Showing posts with label SC2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SC2. Show all posts

Monday, January 21, 2013

What's your setup?

I thought it would be cool to post what I use to play Starcraft 2, and to also show that you don't need a big fancy computer or a really expensive mechanical keyboard to play well because while those things certainly make the game a smoother experience, they aren't going to win you games. I keep it simple, and I'm trying to invest in products that I will get the most out of rather than constantly buying the latest and greatest in gaming products.

1.) Razer Deathadder 3500 DPI Mouse ($60) - I've had this mouse for about a year now and it is well worth the money! Before this I was trying to play with an Apple Magic Mouse *laughs to self* and after getting a mouse that is geared towards playing games the difference is obviously noticeable and enjoyable. There are gaming mice, especially from Razer but others as well, that cost well in excess of $100. Unless you've got money to spend, you simply don't need them because the DeathAdder has everything you need. Works with PC + Mac, but the driver support is definitely better for PC. You can set custom commands to the two side buttons on the mouse which I haven't found a use for, but I'm sure they could be useful for something.

2.) Sennheiser HD 555 ($180) - I've had these bad boys for the past 6 years now and they have quite a history which I'll sum up really quickly. They came with me to MLG Meadowlands in 2007, the cord got chewed up in a lawnmower (even longer story), and now I use them exclusively for my computer. I'm not an audio expert, so characterizing the sound quality is hard to describe, but they are simply nothing short of amazing. Crisp clear sound quality coupled with outstanding comfort means that you can wear these things for hours and never want to take them off! I think the lifespan of my Senns speaks to how well these things are made. Even though I bought these for a different gaming related purpose, they work well for everything and I highly suggest checking these out if you are tired of your headphones breaking. They are well worth the investment.

3.) 13" Mac 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM ($1,200) - I mean, I bought this for college, so running Starcraft 2 was an unforseen purpose until last year. My main concern is that they are going to drop support for my operating system :( Blizzard announced that Heart of the Swarm will require Snow Leopard (10.6), which is fine because I'm running 10.8.2, but my computer won't be able to support the next Apple OS (10.9) if there is a big enough shift in new requirements because my laptop simply does not have the technology to handle it. So for me it is now a waiting game as far as what comes first. Will Blizzard make its minimum requirements 10.9 first, or will Apple set a death sentence for the hardware that I have? Regardless, you can run SC2 great on a Mac laptop.

4.) Team Liquid Mousepad ($20) - I don't actually own this, but I think it would be cool to have! I see mouse pads as having the least amount of impact on your game, and are more just for looks. Whether I use one with a lovely sunset or switch to one with a cool horse prooooobably isn't going to affect my skills. This is on my wish list :)


What do you use in your setup?

Let me know!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I must be doing SOMETHING right.

I am on FIRE right now. I started today ~11th place

As usual, here are my win ratios by race for the day:

TvT 10-0

TvP 3-4

TvZ 5-2

I was so surprised when I was working out the win rates and I hadn't lost to Terran all day. This used to be my worst match up, and I know the exact reason. I was stuck in the mindset of "marines can do anything" and "you can win without tanks". While it is possible to dos, I have found that it is much easier to just do a better job at building tanks than your opponent. A lot of the Terrans I played today just had build orders that were slow, and couldn't defend against a push in the mid game. So, I have succumbed to using tanks, but apparently it is working really well for me!

Protoss...well, I don't really know. I still use the Halby 2-1-1 build that I made a video for (you can find it on my blog), but the stupid buff for the observer build time is allowing the Protoss to easily counter me because they know what is coming a good minute ahead of time. It's frustrating, but I'll have to figure something out. This is turning into my weakest match up because I simply don't know what to do. Maybe give a mech a try? If you have any suggestions leave a comment!

Speaking of mech, I have been obliterating Zerg players using the DeMuslim push into thor/banshee/marine. I have not face much of a challenge using this style of play. It took some getting used to because I love marines, I always felt that Mech was so sluggish, but the amount of damage it can handle is incredible. If you bring along SVCs to auto-repair you have almost invincible units.

I'm going to be going more into about this match up in particular for this post because I think Zerg is the race that low level Terrans, like myself, have A LOT of trouble handling.

I'll try to keep this from becoming a wall of text, so I'll leave a lot of talking to be done in the video.

Here I will post the build order that leads up to the initial first push. This push is designed to take out the Zerg's third base at around the 9:30-10:00 mark. So here we go!

DeMuslim Push Build Order 3-1-0 into 3-3-2

10 supply
12 rax
14 supply
16 gas
17 Obital
20 CC
21 Factory
23 (reactor on rax)
    - Rax #2 (tech lab as soon as done-start stim)
    - Rax #3 (tech lab as soon as done-start combat shield)
    -ebay (start +1 attack)
    -bunker
    -supply

NOTE
This is a VERY basic build order, and you do really need to watch the video because you need to put the buildings in the right places. At the 10:00 minute mark, or whenever stim finishes you need to push out and try to take down their 3rd with what should be, if done perfectly, a $3500 dollar army including research. You'll have stim, combat shield, and +1 weapons, and this push will be very deadly.
From here, as the name of the BO suggests, you need to throw down 2 more factories, and 2 starports. From here I like to transition right into mech. So for your next push you'll have thor/marines/banshees and he probably won't expect it. You end up teching up real quick after the first push and it makes it hard for the Zerg to catch up. Just make sure you continue to deny his expansions, while adding on your own.



             DeMuslim Build into mech - TvZ




After of day of kicking some ass, I guess/hope you would be curious as to how much progress I made today. Well, here we are!


I'm 1st place in Silver league!! I'm going into tomorrow with a 9-game win streak. I would be ecstatic if I got promoted :)



P.S. Next post will be focusing on Terran, to those who are stuck trying to win dreaded tank wars :)

-Kyle