StarCraft 2

Hello,

RevMercScout.207 <-- feel free to add and msg me whenever I'm online. I'm up for playing and maybe observing games on occasion.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/613773/1/RevMercScout/

Some smaller tournaments I played in: http://www.z33k.com/users/9968

I've been playing Terran since Beta and have been in master's since season one. Willing to mentor anyone who wants it (Terran only obviously) and I can help anyone from bronze through to low/mid master. I used to be a lot more active competitively, playing in tournaments and was part of Team Revoki for over a year which included players like RevIllusion (VileIllusion now) Shadow (can't remember where he went) and just a bunch of those. I now play the game leisurely but still easily maintain my old skill level. Most of the top 20 placements in my seasons were because I'd go inactive towards the end of the season but have no doubt that I almost exclusively played top 4 masters and low grandmasters.

Feel free to ask for advice and post your BEST replays and I can review them. Trust me, I will be able to find more than an essay's worth of mistake's and advice in your BEST replays so please DO NOT post replays where your mistakes are obvious. Of course the worst for a plat may be the best for the bronze so don't worry about it, just post replays

Also, please post ONLY 1v1s . Analysis of 2v2 or higher is completely useless as the game there is broken and your skill level doesn't really matter (thus bronze players reach diamond in team)

GR name (ingame name) first date of contact
initial league / current league

Mentees
Seargant (Parker) June 29, 2012
Gold / Gold

This post has been edited by Merc Scout: Jun 29 2012, 19:31 PM

Hey Merc scout.

Recent goldie here. Im interested in the replay analysis. I doubt the observing thing is for me though...

Spoiler : Im Parker, and I have a massive cash float and supply block problem.

http://drop.sc/209385

http://drop.sc/209781

http://drop.sc/209782

( All 3 are vs protoss, I played a couple of 3v3s to unwind lately, and I dont have many other good games saved, so ill try to get others ASAP)

game 1: if you're choosing to wall off, you should commit and finish the wall off early. A half wall is worse than no wall since you will lose buildings if he attacks.

DO NOT cut scvs to build an earlier cc / rax. You constantly cut scvs to squeeze out these buildings but by the time you have everything setup, you can't actually afford to use them fully. Always make scvs and then make stuff afterwards.

you have absolutely no map control into the 8 min mark even though you scouted that he was fast expanding, why not keep a marine on each xelnaga tower. That way you can see when the protoss is attacking whereas right now if he all-ind you, you would have died since you have a handful of marines and no bunkers.

10:50 - the moment you get your medivacs out you should start dropping. You just saw that he's going collosus which means not a lot of anti air. If you're lucky you can snipe the robo or the robotics bay and halt the collosus production. Eitherway you should pressure asap since you know that he just started building them from your scan.

13:30... you're taking a 4th base even though you have like 0 scvs at your 3rd... bad idea.


14:00 You should be getting 2/2 right about now but you only have 0/1 and are not researching anything.

15:00 - why are you attacking his ramp? You know that the protoss is on 2 bases, meanwhile you're on 4. You should just wait and you'll outmacro him... you've invested into 2 more bases than him so your army WILL BE SMALLER. If you wait for your investment to kick in then you will steam roll him. SCII is a game of patience.

Late game if you get supply blocked don't just build 2 depots... you're floating like 1500 so why not build 8. That way you won't get supply blocked for a while and you lower your money stockpile. Note I mean 8 scvs making depots at the same time, not 1 scv queing up 8 depots.

Thanks for the help.

I must admit, the reason I attack a 2 base protoss, is because if a protoss gets HTs, the game gets ugly for me.

Any tips to stop storms?

When should I get ghosts? (and should I have a ghost academy up BEFORE I scout the archives? )

Personally I rarely get ghosts but yea they can help. No you're not supposed to have the ghost academy up before the HTs appear unless the toss opens collosus, then you might. VS high templars you want your composition to be 60% marauder and 40% marine (with medivacs ofc). You want to spread out your forces way before the engagement to minimize damage and then attack. Retreating with the units being stormed is always a good idea since they're as good as dead.

With map control and scans you can see where the HTs are and send groups of 3 to 4 marauders to snipe them. Also, HTS are slow so they either are at the front of the army or in the middle. If they're at the front then you can snipe them, if they're in the middle you can simply retreat and they'll fall behind the army. Then when you engage they'll be very far behind and useless.

