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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Baneling Carpet Bombing





Today I have a new strategy for you guys! This strategy is for zerg and is called baneling carpet bombing. I didn't make up this strategy, but I do use it sometimes and it is very effective something worth noting. In order to do this, you need to have overlord movement speed as well as transport researched. It works extremely well against large amounts of infantry such as hydras, zerglings, marines, and marauders. It works, but not as well against roaches, stalkers and zealots.

To carry out this strategy, you must create a decent sized force to attack or muster up all you can to combat the enemy. Then make a bunch of banelings, load them into your overlords, and start moving out. Use your force to counter the enemy directly while your overlords fly over. As they are flying over hit the drop all key ("D" by default) and click the overlord you want to drop the "bombs". Repeat for each overlord. This causes them to drop the banelings one at a time in a devastating carpet bomb maneuver. It can be seen above. Enjoy. :)

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Happy Halloween everyone!

No updates for today, can't think of anything really, but Happy Halloween! :)

Friday, October 29, 2010

It's Halloween! (In SB anyway)

Hey guys, tonight's the first night of Halloween! Happy Halloween to everyone! No videos today, maybe tomorrow or Sunday. But don't let that get you down, I'll offer a few tips for you guys.

Zerg: Don't forget the banelings! Banelings will decimate any terran infantry army when used properly and you can even utilize them for some carpet bombing. That might be my next video, how to do a baneling carpetbomb.

Protoss: In late game, don't be afraid to go for a mothership. If you have a decent base size with a couple of expansions and a glut of money, get a mothership. Why not? They are an excellent unit if utilized properly. Vortexing parts of the enemy army splits them up and can effectively destroy them. Also mass recall is useful for sneak attacks at times.


Terran: Banshees are good for more than just harass. Use them in the later game to snipe out some strong ground units. They work well against tanks and ultralisks, especially while cloaked.






And here are some zerg units dressed up for Halloween. :p


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Replay! FruitDealar vs. SlayerSBoxeR: Game 1

Hey everyone!

Today I have done a new cast from the recent tournament at Blizzcon. This matchup was between the famous fruitdealer and Boxer. Boxer is a famous brood war player, and one of the best to ever do it. Fruitdealer is widely renowned as one of the best SC2 players in the world right now and definitely one of the best zerg. Interesting matchup from both sides, some nice play and strategies by both sides. Without further ado, here is the cast!


Video is officially up!



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

More tips because I have to study :p

Haha, I was really hoping to get that cast out today, but looks like I have to keep studying. Gotta truck on through those midterms. Here are some tips instead to give you guys something to think about.

Zerg:

-Building on what I said before, use the early overseer to stop early rushes like void rays or colossi with its contaminate ability. When utilized properly, important game changing units can be easily stopped in their tracks until it is too late. When using a zerg infantry for example, look out for factories pumping out tanks or robos pumping out colossi.

Protoss:

-Don't forget about thinking about an early phoenix. Early phoenixes can lead to great harass and scouting as well as picking off any air units before they become a serious threat. They are excellent in later game for picking up tanks or immortals, rendering them useless.

Terran:

-Don't overlook the hellion. It's a very successful harassment unit in all stages of the game. If you can sneak past armies or defenses, the worker line gets blasted easily, especially with the upgrade!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Some new tips!

Hey everyone, wasn't able to get to that cast up today. I actually ended up casting a game that was from the beta stages and it turned out to be kind of a waste of time lol. My mistake, should have checked beforehand. Anyway, probably tomorrow I'll have it up. Here are a few tips to tie you over until then.

By the way, if you have any videos that you want me to cast, or saw something interesting, send me a line at sc2stratguide@gmail.com

New site email!

Zerg:

-Get an overseer relatively early and use it to your advantage. It's easy to bring an overseer into someones base and find a vulnerable spot then drop a changeling. Most people have a hard time noticing one before it's too late and you've scouted everything already. If you're really lucky, you can group it into their army and they won't notice!

Protoss:

-Make the choke point in front of your base with strong buildings. If you're opening into a 4gate, then make it gateway/cybernetics core. This will help protect your base with stronger buildings protecting it while at the same time allows you to tech up.

