SC2PRO

Terran MMM Build order and Strategy

2011-09-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

0 – Supply at Choke
11 – First Barracks at Choke, place carefully (an addon needs to fit)
13 – Gas
15 – Orbital Command ~ Get 1 or 2 marines to fend off lings.
16 – Supply Depot (complete wall with this if required).
17 – Engineering Bay and a Reactor on first rax.
18 – Second Barracks
20 – Third Barracks
21 – +1 Weapons Upgrade
22 – Supply Depot
25 – Tech-Lab on second Rax
30 – Reactor on third Rax

Let's break it down. The number on the left is how much supply you have used. You will start the match up with 6/10 supply. That is, you'll being the game with 6 SCVs and one Supply Depot (+8 maximum supply) plus one Command Center (+2 maximum supply) giving you a maximum of 10 supply. You'll want to always be building SCVs until you can get three on every mineral patch and 2-3 on every Vespene Gas geyser. As you do, you'll start using up your available supply. The instructions on the right let you know what to do when a certain supply point has been reached.

When you create 4 more SCVs in addition to the 6 you start with, you'll be at 10/10 supply. You need to increase you maximum supply to be able to build any more units. Order an SCV to build a Supply Depot (+8 maximum supply), preferably on the ramp leading into your base so you can create a choke point for any incoming armies. When that is done you will be at 10/18. Keep pumping out SCVs and when the next one rolls out (11/18), have it build a Barracks next to the Supply Depot you just created. While that is in progress, two more SCVs will roll out of your Command Center eating up two more of your supply and bringing the total to 13/18.

At 13 supply, you'll want an SCV to build a Refinery on a Vespene Gas geyser. Why 13? Why not 6? Why not 20? Different build orders have different timings depending on what armies you want to field, but it's generally unwise to collect gas at 6 supply as you will need SCVs to focus on collecting minerals to pump out a few early Marines and additional buildings. Marines don't need gas to create and you'll need to get some kind of unit protecting your base as early as possible to stop a Speedling Rush, Zealot Rush or Marine Rush from your opponent. On the other hand, most units after the Marine will require gas and you'll want to start collecting it sooner rather than later. Especially if you are trying to form a bio ball of Marines and Marauders to go rip up the other guy's base before they can get up the defenses to stop you. And you will need gas for Armor/Weapon upgrades that are key to this build.

The SCV building the Refinery will start collecting gas from it automatically unless you've queued another order for it. Don't forget to put your next two SCVs on the Refinery. That will bring you to 15 supply.

By the time you get to 15 SCVs, your Barracks should be done which allows you to upgrade your Command Center to an Orbital Command. This will not tie up an SCV and when done will allow you to call down a super-SCV (aka Mule) to collect minerals at a faster pace and to use a scanner sweep to view what your opponent is doing without sacrificing any units. Also, since the Barracks are done, immediately build 1-2 Marines to deal with any early attacks and take out any of your opponents scouts. Each Marine will add one to your supply total.

At 16 build a Supply Depot next to your Barracks and the first Supply Depot you created at 10/18 (leave room for the Barracks Addon to fit) to wall off your ramp entirely. This wall of buildings will buy you time against incoming attacks while you continue with your build order. Don't worry about the Suppy Depots blocking your exit out of your base. You can lower them into the ground to let your forces pass and the raise them back up.

The strategy behind the rest of this build is on Team Liquid's 3 Rax BO page, but here are some things to watch out for with any build:

Don't get supply blocked. That is, always have a Supply Depot ready to build before you max out. Notice how the build order has you create a Supply Depot at 16/18 and not 18/18? By the time it's done building the Supply Depot, you'll probably be at 18 supply and need your max supply increased. Build orders are designed to have buildings finished right when you need them. Also, keep creating Supply Depots every time you get close to max. Some build orders assumed you are doing this and don't tell you to, just like they assume you are always building SCVs until you have the max on each resource field.
Assign an SCV to repair your Barracks and two Supply Depots at your choke point if attacked. You can also place your two Marines behind the buildings to attack from short range without getting attacked back by Zerglings or Zealots.
Use the MULE's from your Orbital Command to gather minerals quickly, but save your OC's energy for an occasional sensor sweep of your opponent's base
Send out an SCV/Probe/Drone to scout sooner rather than later. Some players send one of their initial 6 workers, some wait until there they have build a supply unit and a building capable of pumping out combat units on the theory that there is nothing to see at your opponents base until then anyway.

