EDT 09:56 CEST 15:56 KST 22:56

Streams: 99 live
60695 total viewers

Active: 8734
[WCS AM] Premier League Ro…
TI3 East Qualifier Preview
[WCS AM] Challenger Round …
StarLadder Season Six Prev…
[SPL] Round 5 Week 3 Previ…
TeamLiquid Map Contest Fin…
Liquid wins the Curse Invi…
mousesports defeats DD.Dot…
Dragon joins Clarity Gaming
Code S Group of Death, Par…
Axiom.Miya Retires
This Week in Starcraft 2: …
tradimo - $36,000 stock pi…
TL Advertising Features
[TV] HBO Game of Thrones
[TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Gam…
Korean Drama Discussion
UN's Insect Eating Report
Rossi's energy catalyzer
TL.net Ten Commandments
Barcraft @Marseille - WCS …
The Automated Ban List
Presenting Store 2.0
WCS EU Finals - Essex Barc…
The Flash Fanclub
The Moon Fanclub
German Zerg Stream (commen…
[Stream] ASL in Korea
Buying a Desktop computer.…
[G] Streaming with OBS (Op…
Teamliquid Page Bug ?
Teamliquid freezing in Chr…
Computer Build Resource Th…
Masters League is way to…
Grandmastering the Ladde…
GM / Master map hacker a…
[Series/Song] Unit Rap B…
Congratz to Nathanias fo…
SPL - Appreciation Thread
[ATC] ROOT vs MVP, Week 8
[SPL] Team 8 vs. KT Rolste…
[SPL] Samsung KHAN vs. EG-…
£400 SC2Improve Summer Lea…
Discover Your Energy StarL…
[G] Woongjin sOs' Gate-Cor…
[G] PvP: Modern DT Expand/…
[G] HTOMario's Understandi…
[G] Analysing Replays
The HotS Protoss Help Me T…
TeamLiquid Map Contest Fin…
TeamLiquid Mapping Contest…
[A] Starbow
Map Jam & Challenge #5
[R] HoTS YABOT
Liquid wins the Curse In…
Dota 2 QQ thread
TI3 East Qualifier Preview
General Discussion
Pick Your Lane - Dota2 m…
The International Intera…
[TPL S5] Demon Edge Cup
[The International] Easter…
Sticky Flames Weekly Dota …
[The International] Wester…
Perfect World's Dota 2 Su…
Simple Questions, Simple A…
A guide to Krobelus, the D…
Solo Mid - Who? What? How?
Newly ported Hero discussi…
[Guide] Storm Spirit by Bl…
Better Server Registry F…
Help running tournament
The Swedish Brood War In…
SC2 Player looking to le…
TeamLiquid Legacy Starle…
sAviOr vs NaDa
[TLS2] Qualifier #4
Torenhire Starleague II
Defiler Tour #57 [75$]
D Ranks Teamleague Season 4
[GC S3] Gambit's Cup Semif…
Simple Questions, Simple A…
Tips and tricks: Defilers …
Practice Partner Thread
Challenger map on Starcraf…
Magic: The Gathering Onl…
Ragnarok Online 2: Legen…
Star Wars - The Old Repu…
2012 - 2013 Football Thr…
Pokemon X and Y [3DS]
[LoL] [SFW] Random Pics & …
[Patch 3.07: Nerf Everythi…
[LoL Stream] Vlanitak
[OGN] Olympus The Champion…
[D] Pro Scene Evolution
[LPL] Tencent LoL ProLeagu…
[Champion] Nunu
[TL R&D] T.R.O.L.L.S.
[Guide] Montegomery's Supe…
The: What is my item worth?
D3 Hardcore Community
Witch Doctor Discussion
[M][N] Les Mafia
Carnival Cruise Mafia
[T] Bastard "Mini" Mafia!
TL Health and Fitness Init…
Bodyweight Training
Olympic Weightlifting Thread
Leta - Movie
Michael - skyline
Anytime - Beast
By.Hero - Shuttle
Anytime - Pusan

Website Feedback

Closed Threads

IRC Chat
irc.quakenet.org #teamliquid

IRC Web Client

TeamSpeak 3 (62 users)

[G] Terran Mechanics/Improvement Guide

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 All
 
 gfever   United States. December 24 2011 19:46. Posts 179
Profile Blog # 
I am going to be creating a couple guides for Terran since I am currently on break and have some spare time. So I felt I should explain the mechanics and mindset so I can get a good foundation on what is expected of you when doing builds. These guides are meant for improving and reaching the tip top of GM. Majority of my experiences are from laddering on the KR server, tho some of my experiences in the past on NA still remain.

--Mindset--

General mindset you should place yourself for macro style in every game you play is to think how can I be as greedy as possible and get away with it. This can be a number of different things.

1. Having the minimum defense possible with the combination of scouting and knowing timings while having either a tech advantage/expo advantage/upgrade advantage/best compostion. Something that can get you a strong foothold in the mid/late game.

2. Knowing when to stop being greedy and identify when your opponent is being too greedy and punish him for it.

3. Use your micro to cut as much corners as you can and don't rely too much on static defense unless nesscary. How can I tighten up this build further?

4. Execution time for keystrokes. You want to have the miniuim amount of strokes to do each action and the fastest way to do it.

5. Once you gain an advantage, make sure you don't lose this advantage and use it to gain something in return. This can be either slowing down their expos, or getting your expo earlier.

6. Get rid of bad habits. Focus on doing good habits and either punish yourself with push ups or a slap to the face. Serious about the last one. =P

7. Stop being a little bitch and ladder. Get over it, we arn't perfect but you want to improve. To be the best you have to beat the best but how the fuck are you gunna get there if you don't learn from your loses. If you suffer from worry about your stupid points so much you arn't fit for high level play, plain and simple because in high level play you need to win games and if you chicken out cuz your afraid to lose then you don't belong in competitve gaming.

