Back home finally after being snowed in up in New Jersey for 3 days. Got stuck and wasn't able to go see any friends and ended up watching SC2 streams ... wasn't much else to do stuck at my grandparents house.

Looking forward to playing some tonight, sure I'll be a bit rusty. Ego/Zags you guys should hop on and we should play a few.

12/29/2010 4:10:09 PM

saw you got on, but i was over at a friends house and we were fucking around. i think i got him hooked on dota, I thought him how to pwn with ghost, and while he isn't pwning yet, he doesn't suck.

went 13-2-9 as shadow tonight, i still got it

12/30/2010 3:09:46 AM

Sorry I fell asleep early last night. I'll be on some tonight.

I just got promoted back to diamond. Took like a week at silver, 1 day at platinum then I was back. Currently sitting at ~2100 points so I guess thats low.

12/30/2010 8:32:23 AM

Game we lost today sucked.

We should have won, not sure how they had the money to keep rebuilding their army. That is the problem with Double Zerg on some of these maps in 2v2. Run out places to expand to and then just lose the game because our 400/400 army is just not nearly as strong as their 300/400 army. Guess we just threw away to many units.

12/30/2010 1:41:02 PM

Zags(and anyone interested in a ZvZ build) here is the build order for the roaches I've been doing that works well:

14 pool, 14 gas(put 3 on gas)
15 overlord
Make queen, 6 lings, and roach warren when the pool pops. Scout with the first 2 lings, use the other 4 to block ramp.
Should be at 19 supply, make 1 drone to get to 20 then make an overlord.
Make 6 roaches, block ramp with them in 2 groups of 3 in case of baneling bust. At that point be sure to put lings out to see if a push is coming and you'll have time to make more roaches to stop it.
32 - Overlord then take 2nd gas, drop evo chamber, make lair, and drone till lair pops(or till you are at a good saturation) then go back to roaches.
Start +1 weapons when evo is up, and roach speed when lair is up. Start pumping roaches. You'll have some extra gas so I've been making my morphing my OL close to their base and scouting/contaminating with it. Should be able to hit a good timing push with +1, roach speed done at the same time. Attack and expand behind the attack.

Then just play from there. If it doesn't work I've just added in infestors and kept upgrading. Usually ahead in upgrades with the early +1, then when other expand is up dropping 2nd evo, and just roach/infestor till 2/2 and attack.

Only time I've lost with it was with a ling run around when I moved out, so just gotta keep in mind to have 3 roaches back to block ramp if there are speed lings out.

12/31/2010 11:25:54 AM

Just had my best game ever in terms of timing/scouting. Playing ZvT on Jungle Basin. I went 11 pool 18 hatch. I think he went 1 1 1. I scouted the factory with the tech lab so I assumed thors and started getting my roach warren up. A few seconds after building my first two roaches I notice 5 hellions with preigniter on the way down the map, I literally got my queen there at the last possible second before the 5 hellions would've raped my drones. As I had been able to drone up rather safely to this point i went double evo chamber and when I hit 1/1 I pushed my roaches up the right side to break down his backdoor rocks. Just as they are about to get to the rocks I notice a medivac float by my overlord on the left side of his base. Once again I barely got out roaches in time to meet the medivac and kill the hellions it was dropping. My roaches made him lift his natural back but he had a decent army of thors/marines so I threw up a quick bling nest. He came for the terrible terran push with 15 marines, 3 thors, 20 scvs. My roaches made a nice concave trapping him at the top of the ramp and 12 blings just raped his bunched up army that had marines in the front

[Edited on January 3, 2011 at 7:17 AM. Reason : a]

1/3/2011 7:17:14 AM

1/3/2011 1:34:43 PM

zags and anyone else that plays dota - you played since the new patch? it's weird and I'm not sure if i like it or not.

Zealot isn't quite as easy as before, the new guy is okay, and I think shadow is more powerful than before, but I haven't quite figured out the changes. Zeratul is overall about the same, but i don't like the changes to the stun. System is still awesome, and I think Mandrake is potentially more OP since he can more easily transition to lancing.

