On October 30 2014 10:09 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: So I was gonna make a comment the day9 video after I watched it, but after part 1 my brain is just rejecting information... and he didn't even teach anything really. I don't even want to learn, it's a mental block at this point I think.
I think pretty much everyone in here gave solid advice. It would probably be best to take a step back from the game for a day or two and let your head rest. TBH, it's probably that there is too much other stuff going on in your brain (like trying to remember to macro correctly, scouting, etc., etc.) that is getting in the way. When I work on a build order, I write it down and literally pause in between each step to make sure I hit the benchmarks perfectly. I also don't hotkey any units or rally overlords to specific places...I focus ONLY on injects, timings, and just having the right amount of stuff at the right time. It might help you to do some sort of isolation practice like that.
If you practice a lot of builds over time, you find that many of them line up almost the same every time. For instance, if you go pool first or hatch first, you still take your third base around 6:00 in ZvT with perhaps a 15 second difference. The first ~four overlords are almost always on the same supply counts (9, 17, 26, 32, 40, etc.). Roach/bane busts almost always have two gases, roach warren first, then a baneling nest about the time that the roach warren finishes (so that banelings are morphing as roaches reach the other side of the map). Looking for these types of patterns will help you a lot in remembering build orders and identifying when stuff needs to go down (because it always goes down in that order).
You know what, I think I'm realizing I just don't have the dedication to get better. I don't have the motivation. The people in here gave excellent advice but I just don't care enough to learn. I just accept substandard mediocrity, it's too much work to improve and it's not like I'm ever gonna go pro or anything.
On October 30 2014 10:09 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: So I was gonna make a comment the day9 video after I watched it, but after part 1 my brain is just rejecting information... and he didn't even teach anything really. I don't even want to learn, it's a mental block at this point I think.
I think pretty much everyone in here gave solid advice. It would probably be best to take a step back from the game for a day or two and let your head rest. TBH, it's probably that there is too much other stuff going on in your brain (like trying to remember to macro correctly, scouting, etc., etc.) that is getting in the way. When I work on a build order, I write it down and literally pause in between each step to make sure I hit the benchmarks perfectly. I also don't hotkey any units or rally overlords to specific places...I focus ONLY on injects, timings, and just having the right amount of stuff at the right time. It might help you to do some sort of isolation practice like that.
If you practice a lot of builds over time, you find that many of them line up almost the same every time. For instance, if you go pool first or hatch first, you still take your third base around 6:00 in ZvT with perhaps a 15 second difference. The first ~four overlords are almost always on the same supply counts (9, 17, 26, 32, 40, etc.). Roach/bane busts almost always have two gases, roach warren first, then a baneling nest about the time that the roach warren finishes (so that banelings are morphing as roaches reach the other side of the map). Looking for these types of patterns will help you a lot in remembering build orders and identifying when stuff needs to go down (because it always goes down in that order).
You know what, I think I'm realizing I just don't have the dedication to get better. I don't have the motivation. The people in here gave excellent advice but I just don't care enough to learn. I just accept substandard mediocrity, it's too much work to improve and it's not like I'm ever gonna go pro or anything.
Improvement =/= mastery. If you don't feel motivated to improve that's fine but to say it's too much work to improve is silly. Improving is as simple as improving your creep spread%/inject% in most of your games.
If you set unrealistic goals/expectations for yourself (becoming a pro) you will obviously get discouraged. IDK if you use www.ggtracker.com but I started using it when I started to get back into SC2 to see where I needed work. I picked a random statistic (spending skill) and worked on improving it. If you truly lack the motivation to improve after reducing the intensity of the goal you wish to achieve, SC2 isn't for you.
On October 30 2014 10:09 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: So I was gonna make a comment the day9 video after I watched it, but after part 1 my brain is just rejecting information... and he didn't even teach anything really. I don't even want to learn, it's a mental block at this point I think.
I think pretty much everyone in here gave solid advice. It would probably be best to take a step back from the game for a day or two and let your head rest. TBH, it's probably that there is too much other stuff going on in your brain (like trying to remember to macro correctly, scouting, etc., etc.) that is getting in the way. When I work on a build order, I write it down and literally pause in between each step to make sure I hit the benchmarks perfectly. I also don't hotkey any units or rally overlords to specific places...I focus ONLY on injects, timings, and just having the right amount of stuff at the right time. It might help you to do some sort of isolation practice like that.
