EPT[G] TheStaircase - An Alternative Improvement Method - Pag…
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[DAR]SunDog
United States3 Posts
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Bladewing-342
Germany7 Posts
just a short introduction: I'm from Germany and I've been playing this game with passion for about 3 years now. I started with Zerg and the help of my friends at Leipzig eSports. Quite soon I figured that all the stuff they tell me, isn't my solution so I was looking for other training ways and found Okko, one of the best tutors in Germany(my opinion). For the last three months I switched to Protoss and learned the builds, shown at www.bonjwa.de by well-known Niklas "Honor" Behrens. But Terran never was a race I was able to perform well with. I'm aiming for gold league - which I always reached with Protoss and Zerg - with RANDOM or even platinum league. But most important to me is to only use Staircase during the next season. | ||
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dchaudh
58 Posts
*** Like others following TheStaircase method with Zerg, I initially had a tough time meeting the "Spending Skill" requirement in Step 1/Step 2 (at a "Masters" level), given mass lings is very larvae expensive. To that effect, I put together the following build order for myself (with the help of SC2Calc) and I thought I'd share it, if helpful for others. NOTE: I only plan to use this build for TheStaircase Step 1. It is obviously not a legitimate build order for regular ladder play. (Though I have been doing TheStaircase using ranked games and the results have been pleasantly surprising. In one particularly memorable game, it came down to a base race: neverending slow lings off 5 bases >> mass void rays off two bases). About the build: -Although I like sending attack waves before maxing out, this build lets you hit max supply (i.e., 200/200) @ around the 12 minute mark (but it is not forgiving on injects). If you decide to try it out, I would use this as my practice benchmark. -It is obv on the greedier side as it involves taking a 3rd at 24 supply (after 14 Pool 15 Hatch @ Natural) -By around 9 minute mark, you'll have 3 saturated bases and 3 macro hatcheries, all with queens injecting (i.e., 16-17 workers on each mineral line, three total mineral lines, 6 hatcheries, 6 queens) -Difficulty-wise, it's not too bad. After all, I haven't played an RTS (or any computer game) in nearly 10 years (my last computer game was Age of Empires, lol) and I was able to pull it off after a few practice runs. That said, I did have to practice it in Normal speed once before I was able to execute at ladder speed. -I personally don't have the APM (at the moment) to both execute this build AND spread creep as actively as I would like (but I'm working on it) The build: You can see the "theoretical" timings of each step here (SC2calc). 9 Overlord 14 Spawning Pool 15 Hatchery @ Natural (send drone at 175 minerals) 14 Overlord 14 Queen > inject immediately @ Main, then send to Natural 21 Queen > keep her at Main 23 Zergling (send to X'elnaga tower and/or find opponent on larger maps) 24 Overlord 24 Hatchery @ 3rd (send drone immediately after first queen finishes) 28 Overlord 30 Queen @ Natural > send to 3rd 32 Overlord 40 Zergling [5] 45 Overlord 49 Overlord 53 Overlord 56 Macro Hatchery @ Main #64 All bases saturated so time to cut off drone production until you take a 4th / need to replace lost drones #From this point onward, assume that you make zerglings to fill supply, e.g., between steps at 66-supply and 75-supply, make 9 zerglings 64 Queen @ Main > to inject 1st Macro Hatchery 66 Macro Hatchery @ Natural (but you can put it in main if you want) 66 Overlord [3] 75 Queen @ Natural > to inject 2nd Macro Hatchery 77 Macro Hatchery @ Main 76 Overlord [2] 86 Overlord [2] 100 Queen @ Main > to inject 3rd Macro Hatchery #Non-stop zerglings and overlords Here's a game where I use this build order to meet the spending and saturation skill requirements (see note below): http://ggtracker.com/matches/5888002 Note: There's a glitch in calculation of saturation speed on GGTracker (as mentioned by Jakatak in an earlier post, IIRC) on GGTracker. As you'll see in the replay, our first base is saturated (i.e., 16 workers) before at 3:50 (which is "Masters"-level according to the stats) but for some reason, GGTracker says that base 1 saturation is 4:20. | ||
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badugib
United States80 Posts
edit: actually nvm, Im putting too much in gas. that's why. I guess I'll limit myself to one assimilator | ||
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JaKaTaKSc2
United States2787 Posts
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badugib
United States80 Posts
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[DAR]SunDog
United States3 Posts
