I tend to like defensive play and trading. I value flexibility more than raw power. I think I want to be more macro-focused. I am completely new. What top players should I study?
Could I have an overview of the factions and their playstyles and strengths and weaknesses? I won’t pick Zerg based on aesthetics.
That sounds very much like terran. Noteable terran streamers that are streaming regularly are heromarine, byun and clem. They are pros. For “lower” level i would recommend berry crunch. He is grandmaster but you can actually follow what hes doing.
Terran is the most beginner friendly race in general due to their high efficiency in trading because they have healing (medivacs) and their very good defensive units and Structures.
For defense they have bunkers which they can repair or siege Tanks that are high range splash damage anti armored units that are very good in defense but also in the offense. You can also make your command Center to a planetary fortress which is a tanky aoe building which can be repaired.
The usual unit composition is something like mmm, marines medivacs marauders, and some Tanks. Often Times you can just play marines with medivacs and more Tanks.
A common strat from Terran is to drop in your opponents base with marines and medivacs (medivacs are dropships that can heal) and because of the high damage output per second from the marines you can eliminate the worker lines from your enemies pretty Quickly. If the opponent wants to clear your drop you can load the marines back in and fly away quickly with your medivac since the medivac got a speed boost which you can activate. Because terrans strength is not really head on its smart to use this chaos with dropships to attack with your main force at another location. Because of their high dps they shred through bases in seconds and you can retreat when the enemy forces arrive. Do that over and over again to wittle down your opponent and now hes forced to attack into you which is exactly what you want.
Another strat is to use the high dps and high movement speed of stimmed marines and marauders to kite the enemy forces. “Kiting in gaming is a combat tactic where you attack an enemy from a safe distance, move away as they approach, and repeat the process. It is often described as a “hit-and-run” strategy that keeps you safe while dealing damage.” This requires a lot more micro and attention and can lead to the situation that you rather micro your units instead of building your base and it can be a common mistake because often times sheer numbers of units due to better macro will beat well microed units.
Short version of toss:
They used to be a high powered and rather slow race with extremely bad defense. Often times if they get their deathball or their 200/200 supply they will win because their units are just more expensive meaning a 200/200 army of protoss will cost a lot more than a 200/200 army of terran or zerg. They can warp in units more or less anywhere on the map instantly to harass the enemy or to reinforce.
Nowadays its like a temu version of terran because the warp in got nerfed hard and you are supposed to build your units from buildings just like terrans do. Their big splashy units got nerfed, their spellcasters are nerfed and they rely on mass expansion and mass production of basic units just like zerg.
But on lower levels it can be the same as before. In lower levels they often like to build big capital ships or mass destruction splash damage units that will pulverize any ground force with ease as long as there arent big tanky units in the enemy force.
Short version of Zerg:
Zerg is the swarmy bug race. They like to expand a ton and build masses of workers. Once they have achieved this they swarm you with basic cheap units. Their strength is in numbers and in how quickly they can grow and muster a respectable army. If they are left alone for too long they will simply overrun you. So you have to harass them and kill their bases and workers as best as you can. They have also creep tumors which generate creep and give vision. On creep zerg units are faster and because they can spread those creep tumors on the whole map they quickly begin to see the whole map and because of their speed boost they can quickly reach every spot on the map.
Their weakness is that they have bad defensive buildings and they always have to make the decision to either build more workers or more army because their only building where units come from is the hatchery which produces larvae. This larvae can morph into any worker or unit which leads to said decision making to build either workers or army units. Another weakness is that their units are rather cheap meaning a 200/200 army of zerg is rather bad vs a 200/200 army of toss or terran. On the other hand you will reach 200/200 faster with zerg so you have to constantly attack and trade with your army to stop the opponent from reaching critical mass of army or to secure that you have enough time to muster a high value army yourself. But this high value army can be more difficult to micro.
Hard to say from your description. All three races have elements of these traits, and all races can play macro games.
Zerg is extremely flexible, and play very defensively. They’re extremely macro oriented, and care mostly about when and how you trade, rather than big micro plays or dropping spells - especially at lower levels. The nature of their production means they’re extremely flexible with when they produce units, and are capable of tech-swapping very quickly since they produce en-mass.
