Here's my most recent game. I struggle so hard versus other Zerg - I haven't won a single match. This is the first time I've gone into the lategame without getting my face pushed in first.
I'm soooooo Bronze it's not funny. Any advice would be helpful.
EDIT: To clarify, before I picked this game up the other day, I knew almost nothing about Starcraft, other than general story stuff. No gameplay, nothing. I've been learning this game from scratch. Wasn't even participating in the beta at all. So, it's all brand-new to me.
I haven't even started league stuff yet, but I think saw (I just went through at x8 speed) some things that went wrong. When you sent the broodlords, you didn't send anti-air with them and you didn't take advantage of their huge range (9.5 versus 5 or 6 on hydralisks). I think that could have won the game, maybe.
I'm not too sure why you sent a bajillion zerglings when you knew he had a bajillion hydralisks towards the end
[Michael] on
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
So reading through this thread here and there makes me terrified to play online matches. I'm slowly making my way through the campaign and have played a few matches VS the CPU, but I dread going online and facing people who actually know what they're doing.
How ace is Blizzard's matchmaking? Will it know to set me up with people who are just as clueless as I am?
Here's my most recent game. I struggle so hard versus other Zerg - I haven't won a single match. This is the first time I've gone into the lategame without getting my face pushed in first.
I'm soooooo Bronze it's not funny. Any advice would be helpful.
EDIT: To clarify, before I picked this game up the other day, I knew almost nothing about Starcraft, other than general story stuff. No gameplay, nothing. I've been learning this game from scratch. Wasn't even participating in the beta at all. So, it's all brand-new to me.
your pool was too early for that particular map, you didn't scout at all and you could have stomped his XP early on with your lings.
I've dug up 2 replays of ZvZ placement matches I've recently had, they both use 2 different approaches..
So reading through this thread here and there makes me terrified to play online matches. I'm slowly making my way through the campaign and have played a few matches VS the CPU, but I dread going online and facing people who actually know what they're doing.
How ace is Blizzard's matchmaking? Will it know to set me up with people who are just as clueless as I am?
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you.
I was never a serious Starcraft player and only played a few matches of the original. Starcraft is a much too fast-paced game for me in general. I played through the campaign and last night jumped into the practice league.
To answer your question, its pretty good. It will vary of course. In the Practice League it will put you against other people who haven't started the ranked matches and are just "practicing" trying to get better. I played 7 matches last night and won 3 of them.
First guy I was up against was a total noob, like had literally just started playing the game that day I think, I beat him easily. Then I went up against a Protoss player who wiped the floor with me by amassing tons of Stalkers and rushing my base when my main force was on the way to attack his base.
Then I fought a Protoss who was around my level, I sent some Reapers to harass him early on, killed a lot of his probes, but he had some Zealots kill my guys, then I kept harassing him with Tanks and Marines until I got a Ghost out and Nuked his base and sent in my guys, he was dead after that.
Then I went up against a Terran who sent a ton of Reapers after my base early on and killed my SCVs, I was so far behind after that I lost when he sent in some Cruisers.
Then I fought a Zerg who didn't know what he was doing and killed him.
Then I fought a good Zerg player and he rushed me with Roaches and Zerglings and took me out.
Then lost to another good Terran player.
So... it varies, but don't be afraid to lose, its just a game afterall. Most important thing is to give it a shot, learn, watch replays, figure out what you need to do and have fun with it. Fast paced RTSes like this aren't for everyone though because they are SO competetive and rely on a ton of skill and memorization.
Oh man, just played a 1v1, I was able to come back from a rush and counter. I love Warp Prisms, managed to sneak one into the guy's first expansion, behind his mineral fields, just outside his fog of war. He never noticed.
Regarding the above, I still get anxious playing online, cause I'm not that great either (I might even be bad!), coming back from a rush isn't that special to most people I would imagine, but for me it was fantastic. You shouldn't fear losing, when I lose, I watch the replay and see what I did wrong, whether it was my build order, or I didn't use the right units, or just not scouting. Watching replays helps, a lot.
But I totally understand hesitation to play online, I played 2v2 for a while just so I didn't feel like everything rode on my abilities.
