Tips for learning the races

I've found my ways after reading liquidpedia 2 a lot about zerg / terran / protoss strategy. It now feels to me that the game is incredibly balanced and that I simply didn't know how to play each race properly. Each race is actually incredibly complicated to play and each has their own play style. I think I was too used to Terran play style (a very reactionary race) while playing Zerg and that's probably why I just couldn't keep up with Zerg.

So I'm going to help anyone else who thinks something is overpowered or underpowered exactly what to do.

First, go read Liquidpedia 2:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Main_Page

It's a very comprehensive newbie / intermediate guide to opening builds, transitions, mid game and late game.

First of all, Starcraft 2 is just like chess, except you can't see the other player's moves. So that means you HAVE to scout. There is no excuse not to scout, if you can't see him setting up a 4 queen checkmate, then the blame is on you for not trying to scout.

I suggest you look into the "safe" opening builds and practice on perfecting those for now. I've been playing Terran again and I usually go the 2rax opening build. It's incredibly safe and has won me a ton of games because you can easily transition to a mech or a bio build while being able to defend against reapers, zerglings, mutalisks voidrays and so forth.

Once you have 3-4 safe opening builds down, start learning your transitions. I have found this is key in a lot of 1v1 and 2v2 games. I've made the mistake of continuously working on my opening build (ie more rax and more rax) and pushing but once the enemy goes AoE units I have nothing to transition to since I've neglected that part of the game.

Again, liquidpedia 2 offers a lot of interesting transitions but you can still be a bit creative. The key here is to learn your racial traits. Terran for instance is a very reactive race. You can switch rax and factories around to get the bonuses of reactor or tech lab.

I think after you've got these basic aspects down, then you can start going interesting builds. But don't forget to scout.

Even with a safe opening build, my opponent had me fast rushed with battlecruisers. I couldn't believe it. He had 2 expansions and was incredibly weak for the longest time and I didn't even scout his expasions. If you're going mech, you can use your barracks to scout like a slow overlord.

I'm only giving Terran ideas because I'm not a Toss or Zerg player but I'm sure people who play those can go for safe builds as well.

The fact remains though, the safe builds work a vast majority of the time, and I now laugh at zergling rushes, void rays rushes, mutalisks rushes and even a 8 reaper strike (I'll probably have around 16 or so marines with stim). So it's a very newbie friendly and gives you a lot of area for flexibility. Don't forget to scout (and don't forget to snipe their expansions)

Thanks for posting, this looks like good reading.

Pretty big change of stances since the last thread. Glad that you've seen the light.

I think zerg economy is also something you need to learn yourself. Of course i've learned a lot through casts, pro-games and guides, but they don't teach you timings or how to read the gameflow (which is the most important thing for a healthy zerg econ beyond gold/plat). I'm still not good with them, but I love their complexity.

It goes without saying that liquipedia is a reference in terms of strategy, but liquipedia2 is still rather lacking, and often times outdated (the game is changing too quickly).

I'd recommend practice more than theory at this point, and especially an open mind since often times when starting with Zerg you'll lose but have no idea why. I think that's less frequent with the other races.
Day9 is usually a good place to go once you're at a gold/plat/diamond level and want to take it to the next level strategically.

Pretty informative. Thanks for the post.

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Originally Posted by Hammy

Pretty big change of stances since the last thread. Glad that you've seen the light.

I think zerg economy is also something you need to learn yourself. Of course i've learned a lot through casts, pro-games and guides, but they don't teach you timings or how to read the gameflow (which is the most important thing for a healthy zerg econ beyond gold/plat). I'm still not good with them, but I love their complexity.

It goes without saying that liquipedia is a reference in terms of strategy, but liquipedia2 is still rather lacking, and often times outdated (the game is changing too quickly).

I'd recommend practice more than theory at this point, and especially an open mind since often times when starting with Zerg you'll lose but have no idea why. I think that's less frequent with the other races.
Day9 is usually a good place to go once you're at a gold/plat/diamond level and want to take it to the next level strategically.

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I still think Zerg sucks ass lol.

There is only one thing you need to know to be a top level Zerg player.

Spawn Larva.

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Originally Posted by Wankey

I still think Zerg sucks ass lol.

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So you still don't realize you're playing them wrong, rather than them working in the wrong way?
Even if blizzard made some minor tweaks, those won't be enough to flip anyone's win ratio upside down.

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

There is only one thing you need to know to be a top level Zerg player.

Spawn Larva.

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Dude, you should have kept that to yourself! Now you'll have some competition at the top!:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Hammy

Dude, you should have kept that to yourself! Now you'll have some competition at the top!:rolleyes:

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Sick burn!

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Originally Posted by Hammy

Dude, you should have kept that to yourself! Now you'll have some competition at the top!:rolleyes:

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I play Protoss. PvZ is my best matchup and I was getting bored. Bring it on.

I'm afraid you might be too busy not playing your game against archer. ;)
We can play when the server lock is lifted obviously. I'd be happy to play with anyone from the community.

So did you stop playing zerg because you were too awesome with them (you had discovered the secret of spawn larvae?) or because you just didn't enjoy playing them? Those are two different things, and I don't think stating your opinion as fact will convince me : )

Speaking of Archer, what the hell happened to him? Seems like he disappeared once the game went live.

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Originally Posted by Blazur

Speaking of Archer, what the hell happened to him? Seems like he disappeared once the game went live.

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He slit is wrists from finally realizing everything he ever said was wrong and stupid.

At least, that's how it is in my dreams.

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Originally Posted by Hammy

So you still don't realize you're playing them wrong, rather than them working in the wrong way?
Even if blizzard made some minor tweaks, those won't be enough to flip anyone's win ratio upside down.



Dude, you should have kept that to yourself! Now you'll have some competition at the top!:rolleyes:

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I'm not playing Zerg... what part of that don't you understand. I pity the Zerg player. Every time I meet a zerg player, I laugh 'cause they usually suck.

Zerg is actually unbalanced for lesser players and it's very rare that I meet a good zerg player. Usually easily kill Zerg player pretty easily.

Well I fully understand the part where you say you tried zerg, weren't any good besides with the occasional gimmick, got frustrated, and then switched back to another race. Nothing wrong with that. I'm no good with protoss.

I guess it depends how you want to define imbalance. To me a unit/race is only imbalanced if it's unbeatable at the highest level.
I can agree that zerg are harder to play at some levels, and maybe low league players have a harder time with them (nothing new from BW here) but instead of crying for imbalance I'd try and just get better, since at those skill levels you (general 'you') have so many ways of getting better quickly.
When a gold level player tries a new strategy/gamestyle to beat something he's having trouble against, he's not counteracting any imbalance, he's just getting better at the game. That's kind of the principle of an RTS.

That's why imbalance only applies to power gamers, since only someone who's actually tried a bunch of things can realistically say 'ok I can't beat this'. Not some random guy who says he can't beat mass marauder because he keeps on making roaches or doesn't know how to react to a 4gate because his droning timing is off.

This isn't directed at you Wankey, I have no idea how you play or your skill level, though I do think saying "zerg suck" is very nearsighted.

Moved to the strategy forum.