For Protoss players, build orders are much the same except probes can initiate a building, then do another task while the building warps in. Unlike SCVs, they are not tied up while the building completes, so the build orders are little different to reflect that.

For Zerg players, build orders are a little wacky since your drones sacrifice themselves to become the building so you'll see supply numbers drop and then come back up in their build orders. There is also a common tactic of using a drone to create an Extractor on a Vespene Gas geyser, creating two Zerglings, then canceling the Extractor before it's finished to get the Drone back and be at 11/10. Those build orders will state that explicitly.

zerg Mutalisk rush

2011-09-12T21:02:00.001-07:00

First of all, employing the tactic of Zerg Mutalisk Rush against the Terran is the least effective any mutalisk rush could ever be most especially against the Marines. However, against any Zerg player or any Protoss player, you have a big change to toppling down any enemy while they are on early expansion. Word of advice, if you already have your Mutalisks ready, go ahead and attack your enemy immediately. But before that, you need to expand really quickly and build your Mutalisks while building Zerglings to harrass your opponent. In other words, you should be saving your gas for the mutas later on. And once you have enough gas quickly upgrade to lair but then again just make sure you are running both of the extractors while consuming your gas for the quick upgrade. Then at the same time, pump out your zerglings to harrass your enemy. Once you have finished upgrading to Lair, build your spire behind your minerals so your opponent will not be able to see it then when that is finished, build as many mutalisks as you can. After which, send them to the back of your enemy base camp where the workers are located. Destroy as many workers as your mutalisks can. That way, you can squeeze out and topple down and minimize your opponent’s economy. And you may turn to your roaches or hydralisks to completey defeat them. Now if your enemy is doing the same thing, it now becomes the race for the mutalisks, so build out quickly, then attack as soon as you have enough mutalisks, perhaps using the zergling rush as well.

Terran Unit guides

2011-09-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

MARINE:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Ultralisk, Baneling, Brood Lord	Hydralisk, Mutalisk, Roach	Zergling
Protoss	Colossus, High Templar, Archon, Zealot	Carrier Dark Templar, Mothership, Sentry, Stalker	Immortal, Phoenix, Void Ray
Terran	Hellion, Siege Tank	Banshee, Battlecruiser, Ghost, Marauder, Reaper, Viking	Thor

Marauder:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Hydralisk, Zergling	Baneling	Roach, Ultralisk
Protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot	Colossus, High Templar, Sentry	Stalker
Terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser, Siege Tank	Ghost, Hellion, Marine	Thor, Viking, Reaper

REAPER:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Ultralisk, Baneling, Brood Lord, Roach	Hydralisk	Zergling
Protoss	Colossus, High Templar, Archon, Zealot, Stalker	Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Zealot
Terran	Banshee, Marauder, Siege Tank, Thor, Viking	Ghost, Hellion, Marine

GHOST:

Special Abilities

Snipe: This ability allows the ghost to snipe biological units from a distance with a 45 damage attack that ignores all armor. The ability has a range of 10 and can be shift queued for multiple snipes in a row. With a couple ghosts and good micro your able to take out a a large group of biological units very quickly with this ability by quickly sniping them all while cloaked.

Cloak: This allows your ghost to become invisible while slowly draining it’s energy and will remained cloaked till canceled or your energy runs out. The cloak ability is very useful and is used to get off most of the other’s ghosts abilities such as Snipe or Nukes with out being seen as a Ghost is a fragile unit.

EMP Round: The EMP Round Skill allows you to fire off a AoE EMP shot which will remove all shields and energy in the area of any unit by 100. This is most commonly used when fighting against Protoss as all Protoss units have shields and this will essentially take their health down half way if used right before you enter battle.

