The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Starcraft 2 Beta] Pre-purchase from Gamestop, get the Beta free.
MNC Dover
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
The Starcraft 2 Beta is in full swing. How long will it last? Who knows! Let's just try and enjoy it (while constantly raging and bitching about it) as long as possible. Because Starcraft 2 has a lot of information for experienced and newer players need to digest, I've clumped a lot of information together under the spoiler tags to keep this post clean.
Below you will find everything you need to 1) get into the beta, 2) get tips on how to play the game better, and 3) become a part of the ever growing list of PA forum members that are playing the game.
Please take a few minutes and thoroughly read this entire post before asking a question. A lot of times the answers you need are right here and can save you some time and beratings from the forum. If you have any questions not answered here, feel free to ask away.
Welcome to the Beta!
How to get into the SC2 Beta.
Honestly, a lot of people got into the Beta by luck. For now, you can get into the Beta by pre-ordering the game from Gamestop in their local stores or by following this link to their website. Many forum members have commented on this working fine, so if you want in, that's the way to go.
Before you attempt to get into the Beta, make sure your system can handle it:
When you log on, there are a series of patches that you will need to download. You can keep up with current patch notes by looking on the official battle.net forums thread found here.
On a final note, the music in SC2 is awesome. This site has some of the tracks from the game available for download. Grab 'em up and jam out to some SC2 music while working or studying.
Before you attempt to get into the Beta, make sure your system can handle it:
PC Minimum Requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024x768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection
*Note* the final requirements for Starcraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.
When you log on, there are a series of patches that you will need to download. You can keep up with current patch notes by looking on the official battle.net forums thread found here.
On a final note, the music in SC2 is awesome. This site has some of the tracks from the game available for download. Grab 'em up and jam out to some SC2 music while working or studying.
How to play SC2 and tips to get better.
Starcraft 2 is an amazingly fun game that can be enjoyed to new players and veteran players alike. The game itself is much easier to understand and get into than Starcraft 1 ever was, but the learning curve is still rather steep. Fortunately, there are a ton of ways to learn about the game and get better rather than just losing to players online. Here are a few:
Start by reading this beginners guide written by our very own forum member, eeSanG. He is a Gold/Platinum level player who knows his stuff and was generous enough to take the time to write out this very informative piece on the basics of SC2. It's a long read, but quite worth it.
You can also learn tactics and build orders by watching Live Streams. Live Streams are great because you can usually ask questions during the stream in the chat room. If the other chatters are cool, they might even answer your questions.
You could watch games from youtube that are being played by high ranking players in order to see what they do. This is awesome because it allows you to rewind the video if you missed something earlier. Great for memorizing build orders. Here are a few sites:
Finally, you can always chat with fellow PA forum members by using the Steam community chat groups. We have a chat group that is often used before tournaments for everyone to get their information, but it can also be used to hang out in and ask questions. You can find the link here.
eeSanG's basics of Starcraft 2[/size] for all you new players to SC2.
I have written this to help anyone who is interested in playing but have little experience and no one to teach them.
There are many things in Starcraft that are so basic that no one mentions them. However, they’re also incredibly difficult to find out for yourself without a natural intuition for Real-Time Strategy. This makes it extremely difficult for people new to RTS’s to learn about them so they get trashed by everyone and everything; the entire process can be extremely demoralizing and leaves only a bitter taste in the neophyte as they quit in frustration. These basics are so fundamental that without them, every player is doomed to failure against someone with solid mechanics.
I am going to go over many of these basics. Here are some simple tips that apply to almost every RTS that involves resource management:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
The slightly more advanced mechanics all branch off from these principles.
Why you want to keep building workers.
Workers in Starcraft are great investments; you spend time and resources building them and they’ll provide great returns on those investments. The most significant mechanic behind Starcraft is resource management: you need minerals and gas to do everything. The more you have, the more you can do; but, the reverse also applies: the less resources you have, the more limited you are in options. This is macromanagement.
Okay, so more workers mean more resource gathering, but where do you stop? You don’t. In Starcraft 2, every base has 8 mineral patches and 2 gas geysers. Maximum saturation is 3 workers per mineral patch and 3 per gas; however, the optimal amount of workers on minerals is actually 2. There are heavy diminishing returns after 2 workers per mineral patch and returns stop altogether after 3. So why don’t you only make 22 workers, 16 for minerals and 6 for gas? Because you will want to expand.
Expanding is a critical aspect of micromanagement. Two fully saturated bases have double the production of one: this means twice the upgrades and twice the units. That is an unfair advantage over your opponent if you’re playing 2 bases to 1. Expanding does require an investment though, you cannot recklessly place bases all over the map or you risk losing everything to an aware opponent.