I don't view losing or winning like a K/D ratio or anything, if I lose I just try to adapt in the next game. I would never have gotten any better if I didn't get steamrolled multiple times.
Just tried that mass queen strat for the first time against a protoss on steppes. It's amazing how well it works. My execution was pretty crap and I doubt I would have won against a better player, but it's fun.
Edit: Replay:
Sevorak on
3DS: 0748-2282-4229
0
FaranguI am a beardy manWith a beardy planRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
2nd placement match, which I pulled out a win. It's really hard for me to figure out what are mistakes the other player makes, what they do well, and what my weakness (besides lack of producing SCV's) and strengths are.
2nd placement match, which I pulled out a win. It's really hard for me to figure out what are mistakes the other player makes, what they do well, and what my weakness (besides lack of producing SCV's) and strengths are.
if you can spot mistakes on your part, don't bother asking for tips. I mean this in a nice way; learning these things by yourself stops you from doing that particular mistake. If you can't evolve as a player and can't spot the issue, that's the time to ask for advice
I play Terran and I find my biggest problem is knowing what to do mid-game. I always have a strong start, I get my 10 SCVs, get my depot out, get my barracks out, start producing marines, get my gas production going, get a wall of depots and bunkers filled with marines at my base entrance, get my factory up at the same time and start producing Tanks to defend, get my armory up.... but then I don't know what units to amass to attack, or if I should start expanding to a second base, or if I should build up my defenses more or what I should do. I get so caught up in trying to improve my units and setup a defense.. that I never attack fast or effectively enough.
at this point I start to fall behind and get rushed with units that overwhelm my defenses or the dude sends in ghosts and starts nuking my place or something, heh.
Is there a "best" unit for Terrans to amass to attack with?
When I'm up against Protoss they usually just send a ton of Stalkers/Immortals and some Zealots against me. Zerg is tons of Roaches and Lings. I've really never played against a great Terran who attacked en masse.
You could be building those defenses at your "natural" expansion on many maps. Instead of placing that bunker inside your wall, why not place it outside your wall in a place where it can defend your expo? And why not build an early second command center too?
(Many pro players utilize this strategy with Terran. The Terran can defend well against early aggression with his bunkers and then tanks, and then the Terran can attack with a superior army afterward.)
Melkster on
0
FaranguI am a beardy manWith a beardy planRegistered Userregular
2nd placement match, which I pulled out a win. It's really hard for me to figure out what are mistakes the other player makes, what they do well, and what my weakness (besides lack of producing SCV's) and strengths are.
if you can spot mistakes on your part, don't bother asking for tips. I mean this in a nice way; learning these things by yourself stops you from doing that particular mistake. If you can't evolve as a player and can't spot the issue, that's the time to ask for advice
I didn't really spot it, that's the only thing someone pointed out from my first replay.
2nd placement match, which I pulled out a win. It's really hard for me to figure out what are mistakes the other player makes, what they do well, and what my weakness (besides lack of producing SCV's) and strengths are.
if you can spot mistakes on your part, don't bother asking for tips. I mean this in a nice way; learning these things by yourself stops you from doing that particular mistake. If you can't evolve as a player and can't spot the issue, that's the time to ask for advice
I didn't really spot it, that's the only thing someone pointed out from my first replay.
ok i'll take a look.
oh god. wow. oh .. geez.
that toss player was pretty .. erm ..
anyway.
on to you.
your BO needs work. you need to get a rax up before grabbing gas. you need to get your comsat upgrade at 14-16 supply. it's important. other than that, you need a plan. and you need to scout more. a protoss player will GENERALLY go for an infantry approach and tech into collossi.
so your starting strategy should focus around getting marauders with the conc. grenades as these handily hurt his initial zealot stalker force. he'll then get sentries to pop up forcefields to stop your forces from retreating, by this point you should have healbusses and perhaps some sort of factory support, tanks or thors. aaaand so on.
what I'm trying to get at is:
scout, make a plan, execute.
if your plan fails, try optimise your BO/economy.
