Starcraft 2: 8 Medivac drop

[Forbiddenwar]

Anyone else watch the major Shoutcraft America Tournament? Group B and C had some amazing game. DrunkenBoi and HelloKitty are terrifying.

Spoiler

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Can't wait to see what happens when they face off, though HelloKitty's PvT seems lackluster compared to his PvZ.

[Thiyr]

With the HotS expansion.

Correct. It was largely because it is so easy to get high ground sight earlier now that they foresaw a great deal of problems with early warp-ups. Building power was just an unfortunate casualty.

[Kyeudo]

Correct. It was largely because it is so easy to get high ground sight earlier now that they foresaw a great deal of problems with early warp-ups. Building power was just an unfortunate casualty.

Depends on whether or not you like cannon rushes.

[Gandariel]

Yeah. The cannon rush low ground-high ground thing was the only use i can think of.
And frankly, i'm happy they changed it in HotS =)

Oh, and i wanna ask something to more experienced Toss players: can anyone tell me a decent skytoss build? i just need to know, more or less, how to do that. i seem to always get wrong some timings or gas or whatever.

[Artanis]

Anyone else watch the major Shoutcraft America Tournament? Group B and C had some amazing game. DrunkenBoi and HelloKitty are terrifying.

Spoiler

Show

Can't wait to see what happens when they face off, though HelloKitty's PvT seems lackluster compared to his PvZ.

I've been watching it. The pre-match faceoffs between HelloKitty and Suppy were epic.

[Thiyr]

Depends on whether or not you like cannon rushes.

Oh, I quite enjoy cannon rushes on occasion. But that doesn't stop my preferred cannon method, so its not a huge deal to me. I do like that it makes warp prism's ability to warp in actually a bit more relevant as well, though.

[Gandariel]

I have done a few cannon rushes as well, but it feels cheesy, i try to avoid it.
Something i actually do vs Zerg is stuff like 1 pylon + 2 cannons behind the mineral line of the enemy's natural if i see them do hatch first.

that usually has them cancel the expo (and you might wanna follow that drone then, he'll try to expand in the 3rd base. begin a pylon there if they try to expand and then if no cancel and no lings a couple cannons as well :)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Honestly, I'm not sure why Warp Prisms aren't used more for harass. One warp prisim carrying a probe. It configures into power mode and the probe drops a couple of cannon at a remote expo. Since Gas is generally the major choke for mid-game Protoss, and Warp Prisms are a value-added for getting colossi, you could effectively 'cannon rush' expos for harassment purposes. Best of all, he just floats away when reinforcements arrive. A bit of harass micro that might do something to shake an opponent up while you're trying to gear up your timing push

[Karoht]

Honestly, I'm not sure why Warp Prisms aren't used more for harass. One warp prisim carrying a probe. It configures into power mode and the probe drops a couple of cannon at a remote expo. Since Gas is generally the major choke for mid-game Protoss, and Warp Prisms are a value-added for getting colossi, you could effectively 'cannon rush' expos for harassment purposes. Best of all, he just floats away when reinforcements arrive. A bit of harass micro that might do something to shake an opponent up while you're trying to gear up your timing push

Drop Cannons in mineral line (preferably in the gaps and at the ends) then drop a pylon and leave the probe fenced in. Preferably do all of the above in short order If any one of the 3-4 cannons completes, chances are good you will drive the person away.

Sounds expensive (upwards of 900-1000 minerals no gas), but remember that if you then take this expo, you've already got some defenses in place.

[Thiyr]

I have done a few cannon rushes as well, but it feels cheesy, i try to avoid it.
Something i actually do vs Zerg is stuff like 1 pylon + 2 cannons behind the mineral line of the enemy's natural if i see them do hatch first.

that usually has them cancel the expo (and you might wanna follow that drone then, he'll try to expand in the 3rd base. begin a pylon there if they try to expand and then if no cancel and no lings a couple cannons as well :)

Oh, it is cheesy, but sometimes it just feels good. And it grows less cheesy when you're announcing that its happening. And in 2s or 3s its a good deal less so. Do it against P, pylon on the high ground, cannon on the low once it finishes, blocked in with a pylon or two and a gate (cancelled when they're almost done and the cannon is going to get up). Near the ramp if they're walling, closer to nexus if not. Use one probe from the lowground, one for the high, and it can be surprisingly hard to stop. They spend so much effort on the high ground pylon that everything else gets up fairly consistently, and the cannon gives you enough cover to get set up. So long as you're either in position to hit their workers or their production, you're good.

which reminds me, I need to get around to trying out the nexus rush a friend of mine came up with vs T. Because who said photon overcharge was for defense?

[Hiro Protagonest]

Anyone else watch that last ShoutCraft America game on the stream? I haven't laughed so much in a while.

[Gandariel]

mechanics question:
how do you do the drop-units-while-still-moving thing on the Medivac/warp prism?
it sounds way more effective and i haven't figured out how to do it.

other thing: as Zerg, what's the best way to hotkey bases/queens? i've been just hotkeying all my hatches in one control group, and i use the "move to a random hatch" key then click on the queen to make injects.
is there a better way? i'm afraid i would get lost if i had to hotkey lots of singular queens, but i feel like i waste some time spamming that key and hoping it takes to the hatch i need to inject.

[deuterio12]

mechanics question:
how do you do the drop-units-while-still-moving thing on the Medivac/warp prism?
it sounds way more effective and i haven't figured out how to do it.

