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I've been doing a mass Raven build since beta. Infact, it's the only build I _ever_ run against zerg because of it's effectiveness. I don't use the marines as part of a force, they are simply for defensive measures and once enough have been massed, they can push out to an expansion (with Hellions too) while your Ravens are elsewhere.
You say corruptors are a problem, but I laugh at zerg's who try to use corruptors against my Raven army. Corruptors do bad damage against light units, and Ravens are light. Corruptors can't shoot through PDD and they attack quite slowely which increases PDD's effectiveness. Corruptors still get stomped by auto turrets.
I'll write up my full Raven build later as it highly differs from this one, but this does look quite good.
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On November 24 2010 15:23 Griffith` wrote: I find roach+infestor to be a goddamn nightmare against this, infestors will instagib your marines, and roaches will last from early to late game. I've been needing to transition to banshee/viking against this combination.
I suppose. I always keep them spread when they are a sitting around and zone with tanks. I find that mass speedling/baneling/infestor is more effective than this. Though tanks and banshees are both fairly good support units against this composition.
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Bump. This thread is too good to fall past the 3rd page.
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On November 24 2010 21:28 AcidReniX wrote: I don't use the marines as part of a force, they are simply for defensive measures and once enough have been massed, they can push out to an expansion (with Hellions too) while your Ravens are elsewhere.
I've been doing the same, and continue to wonder at what level does this become ineffective? At what level is the whole continual marine harrass required?
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It seems around ~2000 diamond a few weeks ago when sitting on your duff fails but who knows where it is now.
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On November 27 2010 12:22 Almania wrote:I've been doing the same, and continue to wonder at what level does this become ineffective? At what level is the whole continual marine harrass required?
marine + hellion is cool and all but after playing around with both openers, I'm pretty convinced that continual marine harass forces more larvae to be spent. Proof of this is when I would check my replays and compare the number of my scvs vs the number of drones.
...convinced ever since page 5 of this thread.
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I am starting to come to the opinion that the FE is the wrong way to go about this build. As I have been using this build at higher and higher levels the main problem is that my first attack just gets crushed by a big ball of banelings/zerglings or that mass zergling pressure has really been successful at killing all my scvs/marine at my expansion before I have a big enough marine ball. I think the key to this strategy is really to keep the number of units the zerg has to a minimum. You can build up a ball of about 25 marines + stim MUCH faster if you forgo the FE and just do the expand as your first ball moves out.
The main advantages of this build are in the constant pressure and i don't think the pressure comes fast enough if your worrying about expanding so early in the game. Even the 1 or 2 minutes that a FE delays you is a HUGE difference in this strategy because at the high levels its SO SO FRAGILE. If your first push gets wasted easily by banelings then its basically over. You really need to at least nearly wipe out his entire force with your first push or else his lings will be in your expansion wtf pwning your scvs and you will never be able to recover from that. Also if you see him starting to spread creep SCAN THAT and shut it down early, it makes a huge difference because once the creep spread really gets going you are in big trouble and that big trouble will come before ravens.
I'm sorry this advice doesnt really explain well why I believe the FE doesn't work well but just trust that I have executed this strategy many many times over the last month and I can just feel that this is right.
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statikg: The point of this build is not to 'not die in 1st push', not even 'do much damage with that 1st push'. its just 'shit your pants and build lings instead of drones, also, secure my expansion'. Of course, in some cases it's propably better to 1 base 1st push (steppes maybe? close spots metalopolis?) but you need that cc anyways. about timings: i ussually have enough rines (like 15) to attack in between the 'scary push' with stim. what i do with my army: first 3 marines go map control (kill lings, overlords), 15 marines push (they die, but they force Z to make lings or roaches, no matter what), stim almost finishes and there are almost 20 rines ready. another way to do it is to go for combat shield instead of stim and push once (instead of while waiting for stim and then with stim) with already upped rines (shield takes almost half of stims time to research). the funny thing is, when Z see me go fast expand, they ussually go for quick bling bust or rr. sometimes i lose (i have a hole in my wall), but when you manage to kill off that attack, and put down more barracks and cc in your base in the meantime, Z is just screwed - when i get to his base with my marines, therere like 5 drones at his nat.
