StarCraft 2

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Tenks

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I'd say the importance of map awareness and map dominance are two criminally underplayed essentials in Starcraft. I watch a ton of coaching streams between QXC, Idra and everyone in between and I almost never hear them talk about map vision and map awareness. It is always "Do X build order. Oh you got supply blocked here. Your third is late" instead of harping on the fact that they let their opponent sit on the watchtower with a probe for the first 8 minutes of the game. Once I realized that games I won and games in which I dominated the watch tower went hand in hand I started winning quite more often and never losing to frustrating shit.

Also going hand in hand with map dominance means you can have your army safely near your opponent's base. This means when you see an opportunity or a weakness you can seize it and punsh them.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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Zaphid_sl said:
Blizzard ama on reddit:http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment...and_david_kim/
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Most of the answers are pretty canned and generic but the top comment right now is asking about the 3base cap and Browder admits they're aware of it and may discuss it. But don't expect anything until LoV.

I'd love it if they made the economy more complicated than it is right now. Think it would add just another level of skill to the game.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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I have a feeling they will never throw out the econ as it is right now but instead add additional macro mechanic that would scale based on the number of workers per base or something. They would have to basically redo the game from scratch and given how bad HotS looked at the start of beta, they don't have the luxury of time and manpower to attempt it. Mules are actually really good for asymmetrical economy, because every terran simply mines more minerals and can afford to build less workers and have larger army.

Also looked at the prices they have planned for the EU store and I won't be sporting TL hoodies anytime soon, that shit is pretty expensive.
 
Sludig

Sludig

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Towards the different fundamentals, company of heroes is like the perfect opposite, where micro'ing to save every last individual possible is key and where losing an entire squad or two economically destroys you. Maybe explains why (not that it's anything to be proud of) I briefly managed top 100 Wehrmacht, did alright in War3, but am a gibbering retard in gold league back when it launched. (Havnt played in months and months and months)

Tenks_sl said:
IDK if you have really, really solid RTS fundamentals and I mean not just "probes, pylons, hotkeys" I mean knowing exactly how to scout, when to scout, knowing timings, knowing proper expanding, knowing when you're ahead and defend, knowing when you're behind and attack, having killer instinct, having star sense you could be relatively certain you could be high masters and get matched against pros and possibly take a game here and there. By pros I'm talking about the NA pros. You'll probably still get your ass handed to you by true professionals in Korea. The big problem is a bunch of people (myself very much included) have an inflated sense of their RTS knowledge when really the surface is only scratched. Luckily I've started reviewing my replays a bunch recently and that has really helped me find and fix flaws. Prior to that I was convinced I just lost because my opponent did some gimmicky build that countered my build so I'll just try doing the same thing again. Instead if I lose to some weird build I need to realize why I didn't know about it coming and why I didn't deflect it properly.

Another problem is that even though Starcraft is "the" genre defining game very few games does what it does. There aren't too many RTS which are fast paced and economically focused like Starcraft. So being good at C&C or Warcraft doesn't mean the same skills will transfer over to Starcraft. To be successful in Starcraft you have to almost intentionally stop paying attention to a battle because saving 8 marines is no where near as important as delaying your engi bay, getting supply blocked, making a CC or doing any of the other various infrastructure tasks. However mostly every other RTS heavily rewards you babysitting an army.
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PS: Any online deals out there, or am I screaming take my money and spending $40? (Actually went to buy on the SC2 site, entered CC info etc, hit ok.... took me back to game page no email/account change or bill)
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Usually Blizzard pricing is pretty strict.

Anyone have some general purpose Zerg strats for ZvZ? I usually just start going ling/roaches and the game doesn't last very long. I will go Mutas if I feel the need. Man I suck.
 
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Flank_sl

shitlord
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Noodleface_sl said:
Usually Blizzard pricing is pretty strict.