Tactical Nuke: NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED! This is the Ghost’s Trademark skill which allows you to launch a nuclear missile at a target spot that deals 300 damage (+200 to buildings) in a 10 range radius. All nukes must first be trained in Ghost Academy before they can be launched. Tactical Nukes are a very powerful skill although must be used in the right situation, once launched it takes a couple seconds for the nuke to come down so trying to cast a nuke on a mobile army is not a good idea. One of the best uses for nukes is to cast one on your opponents minerals which would allow you to kill all of his workers.

HELLION:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Ultralisk, Baneling, Roach	Hydralisk	Zergling
Protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray, Archon, Colossus, Immortal, Stalker	Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Zealot
Terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser, Marauder, Siege Tank, Thor, Viking	Ghost	Marines, Reapers

SIEGE TANK:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Zergling	Baneling, Roach, Ultralisk	Hydralisk
Protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Phoenix, Void Ray, Dark Templar, Zealot	Archon, Colossus, High Tempar. Sentry, Stalker
Terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Viking, Thor	Marine, Ghost

THOR:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Zergling, Baneling	Brood Lord, Hydralisk, Mutalisk	Roach, Ultralisk
Protoss	Immortal, Zealot	Carrier, Void Ray, Dark Templar, High Templar, Stalker	Archon, Colossus, Mothership, Sentry
Terran	Banshee, Marauder, Marine, Siege Tank	Battlecruiser, Ghost, Hellion	Reaper, Viking

VIKING:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Hydralisk, Zergling	Baneling, Corruptor, Roach, Ultralisk	Brood Lord, mutalisk, Overseer
Protoss	Immortal, Stalker	Archon, Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Carrier, Colossus, Mothership, Void Ray
Terran	Marauder, Marine, Siege Tank	Ghost, Hellion, Reaper, Thor	Banshee, Battlecruiser

BANSHEE:

Race	Weak Against	Okay Against	Strong Against
Zerg	Corruptor, Mutalisk, Hydralisk	Queen	Baneling, Roach, Ultralisk, Zergling
Protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Phoenix, Void Ray,	Archon, Sentry, Stalker, High Templar	Colossus, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot
Terran	Battlecruiser, Viking, Thor	Marine, Ghost	Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Siege Tank

RAVEN:

Detector: The Raven is able to detected any cloaked / burrowed unit making it the only portable detection unit for Terran. Detection also allows you to detect any hallucinated units.

Build Auto Turret: This ability allows the Raven to drop an Auto-Turret at any location which lasts for 180 seconds and will attack anything within its range. These are very useful for harassment as a couple of these dropped behind your opponents minerals will quickly take out their workers while the Raven can fly away once they are placed.

You can also use Auto Turrets to block your opponent off from entering a choke point or as extra offense in a battle, I tend not to use them in battle as they some of the other Raven’s abilities are more beneficial and tend to only use Auto-Turrets to harass my opponents minerals.

Build Point Defense Drone: This is an automated defensive laser that intercepts enemy projectiles. They last for 180 seconds and start with 200 energy and will shoot down 20 ranged attacks before running out of energy. This is probably the Raven’s most useful ability, by placing 2 of these down in front of your army right before you start a battle will give you a huge advantage. They will shoot down 40 ranged attacks preventing them from hitting your units.

As you would guess this is very useful against any unit that has ranged attack as it prevents the attack completely while allowing your units to continue their attack so you can quickly take out your opponents army out without taking a lot of damage.

Hunter Seeker Missile: Allows the Raven to launch a missile that chases down its target. The Missile will chase down the target for up to 15 seconds dealing 100+ area damage.

Protoss 4 Gate Build Order and Strategy

2011-09-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

The Protoss 4 Gate is one of the strongest early game timing attacks that a Protoss player can do.The key to having success with this build is proper macro and micro, the better they get the better this build will work. If you plan on playing Protoss this build is a necessity, usable against all races. With the 4 Gate Build order you get a large force very quickly, along with very rapid reinforcements. This early attack will crush any players who do a fast expand or too early of a tech.Never the less this build will be the back bone of many games you play as Protoss.