If you practice a lot of builds over time, you find that many of them line up almost the same every time. For instance, if you go pool first or hatch first, you still take your third base around 6:00 in ZvT with perhaps a 15 second difference. The first ~four overlords are almost always on the same supply counts (9, 17, 26, 32, 40, etc.). Roach/bane busts almost always have two gases, roach warren first, then a baneling nest about the time that the roach warren finishes (so that banelings are morphing as roaches reach the other side of the map). Looking for these types of patterns will help you a lot in remembering build orders and identifying when stuff needs to go down (because it always goes down in that order).
You know what, I think I'm realizing I just don't have the dedication to get better. I don't have the motivation. The people in here gave excellent advice but I just don't care enough to learn. I just accept substandard mediocrity, it's too much work to improve and it's not like I'm ever gonna go pro or anything.
Improvement =/= mastery. If you don't feel motivated to improve that's fine but to say it's too much work to improve is silly. Improving is as simple as improving your creep spread%/inject% in most of your games.
If you set unrealistic goals/expectations for yourself (becoming a pro) you will obviously get discouraged. IDK if you use www.ggtracker.com but I started using it when I started to get back into SC2 to see where I needed work. I picked a random statistic (spending skill) and worked on improving it. If you truly lack the motivation to improve after reducing the intensity of the goal you wish to achieve, SC2 isn't for you.
Might I suggest Skullgirls?
Is it bad I had to google what skullgirls was? And I'm starting to realize that ya, I really am just not good enough or motivated enough for SC2. I just get discouraged and angry way too easy to ever do something very goal-oriented like improving at this game.
On October 30 2014 10:09 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: So I was gonna make a comment the day9 video after I watched it, but after part 1 my brain is just rejecting information... and he didn't even teach anything really. I don't even want to learn, it's a mental block at this point I think.
I think pretty much everyone in here gave solid advice. It would probably be best to take a step back from the game for a day or two and let your head rest. TBH, it's probably that there is too much other stuff going on in your brain (like trying to remember to macro correctly, scouting, etc., etc.) that is getting in the way. When I work on a build order, I write it down and literally pause in between each step to make sure I hit the benchmarks perfectly. I also don't hotkey any units or rally overlords to specific places...I focus ONLY on injects, timings, and just having the right amount of stuff at the right time. It might help you to do some sort of isolation practice like that.
If you practice a lot of builds over time, you find that many of them line up almost the same every time. For instance, if you go pool first or hatch first, you still take your third base around 6:00 in ZvT with perhaps a 15 second difference. The first ~four overlords are almost always on the same supply counts (9, 17, 26, 32, 40, etc.). Roach/bane busts almost always have two gases, roach warren first, then a baneling nest about the time that the roach warren finishes (so that banelings are morphing as roaches reach the other side of the map). Looking for these types of patterns will help you a lot in remembering build orders and identifying when stuff needs to go down (because it always goes down in that order).
You know what, I think I'm realizing I just don't have the dedication to get better. I don't have the motivation. The people in here gave excellent advice but I just don't care enough to learn. I just accept substandard mediocrity, it's too much work to improve and it's not like I'm ever gonna go pro or anything.
Improvement =/= mastery. If you don't feel motivated to improve that's fine but to say it's too much work to improve is silly. Improving is as simple as improving your creep spread%/inject% in most of your games.
If you set unrealistic goals/expectations for yourself (becoming a pro) you will obviously get discouraged. IDK if you use www.ggtracker.com but I started using it when I started to get back into SC2 to see where I needed work. I picked a random statistic (spending skill) and worked on improving it. If you truly lack the motivation to improve after reducing the intensity of the goal you wish to achieve, SC2 isn't for you.
Might I suggest Skullgirls?
Is it bad I had to google what skullgirls was? And I'm starting to realize that ya, I really am just not good enough or motivated enough for SC2. I just get discouraged and angry way too easy to ever do something very goal-oriented like improving at this game.
Skullgirls almost got popular and then people decided they dislike animated boobies all of the sudden
I mean... zerg or something. totally not off topic.
On October 30 2014 10:09 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: So I was gonna make a comment the day9 video after I watched it, but after part 1 my brain is just rejecting information... and he didn't even teach anything really. I don't even want to learn, it's a mental block at this point I think.
