Fixed Menu Bug / Terran Rush

It feels like such a long time since I’ve blogged about StarCraft. Where to begin?

First, and most importantly, I’ve fixed the Menu button bug I’ve been qqing about. The worst bug in Blizzard game history (as far as I’m concerned) and I had to fix it myself. I stumbled upon the answer while going on Team Liquid’s forums. Usually I spent much more time in the official Blizzard forums. But after finding the answer to my problems with Team Liquid, maybe I’ll start spending more time with them.

You have to go into your Start > Documents > StarCraft2 folder. Inside are several more folders for things like screenshots and replays. Simply rename all of these folders. I like to do it linux style by renaming Saves > Saves.old so that I don’t lose data, but allow the game to recreate the folders.

And finally, in game, I can click on the menu button without an issue. Turns at the game was hanging because I had accumulated too much data in said folders.

***

After reviewing my statistics, I found that by far, Terran was my weakest race. TvZ my weakest matchup. So I set the game mode to unranked, set my race to Terran, and started practicing.

Most of the success I’ve had with zerg is really just a 2 base ling bling attack. The five gate has been an easy way to win as Toss. Now all I need was a similar build for terran. An early attacking build, where the early attack would count as a scout.

It appears there is no such singular build for Terran. Sure, proxy 2rax bunker rushing works in TvZ. But not so much in TvT of TvP.

I do have a very strong sense that Blizzard wants to make the game so that expanding first is risky. While players tend to want to macro more. I remember watching Flash play the championship matches against Life. What game did Flash win? The one where he proxy 2raxed.

What I don’t understand is, why didn’t Flash do it more often? Clearly he was no match for the macro Zerg. And I don’t blame him. Zerg armies are no joke! I’m exploring the idea that proxy 2 rax, or some variation thereof, is key for a terran player to making an early attack.

Perhaps for the vT and vP matchups, one rax should have a tech lab and marauder.

Terran HotS Build

Let’s talk more StarCraft while I’m on a winning streak. I’m above 50% rate at the moment. Kick ass!

Part of the reason why is, I’ve improved my Terran play. Hell, the other day, I got my first win in a TvZ game. Before you laugh at that, I have to include that for some reason, the luck of the random number generator, I’ve only had 4 or 5 TvZ games since HotS. So part of the reason is simply I haven’t had enough games.

But the build that really helped me is one I saw at the MLG tournament. I call it the Terran Standard Reaper Scout.

10 Depot

12 Barracks/Refinery

Continue SCV production with 3x on gas until the barracks finishes.

Reaper.

Orbital command.

Depot

Reactor after Reaper.

Use your reaper to scout. Note, you do not SCV scout with this build. From here, you can transition into an additional CC, 3-4 rax, or 1-1-1, depending on the details of the game.

What I don’t like about this build is, I don’t feel like it’s aggressive enough. You’ll recall my theory is that too many players love to macro at the moment. Which makes rushing especially effective. But Terran rush options are few and far between.

I feel the strongest TvZ opening is to proxy 2rax. If you manage to delay or cancel a hatchery in the process, you’ve done well. But for the proxy 2rax to really work, you’ve gotta be able to transition into the above build, while you’re keeping your zerg opponent busy.

The key is to not over commit. Get two bunkers up, but only place one marine in each. Learn to feel your zerg opponent so that you can retreat just before he overruns your bunkers. You’ll have to have defenses in your main/natural for the inevitable counter attack. But when executed properly, you can outmacro a zerg, and have a medivac filled with stim marines in his drone line right around the time he’s feeling like he just recovered.

Amazingly, I’ve had more success with 2rax rushes against fellow Terran and Toss players than I ever thought possible. I must assume this is because many protoss players forgo their initial zealot in favor of an earlier MSC (Mother Ship Core). A fellow terran player would most likely only have 2xmarines to counter your two marines. Which means your 2xSCVs will give you both initiative and superior forces. Unless your opponent’s micro is superior to your own, the 2rax rush is viable.

MLG, Win Rates, and Baneling Busts

Well, I’ve had a chance to increase the sample size of the number of HotS games I’ve played. Now that I have some real data, I must say I’m a bit surprised.

According to the statistics page (which I find myself visiting after almost every match now), Zerg is my best race. And my win rate, around 75% to 80% is still really awesome. Terran is just below 50/50, which is also an improvement for me. But Toss is very low … around 10% to 15%.

I find myself at a loss to explain why my toss win rate is so low. I used to play as toss, and I consider my toss play to be very good. In WoL at least. So far, I’ve only ever one PvT games. It’s bizarre.

I also calculated my total win percentage. It’s 45%. Oh, the good old days when I could complain about winning too much. Those days are over. Now, just a few short days later, I get to complain about not winning enough.

After having watched this most recent MLG, I should also like to take the time to say ‘I told you so.’ I’m referring to Life’s various games. Although he uses different build orders than what I have advocated in previous posts, he nearly always went for a baneling bust. Especially in his games versus Terran. I do believe this proves what I had been grasping at. That Terran is very vulnerable to baneling busts, and that the strategy is, if anything, OP.

