lol neeb

lol neeb

lol neeb

And so begins our new, forumless era.

I think that massive new balance patch that changes errything drops tomorrow.

I fired this up again after several years and running through campaign mode again, it holds up well imo

RIP SC2 forum. Plz to be one if SC3 is a thing.

Multiplayer patch notes, patch drops tomorrow

Cliffs on changes:

Terran:
- Banshee speed upgrade - time increased by 33% but no longer requires a fusion core to research
- Battlecruiser no longer uses energy, yamato/instant warp thing are instead on 71 sec cooldown
- Cyclone totally redesigned, now has rapid fire ground-only weapon that does 30dps (50dps vs armored LOL) @ 4 range, with an upgrade to increase range to 6. Lock-on is the same as before but is no longer autocast and will only hit air targets
- Liberator no longer does +light damage so they won't shred mutas so hard
- ...and to counter that, Thor anti-air splash area slightly increased, probably means you can't magic box with mutas anymore
- Tankivacs are now gone, but siege tank health increased by 15 and siege mode damage increased by 7% (31% vs armored, and they were already pretty good against armored units)
- Viking ground weapon now does +mechanical damage, because Blizzard wants you to use them vs stalkers or something? who knows
- Raven autoturret damage +50%, new upgrade added that extends seeker missile tracking range from 13 to 19.5 (wow, can't wait to never be able to run away from seekers, will be SO FUN) and increases seeker damage by 30%

Protoss:
- Adept shades can no longer see effectively (sight reduced from 9 to 2)
- Carrier interceptors reduced to 5 minerals, auto-cast on "build interceptors" now on by default
- DTs now have a blink ability (LOLOL gl with those scans Terrans) that costs 100/100 to research
- Tempest revamped a little - range reduced from 15 to 8, damage buffed slightly vs ground, now has a special ability that spends 4 seconds charging up then stuns units on the ground target area for 7 seconds
- Void ray speed increased 3.15 -> 3.5
- Warp prism health reduced 20%
- Zealots get WAY FASTER (33%) with charge

Zerg:
- Baneling speed upgrade now also gives banelings +10 health, lol gg terrans ever trying bio again
- Brood lord range reduced from 11 to 10 making vipers even more necessary to ever have a chance vs mech
- Hydra speed/range split into two upgrades again, but range upgrade is now +2 instead of +1
- Infestor can fungal/neural while burrowed (dumb)
- Swarm host cost decreased (150/100 -> 100/75), locusts can swoop down from air at higher range (4 -> 6), locust damage nerfed (12 -> 10). prediction: will still never be used
- Ultra armor is buffed before chitinous plating (1 -> 2) but nerfed after chitinous (5 -> 4)


Overall prediction: mech OP, turtle games ruin SC2, game dies faster

Also, for the rest of 2016, ladder pool with be classic-ish maps.

Daybreak
Overgrowth
Habitation Station
Whirlwind
Newkirk Precinct
Echo
Vaani Research Station

As I get back into SC2, I look forward to all of my ZvT games for the first week consisting of trying to figure out how not to simply die against 6 hellions + 6 cyclones hitting my base at 4 mins.

So played 5 placements. Have hardly played in over 2 years. Mmr is 4k. Played 5 guys all in diamond or with 4k Mmr. Placed in gold 3. Liquipedia tells me this should be diamond. Wtf?

You can't get demoted anymore, so the system starts you low. I read that they did it to combat ladder anxiety, and I think it's great.

I had the same situation when I did my placement matches last weekend after a really long hiatus. Placed Gold 3, and within 15 games I was Diamond 1.

My ZvZ is abysmal.

I have played a few games since and get promoted after every game. Seems kinda dumb. Does that mean you can't get demoted in a season? I assume you can get demoted between seasons.

They took away same-season demotions to reduce ladder anxiety. You can still get demoted after the season ends.

