Razer Blues

I won’t lie. Ever since Warlords of Draenor came out, it’s really been eating into my StarCraft 2 time. Before, I might have played set after set of StarCraft matches. Nowadays, I’m lucky to sneak even a single set.

What’s worse -- my wrist is hurting me from all that extra use. That’s what prompted me to make a post on Reddit about StarCraft and wrist injuries. I have no way of knowing how accurate the responses to my post were, but they were overwhelmingly in favor of wrist injuries being a non issue.

The pain in my wrist has forced me to think about the whole dilemma even more. Which made me remember, that when I play StarCraft or WarCraft, for years now, I’ve been using a Razer Naga. If you’re not familiar with the mouse, it’s got a small 10-key where your thumb is. It means you hit the buttons normally reserved for your left hand, with your right hand.

Take a look if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Now I’m thinking, maybe it’s all the extra right hand button pushing work that’s making my wrist hurt. Ultimately, I stopped using my Naga. I have a perfectly orthodox mouse in it’s place. So far, my wrist is still sore. But after a week or two, I should know if it made any difference.

But in the meantime, I’ve adjusted to WoW rather quickly. Mainly due to the way Global Cooldowns work in that game. But in StarCraft, the transition is almost impossible. I’ve lost nearly every match I’ve played, since having to rebind keys. I can feel that the transition will suck. But I’m also wondering how I should bind the keys differently, since I’m making the switch anyway.

It makes it harder, because I play random. There are many guides on how to bind your keys for a particular race. But few to binding keys how a random player might organize them.

One trick I’m making use of, is with Terran. I used to bind Barracks to one key, Factory to another, and Starport to a third. Now, I’m binding all production to a single key and using Tab to switch between the three. This will make rallying troops easier, as with my old setup I used to have to rally each production individually.

Wish me luck, and if you know of any good solution, hit me up on twitter @maulakai

Wrist Injury Much?

There’s an issue with StarCraft 2 that needs to be addressed. The 500 pound gorilla in the room. And with upcoming Legacy of the Void, there’s never been a better time to talk about it.

Repetitive motion injuries. There, I said it. This has been an issue for me since day one. Look at the pros. Many of them have issues with their wrists. I typically play three game sets, then take a break to give my wrist a rest. But pros practice for *hours*. To me, it almost feels like they’ve got some kind of superpower. How do they play so much?

The true answer is that they’re hurting themselves, and on some level, we all know it. When you learn to play StarCraft, you’re probably driven by the graphics, by the coolness of the game, and by the intricacies of the strategy. But when you get to a certain point (I’m random Plat) the game really comes down to speed and micro.

I am a self described strategy game enthusiast. StarCraft is a game that, at the top level, demands perfect micro. And that’s okay, in theory. But with wrist injuries so prevalent, wouldn’t it be nice if they could modify the game in a way where it didn’t kill our wrists?

I’m not sure if such a game would be a tad slower, like WarCraft 3. If slowing the game down would make it more about strategy and less about Taeja level storm dodging and marine splits. But Blizzard is a very clever company, and if anyone can make a game that satisfies our strategy game needs while being nice to our wrists, it’s them.

TL;DR Blizzard should find a balance between fast paced strategy game and wrist injuries.

Dark Voice

I did it. I achieved the Dark Voice. I now have the coolest icon there is, pretty much.

One of the best things about having the Dark Voice is that it appears to remove your level number from the lower left hand corner of your portrait. Not all of the time, but some of the time. It feels almost like a small bug in the game that may well be intentional. Because, let’s face it, the Dark Voice portrait looks a lot cooler without your level taking away from it. And so few people have the Dark Voice, who would report that bug??

Now that I’ve gone back to playing as random, it’s taking some getting used to. Okay, Protoss was just like riding a bicycle. I could still pop off a five gate without even thinking. My PvP Stargate phoenix play is still there. It’s essentially the same micro as a mutalisk flock, and I know I’ll never forget how to control my mutas.

I did have to learn a new build for my zerg play. This time, I added Hyun’s three hatch to my arsenal. Let me tell you, I haven’t regretted it for a minute. Having been a 15 hatch kind of zerg player for a very long time, I feel like I’ve finally expanded my understanding of zerg, simply by learning this build.

For the first time, as I play Zerg, I feel like I’m now on time with the pros. At the time they get a big group of roaches, I can make a big group of roaches. When their mutas pop, my mutas are popping. It’s a great feeling. The big difference I had to understand was that you can use your first queen for a creep tumor, since you’re building so many hatcheries.

That exposes a universal truth of StarCraft, and strategy in general. You’re much more effective if you keep your options open, if you keep one of each type of unit, than if you only make one thing. Having one creep tumor is very valuable. Just like having one spine and one spore is so much stronger than having none.

I’ve also had a lot of fun playing a new Protoss build from imbabuilds. This one is the three stalker expand. I love it because the quick three stalkers and mothership core can be extremely powerful. I’ve won games with just those four units! It works against other Protoss, but also against Terran. It allows me to get a safe expand, and to go for my favorite Stargate play, all while ‘rushing’ my opponent with a formidable early force. Tends to be less effective against zerg, though.

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Did anyone else watch that match of Taeja against Soo? I couldn’t believe it, which is why Taeja is my favorite player. He sure has a magic about him. He goes for a two rax on Overgrowth. Soo counters blindly, with a 14 pool. Yet somehow, Taeja comes up ahead. It’s incredible. I’ve been in that position so many times before, and I always die in situations like that. I always fall behind. But Taeja, almost supernaturally, manages to get the W. And against a player like Soo, who really looks like a bad guy in a movie. I can’t wait to see you play at Blizzcon, Taeja, make me proud!