I’ve been playing the beta pretty heavily since it came out (Sadly work interrupts me >>). I’ve been focused on 1v1 terran and 2v2 with a friend who plays toss. I’m going to list all the things I’ve noticed liked/disliked in the same way others have been. Currently I’m sitting around rank 20-30 in bronze 1v1 and in the top 8 in silver 2v2 (I played 1v1 before I got a hang of the game so I got stuck in bronze for now and in 2v2 our undefeated strat came about in the 6th placement match ...the current system could be improved in that regard ><). In 2v2 we'll probally be number 1 this week. General Building expansions is now much easier to do from a macro perspective and generally mineral wise. The pace of the game also makes it easier to survive even if your main base is destroyed. Yellow mineral expansions can easily turn the tide of a battle . Games are generally much faster Maps are designed so you can easily wall yourself in with supply depots The Command Centre Mules are a wonderful way of not having to worry about minerals. In one game a dropped 3 mules on a yellow crystal field and suddenly had well over a thousand even when I was at max production Supply depot drops can be useful early to mid game if your workers can’t keep up with production (or if you forget to build them >>) Scanner sweep can be accessed much faster than in the original meaning I found on most maps I didn’t have to send anyone out scouting Marines Even with the shield ability they seem even weaker than they were in the original. Only real advantage of them is the fact you can build 2 at once with a reactor and they are cheap anti air. Marauders The backbone of the terran army, their high hp means units such as zerglings are useless against them while their + against armoured units means they take out tier 2 of most races with ease. You can get them very early so combined with supply depots you don’t have to fear rushing. Reapers A unit which isn’t balanced. They can be built with equal ease as marauders travel very fast, climb cliffs and destroy all tier 1 units. Four can take out a hatchery incredible quickly or take down 8 drones before the enemy can react. Admittedly they are destroyed by tier 2+ yet even I can micro them to take out zealots without being touched. Basically reaper rushes win about 70% of games right off the bat. In 2v2 I am yet to lose a game reaper rushing Ghosts Much more powerful than in the first game. I personally very rarely use them as reapers are better at anti light and ghosts are very expensive. I plan on trying out nukes a bit more down the track Helion A useful scouting vehicle and quite good against massed tier 1 units however useless against pretty much anything else. Fun to micro but I’m not sure its worth using a reactor on a factory. Like the marine they are just for burning through excess minerals. Siege Tank Does what its supposed to do, hardly any difference from SC I could see except for the fact that due to the increased speed of games compared to the original its not as useful to bring out on the field of battle. Thor Excellent unit for almost any situation. Its main role is GtG haven’t seen much from its air attack but I’m sure if I could get a game where the enemy spammed muta’s etc I’d see its anti air ability. I’m not much of a fan of its cannon ability. Viking Fantastic AtA ability, Vikings alone have helped me fend off toss players having a dedicated air force (Motherships still do have a habit of swatting them away however…). On land they also do a surprisingly large amount of damage Medivac A dropship. I didn’t build them for the healing even though I tended to focus purely on infantry, still need to test if 2-3 overhead dramatically helps. Against other terrans more than 1 medivac did make my job a lot harder but everyone who tried it lost in 1v1 so I’m not sure :S. Raven This is another unit which is possibly OP but is underused. In tandem with the building armour upgrade at the engineering bay 4-5 ravens can (for free) beat back large forces or in the blink of an eye or wipe out a whole resource base. Its hunter seeking missile is however too expensive energy wise as the alternative of 2.5 turrets is generally better. They are also the only mobile detectors for the terran so keeping up with tech especially against toss players who frequently rush for Dts is essential. I also found if I had a raven overhead I could ambush zerg players who assume I couldn’t see their army . Banshee Haven’t been able to get into enough situations where these would come in handy. Any unit which isn’t specialised in AtA against protoss generally isn’t worth using. Against zerg banshees do however pack a punch Battlecruiser Their regular attack has been improved substantially from the first game. They blow through smaller units and buildings. Yamato is still an essential part of the terran airforce however BCs can now go toe to toe with most units without it. To get 3 reapers in 5 minutes my build order was 3-4 scvs supp dep scv barracks scvs 2 refineries (during barracks construction) techlab reapers The terran music is fricken epic. Sorry for not including pretty pictures Give me some questions !
I agree with 90% of your post so I'm just going to post what I don't agree with Thor Great all around, does well against ground, does well against air. I wouldn't say it devastates either but it's a great support unit. However, I have to disagree with you on its ability. 500 damage to any unit/building and it stops it from working as well? You can instant-kill another Thor or a Battlecruiser (I used this to great effect in my last match). It would also be VERY effective against a Mothership. Siege Tank I find this unit to be amazing. Not so much sieged but unsieged. It takes a ton of damage, isn't terribly expensive, and shoot fast while putting out a lot of damage. Plus it's not easily counterable (except by air). It's a great all around ground unit that also happens to have a static long range, high damage attack. I use it in un-sieged mode and only siege it when absolutely necessary. Great unit. Medivac Absolutely having 2-3 helps. The more the merrier. I try to keep a 1:4 ratio of Medivacs to Marines/Marauders. The more you have the better. Planetary Fortress You left this one out. Oh. My. God. It's devastating. It has saved my life in two high ranking Platinum matches so far. I expect it to save me many more times.
Love it, thanks alot for this man. When i first saw the reapers I thought that they could be a bit OP if not handled with in some way, i mean they are just devastating from what i've seen so far (obviously not t2+ units)
saw on the reply you can make thor using factory, thought it was supposed to be made in battle ground with scv? what happened?
Nodec i think that was changed almost 2 years ago >> @Jon After reading over what you said i have changed my mind about siege tanks unlike in SC you don't always have to worry about sieging them (a bit like yamato on the BC) and they roll over the right units . I also didn't realise the thor's special could target air >>...thats at least 2 games i can think of thrown away....additionally medivacs+stimpacks+maras led to me blowing away massed stalkers when i thought i was screwed. However I havn't been saved by my fortresses very often except for a few zealot rushes on my expansions since it can't hit air Thanks Jon for pointing some of this out to me ! I'm still finding so much potential in various units/styles for terran. Guess i should arrange more friendly matches with friends so i don't have to rush through build orders and tight budgets...