1/3/2011 9:06:09 PM

I haven't played dota in weeks. I've been mostly playing 1v1 trying to get my diamond up and when I'm stressed out from 1v1 I'm working on finishing my campaign achievements. Have like 10 or so left to finish completely.

1/3/2011 10:29:35 PM

Can you get demoted down a league if you don't play anymore? I might have to log back in to protect my dynasty.

1/8/2011 4:56:29 PM

not sure if you get demoted. I have seen diamond people not play 1v1 for many weeks/months and not get demoted. I didn't play for 2 weeks and didn't even drop a rank in my league. But man two weeks made me really rusty. Didn't help I just got a new computer and have the graphics on ultra making everything look very new/different.



[Edited on January 8, 2011 at 5:06 PM. Reason : .]

1/8/2011 5:04:49 PM

u won't get demoted.

1/8/2011 5:43:25 PM

I set my rig and TV up in the living room and my roommate and I played all afternoon. Good times.

1/8/2011 6:02:14 PM

Damn thats pretty sweet.

1/8/2011 7:22:10 PM

played a ladder 2v2 with my terran friend yesterday, makes me wonder how flue and i or zags and I don't completely dominate 2v2 in sub diamond play.

went for a super greedy forge FE into 6 gate (oGs MC style that he used in that daily Day 9 had on him like a week ago) saw a late-ish pool and gas so I nexused pre-cannon and we common walled thanks to the map. around the time of zag's speedling rush the zerg tries to poke in, but we walled nicely and I had a couple cannons in range along with a zealot wall, so he wasn't getting in. he backed away and of course that means baneling bust right? because 90% of zergs are super predictable. warp in a few sentries, add a couple cannons and some zealots. they take out the terran part of the wall, but don't do much damage afterward. terran rebuilds, I expo. we go for a push, meet them in the middle, basically trade armies. us coming out slightly ahead, but not enough to push. zerg then goes muta, I have plenty of cannons so he can't do much, and he didn't scout my poorly defended 3rd, and by this point I have 8 gates able to constantly make stalkers as well as constantly upgrade out of 2 forges, blink and charge, and 3/3/2. 3/3/2 blink stalkers do pretty well against non-upgraded mutas.

we then win the game as I'm mining out my main and looking for a 4th. economic protoss > crappy randoms.

oh and this is with me playing super sloppy since I don't ladder much anymore. then again, my super sloppy is still better than a lot of player's a game

1/8/2011 8:51:46 PM

This matchmaking is crazy. I picked the game up again for the first time in months, played some close placement matches for 3v3 against all diamond players, and my squad goes 3-2 and gets bronze league.

Worst part is rather than get to stomp on bronze league players, we still play nothing but diamond because the matchmaking never works. Defeats the purpose of leagues really.

^^^That is a sick set up



[Edited on January 9, 2011 at 1:53 AM. Reason : ^^^]

1/9/2011 1:52:03 AM

^ happened to us too. got promoted to silver after a month. STILL trying to get into gold 3v3

1/9/2011 10:22:59 AM

Team matchmaking is fubar. Its half based on your 1v1. BigEgo, Titans and I got to diamond 3v3 after a long while. When I dropped from diamond to bronze to win farm we started playing really shitty people in 3v3s. But it was only for when we played against random teams, against set teams we would still play diamond people. It was strange, some games would be instant wins because we would be up against a bronze, a silver and a diamond as a random team then the next game we would play three diamonds who had a set team.

It took me forever to get all my teams up to diamond though. It would've been faster if I had gotten my 1v1 to diamond first I'm sure.

1/9/2011 10:56:15 AM

Woops double.

[Edited on January 9, 2011 at 10:56 AM. Reason : a]

1/9/2011 10:56:15 AM

^^stop making me feel like i need to fix my 1v1

i'll start playing if there's a prize pool on the number of games it takes me to get to diamond. I'm thinking around 25

1/9/2011 4:25:48 PM

Is the matchmaking based off your best league? Like if I was diamond 2v2 random but got bronze 2v2 with a friend, would we be playing diamond or bronze?

Even in leagues where my best is gold, like 4v4, we still get matched against all diamond.

