3 noobs need advice.

VikingErik

Jonny7 wrote: »

pick zerg in the team league

get your mate to pick terran

With zerg look for the 10 pool speedling build (on liquipedia)
Your terran mate should just produce marines (cut scvs, build 3 barracks)

Over time (games are very short) your attack will get better, more organised and earlier (4:30 attack with 7 marines with overlord for sight and 8 lings is pretty much what you can be aiming for)

I know its a bit advanced, but choosing one build, and refining it over and over is great fun.. its a build that works.. and it will get you into very high masters if you get good at it.

For 3v3 same thing, just third player terran or zerg

Cheese/early attack/whatever you want to call it, is the fastest and most fun way to rapidly advance

UNLESS, you play the game because you like PLAYING more than ADVANCING (aka "Levelling up").
If you enjoy teching and getting those big and juicy units out OR you enjoy team work and strategizing then the fast build above is probably the most fun.

Personally I like messing about. And yes, that means sometimes you get hammered by early rushes, but that's all part of the game and you learn to cope with it.

P.S. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I felt it's important to point out that not all people are playing for the win and advancing, some people are playing for the sheer fun of extended high tech games, while others play to improve and some people just enjoy crushing their opponents in whatever way possible.

Jonny7

VikingErik wrote: »

UNLESS, you play the game because you like PLAYING more than ADVANCING (aka "Levelling up").
If you enjoy teching and getting those big and juicy units out OR you enjoy team work and strategizing then the fast build above is probably the most fun.

Personally I like messing about. And yes, that means sometimes you get hammered by early rushes, but that's all part of the game and you learn to cope with it.

P.S. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I felt it's important to point out that not all people are playing for the win and advancing, some people are playing for the sheer fun of extended high tech games, while others play to improve and some people just enjoy crushing their opponents in whatever way possible.

I completely agree - whichever provides the most fun

Dubhthamlacht

I only recently started on SC2 multiplayer and I am finding it a little bit daunting. I played in the practice league and although most people here advise against playing in it, I've only seen that now! Practice league did at least give me time to get used to the hotkeys, build orders and some of the basics.

In my first 5 games for 1v1 placement I got caught out my the changes in pace but I still won 3 out 5. So I'm in a silver league (i think) without being much good. I took part in some in some random 3v3 games and I was totally lost with the abbreviations and slang for some of stuff my allies said they were doing. Rax?

I've stuck to playing as Terran but I do find the stuff at Day9 a little bit confusing.

VikingErik

Rax = Barracks

You did your placement games a lot better than me. I went 0-5 or 4-1 I think and got dumped into bronze, which I have yet to get out of so I'd say you saved yourself about 100 games vs bronze players (unless you drop down to bronze that is).

Congrats.

Orizio

Dubh, I'm Feanor 980, if you want some help we can play some games some time.

Dubhthamlacht

VikingErik wrote: »

Rax = Barracks

You did your placement games a lot better than me. I went 0-5 or 4-1 I think and got dumped into bronze, which I have yet to get out of so I'd say you saved yourself about 100 games vs bronze players (unless you drop down to bronze that is).

Congrats.

thanks but I reckon I was very very lucky against 2 of those opponents! In both of those games, I air dropped a siege tank and 8 marines and just rampaged through their base. In both cases, the opponents were about hallf way across the map to my base before they did a U-turn.

In the two games I lost I was well and truly stomped on after after 5 mins. I reckon I will probably be out of my depth in the silver league but sure I'll give it a go.

Dubhthamlacht

Orizio wrote: »

Dubh, I'm Feanor 980, if you want some help we can play some games some time.

Thanks Orizio. I'll add you next time I am on.

I'm in 1v1 Silver Division Fole Oscar
And also in Random 3 v 3 Gold Division Raszagal Pepper

Laisurg

Be careful about trying to copy the pro players builds from watching replys, especially if you play zerg because you just won't be able to do the amount of apm to do it properly, but you can take some very useful stuff from the videos, playing against the computer is pretty decent for building up your apm and macro skills, not great for micro though as the computer is pretty rubbish at controlling it's units and they're very easy for you to control as a result, playing against a person is completely different in that sense.
Liquidpedia has loads of great strats too i'd suggest looking that up, best way to improve though is to play lots of games, becoming more familiar with the game will help your playing more than anything else.
Hotkeys are VERY important you need to use them, try get really familiar with them.
Scouting is very important as well, figure out what your opponent is doing and base your choices on that.

Icarus152

Just a quick update on this noobs progress...

My 2 friends didn't last long and have returned to some little known game called 'World of Warcraft'.Bleh.

So I played my 5 1v1 placement matches,think I won 2 or 3 out of 5.For some unknown reason, this landed me in the gold league.Played 20 or 30 games there and won 1.

Dropped down to Silver this morning,played 5 matches.I won the second game but then lost 3 in a row which catapulted me down to my current home, bronze.

Can dos.

I'm not worried yet about which league I'm in or what position I am.

I only play Terran,I feel I should get comfortable with this race before trying the others.

I'm using a 3-rax MMM build.I usually try to mix in a medivac/marine doomdrop to disrupt my opponents supply.

I'm getting better at using hotkeys and remembering build order.

