Playing a lot of melee custom games, a common mistake I see amongst newer players is the lack of scouting they employ throughout the game. I wanted to go through some basics methods for scouting as each of the 3 races. It is extremely important that you scout and be aware of what your opponent is planning to do and respond accordingly. Games at the highest level of play are often won/lost due to insufficient scouting and/or map awareness.
Initial Scout- All Races
Around 9-12 supply you should almost always send a worker (SCV, Drone, Probe) to go scout your opponents base to get a basic feel of what's going on. This is very helpful in determining what you will build depending on what information you gather. Usually you want to keep your worker shift+moving around the base in a circular motion as long as possible. Against Protoss you can keep it in there before the first Stalker comes out. Against Zerg, try to get your worker out before the first zerglings are out. Against Terran you can usually keep him there until the first marine is out. After the initial scout I usually take my worker to one of the Xel'Naga watch towers for some recon. Even after the initial scout, you could always risk sacrificing a worker to poke around your opponents base and see what's going on. It's often worth it, especially versus Zerg due to it being damn near impossible to wall off early game. Most Terran and Protoss players seem to have an easier time denying this method however.
What to make of your initial scout- When you keep playing, you will notice patterns occur when your opponents are going certain builds. For example if by the time you get to your Z opponents base, his spawning pool is already done and he has 3 eggs morphing in, 9/10 times he built his spawning pool before 10 and is now going to be rallying those 6 zerglings to the front of your base. If your T opponent has 2 gas up and is throwing down a reactor, be ready for Reapers, Banshees (or Both) , quick Tanks etc. If your P opponent has built 2 gateways and is chronoboosting his initial one as soon as it spawns, get ready for 2-gate pressure. I think the best advice is to just pay attention to what your opponent is getting and where he places his buildings and then see what comes out of it. Also go to Teamliquid.net and check out the 'Liquipedia' build orders and familiarize yourself with them. As you keep playing you will start to see patterns in the build orders.
Protoss
I feel like Protoss has less early-mid game scouting options than the other 2 races. Terrans have scan and delayed reapers, Zerg have Overlord spotting and Zergling mobility on their side, Protoss can Hallucinate a Phoenix, but it takes a while to research so by the time it comes up because you would almost always want to get it after warpgate.. You should have observers around the same time. Once Protoss have observers, I feel it more than makes up for their lack of early game scouting options. Often when I play PvT I poke up his ramp with my army to see what I can see. You can tell a lot by what units he has already. For example, if he has a bunch of Marauders and a couple of marines, he may be going a 3rax timing push with stim and concusive shells. This composition might be vulnerable to voidray harass. If he has a few marines and a factory coming up, he could be going 1/1/1 build or be going a MM+Tank build. etc. It's dangerous poking your army up a ramp in PvP because of Forcefields. PvP has often been described of having a Roshambo type quality due to the fact that in many cases if a player goes for a quick observer to scout, he can sometimes be overpowered by a 4gate build. If a player goes 4 gate, he gets countered by a Dark Templar build etc. I think this is due to a lack of early scouting options on both sides. PvZ I like to hide my probe somewhere outside their base after the initial scout and run in maybe a minute or 2 later to see whats going on, a lot of zergs place their armys at the top of the ramp, but many times they are being active with their army.. doing things like harassing, destroying destructable rocks etc. Again once you get your observer out it becomes pretty easy to see what your opponent is up to and where his army is.
Terran
To me, Terran has a lot of early-mid game options in terms of scouting. My favorite is the semi-delayed reaper. It works pretty well in all matchups and on most maps. All you have to do is just skip one in your normal build order and instead make a sacrificial reaper to run circles around the opponents base and maybe earn his keep by killing a few enemy workers in the process. It's important however that you remember that the primary function of this 'delayed reaper' is to gather intel, not worker kills. As the game goes on however, and especially if you keep sending reapers to scout his base, A good player will start to deny these scouts. Scan is also a very viable option for scouting, however I have heard that one Mule mines ~300 minerals in its lifetime so in many cases I'd rather sacrifice a Reaper (50/50) to get the job done instead. Also it's sometimes nice to save a scan for emergencies, for instance if your P enemy hid his DT tech somewhere ridiculous like at the corner of a 4 player map. Another great and underutilized method of scouting is the Sensor Tower. The Sensor Tower reveals enemy movement in a pretty large area, it's especially useful If you're going for Siege Tanks because it prevents you from getting caught out of siege mode or out of position.
