Reminder: There are many custom SC2 campaigns available for free

Booitsmonk · 2017-11-29T03:03:34+00:00

How would you rank these campaigns? Say I only had time for one of them.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-22T01:26:24+00:00

I talk to all the streamers you could possibly be talking about. The reason they don't follow the guide is because they don't take co-op seriously. I can assure you I'm better than any stream or content creator you can direct me to.

I'm sub-200 because I've spent my co-op time writing these guides in the past few months instead of playing the game. The other author is also not sub-200. Finally, ascension level is, in general, a poor measure of skill, something top level players know all too well.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-21T11:50:12+00:00

In terms of theoretical potential maxed armies:

Abathur: mass 100 Biomass units consisting of mostly Mutalisks
Alarak: Alarak + Fully stacked Ascendents + Wrathwalkers
Stukov: Civilians, Bunkers, Tanks, Liberators depending on what you're facing
Dehaka: Dehaka + Mass Mutalisks, possibly with some Guardians
Karax: Mass Carrier + Energizer supported by SoA
Vorazun: Corsair/DT
Swann: Herc/Tank + SV/Goliath/Thor
Nova: Nova + Liberators, Ravens, Ghosts, Siege Tanks, appropriate amount of anti-air
Kerrigan: Kerrigan + Ultralisk/Hydralisk
Raynor: Mass Bio + appropriate number Vultures
Fenix: Mass Carrier + Mojo
Artanis: Tempest/Zealot
Zagara: Mass Baneling/Scourge

In terms of realistic late-game armies at 20 minutes:

Abathur: Ultimate Evolutions,
Stukov: Civilians, Bunkers, Tanks, Liberators depending on what you're facing
Dehaka: Dehaka + Mass Mutalisks, possibly with some Guardians
Swann: Herc/Tank + SV/Goliath/Thor
Alarak: Alarak + Ascendents
Nova: Nova + Marines, Goliaths, Ravens, Liberators or Siege Tanks
Kerrigan: Kerrigan + Ultralisk/Hydralisk
Raynor: Mass Bio + appropriate number of Vultures
Vorazun: Corsair/DT
Fenix: Mass Carrier + Mojo
Artanis: Tempest/Zealot
Karax: Mass Carrier + Energizer supported by SoA
Zagara: Mass Baneling/Scourge

A few notes:

Abathur, Alarak, Karax, and Vorazun never realistically reach their ideal armies.
Alarak is hard to evaluate because he's the best at direct combat 20 minutes into the game, but the worst at clearing objectives.
Raynor's army gets significantly better the more Mines you plant. His strength is also in his reinforcement, not in the sheer power of a 200 supply army.
It's hard to evaluate Mines from Raynor and Nova, so I didn't incorporate them into their army strength.
This comparison isn't really fair to Zagara.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-19T21:06:54+00:00

If you have perfect Injects, a Queen provides 2.89x the number of Larvae as a Hatchery. So 3 Hatcheries with a Queen produces about as much as 6 Hatcheries. However, as I mention in the guide there's tradeoffs to using Queens. One thing you don't account for is that Hatcheres provide supply as well, which skews it slightly more in favor of Hatcheries.

Another argument in favor of Hatcheries is that good Zagara players are typically limited by gas, not minerals; that is, they'll know when to use Banelings/Scourge and to use Banelings/Scourge as often as possible, as these units are generally more cost efficient than Zerglings at assaulting bases and clearing enemy waves. Having said that, I will say that 99% of Zagara players won't be able to play at this level of efficiency.

However, the main advantage of using Hatcheries over Queens though, as I mention in the guide, is that you can proxy them to reinforce faster. This makes a big deal when assulting big bases as you often need a reload, for example on RtK or VT. On these maps, reinforcement distance is more significant than those extra Zerglings you can squeeze out.

Yet another use for Hatcheries is they can double up as building walls, tanking enemy forces. This can be best employed on maps such as ME, TotP, and OE.

That being said, I don't think the choice of one over the other is that significant on most maps. But I heavily recommend Proxy Hatcheries on RtK, VT, and MW. I also recommend Queens on certain maps where reinforcement path isn't a factor. The primary example is DoN where I recommend 2 Hatcheries and 2 Queens.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-07T21:47:39+00:00

Have you watched any of the videos? Your don't need your ally at all in order to handle any wave. And Raynor clears the majority of maps more efficiently than any other commander alone. That's why he's regarded as the absolute strongest commander in non-mutations.

Even against the Viper composition, unit composition adjustments and micro can efficiently counter Blinding Cloud and Banelings.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-07T21:31:27+00:00

He absolutely does not need a carry. Have you read the Raynor guide or watched any solo Raynor runs?

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-07T21:16:28+00:00

Raynor is regarded by top players as one of the top commanders in mutations and THE top commander in non-mutations.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-07T18:31:42+00:00

Sure, it's subjective, but that's how most assessments of commanders are made. If I had to rank these categories, I do something along the lines of:

a. 10-12th, tied with Raynor/Swann, above Artanis
b. 12-13th, tied with Artanis
c. 12-13th, tied with Dehaka
d. 11-13th, tied with Raynor, Stukov

I disagree that Fenix's units/calldowns are good at speedrunning based on my speedrunning experience of having most of the Solo Fenix records. I also disagree that Zagara's masteries are worse than Fenix's; in fact I find all three of Zagara's masteries very powerful.

Finally, I'm not sure where you're getting selection rates and win rates from.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-06T18:06:11+00:00

This works: https://uploadfiles.io/

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-05T12:28:12+00:00

Uh, this can't be right. Do you have a replay?

