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Poll: Hardest race to play at each level of SC2? - Page 13

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Horseballs
Profile Joined July 2011
United States721 Posts
October 02 2011 19:30 GMT
#241
I've played both zerg and terran up to masters level on NA/EU and in my experience it was easier to get to masters as zerg. When your opponents can't control their armies well your banelings/infestors/mutas can do a ridiculous amount of damage. It was harder for me to do well as terran because my unit control isn't the best.

So I think at lower levels the zerg has an advantage with one hotkey macro as well as units that do better when the opponent has bad micro.
zhurai
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States5660 Posts
October 02 2011 19:31 GMT
#242
imo

z
z
z/t (not sure - I'm not in this league yet~)
P/Z (not sure - I'm not in this league yet~)
Twitter: @zhurai | Site: http://zhurai.com
synapse
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
China13814 Posts
October 02 2011 19:35 GMT
#243
I think its a gradient from Z -> P being hardest to play (in diamond, Z being about even with P). I don't think Terran is harder to play at any level of the game.
:)
WArped
Profile Joined December 2010
United Kingdom4845 Posts
October 02 2011 19:40 GMT
#244
As a Zerg player in Diamond, when my Banelings and Mutas crash into a 2 base timing of Siege tanks and Marines I always say it must be hard to deal with so many units like that, a lot of the Terran players usually fail at avoiding most of the damage. I would say it's kinda even between all 3 at Diamond level.
The_Templar
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
your Country52798 Posts
October 02 2011 19:44 GMT
#245
ZZPP
Zerg is pretty unforgiving low levels, and bronze-plat zergs do not build very many macro hatches.
High level... well...
ModeratorI am still alive, somehow
TL+ Member
CeliosB
Profile Joined December 2010
Canada100 Posts
October 02 2011 19:49 GMT
#246
I would say terran isn't the hardest race to play at diamond/masters level as the poll says, by then you have the build orders down to do easy all inns and you should have the apm requirement to drop/macro/micro. I do however agree that terran is the hardest race to play in gold/plat because usually your apm isn't to high then and also i imagine they have a hard time dealing with muta harrass, counter attacks and micro vs collosi and storm.
"To ze bank" -Stephano
Euronyme
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden3804 Posts
October 02 2011 19:54 GMT
#247
On October 02 2011 17:00 Monkeyballs25 wrote:
Definitely Zerg at bronze/silver. You have to learn how to scout properly quite a bit earlier than the other two races, your early game defence is quite fragile and you can't rely on a nice easy 1 base timing push build.


Wouldn't like a 6 pool or some kind of 10 pool speedling/baneling all in work quite well at bronze level?

I bet i can maı̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̸̨̨̨̨̨̨ke you wipe your screen.
riff
Profile Joined December 2010
United States113 Posts
October 02 2011 20:00 GMT
#248
ZZTP
Broadly speaking, this matches up with my own experience and thoughts on the relative learning curves of each race. Zergs have a tough time in the lower leagues, but I think the curve flattens out a bit once they hit diamond/masters. Protoss have the opposite situation, and Terrans are somewhere in the middle. Clearly at the highest level, they are dominating, but I think the majority of Terrans tend to plateau around the Diamond/Masters level. I know I certainly feel like I've hit a brick wall in Diamond as a T.
There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. -Mazer Rackham
-Dustin-
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States718 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-02 20:01:47
October 02 2011 20:01 GMT
#249
Well I went Z Z Z and P, Really when in the lower levels playing Zerg you will get punished easier than the other races. Ie: 11/11, 4gate, cannon rushes, unscouted BF will ruin your day, Void rays. Really the stuff that lower levels don't look out for. When I first started Sc2 I was like I want to play Zerg the offensive swarm!

Well my dreams were crumbled with a few days on the ladder.(I played like 200 custom games vs AI and watched like 20+ dailys before even touching ladder.(Had ladder fear)) So I get on expecting to be the offense keeping them on the defense... I learned quickly that bunkers, cannons, voids, DTs, Banshees would completely wreck my thoughts on the game. (I mean yeah this stuff is easy now but I'm still talking about Bronze-Plat level. I found out that the MIGHTY SWARM THAT DEVOURED EVERYTHING had to play on the defensive side of things...

The lower levels you lose ALOT to not knowing what the other player is doing as scouting and reading the information isn't that easy. Example: You walk up a Terrans ramp and its walled off you see 1 Rax so you expect 2Rax pressure or Hellion expand. Then a 6Rax with SCVs comes at you and you have 4 Lings 2 Queens and a Spine you just started its GG.

I'm not saying that the other races do not lose to these things, because they do. But Zerg in my opinion is at an even greater risk than the others. Because the race is purely about scouting information and that's hard for lower levels to read what they just scouted.

