fwiffo wrote:Take everything I say with a grain of salt given my gold/silver rating.
I block the ramp against Zerg to fend off early pool rushes. Using the first pylon and gateway (or gateway and cyber core if you think you have enough time), you block it all except for a one space gap, in which you will place a zealot set to hold position. You don't want to do a complete wall-off because you don't have a submergable/floatable buildings like Terran. It takes a little practice and knowledge of the maps before you get wall-offs right.
If zerglings get in before your zealot gets there, you have to surround them with your probes. If you do it right, you can kill them off giving you time to get a zealot in place to fend off the next batch of zerglings. You'll use a few probes, but if you're careful and don't lose a lot and they did a 6/7/8-pool you'll still have a crushing economic advantage.
Wall offs are less useful against other races. All-ins from Protoss tend to have pylons right next to your base allowing them to warp in past the wall, or even pylons and gateways (or cannons) inside your base. An early reaper from Terran, of course, can just cliff-jump to bypass the wall. Early marines or marauders can blast through a blocking zealot or pylon really easily, so you really need sentries to hold them off.
How are you only silver? I am diamond and I still don't the above correctly (though I know I should).
I'm much better in theory than I am in practice (much as in go). I have a fair amount of knowledge from watching high level games, reading, watching day[9], etc. but I've only played 50 games or so, so I really can't execute. I've yet to stop a simple cannon rush, for instance (though I've stopped 6-pool.) I have enough knowledge that I could play at a high level, but not enough experience to manage the game mechanics or make split-second in-game decisions.
Tortue wrote:I read somewhere you can create a group with all your buildings and tab throug it, is it a good idea ?
How do you organize !? And what is a good build order that "works" ok that I could concentrate on for now until I am confident and experienced enough to try more things ?
Cheers ! Raph (from France if anyone wants to play a game this evening or tomorrow evening ! GMT +1)
This is usually my hotkey layout:
Nexus(es)
Gateway/Warp Gates
Robo or Stargate
Scouting probe, later observer
Melee army
Ranged army and/or spell casters
Harassment units (e.g: DTs, or early VRs)
Forge
Depends on game; usually for buildings like Robo Bay, Twilight Council, or Templar Archives
Observer if I build both Robo and Stargate
I notice the majority of people have it the other way around though, with 1-3 for armies and 4-6 for buildings. Both are fine though, it's just whatever is most comfortable for you. The hotkey layout that I use is basically what I used in WC3. I also wouldn't feel pressured to try and use all 10 keys. There are plenty of top pros who use as little as 3 - 4 keys. However, I think in the long run it'll be better for your game.
Don't block the ramp with pylons! If you use a bunch of pylons to block the ramp against zerg, prepare to have them all destroyed by banelings :p. Seriously, when I'm zerg and I see even one pylon with your zealots, I think "sweet, I finally get to make some banelings useful against Protoss!". If you want to block the ramp, one gateway and a couple of zealots on hold and you always have sentries <--------- the reason why banelings are usually not so useful against Protoss. Also, depending on the map, it can make sense to block the bottom of the ramp instead. Don't bother blocking the ramp (other than with plain zealots) at all against Terran or Protoss, there's no point and you will regret having all those buildings in the way when you have your sentries out and are trying to encircle some blocked off units at the top of the ramp or snipe blocked off units at the bottom of the ramp or when your buildings are being sniped by tanks/void rays/whatever.
19/02/2011: this grumpy person takes a voluntary holiday from L19.
If anyone's still up, GSL day 5 is starting in one hour. Staying up because Tester and Artosis are playing . Yesterday I had the fortune of watching the biggest comeback of all time where someone tried to proxy 3-gate, failed miserably, and still managed to win . You can watch the game here: http://sc2casts.com/cast676-oGsInCa-vs- ... ound-of-64
Hey, thank you everyone for the good advices ! I will try to practice and hopefully get some profit, brb when I no longer at the bottom of my copper league
The rumor that July will move to SC2 has been confirmed; but this was kind of everyone's expectation. There are also rumors that Nada and Boxer are also planning to move to SC2; if those are confirmed, I will be ecstatic . It's just a pity that e-sports politics isn't making this go smoother.