1/1/1!!!! Forget macroing vs Protoss... because there is no late game for Terran unless you are polt.

At my level (mid-high diamond) and maybe a bit higher just focus on 1 base all ins... the best one I find is 1/1/1 with marines tank medivacs or banshees but its a preference.

Fact is at equal skill level there is no way to beat Protoss head to head with MMM it just doesn't work... once the timer reaches 15 minutes and you fail to do much dmg u might as well GG.

Well in gold macro vs protoss is highly possible..., I just try to out produce him

EDIT: Heres a TvT in case you dont want to review another TvP ( as you can see, im not fond of tanks)

In master and gm macro is also very possible The only build I do is a 1 rax FE since like 1 year ago and it works like a charm.

TVT replay:

Work on your building placement, aim to line up all your production facilities in columns (vertically). This makes it easier to macro, move around your base, and faster to build future buildings. NEVER build where the addon should go... notice your first rax is blocked by your first supply depot, this throws off many timings.

Instead of building supply depots randomly everywhere, try and bunch as many of them up as possible side by side near your CC (like beside your mineral line) this is the most efficient use of space and allows you to make more buildings in your main.

If you scout early double depot its 95% a FE so you might as well hide your scv somewhere. No need to continue scouting at that very moment, its impossible for him to have more rax or gas behind it without cutting multiple scvs. (don't hide it behind the mineral line, its the most obvious place).

Also, since you know he's 1 rax FE'ing he'll have the exact same number of marines as you except if he chooses to attack by the time he reaches your ramp you will have 2 to 3 more. Therefor you're wasting money on building a bunker.

You should get combat shield right after stim, its a necassary upgrade and it can win or lose you the game.

Once again 10:00, you build medivacs and don't even bother trying to drop the enemy. The moment you have medivacs. You drop. Period. The only reason you don't is if you're under attack.


Here's a tip, watch your own replays and stare at your command centers / barracks. If you stop making units then pause the game and figure out what it is that you were doing that was distracting you. Do this for EVERY REPLAY and your macro should improve. Sooner or later it will click that while doing X you usually forget scvs, so during the game you'll be doing X and you'll remember OH SHIT SCVS, and tada. Macro improved

This post has been edited by Merc Scout: Jun 30 2012, 00:48 AM

Well if you can succeed with macro based plays TvP - WP. But that can only mean one thing: YOU HAVE OUTPLAYED HIM AND YOU ARE BETTER THAN HIM.

There is NO FUCKING WAY to beat a zealot colossus or even stalker colossus late game army with MMM ghost viking - you will just lose way more resources... in fact Protoss doesn't require a 4th - once they get 3 bases fully running and can defend your drops its time to GG.

Me personally being a mid player for me going mass bio vs Protoss in the late game just feels like suicide... its like I am making an army only for it to be crushed by the inevitable zealot/archon or stalker colossus... yes maybe Polt can make it work but I sure as hell cannot... and many people try and copy pros... WELL DON'T because you don't have the micro and multitasking that they have be realistic and know that 5 maxed bio armies will melt vs the Protoss deathball... and if that somehow doesn't win them the game they can reinforce with mass warp ins.

And seeing as I don't have 300 APM and insane micro to be able to split vs storms and kite while macroing and the same time I advise all people who are my level and lower (and maybe a bit higher than my level this would work) to focus on the early-mid game advantage of Terran (because thats where Terran > Protoss)... 1 base all ins such as marine tank are very effective esp with medivacs or banshees... occasionaly a 3 rax on maps with an open natural... but yeah... you have to do serious damage before 15 minutes or you are finished my friend!!!

This post has been edited by Anarki: Jun 30 2012, 08:56 AM

Like I said earlier, if you don't work on your weaknesses it will just come back to bite you in the ass later. I used to be a one base drop player till masters, so I had very good micro and control of my units but I'd still lose because I'd get out macro'd many games. So to fix that I started doing 1 rax FE and I lost ALOT of games, both to all ins and to being out macro'd but sooner or later it evened out and now I can macro as well as drop at good timings .

-Impossible is just a word people use for actions that they are too lazy to work hard at improving. If you complain about this game being easy and would like a challenge, but then the moment a challenge pops up you take the easy way out, kinda silly isn't it?