8. Blame yourself for the loses. Don't blame the game, the race or the players. There's a difference between raging and frustration. When raging your wasting your timing bitching to death ears, frustration atleast you know you have a problem with your gameplay. I don't rage, I just move on and let that last game be a lesson for being a dumbass.

9. Improving, not trying to win. This is something people may disagree with. Some may say winning means your improving. Imo, I differ on this aspect. Winning implys you reinforce what you already know which is fine unless you know 100% sure you won't learn anything from this. Therefore, playing to improve and not trying to win, testing builds so that later on once perfected can be very potent. Following some of these advice on this guide which are harder to execute but in theory are the better ways to play, etc... I find the most enjoyment of playing this game by testing stuff and having fun seeing how far I can push himself. I don't get pleasure from winning atleast for practice purposes.

10. You should never rely on a type of build that hopes on your opponent in making a mistake. No where is that acceptable in competitive play. You never see professionals rely on their opponents to make mistakes in any sport, what they do instead is to learn to capatalize on it, but thats a whole different concept. You should instead solely rely on your skills and your skills only to pull you thru not the other way around.

These are the mindsets are needed when going macro oriented play. Tho, very general, it is very hard to get a good balance between them and mastering one set of them. But you do want to aim for them.

--Greed--

Greed is an important tool to learn. How far you can push this can totally change the outcome of your game. Greed can be not making bunkers, or getting an early expo. Do not confuse this with blind greed, what you need is calculated greed. Such as having your marines on the edge of the ramp in a cocave formation instead of relying on a bunker. With this you can get your barracks earlier or your gas earlier therefore have either a stronger 2 base push or faster 3rd expo. Can either have a supply depot wall and make your raxes as your wall instead of a bunker backed up by a pre-spread of marines. Building the expo on the bottom instead of in your base or sending your scout at a later time, building orbitals instead of relying on planteries. A lot of things contruibute to this calculated greed. How well you scout and what timings you are looking for, most importantly exact timings on when their expos start or gas timings. Of course there are cases where you are in such a good postion that all you need to do is survive and that is when you have to recognize that situation and stop being greedy. Or that the build order of your opponent cannot be stopped by just pure micro and you must build bunkers. Blind greed can sometimes be good in a bo3/5/7 along as its hidden. But its generally not a good way to practice for ladder.

Greed is a tricky thing to learn and balance and one of the hardest things I had to deal with. It takes tons of games inorder to tone it to the right amount but in the end you still soon find out that you are able to win games easily. This is also to say that your micro has improved and your mechanics aswell inorder to make this possible.

Sometimes I even just leave games where I even get a small disadvantage from which I could have avoided. The point is that I try to perfect my build in a way where I never get a disadvantage from and once I do get one there is no point because all the timings and order of the build will be offset. So learning from this game is pointless to me. This is usually early portion of the game but to improve the quickest you can't be doing mistakes too early. You will just be learning from a disadvantage which you should never have in the first place. It has no place in a tournment environment.

--Tempo--

Many people don't understand this in terms of the game yet its a very important way to think about the game. Let's break it down to lame man's terms. In terms of chess, tempo is essentially a move. White moves first so white always has the tempo advantage at the start. Black is in the disadvantage since he must defend what white throws at him. Once black can defend everything and plugged all this holes, then can he start worrying about gaining back his move. White loses his tempo if he does a useless move that doesn't threaten or atleast force black to react and make an undesirable move. Black has to gain 2 moves inorder to gain a tempo, hence their will be times where no one has the tempo advantage.

So how does tempo relate to starcraft? Well simple, there will always be a white and a black in starcraft. One that has the tempo and one that does not. Since starcraft doesn't just say you are either white or black right at the start of the game, it will be determined by the player's opening build. So essentially the entire point of the game from start to end is to gain this tempo advantage.

So for example, my TvP I play as the black player and defend early game since i 1 rax expo. Once my medivacs are out I gain the tempo. It is up to me to keep this tempo advantage so I continue making medivacs even aganist colossus. Why not vikings? Well if I make vikings I will lose my tempo advantage and allow the protoss to do what they want since I am preparing for a head on attack. No one has the tempo advantage if I making vikings. If I continue to make medivacs, I can keep the protoss in their base and force them to do things they don't want to do. With this tempo advantage I can grab bases without much worry since the protoss can't move out or else I'll gladly attack from 3-4 angles and slaughter his economy.

Again in my TvZ, I am the white player. Trying to build this unstoppable mech composition that is very cost effective. So I already placed a ticking timer on the zerg player right at the start. I open hellions so the zerg has to react, zerg doesn't want to build more queens or spines but he has to. Until the zerg gets out mutas, I lose the tempo and the zerg gains it. Until I max at 200, then i regain my tempo.

--How to Improve--

Many of the lower levels are very build order oriented players and worry way too much about composition. I say do away with that and focus purely on mechanics and less about build orders. I agree once you get to a certain level build orders become very important but that is because you will then be high enough that every little thing matters.

There is no excuse that you can't macro perfectly for the first 10 mins, absolutely. Once you play tons of games you can pretty much do this without thinking much at all. It becomes ingrained into your skull.

The best tip I can give you is to play without sound. JUST DO IT. This will punish you for not looking at your supply or minimap harder and force you to always look at them. This was the best way I was able to improve the quickest in my macro by just turning off the game sound and blasting music. Do this for a good 2 months and revert back and you will see a large difference in your macro and awareness.

Force yourself in uncomfortable situations. I am not talking about in terms of getting a disadvantage, but more of 'you know this is the best way to play but you are doing something inferior' type of deal. Such as you know 1 rax expo is the best build for this matchup but you don't do it. DO IT. Force yourself to learn the ins and outs of it. It may take you a total of 1000 games of this one build but it will be very solid build that you can rely on as your backbone build. Don't always assume that just because you can't hold off a certain build that its not possible. Find a way, until after 100 games and it still becomes a problem even tho you tried tons of options with perfect macro/micro possible then you can ditch it. In my experiences, I use to think that way, just cuz its hard it isn't possible but I just kept doing it and watched players able to pull it off all the time and said to myself 'well if they can do it wtf can't I'. You should be able to 1 rax expo in all MUs and be safe. But the transtions are different for each. That will be explained in another guide.