Terran:

-If you're going into an infantry based army don't forget to tech up! Get the slow missiles for marauders as well as the combat shield for marines. Make an engineering bay or possibly even 2 if you want to get upgrades out faster. Upgrading and teching will make your units exponentially times stronger.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sorry for not having posted recently...

Sorry that I didn't post anything the past few days. Went home for the weekend and had a fun time at universal and hung out with my girlfriend! Always nice to spend some time relaxing. Anyways now it's back to school and bloggin! I'll put up a cast tomorrow hopefully, anyway now it's time to study. Don't hire a lawyer to shut down my blog! I'll go bankrupt! ;)



Also - Go ahead and like us on facebook if you're interested!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Strategy Today! - Mutalisk Magic Box



This is a strategy that I learned from watching a couple videos and reading about it on another blog. This is a zerg strategy for mutalisk micro called the "magic box". In this strategy, you will be able to use mutalisks effectively to avoid enemies with large splash damage like thors. This is a good idea to think about and remember when fighting against a tech-heavy terran player.

The magic box is the formation that the mutalisks stay in when they are not bunched up. In order to execute the magic box, you simply tell your mutalisks to move together underneath them. They should then bunch up and in the subsequent 2-3 seconds, spread apart. This spread formation is the magic box. It helps significantly against splash damage attackers, as can be seen in the video above. It is a different way of using mutalisks than pushing them together in a tight group for one attack. As you can see in the video it is extremely effective. Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Huk vs. Kiwikaki PvP Pro replay - MLG Raleigh



Hey everyone, new video post today! This is a cast I did from the recent MLG tournament in Raleigh. I heard this was one of the highlights of the tournament so I did a cast. Some good play on both sides and a surprise ending! Go ahead and give it a watch

Recently I've had lawyers on the brain and I like to think of 1v1 as a sort of courtroom trial, whether it be about bankruptcy or criminals or whatnot. Two attorneys battling it out in court, using all the political strategies they know and countering with separate precedences. lol, well a weird analogy but whatever.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

New Wallpaper!

Hey everyone, in case you didn't notice I made a few changes to the way the site looks. I altered the banner a bit and changed a bit of the layout, but overall is the new background! I took various art clippings of units and photoshopped them together. Tell me what you think, and of course I take no credit for the drawings themselves.

I made the wallpaper widescreen as I expect most people have widescreen monitors nowadays. If it gets too cut off let me know and I can do some resizing.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Quick tips, video on the way tomorrow

Had my midterm today and hopefully I did well, if not then it would take more than a good lawyer to get my grade changed. Then I'll fail miserably in life and end up bankrupt. I wouldn't even be able to afford a bankruptcy lawyer at that point, just a bum on the street. Anyways... back to starcraft.


After this post goes up, I'll start working on a video and have it up by tomorrow. Here are a couple protoss tips:

Sentries are key to any protoss ground based army. Forcefields are amazing tools that can halve the effective size of any army when used properly. They're also great for an early ling block.

One tip you may want to utilize is to research hallucinate then send a hallucinated phoenix to scout.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

110 Followers!

Thanks guys so much. Over 100 followers wow! I'm glad you all like my blog and everything and I'll keep providing fresh content. Gotta study today though. I'll try to get up a cast later today or tomorrow. Thanks again guys!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Idra vs Korean Terran - Pro Replay Cast! Finally here to stay!






Hey guys, it's the moment you've all been waiting for! The cast is now officially up and working! Go ahead and get started and watching. This should satisfy your appetite! This is the matchup between idra, a pro American SC2 player, currently in Korea playing and training, and a Korean player playing as terran. I do not know his name, as I don't read Korean, if anyone let's me know I'll be sure to update the title. Check back often and see all the new strats/casts/tips!


Sorry guys, part 2 is uploading right now. Part 1 is fully functional though!

Patch 1.1.2 Officially live!

So the new patch it out. I believe it came out sometime yesterday as I logged on and I was updated. I'll give you the release notes then follow up with my own thoughts and what this means for the meta game.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Patch 1.1.2

General
•    Players will no longer receive achievement toasts while their status is set to "Busy."
•    The messaging when attempting to load a saved game or replay from a previous version has been clarified.
•    Adjusted the amount of points earned and lost by random team participants to properly reflect the strength of a player's teammates.