I think pretty much everyone in here gave solid advice. It would probably be best to take a step back from the game for a day or two and let your head rest. TBH, it's probably that there is too much other stuff going on in your brain (like trying to remember to macro correctly, scouting, etc., etc.) that is getting in the way. When I work on a build order, I write it down and literally pause in between each step to make sure I hit the benchmarks perfectly. I also don't hotkey any units or rally overlords to specific places...I focus ONLY on injects, timings, and just having the right amount of stuff at the right time. It might help you to do some sort of isolation practice like that.
If you practice a lot of builds over time, you find that many of them line up almost the same every time. For instance, if you go pool first or hatch first, you still take your third base around 6:00 in ZvT with perhaps a 15 second difference. The first ~four overlords are almost always on the same supply counts (9, 17, 26, 32, 40, etc.). Roach/bane busts almost always have two gases, roach warren first, then a baneling nest about the time that the roach warren finishes (so that banelings are morphing as roaches reach the other side of the map). Looking for these types of patterns will help you a lot in remembering build orders and identifying when stuff needs to go down (because it always goes down in that order).
You know what, I think I'm realizing I just don't have the dedication to get better. I don't have the motivation. The people in here gave excellent advice but I just don't care enough to learn. I just accept substandard mediocrity, it's too much work to improve and it's not like I'm ever gonna go pro or anything.
Improvement =/= mastery. If you don't feel motivated to improve that's fine but to say it's too much work to improve is silly. Improving is as simple as improving your creep spread%/inject% in most of your games.
If you set unrealistic goals/expectations for yourself (becoming a pro) you will obviously get discouraged. IDK if you use www.ggtracker.com but I started using it when I started to get back into SC2 to see where I needed work. I picked a random statistic (spending skill) and worked on improving it. If you truly lack the motivation to improve after reducing the intensity of the goal you wish to achieve, SC2 isn't for you.
Might I suggest Skullgirls?
Is it bad I had to google what skullgirls was? And I'm starting to realize that ya, I really am just not good enough or motivated enough for SC2. I just get discouraged and angry way too easy to ever do something very goal-oriented like improving at this game.
Skullgirls almost got popular and then people decided they dislike animated boobies all of the sudden
I mean... zerg or something. totally not off topic.
That doesn't seem like a thing people ususally dislike... very odd. And ya, zerg is hard, too hard for me...
Is it bad I had to google what skullgirls was? And I'm starting to realize that ya, I really am just not good enough or motivated enough for SC2. I just get discouraged and angry way too easy to ever do something very goal-oriented like improving at this game.
Getting better is definitely doable . I'd suggest using basic supply count, in game clock, and once Queens come along, follow a very specific "Macro Cycle". For supply try to keep it consistent through out. I like to use 9-17-25-31-36-42, etc. Once I hit 52+ I start making overlords in 2s/3s or more as needed.
What is a "Macro Cycle"? Inject, make appropriate overlords, followed by units and binding morphing unit to appropriate hotkeys, followed by spreading creep. For me I keep it simple and simply think to myself, Inject, Supply, Units (hotkey), Creep. All this takes me in the 10-20 sec range which allows for a nice 25 seconds of free time each cycle to dedicate to whatever you wish.
I find it easier to use supply count early game and game clock early-mid and beyond. Versus a Protoss executing a version of 2Hatch into Pool > 3 Hatch might look something like 9 Overlord, 14 Drone rallied to expo, 16 Drone rallied to Spawning Pool location, 17 Overlord, 19 Drone, 2X Queen, 25 Drone, 25 Overlord, 4:15 seconds send drone from Expo to 3rd (4:30 Hatch), etc.
I also find it useful to memorize relative Inject cycles. I.E., 15 Hatch/16 Pool 2 Queens pop out at around 4:45 and begin injecting just before 4:50. This means the next inject cycle will be right around 5:30, followed by 6:15, 7:00, 7:45, 8:30, 9:15 and 10:00. This allows you to fine tune builds and since you want to be watching the mini-map as often as possible and the clock being right there makes things very smooth.
