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[Q]What buildings to target when dropping?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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mrafaeldie12
Profile Joined July 2011
Brazil537 Posts
January 10 2012 06:00 GMT
#1
Hello TL,I have this question,when you're dropping someone on their main base,what do you target?Probes/Drones/Scvs,Tech Structures/Addons or Pylons and Supply depots?

I can see the argument for targeting pylons and supply depots only causing a hiccup on someones build/gameplay but I can't really decided wich of the remaining options take a higher priority on the list.

Thanks in advance :D
"..it all comes thumbling down thumbling down thumblin down"
TangSC
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada1866 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-10 06:05:19
January 10 2012 06:05 GMT
#2
Generally speaking, you want to go for workers. Workers die quickly and obviously they're crucial to your opponent's economy. There are situations you might pick off an important piece of tech/add on (spawning pool, spire, robo bay, reactors). The only time I'd go for pylons are if 1 pylon is powering multiple gateways. For the most part stick to killing workers.
Coaching www.allin-academy.com | Team www.All-Inspiration.com
Tazerenix
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia340 Posts
January 10 2012 06:05 GMT
#3
As a protoss I find it most frustrating when terran players focus down forges, cyber cores and robotics facilities. Unless a pylon is powering a lot of buildings or is going to supply block me I basically take it as a blessing when terran players take them out.

Also if you can't get anything else assimilators can be a good target, stemming a protoss players gas intake can be very effective.
DeathCompany
Profile Joined March 2011
United States53 Posts
January 10 2012 06:09 GMT
#4
^Workers mostly, but it depends. You can drop and stim into the mineral line to take out their economy.. usually sometimes i drop into Protoss mains and if the probes run away, i usually target key structures such as a twilight council researching... or a robo bay. like said before.. if one pylon powering multiple gate ways, why not?
If you ain't first, you're last.
Warzilla
Profile Joined December 2010
Czech Republic311 Posts
January 10 2012 06:15 GMT
#5
I would say that you should focus on that your drop ALWAYS does something. So say toss is actually smart (weird right ?) and runs his probes away quickly and his tech is well placed so that sniping it would mean loose medivac at that point is rly good to snipe assimilators.. it hurts us pretty good and opens up a good timing window for you
"AFTER LOST GAME - I usually run around in circles yelling "WHY OH GOD WHY" in my room, pointing towards the sky. After 5 to 10min ,i get tired and go back to playing"
lost_artz
Profile Joined January 2012
United States366 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-10 06:28:02
January 10 2012 06:21 GMT
#6
Varies by race.

But as a general rule of thumb this is what I do:

VS T: Add-on(s), Armory, Engineering Bay, Depots
VS Z: Infestation Pit, Spire, Hydra Den, Spawning Pool, Roach Warren
VS P: Core, Robo Facility, Robo Bay, Temp Archive, DT Shrine or Pylons (pylons can be 1st priorities if 'Artosis Pylons')

It's also a good idea to target down any structure that's researching an upgrade 1st as upgrade play a vital role in battles.
Balgrog
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States1221 Posts
January 10 2012 06:24 GMT
#7
As a protoss player, the order for annoying things for me is
1) Probes
2) Tech (twilight, templar stuff, robo bay/facility, forge)
3) Gateways
4) Pylons

Now if they are pretty locked down to drops, and you can spare it, dropping random spots, getting a pylon or some stray units (lets say they have 2 stalkers and you can drop in a hidden spot, stim in and pick them off and leave) is always a good idea, just keep them on their toes and what not, also if you poke (just poke don't commit) with your main army, and them drop at the same time, you can usually do ALOT of damage considering how distracted they are and may not be looking at there mini map!

Hope this helps! GL HF!
The only way to attack structure is with chaos.
IamAnemone
Profile Joined January 2012
Canada2 Posts
January 10 2012 06:26 GMT
#8
workers unless the tech buildings are a 100% go, obviously the rector and upgrading teach lab can be prioritised especially if stim is the likely upgrade.
play to win
Arisen
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States2382 Posts
January 10 2012 06:28 GMT
#9
It depends on the situation. Generally speaking, the goal of a drop is go get in and do whatever damage you can while still making it out alive. If that means you can only kill a pylon or a few workers and get out, do it. If you can get into his mineral line and do some damage because you know his army (or mutas/phoeni, depending on what race you're playing agains), then that's what you want to do.

You should never be dropping because dropping is a good thing to do, you should be dropping for a reason. Some reasons might include...

You need to buy time for some investment of resources. Think of a situation where he morphs brood lords early and you have no ghosts. You might load up 3 medivacs and drop all over and not even care if you lose the drop, because all you're trying to do is make him defend his drones so you can get those ghosts and a few vikings out so you can save your gold or w/e. qc is known for this, and he is really great at buying time with drops. Other times you might try this is when you're trying to morph broods, chrono out a mothership, waiting for that critical upgrade, etc.