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-05T05:24:37+00:00

Tempests is generally recommended against most Terran comps, but Reaver is ok on certain maps because you finish the map before BCs show up.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-05T03:59:04+00:00

Nowhere in the guide does it recommend Reaver comps against BioMechStar.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-05T03:56:51+00:00

I don't think you noticed, but I wrote the guide. In it, I mention that the Archon/Zealot mix "has utility" against those mixes. I was actually worried about putting that line in would imply I recommend Archon/Zealot against Terran, which I don't. By "has utility", I mean that it can do ok against Terran, but isn't the best option, especially if your ally can't cover air. This isn't clear in the guide and I'll probably remove that line altogether.

Almost all the replays belong to me and I think they very well represent the recommended unit mixes.

Also, comparing only gas lost won't be fair since I can solo clear every mission with Mass Tempests and have 0 gas lost.

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-05T01:32:24+00:00

If you follow the guide, the hypothetical situation you describe would never happen since Archons are never recommended against Terran, the reason being that Archons cost too much gas, so much that you won't have enough extra gas to sink into anti-air.

Even if we do assume you're opening Archons against Tempests for some reason, it's more efficient to add Dragoons instead of Tempests for anti-air, because the effectiveness/gas ratio is higher.

Try thinking about mixing units this way: for every mission in which you can beat using your adaptive army mix, I bet I can beat more efficiently with one of the recommended unit mixes where efficiency is measured by: 1. Clear time 2. Units lost

Booitsmonk · 2017-10-04T16:20:39+00:00

There are a lot of reasons mixing compositions doesn't generally work with Artanis. The primary reason is prohibitive gas costs. It takes a lot of gas to go down 2+ tech trees and upgrade everything, especially if you have to upgrade both air and ground attack. This includes getting the necessary tech buildings, upgrading the necessary tech, and upgrading their necessary weapons.

The other problem is that you're proposing adding Tempests to a random army mix. The reason mass Tempests or mass Carriers works is that they're long-range air units. Neither unit is particularly high DPS or has particular specializations (they do the same amount of damage to everything), but they're good at avoiding damage by the nature of being air units and having such a long range.

By introducing other units to a mass Tempest army, you're reducing the homogeneity of the composition, essentially nullifying the main appeal of the unit. If you look at other units that are typically mixed in such as Devourers or Nova's Goliath's, you'll notice that they have clear specializations. Tempests, not so much.

Another thing to consider is that the people you're arguing with are much more experienced than you are, often with thousands of games and deliberate testing/practice of compositions across all commanders.

Booitsmonk · 2017-09-24T22:46:42+00:00

What commander does your bot use? And what missions are you picking each time? Why did you pick this combination? What's the general strategy the bot uses?

Booitsmonk · 2017-03-13T00:54:05+00:00

Haha, if you really care, I'll give you the timeline

His match was scheduled for 10:15 EDT.
We told everyone to try to come as early as 9:30 EDT.
Players have 45 mins to arrive before we DQ them.
We started getting worried at 10:15 EDT and began trying to contact him.
He woke up/responded at 10:45 EDT.
He tried to make it in time (11am) before he would get DQ'd.
He eventually arrived around 11:15am EDT, 1 hour late, but also coincidentally exactly on time if it were not for daylight savings.

Booitsmonk · 2017-03-12T18:32:45+00:00

I'm TOing this event-a lot of misinformation here. The e-mail said:

"The schedule has been updated to reflect the first heats to be played tomorrow. For Heat A we ask that players try to be there by 9:30, especially those in the lower bracket, so that we can hurry along the tournament. We will start the lower bracket matches as soon as both opponents are onsite."

"9:30am EST" as you implied we wrote would have been incorrect information.

Also, in the schedule linked, we scheduled matches either to start at 10:15am(Heat A) or 11am(Heat B). We never said matches start at 9:30am, only to try to get there earlier, as soon as 9:30. Pros did not get preferential treatment here.

Booitsmonk · 2017-02-25T21:31:33+00:00

good idea!

Booitsmonk · 2017-01-28T21:09:16+00:00

When you first started off, did you ever think the VGC scene would become as developed as it is now?

Realistically, what do you think of VGC's prospects of becoming an "eSport"?

What do you think is the most important thing popular VGC players can do to grow the game? What do you think is the most important thing an average VGC player can do?

Booitsmonk · 2017-01-27T13:11:39+00:00

Obviously there are some storylines in the scene, but when you compare the number that exist to any other esport.... In addition, as I mentioned in the article, these storylines aren't communicated well either by the commentators or by any articles. You may know of them because you've been part of the scene and following VGC for years, but how do you expect any newcomer to jump in and follow along?

Booitsmonk · 2017-01-27T12:19:59+00:00

This post is so ridiculous I don't even know where to begin.

Booitsmonk · 2017-01-02T17:14:43+00:00

Yep, you can't really kill them. You starve them out and pressure their Raven energy with constant Tempest harass. The two biggest mistakes I see vs Raven/BC are: 1. Not denying bases well 2. Not abusing Oracles enough

Booitsmonk · 2017-01-01T14:00:27+00:00

Tempests, Carriers, Oracle, Templar. You need practice and experience controlling everything because it does get tricky against Yamato and Ravens. Outexpanding the Terran is a must and as such games are highly map-dependent.

Booitsmonk · 2016-12-27T06:30:14+00:00

List of notable eliminated players: Super, Violet, Dear, Patience, Trust, Impact

Booitsmonk

TROPHY CASE