I have a question regarding ZvT (and would like to apologize before hand if its been asked and answered earlier ^^) - whats the BO in to deal with Banshee into 3 CC / Bio ? I really, really struggle vs this build, it is probably just my poor handle of the MU, but I think currently it is the strongest (macro-) build a Terran can do. So I usually get the 1 spore per mineral line +1 in between 2nd and 3rd to protect creep & queens, get my lair right after speed and delay my upgrades / bane speed in favor of faster mutalisks to shut down his banshees. But somehow I always end up behind - if he goes for hellbats with the banshee, i sometimes just flat out lose the game.
Is my approach ok, would you recommand anything else ? Is there some kind of timing I can exploit to get in some dmg ?
On October 30 2014 21:52 TequilaMockingbird wrote: HI TL,
I have a question regarding ZvT (and would like to apologize before hand if its been asked and answered earlier ^^) - whats the BO in to deal with Banshee into 3 CC / Bio ? I really, really struggle vs this build, it is probably just my poor handle of the MU, but I think currently it is the strongest (macro-) build a Terran can do. So I usually get the 1 spore per mineral line +1 in between 2nd and 3rd to protect creep & queens, get my lair right after speed and delay my upgrades / bane speed in favor of faster mutalisks to shut down his banshees. But somehow I always end up behind - if he goes for hellbats with the banshee, i sometimes just flat out lose the game.
Is my approach ok, would you recommand anything else ? Is there some kind of timing I can exploit to get in some dmg ?
Any help would be much appreciated Many thanks
You're pretty much doing everything right, it might just be your control. I would suggest not panicking and teching up to lair as quickly as possible for mutalisks and continuing to do upgrades before lair. You can more or less deflect the banshees with a few queens and spores, and the Terran's timing is just as much delayed. When you go for such an early lair and play a ling/bane opening, you run the risk of straight up dying to hellbat/banshee trying to rush to mutas.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Terran's production is quite a bit delayed when they go for hellion/banshee, so a ling runby is pretty strong at that stage in the game, if you can manage to sneak the lings past the hellions/banshees. Even if you can't sneak them by, just threatening a counterattack with ~30 lings will generally cause the hellions to pull back and hunt the lings down, leaving your creep spread and queens unharassed.
One other solution is going lair before upgrades and making a safety roach warren and ~4 roaches to push away the hellions. It's a bit more of a committal to not muta/ling/bling, but again, the Terran's timing is delayed as well, so it's not a huge deal compared to doing a very safe roach opening versus 3CC straight into stim/double ebays off one rax.
hey guys has anyone got some general tips for playing vs the hellbat/thor style rather than the widowmine style?
if you guys could give me a few tips from this replay id appreciate it though try to ignore the really obvious macro ones such as supply blocks and missed injects ( because i know there a major thing i have to work on
Hi, Question1: In zvp i play the Hydra/Ling into SH style lately, i wonder how i am supposed to decide whether to go for a more Hydra based push before 11minutes or to go for the SH slightly faster. Question2: Is there any good video-guide how to engage bio/mine with ling/bane/muta(maybe also mechanical-wise), im doing quite fine but im interested in improving my knowlege.
On November 01 2014 11:06 NiDoXiD wrote: Hi, Question1: In zvp i play the Hydra/Ling into SH style lately, i wonder how i am supposed to decide whether to go for a more Hydra based push before 11minutes or to go for the SH slightly faster. Question2: Is there any good video-guide how to engage bio/mine with ling/bane/muta(maybe also mechanical-wise), im doing quite fine but im interested in improving my knowlege.
1. Whether you go for a hydra timing is more or less dependent on how ahead you are. If the Protoss hasn't bothered you all game, and you haven't had any macro errors, a hydra timing is pretty much always good. If they did an early pressure and you took a lot of damage or overreacted, it might not be as great of an idea to hit the timing. This is mostly an issue of getting a feel for the build, so I suggest just going for a hydra timing every time, no matter what happens in the early game, and then analyzing when it's good and when it's bad over ~20-30 games.
2. If it's a rally push, you drive the mutas (or ~30 lings) into the reinforcement path to cut off reinforcements and roll small packs of ling/bling into the Terran to buy time. When you max out or have a significant army lead compared to his push, you want to split up into 3-4 groups and get as close to a surround as possible, and amove (across the minimap prevents clumping a little better).