You know his army is out of position. Lets say you're playing tvz and his lings are up toward your front lines and his mutas just harassed your natural. You have a window where you can get in and do some damage and get back out because his mutalisks aren't in a position to shut down your dropship. Another instance is when your push hits his front door you can drop on his third or w/e because his forces are occupied with with your push.

You need to spread him out to drill the front. Terrans do this a lot of the time to advance their pushes.


You need to delay HIS tech. Sniping an upgrading evo/forge/ebay, morphing greater spire, etc.

Like I said, do the guaranteed damage and get out. If you know you don't have a lot of time, get what's on the side of his base and get out (most likely pylons, depots, etc). If you have a little more time, go for something of importance, weather it be a key piece of tech or workers. I generally believe tech>workers in most cases. sniping an upgrading forge is huge, as it allows you the lead on ups. Sniping things like a spire or pool that's essential to his build is so great for you because it gives you a huge timing to either power (because he can't pressure you) or attack (because he can't reinforce). The problem is that often you don't have the time to get these buildings as it takes longer to get them, so the most common case is going for drones.

gl
"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention"
Nibbler89
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
884 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-10 07:14:30
January 10 2012 07:13 GMT
#10
Targeting queens in late game tvz to deny inejcts when you are pumping 10-12 marines at a time wins games.
darkscream
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada2310 Posts
January 10 2012 07:21 GMT
#11
In general, go for the workers.

However, there are higher level strategies that involve using drops to deny tech or production. I actually do 16 ling-drops quite often, holding them in airspace until my opponent moves out. Usually I try to take down addons for terran, or certain tech structures from protoss (Cyber core really hurts). In the case of zerglings, you're kinda stuck targeting whatever you can get the most surface area on, but obviously marine drops don't have that problem.
HaXXspetten
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Sweden15718 Posts
January 10 2012 07:36 GMT
#12
It's hard to say that one target is always the best, it depends a lot on the situation. Denying upgrades by sniping forges/evo chambers/e-bays is a great move, if you see that a particular building is researching something crucial, like charge/blink at twilight or psi storm at archives, or just about any researching Tech Lab, those are key targets as well. Artosis Pylons are also obvious selections if you see any, but don't bother about targeting less important pylons unless you're sure that you have time to kill a lot of stuff. Sometimes you really want to get rid of a certain unit from your opponent, and sniping its tech structure is an amazing comeback move. Templar Archives, Robotics Facility/Bay, Spawning Pool, Baneling Nest, Roach Warren, Spire, Greater Spire, Depots /w Calldown etc are all common selections for ensuring that your opponent will have a lot of unspent money and a lot fewer key units than he would like.

So that's about it as far as tech goes. However all of the above mentioned you should generally see as bonuses. Your original intention and goal will in most cases simply to hurry up and kill as many workers as possible, and if possible to snipe the nexus/hatch/cc. Queens are also a heavy blow to a Zerg's macro if you kill them.
Elefes
Profile Joined September 2011
Russian Federation164 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-10 08:34:08
January 10 2012 08:30 GMT
#13
One of the worst scenarios for toss mid/late game is to lose Cyber Core right before a big battle that involves roaches or Medivacs/Vikings, or in almost any PvP. Also hurts badly to lose 2+ buildings of a tech-tree (Robo + Bay / Twilight Council + Templar Archive). Never a bad thing to snipe chronoed Forge(s) and roll the kid >

Early on, obviously, harass workers. When there are 3+ CC/Nexuses and ~60 workes, it's pretty ineffective.
Killing drones is debatable: yes, he wastes larvae on drones, but the economy won't be hurt.
Pylons/Depots/Ovies are waste of time, unless you plan on engaging (~30 sec delay to re-enforce is huge, obviously).
CatNzHat
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United States1599 Posts
January 10 2012 08:50 GMT
#14
Tang is wrong regarding targeting pylons, if you can't get to workers, pylons are the next best target, they have low hit points, and have a large effect on your opponents economy, if you are able to kill a couple probes and supply block them, they both lose the probes and have an immediately worse econ, but they also can't utilize their gateways or nexuses immediately, having a much larger effect in the long run than sniping 4 probes.
Buddhabig
Profile Joined April 2011
Denmark72 Posts
January 10 2012 09:28 GMT
#15
When i drop i protoss i usually focus nexuses actually. Sometimes it can straight up win me the game as some protosses ends up just allining when i do it. Dunno if the nexus is worth it though.
"Girls like bad boys. Thats why you have so many." Kas to Naniwa! The shit i waste my time on now: https://osu.ppy.sh/u/2114273
Croaker
Profile Joined December 2011
United States101 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-10 10:14:59
January 10 2012 10:14 GMT
#16
I love killing robos, but forges become top priority if they are spinning. Doubly so if I see that he chrono boosts it AFTER I drop - looks like a race to me, and I'm game! I actually don't like going for workers, though they are probably the best initial target. The protoss will almost always pull his workers, and while perhaps the denied mining time is worth it, I often waste APM trying to chase the probes and end up just running into the toss's army.