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..Shield only takes 30 seconds less. I personally always go stim first, as I feel I can cause more damage with studder stepping stimmed marines, than having 10hp more on each.
If you have a map with a small choke, ie shakuras, LT, Block it with 3 barracks. You can delay that incoming rebound sling bling attack after they shat on your army.
I've found zergs over prepare banelings, which can be a very disadvantageous situation when you lose your army and they just come check you with a bust, that ends up being game ending. I lose to 1 base zergs more than I lose to 3 base zerg.
I do normal 10 supply 12 rax 14 rax 16 oc 16 supply 27/28 CC, then if marine push failed, lift supply, and double gas. I find that rebounds rather nicely, giving me time to another rax or two and fac down to push out again with marine tank. The best army comp I've ever used was marine tank hellion medic, as it tore through anything at all. You have to be aware of late game tech changes though, as ultras and broodlords make marines retardedly easy to kill
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Stim is definitely better these days for dodging banelings and running away. Just don't abuse it and have nothing but half health marines left over.
I don't feel that late game problem is broodlords or utlras on their own, its the potentially high infestor/ultra combo with ling and bling support that really demolish marine/tank positions and pushes.
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I've never seen infestor + ultras. Ever. I see ultra sling roach. Broodlord sling roach. Sling bling infestor. Infestor roach bling. Just a bit gas intensive to do a little infestor/ultra/sling/bling and god forbid they have upgrades.
That's like 6 refineries + worth of gas build up all game.
What else I find is ironic, is the lose everything to ultras in the main post. I think we can agree thors shit all over ultras when you battle in correct spots. 78 or so a volley? Easy to FF down ultras in my mind. I love seeing ultras. I switch all my rax to marauders from marines, and go once I feel I have enough. The game always ends after a marauder thor vs ultra transition.
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It really depends on what position you end up in late game but most of the times I encounter ultras either Zerg could have won in any way he wanted to or he was going to lose anyway and it was out of desperation.
Yes, Thors are great and probably the most reliable endgame but that assumes you have enough time to transition into a mass Thor ball. I still like my mass Marine/Raven with big late game tank/hellion lines. :-\
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On November 28 2010 02:52 Antisocialmunky wrote: It really depends on what position you end up in late game but most of the times I encounter ultras either Zerg could have won in any way he wanted to or he was going to lose anyway and it was out of desperation.
Yes, Thors are great and probably the most reliable endgame but that assumes you have enough time to transition into a mass Thor ball. I still like my mass Marine/Raven with big late game tank/hellion lines. :-\ Don't always need a mass thor ball. If you have 2 factories, you can churn out 2-4 thors to be some form of moving blockade, easily.
I always find time and minerals *generally* to transition into thors when I need to. Remember barracks have 1000 health, +2 armor with upgrade, and provide GREAT walls to buy time.
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I've been toying a bit with this style of play and the aggressive FE build by KME and I want to start using it in my TvZ, as I think it has the potential to not only be effective but also loads of fun. I do have a couple of questions though:
Roughly at what time do you want to be doing your marine + raven push? The one that's listed as attacking Zergs third. I tend to be moving out somewhere right after the 11 minute mark, which feels as if it's a bit late?
What would be a good time to take a third? I do get a bunch of excess minerals around the time when I push out with my initial raven, so economically that would make sense to me I guess.
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This build might be even better with the upcoming patch since you won't be able to FG raven harrass anymore;)
nice!
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@The Viking Kor0na - 11 Minutes is fine for your 2nd/3rd push unless you see an opening earlier where Zerg is droning hard.
@The Viking Kusu - The next patch will be really good because you can pop Infestors with banshees and Zerg will have to go Muta. :DDD
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FG nerf was redacted, along with the bunker buff. Back to the old TvZ....
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I have used this build too less to critisize it but it is definately not my style of play and I don't see the raven to be very very useful at all, especialy since turrets dont work like FF and dont push units aside. Its too micro intensive for a player of my skill (high plat) and seems mean towards zerg players lolz
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You should try the 2 Rax FE into Marine Tank. Playing a macro based game should help you get into Diamond.
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