[!] Pro Terran Strategy Q/A - Page 4

TvZ is about the only match-up where I actually know what I'm doing. I've generally consistently worked on the "right build for me". It's always been based on marines, hellions and thors but with varying transition or addition timings, with or without addon swapping, with or without e-bays/third/PF etc., with or without or with a different type of harass etc. The core idea is having both hellions and thors in a right proportion, without dabbling in marines or any other units if I can help it. Normally starting from three naked facts, bunker if roaches, bunker rush if late pool. About the time I go for the hellion push (which is 6-10 around 7:30-8:00 rather than an early 2-4, and generally aimed to remove lings and hopefully fry some drones too), I get armouries (generally 2, for double upgrades but depends on resources) and addons (reactor too or another naked fact because I want to keep making hellions too) and plant the expo in nat (often actually PF if the Zerg gets a lot of roaches, as I prefer to avoid supply-intensive defences against that). Depending on what happens/what he has, after the push I either defend for a while and expand and max out or pressure him but I generally want to have my 200/200 hellion thor plus SCVs before 20:00, 16:00 if possible, unless it's obvious I can cripple him to a point of no return somewhere between 10:00-12:00 or unless 150/200 to be enough or unless 3/3 hits earlier or something else happens situationally. Generally relying on upgrades, expansions (OC/PF depending on Zerg's level of aggression), hellion/thor proportions and micro/positioning, pulling SCVs to repair (and block ling access to some extent), dropping mules for repairs, rather than taking chances with getting airports, tanks, otherwise mixing the composition. I've used this build so much that I've learnt a lot about handling it and this knowledge helps me immensely, so I'm more comfortable doing this than dabbling with rax and ports (needless to say, I'm really happy when I see corruptors when I don't even have a port ). My question is, is this build liable to get roflstomped at higher levels of play due to all the corner cutting in it and the higher skill of, say, master zergs compared to plat zergs (who can't normally break this even with a hearty bunch of lolfestors/gglords )? Basically, I'm wondering if this is a build that works because of its merits (simple, lean, compact, adaptable, well-practiced) or a build that works right now just because my opponents are "bad" but wouldn't work between two players at master skill. Also, would it be better (as in more efficient without being significantly riskier), in your opinion, to throw in banshees and/or ravens into this build anyway, like most players do, at the cost of giving some of the advantages of this build?

4. I'd played almost exclusively single-player campaigns/games vs. AI in many different RTS games for many years before getting online (where I played some Warcraft 2 Battle.net Edition in 2004-2005 (maybe 1500 games, I guess I was a name but not a top gosu) and then Warcraft 3 TFT in 2005-2008 (some 3000 games, something of a high dia/low master player in comparison)), it's hard to break certain still surviving habits (after so many years) that are harmful in human vs human. As in, in SP, especially storyline campaigns, you sort of conserve resources, stay on the defensive, watch your base, prepare for scripted attacks and expect storyline to unfold, avoid setting off triggers on the map, don't need to scout so much (or there's no point or it's actually harmful when you uncover something too early), aren't so pressured to keep maxing your production, don't really harass for distraction (only really for damage), you often cheese because you're supposed to, AI is either dumb or cheating (if not actually both) and there's the reload/restart button which means you don't have to play extra safe. As a result, I kinda struggle with being active, scouting consistently, always finding stuff to do (it's not a problem for me to hit 400 apm in battles but it's like 40-60 average and periods of 0), well, basically doing things, claiming the damn map, getting things done. Particularly in SC2, I feel like I'm racing against time, as in build order/production race plus the likely proxy cheese/some other cheese/lucky drop that makes leaving my base in early game an excruciating experience. Massing more games doesn't seem to be an efficient solution: it helps (with stuff like making more workers, which isn't exactly a WC3 player's top area) but not that much, as people with much fewer games/less experience overlap me rather easily, e.g. a guy I taught to play WC3 overlapped me and later actually coached me in turn. The gap between us was huge eventually, he kinda skyrocketed very shortly after reaching my own level: he got sponsored, had a brush with tournaments etc. in a matter of weeks or at least very few months from there. He inherited some of the characteristic flaws of my style but worked most of them out eventually. He then switched to SC2 in or after beta and made mid-master the moment the league was introduced, while I never made it past high gold in SC2 after 400 games before I stopped playing in late January this year. In fact, our 3v3 partner, who was supposedly a total newcomer to RTS, was always only slightly behind me on the solo ladder, I also had a gold buddy who got dia with much fewer games on record than my number (good for him, btw, hope he enters masters soon and waits for me with the victory toast). This is all too familiar to my WC3 experience like losing games I should've won (not only in my judgement) or actually almost had won, losing after or despite a significant lead, losing to visibly less experienced players (happy for them but anyway ), losing games because of getting less sharp due to tiredness etc.This is a bit saddening, as in it feels like something's wrong with me. Some time this autumn, I should finish my Ph.D. procedures and be able to take a month off before I move on to more cramming. Do you think I should mass ladders like 12 hours a day for a full month to refresh my mechanics and force a skill jump? Or play fewer games but stop and analyse every replay? Or play custom games with much higher skilled people and lose game after game until I start winning? Or use the AI/training maps to address specific areas? What do you think would be the best thing to do here?