Bumping the BW progaming thread some time soon, given the upcoming ASL has mother****ing taekbangleessang. No ZerO sadly, although he did just crush Last 3-0 in a smaller tournament

Ladder anxiety is the dumbest thing on earth. It was the least ladder anxious game as it already hid MMR. I never hear anyone talk about it in CSGO or Dota and they have more reason to be anxious. Lol anxious about playing a game. Maybe they did it alongside showing Mmr because they thought people who were say 5k Mmr would be scared to drop below. Lol @ them.

I'm sure they haven't considered your fine analysis and will repent in the future.

I recently stumbled on the Mass Recall port of Starcraft I to Starcraft II and it's a lot of fun. I really enjoyed those single player missions and it's fun to see everything rendered in the new engine. I like the old units like Hydralisks and Dragoons.

In some ways, I wish the terrain had even less detail. All the extra layers of clutter and "realism" sort of take me out of the nostalgia.

They should. No demotion is just so stupid. I have been promoted 6 games in a row. How is this a good system?

Because you apparently don't understand the system.

Your MMR will swing wildly for dozens of games after your placement matches, but it makes no sense to keep you in gold when you're consistently winning against upper-diamond level players.

If you WERE a gold pleb, you'd be getting demolished by the Diamond/Masters level dudes that you wind up going against after running the table on your placement matches. Your MMR would plummet, but had the system placed you immediately in Diamond like was possible in the past, you'd also be more likely to stop playing ranked matches for fear of losing your shiny diamond badge.

Starting people low and then bumping them up quickly doesn't affect those who belong in the higher ranks. For everyone else, there's literally nowhere to go but up, so it keeps them active on the ladder.

People with "ladder anxiety" didn't stop playing SC2, they just stopped playing ranked games. This is bad for the matchmaking system.

But I wouldn't stop playing for fear of losing my shiny badge. I don't care. I would just play more to get it back. You tend to get better the more you play so playing less makes you worse and so it would make no sense to stop playing for fear of losing a badge which you would inevitably then lose later because you are now worse at the game through lack of practice.

I understand perfectly how it works I just completely disagree with its execution. It's dumb as hell. I should have been placed in diamond and if I get demoted so be it.

Basically they are treating their players like babies and I want to be treated like an adult.

Okay, so your official suggestion to the very real problem of ladder anxiety in ranked matchmaking systems is "**** em, they're a bunch of pussies." It just so happens to also be the way the system used to work. Except, it didn't. The matchmaking system struggled to keep search times low and game quality high with the number of people self-excluding from ranked play once hitting whatever threshold they felt was rewarding enough for them.

Also, for someone who doesn't care about the shiny badge, you sure are concerned with which one you are assigned. Do you also pop all the balloons at little kids' parties because you think they're dumb as hell? I mean, honestly, who the **** thinks rubber bladders filled with air are suitable forms of decoration and/or entertainment?

If your only goal is the measure your SC2 dick against the overall population, you have the MMR number to fall back on. That's a better measure of skill than the old league rules were anyway.

The wait times are way longer now than they've ever been. The player base must be massively lower. Also it didn't used to be like that, they didn't even used to show MMR because they thought the players couldn't handle it.

They should give us as much info as possible and make the league system as competitive as they can. It's a 1v1 game. The pros massively outweigh the cons. If they'd shown us Mmr from the start then it would be far better. It's not dick measuring. It's just measuring. It's ranked....

I've never done multiplayer before, any tips or good links to sites that have good training info? Or is it best to just dive right in and learn that way?

Unranked anything is a good starting point.

As for learning team games - https://www.twitch.tv/protech Guy plays 8 hrs/day atleast and always picks random. No shortage of content new and old. If you want to learn a specific race then just go to his old streams and find games with the race you want. I learned a ton watching him.

If you want 1v1 content, https://www.youtube.com/user/Felixje0 Lots of mixed stuff on this guys channel but plenty of 1v1 strategy videos that are very good.

Overall, twitch and youtube imo.

I watch a ton of this guy.

https://www.twitch.tv/wintergaming

He plays random - Grandmaster.
He does co-op, arcade games, team games, basically everything.