Tell the medivac to move to a place, then while it's moving click on the loaded units icons to unload them individually on the fly.

other thing: as Zerg, what's the best way to hotkey bases/queens? i've been just hotkeying all my hatches in one control group, and i use the "move to a random hatch" key then click on the queen to make injects.
is there a better way? i'm afraid i would get lost if i had to hotkey lots of singular queens, but i feel like i waste some time spamming that key and hoping it takes to the hatch i need to inject.

Alas, there's no really easy way to macro injects, is part of the challenge of playing zerg.

Best advice I can give you there is that you can hotkey all your queens in a single group, and when you tell to inject larva, the queen closest to the target hatchery will be the one performing the order.

[Spuddles]

other thing: as Zerg, what's the best way to hotkey bases/queens? i've been just hotkeying all my hatches in one control group, and i use the "move to a random hatch" key then click on the queen to make injects.
is there a better way? i'm afraid i would get lost if i had to hotkey lots of singular queens, but i feel like i waste some time spamming that key and hoping it takes to the hatch i need to inject.

I put all hatches on 5, then queen in main 6, natural 7, 3rd 8. 4 is upgrades.

I also make sure my rallies for each hatch are good. You can shift+right-click rallies such that units will rally to one place, then a second place. That way you can have your units take safe routes to your rallies instead of the fastest ones.

[Silverraptor]

Click the unload button and click on the medivac while its moving.

[Spuddles]

Swarm Hosts are surprisingly micro intensive. Need to reposition them a lot and always keep 'em on creep so they can run away.

[Gandariel]

So.. you guys watching the WCS Europe finals? Grand final is this evening (for europeans) 20:30.


http://www.twitch.tv/wcs_europe

I watched some of yesterdays games and my comment is mainly:
Tlo played poorly and tried his best to keep using zerglings vs MVP's hellbats.

Dimaga vs Happy was quite fun.

Stephano vs Babyknight's first game was AWESOME and very fun to watch.
The other games in that series were boring (Yes, that swarm-host-spore&spine-viper-corruptor endgame attrition zerg thing)


Final will likely be

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MVP vs Stephano

Come watch!!

[Gandariel]

WHAT THE -----
Just... Dimaga vs MVP, game 2.
Just watch it

[Silverraptor]

WHAT THE -----
Just... Dimaga vs MVP, game 2.
Just watch it

Link it Please.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

OMGZ! ForGG vs Stephano game 4.

Good idea? Widow mines in your opponent's banelings

Bad idea? Widows mines in your opponents banelings as they blow up your army, adding to the carnage

[Gandariel]

DAT detonations

the mine with 19 baneling kills was pretty awesome, :)
the one in the end was very scenographic i'd say, but the game was already finished by that time.

So yeah.
Dimaga vs MVP game 2
Stephano vs Babyknight game 1
Stephano vs Forgg game 4


best games to watch. (Also the finals, ofcourse)
now i'm on my way to university, if tonight nobody has linked them i'll do it myself.


Oh, also, tlo did a sixpool against a walled-off terran and won after 25 minutes.

[Gandariel]

There we go:

Dimaga vs MVP, semifinals, game 2

Stephano vs Babyknight, quarter finals, game 1

Stephano vs Forgg, semifinals, game 4


And of course, the Grand Final

[Gandariel]

Just in case it helps revive the thread, SPAWNING IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR STARCRAFT!!!!!

So, basically, even someone who doesn't have the game can play the full multiplayer game!

When you're in a party, everyone has access to whatever everyone else has access too!


Here to read some more =) http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/10145834

NOW you have no excuse to make your friends play with you!

[Winthur]

Where can I find the current build orders for races for the latest Wings of Liberty? I don't have Heart of the Swarm, I just want to play WoLoLoLoLo for the old time's sake (though honestly if I were really intending to do that I'd be playing Brood War) and I don't know where to start. Teamliquid seems to have been updated with HotS stuff.

[Silverraptor]

Where can I find the current build orders for races for the latest Wings of Liberty? I don't have Heart of the Swarm, I just want to play WoLoLoLoLo for the old time's sake (though honestly if I were really intending to do that I'd be playing Brood War) and I don't know where to start. Teamliquid seems to have been updated with HotS stuff.

You can try Day 9's archive on builds before Hots.

[Karoht]

Just in case it helps revive the thread, SPAWNING IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR STARCRAFT!!!!!

google up
Star Crafts
Spawning Pool Party

If you aren't watching Star Crafts already, you will be after this.

[Spuddles]

Blizzard placed me in 1v1 bronze for HotS. I was high gold in WoL.

It's soooo fun to roflstomp noobs with ridiculous builds. I like to mine out all the minerals on the map, turn them into overseers, and spawn endless changelings all over the enemy base.

I have a really unstable computer that crashes all the time, which is really messing up my MMR. Despite winning 100% of matches, half the time my comp crashes before a match begins.

[Mutant Sheep]

Oh man, thats sucky.

I have kinda returned to Craft. Got some campaign 'chieveys. No Hots, but brother has it, and im stealing his comp. Should I get the expansion, or just do my usual party-play and Spawn with friends?

[The Glyphstone]

Do you care about the single-player campaign at all? With Spawn, that's now the only reason to get the full game.

[Kyeudo]

Do you care about the single-player campaign at all? With Spawn, that's now the only reason to get the full game.

1v1 multiplayer on the ladder. You know, the one that gets all of the e-sports attention?