Zerg
Early-Mid game one of the great things you can do with Zerg is place overlord 'spotters' on high ground to detect enemy movement or incoming proxy (buildings built in close 'proximity' to your base) cheese. Zerglings are also great sacrificial scouts, costing 50 minerals for 2 of them and moving slightly faster than probes. Many good players place their first 2 or so Zerglings at Xel'naga watch towers asap and often catch their opponents workers there. Good Zerg players will also sacrifice an Overlord to get a good idea of what the enemy is doing before he has an Overseer. Once you do have an Overseer, they make excellent scouts (especially with the speed upgrade. You can also spawn changelings which turn into an enemy Zealot , Marine or Zergling depending on the opponents race and have it follow his army around. In addition to all these options, A Zerg player can see wherever his creep is, so a defining feature of many pro Zerg players is constant spreading of creep 'highway' in all directions.
Starcraft 2 Gamer: A Blog about the RTS game Starcraft 2 by Blizzard written by a long time Blizzard fan. A spot with links to cool videos, updates on fun new UMS games, competitive strategies and pretty much anything related to Starcraft 2. In addition to SC2 occasionally I will post about Gaming in general, Music, Movies, Sports and other cool stuff.
Showing posts with label Strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strategy. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
6. Sentry/Forcefield Use
Hey Guys, I thought I'd write a post about The Protoss Sentry. The Sentry is a support unit created out of the Gateway or Warpgate. It requires a Cybernetics Core to be built and requires 50 minerals and 100 Gas. I often build Sentries early so they have time to charge by the time i engage.
The bread and butter skill of the Sentry and arguably Protoss race as a whole is Forcefield. The spell basically creates a dome of energy that enemy units cannot pass through over ground. (However, Massive units such as Colossus, Ultralisks and Thors destroy forcefields upon coming into contact with them.) First I'll go into some ways the spell can be used.
Forcefielding the Ramp- Using a forcefield on a ramp is a great way to cut an army in half. If an enemy army is in the process of moving up or down a ramp, use forcefield directly in the middle to effectively cut his forces in two. This technique is especially effective against players who try to push up your ramp early game. It is also good for containing a player in his base. Many times I've had a single corsair harass a zergs overseers in his main to draw his army back there.. Moved my army to his natural.. Forcefield his ramp and leave his forces stuck in his Main while I killed his natural and all of the drones there.
Versus Zerglings- Zerglings thrive on being able to surround the enemy units. Use your forcefields to create less surface area for the zerglings to attack by placing forcefields around your army so that there is no space for them to attack. This makes dealing with zergling heavy armys much, much easier.
Versus units with shorter range- You can make a wall that allows your longer range units to attack them without being attacked back. For example Stalker vs. Marine you create a make shift wall at a choke point move your Stalkers out of the Marines range and go back to attack them. Forcefields work especially well with Colossi in play. Placing barriers between the enemy force and the colossi allows the colossi to further take advantage of their extremely long range because the enemy force either has to funnel throught he small cracks in your wall or cannot get through entirely to do damage.
Creating a Tighter Choke Point- This is very effective when the enemy is a lot more 'melee heavy' in his army composition. What you want to do is create a 'funnel' so that not all of his melee units can be doing dps but all of your range units are dealing damage. Most of the time enemy players will retreat in this situation in which case you can make another wall to slow their escape and further maximize the amount of damage you're inflicting.
Disrupting Your Opponents Concave- I'm sure you've noticed that most fights between ranged units result in a sort of concave or semi-circle shape in the armies, In this case forcefields can be used to disrupt this formation and force your opponents forces to reposition themselves. Just place the forcefields right in the middle of his lines. A little trick I've been experimenting with is when the opponent retreats from the forcefielded position, place on more forcefield on top of the other 2 forming upside down V's, or a checkerboard.
X X (place these when he may retreat)
X X X (place these initially to break up the Concave)
There's really unlimited ways to use forcefields, but these are just a few that I try and use regularly. Also note that you should try to get as much of your army as possible under your GS (Guardian Shield) so you have more forcefields to use.
Some things to note about Sentries
Sentries have 40hp and 40 shields and die fairly quickly. Sentries have a range of 5, meaning they can be placed in front of Stalkers and behind Zealots for a 'Triple Layer' of damage. They do almost as much DPS to light units as a Stalker, but have trouble killing armored units. A Sentry has 200 energy meaning you can get off 4 forcefields off of one fully charged Sentry (Or 2 and 1 GS). Typically you want to have 4-6 sentrys in your army, Although some top level Protoss such as HuK preffer having more. Good Luck, Have Fun guys :)
8/4/2010
The bread and butter skill of the Sentry and arguably Protoss race as a whole is Forcefield. The spell basically creates a dome of energy that enemy units cannot pass through over ground. (However, Massive units such as Colossus, Ultralisks and Thors destroy forcefields upon coming into contact with them.) First I'll go into some ways the spell can be used.
Forcefielding the Ramp- Using a forcefield on a ramp is a great way to cut an army in half. If an enemy army is in the process of moving up or down a ramp, use forcefield directly in the middle to effectively cut his forces in two. This technique is especially effective against players who try to push up your ramp early game. It is also good for containing a player in his base. Many times I've had a single corsair harass a zergs overseers in his main to draw his army back there.. Moved my army to his natural.. Forcefield his ramp and leave his forces stuck in his Main while I killed his natural and all of the drones there.