One thing that I did in my early 'noob' days when switching or learning a new game was to spam my keys while I was watching a movie, gsl, or youtube..etc... Unplug your keyboard, and just go thru your macro and hard to hit combinations or keys you don't hit 100% frequently. I was able to save myself time and focus purely on my game sense and strategies instead of worrying about execution. I recommend you do this step first even if you think you are doing this quite well already, I still do this to this day and I want to execute these strokes as quickly as I can get them. This should be the first thing you should work on since its the easiest part that is something that is worked on solely on your part and not relient on your opponent's behalf.

--Hotkeys--

Some noticeable traits I've seen in players in the lower leagues is how they position their hand on the keyboard. You generally want your hand fairly spread out so you can hit as many keys easily and have each finger able to hit mutiple keys on the keyboard and none overlapping. This in theory should reduce the amount of time in reaching for the desired key aswell as make it more possible to use more control groups. There is no excuse if you can't hit 7 on your keyboard. Remove your Windows key and your Caps lock key so you know that you hit the wrong key when you were aiming for ctrl.

I generally do not recommend changing the keyboard hotkeys too much other than some exceptions such as the 9 and 0, patrol, land/lift, location keys, planetary fortress, blue flame, ship upgrades, load/unload bunker. These are pretty far off but its still possible to hit them with my thumb but to make my macro more smooth I had to change them.

You should have a minium of 3 army groups and min of 5 building groups, one for each building orbital/rax/fact/starport/upgrades. I however use total of 5 army groups, but not all would be used all the time. I have keys specfically for tanks/bio+medivacs/air/ghosts/2nd army. This is for me to easily memorize and for late game situational control. Once you have everything in a control group you will find out that you will have less time searching for things and more time DOING THINGS. I have started experimenting with adding my upgrades into my orbital control group which frees up hotkey 8 for something else. Up to your preference really.

Reason why I frown upon players who use one group for all their buildings is that it limits the rally points of the buildings. I have builds that have specfic buildings rallied to different places at once. Also I come from a BW background so that also comes into play. Also sometimes I want to specficly build things from my starport and don't want to tab thur twice to get there. Or I want to hit my factory group twice so my screen jumps to that location so I can research seige. You don't have those options with tabbing. Only con is that if you want everything to rally at one point it takes more actions, other than that macro cycles take the same strokes. You want to have your army in as many army groups since in theory this will improve your control if you are fast enough. Clicking is far inferior compared to Clicking + keys. Execution time is very important skill.

Another thing to note is that you want to think about how many strokes it takes for you to do a specfic action and whether there is an alternate way to get the same effect with 1-2 less strokes. For example, A moving your army of Tank/bio/medivac/ghost around with 3 control groups. Reducing it to just 2 actions. Having your tank/bio/medivac on one group and ghost in another but then having your tanks in another group. That way it takes 2 actions to move your army around instead of 3 and you can easily seige in time.

Location keys F1-F4, THESE ARE VERY VERY IMPORTANT. I cannot stress how important these are especially for terran. When dropping mules in the middle of microing, avoiding drops, starting/landing expos, checking saturation or transfering scvs. You will soon find that you have more time to do more things because you arn't scrolling around so much. Saving a couple scvs or possiblity even saving them all while still able to micro your harassment can save you tons of games. In the start of every game you should set your location keys on expos that you are going to take in sequence. This way you don't waste time setting them up later.

Use control to hotkey your army and regoup them easier instead of double clicking. Also use control and hit your idle worker button to highlight all of them then hit a location and click on mineral patch. Time is money.

Don't click your command card. Only time you should be looking at the command card are for mule/scan high to see whether you have enough energy and whether you started an upgrade. You should utlize all the hotkeys in your disposal. Never click your command card. If you still have a habit clicking the command card I recommend use a sticky note and paste it right on top of it.

If you still are learning the game then you shouldn't be putting too much emphasis one what keyboard or mouse you use. As long as its close to factory standard devices come you can easily get GM with that equipment. Until you start being more competitive and join lans + tourneys then it would be recommended to get some gaming gear. The first time I got a gaming mouse and keyboard was back when I was barely hitting GM. Overall the equipment allowed more control especially the mouse was a big change for me. The amount of pressure it took to click changed how I microed a lot of my units. The pressure in keys also slightly uped my macro but not enough to be game breaking, its more of a relief for the long gaming sessions.

--Settings--

Lower your graphics to low, you are not here to watch HQ movies you are here to win at starcraft. Turn off all the garbage that is cluttering your screen. It makes it more simpler to micro armies and macro without pretty flowers in the way. Less clutter will making your eyes easier to adjust to and less crap to think about.

Health Bar always on.

Flyer helper ON. Reason is for medivac drops and to see whether your banshee is on the high ground or not. Helpful to know if your medivac can start auto unload when you click D on it. Other than that this is also useful if you play protoss for the warp prism elevator technique. Storming mutas, landing vikings or balling up your mutas.

Hide menu bar, clutters your screen and you dont' want to misclick it in the middle of the game.

Sound OFF, explained above.

Game Timer ON, Super important.

Control groups, Either hidden or unclickeable.

Display build grid. Very important when learning new maps and building walls.

Turn off Alerts. I sometimes misclick these overall not that useful anyways.

--Macro Tips--

You should be able to go thur your macro cycles fairly quickly, somewhere around 2 seconds will suffice. If it takes longer than 2 seconds you are too slow. I can do them in 1 second. You want to aiming to slim down that number because macro is such a core part of the game that if you do slim it down imagine the amount of time you can use for micro and other things. Its also very important turn down your key press delay in your control panel keyboard settings.