2nd placement match, which I pulled out a win. It's really hard for me to figure out what are mistakes the other player makes, what they do well, and what my weakness (besides lack of producing SCV's) and strengths are.
if you can spot mistakes on your part, don't bother asking for tips. I mean this in a nice way; learning these things by yourself stops you from doing that particular mistake. If you can't evolve as a player and can't spot the issue, that's the time to ask for advice
I didn't really spot it, that's the only thing someone pointed out from my first replay.
ok i'll take a look.
oh god. wow. oh .. geez.
that toss player was pretty .. erm ..
anyway.
on to you.
your BO needs work. you need to get a rax up before grabbing gas. you need to get your comsat upgrade at 14-16 supply. it's important. other than that, you need a plan. and you need to scout more. a protoss player will GENERALLY go for an infantry approach and tech into collossi.
so your starting strategy should focus around getting marauders with the conc. grenades as these handily hurt his initial zealot stalker force. he'll then get sentries to pop up forcefields to stop your forces from retreating, by this point you should have healbusses and perhaps some sort of factory support, tanks or thors. aaaand so on.
what I'm trying to get at is:
scout, make a plan, execute.
if your plan fails, try optimise your BO/economy.
Heh, the Protoss player built Cybernetics and a Forge and never upgraded anything.
is david kim (dayvie) of blizzard still high on the ladders? i remember in the beta for a while because he was a balance tester he was a god at this game while everyone was still learning.
Banelings are amazing, on most maps you can sneak a few in midgame in an overlord to take out their mineral line, I goddamn love banelings. Hell I've won a hell of a lot of games by sneaking stuff in through overlords.
I think my favorite thing to run into is the cheese or specific attack that the person has no clue how to follow through on.
Like I played against a guy who did a weird-as-fuck 2-hatches in one base thing(seriously, what the fuck), and had actually a really awesomely timed roach/hydra push, which was just as I was getting my expansion up, and he took out the expansion and its handful of drones, but then..... nothing.
He didn't ever expand, he just stayed on one base without doing anything except trying to slowly amass another roach/hydra push, exactly the same as the one that just sputtered and died at my main. I started throwing in some muta harass in the mineral line with only 4 mutas, took down the queen and all the drones, then sent in all my speedlings and oh hey look he just had 6 hydras and 5 roaches. And 2 hatches.
I just want to defend 2 base hatch as it has come up a few times on the last pages.
On certain maps or against certain builds, fast expanding spells doom for you. getting a second hatch up in your base with its own queen is great as you can just about support ling or roach spam with it with your initial mineral patches.
I find against zerg on small maps its a must.
So reading through this thread here and there makes me terrified to play online matches. I'm slowly making my way through the campaign and have played a few matches VS the CPU, but I dread going online and facing people who actually know what they're doing.
How ace is Blizzard's matchmaking? Will it know to set me up with people who are just as clueless as I am?
Matchmaking is pretty ace imo, it does take about 20-30 games before it works properly though if I'm not entirely mistaken. I've been doing mostly sp, and started multi now. I keeps tossing me 2-3 1-3 diamond players that mostly kill me, then I get to play some plat folks and have a chance of winning without cheesing.
Then it's murdertime again :P. In the beta it settled down after a while, although if you are constantly improving and advancing you will be matched a lot against people ranked way higher than you, to test if you are ready yet.
macroing 3-4 bases and queens is difficult for a lot of people, when the terran only has to do 2.
but
but
baneling drops
If the terran expands outside of 2 bases as mech it should be mind numbingly easy to harass the fuck out of them, and besides-it's easy as hell to macro 3-4 bases as zerg. Macro as zerg is one of the easiest things in the game to do.
Yes, even larvae, though it is monotonous, dull, and a dumb mechanic.
So reading through this thread here and there makes me terrified to play online matches. I'm slowly making my way through the campaign and have played a few matches VS the CPU, but I dread going online and facing people who actually know what they're doing.
How ace is Blizzard's matchmaking? Will it know to set me up with people who are just as clueless as I am?
Sometimes. I honestly would throw your first matches if you're pretty bad...cause if you do something lucky and rush, getting win...it'll think you're better than you really are.