On October 30 2014 10:09 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: So I was gonna make a comment the day9 video after I watched it, but after part 1 my brain is just rejecting information... and he didn't even teach anything really. I don't even want to learn, it's a mental block at this point I think.
I think pretty much everyone in here gave solid advice. It would probably be best to take a step back from the game for a day or two and let your head rest. TBH, it's probably that there is too much other stuff going on in your brain (like trying to remember to macro correctly, scouting, etc., etc.) that is getting in the way. When I work on a build order, I write it down and literally pause in between each step to make sure I hit the benchmarks perfectly. I also don't hotkey any units or rally overlords to specific places...I focus ONLY on injects, timings, and just having the right amount of stuff at the right time. It might help you to do some sort of isolation practice like that.
If you practice a lot of builds over time, you find that many of them line up almost the same every time. For instance, if you go pool first or hatch first, you still take your third base around 6:00 in ZvT with perhaps a 15 second difference. The first ~four overlords are almost always on the same supply counts (9, 17, 26, 32, 40, etc.). Roach/bane busts almost always have two gases, roach warren first, then a baneling nest about the time that the roach warren finishes (so that banelings are morphing as roaches reach the other side of the map). Looking for these types of patterns will help you a lot in remembering build orders and identifying when stuff needs to go down (because it always goes down in that order).
You know what, I think I'm realizing I just don't have the dedication to get better. I don't have the motivation. The people in here gave excellent advice but I just don't care enough to learn. I just accept substandard mediocrity, it's too much work to improve and it's not like I'm ever gonna go pro or anything.
Improvement =/= mastery. If you don't feel motivated to improve that's fine but to say it's too much work to improve is silly. Improving is as simple as improving your creep spread%/inject% in most of your games.
If you set unrealistic goals/expectations for yourself (becoming a pro) you will obviously get discouraged. IDK if you use www.ggtracker.com but I started using it when I started to get back into SC2 to see where I needed work. I picked a random statistic (spending skill) and worked on improving it. If you truly lack the motivation to improve after reducing the intensity of the goal you wish to achieve, SC2 isn't for you.
Might I suggest Skullgirls?
Is it bad I had to google what skullgirls was? And I'm starting to realize that ya, I really am just not good enough or motivated enough for SC2. I just get discouraged and angry way too easy to ever do something very goal-oriented like improving at this game.
I quit trying to be good at BW in 2003 and by just randomly playing I improved heaps. So just round up a few friends and play whatever and you'll improve. Maybe not as fast as you would when going full aspie on a build or mathcup but just playing the game and even winging builds makes you better. Dont forget the UMS/Custom/Arcade or whatever they are called, everything is good.
Can anyone give me some general tips on efficient practice?
I have about 6 hours time a day, sometimes less, sometimes more.
I usually get too frustrated after losses to even analyze the replay, which I'm trying to solve. I just end up telling myself that something like "this attack didn't do enough damage" was the cause of me losing a game, which obviously isn't true as I'm only diamond. Zerg, if it matters.
Hi, Question1: In zvp i play the Hydra/Ling into SH style lately, i wonder how i am supposed to decide whether to go for a more Hydra based push before 11minutes or to go for the SH slightly faster. Question2: Is there any good video-guide how to engage bio/mine with ling/bane/muta(maybe also mechanical-wise), im doing quite fine but im interested in improving my knowlege.
1. SH are "typically" used more defensively allowing you to trade better while you expand, thus increasing your bank, unit production potential, and tech. Sure, they're probably the best counter to an Immortal/Sentry push coming after 10:15 but it's harder to be aggressive with them after you defend.
I prefer to stick with a Hydra/Ling timing push assuming you haven't been delayed too much in the early game. Imo, if you have at least 60+ drones on 3 bases, 10+ Hydra, and 30+ Lings @ 10:00 you're in good shape. After all, Toss generally get 1st Colossus at 10:30 and 2nd rallied to their 3rd around 11:30. Unless there are some godly force fields you're initial attack and follow up inject of rallied units will deny/kill their 3rd while simultaneously reducing their army supply to a problematic level.
Even if you are slightly delayed early-mid game you can still do just fine with a delayed Hydra/Ling/Corruptor timing (Spire goes down around 9:30, after your 10-14 Hydra are produced) attack around 12:00 (if you have 6 gas nlt 9:30) with around 20+ Hydra/60 Lings/8-9 corruptor. Or simply stop making Hydra and transition to pure Muta.