I play bio in all my games. TVT (with a splash of tanks), TVZ (also with a tiny splash of tanks, but I get tanks here around the same time they get hive), and TVP is pure bio all game long. And guess what, since mech kicks ass bio is the challenging part but I've played this style for the duration of the SCII lifespan and I've learned how to make it work and what not.

Stalker collosus is actually a stupid comp and very easy to win... its zealot collos that is difficult. First I'll say this, I remember in some thread you said you don't scout aside from your initial scout.Well guess what, that will cost you games. You know how YOU think you just make units and attack? Well that's now how this game works. You're supposed to scout what units they're making (zealot collos and stalker collos) and make the appropriate units to defeat that. Whereas if you have no idea how to scout then you have no idea how to make the proper units. Obviously you will win SOME games because of luck but there is no "one build that wins all" therefor you have to change your unit composition.

VS stalker collosus you can go like 90% marauder, 10% marine and then some vikings and medis, will win so badly.

VS Zealot collosus is much harder since you need lots of marines. But in this case you just attack with vikings (no anti air therefor collos will die). and then kite with a 50/50 marine marauder line. Collos will be chasing and getting off very few shots. Zealots (even with charge) will be rarely hitting you and tada, you just wrecked a toss ball with bio, no ghosts.

This post has been edited by Merc Scout: Jun 30 2012, 18:40 PM

Hey Merc, interesting that you play bio, imma bio fan too. What about zealot/HT/Archon though?

TvP = GDI vs Scrin in cnc3... scrin has to survive mass predator APC spam... just like Protoss has to survive the MM or tank marine spam early-mid game. Once they reach late game its a smooth ride to victory.

All scrin has to do is mass devastators and PACs with some tripods as support - and once they get enough - no amount of pitbulls would save you.

The same with Protoss - once they get enough warp gates and get 5-6 colossus and a fair amount of HTs... you are finished.

Just for a flashback reminder of something similar that was so popular long ago (god I miss CnC when it was big R.I.P).

Terran deathball is stronger than Zergs but not as strong as Protoss IMO... so best to avoid late game and focus on the strong early-mid game... lets face it tier 1 protoss is weak before they get many upgrades and terran tier 1 is very strong before that point so that is the advantage you should press on.

Now going back to CnC3 comparison - in KW when GDI got slingshots and some other extra cool stuff like AP bullets or something THATS when they could really give scrin a run for the money late game.

I believe mech is getting buffed in TvP in HotS by introducing anti-zealot units (battle hellions) and warhounds which are cheaper than thors do bonus dmg vs mechanical and are cheaper making mech a far more attractive option vs Protoss.

I am not saying you cannot win vs Protoss late game. I am saying you cannot win if both players play equally well with equal resources and equal unit resource count.

This post has been edited by Anarki: Jun 30 2012, 22:08 PM

Hey Merc Scout.

I have a question about TvZ (problematic match up for me)

I like bio and dislike tanks I wont lie.

I usually rely on tanks soley for defense.

Question is, how do I deal with ling/ bling into infestor?(or ling bling muta), My splitting is not the best, and I feel I have close to 0 map control in the matchup.

How do I go about beating a zerg. Some of your replays would be nice too (if possible)

This definitely requires ghosts, as usual trying to snipe something is important. What's best is if you do regular drops especially against this since he'll have to buy something other than melee or else you pretty much should win. (unless he cannons) either way drops should delay at least a little (via pylon / key tech snipes) while you respond with ghosts and as usual split and against this you should KITE A LOT. Note that terran kiting speed is fast than HT movement speed. Also a good idea to snipe Archons when not a huge engagement, huge gas investment and they absorb alot so getting rid of them is nice.


TVZ ----
4 marauders plus a bunch of marines push right before 10 minutes with bio play. Marauders at front and then kite (researched combat shield). marauders tank lots of damage while marines are fine (unless you get surrounded then continue macro'ing). You want to be getting upgrades and obviously split vs banelings. "marine split challenge" or something, search it in custom games and it will be good practice. Tanks are yes, more defensive in TvZ especially late game. (the above attack may or may not occur in the reps i post, it is something i recently started doing).