9. Pylon Chrono Boost Nexus
12. Gateway (Scout with Probe & Chrono Boost Nexus)
14. Gas (send 3 probes to harvest gas)
16. Pylon
16. cybernetics Core
>When at 100 minerals train Zealot
>when cybernetics Core is complete train Stalkers and Warp Gate Research(#1 priority)
24. build 3 Gateways
25. Stalker
26/26. Proxy Pylon outside opponents base

• As soon as your first Stalker is completed you will want to kill any scouts that may be inside your base. Make sure to kill scout before you build 3 additional gateways to avoid a hard counter.

• make sure you have saved up 4 chrono boost's for your warp gate research, the faster you have warp gates more likelihood you have of winning

• Once your Warp Gate Research completes train 1 sentry and 3 stalkers, spend any Chrono Boost you still have on your Gateways to reduce warp cool down. Make sure yo maintain macro while u attack by avoiding a supply block, and constantly warping in units a proxy pylon

• When you go to build your proxy Pylon outside your opponents base bring all units to prevent probe from being killed and slowing down your push dramatically .

• When playing a terran make sure to train extra zealots to counter marauders which do devastating damage to stalkers.

• and when playing a zerg opponent utilize your sentries force field ability to buffer zergling which is important because stalkers are weak against a speedling swarm

Terran Basic Opening

2011-09-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

This is a basic opening for Terran, perfecting this will vastly increase your winning percentage when playing as Terran

First 5 begin mining, if possible seperate them to mine top and bottom of the mineral field for efficiency. Begin cranking SCV's

at 9/10 population, and when you have accrued about 80 minerals, start your wall at the ramp of your base by building a supply depot.

keep building SCV's while the supply depot is building. When your supply depot finishes, wait ~5 seconds to build up minerals, then make a Barracks next to your supply depot.

(NOTE: to facilitate better "wall planning", you can see the direction your barracks will face when you open the Basic Buildings menu of the SCV. The direction the image of the barracks is facing is a mirror image of how it will build when you're ready to set it down)

Once the barracks is begun, begin producing SCV's again.

I will note here, that if I am playing against the Zerg I will pull another SCV from my mineral line and build a supply depot to finish up my wall when the barracks is ~ 50% complete. This is optional, but can really make a difference if the zerg goes early zerglings. (Otherwise, just build it after the barracks have completed and you've begun Orbital Command.)

Once the rax is completed, immediately research Orbital Command. You shouldn't have to wait to research it. At the same time, begin producing Marines and set one SCV to building a Reactor. When you have the resources, build another rax.

From here you're set to branch out into whatever strategy you wish, whether its siege tanks, air, or (my favorite) bio-ball medivac drop.

A helpful hint, and this is just a rule of thumb I use: I don't send 2 SCV's to a Vespene mine until I've got a MULE to replace them. For example: using my build above, while Orbital Command is building and a SCV is building or completed a Reactor, I wait until the first MULE drop to put two more SCV's on that Reactor. Same thing with the second Reactor. Of course, depending on your strategy your mileage may very using this rule.

Void Ray Rush Build Order and Strategy

2011-09-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

The general idea behind this build is to get the Void Rays out in the shortest amount of time possible, this is where practice and knowing the build order will raise your chance of winning dramatically.

10/10 supply - Pylon

10/18 supply -- Gateway

10/18 supply -- Build an Assimilator, as soon as the Assimilator is done send 3 Probes to harvest Gas

10/18 supply -- Send a Probe to scout enemy location

13/18 supply -- As soon as the Gateway is finished make Cybernetics Core

14/18 supply -- As soon as Cybernetics Core is complete build a Starport

General Strategy

1.Do not let your opponent know that you are quickly teching to Void Rays, as a good player will be able to easily counter the rush if they know it’s coming.

2.Wall off your base so your opponent cannot get in and scout.Do this by walling off your entrance with two Gateways and then upgrading them to Warp gates later in the game to warp in units.

3.It is a safe call to make at least two stalkers to defend against an early rush

4. The best strategy for maximizing effectiveness of the void rays is to play smart. If upon sending the first wave in ( usually a safe number is 4-5 void rays) if u see that that your opponent has anti air, for example a terran with a few marines. If it is obvious that you can kill all his marines without losing a single void ray then attack them. But if it is a possibility u may lose one, just go straight to his mineral line and kill his workers.