I need some advice for dealing with reaper/hellion harassment ~7:00.
I try and do what people have suggested, keeping my extra queens at the edge of my creep to tank and try and focus down low HP hellions, and I keep a small group of lings a bit farther back, never chasing off creep, in order to deter the Terran from diving into my mineral lines. This is all fine if the Terran is only harassing my front and trying to snipe queens and creep tumors or do a runby.
My problem is when the Terran takes his 6-8 hellions and 2-3 reapers and, instead of meeting my queens at the front, he goes straight for my still-building or newly finished 3rd base, and starts whittling it away. This is especially annoying on maps like Merry-Go-Round, where the 3rd is far away from the natural, and my creep spread isn't even halfway there by 7-8:00. Sometimes I have to cancel my 3rd and other times it dies after completion. Sometimes I am able to save it when it is in the red, but then the first light bio push or medivac full of marines easily finishes it off around 10:00-11:00. Obviously, I'm not going to walk my queens off creep in attempt to chase the Terran away from my 3rd.
The only 2 ways I have been able to save my 3rd in these cases is by: 1) making a roach warren around the same time as my 3rd base and making a few defensive roaches to chase away the hellions and reapers (which I have been discouraged from doing by high level players as it slows down my upgrades and lair)
2) making a lot of speedlings and trying to get a surround on the hellions. (This is obviously not optimal, either, as it usually only works if I catch the Terran when he is not paying attention, and requires chasing hellions off creep. Any Terran with decent micro/awareness will not let me surround him, and will kite my lings all day. This also eats up a LOT of larvae and prevents me from droning as quickly as I should. A lot of times when I choose this route, I eventually do manage to surround and kill most/all of the reapers and hellions, but not after losing (and rebuilding) a lot of speedlings. By the time I am finally able to drone up my 3rd, the Terran's 3rd is already landed and he has a worker lead.
SO, the tldr of this is:
What do I do when the Terran uses his hellions and reapers to whittle away my brand new 3rd base instead of harassing my front?
What do I do when the Terran uses his hellions and reapers to whittle away my brand new 3rd base instead of harassing my front?
You've already named some of the options. There's pretty much 3 responses. 1) A full round of injects on lings at around 6:15 (8 larvae;16lings) with early speed. 2). RW placed down early enough so you can have 4 roaches rallied to your 3rd by 7:30. 3). Add a 5th and 6th Queen immediately (gasless till 5:20) and add in slow lings if you must.
With everyone seemingly going for early Hellbats lately I like choices 2 and 3 best. RW cost some $ as do the Roaches but you can spend more larvae on drones (compared to 16 speedlings) and go gasless until around 5:25 (2xgas). Both option 2 and 3 give you a better early income too, albeit at the sacrifice of early speedlings.
And IMO they don't slow down your upgrades. RW version gets 4 Roaches started at 6:30's, and then it's your choice whether you got +1/1 (7:30) into speed or speed into +1/1 (8:00) into Lair (8:00-8:15). If you can hold with only extra Queens you get even more drones and quicker upgrades/tech.
On November 02 2014 09:45 KtJ wrote: What are the best tips for a new zerg?
Inject and spread creep. Not even kidding, just get a decent build and perfect these mechanics, and you will shoot straight up to diamond/masters. Just look around TL for guides and read through some of these pages to get some general ideas.
On November 02 2014 12:57 Frankie Teardrop wrote: 25% winrate in ZvT this season. -_-
I need some advice for dealing with reaper/hellion harassment ~7:00.
I try and do what people have suggested, keeping my extra queens at the edge of my creep to tank and try and focus down low HP hellions, and I keep a small group of lings a bit farther back, never chasing off creep, in order to deter the Terran from diving into my mineral lines. This is all fine if the Terran is only harassing my front and trying to snipe queens and creep tumors or do a runby.
My problem is when the Terran takes his 6-8 hellions and 2-3 reapers and, instead of meeting my queens at the front, he goes straight for my still-building or newly finished 3rd base, and starts whittling it away. This is especially annoying on maps like Merry-Go-Round, where the 3rd is far away from the natural, and my creep spread isn't even halfway there by 7-8:00. Sometimes I have to cancel my 3rd and other times it dies after completion. Sometimes I am able to save it when it is in the red, but then the first light bio push or medivac full of marines easily finishes it off around 10:00-11:00. Obviously, I'm not going to walk my queens off creep in attempt to chase the Terran away from my 3rd.