Anyone have some general purpose Zerg strats for ZvZ? I usually just start going ling/roaches and the game doesn't last very long. I will go Mutas if I feel the need. Man I suck.
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This isn't a full strategy, but if you want to get better at ZvZ I would concentrate on getting as much map vision as possible with your overlord spread, then going into 8 mutas (after banelings as needed) to kill all their overlords before switching into roach/hydra. If you are sure your opponent is not going spire then you can use hydras to kill overlords instead (in HoTS), but you do not want to get caught playing hydra vs muta before you get your third base online, and your t2 tech should come before your third base.

If you end up roach/hydra vs roach/hydra then concentrate on your positioning. Keep your units pre-spread if needed. It is incredible how much the arc matters. Also, if you think you will reach max pop, do not end up with more roaches than hydras.
 
Sludig

Sludig

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Does the new training missions/options do a better job of preparing for online play, or are they still pretty ultra basic.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

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Grubby's PvZ vs Stephano and TLO at IEM is some of the most entertaining stuff I have seen in a while.

TLO vs Grubby g2, when you see it, you will nod too
 
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Flank_sl

shitlord
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Sludig_sl said:
Does the new training missions/options do a better job of preparing for online play, or are they still pretty ultra basic.
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The Starcraft Master missions are a lot of fun, but cant prepare you for multiplayer. Just remember that you are only supposed to win half of your multiplayer games, losing isn't a big deal.
 
Quineloe

Quineloe

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Flank_sl said:
The Starcraft Master missions are a lot of fun, but cant prepare you for multiplayer. Just remember that you are only supposed to win half of your multiplayer games, losing isn't a big deal.
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Thing is the best player in the world should be losing less than half his games, and roughly 30% of the player base think they're the best player in the world
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Flank_sl

shitlord
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Oh, and the new AI is much better than the old. If you are new, login to bnet and go to the Matchmaking section. Select vs AI, set it to 1v1 and pick your race. You will play vs a random AI on Easy, but as you win the difficulty goes up and your progress is displayed by a bar on the matchmaking screen. Once the bar is full you are playing against Elite AI and if you can consistently beat that you should be able to get into laddering around the silver or gold level.

If you go into custom games you can also select which type of build you want the AI to use. It is not as good as playing against other players, but if you have 20 minutes to kill it makes for decent build order practice.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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Funny how everyone was saying the foreigners will do well at HOTS in the early times of the expansion and it appears like they'll only get 4/12 of the available playoff spots for IEM despite Koreans being 10/24 total spots.

Also king of hype and zero results Grubby gets stomped again despite playing hots exclusively for months
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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I just went on like a 6 game losing streak, I think I'm getting worse. Keep losing to mass speedlings, I am positive I am doing something incorrect.
 
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Flank_sl

shitlord
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Noodleface_sl said:
I just went on like a 6 game losing streak, I think I'm getting worse. Keep losing to mass speedlings, I am positive I am doing something incorrect.
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If your opponent has 2 hatches and 2 queens then you cannot skip banelings. Typically, build your baneling nest and a spine in front of your expansion, and add further buildings later to block it. Leave 2 banes on the ramp between your main and natural, and another 2 banes just behind your spine.
 
Sidian

Sidian

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MVP is such a boss. I hope he wins IEM again. Gives me hope he'll be strong enough still to advance back into Code S. That or maybe gom will be smart and just seed him straight into Code S like they did with Rain.
 
Sludig

Sludig

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So whats with the small bits of non buildable terrain put at the bottom of the ramps at mains? Stop a particular cheese strat?
 
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Flank_sl

shitlord
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Sludig_sl said:
So whats with the small bits of non buildable terrain put at the bottom of the ramps at mains? Stop a particular cheese strat?
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Yes, just like the neutral depots used in tourney maps in WoL. It stops you walling the bottom of a small ramp with bunkers or pylons.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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I'm glad Blizz is taking a wait and see approach to the medivac boosters. Like I said I think that all races will simply have to have some sort of flying anti-air to deal with it. Dream kind of picked apart MVP (was so far behind it didn't matter) with speed vacs but if MVP just had a Viking there to kill the medivac the drop could get shut down. Perhaps to compensate for Toss they should consider giving MSC the ability to shoot air as well.
 
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