without blink or lots of FFs, terran bio without medivacs or stim).
Um, other basic micro would involve splitting before an engagement against splash units (banelings, hellions, tanks, colossi). Specifically, against banelings, pull back your lings from the banes and engage the banes with only a few lings at a time while fending off his lings and moving your banes around. Feel free to hold position so your entire ling army doesn't aggro a baneling and die.
Against hellions, never engage them in a line or a clump. Try to maintain a nice spread and get a surround on the hellions. Fighting in small chokes where your lings can bunch up against a large number of hellions (4+) all firing in a single line is disastrous and should be avoided. Engaging them in open spaces where your greater speed can get you a surround is key.
Against colossi it's pretty much the same, but you're most likely going to be fighting colossi AND forcefields with lings, which do terribly without infestor support. This is why you usually see hydra/roach/corruptor against colossus, but the ling/infestor strat can work very well too thanks to fungals, neural parasite, and ling speed and DPS.
I'd like to add that pull-back micro can be effective against melee units, namely in ZvZ. When a ling gets to low HP, pull it about a hex or so back and the AI on the opponent's unit will target a different zergling, causing each of yours to do damage for longer. Think of it as blink micro against melee units.
EPT
)
