SC2 help... please :)

[AmberCutie]

Ok so after playing a few 1v1 rounds against AI (on easy, even) I'm starting to see what my downfalls are. I need some help. And explain this at a noob level if you can. Even though I've played WC2 and 3, I never got really good at this.

1. What is the easiest way to start making my army faster? In most scenarios, the enemy has a small group attack me when I've barely made a few basic fighter units. I think I focus a lot on getting drones/scvs working at the very beginning and probably delay making fighters until too late, but it seems without all the minerals/gas/supply depots/pylons I can't get any fighter units created.

2. I learned the MMM for my basic army structure for Terran, but what is the best combo for Protoss? Also with MMM seems I don't have enough fire power against enemy flying units. Should I be adding flying fighters to that or just a shit-ton more marines?

3. It seems really unbalanced that Protoss drones don't have to actually construct units, whereas SCVs do. Seems like it creates faster mineral/gas production unfairly. Is there something that offsets this, or is this just an advantage that Protoss have?

4. When I finally get my army to a good size to attack, what defenses should I leave in place at the base? Or is it best to just take everyone and go with "the best defense is a great offense" tactic?

I will think of more, I'm sure, but any help on this now is appreciated! I need to get better before I really start playing 1v1 or 2v2 with anyone

 

[AshaSnow]

I'm going to get Jon to write some advice for you when he gets home. This is his home turf

 

[hU89YYUghghgv78]

I can't answer specific questions but there is a good 2 part starter guide over on shacknews.
Part 1 http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/64951
Part 2 http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/64991
Be sure to watch the video by Day[9] that is linked.

I realize this is more general information but hopefully you or someone else finds some of it helpful, good luck!

 

[Matticus]

Ok so after playing a few 1v1 rounds against AI (on easy, even) I'm starting to see what my downfalls are. I need some help. And explain this at a noob level if you can. Even though I've played WC2 and 3, I never got really good at this.

1. What is the easiest way to start making my army faster? In most scenarios, the enemy has a small group attack me when I've barely made a few basic fighter units. I think I focus a lot on getting drones/scvs working at the very beginning and probably delay making fighters until too late, but it seems without all the minerals/gas/supply depots/pylons I can't get any fighter units created.

2. I learned the MMM for my basic army structure for Terran, but what is the best combo for Protoss? Also with MMM seems I don't have enough fire power against enemy flying units. Should I be adding flying fighters to that or just a shit-ton more marines?

3. It seems really unbalanced that Protoss drones don't have to actually construct units, whereas SCVs do. Seems like it creates faster mineral/gas production unfairly. Is there something that offsets this, or is this just an advantage that Protoss have?

4. When I finally get my army to a good size to attack, what defenses should I leave in place at the base? Or is it best to just take everyone and go with "the best defense is a great offense" tactic?

I will think of more, I'm sure, but any help on this now is appreciated! I need to get better before I really start playing 1v1 or 2v2 with anyone

Hey Amber, saw your tweet about requesting SC 2 advice so I'll try my best to explain and teach a few concepts.

1. The easiest way to produce more units is to have more unit producers. A lot of new players get locked into the idea of having only 1 or 2 Barracks. At middle tiers, its not uncommon for players to have 5+ Barracks or factories. Simply put, the more unit producing buildings you have, the more units you can produce at any given time.

A standard build order I like to use is this. The number denotes the total number of SCVs you have produced:

7. SCV - Minerals
8. SCV - Minerals
9. SCV (this one builds a Supply Depot)
10. SCV - Minerals
11. SCV (This one builds a Barracks)
12. SCV - Mineral
13. SCV (This one builds another Barracks)
14. SCV - Refiner
15 SCV (This one builds another Barracks)

So your 9th SCV builds a depot, your 11th builds a barracks, and your 7th builds ANOTHER barracks before your first one is even done. Its important to continue producing SCVs throughout this. Don't queue more than 1, because you're wasting minerals. Build SCVs as each one finishes.

2. Marines, Medics, and Marauders are designed to be used early/mid game to go on the offensive. If your opponent has teched to the point of getting air units, then you need to hit them earlier before they even get to that point. As Protoss, I can't really attest to this, but what I've seen is a combination of Stalkers and Dark Templars. Zealots will also murder ground units up close. Unfortunately, I can't add much to here since I've only played against Protoss.