1. As you said, only take one assimilator. Given the limitations of step 3 of the staircase, I find a single assimilator is usually enough to last me an entire game. I don't think I've ever had to build a second one, except when the first one was destroyed in an attack. 2. Research, research, research. Research is gas heavy, and it helps you win games faster, so research as much as possible. 3. I found that following #2 was easier said than done, until I read a tip that made it much easier for me. If you're on step 3 of the staircase, you're probably already in the habit of putting all of your Nexuses (Nexi?) into a single hotkey. Take it a step further by putting all of your research buildings onto the same hotkey as your Nexuses. That way, any time you're building probes or chronoboosting, you can see at a glance when a research building is inactive. You can then select it and start more research. I recommend removing research buildings from the group once you're done with them. (For example, once I've researched charge, I remove the twilight council from the group.) That way, if you see a research building with nothing queued up, you know it's really inactive, and not just a building that has already researched everything. 4. Disclaimer: This is the one I'm struggling with. :-) Build lots of observers (possibly with multiple robos) and cover the map with them. In addition to being a good gas sink, this is probably a good habit to get into anyway, so that a) you'll always know when an attack is coming, and b) you can keep multiple observers near your base so that the loss of one observer doesn't render your army impotent. Don't forget,you can also sink additional gas into gravitic booster, which will also make your observers more useful by increasing their speed. As I said, I'm still having trouble getting consistently good spending scores, so the above isn't likely to solve all your problems. But it should help. :-) | ||
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badugib
United States80 Posts
I really like your 4th step. I too am not only struggling with scouting, but minimap awareness is so bad for me, I really should improve on that too. My eyes are way too glued on the mainscreen that I need to break that habit and have my pupils look at the bottom left corner lol. For sure, thanks for the suggestions. Again, doing this is really giving me a peace of mind, instead of the stress of laddering (Trying to win). | ||
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KillerofGods
United States34 Posts
Also just started this but have only done a few games. Plan to try to complete it and make a thread on my thoughts about it on the b.net forums! :D (As long as you don't mind.) It's already in my stickied thread "The newbies guide to sc2" but I figure I need to improve my macro and thought this can help!!! :D Thanks Jakatak for all your guides/contributions to the community!!! :D | ||
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dchaudh
58 Posts
I have a question regarding Terran Step 3 (i.e., gas allowed, focus is on remaining active on map and macro-ing without looking at base, allowed units are Marines & Hellions/Hellbats). It may be dumb but I'll ask it anyways. Is it worth researching (and using) Stim even though I don't have (and don't plan to get) Medivacs? So far, I've assumed it doesn't make sense given I'd be trading off 15 seconds of fighting power for (what effectively amounts to) longer term army strength... I know it's not a Staircase-specific question, per se, but it's tough to find forums discussing this particular topic (as you can probably imagine). (Spending-wise, I have been hitting my goals but I don't feel as comfortable as I'd like with the mechanics so I'm going to stay here for another couple games.) | ||
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JaKaTaKSc2
United States2787 Posts
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dchaudh
58 Posts
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Sh0on
United States8 Posts
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dchaudh
58 Posts
On a different note - does anyone have a Terran Step 3 game in which they meet Diamond/Masters requirements that they wouldn't mind sharing? Am having a fair bit of trouble with this one and it would be good to see the kinds of builds folks are following. Edit: here's a typical TvT that I struggle with nowadays: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5927462. In the first major confrontation against tanks, I feel like I have to take out as many of his tanks as I can otherwise my marine/hellbats won't stand a chance. Unfortunately it usually costs me a large portion of my army and I have a tough time holding him off of my base, let alone keeping a 3rd. Spending-wise, I got gold-level which is below my target. Any specific suggestions re: army micro / general macro? | ||
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Meedio
Finland10 Posts
 Anyway, something I ran into more than once was early Reaper harass which felt extremely difficult to deal with. I hear Stalkers work well against that, but is there any way to defend it efficiently without gas? | ||
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F0nze