The only 2 ways I have been able to save my 3rd in these cases is by: 1) making a roach warren around the same time as my 3rd base and making a few defensive roaches to chase away the hellions and reapers (which I have been discouraged from doing by high level players as it slows down my upgrades and lair)
2) making a lot of speedlings and trying to get a surround on the hellions. (This is obviously not optimal, either, as it usually only works if I catch the Terran when he is not paying attention, and requires chasing hellions off creep. Any Terran with decent micro/awareness will not let me surround him, and will kite my lings all day. This also eats up a LOT of larvae and prevents me from droning as quickly as I should. A lot of times when I choose this route, I eventually do manage to surround and kill most/all of the reapers and hellions, but not after losing (and rebuilding) a lot of speedlings. By the time I am finally able to drone up my 3rd, the Terran's 3rd is already landed and he has a worker lead.
SO, the tldr of this is:
What do I do when the Terran uses his hellions and reapers to whittle away my brand new 3rd base instead of harassing my front?
Consider yourself lucky and spread that creeeepppp! You can walk the three queens over there off of creep; by the time they get there and push the hellions away, the creep spread will be sufficient to bounce back to the wall (plus you'll have a few lings). You might take a little bit of damage on your hatch (usually around 1/3 in my experience), but you should certainly NOT lose it to 10:30 pressure...you should be demolishing 10:30 pressure. My guess is that you're playing overly safe and forgetting how strong queens can be, which is setting you behind going into the mid game.
Alternatively, you can make ~20-30 lings and sneak them by the hellions for a runby. This generally either catches the Terran completely offguard and they forget to use hellions for 30 seconds or they just run the hellions home to defend. Either way, this helps a bit with the problem of taking a lot of damage on that third. Alternatively, you can redirect this group of lings for a surround if you see a good opportunity (but otherwise, the runby is a good idea).
On November 02 2014 05:16 cthulhuuu wrote: Can anyone give me some general tips on efficient practice?
I have about 6 hours time a day, sometimes less, sometimes more.
I usually get too frustrated after losses to even analyze the replay, which I'm trying to solve. I just end up telling myself that something like "this attack didn't do enough damage" was the cause of me losing a game, which obviously isn't true as I'm only diamond. Zerg, if it matters.
1) Mechanics practice. Load up the "Zerg Inject and Creep Spread" map and practice inject cycle plus moving 2-3 groups of units around for ~10-20 minutes every time you play. It helps me to run through at least one of my builds against the AI once as well, but you can actually spend an entire practice session practicing mechanics alone without an opponent and improve. Most important thing, practice often.
2) Game Plan. Figure out the general plan that you want to follow, flesh it out, and perfect it, down to the exact movements you take with overlords and ling scouts, exact timings/benchmarks that you hit, and a huge web of reactions and responses to what your opponent is doing. This is another good place to practice build orders and different branches of your game plan (i.e., "open gasless, but if opponent goes for gate expand, I take my gases earlier at X:XX", then play out that strain until ~10:00).
3) Analyzing replays. Watch every replay (or FPVoDs, highly recommend). The most important thing is to find questions, even when you think you know exactly why you lost. Make sure you always go back to the first mistake in a game, correct it, and endeavor never to make that mistake again. Additionally, this skill helps you improve your game plan and fine tune all of the small responses and nuances necessary to win.
On November 02 2014 09:45 KtJ wrote: What are the best tips for a new zerg?
Inject and spread creep. Not even kidding, just get a decent build and perfect these mechanics, and you will shoot straight up to diamond/masters. Just look around TL for guides and read through some of these pages to get some general ideas.
On November 02 2014 12:57 Frankie Teardrop wrote: 25% winrate in ZvT this season. -_-
I need some advice for dealing with reaper/hellion harassment ~7:00.
I try and do what people have suggested, keeping my extra queens at the edge of my creep to tank and try and focus down low HP hellions, and I keep a small group of lings a bit farther back, never chasing off creep, in order to deter the Terran from diving into my mineral lines. This is all fine if the Terran is only harassing my front and trying to snipe queens and creep tumors or do a runby.
