Actually playing Starcraft 2

Fast ultras are a new viable strategy for us, you'd probably want to force us into something like hydras to avoid it. If you see a lot of zerglings it's a dead give away

Rombo_sl said:

Thanks Tenks, what about hellbats in tvp or tvz? I did a gimmick game agaisnt a zerg earlier and just went mass hellbats, rines and mines. Was a fun win but i doubt it was effective.
Am also getting trapped pants down in tvz with what seems to be super fast ultras. I barely get a 2 bases eco running and they stream ultras like theyre zerglings. I actually said '' wtf'' out loud irl.

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Ultras are extremely popular TvZ these days. Almost a rush unit, really. The unit itself is borderline OP but luckily Terran has really good ways of dealing with it so it isn't a huge deal. I'd lookup all the changes the Zerg units got in HOTS because they were significant. More specifically to Ultras they now do flat damage so if you have clumped up bio they will get absolutely ripped to shreds by Ultra cleave AOE.

In regards to HB/Rine/Mine it would be a viable mid-game composition but seems way too factory heavy. Ultras would eat the army for lunch though. Fully upgraded ultras (ie: 3/3 with Plating) simply get tickled by marine fire and they can soak up a ton of mine shots while their size means the mine AOE will do nothing. But if the Zerg went muta/ling the army would be a very nice counter to that composition. A competent Zerg would realize what you're doing and probably rush Ultra though while keeping you in the base w/ mutas.

Hellbats in TvP can be good if the Protoss is rushing to Templar and has a heavy Zealot/Archon composition. The Hellbat size means the Archon won't splash onto other units and the Zealots just charge to their deaths to the Hellbat fire. However the Hellbat is abysmal against Colossus based armies. They are really slow and clunky so they eat so much Colossus AOE they don't really fill a purpose. At that point you'd prefer to just have the two marines instead of a Hellbat. Since opening Colossus is generally popular Hellbats don't get a ton of play in the matchup at the moment. There are a few vogue builds PvT and that is the Single Colossus Without Range (sometimes called the "scwr" build if you ever see that) where they simply make the bay and a Colossus to force Viking reaction but never research range and are actually 2forge Templar behind it. You can usually scout that by finding their Robo Bay when you see the first colossus and observe if it is researching. If it isn't researching and the Colossus still has 6 range it is scwr. Sometimes you can bum-rush that army composition if you opened aggressive and get a win. The other vogue is simply massing Colossus and pushing off 2base while taking a 3rd since Terran can contain a Toss on 2bases so heavily. I'd say that is probably the more popular of the two. Generally pushed with like 4 Colossus. For a good counter build to that you can look at Mvp's games against ... Naniwa? (SaSe?) in WCS. Basically Mvp does a 2base Tank contain while taking a 3rd.

That got really long winded but basically Hellbats are somewhat unexplored and under utilized in TvP at the moment I feel. At the very least I think Terrans should be using Hellbat drops in the midgame more than they currently do.

You're actually in luck. The replay pack of the week at TL features Taeja. I'll review the reps later today but I'm sure there is ton to learn from in there about the current state of the matchups.

http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plex...IR62_Taeja.zip

1v1's are really fun right now. Made my way through Gold league, got promoted to Platinum and rose to rank #1, but it won't promote me yet to Diamond.

I play Zerg
-Vs Zerg:I have been 10 Pooling against Zerg a lot lately. More often than not, Zerg's are 15 hatching against all races, they don't drone scout, and if you send an endless stream of Speedlings it just causes them to quit out. If they get Banes or survive, I saturate my natural and go up to Lair tech. A surprise attack of 6+ Mutas will usually force them out of the game.

-Vs Protoss:15 Hatch, with 2nd OL over my expansion to watch for cannons. Single Queen at main and double Queen at expo. Get Speedlings, scout for proxies, harass expansions. Drop 2 Spines at my expo, in case of a 4 gate all-in. Get 4 gas going asap, go to Lair while harassing, and drop a Spire and get 8-10 Muta's asap. If they counter with Phoenix, take a 3rd and transition to Speedling, Roach, and Hydra. At this point, I am scouting for Colossus and have Hive tech ready to get Viper's out if necessary.