So back to workers: Why don’t we stop at 22? Because you will want to expand and you will want your investment to make immediate returns once you do. How do you do this? By transferring several workers from your first saturated base to your second (For future reference, transferring of workers will be called maynarding, as that is the term used by competitive Starcraft players). So say you kept building workers and you have about 34 (6 on gas, 28 mining), 4 of your workers mining are actually doing absolutely nothing. You still want to produce this many workers because once you expand (which you should when you safely can) you can maynard 17 workers to your expansions and put 6 on gas with 11 on mining.
Doing this, you’re now fully saturated on gas in two bases and have 11 workers on minerals each base. This is clearly insufficient and suboptimal but now you have 2 worker producing buildings and by splitting evenly, you can hit optimization in both bases with 5 worker production cycles. Well, 11 isn’t an optimal amount, so why not only move 16 and have 16/6 on minerals? You could, but because you have 2 worker production buildings you would have to go through 0 and 10 worker production cycles to hit optimization and that is inefficient because you have only one building doing all the work instead of dividing it equally. This doubles the amount of time for your bases to hit optimized mining and every worker built at an optimized mineral line is worth less and less.
So to keep the first facet of macromanagement strong, worker production is required beyond optimization. You’ll want to keep producing workers at both bases after your first expansion because the late game phase is usually played on 3 or more bases and you will want to continue maynarding workers to new expansions.
Why you don’t want resources to build up.
Worker production is the first stage of macromanagement: actually getting the resources. The second facet of macromanagement is actually using those resources. As you gather resources, you use them to make units for fighting. Every resource hoarded is a potential investment you did not make. If you engage in a battle with 1000 minerals hoarded, that is 1000 minerals worth of units you could’ve had at the fight had you macromanaged better. 10 Zealots, 20 Marines, or 40 Zerglings can significantly change the outcome of a battle. Unused resources mean smaller armies and smaller armies usually mean battles lost. Having 10 Marines is not going to win against 10 Zealots; you need more Marines for it to be a fair fight.
To prevent yourself from running into unfair fights, you want to be continuously spending your resources on something. It can be workers, buildings, upgrades, or units. Just spend it. But! Don’t waste it on things you will never use. Don’t get speed upgrades on a unit that you never plan on using. Efficient spending is implicit. It is not obvious; it is not shouted at you when you lose. Players will have excuses on why they lost, but underlying all that is usually because they did not spend their resources efficiently.
Another bad habit that many players have is immense amounts of unit queuing. Yes, you are spending resources, but it is not being spent efficiently. You make absolutely no returns on unit production until those units are actually made. Filling a unit queue right as or before a fight starts means those are units you could’ve already had. How? By making more unit producing buildings. Learning how many unit producing buildings you can have per base is difficult to learn, precise amounts can only come from experience.
Using Protoss as an example: A single mineral line can support roughly 3 Gateways running full time with minimal ‘teching’ (unlocking upgrades or new units). It can support 2 with heavy tech investments and it can barely support 4 Gateways with absolutely no tech investment. Running 4 Gateways usually ends in disastrous results for the Protoss player unless the opponent is quickly killed or there are no tech investments left to make. This is because if the opponent can get severely ahead in tech, the Protoss is at a significant disadvantage due to a lack of viable options.
If you have resources piling up, you have two options: make more unit producing buildings or expand and then making more unit producing buildings. Being choked on unit production is an easy way to lose after trading armies with your opponent. Having too many buildings is better than not having enough.
There are two ways of losing via smaller army: not having enough or not spending enough resources. Both of these are easily avoidable.
Now that we’ve covered resource management, we continue onto build orders.
Learn build orders.
Build orders are a prearranged order in which you construct your buildings. Good build orders are those that everyone uses; they are cookie cutter. Now, some might rant about how cookie cutter builds destroy innovation and creative play. No! Build orders allow innovation and creative play to be efficient. They are cookie cutter for a reason, because they are the most effective openings in regards to resources and time. Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are battles of resources, but they’re also battles for time. A few seconds difference can change the entire game through a delayed unit, a building, or an entire expansion. Many openings trade time for resources or resources for time. Time creates advantages in tech, resources, or army size.
Learning build orders is more difficult in Starcraft 2 because it’s so new, not everything has been discovered or tested. It’s your job now to create, adopt, or steal build orders that are the most efficient. Constructing a building 5 seconds earlier than normal can lead to enormous advantages but not learning or refining build orders can lead to constructing buildings later than necessary!
For Starcraft 2, there are two ways to create the opening Pylon as Protoss. You can either make it at 9 supply and have it finish at 10 so you can Chrono Boost or you can cut an early Probe to create a Pylon at 8 and Chrono Boost the 9th Probe immediately. The difference between these builds provides a difference of about a second in the first Gateway, so this is an extreme example. I myself enjoy placing the Pylon at 8.
The difference between a solid and shaky build order can mean living or dying during the early game.
Don’t play blindly, scout often.