Balance
•    PROTOSS

o    Buildings

•      Nexus life and shields increased from 750/750 to 1000/1000.
o    Void Ray
•      Damage level 1 increased from 5 to 6 (+4 armored).
•      Damage level 2 decreased from 10 (+15 armored) to 8 (+8 armored).
•      Flux Vanes speed upgrade bonus decreased from 1.125 to 0.703.

•  TERRAN

o    Buildings

•     Barracks requirement changed from Command Center to Supply Depot.
•     Supply Depot life increased from 350 to 400.

o    Medivac

•     Acceleration reduced from 2.315 to 2.25.
•     Speed reduced from 2.75 to 2.5.

o    Reaper

•     Nitro Packs speed upgrade now has a Factory Requirement.

o    Thor

•     Energy bar removed.
•     250mm Strike Cannons is now cooldown-based on a 50-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown available (useable immediately after upgrade is researched).

•    ZERG

o    Buildings

•      Hatchery life increased from 1250 to 1500.
•      Lair life increased from 1800 to 2000.
•      Spawning Pool life increased from 750 to 1000.
•      Spire life increased from 600 to 850.
•      Ultralisk Cavern life increased from 600 to 850.

o    Corruptor

•      Energy bar removed.
•      Corruption is now cooldown-based on a 45-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown expired (must wait for full 45-second cycle before usable).

o    Infestor

•      Fungal Growth now prevents Blink.

o    Roach

•      Range increased from 3 to 4.

So there ended up being quite a few changes actually with a bunch of game changing new attributes.

First off is Protoss. The Nexus shield boost seems warranted. The Nexus goes down pretty quickly if left undefended and a 250 shield boost seems fair. I don;t think this will make their expos or anything imba. I think the void ray fix is great. Sure the initial damage level is increased, but probably to help with an early harass or early battle as they are very weak against larger muta/viking armies possible by the same time. Level 2 decrease is also good as their damage was way too much in the later game. 

The biggest change is definitely the speed decrease in the Flux vane upgrade. This will prove to be very critical I believe. It will be much harder for them to escape so easily when faced against an army that's too large. The speed of the void rays before made them too hard to track down and destroy. This will help in the much later game if someone goes mass void ray.

Next up is Terran. Like I said before, making supply depot a requirement for the barracks will really help against early proxy/reaper rushes. The increase in supply depot life will slightly increase the resistance hat a wall provides which will become more crucial as terrans will probably be more likely to turtle in from now on.

The speed and acceleration of the medivacs decreasing will change the drop game probably. It will be somewhat harder for people to get off early drops with mmm spam or even some tanks. IT will no longer be so easy to pick up and leave as quickly. This shouldn't affect the mmm army strategy though, because medivacs are already plenty fast enough to keep up with that army.

Reapers have been noticeably cut down in usefulness. Now with a later barracks, and nitro packs being so much later on, it will be much harder to get an effective reaper rush out. This will allow other races/enemies to gain a larger defense on their mineral line to protect against the reapers. 

The thors also got an interesting change. Strike cannons are now cooldown based instead of energy based. This will allow immediate use of the strike cannon and will probably be used more often as it won't require a building of energy. We might see some major gameplay changes with the approach to Thors since this update.

And finally we get to zerg:

Virtually all important zerg buildings are getting a health boost. I think this is long overdue and will be a worthwhile update. Hatcheries I noticed died far too easily as well as the spawning pool and spire. The lair increase will give a bit of a boost and should help in protecting expos early on. The spire and spawning pool life are really critical because these are truly critical buildings that can be built (and destroyed) very early on. Ultralisk cavern was also a bit low on hp, but should be able to be amply protected at that late point in game, so I would say it's a bit moot.

Similar to the Thors, the corruptors now no longer have energy and is based upon a 45-second cooldown. This is actually something that could change the meta game quite a bit. Later on in the game, corruption becomes an extremely valuable tool, especailly being able to hit multiple targets with only a few corruptors. It will allow newly spawned corruptors to use corruption, but now we will probably be seeing a lot more micro trying to protect them as they wait for the cooldown.

Infestor restricting blink is a good point, but I feel like it should have been that way since the beginning, so all I have to say is that it's about time.