Before 10 min cause at 10:30 is muta / infestors. So you want them to spend money on stuff.

No map control is expected vs zerg, don't worry about that. And when they have ALOT of muta you want to get a couple of thors too so you can deal with them. Upgrading structure health and range is a good idea, with lots of turrets and planetaries


REGULAR LATE GAME


REGULAR LATE GAME


INFESTOR LING


RANDOM TVZ VS GM

Stop confusing people just because you can't beat Protoss in late game on your own ffs. You still don't understand that you have to harrass Toss and split his units. And stop comparing the APM thing etc. The Toss players in your league don't have that APM either. Furthermore you will increase your APM by training it.

Hey merc.

Heres a TvT that went into really late game. (I might have neglected the building placement stuff because I didnt play in about 2 days).

Im a bit clueless when it comes to real late game, and I probably shouldnt have won this game ( made one really stupid engagement at his PF due to being impatient). What should I do when the guy turtles like this?

1 - Make it a habit to build stuff in this order:
a - select scv
b - place location for building
c - (you can just right click) or shift + right click on minerals
what happens is, the moment your scvs finish that building, they will go back to mining money, this way you don't have random idle scvs and also don't lose mining time! COUGH* first 2 scvs that build depot / rax COUGH* Plus this helps a lot more lategame when you have like 20 idle from building stuff.

Once again, the building placement... it really isn't that hard... the only thing you're doing with the bad building placement is giving yourself all the more shit to worry about later in the game since you'll have to lift buildings and do a virtual Tetris game in your head trying to figure out where to land it. Where as in the early game you just pick a spot and place, then late game you just build above and below that spot but not beside.

oh man the factoryyyyy, come on , notice at 7:00... you spent like 10 to 20 seconds figuring out that you need to lift your buildings and land them, that's practically 1 full production cycle of units, which is like 5 extra marines.

7:30? Why build a bunker if you have no idea what he's going for... he could be doing drops or reapers or tanks, all of which bunkers are useless for. Scan, and once you see that he has 2 bunkers (which means he's playing defensive) you can just skip yours and macro all the harder.

Great job on loading up the medivacs the moment you got them (9:30), And I have to emphasize that you focus on getting your scvs back to mining, you have idle scvs constantly almost throughout the whole game. CTRL + f1 I think is the command that selects all the idle scvs on the map, then click on minerals to get them mining.

10:35, you're flying around with medivacs, good job not losing them to the turrets. Note that 10:35 is VERY EARLY for THAT MANY turrets, you should just pull back and be happy that he has lost hundreds of minerals on useless old turrets. You have 5+ to 7 idle scvs at this time, that is 5 to 7 minerals per second. After half a minute you are behind 420 minerals. Make sure you get your scvs mining! Note this is you losing 420 minerals per minute. Do not force the drop, something you will learn with some practice is that dropping the front of their base is a bad idea since... well hopefully you can guess this. Since his whole army will be there waiting for a frontal push, only drop the front if it is a follow up to dropping the back and you saw his whole army go to the back of his base.

Considering its 11:00, you should have FINISHED 1/1 by now, but you haven't even started. Make it a habit to get double ebay by at most 8:30 to 9 and getting 1/1 the moment both ebays finish. This is a game breaker.

Sick drop though, picked off the tank and retreated. Never suicide drops unless its absolutely worth it. Most of the time its best to pick up and retreat I'm proud man

Ignoring the fact that you have lost at least 1500 minerals from idle scvs, you still have a constant 500+ mineral float by 12:00, you should be beuilding an expansion. A good way of knowing that you need to expand is when you are floating money and when both your bases have way more scvs than they should (which is the case now).

sensor tower build at 15:00 in the very mmiddle of your base... it gives you absolutely no warning if the enemy is attacking. Its much metter to build one on the far left and far right of your base, this way you can see drops incoming. Whereas this tower only shows you stuff that will come down the middle of the map... which you have total control of.
I HAVE NO IDEA WHY YOU LEFT YOUR TANKS AT THE FRONT AND RAN ALL YOUR MARINES BACK, those tanks can be so easily picked off... you have map control so part your units at the front of HIS base...