The way I was able to learn to hit these keys as quickly as I can was to go into notepad and just ferociously spam these. Aswell as keys that were hard to hit for me. Do my macro cycle over and over until it was smooth and quick. Until you get to a point where you don't even think about doing your cycles. You need to get to a point where you build a sort of cycle in your macro rotation. Here's an example of my thought process while macroing.

1) Micro for about 10-15 seconds then start step 2.
2) Look at supply. Do I need depots? if so, Location key > SCV > Depot > Look at minimap > Repeat step 1.
3) Look at resources. Gauge how much of each building I can produce. (Sometimes I skip this step if I am in a battle)
4) Go thur my buildings and produce units while looking at minimap.
5) Any mules to drop? Sometimes I do this step blindly immediately after step 4. Repeat step 1.

Generally you want to do your macro cycle as quickly as possible and giving your full attention on micro. The more time you spend doing your macro cycle the less effective you are.

SCV saturation is a large part of the game. This in itself is very important for the flow of the game. If you would have not made those 6 extra scvs you would've had 2 more raxes. Imo, you want a max of 20 scvs for minerals and 6 for gas total of 26 for each base. 16 for each mineral line is optimized but you will have some scvs building structures and you want to have a little bit over saturated because some mineral patches require 3. Good way to gauge is to hit your location key, highlight the mineral line only and look at the bottm of your screen. If you see 2 full rows of scvs then you need to start thinking about stopping scv production. You hear pros talk about its generally a good idea to keep making scvs for the lower leagues. I guess I can agree slightly because there are a lot of other problems that lower leagues have which can help them when they lose a group of scvs but if you polished your skills enough this would be a recommended skill to learn. Having not spend resources on useless scvs and spent them on starting an expo or more production would change the flow of your mid game quite significantly. I would say if you plan to expand, start up the scv production after the expo has started. That way you are a little bit over saturated and can transfer when the orbital finishes and landed.

Do not queue, inorder to optimize your macro you cannot start anything that isn't started immediately. This includes upgrades, buildings, units. Don't use an scv to start a chain of depots, use instead 3 scvs to build all 3. Select a couple scvs start the depots then hold shift and click back on a mineral patch, this goes same with buildings.

Your intial mules should be microed so they don't waste their 30 minerals on their last trip. On certain mineral patches if the mules does its last trip it will die before reaching the CC, therefore wasting 30 minerals. This isn't something huge but its something if you have the APM to do which you should because macro in SC2 is super easy. Late game drop your mules on seperate minerals if not you lose 30 minerals each time.

Build your production tightly together and your upgrades inbetween your main and natural. That is generally the safest place to build so they don't get sniped by mutas or drop play. Then place some depots on the edges of the cliffs to spot drops quicker. When late game comes into play you want to place some of your production in other bases so that if in a base trade scenario occurs you can still produce. Build your production in a row from top to bottom with each row 2 hexes apart. This will give you the most space possible on tight maps.

When doing scv transfers or getting your scvs back on mining gas as quick as possible after some harassment, you want to get your scvs back on gas ASAP. The best technique is by having all your scvs clicked on a gas geyser then hold shift + click on 2-3 scvs that show up on the bottom console. Repeat this for the 2nd geyser then click on a mineral patch.

Never chase your enemy's scout. You need to maximize your mineral income and any deterance to that will hinder your build to having an offset. Only time you should pull an scv to deal with his worker if you cannot rotate your scv building a building (explained below).

--Micro Tips--

If you are very serious about Starcraft you can also change the way you box your units. Boxing from the Top Right to the Bottom Left allows your mouse to be closer to the minimap. This saves tons of time when moving armies by minimap instead of dragging your mouse all the way from the Bottom Right to click on the minimap. This is just a slight advantage but it can add up, especially with harassment, having that extra second to react, or faster relocation of army.

You shouldn't scroll as much. I'd say I scroll about 20% and the rest are a combination of double tapping my control groups or clicking on the minimap. Scrolling is very popular in the lower leagues and its sort of a bad habit. Many of the times people scroll to watch the battles and not actually micro. If you are watching the battle and not macroing your wasting time. You should by just galancing at the army gauge that whether you will come out on top or not. Whether its worth the effort to even micro and whether you have enough time to go back and macro and jump back in. Like in TvT marine/tank vs marine/tank. if the engagment if in an open area I seige my tanks then stim my marines but box some from the side and flank a little so the marines from the main army can get more of a concave. But if the battle takes place on a 4 forcefield wide choke I just siege, stim and A move then go back and macro and jump back in time to see if my marines need to back up from seige fire. Cases where I stim to engage a protoss army but there is small amount of time before they can reach and start firing I sneak in a macro cycle quickly then micro my army.

If want even more edge, you may want to fix your mouse to 1:1 pixels so your mouse clicking is more accurate and you have more control with your mouse. You should play with a mouse with 1600 DPI atleast. If you want to be the best you need to be fast. Refer to this link: http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com/2010/03/markc-windows-7-mouse-acceleration-fix.html

Another thing is the scroll speed. I have mine all the way to max. Again if I can move quickly I can react quicker. This is your preferance but having it slow scroll speed won't be as fast to micro with.

You can halt the scv building on a structure by click on T, then tell them to build the structure again by click on the structure. This will rotate the scv around the building if timed right. If you continue to do this, your scv will rotate in a circle randomly. That way in some cases you don't need to pull a 2nd scv for the probe harassment and lose mining time. You can also use this tactic to keep your scv on the inside of your base so that he doesn't get attacked from the outside. This is especially useful if you find yourself in a situation where melee attackers are attacking your wall but your wall is not entirely complete or started late.

When using hellions its better to attack perpendicularly to your targets even tho moving to that location might lose a hellion. Usually this situtation is good when if you do lose some hellions you will still able to one shot your targets. Also when attacking your enemy's mineral line if he makes an scv line, target 3-4 scvs up the line so that the search area effect will kill the scvs that are behind the intial target inorder to optimize damage.