Just ran into a zerg that walled off his ramp with hatcheries. Someone said it earlier, but crazy newbie strats can be very offputting.
oh god that reminds of the yellow bus rush
CasedOut on
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Spawnbroker gets mad props for experimenting on me with baneling busts. I think I finally have the counter down to it (hellions) to withstand it if scouted.
But I am slowly learning that a) marauders don't get used much anymore in large numbers and b) zerg apparently don't use roaches much anymore. I am starting to have to use things like thors.
Spawnbroker gets mad props for experimenting on me with baneling busts. I think I finally have the counter down to it (hellions) to withstand it if scouted.
But I am slowly learning that a) marauders don't get used much anymore in large numbers and b) zerg apparently don't use roaches much anymore. I am starting to have to use things like thors.
He should be busting before you get much out of a factory. How you setup your wall is a bigger factor in countering busts.
Ezekiel on
I will throw you on the land and hurl you on the open field. I will let all the birds of the air settle on you and all the beasts of the earth gorge themselves on you. I will spread your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains. I will drench the land with your flowing blood all the way to the mountains, and the ravines will be filled with your flesh. - Ezekiel 32: 4-6
So I dont get why I wont get promoted. Im well above .500, been number 1 in my division for like 3 wins now, the last of which was against a platinum. Strange...
Also, semi-rush to a 2medic, 4 marauder, 8 marine with stim pack seems to dominate bronze
Posts
You stopped making scvs for more than a second.
After the supply depot finishes, you dont immediately build a barracks.
I haven't even started league stuff yet, but I think saw (I just went through at x8 speed) some things that went wrong. When you sent the broodlords, you didn't send anti-air with them and you didn't take advantage of their huge range (9.5 versus 5 or 6 on hydralisks). I think that could have won the game, maybe.
I'm not too sure why you sent a bajillion zerglings when you knew he had a bajillion hydralisks towards the end
How ace is Blizzard's matchmaking? Will it know to set me up with people who are just as clueless as I am?
your pool was too early for that particular map, you didn't scout at all and you could have stomped his XP early on with your lings.
I've dug up 2 replays of ZvZ placement matches I've recently had, they both use 2 different approaches..
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you.
I was never a serious Starcraft player and only played a few matches of the original. Starcraft is a much too fast-paced game for me in general. I played through the campaign and last night jumped into the practice league.
To answer your question, its pretty good. It will vary of course. In the Practice League it will put you against other people who haven't started the ranked matches and are just "practicing" trying to get better. I played 7 matches last night and won 3 of them.
First guy I was up against was a total noob, like had literally just started playing the game that day I think, I beat him easily. Then I went up against a Protoss player who wiped the floor with me by amassing tons of Stalkers and rushing my base when my main force was on the way to attack his base.
Then I fought a Protoss who was around my level, I sent some Reapers to harass him early on, killed a lot of his probes, but he had some Zealots kill my guys, then I kept harassing him with Tanks and Marines until I got a Ghost out and Nuked his base and sent in my guys, he was dead after that.
Then I went up against a Terran who sent a ton of Reapers after my base early on and killed my SCVs, I was so far behind after that I lost when he sent in some Cruisers.
Then I fought a Zerg who didn't know what he was doing and killed him.
Then I fought a good Zerg player and he rushed me with Roaches and Zerglings and took me out.
Then lost to another good Terran player.
So... it varies, but don't be afraid to lose, its just a game afterall. Most important thing is to give it a shot, learn, watch replays, figure out what you need to do and have fun with it. Fast paced RTSes like this aren't for everyone though because they are SO competetive and rely on a ton of skill and memorization.
Regarding the above, I still get anxious playing online, cause I'm not that great either (I might even be bad!), coming back from a rush isn't that special to most people I would imagine, but for me it was fantastic. You shouldn't fear losing, when I lose, I watch the replay and see what I did wrong, whether it was my build order, or I didn't use the right units, or just not scouting. Watching replays helps, a lot.
But I totally understand hesitation to play online, I played 2v2 for a while just so I didn't feel like everything rode on my abilities.
I don't view losing or winning like a K/D ratio or anything, if I lose I just try to adapt in the next game. I would never have gotten any better if I didn't get steamrolled multiple times.