For Diamond I say Zerg again (Maybe I'm biased) but I spent most of my diamond days getting crushed by 6Gates, 7?Gate Blink, Death balls, 11/11 Bunker rushes, and Marine Tank compositions. With really no idea how to defend this stuff, I mean a Diamond Zerg can see a 6Gate coming and lose to it never the less. I also feel in the lower levels(Well in all levels Injects are less forgiving.) Yes if a Terran misses Mules or a Toss misses Chrono they are behind, but, that energy builds up and if you don't let it reach 100 you can just use the extra ones and didn't really miss anything. But for Zerg missing your Injects well that means oh well. Its less forgiving in that way. Also creep spread is a great thing to have and its just another thing Zergs have to remember and at the low level remembering Injects/Scouting/Expanding/Droning when safe its hard to remember when to spread that creep.

It also happens alot in the lower leagues happened to me as well, You hear from the great Zergs "Drone hard and win but don't over Drone and die" so we Drone hard and get destroyed, Recently I have been favoring fewer Drones more units and its working out so well. (Thank you aXa for ZvT guide<3)

Then you look at that units Zerg has Baneling when in the lower levels I found my self accidentally sacing all my Banelings on Tanks/Maruaders. It was really annoying back when ZvT was bio and they would just spam stim and kite the Marines and I would sac my Baneling because I was "focusing on macro! as suggested by higher levels".
The Ultras are a real problem for Zergs in the lower levels as they need a hell of a lot of babysitting or else they are going to get stuck and suicide. The ZvZ matchup also frustrates many Zergs into quiting the race due to Ling/Bling allins early, They are annoying and 1 mistake will end it. But mirrors aren't supposed to be fun imo looking at you PvP 4gate all day erry'day.

I also don't feel like playing Zerg is as fun as the other races! I mean I love going into 2v2s just to play Terran/Toss and doing Stargates/Mships/Mech/MMTank its all fun as hell to execute. I never get that feeling with Zerg, unless using aXas style and wrecking a Terran with Ultras before he gets his third up.

In the pro level I feel Protoss but that's only because I don't see them doing well in tourneys maybe that's just the players not exploring their race to the fullest. I don't see any reason why they would be harder except the fact that they don't use all their spell casters to their full potential Ie: when having sentries and they build Templar all you see is storms and feedbacks instead of FFs or Shields, Yes Templar are better but use them both! I hear most Toss complain "Thats not easy using 2 spell casters while macroing as well!" but I always hear Toss gloat "we are a micro race it takes more work than Zerg micro!" (This is on a masters level not pro) I agree it does using Templar and Sentries together, but when you don't do it why build both? Zerg really isn't micro-oriented its macro which is easier to control in the pro-games. But pro Zergs still get punished by what the lower levels do ie: 6Gates/11/11 Bunkers.

Its all the same for a Zerg no matter what level it is on.

So in my opinion Z Z Z P.
Haiq343
Profile Joined August 2011
United States2548 Posts
October 02 2011 20:34 GMT
#250
For the most part, people who aren't low apm, poor scouting, mechanically challenged are no better qualified to judge low-end balance then those baddies would be for high-end. Being able to turtle-up and then do your own thing reasonably safely is the big adv for lower level Terrans, but one that obviously disappears as opponents get better at the game, and hardly the only facet that matters.

It's interesting that no one has mentioned that this kind of examination is exactly what Blizzard tries to even out when the balance for low-end play.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world. -Einstein
Hider
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Denmark9447 Posts
October 02 2011 21:11 GMT
#251
I almost feel like it would be better to include masters and GM (excluding korean GM, top NA foreigners). The reason why terran probably would be the hardetst race to play at this level (and not diamond) is that at this level most players have figued out the 1base/2base allins that terrans are very succesful with at the lower levels, and actually playing a macro game with terran is just harder than with zerg or toss. Using sige tanks/marines or even ghosts correctly is just harder to do (dont misunderstand this for being balance related) than infestors or muta/bling, and having good bio /viking/ghost control is again harder than using chargelots/stalkers/collosus. The korean gm terran obv. is a level above the foreigners and are since doing very well as the skill cap of terran is pretty high.
-_-
Profile Blog Joined November 2003
United States7081 Posts
October 02 2011 21:18 GMT
#252
On October 03 2011 04:10 Sith Inquisitor wrote:
Terran has alot of need for Micro and Multitasking if you wanna be really good. Drops, Marine Micro, Siege Tanks, Vikings/Ghosts...
And you can't just queue up 5 more gateways with 1 Probe.



