EPTHow does it work? Follow at least one of the exercises every time you ladder. Rotate through the exercises to accelerate your improvement.
Can I contribute? Post any exercises that helped you "survive" diamond.
Hello, Adrenaline Seed (Kinetic.661 NA) here with a new accelerated guide for those entering diamond or struggling in diamond. Most all my ladder games were vs top 8 diamonds last season. I would like to share some of the most critical exercises that helped me in learning to compete with better players and continue to work in my favor against mid masters on ladder.
These exercises are designed for fast and effective learning, keeping you focused, and improving your abilities as quickly as possible. Each one is a short overview followed by an exercise.
Exercises
Analyze a build for micro gaps
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Anyone can tell you how to analyze a build to find a more efficient order.
Often over looked is the subject of micro gaps. These are gaps of time in your build when little else needs to be done besides producing units.
At these points in your build there is more time for complex micro. You want to sync your most challenging micro attacks with these gaps.
For example
Hellion / Reaper / Marine harass
The arrival of your multi-pronged drop
Tank pushes
This is how you achieve maximum damage to your opponent without slipping in Macro.
Exercise: Use a 20+ minute replay to find 5 good micro gaps of 1+ minutes.
Determine your first mistake, Throw out the rest
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A Starcraft game is like a live music composition, a run through the terrain park or a game of chess. It is NOT like writing a book, designing a building, or cleaning your room.
You improve faster by only focusing on your first mistake since other mistakes could be the result of an earlier one.
Watch your replays and determine the very first mistake you made, either an unsuccessful attack, a build order failure, or anything your forgot to do. This includes any mistakes unrelated to losing the game or mistakes made with a win.
If you fix one mistake after another in this fashion your composition will become increasingly stable and durable far into the late game.
Exercise: No mistakes for the first 10 minutes of 5 ladder games in a row
What is your army doing
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All to often players fall into the push syndrome. Build an army, attack, rinse, repeat.
Once you have your first sizeable army it needs to always be on the move. It should be walking between watch towers, poking at your opponents 3rd, poking at your opponents front and breaking rocks.
Your tanks, if you have them, should be unsieged and on the move unless you are fighting or defending with them. No more static defense (just in case) sieges.
If this if your first attempt at doing this you will have trouble at first. You may want to work my previous accelerated learning guide to get used to having your camera outside of your base.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=246676
What you will notice when you become proficient at keeping your army on the move is that your opponent falls apart.
Every moment they think your pushing or flanking, they prepare all these defenses and falter on their macro. Before your know it they get so frustrated they start making huge mistakes and throw away units.
Exercise: Play a ladder game where after 9 minutes your bulk army is always on the move without initiating any attacks to the opponents natural or main.
Custom is for mechanics
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There is a reason why people say "Ladder is where you learn"
In fact there are many reasons
Similar skilled opponents
Serious players
Custom is where people try things for the first time and execute them poorly
Custom is where people play under the influence
One thing that is not often mentioned about custom games is that it is the best place to practice mechanics. When playing in a ladder game you will tend to execute actions with as little risk as possible.
This means you will do what you have always done unwilling to try performing an action the correct way.
If you have optimizations needed in your mechanics find them and grind them out in customs until they become natural.
You will find that in ladder they will become your go to method for performing that action saving you copious amounts of time.
Exercise: Determine 5+ changes you would like to make in your mechanics and use customs to make them natural
What is your build teaching you
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I call it the 10 minute league because it is chock-full of people that are good at winning in the first 10 minutes. Learn to make this work for you.
You will want Macro orientated builds with good timing pushes that could cripple your opponent without crippling your build.
Never expect to Win the game with a single timing push, it should only be part of your build.
You need to stick with your builds, even if your not sure about them.
I recommend using a standard style for now. Builds with a good fast expand are the best for reaching mid / late game.
If you are in diamond you should ideally have only 1 ladder build for every matchup TvZ, TvP, TvT.
Exercise: Replace any build that has a greater than 6 minute first expansion timing. Say good by to your great opening and get ready to learn how to play.
How to approach scans
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It is easy to get caught up in the Mule > Scan mode and only spend 1 or 2 scans the entire game. This may be true if your a tip top player but how do you get to this point?
You need to start out with excessive scanning and work backwards. In other words Knowledge > Mule for now.
Use scans to
Make sure your flank is safe while pushing out
Find zerg tech
Locate enemy armies and unit compositions
You will soon find useful scans that you start using every game.
Now find a way to get that information without the scan and replace it with a mule.
For example
A common flank can be scouted with a marine
A viking/Med flyover that can check for zerg tech
A supply depot to know opponents expo timing
A front scout timing for army comp
But you must use scans FIRST. If you just start throwing scouting marines and supply depots everywhere you will be overwhelmed and get very little information.
Use scans and determine the most valuable time frames and locations before replacing with a cheaper method.
Exercise: Use at least 6 scans in the first 15 minutes of a ladder game. (Better skip on that PF)
Community contributions
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On August 31 2011 11:11 TheGreenMachine wrote:
Build order success:
Have a planned build order for each matchup and decide it on the loading screen. Its important to have solid, and specific build orders.
In the early game every supply block or missed scv is a mistake that can add up to losing the game. It can throw off many timings you have that can lead to additional mistakes and can lead to an uphill battle that no one wants to deal with every game.
Know your build order by heart, use muscle memory to your advantage, and do a lot of double-checking!
Exercise: Do your build perfectly up to 30 supply and compare it to a replay of a masters level friend doing the same build. Try to be less than 5 seconds off from his finishing time.
Build order success:
Have a planned build order for each matchup and decide it on the loading screen. Its important to have solid, and specific build orders.
In the early game every supply block or missed scv is a mistake that can add up to losing the game. It can throw off many timings you have that can lead to additional mistakes and can lead to an uphill battle that no one wants to deal with every game.
Know your build order by heart, use muscle memory to your advantage, and do a lot of double-checking!
Exercise: Do your build perfectly up to 30 supply and compare it to a replay of a masters level friend doing the same build. Try to be less than 5 seconds off from his finishing time.
Diamond league play is the worst time to give up. There can be a complicated barrier to overcome at this stage of learning Starcraft, however you are so very close to discovering the true beauty of this game. Hopefully this guide will help many players change their path and reap the rewards of solid play.
Good luck and have fun in your SC2 Career!