This highlight video of July of his exploits in the 2004-2005 OSL season was what got me interested in professional Starcraft, and I still regard it as the best highlight video ever made.
Aphelion wrote:This highlight video of July of his exploits in the 2004-2005 OSL season was what got me interested in professional Starcraft, and I still regard it as the best highlight video ever made.
Heh, nice vid. July is one of those guys who is fun to watch. I'm more of a Jaedong fan myself, though. Either way, I'm terrible at Zerg, but love to watch pro matches with them the most.
Aphelion wrote:This highlight video of July of his exploits in the 2004-2005 OSL season was what got me interested in professional Starcraft, and I still regard it as the best highlight video ever made.
Heh, nice vid. July is one of those guys who is fun to watch. I'm more of a Jaedong fan myself, though. Either way, I'm terrible at Zerg, but love to watch pro matches with them the most.
I'm assuming you're watching the OSL Finals right now?
Aphelion wrote:This highlight video of July of his exploits in the 2004-2005 OSL season was what got me interested in professional Starcraft, and I still regard it as the best highlight video ever made.
Heh, nice vid. July is one of those guys who is fun to watch. I'm more of a Jaedong fan myself, though. Either way, I'm terrible at Zerg, but love to watch pro matches with them the most.
Kids these days XD. Thats like saying you're more of a Lee Changho fan instead of a Shusaku fan. July revolutionized so much about Zerg gameplay, pushing lurk/ling control to a new level and especially demonstrating the power of stacked mutas, dramatically altering all Zerg MUs. There's no Jaedong without July.
Araban wrote:If anyone's still up, GSL day 5 is starting in one hour. Staying up because Tester and Artosis are playing . Yesterday I had the fortune of watching the biggest comeback of all time where someone tried to proxy 3-gate, failed miserably, and still managed to win . You can watch the game here: http://sc2casts.com/cast676-oGsInCa-vs- ... ound-of-64
Yeah I saw that, felt so sorry for that guy who lost, he probably should have just gone straight in without destroying the gateways pylon first.
Anyway, I haven't really been playing SC2 at all . The fact is that whenever I'm ready to spend some disposable time I think "well I could play craft, but then again I could just log in to KGS..." Go destroys everything!
"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee
Jedo wrote:Anyway, I haven't really been playing SC2 at all . The fact is that whenever I'm ready to spend some disposable time I think "well I could play craft, but then again I could just log in to KGS..." Go destroys everything!
I do both. Log in to KGS, idle in the teamliquid room, and play SC2.
Araban wrote:If anyone's still up, GSL day 5 is starting in one hour. Staying up because Tester and Artosis are playing . Yesterday I had the fortune of watching the biggest comeback of all time where someone tried to proxy 3-gate, failed miserably, and still managed to win . You can watch the game here: http://sc2casts.com/cast676-oGsInCa-vs- ... ound-of-64
Yeah I saw that, felt so sorry for that guy who lost, he probably should have just gone straight in without destroying the gateways pylon first.
Anyway, I haven't really been playing SC2 at all . The fact is that whenever I'm ready to spend some disposable time I think "well I could play craft, but then again I could just log in to KGS..." Go destroys everything!
I've also noticed that there seems to be an interesting group of people who enjoy watching the game adamantly, subscribing to commentators such as HuskyStarcraft/HD/Day9/etc. and keeping track of many of the top tournaments by VODs and streams...but they don't play. Actually a few weeks ago I met someone at a LAN who had just bought a copy of SC2 to play his first games, but he knew a TON about the latest tournament games, top players, strategies, and even build orders just from watching. But of course, mechanics will only come through experience so he still landed in bronze regardless.
Tortue wrote:Thanks ! I will try to follow those lines. I must shamefully precise that I never use warp gates as I don't know how to use it (strategicaly speaking).
Do you block the ramp ?
Warp gates are critical to Protoss. Basically you get 5-6 of them and then select all of them and then you can warp units in wherever your pylons provide power to.
Basically, I do this as early as I can. It's nice to have 6 units at once when they're done.
. Yesterday I had the fortune of watching the biggest comeback of all time where someone tried to proxy 3-gate, failed miserably, and still managed to win 
. You can watch the game here: 
. It's just a pity that e-sports politics isn't making this go smoother.