-Vs Terran:15 Hatch, with 2nd OL over my expansion to watch for bunkers. Single Queen at main and expo, using creep tumors on both of their first 25 energy to get the spread going asap. Get a defensive Baneling Nest and Roach Warren. In the mean time, saturate the main and expo getting all 4 gas going asap. Build 2-3 Roaches to deal with Hellion harass, take a 3rd if they let me, play defensively while go up to Lair and Spire. Immediately have the bank, larva, and supply to get 10 Mutas as soon as the Spire completes. 10 Mutas will melt Missile Turrents and be able to take on a decent sized group of non-stimmed Marines if necessary, often leaving the Terran completely crippled and unable to defend their mineral lines. If they hold, transition out of Muta to Hive, make sure your 3rd is up and pump Ultra's.

Mutalisks are so good right now, that I incorporate them into pretty much all my strats, but you have to be prepared to transition out quickly because they can still be hard-countered. After playing with them, you will start to instinctively know that your Muta ball can destroy his Stalker's or one shot a Turrent and get out unscathed. They can pick off re-reinforcements or run-down retreating forces. They can find holes in the defense, cripple an economy and get out before the opponent has a chance to respond. They really are one of the best units in the game right now.

I'm gonna do placements this weekend and see where I end up. I agree though the game is fun. The hardest thing is just stopping all the cheeses. I have beaten a handful of masters players in longer games but I still lose to proxy reapers and that stupid fucking stalker/core push to silver leaguers sometimes. It can drive you insane.

I feel like I may be developing a bad habit, but it seems to work. Any time I get my macro out of whack and I stockpile minerals I go take a ninja expo somewhere. Now I watch pros like Select and Demuslim and they toss that money into CCs, sometimes two and three at a time, but usually at or around their current bases. What do you guys think about sending one ninja SCV off to build a mule dump in a far off corner? Is it bad?

Ninja expos are really only worthwhile at the start of the game. Outside of that it makes more sense to take your logical expansion progression because it gives valid points of contention for engagements so it makes your economy more predictable. If you ninja an expansion and a dropship happens to fly overtop it you suddenly lose an entire bases' income and there is virtually nothing you can do about it. Which means you'll probably have too many unit producing structures sitting idle which is just wasted money.

I don't know why I continue to play this stupid fucking race. It's the same shit over and over and I can't stop it. Going back to Terran.

Zaphid_sl said:

Why not Protoss ?

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Because I hate everything about Protoss. And I hate myself enough as it, I don't need to hate the race I play as well.

Dude sounds like the game is stressing you out more than you need. You've already said you're broke and shit, the game should be a destressor. Just play to have fun and don't worry about your rank. I'm silver bro and I have a blast every time I play.

So did Blizzard finally realize that more workers is better than fewer workers created?

That always felt like a dumb metric to me anyways. I mean the only time you'll "beat" your average is if your opponent slaughters a ton of your workers. So you get this shiny star if you let your opponent manage to kill 50 workers so you had to re-create them?

I was playing last night and I managed to lure a huge pack of banes, maybe 20+, into the range of 4 widow mines. They all instantly died. This must be how Zergs feel when they bait marines over bane mines.

This game is fucking infuriating. I don't play for two days and suddenly it's like my brain forgets how to do anything.

Just out of curiosity what league is everyone in?

I got placed back into Diamond which I wasn't shocked based upon many low/mid Masters playing being put in Diamond instead. I was wondering if I'd make the cut or not but I think the current system since you can't be demoted they'd rather have people who somewhat walked the line in a lower division to start and re-earn their spot. Which is fine by me. I play many more games when I'm in Diamond trying to achieve Masters. Once I'm in Masters I'm fully aware I don't have the time/ability to get into the Top8 region.

So I've been playing on my friend's account for HotS. Diamond on Europe, and I'm not facing the same troubles I was in WoL vs. Toss. Roach/Hydra being viable now is great, along with mutas being a lot stronger, and ultras being a terrific hive tech choice (I hate the immobility of broods). ZvZ is so different now, a lot more ling/bling all-ins since mutas are so easily countered now I guess. As for Terran, I'm fucking TERRIBLE against widow mines, but it hasn't seemed to matter at this point... I just bring 5 overseers with me and let them tank the damage, or lead with the ultras... I don't think I've lost to a Terran yet.

Also, the only time I played against a heavy hellbat drop style, the dude got rolled. I think he killed 5 drones, but he had nothing to stop my mutas from ravaging his base. Doesn't seem viable for a Diamond player, you need a lot of multitasking ability to pull that shit off.

Anyway, enjoying HotS a lot more than WoL, especially since most of the thirds don't have fucking ROCKS blocking them. Fuck you, Dustin Browder.

Protoss makes me flaccid. Fucking ghost/templar horseshit. Take 5 bases vs 3 and lose to random templar EVERY FUCKIGN WHERE.

I hate this game.