I like the marines checking all the corners of the maps, very nice




I'm going to stop really watching at the 18 minute mark. If you work on the above macro stuff, a lot fewer of your games will reach super late game. Also, before you learn to play late game, you need to learn to make units well late game. Can't win without making units, and at the moment you're floating 2500 minerals while also have 600 minerals per minute of idle scvs. That is game winning money right there, spend it and you will have SO MANY UNITS that you will be able to steam roll through anyone up until diamond.
Loved the drop one last time, keep those up unless the guy has turrets, it might be hard at first but watch your replays and find weaknesses in both your own play and in the enemy lines. This way you'll know when to drop.

Hey id really appreciate it if you took a look at this TvP match i just played. I feel like this is probably my best match yet but im not exactly sure what i need to improve in so if you can take a look id appreciate it. Thanks

Hey also if you dont mind this is a TvZ match i JUST played and i feel i did pretty well. I was going to produce Banshees with the Starports but didnt have enough time. Thanks!

TERRAN VS PROTOSS

Well firstly, since you're trying to wall off - it would be nice if you actually walled off. Go to settings and enable the building grid, this will make it a lot easier, I'm guessing you have it disabled atm.

Notice that you readed 700 minerals before the 4:30 mark, you want to be spending that. The moment you hit 400 (highest you should hit with a 1 rax fast expand) you want to get the CC building, and then each time afterward you want to build barracks or gases right as you get enough money. With 700 minerals you delay everything.

Up until 7:00 you constantly float 500 to 600 minerals. This is theoritical power. Theoretical because you still need to cash it in. That can be an extra base or more units (should be more units in this game). Also you should want to upgrade the new command center to an orbital THE MOMENT it is complete, and then start making scvs out of it. You do a 1 rax fast expand to get economically ahead of the opponent, there's no point in building it and ignoring your new CC for 30~ seconds.

Towards the 10 minute mark you start forgetting to build A LOT of scvs, watch the replay and stare at your command centers and notice how they are doing absolutely nothing for long periods of times. Plus right now you HAVE 2 mules of energy and SHOULD have another at least 1 from the 2nd command center. This is 600/900 minerals ONTOP of the 800/900 that you are floating. Imagine spending all of 1700 minerals on units and bases, you would steam roll the other player. Avoid floating, aim to keep your money low while not queing and while constantly building scvs.


Try using control groups. You can google search this if you want more help but here's the simple version. If you select 1 or many CCs and click "ctrl + #" where # is any number, personally I do 5. And then at any other point in the game you press that same # (suppose 5 if it is myself) then you will select that building. This is very useful for macro since all you have to do to make scvs is hit 5 - s - s and tada, you are making scvs. Similarily you can select all your barracks and click "ctrl + 4" and then do the same trick with 4 - a - a - a and this will make 1 marine at each barracks. You don't even have to look at your buildings to make units out of them.

Doing the drop the moment you got the medivacs was a GREAT idea. Deciding to let absolutely all your units die was not. If the enemy shows up you should want to pick up your units and leave.

You got 1/1 pretty quickly so props to that, keep that up and be sure not to forget getting 2/2 and so on.

Something you have to understand to become better at SCII is that YES SCII IS a strategy game, but it only BECOMES a strategy game after you know how to make units. If you cannot make units then what is the point of strategizing with theoretical units. By the 15 minute mark you are floating 1685 minerals as well as have missed TOO MANY scvs to count. Work on making those scvs, using those mules as well as keeping your money low. As a note, around 15 minutes is when ideally you should be reaching 200/200 food in medivacs marines mauraders with 1/1 done and 2/2 started and a 3rd started and or finished. Notice in this game if you simply made units relatively well, even if you weren't at 200/200 at this time like pros but suppose 150/200 because of small macro errors and supply blocks, you would STILL steamroll this protoss because he only has 73 food.

I STRONGLY recommend playing vs an easy computer and trying to reach 200/200 food WITHOUT ever going over 1000 minerals. If this is too easy then upgrade it to 800 and then if you're REALLY good go for 600. If you reach 200/200 then you win, if you go over the maximum then you should just quit that game and start over because if you're floating that much in a real game you might as well consider it a loss. Do this a couple of times and if you still can't do it for whatever reason then start watching the replay. In particular compare what you actually ARE doing to what you want to be doing and if you do that comparison often enough then sooner or later it should just tick and you'll be making stuff when you should be making stuff