My problem is when the Terran takes his 6-8 hellions and 2-3 reapers and, instead of meeting my queens at the front, he goes straight for my still-building or newly finished 3rd base, and starts whittling it away. This is especially annoying on maps like Merry-Go-Round, where the 3rd is far away from the natural, and my creep spread isn't even halfway there by 7-8:00. Sometimes I have to cancel my 3rd and other times it dies after completion. Sometimes I am able to save it when it is in the red, but then the first light bio push or medivac full of marines easily finishes it off around 10:00-11:00. Obviously, I'm not going to walk my queens off creep in attempt to chase the Terran away from my 3rd.
The only 2 ways I have been able to save my 3rd in these cases is by: 1) making a roach warren around the same time as my 3rd base and making a few defensive roaches to chase away the hellions and reapers (which I have been discouraged from doing by high level players as it slows down my upgrades and lair)
2) making a lot of speedlings and trying to get a surround on the hellions. (This is obviously not optimal, either, as it usually only works if I catch the Terran when he is not paying attention, and requires chasing hellions off creep. Any Terran with decent micro/awareness will not let me surround him, and will kite my lings all day. This also eats up a LOT of larvae and prevents me from droning as quickly as I should. A lot of times when I choose this route, I eventually do manage to surround and kill most/all of the reapers and hellions, but not after losing (and rebuilding) a lot of speedlings. By the time I am finally able to drone up my 3rd, the Terran's 3rd is already landed and he has a worker lead.
SO, the tldr of this is:
What do I do when the Terran uses his hellions and reapers to whittle away my brand new 3rd base instead of harassing my front?
Consider yourself lucky and spread that creeeepppp! You can walk the three queens over there off of creep; by the time they get there and push the hellions away, the creep spread will be sufficient to bounce back to the wall (plus you'll have a few lings). You might take a little bit of damage on your hatch (usually around 1/3 in my experience), but you should certainly NOT lose it to 10:30 pressure...you should be demolishing 10:30 pressure. My guess is that you're playing overly safe and forgetting how strong queens can be, which is setting you behind going into the mid game.
Alternatively, you can make ~20-30 lings and sneak them by the hellions for a runby. This generally either catches the Terran completely offguard and they forget to use hellions for 30 seconds or they just run the hellions home to defend. Either way, this helps a bit with the problem of taking a lot of damage on that third. Alternatively, you can redirect this group of lings for a surround if you see a good opportunity (but otherwise, the runby is a good idea).
On November 02 2014 05:16 cthulhuuu wrote: Can anyone give me some general tips on efficient practice?
I have about 6 hours time a day, sometimes less, sometimes more.
I usually get too frustrated after losses to even analyze the replay, which I'm trying to solve. I just end up telling myself that something like "this attack didn't do enough damage" was the cause of me losing a game, which obviously isn't true as I'm only diamond. Zerg, if it matters.
1) Mechanics practice. Load up the "Zerg Inject and Creep Spread" map and practice inject cycle plus moving 2-3 groups of units around for ~10-20 minutes every time you play. It helps me to run through at least one of my builds against the AI once as well, but you can actually spend an entire practice session practicing mechanics alone without an opponent and improve. Most important thing, practice often.
2) Game Plan. Figure out the general plan that you want to follow, flesh it out, and perfect it, down to the exact movements you take with overlords and ling scouts, exact timings/benchmarks that you hit, and a huge web of reactions and responses to what your opponent is doing. This is another good place to practice build orders and different branches of your game plan (i.e., "open gasless, but if opponent goes for gate expand, I take my gases earlier at X:XX", then play out that strain until ~10:00).
3) Analyzing replays. Watch every replay (or FPVoDs, highly recommend). The most important thing is to find questions, even when you think you know exactly why you lost. Make sure you always go back to the first mistake in a game, correct it, and endeavor never to make that mistake again. Additionally, this skill helps you improve your game plan and fine tune all of the small responses and nuances necessary to win.
EPT
. I'd suggest using basic supply count, in game clock, and once Queens come along, follow a very specific "Macro Cycle". For supply try to keep it consistent through out. I like to use 9-17-25-31-36-42, etc. Once I hit 52+ I start making overlords in 2s/3s or more as needed.