Map hacking, the most prominent hack in Starcraft, provides perfect information on the map and the opponent. This third-party program is looked down upon by the competitive community because it provides such an unfair advantage and because it is cheating.
You can simulate these same advantages through proper scouting. A player’s first scout is usually their worker. Many beginners believe that they are sent out for the sole reason of finding where the opponent is. Naïve! Keeping your scouting worker alive reveals so much valuable information, but only through proper analysis that comes with experience.
The subtle things will tell you much: the progress on the spawning pool will tell you whether to expect early Zerglings or not. A 10pool (a spawning pool created after the 10th Drone but before the 11th) will most certainly make Zerglings while a 13pool may only make 2 or skip them altogether. A surviving worker can reveal a Protoss player’s entire tech tree if kept alive: 1 Gate into Cybernetic Core? 2 Gate? THREE Gate (3 means you are going to get rushed)? 0 Gates? You just got proxy’d, get ready for a fast rush. A scouting worker can easily dodge Zealots through proper micro, many will need to get a Stalker or Sentry to kill it if they don’t want you to see their tech tree and that means gas spent, unit created, tech delayed.
When the first scout dies, many no longer scout for the rest of the game. Foolish! Continue to send out scouts; they can be either workers, a fast and inexpensive unit (Zergling), or a unit that is concealed and difficult to kill (Observer). Knowing where your opponent’s army is, knowing what it’s made of, and knowing when they expand are all critical intel. Location allows you to set up flanks or ambushes. Composition allows you to create the correct counters to their units, and knowing when and where an expansion is built opens up an opportunity to attack before they make returns on such a heavy investment. However, don't needlessly sacrifice units into the maw that is your opponent's army. Scout often, but be conservative with them.
Scouting is much harder and is much more demanding on your multitasking than macromanagement. You shouldn’t let your macromanagement suffer for the sake of scouting, but neither should you forsake scouting altogether. Balance is key to consistent success, though knowing when to take risks is also important.
Combining these fundamentals together means that your armies will be as large as possible, your economy as efficient as can be, and the knowledge of your opponent’s play are as clear as crystal.
These basics are just that, fundamentals. A lack of fundamentals means that defeating an opponent with strong mechanics and safe play will be an impossibility. Real-Time Strategies incorporate strategic play but that is meaningless when lacking in basics. Smaller armies, weaker economy, and blind play are disadvantages the player only gives himself; they are completely unnecessary and preventable.
So here they are again so you can drill them into your head. The basics of resource based RTS’s are:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
It can be difficult to do everything simultaneously at first, but it becomes more natural through practice!
Good luck and have fun. Until next time.
I have written this to help anyone who is interested in playing but have little experience and no one to teach them.
There are many things in Starcraft that are so basic that no one mentions them. However, they’re also incredibly difficult to find out for yourself without a natural intuition for Real-Time Strategy. This makes it extremely difficult for people new to RTS’s to learn about them so they get trashed by everyone and everything; the entire process can be extremely demoralizing and leaves only a bitter taste in the neophyte as they quit in frustration. These basics are so fundamental that without them, every player is doomed to failure against someone with solid mechanics.
I am going to go over many of these basics. Here are some simple tips that apply to almost every RTS that involves resource management:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
The slightly more advanced mechanics all branch off from these principles.
Why you want to keep building workers.
Workers in Starcraft are great investments; you spend time and resources building them and they’ll provide great returns on those investments. The most significant mechanic behind Starcraft is resource management: you need minerals and gas to do everything. The more you have, the more you can do; but, the reverse also applies: the less resources you have, the more limited you are in options. This is macromanagement.
Okay, so more workers mean more resource gathering, but where do you stop? You don’t. In Starcraft 2, every base has 8 mineral patches and 2 gas geysers. Maximum saturation is 3 workers per mineral patch and 3 per gas; however, the optimal amount of workers on minerals is actually 2. There are heavy diminishing returns after 2 workers per mineral patch and returns stop altogether after 3. So why don’t you only make 22 workers, 16 for minerals and 6 for gas? Because you will want to expand.
Expanding is a critical aspect of micromanagement. Two fully saturated bases have double the production of one: this means twice the upgrades and twice the units. That is an unfair advantage over your opponent if you’re playing 2 bases to 1. Expanding does require an investment though, you cannot recklessly place bases all over the map or you risk losing everything to an aware opponent.
So back to workers: Why don’t we stop at 22? Because you will want to expand and you will want your investment to make immediate returns once you do. How do you do this? By transferring several workers from your first saturated base to your second (For future reference, transferring of workers will be called maynarding, as that is the term used by competitive Starcraft players). So say you kept building workers and you have about 34 (6 on gas, 28 mining), 4 of your workers mining are actually doing absolutely nothing. You still want to produce this many workers because once you expand (which you should when you safely can) you can maynard 17 workers to your expansions and put 6 on gas with 11 on mining.