As far as dropping zergs goes, I love killing infestation pits and spawning pools. Queens naturally draw agro and are probably the priority 1 target, and then drones. You need a good game sense vs. zerg to figure out when you have time to kill a tech structure and when you should just go for a few drones.

Vs. terran, I think scvs and MULEs are a great target, because of the slow rate of replacement for workers that terran has. Also, reactors / researching tech labs are priority #1 - they die fast and are slow to replace. Replacing them slows unit production.
In the game of drones, roaches are coming - Artosis
kYem
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom412 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-10 10:17:47
January 10 2012 10:16 GMT
#17
Probes > Forges > robo bay > other tech
Hell
Tommylew
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Wales2717 Posts
January 10 2012 10:45 GMT
#18
vs a protoss always go for probes first then any pylons that are poewring lots of things near the mineral line if not any tech liek templars archive or robo bay. Whatever you do only go further into base to snipe anything if 1. theyd ont warp in. 2. you have hit them at the front.
Live and Let Die!
salehonasi
Profile Joined March 2011
United States87 Posts
January 10 2012 20:08 GMT
#19
You usually want to target workers simply because it's easy and damaging, at least against Terran and Toss. Workers die quickly, you reduce the opponent's income. Simple. Once the probes/SCVs run, though, you should target the most important thing you have time to kill. If his army is all the way across the map for some reason, you can go ahead and target fire down the Nexus. However, since this is very rare, it's common to target down pylons, since they have low hitpoints. It should probably be noted that while its true that gas is important for 'Toss, I believe assimilators actually have more hitpoints than refineries or extractors. It's better to kill a pylon and run than to stay around to target down a robo bay and get caught by their army, possibly losing you drop and/or failing to kill whatever you targeted down in the first place. I would place any structures you spot upgrading pretty high on the target list, however.

Against Terran, add-on's are probably the best target. Tech labs should be sniped immediately if they are researching. The techlab upgrades are pivotal for many terran units. If not, however, kill every reactor you see. Reactors only cost 50/50, but it cuts that building's production in half, or halts it entirely for 50 seconds.

Against zerg, drones are still the easiest target; however, if you just kill drones and leave, zerg can resaturate that base extremely quickly, and usually don't mind the mineral cost all that much. However, this does cost them larvae; because of that, you should immediately target the queen next. Being forced to miss injects AND having to spend larvae on a round of drones will put a zerg in a really bad situation, and very vulnerable to an attack due to the larvae shortage. (On a side note, if you're doing BF hellion drops, and you see alot of larvae/a batch just popping, take the time to kill them with a volley or two.) In that same vein, I'd say a spawning pool is the next logical choice, stopping production of queens, as well as preventing panic spines or lings if you attack immediately afterwards. Also, you often have a bit longer on your drop vs. Zerg because, if you're against a muta player, that drop is a one-way kamikaze mission, whereas drops vs. Toss or Terran should endeavor to stay alive as long as possible to continue to be annoying.
"The most effective counter in Starcraft 2 is to go ****ing kill him." -Day[9]
Techno
Profile Joined June 2010
1900 Posts
January 10 2012 20:17 GMT
#20
On January 10 2012 15:05 TangSC wrote:
Generally speaking, you want to go for workers. Workers die quickly and obviously they're crucial to your opponent's economy. There are situations you might pick off an important piece of tech/add on (spawning pool, spire, robo bay, reactors). The only time I'd go for pylons are if 1 pylon is powering multiple gateways. For the most part stick to killing workers.

This line of thinking is most applicable to the early double medivac timing. You should targe probes with a "distraction drop", probes with a "primary drop" at the natural, and pressure up the ramp (or snipe third) with a main bio force. This is during the 10-12 minute window where medivacs have just popped and the Protoss deathball is just beginning to take shape. Probes, third-base-denial, and insufficient groups of protoss army are my primary targets in the early game.

When you have 1/1 or 2/2 you should target forges. My TvP winrate has a high correlation with whether I kill forges or not in the mid game. Use "distraction drops" to allow a main (perhaps double) drop to sneak into the main and snipe forges. Forges are my primary drop targets in the mid game, but I take any oppurtunity to kill probes, as well.

Once you have 3/3 you should assume the Protoss has a large bank and 3/3 as well. Killing workers at this time will not be as beneficial as killing pylons. 3/3 Marauders will take down pylons crazy fast, killing all the pylons in a protoses main is similar to killing the spawning pool of a zerg. Nexii and pylons are my primary drop targets in the late game.
Hell, its awesome to LOSE to nukes!
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