3. The entire protoss race by design is that they don't construct units and that they can be warped in. Their units are much tougher and stronger. But they're also pretty damn expensive. 100 minerals for a zealot? 50 minerals and 150 gas for a high templar? 125 minerals and 100 gas for a dark templar? They need that faster resource production or else they wouldn't be able to compete.

4. None. Your defenses will consist of whatever surplus units you have trained while your force is on the offensive. The idea here is to put pressure on your opponent and make THEM respond to your attacks. If they attack you at the same time, then it becomes a race of who kills who, who can defend better, etc.

Don't be afraid to pull your units back as well. A mobile defense is better than a static one. Keep a Missile Turret near your command center to ward off drops, but otherwise, the money spent on defense is better spent on upgrading your tech and producing more units.

Hope this helps and GL in game!

 

[AmberCutie]

Matticus!! Glad to have you here, and thank you a billion for the info. I'm glad I gave this game a chance, I never thought I'd like StarCraft.

Thank you too, Joe!! Will watch the videos and I'm sure I'll learn some handy stuff.

 

[Keithy]

This and the others helped me a bit.

 

[RufffRider]

Ok so after playing a few 1v1 rounds against AI (on easy, even) I'm starting to see what my downfalls are. I need some help. And explain this at a noob level if you can. Even though I've played WC2 and 3, I never got really good at this.

1. What is the easiest way to start making my army faster? In most scenarios, the enemy has a small group attack me when I've barely made a few basic fighter units. I think I focus a lot on getting drones/scvs working at the very beginning and probably delay making fighters until too late, but it seems without all the minerals/gas/supply depots/pylons I can't get any fighter units created.

2. I learned the MMM for my basic army structure for Terran, but what is the best combo for Protoss? Also with MMM seems I don't have enough fire power against enemy flying units. Should I be adding flying fighters to that or just a shit-ton more marines?

3. It seems really unbalanced that Protoss drones don't have to actually construct units, whereas SCVs do. Seems like it creates faster mineral/gas production unfairly. Is there something that offsets this, or is this just an advantage that Protoss have?

4. When I finally get my army to a good size to attack, what defenses should I leave in place at the base? Or is it best to just take everyone and go with "the best defense is a great offense" tactic?

I will think of more, I'm sure, but any help on this now is appreciated! I need to get better before I really start playing 1v1 or 2v2 with anyone

#1 take your build order seriously.. i like what was said before..you have to do the same order every time.
also You need to make a group of your production barracks so you can press a number and a hot key and ALL your barracks make that unit.
#3 Protoss tree is not unbalanced. gathering is higher speed is slower and costs are higher
#4 best Defense is good offence AND good recon. place high sight range units to the out skirts and or use resource gatherers send them to farther resource stashes so you can see when some one trys to take that stash

 

[AmberCutie]

Today I spent some time getting used to the entire build order and upgrade order. Needless to say, I enjoyed the nukes. Who doesn't like a good mushroom cloud?

Thor is pretty awesome, too.

 

[Longertoes]

1. build your army as quickly as you can, but dont stop making scvs. If someone is rushing you having just one marine, being build will defend alot more. allso dont start in on the gas unless your going to use it. As in now you want to start making addons, then time it so you build your gas so you have harvested the right amount of gas when you want to make the addons.

2. The mule can harvest just about 300 minerals on top of what your normally taking it so use them it helps alot.

3. The game is mostly balanced. But yes the probes are the most useful gather. With there shields recharging and not having to stay around for the build. The zerg drones lose one drone per building.

4. As Terran you should allmost allways attack to defend. But this is more about how you expand to a new base then how to attack. Terran's are slow. so you need to expand to get closer to who your attacking. But not too far away because you need to be able to pull your army around to defend.

the times to attack are after an upgrade. that way you know your army just got a huge advantage. somepeople call this a timing attack.

For most new people to the game, the real thing to work on is spending all your money. at the start of the game, having more then 50 gold is bad because you should be building scv. then the number moves to 150 because then you should be building racks, or the sat-com upgrade for your command center. if you can play a game with out more then 400 gold, that a big step in the right direction. after that then i would get more in to what type of units to build