Terran could also work; they’re very good defensively, though they can be a little brittle early on. The current iteration of Terran recently got buffed with the price of their Command Centers dropping to 300 minerals, which gives them a huge macro buff. However, they tend to be more timing focused and late-game takes a lot of practice and can be very difficult to pull off. Terran units aren’t particularly flexible, but they are fairly generalist, meaning that they often cover several roles or are capable of filling a few different purposes (mostly). However the nature of their production and upgrades generally means you need to specialise into either bio or Mech; going hybrid doesn’t really work. You can supplement, but never truly hybridise.
Protoss has the shield battery, warpgate and recall, which gives you a lot of positional flexibility and defense against runbys and the like, but tends to be a little more fragile against timing attacks due to their generally strong units. Notably, their units aren’t quite as flexible as the other two races.
My suggestion for you, based off what you said would be Zerg, however you don’t like the aesthetic, so instead I would suggest Terran. While you lack the positional flexibility, your units tend to be better in a larger variety of situations.
Bio tends to be marginally more flexible - it’s more aggressive, and plays hit-and-run styles or aims to hit timing attacks to deal big damage and eventually finish off your opponent.
However, it sounds to me more like Mech would be the playstyle you’d want to lean into. It’s extremely strong defensively, but it isn’t quite as flexible as bio tends to be, and good positioning will be your friend, however the general strength of the units also allows it to deal with a fairly sizable chunk of opposing armies. Still, it’s definitely adaptable enough to work well for you.
The Truth is, and this has been confirmed multiple times by pros and major casters: Terran is harder to master.
There is also TvP, and believe me, you wanna be on the side of Protoss on that one.
To learn the game faster and a little bit easier, Protoss is a better choice as well, to give you the right fundamentals and mechanics.
(And you can always switch later on)
If you want Flexibility - sure Terran is the way to go.
Although it can be hard, they need to build more, the good thing is Minerals come faster, and Terran has specialized units for dealing with both Zerg and Protoss.
So (I am a zerg player) but my vote is Terran.
As for videos, Lowko is the best. He explains things well, and I also like that he keeps a good mood even when he loses or when a strategy doesn’t work out.
I mean… are they?
I kinda feel Zerg is pretty hard to master, but again this is just my opinions, and I am not in any pro out there for StarCraft II, I feel like Terrans really did well for me when playing, but again, maybe because I’m not up against pro players to pull off the stuff they master up that Pro Ladder..
It may vary from player to player depending on their practice habits and ways of thinking. As a Random player, Terran is certainly my weakest race. But my TvT specifically can be superior to my ZvZ at times, and different players might have different weak races.
But Terran is more flexible. Also for beginners they Blizz recommend Terran and not Protoss.
What does this even mean? Like I could argue Zerg is more flexible because it’s way easier to for them to switch compositions because all of their units besides Queens come from Larvae. But Marines paired with Medivacs are possibly the most flexible units in the game with good micro. And Protoss has the most flexible defense for how powerful their units are, because of Warp Gate and Recall.
“More flexible” is a pretty meaningless statement without actually explaining what you mean.
Terran does have some beginner’s advantages in:
Its macro mechanics are more similar to other RTS games compared to Zerg and Protoss.
Marine/Medivac alone can get a player very far with opportunities to practice macro, micro, map awareness/map control, timings, harassment, defense, and multi-pronged attacks.
But it’s not like those things are the sole determining factor for choosing a starting race. All 3 races have opportunities for practicing those things and provide stronger opportunities for practicing other areas of the game (e.g., Zerg is better for practicing tech switches), and if a player doesn’t jive with the Terran playstyles then it’s perfectly acceptable to learn a different race.
I can explain Terran flexibility with several points:
Sorry to jump in, would adding a few marauders not boost that group better than just marines or is that not cost effective compared to mass marines?
I guess no, Becuase reactors can pump out marines much much faster…
Most of your post looks AI-generated, but I’ll respond anyway.
But this is still less flexible than Zerg Larvae. The Terran Mech upgrade path is also different than Bio upgrades, so as the game progresses it’s more difficult to transition without being behind on upgrades.