1/9/2011 4:35:45 PM

^In teams it's some sort of average I think. The 1v1 games I felt like playing were all against Plat/Diamond level, yet I placed into Silver (because I was tired one day and misplaced an observer, got really greedy, and lost all my stalkers to non-chargelots... 3 things you'll never see me do)

When I played 2s with titans or zags or threes with both (when zags wasn't tanking his 1v1 for wins) we generally played a bunch of diamond all the time. Maybe it's based off of that super secret MMR just like 1s, and zags had somehow managed to tank his low enough since titans MMR was like 1800 diamond at the time, mine was somewhere in high plat/low diamond?

1/9/2011 5:17:39 PM

It is all horseshit tbh. I personally think you only have one MMR and everything is based off it. So if you have a diamond level MMR you will play diamond level people in each league. But I don't think anyone even knows. I'm not sure Blizzard even knows.

Quote :

"Can you get demoted down a league if you don't play anymore? I might have to log back in to protect my dynasty."

Yes you can, when the ladder reset comes you are gonna be back to unranked. But they are maintaining your MMR so if you were at diamond level it should only take 1 ranking match to get you back in to diamond.

1/9/2011 6:40:42 PM

Yeah ladder isn't going to reset anytime soon though.

They said it won't be with this patch that is coming I guess never...

1/10/2011 7:56:43 AM

Had a crazy long match tonight. I need to upload a video of a certain part though. Check back in a couple days.

1/11/2011 3:03:34 AM

Patch notes below. Hope I get into Masters There were a bunch of editor changes as well but who cares :p

Quote :

"StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Patch 1.2.0 General * Battle.net Chat Channels have been added! Players can now join others in both public and private channels. o Added in-game chat bar command to whisper to other players. Using the "/w" command will open up a list of available friends, party members, chat channels, and other players within your current game. o Added Battle.net option to auto-join previous private channels. o Added Battle.net option to prevent chat channel text from appearing in in-game chat display. * A new Master League has been added! This league now represents the highest tier of players. * Customizable Hotkey Support has been added. * Stalemate Detection has been added. This will end the game in a tie for all remaining players if no players have income, production, or destroyed structures for three consecutive minutes. A countdown timer will now appear when the game detects this scenario. * An Extreme graphics option is now available. Players can now configure screen space ambient occlusion. Additional Improvements and Changes * Several help dialogue and tech tree improvements have been made: o In-game help is now available in Battle.net. o The help dialog’s tech tree has been improved. o Unit information in the help dialog now displays abilities and upgrades. * Several Save/Replay File dialogue improvements have been made: o Added ability to sort replays and saved games by name and date. o Added ability to right-click and rename a replay or saved game from within the game interface. o Added a new tab for auto-saved games and unsaved replays. o Added an option to permanently save all replays. Checking this option will mark all unsaved replays as being saved. o Added visibility for where replays and saved games are being saved to. o Added a "Show in Folder" button which will open the location where a replay or saved game is stored on your computer. * Camera following behavior for observers and replays has been improved. * The System Alert panel has been moved to the top of the screen and the duration of most system alerts has been reduced. * Mouse buttons can now be bound to the Push-To-Talk hotkey. * A hotkey indicator option has been added to show the primary hotkey on top of command buttons. * When selecting a Vespene geyser, the number of current harvesters will be displayed in the info panel. * Added an option to disable any error sounds. The Response Sounds checkbox now controls whether unit-specific audio is used for error sounds instead of a generic buzz. * Added Game UI layout per-map overrides. Map makers can now use custom UI layout files to create new UI or override existing game UI. * Added a toggle button to the in-game replay panel to Show or Hide the timeline/duration information. * Added hotkey to Pause/Resume game for both single player and multiplayer (Pause/Break key). Balance * GENERAL o Players can no longer block off ramps with two 2x2 buildings. * PROTOSS o Hallucination research time decreased from 110 to 80. o Observer + Cost decreased from 50/100 to 25/75. o Phoenix + Build time decreased from 45 to 35. o Void Ray + Now deals 20% more damage to massive targets. + Flux Vanes speed upgrade removed. * TERRAN o SCV + Repairing SCVs now assume the same threat priority as the unit they’re repairing. + SCV construction movement has been made more consistent. Bug Fixes * Gameplay o General + All diagonal ramps are now the same with regards to unbuildable locations at the bottom of the ramps. + Critter health bars are now hidden unless highlighted or selected (if status bars are set to show when units are selected). + Orders can no longer be canceled by clicking on the info panel in challenges before the challenge begins. + Text tags are now paused when the game is paused. + Autocast state for abilities will now reset to the default state when unit ownership is permanently changed. + Autocast repair will now charge the player requesting autocast functionality. + Repair will now clear its autocast state if the owning player leaves the game. + Harvest orders no longer end if an order is queued while waiting to return cargo. + Harvesting units no longer avoid enemy units. + Hold position units no longer automatically move out of the way when placing a building. + Enemy units no longer show passive buttons in the command card. + Missiles are no longer affected by Vortex. + Actors with a large number of create events no longer crash the map. + Fixed an issue where cliff jumping units were able to traverse unpathable terrain. + Fixed an issue with units trying to get out of the way so buildings can be constructed. + Fixed an issue with harvesting units bypassing force fields. + Fixed an issue where melee units were unable to attack a colossus when it was on a cliff. + Fixed an issue where larva would not wander around. + Fixed an issues where loading a saved Challenge could improperly overwrite the best score. + Fixed an issue with animation stutters when flying units are separating. + Fixed an issue where units could push opposing units when they shouldn't have been able to. + Added "Detector" text to the info panel for units which can detect cloaked or burrowed units. + Added combat reveal tinting to help show that combat reveal units cannot be hit. o Protoss + Protoss structures can no longer be powered without a power source if constructed while powered by a Warp Prism under the effects of Neural Parasite. + Mass Recall can no longer target larva or eggs. + Fixed an issue where units that were picked up by a Graviton Beam would still block pathing on the ground. + Fixed an issue where a Zealot could burn its Charge cooldown without actually moving. o Terran + Changed the position of the Select Builder button on Terran buildings, and changed the hotkey to Q. + SCVs can no longer continue construction on a building from inside an adjacent bunker. + Fixed nuke dot not being visible all the time. + Fixed an issue where you could see an enemy MULE drop pod in some cases where you didn’t have vision of the target location. + Fixed an issue where a Medivac would be able to continue healing a unit that was stuck in a Graviton Beam if the Medivac had started healing the unit before it was picked up by the Graviton Beam. + Fixed an issue where a Thor would continue to channel 250mm Strike Cannons on an uplifted Terran building if it lifted off at just the right time. + Fixed an issue where a Thor could get stuck channeling if a player queued up multiple targets for 250mm Strike Cannons. + Fixed an issue where SCVs could continue repairing at a short range even though the structure they were repairing was blocked by Force Fields. o Zerg + Creep will now spread evenly in all directions. + The Burrow and Cancel Neural Parasite buttons have been moved on the command card. + Fixed an issue with Ultralisk unable to attack a row of sensor towers. * StarCraft II Editor o The “For Each Real” and “For Each Integer” actions will now correctly execute once when the starting and ending bounds are equal while the increment is also zero. o Items dropped from an inventory will now use their default height when dropped. o The View Script command will now view library scripts if the library list has focus. o Carried and equipped item behaviors and weapons are now restored properly when a unit is revived. o Publish dialog now updates storage information after removing a published file in the Managed Published window. o Dropdowns now correctly select items as you type using partial matching. o Standard dependencies can no longer be modified in the Dependencies dialog (only added or removed). o Camera following can no longer be disabled via hotkeys if it was requested via triggers. o Fixed an issue with editing stylized text values when using system locales other than English. o Fixed an issue with Veterancy experience share filters. o Fixed an issue when editing mover data where values were not being saved correctly. o Fixed an issue that prevented certain changes to angle values. o Fixed an issue where selection circles would drop when a flying unit was over a cliff. o Fixed an issue where the scroll bar for tree views could disappear. o Fixed an issue where triggers setting the mouse relative could result in the mouse being stuck in relative move mode. o Fixed an issue where setting the color of a dialog item of type label wasn’t working. o Fixed a crash that could occur while editing upgrade values. o Fixed text truncation with Set Text actor message. o Fixed display of ability command links in the Overview Manager. o Fixed many areas where English text was displayed instead of localized text. o Fixed a crash when destroying a persistent effect."