Doing this, you’re now fully saturated on gas in two bases and have 11 workers on minerals each base. This is clearly insufficient and suboptimal but now you have 2 worker producing buildings and by splitting evenly, you can hit optimization in both bases with 5 worker production cycles. Well, 11 isn’t an optimal amount, so why not only move 16 and have 16/6 on minerals? You could, but because you have 2 worker production buildings you would have to go through 0 and 10 worker production cycles to hit optimization and that is inefficient because you have only one building doing all the work instead of dividing it equally. This doubles the amount of time for your bases to hit optimized mining and every worker built at an optimized mineral line is worth less and less.
So to keep the first facet of macromanagement strong, worker production is required beyond optimization. You’ll want to keep producing workers at both bases after your first expansion because the late game phase is usually played on 3 or more bases and you will want to continue maynarding workers to new expansions.
Why you don’t want resources to build up.
Worker production is the first stage of macromanagement: actually getting the resources. The second facet of macromanagement is actually using those resources. As you gather resources, you use them to make units for fighting. Every resource hoarded is a potential investment you did not make. If you engage in a battle with 1000 minerals hoarded, that is 1000 minerals worth of units you could’ve had at the fight had you macromanaged better. 10 Zealots, 20 Marines, or 40 Zerglings can significantly change the outcome of a battle. Unused resources mean smaller armies and smaller armies usually mean battles lost. Having 10 Marines is not going to win against 10 Zealots; you need more Marines for it to be a fair fight.
To prevent yourself from running into unfair fights, you want to be continuously spending your resources on something. It can be workers, buildings, upgrades, or units. Just spend it. But! Don’t waste it on things you will never use. Don’t get speed upgrades on a unit that you never plan on using. Efficient spending is implicit. It is not obvious; it is not shouted at you when you lose. Players will have excuses on why they lost, but underlying all that is usually because they did not spend their resources efficiently.
Another bad habit that many players have is immense amounts of unit queuing. Yes, you are spending resources, but it is not being spent efficiently. You make absolutely no returns on unit production until those units are actually made. Filling a unit queue right as or before a fight starts means those are units you could’ve already had. How? By making more unit producing buildings. Learning how many unit producing buildings you can have per base is difficult to learn, precise amounts can only come from experience.
Using Protoss as an example: A single mineral line can support roughly 3 Gateways running full time with minimal ‘teching’ (unlocking upgrades or new units). It can support 2 with heavy tech investments and it can barely support 4 Gateways with absolutely no tech investment. Running 4 Gateways usually ends in disastrous results for the Protoss player unless the opponent is quickly killed or there are no tech investments left to make. This is because if the opponent can get severely ahead in tech, the Protoss is at a significant disadvantage due to a lack of viable options.
If you have resources piling up, you have two options: make more unit producing buildings or expand and then making more unit producing buildings. Being choked on unit production is an easy way to lose after trading armies with your opponent. Having too many buildings is better than not having enough.
There are two ways of losing via smaller army: not having enough or not spending enough resources. Both of these are easily avoidable.
Now that we’ve covered resource management, we continue onto build orders.
Learn build orders.
Build orders are a prearranged order in which you construct your buildings. Good build orders are those that everyone uses; they are cookie cutter. Now, some might rant about how cookie cutter builds destroy innovation and creative play. No! Build orders allow innovation and creative play to be efficient. They are cookie cutter for a reason, because they are the most effective openings in regards to resources and time. Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are battles of resources, but they’re also battles for time. A few seconds difference can change the entire game through a delayed unit, a building, or an entire expansion. Many openings trade time for resources or resources for time. Time creates advantages in tech, resources, or army size.
Learning build orders is more difficult in Starcraft 2 because it’s so new, not everything has been discovered or tested. It’s your job now to create, adopt, or steal build orders that are the most efficient. Constructing a building 5 seconds earlier than normal can lead to enormous advantages but not learning or refining build orders can lead to constructing buildings later than necessary!
For Starcraft 2, there are two ways to create the opening Pylon as Protoss. You can either make it at 9 supply and have it finish at 10 so you can Chrono Boost or you can cut an early Probe to create a Pylon at 8 and Chrono Boost the 9th Probe immediately. The difference between these builds provides a difference of about a second in the first Gateway, so this is an extreme example. I myself enjoy placing the Pylon at 8.
The difference between a solid and shaky build order can mean living or dying during the early game.
Don’t play blindly, scout often.
Map hacking, the most prominent hack in Starcraft, provides perfect information on the map and the opponent. This third-party program is looked down upon by the competitive community because it provides such an unfair advantage and because it is cheating.
You can simulate these same advantages through proper scouting. A player’s first scout is usually their worker. Many beginners believe that they are sent out for the sole reason of finding where the opponent is. Naïve! Keeping your scouting worker alive reveals so much valuable information, but only through proper analysis that comes with experience.
