Over the course of the last week I have managed to play 30 games in total, though only ten of those have been since the start of season 4. If you read
this article you will know that the beginning of season 4 didn't start off too well for me as I have now been relegated to the Gold league and even after that I had a short losing streak. I have reassessed the way I play focusing on macroing harder and playing faster and since then I've won 50% of my games, which I think is respectable. I've still got a lot of work to do before I get back into the Platinum league though. I'll keep this update short as my Season 4 Begins update wasn't very long ago.
 |
| Hopefully it wont take too long to get back into Platinum. |
Before, when I looked at replays, I wouldn't really pay attention to the stuff I did badly and just focus on when I did something really well, but now I'm having to train myself to watch them closely and look for where I go wrong. In TvT I'm looking at how the enemy positions their troops and how if differs to what I'm doing. In TvZ I'm looking at how to prevent Zerg from taking any early advantage. In TvP I want to know when they are most vulnerable to early pressure and at what times Colossus and High Templar can start to come out. Protoss is the race I've had least experience facing as a Terran, I don't know if it's just bad luck or if there are less Protoss players in the middle leagues, but from my experience over the last couple of weeks Terran seems the most prevalent race, then Zerg, with Protoss in last.
 |
| Far too often I get out macroed by a Zerg player. |
When I first started to play as Terran I did quite a lot of early aggression and gimmicky strategies that helped me win quite a lot but now I'm trying to play macro games I'm having difficulty keeping up with people who have been playing their races for a lot longer than I have been playing Terran. In the long run I find Protoss manageable as long as though don't have too many High Templar or Colossus and I can keep up with Terran as long as they don't build Battlecruisers but I don't think I have ever won a long game against a Zerg. It's strange because when I played Zerg I thought Protoss was the easiest match-up but I'm now having a lot of troubles with TvZ. Even though I have been moved down a league I think I am still playing people of roughly the same level as before; high Golds with occasion Platinum and Silver players too.
 |
| Templar and Colossus are my greatest fears from Protoss. |
Against Zerg if I don't move out early I'm unlikely to move out for ages and even less likely to win. I used to rely on Colossus a lot in the late game but I don't find Siege Tanks as reliable, due to their lack of mobility, even though they have a greater range and do greater damage. Earlier I played a game against a Zerg who mostly walled off his natural but I managed to sneak some blue flame Hellions into his base whilst I attacked the front, I was so happy with myself when I killed a whole base of drones, but when I looked back at the replay he barely fell behind in workers and quickly over took me again. Needless to say I lost even though my unit control was great because I fell behind in the macro; I really need to learn how to macro better to keep up with Zerg players. I've gotten a lot better at scouting Zergs to see when they take their third and what tech structures they have in their base but I'm still too indecisive about when to attack to do anything about it so I need to improve at that too.
 |
| Despite Killing a whole lot of drones I was still behind. |
When you watch replays what do you look for? At the moment I'm a rank 51 Gold; I will do another update next week to let you know how life in the middle goes. Thank you for reading and if you like Battlefield 3 check back soon for my review that I will be doing over the next couple of days.
Late game zerg is extremely difficult to deal with as a mid-level Terran.
ReplyDeleteEveryone says Zerg is a reactive race but the fact is terran needs to react to mutas, broodlords, ulras, infestors, collosus, HT, all accordingly.
People complain about scanning, but we need to be able to scout constantly throughout the game to know what we need to counter. If you are caught by broodlords and you haven't already massed vikings/ghosts - it is GG...just simply GG, there is no way around it. You need to scout and react to the BL well before they are out.
I feel Terran is on a timer, if we don't win in the early/mid game - forget about it. Terran 200/200 does not stand up to zerg/toss 200/200.
I am not saying terran is underpowered, obviously. What I am saying is you need to use all the utility. You simply can't mass, you can't a-move, it is very micro intensive and you need to land critical things. If you don't land EMPs on HT you are done. The entire TvP matchup in late game is reliant on landing EMP on HT, there is just no way around it. If you don't you lose, if you do - you have a good chance to win, assuming you also have a high viking count to deal with collosus.
If you don't react properly to ultras you're dead too, and with the ability to tech switch so quickly especially in late game, you need to know if he's massing BL, then switching, or perhaps even doing both, which is rare.
I don't think Terran is underpowered but I do think they take the most scouting to be able to compete and decision making to properly counter your opponent. This becomes the most apparent in the mid-leagues silver/gold/plat/diamond when the ability to micro and macro is lacking. Decision making is lacking, strategy is lacking. I truly feel that at the highest level of play Terran is even slightly OP, but down throughout the leagues I think it is the hardest race to play.
good post, thank you
Good post.
ReplyDeleteAs a Zerg player I will tell you that you really just have to catch us before we get a ton of lings or mutas. If you suddenly get attacked by a mass of lings or a mass of mutas, you simply didn't scout well enough.
You don't need a lot to counter early to early-mid game Zerg antics. Just a couple of Hellions or a couple of Siege Tanks in siege mode really put the fear in Zerg early ground, and just one Thor with marines is terrifying for any early to mid game mass Muta.
Just don't be afraid of the large numbers of Zerg units, and instead focus on setting up powerful choke points (not blocks) so as to prevent Zerg from just swarming in on a massive scale.
And above all, scout scout scout!
One Rax FE into a Two Base Marine Tank Push will frustrate a lot of Zergs. I'd suggest learning this build over any other since its probably the safest opening a Terran can do and set them up with a really early and strong push.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm looking at a replay I'm looking for any mistakes I've made and then figure out how to correct them. Such as "wow my gas is getting really high, I guess I should throw down another Factory/Starport or start my upgrades 1/1 (Or 2/2) then."