If your enemy worker sneaks into your base and you are donig a build that requires both gases and your enemy has the potential of stealing your gas. Place a worker on hold position on one of the 4 corners of your unmade gas geyser. This will prevent your opponent from stealing your gas and doesn't require you to create your 2nd gas geyser so early. Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast, are the possible positions to block. You can also do this aganist your enemy's 2nd gas to delay them. Usually good to do aganist a protoss before the 4:10 stalker or his first zealot comes out.

--Game Sense--

The fastest way to learn this skill is to watch every single replay. Learn not just timings but most importantly gas timings, chrono, queen timings, egg morph timings, rax/pool/gateway/cyber timings and expo timings are the only real and easily scoutable things possible. Everything else that is scouted is luck based. You want to search for where your opponent is placing their gas into and how you can scout that and when. Do you know when a standard stalker should come out? Do you know the proper time for an expo to start for a 1 gateway expand? Can you identify when speed finishes? When should mutas come out? When would the first standard banshee come out? Timings are important but I don't rely them so heavily. I don't actually know when a 6 roach rush would hit me or a 1 gate expo into 7 gate hits because I can defend them easily if scouted. I just solely rely on my scouting to identify whether they are expanding/teching/being aggressive. Until the game gets much more figured out and it becomes a must to learn more timings these are usually what goes thur my mind. General mutas timings are important so you know when to position your marines to interrcupt them and not make turrets too early. Things like a general time for a 3rd expo and whether is that 3rd actually a greedy one? Whether I'm in a postion to attack it or expand aswell. Hive timing based on how much gas used. A lot of the game sense can only be gauge by the gas usage and whether they take the 3rd and 4th gas quick or not can show a lot. Generally I don't learn specfic timings of attacks. Only things I memorize are things I know if they play standard it should not change. Such as DTs, Void rays, banshee, baneling/hatch cancel, mostly from 1 base. Builds other than the opening vary a lot so its hard to gauge if its a 6 gate + tech or a 7 gate all-in without burning a scan and getting lucky. I don't rely a lot with scans so only scv scouting and xel naga control are what I use for info.

--Decision Making--

You should generally know that you made a bad decision with your army. But the real true test is whether you know when to take expos and whether you know how to defend them properly. Whether you are ready for a tech switch. Positioned your army correctly to stop drops and counter attacks. There isn't an easy way to explain other than learning from your mistakes and knowing how to correct them. Generally turtling is a good thing to do if you have no clue what to do in this situation. Its something you can always lean back on. But don't overdo because once higher levels identify them they can certainly abuse it so then you will have to react to that.

--Replays/Vods--

When watching replays that you've lost, understand exactly where you got a disadvantage. This will prob be hard thing to depict because it isn't always army size that counts. It could be postioning, slow tech, building placement, scouting info, etc. See the points where you slipped on macro/micro. If you did any mistakes in the first 10 mins its very important you fix them before moving on. I am always very picky on little things that I could have done even tho there is no threat of it coming. Always ready for whatever that is getting thrown my way. Until I know exactly what my opponent is doing can I relax but from the moment the game starts I am worried until I gain some sort of advantage I can work with. Basically need to be on your toes. So you really want to be very picky and find holes even those this particular game it didn't happen and elimate the possibilities as the game goes on.

When watching Vods from professionals note why they did the strat. Is it a mind game strat? Is it based on map or the player? Is it metagame? A lot of strats you see in the vods won't simply work on ladder due to the fact they are played in a tournment enivornment in a best of 3 or 5 and probarly would only be used once. When I watch vods I don't look at them particularly for build orders but more on how they do their decision making and what makes their decision making better than mine? Same thing goes for streams. What is it that I would do in this situation compared to them? Does it match? If not why? Is it the right choice given the information they have? What would help improve on this decision making? These questions need to go thur your mind as you watch videos of starcraft.

--Experimenting--

This is the last of your concerns. Once you have gotten to a point where you have solid standard builds and know many of the standard timings and have solid mechanics which can push you into late game then you can consider this option. This is when you can start creating your own style. Try to find small timings to abuse, or unexplored territory such as mech, or maybe even an entirely new way to tackle a certain compostion.

I watch bw vods and streams when I have time to ponder on a strat that I have been having problems on or want to tweak. BW has been more developed and thiers tons of small things players do throughout the game to counter and react that I can possibly take from. To be honest, there are tons of things the current pros don't do enough. A prime example of this 1-2 army group syndrone, this 1 A move without spread or moving zealots in the front. Maybe its because sc2 isn't rewarding enough for positional or tactically maxed armies. But nothing the less, if you don't see pros doing it, it isn't nesscarily not good. Bisu once totally flipped the PvZ matchup upside when he introduced this Forge FE into corsiar DT play. There are definately tons of unexplored territory out there, as more maps allow for easier and easier natural expos the possiblites can increase due to easier time to hold, therefore more tech options.

--Future Metagames--

Hopefully in the future we will see more of these tactics being used, atm the pros arn't doing these and I know these bw pros switching over will utilize.

- burrow banelings in potential mineral lines
- double/triple nydus worms or warp prisms in late game
- use of overlord drops with banelings or infestors
- defensive nydus worms to protect multiple drops, especially with ling/infestor composition
- in tvt mech usage of mass turret rings and senor towers to defend sky terran switches
- tvt mech with 4+ medivacs to secure locations/deny expos quickly
- building buildings on the edges of the base on non-cliff areas so drops need to get more into the base
- protosses having only max of 2-3 pylons in each base and every other pylon outside their base, given that the maps are larger and protosses know how to defend drops well
- TvP use of phoneixs to deter drops
- Usage of 2-4 observers in TvP

TvZ Reactor Hellion Expand Banshee Mech Opening

+ Show Spoiler +

TvP 1 Rax expand into bio

+ Show Spoiler +

TvT 1 Rax Expand Into Double Gas

+ Show Spoiler +

--Replays--

http://drop.sc/packs/419

Here are some replays demostrating some of the stuff I've talked about for this guide tho I've included TvP mech replays in this just for entertainment purposes. Overall I'll post a more serious replay pack dedicated for this guide later on as this one was quickly put together. Some builds are experimental so not fine tuned enough but if you really want to learn mech theses are still great demostrations of its power. This pack will suffice long enough until I get some more time for more games. All games were played in high master+ on korean server. Enjoy.