The subtle things will tell you much: the progress on the spawning pool will tell you whether to expect early Zerglings or not. A 10pool (a spawning pool created after the 10th Drone but before the 11th) will most certainly make Zerglings while a 13pool may only make 2 or skip them altogether. A surviving worker can reveal a Protoss player’s entire tech tree if kept alive: 1 Gate into Cybernetic Core? 2 Gate? THREE Gate (3 means you are going to get rushed)? 0 Gates? You just got proxy’d, get ready for a fast rush. A scouting worker can easily dodge Zealots through proper micro, many will need to get a Stalker or Sentry to kill it if they don’t want you to see their tech tree and that means gas spent, unit created, tech delayed.
When the first scout dies, many no longer scout for the rest of the game. Foolish! Continue to send out scouts; they can be either workers, a fast and inexpensive unit (Zergling), or a unit that is concealed and difficult to kill (Observer). Knowing where your opponent’s army is, knowing what it’s made of, and knowing when they expand are all critical intel. Location allows you to set up flanks or ambushes. Composition allows you to create the correct counters to their units, and knowing when and where an expansion is built opens up an opportunity to attack before they make returns on such a heavy investment. However, don't needlessly sacrifice units into the maw that is your opponent's army. Scout often, but be conservative with them.
Scouting is much harder and is much more demanding on your multitasking than macromanagement. You shouldn’t let your macromanagement suffer for the sake of scouting, but neither should you forsake scouting altogether. Balance is key to consistent success, though knowing when to take risks is also important.
Combining these fundamentals together means that your armies will be as large as possible, your economy as efficient as can be, and the knowledge of your opponent’s play are as clear as crystal.
These basics are just that, fundamentals. A lack of fundamentals means that defeating an opponent with strong mechanics and safe play will be an impossibility. Real-Time Strategies incorporate strategic play but that is meaningless when lacking in basics. Smaller armies, weaker economy, and blind play are disadvantages the player only gives himself; they are completely unnecessary and preventable.
So here they are again so you can drill them into your head. The basics of resource based RTS’s are:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
It can be difficult to do everything simultaneously at first, but it becomes more natural through practice!
Good luck and have fun. Until next time.
You can also learn tactics and build orders by watching Live Streams. Live Streams are great because you can usually ask questions during the stream in the chat room. If the other chatters are cool, they might even answer your questions.
Da[y9]'s Live Stream. This guy is very quirky at first, but really knows his stuff and will explain it in an entertaining and informative way. Bookmark this link.
Team Liquid Live Streams (Blue stars are pro players)
Our very own Lunysgwen's Live Stream
GiantBomb Live Stream (will be live soon, or so they say)
Team Liquid Live Streams (Blue stars are pro players)
Our very own Lunysgwen's Live Stream
GiantBomb Live Stream (will be live soon, or so they say)
You could watch games from youtube that are being played by high ranking players in order to see what they do. This is awesome because it allows you to rewind the video if you missed something earlier. Great for memorizing build orders. Here are a few sites:
HD Starcraft. Good site for beginners to learn from and watch higher end players as well.
HuskyStarcraft. Another good site for watching vids.
HuskyStarcraft. Another good site for watching vids.
Finally, you can always chat with fellow PA forum members by using the Steam community chat groups. We have a chat group that is often used before tournaments for everyone to get their information, but it can also be used to hang out in and ask questions. You can find the link here.
Becoming part of the PA player list.
There are quite a few players here with the beta. To play with them, you'll need to get on their friend's list first. Adding your information to our master list (shown below) is the fastest way to make this happen. In order to get on the list, simply follow the instructions listed below:
And here is the massive PA player list. Players have been sorted by rank first and then by race. Use this to help you play against players that are closer to you in skill or to answer race related questions and help tweak your build orders.
To be added, send me the following information as shown below in a PM:
PA forum name (your name)
Battle.net ID (whatever.whatever)
Your race (Terran, Protoss, Zerg, Random)
Your rank (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper)
Please send it just like that to make my life easier. If you haven't finalized on a race then just pick one or random; we can always change it later. If you don't know your rank, you must finish your qualifying matches to get it. Don't send me your info without playing your matches first. With the beta going through a series of wipes right now, send me you rank based on your last play through.
If I don't have those four pieces of information listed above, I won't add you to the list.
Thanks!
PA forum name (your name)
Battle.net ID (whatever.whatever)
Your race (Terran, Protoss, Zerg, Random)
Your rank (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper)
Please send it just like that to make my life easier. If you haven't finalized on a race then just pick one or random; we can always change it later. If you don't know your rank, you must finish your qualifying matches to get it. Don't send me your info without playing your matches first. With the beta going through a series of wipes right now, send me you rank based on your last play through.
If I don't have those four pieces of information listed above, I won't add you to the list.
Thanks!