1/11/2011 5:10:54 AM

That patch has destroyed my Thor rush option. LEAVE TERRAN ALONE

1/12/2011 3:44:30 AM

Quote :

"That patch has destroyed my broken Thor rush option."

It was stupid that zerglings would just run circles around the repairing scvs. Now maybe they will nerf marines/marauders sometime soon and things will be all square.

All in all this feels like a pretty meh patch. Not sure why it took them ages for such little changes, I guess the chat channels were a big deal.

Join the TWW chat channel when you are on btw!

1/12/2011 7:54:13 AM

For those of us who don't play competitively, is there any way to set the campaign to a higher difficulty but still leave the game speed at normal?

1/12/2011 10:36:33 AM

Do you just mean the single player part?

I'm assuming like in the past if you go into the menu options you can control the game speed for single player, that is always how it was done in the past. Unless they are forcing you to play at a higher speed with higher difficulty. But check the menu.

As of this morning, I am a master league sc2 player. What a dumb system, there is no way I'm in the top whatever percent... but whatever. System is all about making people feel good.

1/12/2011 11:19:59 AM

Quote :

"It was stupid that zerglings would just run circles around the repairing scvs. Now maybe they will nerf marines/marauders sometime soon and things will be all square."

Whats wrong with marines and marauders?

1/12/2011 11:49:18 AM

Marines need a rate of fire change or a stim change. Blizzard has already essentially said stimmed marines are broken, there is no unit in the game that gets you near as much bang for the buck as marines do. It also is the unit that benefits the most from upgrades percentage wise, essentially making it the best unit in the game.

As for Mauraders the concussion shell shouldn't work on massive units. Dumb that it basically allows you to pick off any units by restricting it's movement. Makes it way to strong late in games.

Both units together are pretty ridiculous considering they are tier 1. With decent micro you could win games pretty non-stop making nothing but those 2 units.

The exchange though is that Terran later game units need an upgrade. BCs need a buff, so do vikings when they are on the ground and I think the thor's ground needs a buff as well.

Those changes would help balance things.

1/12/2011 3:09:39 PM

they should make zealots immune to marauder slow

1/12/2011 5:20:20 PM

Quote :

"Do you just mean the single player part? I'm assuming like in the past if you go into the menu options you can control the game speed for single player, that is always how it was done in the past. Unless they are forcing you to play at a higher speed with higher difficulty. But check the menu. As of this morning, I am a master league sc2 player. What a dumb system, there is no way I'm in the top whatever percent... but whatever. System is all about making people feel good."

Yes, single player campaign only. When I first played through, I found that increasing the difficulty also increased the speed. For instance, changing to Hard difficulty also then limited the speed choices to either Fast or Fastest... neither of which I can do very well at all. I'd love to be able to play through the campaign with greater difficulty but on Normal speed, even if it takes some kind of trainer to do it (which is probably unlikely since the game is so closely tied into battle.net).

1/12/2011 5:25:30 PM

And you def checked that once a mission got started you couldn't go into the menu and under gameplay options change the speed in there?

If that is the case they might have done it so you had to play at those speeds to increase the difficulty.

1/12/2011 5:34:24 PM

Quote :

" BCs need a buff, so do vikings when they are on the ground and I think the thor's ground needs a buff as well."

I think Vikings are fine. BCs are too. You wanna do anything to thors you better give them back mana.

1/12/2011 6:11:34 PM

BCs are really bad for what they are.

Terran late game isn't good, can't nerf marines/marauders and not help on the other end. Most people agree early terran is really strong and late game terran is relatively weak, and going to be much worse now with the scv targeting making PF and thors a lot less difficult to deal with.

Needs to be changed so Terran's best option isn't just making MMM with some tanks sprinkled in no matter what the game situation.

1/12/2011 6:42:15 PM

Quote :

"And you def checked that once a mission got started you couldn't go into the menu and under gameplay options change the speed in there? If that is the case they might have done it so you had to play at those speeds to increase the difficulty."