More guides coming as I get spare time.

--Theory Crafting--

+ Show Spoiler +

--Videos--

My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SC2Fever/videos

TvT Videos
+ Show Spoiler +

TvP Videos
+ Show Spoiler +

TvZ Videos
+ Show Spoiler +

--Stream--

Will begin streaming on a more regular bias starting the end of september, will probraly have a mixature of SC2 on weekends and GW2 on weekdays depends on my college work load.
http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/gfever
Last edit: 2012-08-13 10:48:34
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/gamfvr, My Terran Guide: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=297764
Old Post

 
 shell   Portugal. December 24 2011 21:17. Posts 1767
Profile # 
You are a GM Player?

there are some good tips here, i'm gonna try some stuff!
// Teams: EG, TL, IM, FXO // Players: Dimaga, Life, Jaedong, Thorzain, Stephano, Ret, Sen, incontrol, machine, Syz, Nestea, Leenock //
Old Post

 
 RevTiberius   Canada. December 24 2011 22:15. Posts 243
Profile Blog # 
I'm struggling with a lot of these issues myself, chronicling my progress in a blog. To me mechanics is the hardest part of the game. I see it in a lot of players who are better than me. They don't really play "better", they just have better mechanics/higher APM.

Good luck!
Teaching Chess to a Starcraft 2 Grandmaster: http://revtiberius.blogspot.com/
Old Post

  andycz   December 24 2011 22:35. Posts 288Profile # 
Very nice!
Always looking for practice partners. EU: andy.1535
Old Post

 
 xsksc   United Kingdom. December 24 2011 23:33. Posts 1028
Profile Blog # 
Wow this is amazing, I'm a random masters player but Terran has always been my weakest race, this is gonna help me a lot! Thank you! :D

This deserves a spotlight imo.
Old Post

 
 Tetris_SC   Australia. December 25 2011 00:23. Posts 19
Profile # 
wow this was a really good read. cheers for the effort.

Merry christmas!
Old Post

 
 Mantraz   Norway. December 25 2011 01:29. Posts 114
Profile # 
I disagree with sound off, there are things which you can hear but not see. A lot of good tips but playing with warnings and sound off surely will get you nuked. Medivac loading can also be heard, before seen.
Old Post

 
 Mothra   United States. December 25 2011 03:45. Posts 958
Profile Blog # 
Very helpful thank you. One question on macro cycle... how exactly do you press your keys/manage queuing? Hold down key or press it repeatedly? I'm very ineffecient and waste a lot of time when trying to pump out say marine marauder, because I'm having to check which barracks have what add ons, how many I already have queued etc.

Like I want to make 2 marauder, 10 marine, 1 tank, 2 medivac, 2 scv, so: 3ss4ddaaaaaaaaaa5s6dd
That sequence should be 2 seconds or less? Pressing A ten times it's hard to go fast and keep count.
Last edit: 2011-12-25 04:24:31
Old Post

 
 gfever   United States. December 25 2011 05:37. Posts 179
Profile Blog # 

On December 24 2011 21:17 shell wrote:
You are a GM Player?

there are some good tips here, i'm gonna try some stuff!



Yep



On December 25 2011 01:29 Mantraz wrote:
I disagree with sound off, there are things which you can hear but not see. A lot of good tips but playing with warnings and sound off surely will get you nuked. Medivac loading can also be heard, before seen.


Other than nukes, nydus and medivac dropping should be seen on the minimap if you constantly spread your buildings on the edge of cliffs. Nuking and nydusing to expand somewhere else are pretty rare and isn't something fought too often. Those are really the only disadvantages but not that huge of a deal since prob only 2% of my games have either 2. Point of turning off sound is to spot these drops and nydus before they deal damage. That is the main focus of improvement.



On December 25 2011 03:45 Mothra wrote:
Very helpful thank you. One question on macro cycle... how exactly do you press your keys/manage queuing? Hold down key or press it repeatedly? I'm very ineffecient and waste a lot of time when trying to pump out say marine marauder, because I'm having to check which barracks have what add ons, how many I already have queued etc.

Like I want to make 2 marauder, 10 marine, 1 tank, 2 medivac, 2 scv, so: 3ss4ddaaaaaaaaaa5s6dd
That sequence should be 2 seconds or less? Pressing A ten times it's hard to go fast and keep count.


Usually I hit my marauder key couple times then hold down marines hit factory hit seige tank 1-2 times hit starport hit medivac 1-2 times. Something like this.

4ss5dddaaaaaaa6ss7dd
Last edit: 2011-12-25 05:38:11
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/gamfvr, My Terran Guide: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=297764
Old Post

  Divinek   Canada. December 25 2011 06:50. Posts 4016Profile Blog # 
Number 7 is very true, people have to realize even progamers usually only win around 60% of the time and even the very best usually cap out at 70% long term

also any chance for a replay pack? Maybe ones that provide strong examples for some points you touch on
Last edit: 2011-12-25 06:51:54
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Oh goodness me, FOX tv where do you get your sight? Can't you keep track, the puck is black. That's why the ice is white.
Old Post

 
 huehuehuehue   Estonia. December 25 2011 06:58. Posts 451
Profile Blog # 
Thank you for this blog. It's gonna be hard at first to get used to new hotkeys/camera hotkeys, but i'm sure in a few months it'll be worth it. And better to get used to these things now when i'm just in gold league.
Old Post

 
 RevTiberius   Canada. December 25 2011 09:09. Posts 243
Profile Blog # 
This is a fantastic blog. Though some of your suggestions only work when you have the APM for it. At any rate I'll try to follow your advice.