And here is the massive PA player list. Players have been sorted by rank first and then by race. Use this to help you play against players that are closer to you in skill or to answer race related questions and help tweak your build orders.
Here's how it works:
Battle.net ID PA name (Race=Terran/Protoss/Zerg/Random)
US Servers
Platinum/Gold Ranks:
iowaa.iowaa Iowa (T)
Khaczor.khaczor Khaczor (T)
Kibbles.kibbles Streltsy (T)
hiigaran.hiigaran hiigaran (T)
Demndred.walkingego Ego (T)
DeadMenRise.rime CycloneRanger (T)
Mcsnuggles.snug Mcsnuggles (T)
infinity.infinity Infinity56 (T)
inCa.mtl Sparth (P)
Melancholy.mark TheSuperWoot (P)
Spinnaker.mistral Tynnan (P)
mEEks.meeks mEEKsa (P)
eeSanG.twosang eeSanG (Z)
Revenant.Revenant Lurk (Z)
Sitggy.stig TheStig (Z)
pogo.pogo Pogo1250 (Z)
MMMig.Wra MMMig (Z)
Lustre.maget SuMa.Lustre (Z)
Hamsterstyle.dota Hamster_style (Z)
schctrg.schctrg Drag (Z)
Fantheria.spg Bikkstah (Z)
Argrax.argrax Argrax (Z)
Apogee.apogee Apogee (R)
Silver/Bronze/Copper Ranks:
MNCDover.mncdover MNC Dover (T)
Kwisatz.haderach schmads (T)
Zore.dragon Z0re (T)
munkus.beaver Munkus Beaver (T)
Winky.ajalkaline Winky (T)
Talith.talithpa Talith (T)
Satyrical.lmc Critter (T)
und.einpirat undeinpirat (T)
feelsGood.man feels Good man (T)
redxxii.mercurial redxxii (T)
Rend.Melenkir Rend (T)
DarkWingDuck.getdangerous darkenedwing (T)
Bigbadbob.bob Bigbadbob (P)
crimson.coyote crimsoncyote (P)
edward.thethird dasuberedward (P)
Zerokku.zerokku Zerokku (P)
Topp.titan Saaruto (P)
visible.howl visiblehowl (P)
ForceVoid.forcevoid ForceVoid (P)
genrand.genrand daemones (P)
Sotar.sotar STATE OF THE ART ROBOT (P)
Lovephd.moot MutePrez (P)
Imperfect.Imperfect Imperfect (P)
ZenTactics.zen Zenloliful (P)
hector.hse hectorse (P)
Howl.visible visiblehowl (P)
Aphostile.aphostile Aphostile (Z)
Fireflash.patparadize Fireflash (Z)
xango.shadow ShadowThomas (Z)
James.Keenan JamesKeenan (Z)
sometallguy.stu some_tall_guy (Z)
Peff.havoc Peff (Z)
rts.chutter cakemikz (Z)
goodayniceda.goodayniceda goodayniceday (Z)
Arikado.arikado Arikado (Z)
exoplasm.exo Exoplasm (Z)
Dorandil.dourin dourin (Z)
Trus.Trus Trus (Z)
nogreatname.toons No Great Name (Z)
Lucascraft.Lucascraft Lucascraft (Z)
Sceptre.romus Sceptre (R)
Tilde.sceptre BigE (R)
Xango.shadow ShadowThomas (R)
ohno.mygrades fadingathedges (R)
Aarnog.aarnog Battle Jesus (R)
JustinSane.justinsane JustinSane07 (R)
Arkan.metempsyche Arkan (R)
seanron.seanron Seanron (R)
Nerd.rage MrOletta (R)
TheLorax.modain Modain (R)
BAER.bearitone Neaden (R)
Seldom.skilled I needed a name to post (R)
Unknown/not updated yet:
Akematsu.Yossarian Wicked Uncle Ernie
SLyM.slym SLyM
Foefaller.magus Foefaller
Burst.emi Sabo
kime.delpell Kime
Cheapchan.Cheaptactics Nylonathetep
platinumplus.musanman musanman
Debaser.pixl DebaserZbs
Bluefoot.bluefoot Bluefoot
ono.mygrades fadingathedges
tortalius.tortalius Tcheldor
Ohtsam.Ohtsam Ohtsam
Enders.enders Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo
Scosglen.jtho Scosglen
Euro Servers
Platinum/Gold Ranks:
Lustre.maget SuMa.Lustre (Z)
Silver/Bronze/Copper Ranks:
Joril.pazepal Joril (P)
Tayrun.norolith Tayrun (P)
Unknown/not updated yet:
HerrCron.herrmoo HerrCron
TheBana.thebana TheBana
Battle.net ID PA name (Race=Terran/Protoss/Zerg/Random)
US Servers
Platinum/Gold Ranks:
iowaa.iowaa Iowa (T)