The roach range increase from 3-4 will actually probably be huge. This will allow roaches to tank even better against melee units and start attacking from farther out. It will allow roaches to hit walls from farther away and chip away at terran bases with more security. It will also help the later metagame in a hydra/roach strategy. This gives zerg a few more strategies later on and allow roaches to stay apart of the army instead of evolving past them. I have yet to play any games in this patch, but there will probably be a lot of changes in total gameplay. Once I have some more experience I might do another recap. Thanks for reading guys!

I'll try to have that cast up later. I was able to record it and apply the watermark, but it can't upload successfully for some reason. On youtube it just says upload failed once it hits 100% :(

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Idra vs Korean Terran - Pro Replay Cast!... Down for maintenance.

Hey guys, I just got a chance to actually review the videos and found out that they're kind of screwed up. For professionalism sake, I'm going to take them down for right now and redo the cast. The video should be back up by tomorrow. Sorry about that guys.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

More Tips for today!

Terran

-Make sure you get orbital command as soon as possible without hurting for resources. Then be sure to spend your energy wisely! Don't let it buildup overtime and go unused, and likewise don't spend it too rashly. The first 50 energy is often well utilized for a mule. The extra resources help a lot. Be sure to scan for scouting purposes as well as protecting against cloaked invaders. Make sure you upgrade your expo to orbital or planetary as well!
 

Protoss

-If you use a stalker army, use blink to your advantage. A couple tips to offer here. With blink and some intensive micro, you can blink your hurting stalkers to the back of the line as their shields start to run low. This will increase the attack time of your army by the amount of rows of troops you have!


-Also for stalkers blink, use cliffs and backdoors to your advantage. Get an oberserver or an ally to give you vision while you blink up the backside of a base! Practically just as effective as a terran drop, but stronger units and easy to escape as well.

Zerg:

-Queens have a multitude of uses. Not only as larvae spawners, but can spread creep tumors as well as transfusion! Creep tumors you only need to make 2-3 of them and just be on top of the micro and keep spreading them. Use overlords to your advantage to drop creep and plop a tumor down. Creep highway is amazingly effective and useful!

-Also, don't forget about transfusion. If you have two queens in the early game, you can transfuse each other to hold off an early banshee or phoenix attack. Also, in later game, transfuse heavy units like ultralisks or broodlords if you're low on resources!



Stay tuned for the video guys! It's in 3 or 4 parts.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Tips for today

Hey everyone, how's it going? Today I have class pretty much all day and have a bunch of work to catch up on, so chances are I won't be able to do a video. But I might be able to later on tonight. If I do, I'll probably post it tomorrow! Just letting you guys know that this update will be a quick one full of a few tips.


Terran tips: 

-When fighting zerg, if you get an MMM army, be sure to get a raven for detection. When fighting any decent zerg player, there will probably banelings somewhere around the map or even scattered near your base. Use detection to spot banelings before your army becomes mine fodder. 


-Don't overlook the usability of the raven. Utilize autoturrets for harass and even tech up for the seeker missle to take out massive amounts of infantry. Especially effective against mass hydra.


Protoss tip:


-If you play tech-wise, always get heat lance for your colossi. It is ESSENTIAL! Giving your colossi the 7 range will help tons with micro managing and keeping them alive that much longer.


Zerg tip:


-Don't forget about the infestors! Infestors play a key role in any zerg army. Fungal growth can cripple an MMM army and infested terrans are great for harass or last minute defense.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

New Patch Announced! Balancing Addressed!

Breaking news! Blizzard has announced that they have been constantly tweaking the game and have seen some flaws in the balancing as well as responses throughout the Starcraft 2 community. There are some major changes coming up in the next patch. Patch ETA has yet to be announced, but I would say probably within the next month or so.

And so, without further ado, here's a quick rundown on the announced specs of the patch:


Terran: Barracks will now REQUIRE a supply depot before it is able to be built.


Terran: Research for Reaper speed will now REQUIRE a factory


Protoss: Fungal growth now restricts blink, making stalkers unable to escape.


Zerg: Roaches are to gain a range buff


Zerg: Zerg structures are to receive an HP buff to make them less vulnerable.