And I'm looking forward to your TvP section
Teaching Chess to a Starcraft 2 Grandmaster: http://revtiberius.blogspot.com/
Old Post

 
 wOrD yO   Australia. December 25 2011 21:37. Posts 119
Profile # 
awesome blog, it has helped me already. thanks alot keep them coming!
wOrD.339
Old Post

 
 Yoshi Kirishima   United States. December 28 2011 20:11. Posts 9002
Profile Blog # 
Why is this in blogs?

(waiting for mod to move and be humored since usually threads are moved to blogs not the other way)

Thanks a lot for making this. This is a huge guide!

I have a question for TvZ Bio/Mech. I was thinking you were talking about Marine Tank, but I guess not. What is it supposed to be about? The only other styles I know of that open with bio and mech are marine hellion medivac, like back when the SlayerS Terrans were doing that aggressive early game BFH/marine elevator into Zergs' bases.


Edit: I've been reading the TvZ part about Mech (I love mech!) AND IT IS DAMN GOOD with a lot of sexy shit.

Dude, this guide is sexy shit.

Strike Cannon sniping hatches late game with 3 meds/thors? I didn't think of that =O.

Seems like your TvZ opener is very similar to Gumiho's. He's the first one I've seen do that kind of build (reactor hellions into expand + banshees) in tournies, especially the GSL. However, he usually doesn't pull 2 guys off of gas. Instead (for one of his variations) he cuts hellions whenever needed, while prioritizing the starport/banshee(s) and expansion. It seems by cutting 2 guys off gas though, you get a CC up faster, so I might start doing that instead of keeping them on.


About Control Groups. NICE. I get annoyed and confused seeing progamers using 1 control group. Few use even 2.

I myself use up to 4 xD Thors, Hellions, Tanks, then all Air units or Ghosts (for mech TvZ and TvT, at least).

You use 1 for each building. Me too (though I use 1 for ebays and 1 for armories). Have you considered using 1 hotkey for your supply depot "door"? You know, the one you open up to enter and exit your main (and later on your natural)? It's really convenient to me. I can keep it open and when there is the threat of units running in I can close it up quickly without looking back. If I want to reinforce units to my main army I can keep it open and use a location key to select them, move them out, then if needed later, close the depot without looking. Otherwise you'd be slightly slower at closing it, and that might make the difference especially if a bunch of lings get into your natural.

Edit2:


Use the factory with your push or land it at his 3rd. This can be used to get his army out of position if he decides to send his army to kill it. haha stupid n00bs. You can use the factory to screw around with the AI when you engage head on.


LOL this was just hilarious.

By screwing with the AI, the only thing I can think of is if you bring your factory out in front a bit more and he happens to a-click so his stalkers start to attack the factory instead of your army, and then you stim forward and attack?
Last edit: 2011-12-29 08:35:38
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Old Post

 
 Yoshi Kirishima   United States. December 29 2011 09:02. Posts 9002
Profile Blog # 
About your TvZ mech opening. You say it's important to be as greedy as possible. Usually when Gumiho opens, he will actually build his third base-CC at 7:25 ish, before his 3rd gas and before he adds 2 more factories and an armory to start making thors to stop the mutas. What do you think about this? Do you simply prefer to get more army first?

Also you said to build 3 turrets. 1 at each mineral line, then 1 for your factories. If you already have 1-2 thors out, do you ever skip those? I remember once MVP was going mech in I forget what game but he didn't build turrets at his mineral line. Instead he built them around his base/factories towards the outside, which he could use as his future turret ring later on (these early turrets aren't as close to the border as they could or should be to stop drops, but they still help against mutas and later on he can build turrets closer to the edge). What do you think about this? Is it situational, that MVP simply decided his opponent would not have enough Mutas for his 2 thors to stop and so he didn't need 1 turret at his main and natural's mineral lines?

Thanks in advance!
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Old Post

 
 gfever   United States. December 29 2011 11:28. Posts 179
Profile Blog # 

On December 28 2011 20:11 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
Why is this in blogs?

(waiting for mod to move and be humored since usually threads are moved to blogs not the other way)

Thanks a lot for making this. This is a huge guide!

I have a question for TvZ Bio/Mech. I was thinking you were talking about Marine Tank, but I guess not. What is it supposed to be about? The only other styles I know of that open with bio and mech are marine hellion medivac, like back when the SlayerS Terrans were doing that aggressive early game BFH/marine elevator into Zergs' bases.


Edit: I've been reading the TvZ part about Mech (I love mech!) AND IT IS DAMN GOOD with a lot of sexy shit.

Dude, this guide is sexy shit.

Strike Cannon sniping hatches late game with 3 meds/thors? I didn't think of that =O.

Seems like your TvZ opener is very similar to Gumiho's. He's the first one I've seen do that kind of build (reactor hellions into expand + banshees) in tournies, especially the GSL. However, he usually doesn't pull 2 guys off of gas. Instead (for one of his variations) he cuts hellions whenever needed, while prioritizing the starport/banshee(s) and expansion. It seems by cutting 2 guys off gas though, you get a CC up faster, so I might start doing that instead of keeping them on.


About Control Groups. NICE. I get annoyed and confused seeing progamers using 1 control group. Few use even 2.

I myself use up to 4 xD Thors, Hellions, Tanks, then all Air units or Ghosts (for mech TvZ and TvT, at least).

You use 1 for each building. Me too (though I use 1 for ebays and 1 for armories). Have you considered using 1 hotkey for your supply depot "door"? You know, the one you open up to enter and exit your main (and later on your natural)? It's really convenient to me. I can keep it open and when there is the threat of units running in I can close it up quickly without looking back. If I want to reinforce units to my main army I can keep it open and use a location key to select them, move them out, then if needed later, close the depot without looking. Otherwise you'd be slightly slower at closing it, and that might make the difference especially if a bunch of lings get into your natural.

Edit2:


Show nested quote +



LOL this was just hilarious.

