Just curious but who's in the platinum leagues? I'm tired of losing... someone coach me! =)
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Just curious but who's in the platinum leagues? I'm tired of losing... someone coach me! =)
Are you on EU or US servers? If it's EU I could try to help (I may not be a great coach though ;))
aw US.. thanks for offering tho!
I'm in gold. Around top 8 normally. Just watch videos and start to learn strategy is my suggestion. Hot keys and being familar with Shift movement is HUGE.
Shift ... movement?
You can give multiple commands to units now. For example, if you want to move a group of stalkers on and off a cliff you can Move the stalkers to a point, hold shift, have them blink and then continue moving. This way you don't need to go back and reselect them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimera757
It also works well for siege tanks. Move them to a position and then Shift click e? (Forget the key) and they will move to that position and then siege allowing you to focus on another aspect of the game.
Depending on the race, you should also ctrl group certain buildings.
I'm assuming he knows what shift-command is, but was just surprised to see that you put it so high in your "to do" list :p
I watch commentaries. I understand most basic micro, am learning the new hotkeys (I remember most the old hotkeys from bw), I use control groups, the only build orders I really know is building to rush I guess...
Things I don't understand
- when to expand
- when to tech
- when to attack?
- how do you deal with opponents that turtle (i've been losing to terran a lot)
- when to upgrade
basically... timing and macro
I don't have beta but from my knowledge of Starcraft1, I can give you some suggestions (Some of them may not be ideal, but just what I know about the game)Quote:
Originally Posted by moosh
When to expand - whenever you feel confident in your current army and their ability to hold off any sudden attack, or very early on before the opponent can build a big enough army to threaten your expansion.
When to tech - Either very early on if you are rushin to a tech build, or when you have a significantly large tier 1-2 army and feel comfortable teching up. Typically, the latter works well if you harrass the opponent while teching up. It let's you know what kind of army you would have to deal with if he/she chose to attack, and it also keeps them from attacking because you are putting forth the pressure.
When to attack - I'm an aggressive player, so I would say almost constantly (When I say constantly, I just mean some form of pressure, keep walking towards his base/expansions with a small army and harrass it or just intimidate the opponent into building static defenses, which gives you an advantage). However, many good pro players would disagree because they have strategies that involve pushes and expansions they can safely defend.
A simple suggestion on how to deal with opponents who turtle - Air units are always helpful when dealing with turtling opponents. Most important though, expand like hell!! If you are confident that the opponent is turtling, then expand and out-macro the crap out of him/her. Once you have enough expansions, you can amass a large force and break down his walls/entrances, and then KEEP BUILDING UNITS while your current ones are most likely dying, and keep sending them in until he/she is wiped out.
When to upgrade - No idea. I always sucked at remembering to upgrade in SCBW. I imagine it's best to do when you have a nice number of specific units (i.e. ground units, ranged units, air, etc.) so you know what you want to upgrade, and also when the more important upgrades have already been researched (e.g. stimpack, hellion damage increase, collusi range, etc.)
Those are just my suggestions from experience. Someone who is better or more knowledgeable than me will most likely come along and offer better advice :)
A basic tip that helped me a lot strategically:
Always wonder what your opponent might have at a certain point, and scout to cross things off that list. That's how you can counter his army directly, and better understand when to expand, tech or attack.
Basically, expand when you feel like it's safe to do so (when you've got map control, and want to capitalize on that). Tech when you think you could use a certain unit to counter his current (or future) army.
example: many zerg go for roaches in ZvP, so now it's pretty standard for P to 1gate>robo and pump immortals pretty early. If scout this early enough, you can set up a zergling army on a non-choke map, or try a baneling+zergling bust to get into his front exactly before immortals pop.
If you think that he's got too many sentries to kill him with blingling, you know that he's delaying his tech because of that, so you can expand to overwhelm him, or tech to mutalisks if he might tech straight to collossi (or both at the same time, if he's got something like 3 sentries and 2 zealots to block his ramp, as they won't be a threat offensively).
This is just one scenario, but you need to scout at the right moment (when you know that if you get in, you'll discover his tech pattern), and plan accordingly. Getting familiar with the other race's game patterns is VERY helpful (you don't need to play them to get this information, but just pay attention when playing against them).
Once you know what he might have, the whole idea is to attack when his army is the weakest (before a tech transition for example), and manage to make your army strong enough at that exact moment.
I'm just rambling, but really, the more you actively look for flaws in your opponent's timings, the faster you'll improve. Playing a lot is a decent way to improve your strategy without noticing but playing actively is an even better way.
Regarding macro, well all you can do is concentrate and play a lot. This doesn't only apply to video games but generally if you focus on a specific task you'll acquire reflexes much faster. Indeed being mentally more active will reinforce muscle memory.