Khaczor.khaczor Khaczor (T)
Kibbles.kibbles Streltsy (T)
hiigaran.hiigaran hiigaran (T)
Demndred.walkingego Ego (T)
DeadMenRise.rime CycloneRanger (T)
Mcsnuggles.snug Mcsnuggles (T)
infinity.infinity Infinity56 (T)
inCa.mtl Sparth (P)
Melancholy.mark TheSuperWoot (P)
Spinnaker.mistral Tynnan (P)
mEEks.meeks mEEKsa (P)
eeSanG.twosang eeSanG (Z)
Revenant.Revenant Lurk (Z)
Sitggy.stig TheStig (Z)
pogo.pogo Pogo1250 (Z)
MMMig.Wra MMMig (Z)
Lustre.maget SuMa.Lustre (Z)
Hamsterstyle.dota Hamster_style (Z)
schctrg.schctrg Drag (Z)
Fantheria.spg Bikkstah (Z)
Argrax.argrax Argrax (Z)
Apogee.apogee Apogee (R)
Silver/Bronze/Copper Ranks:
MNCDover.mncdover MNC Dover (T)
Kwisatz.haderach schmads (T)
Zore.dragon Z0re (T)
munkus.beaver Munkus Beaver (T)
Winky.ajalkaline Winky (T)
Talith.talithpa Talith (T)
Satyrical.lmc Critter (T)
und.einpirat undeinpirat (T)
feelsGood.man feels Good man (T)
redxxii.mercurial redxxii (T)
Rend.Melenkir Rend (T)
DarkWingDuck.getdangerous darkenedwing (T)
Bigbadbob.bob Bigbadbob (P)
crimson.coyote crimsoncyote (P)
edward.thethird dasuberedward (P)
Zerokku.zerokku Zerokku (P)
Topp.titan Saaruto (P)
visible.howl visiblehowl (P)
ForceVoid.forcevoid ForceVoid (P)
genrand.genrand daemones (P)
Sotar.sotar STATE OF THE ART ROBOT (P)
Lovephd.moot MutePrez (P)
Imperfect.Imperfect Imperfect (P)
ZenTactics.zen Zenloliful (P)
hector.hse hectorse (P)
Howl.visible visiblehowl (P)
Aphostile.aphostile Aphostile (Z)
Fireflash.patparadize Fireflash (Z)
xango.shadow ShadowThomas (Z)
James.Keenan JamesKeenan (Z)
sometallguy.stu some_tall_guy (Z)
Peff.havoc Peff (Z)
rts.chutter cakemikz (Z)
goodayniceda.goodayniceda goodayniceday (Z)
Arikado.arikado Arikado (Z)
exoplasm.exo Exoplasm (Z)
Dorandil.dourin dourin (Z)
Trus.Trus Trus (Z)
nogreatname.toons No Great Name (Z)
Lucascraft.Lucascraft Lucascraft (Z)
Sceptre.romus Sceptre (R)
Tilde.sceptre BigE (R)
Xango.shadow ShadowThomas (R)
ohno.mygrades fadingathedges (R)
Aarnog.aarnog Battle Jesus (R)
JustinSane.justinsane JustinSane07 (R)
Arkan.metempsyche Arkan (R)
seanron.seanron Seanron (R)
Nerd.rage MrOletta (R)
TheLorax.modain Modain (R)
BAER.bearitone Neaden (R)
Seldom.skilled I needed a name to post (R)
Unknown/not updated yet:
Akematsu.Yossarian Wicked Uncle Ernie
SLyM.slym SLyM
Foefaller.magus Foefaller
Burst.emi Sabo
kime.delpell Kime
Cheapchan.Cheaptactics Nylonathetep
platinumplus.musanman musanman
Debaser.pixl DebaserZbs
Bluefoot.bluefoot Bluefoot
ono.mygrades fadingathedges
tortalius.tortalius Tcheldor
Ohtsam.Ohtsam Ohtsam
Enders.enders Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo
Scosglen.jtho Scosglen
Euro Servers
Platinum/Gold Ranks:
Lustre.maget SuMa.Lustre (Z)
Silver/Bronze/Copper Ranks:
Joril.pazepal Joril (P)
Tayrun.norolith Tayrun (P)
Unknown/not updated yet:
HerrCron.herrmoo HerrCron
TheBana.thebana TheBana
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
MNC Dover on
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Posts
Holy Shit It's The Penny Arcade 2v2 Starcraft 2 Tournament!
People asked for it so here it is! This week, instead of our normal 1v1 tournament, we are going to have a 2v2 tournament.
That Sounds Awesome, how do I sign up?
Send Trus a PM with the forum names, battle.net IDs, and Races that the two players will be using
That means I get to pick my own partner, right?