By screwing with the AI, the only thing I can think of is if you bring your factory out in front a bit more and he happens to a-click so his stalkers start to attack the factory instead of your army, and then you stim forward and attack?



Thanks for reading.

I don't use a hotkey for my door as I always close it after I move out. A good zerg would split his army to flank so you can't just keep rallying units one a time to get picked off. So I send them in groups.

As for the factory, yes that was what I meant. Allow his stalkers to stand there attacking the factory while your vikings kill his colossus. You can even put your vikings inside the factory so he can't target fire them. But its pretty hard to execute.


On December 29 2011 09:02 Yoshi Kirishima wrote:
About your TvZ mech opening. You say it's important to be as greedy as possible. Usually when Gumiho opens, he will actually build his third base-CC at 7:25 ish, before his 3rd gas and before he adds 2 more factories and an armory to start making thors to stop the mutas. What do you think about this? Do you simply prefer to get more army first?

Also you said to build 3 turrets. 1 at each mineral line, then 1 for your factories. If you already have 1-2 thors out, do you ever skip those? I remember once MVP was going mech in I forget what game but he didn't build turrets at his mineral line. Instead he built them around his base/factories towards the outside, which he could use as his future turret ring later on (these early turrets aren't as close to the border as they could or should be to stop drops, but they still help against mutas and later on he can build turrets closer to the edge). What do you think about this? Is it situational, that MVP simply decided his opponent would not have enough Mutas for his 2 thors to stop and so he didn't need 1 turret at his main and natural's mineral lines?

Thanks in advance!


If he gets a quick 3rd CC it can certainly work on all maps. He then shouldn't be able to keep constant hellion production if its that early. From what I find with mech is all I really want is to just expo at the same time as the zerg. If that is accomplished you are already in a demanding lead. Also with a quick 3rd it makes any 2 base timing not possible and no longer a build order win if he goes mutas. Without the quick 3rd and 4th gas you shouldn't be able to grab your 3rd as a good zerg should be able to punish you. Since you don't have army present on the map and less tanks the zerg can react by getting the 3rd and 4th at the same time after scouting with mutas. Therefore negecting any damage you've done. Its not expo friendly in my book. You certain will still be safe if done right but you are giving up a lot of map control and pressure when you are already meching. In BW you always wanted your gas ASAP as without gas your useless since the game was so figured out and you never see a super quick 3rd expo after expanding because you would never be able to take it without an army. As the game gets figured out zergs could immediately switch into drops as quick as possible and drop on your low army count is one potential deadly timing. I use to get a 3rd CC quickly off of 1 gas with seige expand but I found I couldn't hit any timing or deny creep. All map control was lost and they are able to tech to hive safely. That doesn't mean the build can't win, its just harder for me because I can't gauge at my position correctly since I don't have any real scoutable timings other than scans..

Greed doesn't nesscary means getting expos. With my build I'm teching and upgrading while expanding. In this order imo is better transtion to mid/late game compared to super quick 3rd expand builds. So my upgrades complete as I grab my 3rd.

It might depend on that extact game with what he scouted and whether he did any damage. I'd say if you scout around 5+ roaches you can expect to not really need turrets at all as your 3rd and 4th thor should pop out barely in time to help, also repair can hold off long enough if he wants to commit. Then you can use your turrets on the out edges of the base. With each 5 roaches you can estimate the muta timing will be pulled back about a minute roughly.
Last edit: 2011-12-29 11:43:53
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/gamfvr, My Terran Guide: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=297764
Old Post

 
 Yoshi Kirishima   United States. December 29 2011 14:45. Posts 9002
Profile Blog # 
Wow, thanks so much for the response!

Wow, I never remember a caster talking about the Factory being used like that. The only thing I've ever heard about a caster regarding a floating factory is them making jokes, that the player is using the factory for vision because, well, he doesn't need it anyway. I've never thought of it being used to either hide vikings or to tank stalkers xD


Ah, that makes sense. Yes, indeed he does have to cut hellion production, quite a lot. Especially to get his starport and 2nd gas and natural CC ASAP.

I think I understand it better now. My experiences match what you say. By taking a third and being passive, they just expo and drone like crazy and tech really fast. I sometimes try to push to punish them for being greedy, but it's hard. I guess it should be a lot easier to do by putting the 2 factories first. So I guess the reason why it's felt hard to me is simply because I was using a build but I didn't quite understand the reason behind each thing in it. ForGG has been doing that a shit ton on his stream, reactor hellion expand into cloak banshees, with a thor hellion banshee push on 2 base

Hm, I didn't think of calculating how delayed his spire would be by looking at how many Roaches he makes.


Once again, thanks for your guide and for any future guides and for your responses/help! I've been trying the no sound thing, and it does help force me to look at my resource/supply and minimap more.

<3
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Old Post

 
 Sp4cem4nSpiff   United States. December 29 2011 19:26. Posts 42
Profile # 
Great guide! Very Helpful!! Thanks for Sharing
Professionals are predictable, but the world is full of Amateurs.
Old Post

 
 decaf   Austria. December 29 2011 21:09. Posts 1693
Profile # 
You shouldn't have posted this in blogs, this belongs in the strategy section. It's great help. the only thing I could ask for is writing down the timings you were talking about, because I'm planning on switching to terran and I only know TvZ timings and this would make my life easier by a huge deal =)
Greate guide.
"Caffeine is ridiculous right now" -RZA
Old Post

 
 Yoshi Kirishima   United States. December 30 2011 08:09. Posts 9002
Profile Blog # 
holy shit! a new guide! thanks :D
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Old Post

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 All
Please log in or register to reply.
 
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
StarCraft 2
Dota 2
Other Notable Streams
[ Show 83 non-featured ]

» Recent SC2 Results
» Premier SC2 Tournaments
Sidebar Settings...

The Little App Factory



The opinions expressed by our users do not reflect the official position of TeamLiquid.net or its staff.

Advertising | Jobs | Privacy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren. Ad tag: TF_US.
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2002-2013 Teamliquid.net. All Rights Reserved