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[G] TheStaircase - An Alternative Improvement Method - Pag…

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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Aaronious
Profile Joined September 2015
1 Post
September 15 2015 15:53 GMT
#1441
Hi, question from a newb:

I am trying Step 1 with Terran, but I cannot find any build timings for a non-gas build. Can anybody provide me with a timing list to compare myself to for this step?

Jak, I discovered that I should be silver with straight marines; that is hilarious, since I am low Bronze and eating a steady diet of opponents' cheese. Still, my macro is getting stronger, so I don't think that will last.

You might consider creating builds and timing lists for each step/race so that players have a decent benchmark for their builds.
skatbone
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1005 Posts
September 16 2015 17:03 GMT
#1442
Hi, Aaronious. My experience over the past week using the staircase is that I benefit more from spending my resources as I gain them rather than following a build order.

I just hit Diamond with Zerg making almost only lings. While I was Masters in WoL with Toss and Diamond with Terran, I have historically struggled more with Zerg. Formerly, I always focused on memorizing build orders and trying to execute them for the first few minutes of a game.

In my opinion, this impeded my macro when something unexpected would challenge me. I think build orders are a legitimate way to learn. However, there is something to be said for simply spending all your resources as fast as possible. Sure, you don't want to build 4 ebays or simply queue up five marines in each of your 3 rax. But if you are spending all your minerals and gas, you should have an edge on most of your opponents in bronze or in silver.

I find spending everything rather than following a BO to be especially helpful vs cheese. Often, a build order distracts me rom reacting intuitively to what I scout. Conversely, avoiding a supply block and having more units than your opponent when the cheese hits by staying on top of your spending allows you to deal with the cheese without even worrying about strategy or hitting x-building at y-supply.

Thanks for the method, JaK. As someone who comes and goes with this game, I have found the Staircase to be the easiest and most effective way to transition back into playing.

tl;dr Build orders have a place but constant worker production and spending of your resources, even if only on marines, should be enough to enable you to respond to cheese and to counter attack once you've retarded your opponent's attack.
Mercurial#1193
ReallyKoco
Profile Joined October 2015
2 Posts
October 03 2015 23:43 GMT
#1443
Has anyone been able to get Spending Skill metric in LoTV? When I upload a replay to GGTracker, it fails -- I read GG Tracker doesn't support LoTV yet.
skatbone
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1005 Posts
October 04 2015 17:56 GMT
#1444
I have had only fails when trying to upload to LoTV as well.
Mercurial#1193
ReallyKoco
Profile Joined October 2015
2 Posts
October 06 2015 00:48 GMT
#1445
Ah, well at least I am not alone. It seems kind of pointless to practice HOTS, since LOTV is playable now, and practically a different game.
skatbone
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1005 Posts
October 06 2015 03:23 GMT
#1446
Yea I agree. I'm still using HOTS for queen inject, hotkeying, and camera customs but not for real games.
Mercurial#1193
NeoBlade
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
Germany262 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-11-03 16:58:22
November 03 2015 16:58 GMT
#1447
Ah, well at least I am not alone. It seems kind of pointless to practice HOTS, since LOTV is playable now, and practically a different game.

Many mechanics will stay the same:
- Rally Points
- Control Groups
- Hotkeys
- Splits or concave (Micro)
- Magic Box with Mutas
- Injects like Rapid-Fire-Injects
- Terran Supply Trick
- Egg-Hotkey-Drill
- Warp-In-Drill (even without ChronoBoost this is still hard)
- Building a wall vs Run-By (Speedlings, Hellions)
- Learning Shift-Q with Drops (not like this guy)
http://youtube.com/NeoBladeSC2
IronLlama
Profile Joined November 2015
1 Post
November 17 2015 13:35 GMT
#1448
I have just started on the staircase, as Protoss. How much should I pay attention to some basic build order stuff while I am on the first few steps?
JaKaTaKSc2
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States2787 Posts
November 17 2015 16:41 GMT
#1449
@IronLlama
Spending Efficiency is what creates build orders. For now, just remember 14 depot, 14 overlord, 14 pylon. (assuming supply structure/building first).
Commentatorhttps://www.youtube.com/JaKaTaKtv
p1ng
Profile Joined February 2010
Germany53 Posts
November 21 2015 16:23 GMT
#1450
How can I check my race macro at ggtracker (zerg)? I can see the spending skill, the inject timing and creep spread, but I cant seem to find the race macro indicator.
NeoBlade
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
Germany262 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-11-24 13:21:48
November 24 2015 13:10 GMT
#1451
[image loading]

Updated today:
German Guide (GoogleDocs)
=> Since GGtracker does not calculate Injects correctly anymore, I tell my "Fellowship of TheStaircase" to watch their TSC (Time Supply Capped). Grandmaster-Spending-Skill should stay below 50 seconds.

Tribute to JaKaTaK: TheStaircase (Youtube, German)
http://youtube.com/NeoBladeSC2
thefrol
Profile Joined July 2012
Russian Federation30 Posts
November 26 2015 10:44 GMT
#1452
On November 22 2015 01:23 p1ng wrote:
How can I check my race macro at ggtracker (zerg)? I can see the spending skill, the inject timing and creep spread, but I cant seem to find the race macro indicator.