Yup, and the best part is there is no restrictions on who you can pick...well, to a point. If I see a team so unbalanced I reserve the right to veto it. If I see a team of The Stig and The SuperWoot am I going to veto that so hard
I'm a procrastinator, how long do I have to sign up?
There is no set time limit for this one, the registration will close when the 8 team maximum is reached which I suspect will be rather quick. I will announce in the thread once the cap has been hit, but feel free to PM me your team if you want to be used as a backup if we need it
8 team cap, what the shit?
8 team maximum means we get 16 total players in and it means there are no byes or any junk like that. It also means we will have time to have every round be a Best Of 3, aside from the finals being a Best of 5
This is all well and good but I need to know when the tournament is?
Sunday at 2pm EST (12pm Mountain, 11am Pacific) on Sunday April 25th
I am scum without a beta key, can I watch the tournament anywhere?
Livestream.com/truspa is where I will be streaming the games.
Teams Registered
Members:
TheStig (TheStig.stig) Zerg
Munkus Beaver (munkus.beaver) Terran
Winky - (winky.ajalkaline) - Terran
visiblehowl - (visible.howl) - Protoss
Cakemikz (rts.chutter) Zerg
Goodayniceday (Goodayniceda.goodayniceda) Zerg
Sparth (Inca.mtl) Protoss
Zore (Zore.Dragon) Terran
Corp.Shepard (arthur.loftis) Random
MechaAkira (kibbles.kibbles) Terran
Hiigaran (hiigaran.hiigaran) Terran
TheSuperWoot (Melancholy.Mark) Protoss
ProjectMayhem (Khass.horn) Terran
Unknown (Tunemi.chiba) Terran/Toss
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Oh wait, IT'S ALREADY HERE.
I'm taking a color theory course right now at SCAD and have finally found a practical use for it.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Just played an incredibly long mirror on Lost Temple with every base occupied and a roach/hydra fight that lasted about ten minutes at the end. Fun!
I can't believe what Browder said about the Lurker:
That whole paragraph is non-stop fail. Yes, he used the words "Roach" and "interesting" in the same sentence. Banelings? To replace the Lurker? They're almost completely worthless outside the first few minutes, especially against Zerg.
I miss the lurker.
I used to pine for the Dragooooooon, but fuck I am a Stalker lover (or hater when I am off-racing) now forever.
EDIT: Also, does anyone know where I can track down the "OH SHIT YOUR BASE IS UNDER ATTACK" klaxon?
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
Roaches have too many upgrades, three upgrades for a tier 1 ground-to-ground only unit is kind of silly. Infestors are an amazing unit and its a shame they don't see more use, having two essentially worthless abilities seems to keep them out of so many games, even if fungal growth is super awesome.
In the cast yesterday I basically said the same thing, burrow needs to be a t1 upgrade, unlocked by a spawning pool or evolution chamber. As a Zerg player I love burrow, I get it basically every game I play but the amount if times I have used it for anything more than masking the size of my army or hiding a handful of units for a flanking attack when they engage my army can be counted on one hand.
Personally, I plan to experiment with queens as a viable combatant a lot more in the near future.
I need some good Zerg tips as a newbie I generally do this...
9pool, drone, overlord, 3x zerglings, queen...if my 3x lings do well enough messing up the other guys stuff I'll then mass pump them, if he's protected himself against a rush pretty well I then tech to mutas and try and mass those.
I feel like I'm limiting myself by doing this pretty much every game, I've won 3 out of 6 matches, 2 by rushing and another by mass muta'ing (and mass marine dodging).
Any good builds/tips/things not to do would be nice.
Thanks.
More like he finally grew a pair.
Eztoss. Pfft.
Cause my record is now gone, but I'd heard that people losing their records that way was just a glitch. Don't want to waste time playing placement matches if the real reset happens later.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
I am going to train myself to build roaches more often because I need to fight my ling addiction.
I need help
Good thing you're switching to zerg.
Err..
by pooling that early you are really hurting your early economy, that is a lot of money you could be spending on drone. Mutas are not a unit you want to the core of your army you should be getting roaches and/or Hydras as well. When are you expanding?
Yeah, but there are many more Protoss around than Zerg, leading to less mirror matches!
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
The mind control ability is amazing on units like Thors. The only problem is they are completely vulnerable right now. It is really easy to turn a unit on the infestor and drop it in a few hits. It would be neat if you could pop out, cast mind control (maybe make it take a second or two to activate) and then burrow (again making burrow a must have, since it seems like an after thought because gas is very in demand for liar tech).
It does bug me that Infestors are the perfect counter to Ultralisks... You can either take control of the Ultralisk outright using Parasite or snare them into place using Fungal Growth.
Same thing with Thors, they can one-shot an Ultralisk with zero danger using their 250mm cannons. This recently became an issue by Thors being good.
Or they get ruined by Sentries by sparsely placing force fields.
I am *this* close to stopping to use Ultralisks altogether.