Edit: Replay:
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
if you can spot mistakes on your part, don't bother asking for tips. I mean this in a nice way; learning these things by yourself stops you from doing that particular mistake. If you can't evolve as a player and can't spot the issue, that's the time to ask for advice
You could be building those defenses at your "natural" expansion on many maps. Instead of placing that bunker inside your wall, why not place it outside your wall in a place where it can defend your expo? And why not build an early second command center too?
(Many pro players utilize this strategy with Terran. The Terran can defend well against early aggression with his bunkers and then tanks, and then the Terran can attack with a superior army afterward.)
I didn't really spot it, that's the only thing someone pointed out from my first replay.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Steam/PSN/XBL/Minecraft / LoL / - Benevicious | WoW - Duckwood - Rajhek
ok i'll take a look.
oh god. wow. oh .. geez.
that toss player was pretty .. erm ..
anyway.
on to you.
your BO needs work. you need to get a rax up before grabbing gas. you need to get your comsat upgrade at 14-16 supply. it's important. other than that, you need a plan. and you need to scout more. a protoss player will GENERALLY go for an infantry approach and tech into collossi.
so your starting strategy should focus around getting marauders with the conc. grenades as these handily hurt his initial zealot stalker force. he'll then get sentries to pop up forcefields to stop your forces from retreating, by this point you should have healbusses and perhaps some sort of factory support, tanks or thors. aaaand so on.
what I'm trying to get at is:
scout, make a plan, execute.
if your plan fails, try optimise your BO/economy.
Heh, the Protoss player built Cybernetics and a Forge and never upgraded anything.
but they can't do nothin about the 20 overlords carrying them
*terran lifts off and proceeds to blow the goop out of your ovis with his airforce*
Ultralisks baby!
it's always a good idea to have 10-20 foods worth of speedlings for quick raids and harassments. BYEBYE mineral line!
Infestors hard counter it.
Splitting into two groups and attacking from two angles hard counters it.
If he turtles? Take map control you silly goose.
This isn't difficult.
but
but
baneling drops
Like I played against a guy who did a weird-as-fuck 2-hatches in one base thing(seriously, what the fuck), and had actually a really awesomely timed roach/hydra push, which was just as I was getting my expansion up, and he took out the expansion and its handful of drones, but then..... nothing.
He didn't ever expand, he just stayed on one base without doing anything except trying to slowly amass another roach/hydra push, exactly the same as the one that just sputtered and died at my main. I started throwing in some muta harass in the mineral line with only 4 mutas, took down the queen and all the drones, then sent in all my speedlings and oh hey look he just had 6 hydras and 5 roaches. And 2 hatches.
On certain maps or against certain builds, fast expanding spells doom for you. getting a second hatch up in your base with its own queen is great as you can just about support ling or roach spam with it with your initial mineral patches.
I find against zerg on small maps its a must.
Matchmaking is pretty ace imo, it does take about 20-30 games before it works properly though if I'm not entirely mistaken. I've been doing mostly sp, and started multi now. I keeps tossing me 2-3 1-3 diamond players that mostly kill me, then I get to play some plat folks and have a chance of winning without cheesing.
Then it's murdertime again :P. In the beta it settled down after a while, although if you are constantly improving and advancing you will be matched a lot against people ranked way higher than you, to test if you are ready yet.
If the terran expands outside of 2 bases as mech it should be mind numbingly easy to harass the fuck out of them, and besides-it's easy as hell to macro 3-4 bases as zerg. Macro as zerg is one of the easiest things in the game to do.
Yes, even larvae, though it is monotonous, dull, and a dumb mechanic.
Sometimes. I honestly would throw your first matches if you're pretty bad...cause if you do something lucky and rush, getting win...it'll think you're better than you really are.
oh god that reminds of the yellow bus rush
But I am slowly learning that a) marauders don't get used much anymore in large numbers and b) zerg apparently don't use roaches much anymore. I am starting to have to use things like thors.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
This happen to anyone else?
Could I get some feedback? I am psyckO obviously.
He should be busting before you get much out of a factory. How you setup your wall is a bigger factor in countering busts.
Also, semi-rush to a 2medic, 4 marauder, 8 marine with stim pack seems to dominate bronze