Starcraft 2 - Read Post #2 for a useful beginner guide

[smackababy]

the people in bronze are pretty terrible. you could win with a SCV rush terrible

I am totally doing this now. I still am in the beginner's practice garbage.

 

[Barfo]

I am totally doing this now. I still am in the beginner's practice garbage.

I'm there too and from the 20 or so games I've played there, an SCV rush would work against one in 6 players or so. I played a 2v2 last night and my teammate managed the impressive task of building a 15 zealot army in 15 minutes or so D:

 

[SpicyCurry]

Also I have stumbled upon a new/alternate starting strategy as Terran that seems to work exceptionally well against toss/zerg, not too effective vs Terran. It involves building a barracks + factory or 2 rax at the bottom of the ramp into your base. It still creates a "wall" where enemy units can't get by, and they have massive hp. Another advantage to this is that your marines/marauders can defend from the ramp very easily. It also makes it so the enemy can't come up the ramp, and if they can't come up they can't get vision on the higher level of your base and therefore can't target your tanks without bringing over a flyer. which is easily countered by a turret.

I used this in a 1v1 vs a zerg that did 6pool and I only had 1 marine when he rushed with 6 lings, but the second rax was building and blocked the ramp so my marine just killed them all safely.

Building production buildings at the bottom of a ramp still has its risks. The buildings are more vulnerable to a mid game push, since Zerg units can get a better surround on the building (as opposed to if these buildings were used to block at the top of the ramp). I'd say this building placement is valid if your strategy is early or mid game aggression. If you are planning on 1 Barracks expand or 1 Factory expand, it's better to just place these buildings the top of your ramp to wall off instead of at the bottom.

 

[Hecubus28]

Ive played about 15 or so games in the practice league and thinking about skipping out of it. With the bases being blocked off and so far apart I imagine the starts are totally different in normal play.

Did most of you just skip the practice league?

 

[Kev]

Ive played about 15 or so games in the practice league and thinking about skipping out of it. With the bases being blocked off and so far apart I imagine the starts are totally different in normal play.

Did most of you just skip the practice league?

I will probably use all 50 because I am absolutely terrible. The only 2 wins I have are against players who were unimaginably terrible.

 

[FallenHero]

Ive played about 15 or so games in the practice league and thinking about skipping out of it. With the bases being blocked off and so far apart I imagine the starts are totally different in normal play.

Did most of you just skip the practice league?

I skipped it but I played in the Beta from start to finish. That being said, normal play is completely different without the rocks. With the rocks there, I would basically fast expand as any race and tech up to whatever I wanted, then just mass tier 2-3 units and destroy everything. Normal play, so far, rarely makes it to tech 2 and when it does, its fast and brutal.

 

[Hecubus28]

I will probably use all 50 because I am absolutely terrible. The only 2 wins I have are against players who were unimaginably terrible.

Im not really sure playing in the practice league is going to help most people much since the starts are totally different. It really encourages using air and turtling more than anything it seems.

 

[FallenHero]

I will probably use all 50 because I am absolutely terrible. The only 2 wins I have are against players who were unimaginably terrible.

You will be much better off if you co-op 50 games against the computer on at least normal. Hard to give yourself a challenge. It will force you to speed your game up.

 

[bhanson]

Did they extend the practice matches to 50 games as opposed to 5 in the beta?

I just skipped them since I wanted to start laddering immediately and had played in the beta.

 

[SpicyCurry]

Practice league is "no rush 10" built into the map itself. If your goal is to get better, I'd avoid these maps. If you're just playing casually, then by all means have fun with practice league.

 

[Glitchny]

Did they extend the practice matches to 50 games as opposed to 5 in the beta?

I just skipped them since I wanted to start laddering immediately and had played in the beta.

yes you get 50 practice matches and then 5 placement matches per game type.

 

[smackababy]

So, a friend and I have decided to do some 1v1 where we build units and see which beat what, and see what counters what. Might take a good bit of time, but I'd be willing to post the results. We'll be looking to do this on the weekend at some point. However, my good buddy comes back from Afghanistan this Friday so I don't know how well SC2 playing will go.