Add-on swapping is primarily relevant in openings and in very late stage Mech where a Mech player may transition into Skyterran.
Terran beats Protoss in this regard, but not Zerg since Zerg needs no production structures besides Hatcheries.
Literally every race can do this. Zerg still wins because of Larvae.
This is certainly a benefit for Terran that keeps them competitive, especially in the lategame because they can free up supply from SCVs to make a bigger army. Before the lategame, Zerg is also flexible in economy in a different way since they can choose to shift their production into large waves of Drones instead of combat units.
Chrono Boost provides Protoss some flexibility here, but I’d argue less so in the economic department compared to Zerg and Terran economic flexibility. Chrono Boost can also be used for unit production and upgrades, though.
And Zerg units heal and can be transfused, and Protoss have shields that automatically regenerate for no cost. This isn’t an advantage for Terran, just a difference.
Terran is potentially the most turtle-capable race, but that kind of playstyle is severely nerfed in LotV. Other races also have strong defensive options - Zerg has Lurkers, Vipers, and Creep with the potential to make Spore/Spine forests, and Protoss units are just generally supply-efficient and have gimmicks that are useful defensively like Forcefield, Warp Gate, Recall, and Stasis Wards.
Yes, Terran undeniably has the best drop plays in the game, at the cost of their best drop units being squishy and requiring more micro at times. Protoss still has strong drop plays, though, and Zerg has fantastic tools for map control to spot drops and attack weakly defended expansions.
Every race can adapt its army positioning depending on where the enemy attacks. What opposing units lack in range comparatively, they make up for in the flexibility of not having to enter siege modes.
Protoss also has cloaked units - DTs are arguably more useful than Banshees. Zerg has burrowed units for setting up traps, and Lurkers exist.
Ghosts are excellent units, one of the most flexible in the game, but not primarily because of Cloak, and not without needing above-par unit control.
Zerg is still more flexible here because of Larvae, and transitioning to a composition where you are behind on upgrades because Bio and Mech don’t share upgrades is usually sub-par play.
And not shared with Bio.
Mauraders are useful for adding some meatiness and extra damage against structures and Armored targets (in addition to “snaring” them with Concussive Shells), but aren’t strictly necessary to practice all of the skills I listed up to a fairly high level. Widow Mines, Liberators, Vikings, and Ghosts are also useful additions to Bio, but again are not strictly necessary up to a pretty high level.
That’s only true very early in the game, when you might have one of each structure and you don’t need to mass produce things yet. Even then, requiring Add-ons makes Terran’s production less flexible than Protoss and Zerg right from the start. Terran essentially has 6 specialized production structures, not 3.
In practice, Terran has the hardest time transitioning between tech branches of any race.
In contrast, Protoss has an easier time tech-switching than Terran:
Zerg has the most flexible production by far. Their production capacity can be used for anything, and all that they need is a tech structure and sometimes a couple upgrades.
This sometimes matters when expanding or replacing a lost base, but for production it’s fairly useless, apart from allowing Terran to swap add-ons.
Any race can do that, and both Protoss and Zerg have an easier time of it. Protoss doesn’t have to worry about add-ons, and Zerg doesn’t have to worry about anything except overall production capacity, some tech structures, and some specialized upgrades (something that every race has to deal with).
Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention construction. SCVs have to stick with a structure while it is building. They don’t get to go back to mining like Probes.
While Zerg does sack workers, they also have to produce far less structures, and they have the excess production capacity to mass Drones quickly whenever needed.
Only in the late-game. For most of the game, this is only for catch-up.
Terran produces workers slower than both Protoss and Zerg. Zerg larva produces faster, and Protoss has Chronoboost to boost their worker output.
Upgrading a Command Center to an Orbital Command or a Planetary Fortress also means that you can’t produce SCVs during that time, so it sets Terran back a bit.
The MULEs are worth 4 workers each (that is based on the optimal rate that they mine), but Orbital Commands generate energy for MULEs at the same rate that they use them. This means that in practice, an Orbital Command that spends all of its energy on MULEs gives Terran a 1-time, 2-worker boost (the Orbital Command itself takes 2 worker cycles to build, so you lose 2 workers in the process). That continues until you are fully saturated and no longer need workers. Only then do MULEs actually become a benefit compared to the other races.