Same thing bro. I dont know what is the race macro indicator. Maybe its a inject timings or so. It will be cool if Jak could answer.
raymaondrasmussen
Profile Joined November 2015
1 Post
Last Edited: 2015-11-26 18:21:24
November 26 2015 18:20 GMT
#1453
--- Nuked ---
Perniciator
Profile Joined November 2015
2 Posts
November 26 2015 20:28 GMT
#1454
On November 26 2015 19:44 thefrol wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 22 2015 01:23 p1ng wrote:
How can I check my race macro at ggtracker (zerg)? I can see the spending skill, the inject timing and creep spread, but I cant seem to find the race macro indicator.


Same thing bro. I dont know what is the race macro indicator. Maybe its a inject timings or so. It will be cool if Jak could answer.


It is your inject timing. 50% means your hatches were injected 50% of the time = 50% race makro.

NOTE: At the moment race makros dont work because of patch3.0 and lotv they not correct in longer games. So check for youself by watching the replay if youre satisfied with your injects
thefrol
Profile Joined July 2012
Russian Federation30 Posts
November 28 2015 11:15 GMT
#1455
On November 27 2015 05:28 Perniciator wrote:
It is your inject timing. 50% means your hatches were injected 50% of the time = 50% race makro.

NOTE: At the moment race makros dont work because of patch3.0 and lotv they not correct in longer games. So check for youself by watching the replay if youre satisfied with your injects


I saw a suggestion where race macro is indicated in supply block time. Even the German language instructions contains this indicator as race macro. But the chronoboosts/mules/injects should be an indicator too, youre right.
Shapelog
Profile Joined November 2015
United States5186 Posts
November 28 2015 18:31 GMT
#1456
Great tool for that one friend who says the game is to hard to understand and doesn't let you help him/her. Allows them to learn how to marco, which is key in Sc2. It also tells the player how much one base can support as well since they are more focus on their production then their army.

However, I will say in the later parts of the mechanics (how to respond when scouting X, or what do I do if I don't have Y, How do I spilt etc.) This guide becomes burly.

Basically, if you need to get better at marco, use the Staircase. If you need to get better at mirco, its better to go off of a replay or a player insight.

All in All, this is one of the best Marco guides out there.
"Subsequently clicking post is like launching a doomsday's worth of nukes' equivalent in dopamine." -RB
TheSubmssiv
Profile Joined November 2015
1 Post
November 29 2015 02:02 GMT
#1457
Thanks TheStaircase team!

Last week I decided to start from scratch with LoTV while learning TheCore and man it has been great!
I get quite nervous playing 1v1 and this has stopped me laddering, to combat this I read some of the posts in TeamLiquid about adrenaline and how to accept it and so forth, it has helped to shift my mindset and just get into playing.
Being the weekend I sat down to ladder my placement matches and work on TheCore using TheStaircase.

I played a couple of warmup matches vs AI and got up to Very Hard using Step 0. (I play Zerg)
My confidence buoyed I decided to 'start' on the ladder placements.
Step 0 laddering was cool, I uploaded my first couple of matches to GG tracker and was hitting Grandmaster spending with Master saturation - I forget the win/loss ratio but I definately won 2 straight up after then 10 minute mark.
The losses were easy to take as hitting GM and Master spending on GG tracker made me feel great! Watching the replays I gave the opponents a very hard time of it, and they were Platinum and Gold players.

After the placements I was put into Silver league! (Step 0)
Today I carried on with Step 1 after obliterating my Diamond Goal for the last 5 matches.
I was hitting the benchmarks really well and after a few rocky hotkey messups I was starting to free my concentration up to allow the microing of army units for Step 1. (Still just select all and attack haha but baby steps right?)

Two games ago I started on Step 3, allowing upgrades to my Zergling forces.
This really opened up the game for me - not just having speedlings and upgrades available, but having overlord drops and burrow and overseers. I could stay on Step 3 for weeks trying out different strategies.

Anyhoo the second game on Step 3 was another victory over a Platinum player and I got promoted to Gold!
:D

So thankyou again Staircase team I really appreciate the time and effort you have put into this.
I have played so many games with plain zerglings I know there are times when it is possible to overwhelm opponents, even up defended ramps. I know that hellions are bad and they will obilerate your army if given half the chance. I am starting to see how upgrades effect the outcome of engagements and when it is appropriate to carry on pushing or when to pull back and regroup. By simplifying my options I have been forced to explore every little thing that you can do to eek out an edge.

I love watching vods and high level replays and reading theorycrafting as much as the next guy, but actually understanding build order timings and when gas is important is now dawning on me in a way that just 'being told' doesn't.
Maybe its that old saying - people never learn from others' mistakes.

I can't recommend this enough!






Spanked by MoM
Profile Joined December 2015
1 Post
December 05 2015 08:38 GMT
#1458
I am an ex-dia player and I think your guide is a great first step for the most to improve their skill, great idea with this guide!
JaKaTaKSc2
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States2787 Posts
December 05 2015 17:32 GMT
#1459
How important is TheStaircase to you in the grand scheme of all things JaKaTaKtv? Looking For feedback!



POLLS! Select as many or as few options as you like when appropriate.

Which Content Do you want in 2016? http://strawpoll.me/6183907
Original Poetry and Music? http://strawpoll.me/6183854
Patreon Board Meetings? http://strawpoll.me/6183888
Content Frequency Cap? http://strawpoll.me/6183947

JaKaPaK Community Thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/499652-the-jakapak-community-thread
Commentatorhttps://www.youtube.com/JaKaTaKtv
Morosho
Profile Joined November 2015
4 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-12-06 00:59:48
December 06 2015 00:59 GMT
#1460
Hey JaKaTaKSc2, in LOTV the protoss race macro benchmark has changed, and it seems impossible to get a score of 100. How is this new statistic calculated? Do you have a new score for every league to follow?
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