 

[bhanson]

So, a friend and I have decided to do some 1v1 where we build units and see which beat what, and see what counters what. Might take a good bit of time, but I'd be willing to post the results. We'll be looking to do this on the weekend at some point. However, my good buddy comes back from Afghanistan this Friday so I don't know how well SC2 playing will go.

Pretty sure all of this is well known if you do a little digging. The "Challenge" feature of the game also seems pretty good for practicing this.

yes you get 50 practice matches and then 5 placement matches per game type.

When I skipped the practice matches apparently it skips it for all of the game types. I guess that makes sense.

 

[Glitchny]

So, a friend and I have decided to do some 1v1 where we build units and see which beat what, and see what counters what. Might take a good bit of time, but I'd be willing to post the results. We'll be looking to do this on the weekend at some point. However, my good buddy comes back from Afghanistan this Friday so I don't know how well SC2 playing will go.

you know that blizz has a page on the SC2 site that displays each unit and the counters each race has for it?

 

[bhanson]

How do you guys want to do the AT nicknames? I notice there's an area in the OP but nothing is there yet. Here are some options:

1. Auto Updating Thread (example)
2. Public Access Google Spreadsheet
3. ???

 

[TridenT]

How do you guys want to do the AT nicknames? I notice there's an area in the OP but nothing is there yet. Here are some options:

1. Auto Updating Thread (example)
2. Public Access Google Spreadsheet
3. ???

Idk how many people on here will give out their real names.

 

[bhanson]

Idk how many people on here will give out their real names.

They changed that in release, all you need to do now is give your player name and character code.

 

[TridenT]

They changed that in release, all you need to do now is give your player name and character code.

Ah I see. But don't they still see your real name?

 

[bhanson]

Ah I see. But don't they still see your real name?

Nope, only your Real-ID friends are able to see your real name. Your character code only friends will only see your character.

 

[TridenT]

Nope, only your Real-ID friends are able to see your real name. Your character code only friends will only see your character.

That's good, but no one would know who I am anyway even with my real id and email address.

 

[Barfo]

Nope, only your Real-ID friends are able to see your real name. Your character code only friends will only see your character.

Hmm yeah I can see my buddy's name. How do I go about adding people and only let them see my nick?

 

[Anubis]

Hmm yeah I can see my buddy's name. How do I go about adding people and only let them see my nick?

you give them the name you made for your SC2 account. which is what you hit OK on after you log in, and your character number. you get the number by hovering over your char portrait (upper right) on the bnet menu

they show up differently

 

[Ika]

have any toss players been able to consistently use a robo bay strategy in the current ladders (gold/plat/diamond) environment? it sounds like a lot of games don't get the chance to develop very far past the midgame, and robo toss takes so long to build and tech to. I really like to use colossi, but are warp gates the default toss playstyle now?

 

[Barfo]

yes you get 50 practice matches and then 5 placement matches per game type.

I played 20 but just decided to skip the rest because apparently it's not that good for practice. And yeah it is different than the placement matches, everything is much slower and the rock barriers let you build up stuff without getting rushed.

 

[bhanson]

have any toss players been able to consistently use a robo bay strategy in the current ladders (gold/plat/diamond) environment? it sounds like a lot of games don't get the chance to develop very far past the midgame, and robo toss takes so long to build and tech to. I really like to use colossi, but are warp gates the default toss playstyle now?

(Z pov)

I haven't been able to FE against Protoss with close rush distances anymore with 2 gate being standard. I have to go pool then expand and if I try to expand too early I'm unable to gain map control.

I'm unable to gain map control until my second base is saturated since you can't support hydras from one base. By now if I scout a robo bay I'll throw down a spire and try to expand again before the inevitable battle.

I don't usually engage and just play Zerg by reacting to what my opponent is doing. As such, usually the match goes to mid game and I see either templar or colossi.

Whether I win or not is dependent on how well I've macroed or how much early damage was done with the 2 gate (eg. if I expanded too fast and lost my expo I'll probably die mid game)