As for Scans, you have to keep in mind that Terran’s mobile detector is also an expensive caster with only niche use, on a setup that nobody wants most of the time (a Starport with a Tech Lab). The faction couldn’t operate without Scan. Each Scan (or even just saving the energy to make one available), puts Terrans economy back a bit.
Yes, but that costs money and Terran can’t preserve their units or structures without it. Every race has methods to heal.
Counterpoint: Terran also has more difficulty taking and securing expansions than the other factions, so while they can setup a strong defense given enough expansions and resources, it is also easy to contain them before that happens.
Every race also has tools to break such defenses, assuming that the player knows how to use them.
That strictly applies to Bio, and not to mech.
On the whole, Zerg is the most mobile faction.
The Protoss versus Terran situation is more complicated, but Protoss always has the option to use Warp-Ins, and Protoss is generally faster than Terran whenever it needs any heavy units (Siege Tanks / Hellbats / Thors) or to siege up a position.
Setting up zone control units for defense is not really “adapting army position”, compared to being able to run wherever you want to. These units are less mobile, not more.
Units like Tanks, Liberators, and Widow Mines can control space, but you kind of need to force the opponent to attack you (or otherwise leave them on defense when something unrelated deals damage) for them to be effective.
Every race has cloaking to various degrees of effectiveness. Most cloaked units are not efficient in combat, (such as Dark Templar and Banshees), with Lurkers being a notable exception.
Ghosts can be effective in combat when you factor in their spells, but cloak itself works against this (assuming there is any detection at all) because it also limits the Ghost’s ability to cast.
That statement is pretty much false, and I explained why in my response to the add-on point. Terran has the least flexible production of any race out there.
That was added mainly because Terran mech struggled so much. Mech basically requires air units to function long-term; and Terran is spending a lot of gas on their production and units when they go for a mech composition.
That change also put Terran’s number of upgrades on par with the other races.
Every race currently has 5 upgrades:
Keep in mind that Marines are 1-supply while Marauders are 2-supply, so the Reactor (which is also slightly more expensive and time-consuming to produce than a Tech Lab) roughly evens out their production rates.
So, it’s not really a cost-efficiency or production-rate issue. Marauders simply have less uses than Marines, so you will usually make less simply because you need less.
Fair enough, I felt that I reconsidered what I asked but left it since you had already seen it.
That actually makes sense, I actually didn’t consider that!
Kinda cool to see it evened out.
Not perfectly, roughly.
Marines produce about 20% faster, but the Reactor Barracks costs more resources (11% more) and build time (27.777% when accounting for the structure and add-on).
The point is that it is close enough that it isn’t a factor in your choice of composition.
TBH, I find these kinds of supply cost-based analyses slightly misleading/vague. Take the Ghost, for example, that has been 2 supply or 3 supply depending on the game version. The “production rate” of the Ghost isn’t really changed, it just changes how often you need another Supply Depot if you’re not maxed out, and changes the amount of Ghosts you can have in a maxed out army relative to the other units in that army.
Like, yes, a Maurader technically takes 2 Marines’ worth of supply, but if it was buffed to be 1 supply instead of 2, you wouldn’t say that “nerfs its production rate.”
I think more relevant/precise considerations are:
As a side note, the add-on cost becomes more and more negligible as the game goes on with more waves of units made. It’s not like the add-on is remade for each wave of units (not that you’re saying that, I just think it’s relevant to the conversation).
Ah I see, I suppose that is a better understanding for me to take into account.
I don’t factor such calculations as others do, I okay I see what works (for me) and proceed accordingly.
This is how I understand it. In the end I just figured, the production of a tech lab, the. The research of the concussion vs the reactor and just the marine research would out produce as just using marine.
I myself use the marauder/marine combo in most of my builds, sometimes just marines to push out mass, but generally I prefer the mix of the two.
I guess a good time to ask this now is my idea is 1 marauder to every 2 marines. Do you agree or am I just not thinking correctly?