What do I think of these changes? It's about time! We will have to see how this all plays out of course, but I for one, am extremely glad to see these changes coming. This means that reapers will be much more difficult to get out for an early reaper rush and even proxy in general will be more difficult for terran players. The protoss fungal growth point is meh, feels like it should have been that way since the start. As for the zerg changes I am very happy. I have been unsatisfied for a long time as to the imbalances associated with zerg. Roach range buff should help significantly in the mid-later tech stages, and especially in the terran-zerg meta game.

Now roaches will be able to much more easily chip away at terran walls without so much fear from marine/marauder spam behind the wall. I see great things for zerg with this upcoming patch. I have also held qualms about zerg buildings for a long time. For their importance, they die far too easily. If a spire dies, I must completely reconstruct it whereas if a terran player gets a factory and a barracks knocked out, more likely than not he still will have extras to fall back on.

It's interesting the way they talked about this patching though. They brought up some statistics and (not surprisingly) zerg was by far the least played class. This data revolves around the 1v1 universe, as starcraft most always does. Also, it is apparent that protoss beats terran across the boards in all divisions. Some interesting statistics to check out for sure.






Source: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/882511

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

50 Followers!

I have officially reached 50 followers! Thanks a bunch guys! Now onto 100! Tell all your friends about me and remind them that I always follow back!

Unfortunately, I might not be able to get that cast out today like I wanted, but I'll try.

As for a quick tip, scout early and often! Especially around your own base to prevent a proxy rush or even a noob cannon rush! Scouting saves lives!

Quick update for today

Hey everyone, didn't have enough time to throw up a cast today with school and all, but I think I'm gonna cast a replay tomorrow so stay tuned!

As for a strategy, here's a quick tip. As zerg, be sure to use your overlords to drop creep around your base making it faster for your units to move around. Also utilize creep tumors from your queens!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Zerg - Quick Roach Video




Video is officially live! Thanks everyone for being so patient!

Hey everyone, here's the video I promised for the quick roach, check the post before this one for a full text rundown on what to do! Don't forget to check back everyday and subscribe to my videos!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Zerg - Quick Roach

Today I'll be going over a zerg strategy for a really quick roach push which I find to work exceedingly well in multiplayer games, especially 3v3. For this strategy to work, you need to stay very on top of your macro.

Ordinarily with a zerg strategy with a macro base, you might do a 13 or 14 pool to 15 hatch, but with quick roach, you will skip the second hatchery altogether, at least until later on when your economy can support it. With this strategy you want to make sure that you start off mining and making drones until you hit 9 food. Once you hit 9 food, make an overlord, do not wait until 10 as this will hurt your economy just a bit. Keep training drones until you hit 14 food and then make a spawning pool. When it's about halfway done, make an extractor and as soon as that finishes throw 3 drones on it to start mining gas. All the while, keep making drones

By time your pool finishes you should have an excess of around 300 minerals. Normally this would go to an early expo for a macro based game, but you're going for a quick roach. So with those 300 minerals, make a queen and a roach warren immediately. You should keep making drones and overlords when you're about 2 away from your population cap. Once your queen finishes, spawn larvae right away and you might want to start making roaches. But for sure once those larvae pop, throw out roaches immediately. Roaches cost 2 food, so they will eat up your population very quickly. When possible make excess overlords which are also good for scouting and creep dropping. 

When you have a decent amount go out for a push, or pool with your allies and go for a push. Don't forget to keep making roaches in the process, and eventually get a lair. Once the lair finishes, make sure you upgrade roach speed, it is ESSENTIAL. Then later on tech to hydras for a roach/hydra army which is very effective against pretty much anything.

I do not recommend this for single player games because it leaves you open for a wide attack, as quick tech does for any race, but you do not have a wall to protect you since you are zerg. IF you do this in single player, you should use a combination of quick tech and early speedlings to fend off any sort of early attack. Video is officially up, stay tuned and good luck! Also don't forget to subscribe!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Quick announcement!

Hey guys! I was able to get up my first video. Check it out on the speedling rush post and don't be afraid to give me a comment or subscribe to me on youtube. Lots more videos should be coming out soon! Stay tuned!


Decided to put the first video here in case you don't get a chance to check the other post.