I guess I’m surprised that his opponents never seemed to shut down busts with siege tanks. Flash sure seems to prefer widow mines. When I play as terran, I may be inclined to copy him. Of course, he wound up losing, but I’ll play like a losing Flash any day.

HotS Build Order Zerg

HotS Build Order Zerg

You asked for it. I’m here to give it to you. Your new, Heart of the Swarm build orders for playing as zerg. Now before we go any further, I have to tell you something, and you’re not going to like it. Brace yourself. Are you ready? HotS build orders for zerg are identical to WoL build orders. There, I said it. Sad, but true, not much has changed in the way of zerg openings. That being said, many players feel just like you. They want to build the new units. They want to win a game with swarm hosts. They want to tech straight to the new stuff.

Let’s exploit that. Because, from what I’ve seen on the ladder, a lot of people are playing this way. In other words, if you want to win, we’re in the age of rushing.

How good am I? Well I just got promoted into platinum league. Last I checked, my win rate is around 85% with zerg. So if you’re Diamond or better, maybe you could teach me something. But for everyone else, I’ll explain how to get as far as I have.

15 hatch - This is always the best for zerg, assuming he isn’t being cheesed
15 pool - Feel free to pool first against a Hero Probe toss player. But the timings work nicer hatch first
14 extractor - three on gas when finished
@ 100% pool and hatch, 2x queens, one set of scouting lings
@ 100 gas, speed upgrade
@ 100% queens, inject larva
@ 50 gas, baneling nest
drone to 28, then make ~4 OL

At this point, what you saw with your scouting lings make all the difference. Either way, you’ll start morphing in banelings as if determine what to do next.

vs. Terran Bust him if he has walled off with Depots of bunkers. Stream in zerglings ftw. If he has a perfect wall off of Barracks, call off the bust and macro a 3rd. If he has 2-3 additional bunkers in his mineral line, call off the bust and macro a 3rd.

vs. protoss. Bust his Zealot or Pylon wall off. Stream in ling bling ftw. Call off the attack if he has a perfect wall off of gateways, forge or core. Call off the attack if he has plenty of sentries, and good FFs.

vs zerg. Have your lings follow ur banes into his mineral lines. Always lead with a single ling. If he has banelings, call off the attack, unless you feel confident you can out micro him.

Even if you call off the attack you’ll have perfect map control, while he’ll be stuck on one base. This build is great because it dictates the pace of the game. It’s great because it demands a very specific and well executed defense of your opponent.

In a ZvZ game, against a player who drones instead, your bust hits right when his economy starts to kick in, but with a far superior army. Seriously, only my grandmother would have a hard time winning such a lopsided battle.

What’s great about this build is that it counters literally every rush from any race. That includes cannon rush, since the natural expansion can easily be cancelled and replaced anywhere.
What about your HotS build order? Well, if you want, you could easily research burrough, and go roaches. I’ve fooled around with it, but never had as much success as good old ling bling. Probably because 2x banelings equals the chance to flat out win a game. While two roaches simply don’t have that kind of potential.

HotS, Liberty and the pursuit of Terran wins.

It’s been a few days now, into my own personal campaign to bring my terran win percentage up. What have I been doing? The first change is simple. I pay more attention to the terrance race on broadcasts. I primarily watch HDStarCraft and HuskyStarCraft. But where before, I’d pay attention to what the Zerg and Toss were doing, now I’m keeping my eye on the Terran. I watched DeMuslim’s stream for a few hours, again paying careful attention to the openings he used. Before I preferred watching zerg streams.

Finally, I read up on my openings on the LiquiPedia. After a few days of reading, re-reading and consulting, I feel I have hammered out all of the kinks in my terran opening play.

The essence of what I’ve learned?

TvZ, it’s okay to CC first. Coming from a zerg background, I love to CC first.

It’s always okay to barracks first.

Start your refinery after your barracks, and after making your first marine, begin your reactor. This is a big one, and I must admit, I had been doing it wrong. I had been going for Tech lab first. The reason being that I could begin my upgrades sooner. Usually I’d go for stim. But after making the change to reactor first, I can see how clearly reactor first is better.

It allows you the flexibility to make a ton of marines, or to switch out for a factory and go hellions. But in terms of resources and production, reactor first makes all the difference. What good is stimpack a few seconds earlier, if you don’t even have a medivac full of marines to use it?

Finally, after the reactor, make a CC.

I used to try to expand to the low ground immediately. I now see that it’s perfectly allright to one base until you have the resources to really secure the low ground.

The secret to holding an early baneling attack? This one eluded me for some time. While I go for a baneling bust every time I play ZvT, I had no idea how to defend against it until I studied up on my terran. The trick is to make them bust one bunker just to get in. But then have another one or two bunkers inside of your base, covering your mineral line. Then, put only a single marines in each bunker, and spread out the rest of your marines. He won’t have enough banelings to bust all of the bunkers, and with your marines spread out, he’ll be trading very cost ineffectively.

