New Starcraft Player

[pirate64]

I'm going to be new to starcraft when I get the game as well so I've been watching lots of the videos of pros playing to try and learn how the game works and some strategies to us. I'd recommend watching the battle reports that are on the startcraft 2 website as they are played by pros at the game and will give you alot of insight of how to play the game. one I can say is always send a probe at the start to spy on the others teams base so that you can see what it is they're up to and also to use that probe to slow down they expansion.

 

[Kurokami]

So as we all know, Starcraft 2 is now only 1 day away! My friend and I are attending the midnight release at my local gamestop but I've got some thoughts. I've never played Starcraft. I have played Warcraft 3 and I loved it. Do you guys think I'll enjoy Starcraft 2? And what are some tips you guys have used in either the original or the beta?

You'll enjoy it so long as you don't play competitively I think.

 

[Carnagath]

So as we all know, Starcraft 2 is now only 1 day away! My friend and I are attending the midnight release at my local gamestop but I've got some thoughts. I've never played Starcraft. I have played Warcraft 3 and I loved it. Do you guys think I'll enjoy Starcraft 2? And what are some tips you guys have used in either the original or the beta?

I think you will enjoy Starcraft 2 a lot, yes. Tips:

1) Play all the races at first to get a feel for their units and style of play. Then pick the one you like more.
2) Apparently this time around Blizzard has done a lot of work in the single player to teach you how to play the game well and ensure a smooth transition to the online part of it. I'd suggest really acing these challenge missions that teach you how to use different units and abilities to overcome overwhelming odds before you play online.
3) Don't get frustrated when you lose. Instead, try to watch your replays and see what went wrong and learn something from that.
4) Watch a lot of replays and commentaries. It gives you a feel for which strategies the top players concider viable and how to perform them. Here are some good commentators that you should subscribe to:

Day9: http://www.youtube.com/user/day9tv and http://day9tv.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc
HuskyStarcraft: http://www.youtube.com/user/huskystarcraft?blend=1&ob=4
HDStarcraft: http://www.youtube.com/user/hdstarcraft?blend=1&ob=4
Crota: http://www.youtube.com/user/BlizShouter

That's pretty much it. Have fun.

 

[Ezahn]

I'm in the OP's very same boat : never played the original Starcraft but I've already downloaded the client for Starcraft II.
I will surely play the campaign, I admit the overly competitive multiplayer scares me a little... ^^

 

[WaNNaBJusTLiKeU]

So as we all know, Starcraft 2 is now only 1 day away! My friend and I are attending the midnight release at my local gamestop but I've got some thoughts. I've never played Starcraft. I have played Warcraft 3 and I loved it. Do you guys think I'll enjoy Starcraft 2? And what are some tips you guys have used in either the original or the beta?

Learn to micro and macro, without them you will be like the other 80% of cannon fodder online. Seriously after playing WC3 for 5 years online and getting sponsored to play in tournaments you've got to be prepared to learn, you need to be reading, watching top player's replays, it's going to be like going back to school.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Regardless of what race you play, DO NOT stop building harvesters until you have about 40-50 of them. ALWAYS maintain 2 active mining locations. (3 as zerg).

Nah, it's fine to halt worker production for specific circumstances. Many early pressure builds require you to cut worker production to rush units, and defending them will often also require you to cut worker production. Just don't do it for no reason.

 

[CmdrGoob]

I'm in the OP's very same boat : never played the original Starcraft but I've already downloaded the client for Starcraft II.
I will surely play the campaign, I admit the overly competitive multiplayer scares me a little... ^^

I'm sure multiplayer SC2 will be fine for more casual players too, once you play a few games it ranks your skill and will only match you up against other casual players if that's your thing. I'm sure SC2 will draw plenty of newbies to the genre, so you should be just fine once you've done your placement matches.

 

[Ezahn]

I'm sure SC2 will draw plenty of newbies to the genre, so you should be just fine once you've done your placement matches.