Actually, in Starcraft 2, SCVs are nearly as easy to use as Probes. You just need to grab five SCVs and build five Barracks. You're likely thinking about Starcraft Broodwar, where building multiple buildings quickly was quite the task.
Ermac
Profile Joined June 2011
336 Posts
October 02 2011 21:18 GMT
#253
On October 03 2011 04:26 Lobber wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 03 2011 03:35 Ermac wrote:
On October 03 2011 02:59 Lobber wrote:
On October 03 2011 02:57 butchji wrote:
On October 02 2011 17:18 Binabik wrote:
On October 02 2011 17:10 DjRetro wrote:
The most difficult race to play in masters and grand masters is Terran... i'm absolutely convinced of that. In higher levels of play, you need a lot of APM and multitasking to play as terran.


However, i'm a bit confused... i don't understand why the poll shows us that protoss is more difficult than terran in GM... in a lot of cases, as masters (high) you can play against a GM guy perfectly... that's a fact.

APM and multitasking is no problem in GM, decision making seperates weak from strong players.



)))) Look at SjoW or GoOdy or... and those are not only GrandMasters but top pros. A lot of GM don't have multitasking.

I played goody last night... And lost... But he really didn't seem like some high level pro or anything, his multitasking wasn't amazing and his engagement positioning was so-so... Though it was PvP so who knows?


Last time I checked Goody was Terran.

Good has a NA account he offrace P on, or at least that's what people were saying earlier...


So you're basically not even sure it was Goody, but if it was Goody he was off-racing as Protoss on the NA server. Ok.

Let's assume it was Goody and he didn't seem very pro-like to you. Well, obvious things first - he was off-racing. Even if he can off-race on Grandmaster Level there's still a world of difference between your average Grandmaster player and a Progamer. Furthermore not playing very impressively may very well mean he just didn't have to.

Recently I watched Stephano start his account on the NA server. After a while he got matched vs. a mid/high Master Protoss who obviously didn't know who he was. He destroyed him with speedling only. Certainly didn't look very pro-like to the toss as he called him a lucky idiot doing the dumbest shit he had ever seen before leaving the game.

My point is, either way it's highly unlikely that your game vs. that guy who possibly was Goody was representative for his average let alone maximum skill.
"Blind aggressiveness would destroy the attack itself, not the defense." - Carl von Clausewitz
NightHawk929
Profile Joined December 2010
79 Posts
October 02 2011 21:19 GMT
#254
Z
T
T
P

I just answered based off of what i remember from the lower leagues, how I'm playing right now and the current pro scene.
Hexxed
Profile Joined November 2010
United States202 Posts
October 02 2011 21:22 GMT
#255
Terran is a bit easy at all stages of the game due to their highly efficient units and the mule. Zerg injecting and protoss CBing doesn't forgive and makes it harder to learn at the lower levels. As far as the higher levels go, it's obviously protoss. We can just look at the GSL to figure out what the easiest race to play is.... *cough* terran
www.twitch.tv/hexsctv - Zerg Master's stream NA Ladder
Monkeyballs25
Profile Joined October 2010
531 Posts
October 02 2011 21:23 GMT
#256
On October 03 2011 04:54 Euronyme wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 02 2011 17:00 Monkeyballs25 wrote:
Definitely Zerg at bronze/silver. You have to learn how to scout properly quite a bit earlier than the other two races, your early game defence is quite fragile and you can't rely on a nice easy 1 base timing push build.


Wouldn't like a 6 pool or some kind of 10 pool speedling/baneling all in work quite well at bronze level?



That's a good question. When I first started playing in silver in season 1 I remember that my few 6pool attempts ended in miserable failure. And likewise whenever a zerg tried to 6pool me I was able to fend them off by simplying A-moving my drones at him until my own lings finished.
The 10 pool baneling bust all-in does sound a bit more viable but I've never really tried it.
BigFan
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
TLADT24920 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-02 21:25:41
October 02 2011 21:24 GMT
#257
@Hexxed hehe, of course, no bias involved Don't forget to take into account how micro is much more difficult once you play a Zerg who knows how to macro, downright scary. Actually, I would say the scariest moment I've had in a TvsZ was when I realized that my Zerg opponent had a ton of slings+banes or he just went mass banes XD
Former BW EiC"Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017
Deleted User 109835
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
629 Posts
October 02 2011 21:24 GMT
#258
--- Nuked ---
FataLe
Profile Joined November 2010
New Zealand4554 Posts
October 02 2011 21:26 GMT
#259
Z - Z - T - P

High Masters Protoss.
Little bias I guess :3
hi. big fan.
kofman
Profile Joined August 2011
Andorra698 Posts
October 02 2011 21:32 GMT
#260
I think the poll is correct, as a master terran I think its right.
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