Versus Zerglings- Zerglings thrive on being able to surround the enemy units. Use your forcefields to create less surface area for the zerglings to attack by placing forcefields around your army so that there is no space for them to attack. This makes dealing with zergling heavy armys much, much easier.
Versus units with shorter range- You can make a wall that allows your longer range units to attack them without being attacked back. For example Stalker vs. Marine you create a make shift wall at a choke point move your Stalkers out of the Marines range and go back to attack them. Forcefields work especially well with Colossi in play. Placing barriers between the enemy force and the colossi allows the colossi to further take advantage of their extremely long range because the enemy force either has to funnel throught he small cracks in your wall or cannot get through entirely to do damage.
Creating a Tighter Choke Point- This is very effective when the enemy is a lot more 'melee heavy' in his army composition. What you want to do is create a 'funnel' so that not all of his melee units can be doing dps but all of your range units are dealing damage. Most of the time enemy players will retreat in this situation in which case you can make another wall to slow their escape and further maximize the amount of damage you're inflicting.
Disrupting Your Opponents Concave- I'm sure you've noticed that most fights between ranged units result in a sort of concave or semi-circle shape in the armies, In this case forcefields can be used to disrupt this formation and force your opponents forces to reposition themselves. Just place the forcefields right in the middle of his lines. A little trick I've been experimenting with is when the opponent retreats from the forcefielded position, place on more forcefield on top of the other 2 forming upside down V's, or a checkerboard.
X X (place these when he may retreat)
X X X (place these initially to break up the Concave)
There's really unlimited ways to use forcefields, but these are just a few that I try and use regularly. Also note that you should try to get as much of your army as possible under your GS (Guardian Shield) so you have more forcefields to use.
Some things to note about Sentries
Sentries have 40hp and 40 shields and die fairly quickly. Sentries have a range of 5, meaning they can be placed in front of Stalkers and behind Zealots for a 'Triple Layer' of damage. They do almost as much DPS to light units as a Stalker, but have trouble killing armored units. A Sentry has 200 energy meaning you can get off 4 forcefields off of one fully charged Sentry (Or 2 and 1 GS). Typically you want to have 4-6 sentrys in your army, Although some top level Protoss such as HuK preffer having more. Good Luck, Have Fun guys :)
8/4/2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
5. My Favorite Starcraft 2 Sites (Links)
Day9 Daily Archives
“High level commentary on competitive Starcraft matches from an 11-year veteran and top player. Day[9] has been rated A+/A on ICCUP/PGT on multiple accounts over multiple seasons, has qualified for the WCG USA finals 7 times, has qualified for the WCG Grand Finals 3 times, and won the Pan American Championship in 2007. In Starcraft 2 Day[9] is a top rated diamond player as random.”
-Daily tutorials, tournament casts and high level analysis 5 Days a Week! This guy really helped my game, he's also pretty funny.
“High level commentary on competitive Starcraft matches from an 11-year veteran and top player. Day[9] has been rated A+/A on ICCUP/PGT on multiple accounts over multiple seasons, has qualified for the WCG USA finals 7 times, has qualified for the WCG Grand Finals 3 times, and won the Pan American Championship in 2007. In Starcraft 2 Day[9] is a top rated diamond player as random.”
-Daily tutorials, tournament casts and high level analysis 5 Days a Week! This guy really helped my game, he's also pretty funny.
“GosuGamers is a computer game community with 50,000 visits per day. The community, which has existed since 2002, focus on high quality eSport news and user created materials for the best-selling games by Blizzard Entertainment: StarCraft and WarCraft.”
-Gosugamers is where I go to check out replays. It’s cool cause you can check them out at your own pace and look anywhere you want unlike a cast. You can also check the overall rankings of the top players in the world. Get replays of the best/ your favorite player and learn from their build orders, strategies and tactics. What more could you want!
HD and Husky Starcraft
“Meet HDstarcraft and HuskyStarcraft, or just HD and Husky, two dudes in their twenties who voice commentate (think football announcers) over recorded rounds of the computer game Starcraft 2. If you know nothing about Starcraft it matters little, these two guys are killing it without being mainstream. Nearly every video of a game that either commentates will rack up at least 75,000 views. If a game runs longer, more than 10 minutes say, it will get those 75,000 views per installment. A 40 minute game can blow past 300,000 views.” -TheNextWeb.com
- These guys are very entertaining, I always check up on these guys at least once a week.
Starcraft 2 Unit Stats
"Anything and everything you need to know about any units or structures for any race"- www.starcraft-source.com
TeamLiquid
-The Forum of choice for the Starcraft 2 Gamer. Their strategy section is very helpful.
7-29-2010
7-29-2010
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