5. Harassing while still preventing a loss of a void ray is essential. As soon as you see anti air units heading your way retreat to a safe location and begin harassing where he has no units

This rush is extremely effective against zerg players, but is also effective against terran and Protoss, but takes a little more workclick here for complete guide

ZvZ Build to guarantee wins quick and Easy

2011-09-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

vs.

Now if you are a zerg player and are having difficulties beating other zerg players this strategy and build order is your answer.

10 Overlord
10 Extractor Trick
13 Spawning Pool
13 Overlord
13 Extractor
12 Overlord
12 Move Drone To Gas
12 Move Drone To Gas
12 Move Drone To Gas
12 Queen
14 Zergling
15 Zergling
16 Zergling
17 Zergling
18 Zergling
19 Move Drone To Minerals
19 Zergling
20 Spawn Larvae
20 Metabolic Boost

20 Zergling
21 Zergling
22 Zergling
23 Zergling
24 Zergling
25 Zergling
26 Zergling
27 Spawn Larvae
27 Zergling
28 Zergling
29 Zergling
30 Zergling
31 Zergling
32 Zergling

1.The key to this build is the metabolic boost upgrade, therefore it must be completed immediately. But, after you have harvested 100 Gas you can pull the workers off of the extractor and send them to mine minerals.

2.In Addition I can not stress the importance of performing your injects as soon as larvae hatches. Since you are not expanding with this build. You need to have as many available larvae to become zerglings as possible.

3. finally periodically scout opponent with single zergling to keep tabs on his unit count. as soon as u hit supply limit which in this case will be 44. send all zerglings to opponents base. first killing all his units then head straight for workers. If there is a spine crawler send a few of your units to take care of that while rest kill the workers on mineral line.

If performed correctly you should reach victory in under 10 minutes almost every time

(Note: It will be to your advantage to set rally point of your hatchery to ramp of opponents base, while keeping up macro and supply, while constantly sending more zerglings)

StarCraft 2 7 easy tips to Winning With Zerg, protoss, and terran

2011-08-31T00:05:00.000-07:00

Winning in starcraft is much easier than many believe. The truth is that many players are simply unaware to basic game mechanics that will give most new players a 90 % win rate in bronze all the way to top ten in diamond league. There is just a few simple tips that one must remember in order to do this. Here are 7 tips that will change your game play so much you wont believe it was that simple.

1.Picking your Race: There is much debate about which race is the easiest to play out of bronze and up to diamond. The truth is any race can be played and win games with, as long as the player is comfortable. But, honestly in my opinion it will be much easier for a player to master protoss than zerg or terran. This is due to the straight forward nature of protoss. As for Terran you can still reach the same levels as you would with protoss but it will be more difficult for you to compete once u reach diamond and above. Finally zerg will take a deeper understanding of the game alongside a grasp on game mechanics in order win consistently

2.MACRO!, MACRO!, MACRO!: The term macro which refers to hotkeying ure units or structures by holding down Ctrl and pressing a numerical number. this will allow you to control the unit or structure while not having to click on it or even be looking at it. So you can focus on attacking while still building workers and sending reinforcements to aid in the battle.

3. Workers win games: It is a must to constantly produce workers through the game till all expansions are saturated with 20 workers on minerals and 6 on gas. The key to winning is a strong economy hands down

4. Scouting: Many low level players do not scout nearly enough, by watching what your opponent is building, you are able to prepare for the units he is using. Rather than being surprised when he knocks on your back door with 40 void rays and your forces are on other side of map.

5.Map control: this is achieved by having units in all areas of map especially expansion zones. furthermore, this aided by having multiple expansions all across map.

6.Controlling opponents economy: You will win every single game you play if you can prevent your opponent from expanding his economy . As long as u keep building units and preventing him from expanding you will starve him to defeat.

7.Keeping up with supply: One of the worst mistakes a player can do is supply block himself by not building enough pylons, supply depot's, or overlords. this will severely cripple your unit out put as well as worker output and in return gives your enemy enemy the upper hand. NEVER become supply blocked

These tips will greatly improve your game to the higher leagues, and they will amaze you.