United States26 Posts
On April 22 2015 05:34 Meedio wrote: Newb here! Completed Protoss step 1 against AI and decided to start laddering today for step 2. Placed into Bronze but for some reason I still keep getting matched against Gold level players mostly. One game was against a former Master too. But I don't really mind, it's better practice if anything. More harass = more multitasking Anyway, something I ran into more than once was early Reaper harass which felt extremely difficult to deal with. I hear Stalkers work well against that, but is there any way to defend it efficiently without gas? Not really...cannons... reapers hit around the 4 minute mark.. | ||
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TedBurtle
Belarus201 Posts
On April 22 2015 05:34 Meedio wrote: Newb here! Completed Protoss step 1 against AI and decided to start laddering today for step 2. Placed into Bronze but for some reason I still keep getting matched against Gold level players mostly. One game was against a former Master too. But I don't really mind, it's better practice if anything. More harass = more multitasking Anyway, something I ran into more than once was early Reaper harass which felt extremely difficult to deal with. I hear Stalkers work well against that, but is there any way to defend it efficiently without gas? Staircase is great, Helped me alot. From bronze to ML in 6 month, no RTS experience behind. But i changed a little rules. Idea of staircase, to create some challenges for you, and not concentrate on wining games, but on completing tasks (saturation/spending etc.)....But i love to win.. So to fill some lader realities with early steps...When you can saturate/spend in step 1(for P, for example) with zealots spawning from gates like from T racks, you go on ladder, try it few times and add 1 gas. What this thing do? first of all you can afford some stalker sentry to composition, and not overproduce them. Problem many protoss struggling, is overdoing stalkers (+ you will have some gas for warpgate, MSC(for photonovercharge,and even upgrades) . So this put you in stiuation where you can experiment and add some units that will help you WIN game, and not just hit the marks. And in later steps, i just add +1gas, so in step 3 i could play SG opener's. | ||
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icrossj
2 Posts
i've wanted to pick up protoss, but i'm having some issues actually winning. i've only ever played terran, and MMM'ing all day so i did'nt learn anything. Unlike Mass Marine, Mass Zealots seem like they're really easy to stop. also, is there a point in having gateways? are warpgates just plain better? bronze noob. - currently watching some tutorial videos on youtube to understand the game better. -- any help on actually winning with Step1/2 protoss on ladder? i upload my replays to GGtracker, and here's my profile http://ggtracker.com/players/1630011/icrossj | ||
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TedBurtle
Belarus201 Posts
On May 04 2015 13:46 icrossj wrote: hi. i've loaded up sc2 this weekend thinking that I'd try to get back into it. i'm playing with "The Core Lite" and really liking it. i've wanted to pick up protoss, but i'm having some issues actually winning. i've only ever played terran, and MMM'ing all day so i did'nt learn anything. Unlike Mass Marine, Mass Zealots seem like they're really easy to stop. also, is there a point in having gateways? are warpgates just plain better? bronze noob. - currently watching some tutorial videos on youtube to understand the game better. -- any help on actually winning with Step1/2 protoss on ladder? i upload my replays to GGtracker, and here's my profile http://ggtracker.com/players/1630011/icrossj You don't suppose to win with protoss step 1. If oponent did very bad, then maybe, or if you play good and understand game. You should hit BENCHMARKS, then continue to next steps. Step 3(when stalkers allowed if im right), can be played to diamond/masters. But 1-2 is just to get mechanics right. From replay -> Expand faster. Build workers more constantly , on 10 minute you need to have , at least 48-50 workers. | ||
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Cascade
Australia5405 Posts
On May 04 2015 13:46 icrossj wrote: hi. i've loaded up sc2 this weekend thinking that I'd try to get back into it. i'm playing with "The Core Lite" and really liking it. i've wanted to pick up protoss, but i'm having some issues actually winning. i've only ever played terran, and MMM'ing all day so i did'nt learn anything. Unlike Mass Marine, Mass Zealots seem like they're really easy to stop. also, is there a point in having gateways? are warpgates just plain better? bronze noob. - currently watching some tutorial videos on youtube to understand the game better. -- any help on actually winning with Step1/2 protoss on ladder? i upload my replays to GGtracker, and here's my profile http://ggtracker.com/players/1630011/icrossj You need to expand much earlier I think. | ||
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