Before I was somewhere between twenty five and thirty three percent in my terran games. Now I’m solidly winning a third of them. I guess fifty fifty is my next goal.

50/50 Win rate?

Blizzard’s matchmaking system will automatically match you with opponents of your skill level. Therefore, your win rate will be 50/50.

I’ve heard variations of this on the forums for years. I’ve heard it for so long, from so many people, that I’ve come to accept it as a truth. Even though, as I recently realized, I have never heard it from an official source.

You see, as I mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve been checking out my statistics. And I’ve been doing good. For a while there, after coming back to WoL, I was even 100% in some matchups. Yeah, I knew that wasn’t going to last for long. But my stats have and are looking good. Really good.

Keep in mind that I play as random. So my statistics might not be quite so cut and dry as other players who choose one race and stick to it. But man, I’m about 70% with zerg and toss. Terran is my only weakness at around 30%.

My win rate vs all is 78%! pic.twitter.com/GmbfUBuVO5 Which is great. It’s phenomenal, it’s outstanding. Who could ask for a better win rate, especially considering that I'm just an amateur platinum player?

But it’s way higher than the 50% win rate I had been promised by conventional wisdom on the forums. If Blizzard’s matchmaking system really was going to match me against opponents of my skill level, then why am I winning so much?

It could be that I’m simply due for a promotion. But I don’t really feel like I’m due. Actually, the few times I’ve been matched up with Diamonds, I’ve been out classed. But it still begs the question of whether or not Blizzard’s system really tries to give us a 50/50 win rate. I’m curious to see what other players have as their percentages. Because right now, I’m a StarCraft god, winning this much.

Statistics help me ty

I have to say, I’ve really enjoyed being able to look at the statistics of my StarCraft play. It wasn’t easy to stumble upon, but once I found it, I keep finding myself coming back for more.

If I remember correctly, you click on your character portrait in the lower left hand corner of the display. Then you click on ladders, and then statistics. The result is a comprehensive breakdown of how well you play all of the nine matchups.

Remember, I play as random, so this is all very valuable information to me.

I was able to discover that I do well as Zerg and Toss. Almost 80%, which is like fucking awesome. I didn’t realized I played those two races so well.

It’s also clear that I really suck as Terran. I however somewhere between winning only a third or a quarter of my games. And by far my worst matchup is TvT.

The reason why is, TvT is still such a mystery for me. I know that in ZvZ, for instance, you really want to Hatch first. Hatch first beats just about everything but a six pool.

In PvP, you never want to Nexus first. Nexus first loses to any other build. In PvP, the first player to expand often loses.

But in TvT, I have no fucking clue. CC first? Or after you build an orbital and a marine? Does CC always lose to a 1-1-1? Or is it completely standard to CC first and still be able to defend the various Terran pressures?

I suspect a stronger grasp on Terran opening theory would easily bump my play into Diamond.

HotS and WoL

I’m a few days out of HotS now. I thought it would be like armageddon. I thought it would be like going back to the stone age.

But the truth is that it’s almost exactly the same. Looking back on my time in the beta, I can’t help but feel what a light multiplayer change to the game it is. It seems apparent to me now that the largest change in the game was really the Mothership Core. It heavily changed all of the multiplayer matchups. For zerg, I’m still convinced that the Mushroom Men new unit is largely worthless. Only the defilers really change the matchup, and they’re a late game unit.

What a difference it makes, playing on the WoL server. The first thing I noticed was the amount of cheese. Back on the HotS server, I was 15 hatching like it was nobody’s business. But a few days on the WoL server has me 14 pooling. I’ve already held off more cannon rushes in a single day than the entire beta combined.

The best opening for zerg, the one I’ve been having great success with, is 2 base ling bling. Just as early as you can, with only one base saturation, start pumping ling bling. It works wonders in every matchup. As a matter of fact, the only time I’ve had it lose, has been to toss players with perfect SimCity AND perfect FFs. I even have a replay of me beating a Master’s level player with my 2 base ling bling attack. So I know I must be doing something right.

I also had the chance to play some custom games with a friend whose a few leagues ahead of me. I’m in plat, btw. This is specifically in the PvZ matchup. I had been opening with an unorthodox 2gate rush into 4x zealot attack. By playing a more orthodox FFE and attacking with my first Zealot + Stalker, I’ve been having great success.

Don’t worry Blizzard. I’ll buy the game soon enough. Probably on my next paycheck. But thanks for letting me into the Beta. I can’t help but look at the experience kind of like going to a theme park. It’s like the theme park opens at 10 am. But you let a few lucky people into the park for free at 8 am. The only stipulation is that come 9:45,  you’re going to kick us out and make us buy a ticket. And so, here I am, at the gates, anxiously awaiting the grand opening.