Yeah, tnx Goob, I sense you may be just right.
Blizzard is many things, but one it is not: dumb.
Having had a taste of the yummy casual public with WoW (I was one of them) I don't think they'll want to give it up for SC2.

 

[Carnagath]

How hard is it to learn to play Zerg very well? So far I have only played Terran and I have only won I think 3 battles in my entire career and that was on early beta though...

Zerg are very light on micro on the most "typical" builds (you basically attack-move with everything and only micro the infestors, even on platinum level), but very heavy on macro. You need to keep them expanding at the right time and running like a well-oiled machine, which takes a lot of practice in order to never miss the opportunity to spawn larvae or add more creep tumors around the map.

Terran are heavily, heavily micro intensive and vulnerable. Using an infantry army of marines, marauders, ghosts, medevacs and ravens correctly requires lightning fast and precise usage of stim packs, emp's, snipes, point defence drones and on-the-fly position switching when you have for example banelings charging at you or a colossus in the field. Same goes for Mech builds, which are extremely powerful but immobile and certain death if you don't have complete map awareness and your opponent manages to catch you off position.

 

[Volafortis]

Regardless of what race you play, DO NOT stop building harvesters until you have about 40-50 of them. ALWAYS maintain 2 active mining locations. (3 as zerg).

Nah, it's fine to halt worker production for specific circumstances. Many early pressure builds require you to cut worker production to rush units, and defending them will often also require you to cut worker production. Just don't do it for no reason.

Yes, there will be a few instances, like an 8 or 6 pool zerg rush, but even then, you halt worker production for only 30 seconds - 1 minute. Even 8 pooling, when you stop production at 8 workers, the instant I take a worker off the line to build the pool I make 1 drone, and 1 overlord, which both finish before the spawning pool. The instant the pool finishes, I have 150 minerals and 3 larva. EXACTLY.

And once you have an expansion, you have no reason to halt production early. If you're only using your natural, you'll only get efficient use out of 30 workers, so claiming a stop at 40-50 is assuming you continue to expand, and that you're natural is close to empty by the time you hit 40-50.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Regardless of what race you play, DO NOT stop building harvesters until you have about 40-50 of them. ALWAYS maintain 2 active mining locations. (3 as zerg).

Nah, it's fine to halt worker production for specific circumstances. Many early pressure builds require you to cut worker production to rush units, and defending them will often also require you to cut worker production. Just don't do it for no reason.

Yes, there will be a few instances, like an 8 or 6 pool zerg rush, but even then, you halt worker production for only 30 seconds - 1 minute. Even 8 pooling, when you stop production at 8 workers, the instant I take a worker off the line to build the pool I make 1 drone, and 1 overlord, which both finish before the spawning pool. The instant the pool finishes, I have 150 minerals and 3 larva. EXACTLY.

And once you have an expansion, you have no reason to halt production early. If you're only using your natural, you'll only get efficient use out of 30 workers, so claiming a stop at 40-50 is assuming you continue to expand, and that you're natural is close to empty by the time you hit 40-50.

You'll also probably have to cut drones to hold off a protoss 2-gate zealot rush, and protoss will cut probes during 2 gate and 4 gate rushes. That's about all I know of off the top of my head.

 

[Agayek]

So as we all know, Starcraft 2 is now only 1 day away! My friend and I are attending the midnight release at my local gamestop but I've got some thoughts. I've never played Starcraft. I have played Warcraft 3 and I loved it. Do you guys think I'll enjoy Starcraft 2? And what are some tips you guys have used in either the original or the beta?

1) Build workers. If at any point in time you do not have at least one worker queued at every single command center/nexus/hatchery, you are doing it wrong.

2) Scout often. Starcraft is all about responding to what the other guy is building. Do everything you can to know what they're building and get some hard counters out ASAP.

3) Micro. Microing wins battles. Find which of your units is getting focused and move it out of range, drop all your abilities in a given fight, etc. Efficient micromanagement will win against everything short of a straight hard counter.