Yes, checked many times to no avail. I am just not good at all at the higher speeds in this game. I wish this could be adjusted. The most fun I've had in the game was back in the beta playing against the AI on the hardest difficulty with the speed turned down quite a bit.

1/12/2011 6:45:14 PM

The main issue with marines is that they really are ridiculously efficient. They do so much damage, are so cheap to make (especially considering mules) and are not easy to kill. The only real counter zergs have are banelings and fungal growth, absolutely everything else melts.

Marines really need a rate of fire increase (yes, increase) at the cost of some damage. With stim they will be almost rapid fire but if they decrease the damage they will be farrr less efficient against armored units.

1/12/2011 9:20:45 PM

That will hurt base marines, but marines with attack upgrades will be more powerful. Why not a flat rate decrease?

I think vikings would benefit from a reduction in their ground/air transition time. I also think Ultralisks need higher damage or HP and should cost more. They're too weak for the amount of space they take up.

[Edited on January 13, 2011 at 11:04 AM. Reason : .]

1/13/2011 10:50:38 AM

I'm at a loss why Terrans build anything other than Marine, Thor, Medivac against Zerg.

Then again I suck with Infestors, so that probably has a lot to do with it.

1/13/2011 11:01:06 AM

If they switch to some of these new maps they are testing for the GSL ultras will be a lot better because they'll actually have space to move instead of the current maps which just funnel ultras into a log jam and then they just die. But yeah pretty much just make a lot of marines, few thors, good to go. If terran ever figure out how to use Ravens correctly zerg will be really screwed.

I might start opening against both toss and terran with speed ling to lair/infestation pit. Between mass marine and mass phoenix might be the best way to deal with it.

On the flip side I'm really starting to like ZvZ now. Got a build that works relatively well, and as long as I don't get 6 pooled usually do fine.

1/13/2011 3:26:13 PM

starcraft 2 casters are like sport caster's nerdy siblings

it's an obvious statement, but I still think it's funny to say

[Edited on January 13, 2011 at 6:37 PM. Reason : .]

1/13/2011 6:37:35 PM

i also agree that marines need a nerf, or at least some sort of change. a unit that is that cheap and versatile shouldn't be that strong.

1/13/2011 11:23:48 PM

becoming a day9 fan

he talks too fucking much

but 50% of that talking is super fucking funny

1/17/2011 10:20:18 AM

I'd rather they just buff zealots (I WANT SPEED CHARGELOTS)

1/17/2011 11:05:13 AM

Lost 2 this morning that I'm pissed about. Played horribly vs. a 1 base Thor/Marine all in where I'm not sure what I was doing. Made the mistake of going Spire when I should have just gone roach/bling. Had tons of money, he was still on one base, just couldn't hold it was to late massing units. Really mad should have been an easy win.

Then lost a macro game vs. a terran that went Tank/Thor/Banshee on LT. That map sucks, which I hate because it was one of my favorite BW maps.

Increasingly frustrating playing Terran. There are just so many openings, and so few safe responses for Zerg. Typically now I just see some marine pressure(forces lings) to helions to banshee to thor. So need speed lings, roaches, spines, spores, and queens. Meanwhile all terran just expands nice and easy and makes thors/marines. Thors just come out so fast, and with the extra minerals just supporting them with marines is a joke. Mutas are how I had played the matchup, but now Terran has realized it is worth it to just throw turrets up everywhere and keep expanding.

The guy today just started building PF all over the map too, and putting tanks behind them. I was like wtf? I want to be able to make hatcheries all over the map that will shoot down shit too.

1/17/2011 1:16:49 PM

So I've been playing around with a mass queens strat for zerg, mostly designed to stop a 4 gate/phoenix play and transition into fast broodlords. Question for the protoss out there - I'm not too familiar with 4 gate timings, I know a super fast gate can hit around 5 minutes, but a little more conservatively when do you hit?

1/17/2011 10:39:56 PM

6-7 minutes is pretty average. Push can be as late as 8-9 minutes if you add a +1 attack and mass a little more before going.

1/18/2011 12:19:57 AM

last night's funday monday was probably the most entertaining yet, also a very valid strategy

1/18/2011 10:48:33 AM