Can't do

I'm sh*t at scouting.I've been sending my SCV out after I build my first supply depot but other then locating the enemy,I'm not sure what the hell I'm supposed to be doing.

I really have no clue what the enemy structures are or what they produce.

With a few exceptions,I don't know what the best counter measures are to alot of the basic zerg/protoss early strat's are.

I'm unfamiliar with the maps and find the 2 v 2 ones hard to locate the enemy.Can I set it up for mostly 1 v 1 maps? I've selected the ones I favour in 'map preferences' already.

Laisurg wrote: »

Be careful about trying to copy the pro players builds from watching replys, especially if you play zerg because you just won't be able to do the amount of apm to do it properly, but you can take some very useful stuff from the videos, playing against the computer is pretty decent for building up your apm and macro skills, not great for micro though as the computer is pretty rubbish at controlling it's units and they're very easy for you to control as a result, playing against a person is completely different in that sense.
Liquidpedia has loads of great strats too i'd suggest looking that up, best way to improve though is to play lots of games, becoming more familiar with the game will help your playing more than anything else.
Hotkeys are VERY important you need to use them, try get really familiar with them.
Scouting is very important as well, figure out what your opponent is doing and base your choices on that.

^^^^ Seems like very good advice,ty.

I still have alot of videos to catch up on before I take any of you up on your kind offers of practice matches etc ty.

Tenger

The constant losses can be daunting!

My win rate is maybe 30% at the moment (Last Sat won 5/14 matches!)

I like the 3 rax build order too. I find a reaper harrass handy, (maybe 4-5 reapers) usually does a bit of economic harrass and I often delegate 1 of them to scout his base as he kills the other 4.

Try play a few custom games as zerg/protoss just to know what each 'enemy' building does. EG. If you see a roach warren/spire with zerg you know you will need lots of marauders/marines.

TIP: against zerg I like a raven with my troops to spot creep tumours
TIP: against protoss a couple of ghosts can use their EMP ability to really boost your defenses. (The attached game shows this,the opponent had a more powerful army than me but lost the fight quite badly.......also shows my low skill level!)

Khazidhea

I suggest forget about harass and scouting for now.
Get the builds down exactly as they should.

If you can hit a right timing with 3 rax (basically means when stim and (maybe) combat shields are done) - you will just straight up kill your opponent till they get somewhat decent (masters ... maybe diamond level).

It's hard to multitask. You will need that later. Right now I suggest on just good macro and (maybe) some micro. Which means a timing attack like 3 rax. If you really want to force yourself to do that try a map called "multatsking trainer". And there is no point in scouting if you dont know what you are looking for. And if you dont change your build ANYWAY - then there is no reason to scout at all. And you will always go 3 rax.

Do you have a video or replay of someone doing 3rax? Compare the unit count and timings with yours.

I can make a replay for you if you really need one. I actually had an all-inish build in TvZ with an attack coming at 6:50 with 3 marauders, 17 marines, 10 scvs and about ~15 scvs left mining. But it was before stim nerf so now it would 7:20 and a bit more stuff.

Icarus152

Khazidhea wrote: »

I suggest forget about harass and scouting for now.
Get the builds down exactly as they should.

If you can hit a right timing with 3 rax (basically means when stim and (maybe) combat shields are done) - you will just straight up kill your opponent till they get somewhat decent (masters ... maybe diamond level).

It's hard to multitask. You will need that later. Right now I suggest on just good macro and (maybe) some micro. Which means a timing attack like 3 rax. If you really want to force yourself to do that try a map called "multatsking trainer". And there is no point in scouting if you dont know what you are looking for. And if you dont change your build ANYWAY - then there is no reason to scout at all. And you will always go 3 rax.

Do you have a video or replay of someone doing 3rax? Compare the unit count and timings with yours.

I can make a replay for you if you really need one. I actually had an all-inish build in TvZ with an attack coming at 6:50 with 3 marauders, 17 marines, 10 scvs and about ~15 scvs left mining. But it was before stim nerf so now it would 7:20 and a bit more stuff.

Tnx,I'll try all these suggestions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWItSrXKwzw

^^^^^ This is the order I've been trying to follow.

michaelyou

check out day9 podcasts for sure

UnholyGregor

Best advice I can give someone starting sc2 is, well, not to beat yourself up over it, enjoy the game, and immerse yourself in the phenomenon that is e-sports.
sure, you could spend hours learning build orders, and practicing your micro, but, for any newcomer, the most important thing is to establish long term interest in the game, set the seeds for what will, hopefully one day, become one of the most amazing hobbies someone could hope to have.

Check out teamliquid.net, Starcraft Reddit, and just familiarise yourself with the scene. Theres so much more to starcraft than grinding out ladder games.
Enjoy the game and let yourself fall in love with the scene, that is something that i have to remind myself sometimes, after thousands of hours of gameplay, its important to remember that its not about winning, you dont play the game for money, unlike some people, and its really saddening when i see people with ''ladder anxiety''. Play for fun, you have all the time in the world to get to diamond or master league. Just dont let yourself get intimidated by the enormous competitiveness of the game, and have fun.

Edit: Sorry if this post gives you the wrong impression of me, i actually seem like a nice guy.... if i see you asking for help with specific strats and ****, i wont hesitate to strategically tear you apart and crush your spirit and dreams of gaming