Haven't seen one of these in a while so I thought I'd just help out any Terran players below masters league by outlining the current safe builds, these are the most stable builds to transition into the mid game as Terran vs every match up.
The old build: Reaper expand into fast 3CC with hellion pressure. This 3CC build has become difficult to execute as Zerg players almost always will roach bane all-in you if they get the opportunity. The 3CC builds of the past are far too greedy and require expert levels of defense into order to counter the most basic of roach bane all-ins.
The new build: CC first into hellions and banshees. Although it can be tricky to both micro your hellions as well as hit all your macro timings this build is by far the safest against any Zerg aggression. Yes I know it says CC first but when is the last time you saw a Zerg do a 10 or less pool against Terran, it just doesn't happen any more because the reaper opening hard counters it. Any pool later than a 10 pool won't be able to stop your CC from building on the low ground. This gives you a fast track into the mid game against Zerg, just make sure you get your wall up at your natural quickly as some Zergs get offended by you being so greedy and love to try to get a quick win with a baneling bust. Don't worry as long as you macro sufficiently you will have hellions to defend this.
The hellions main role in this build is to scout for any oncoming all-ins, you don't need to do any damage with them, you don't need to deny creep, you just need to keep them alive and scout. Once you're comfortable with this build you can start doing more aggressive pushes with the hellions however you will be more vulnerable to any Zerg timing attacks if you lose your hellions.
The banshees in this build are where you can get ahead or behind as you transition into the mid game. The banshees role is to skirt around the edges of the Zerg base picking off drones or queens who are too far away from spore crawlers, your goal is to take as little damage as possible from queens and spores. If you do take damage retreat to your hellions. The banshees secondary role (which is what makes this build so so safe) is to defend against any aggression the Zerg may do. This aggression will be scouted by your hellions while your banshees are flying around so as soon as you see anything just pull your banshees back to defend your base.
If you've macro'd correctly at home you should have a 3rd CC down and beginning to mine at 10:00, +1 attack and +1 armor upgrading and an 11:00 push with 2 medivacs and about 16 marines. If you've managed to keep both your banshees and hellions alive this is quite a sizable force and usually you win with this first push against any Zerg who miss macroed.
(tbc)
TvP:
The current build: Reaper expand into quick 3 barracks. This build is done by most pro players at the moment, however on ladder (particularly NA) you will find that the majority of Protoss will try to end the game rather quickly, and although the 3 barracks build may seem like, yess I'm getting out heaps of units it requires the Terran to have a high level of understand of Protoss openers as well as an expert level of unit position in order not to take damage from any early aggression, which at lower levels is quite common.
The safe build: Reaper expand into 4 minute engineering bay. This build is probably the most ladder safe build you can do, the fast engineering bay means that you can get down quick turrets in case you think your opponent may be going stargate or dts, you also get very early upgrades and have a strong +1 +1 timing attack when you reach the mid game. On top of all of this blink builds are very weak to this build as you get out a very fast factory and starport, meaning blink builds have less than a minute window to do any damage to you, rather than the usual 2 minutes for most other builds. It also means that if your opponent does go blink you have the opportunity to counter attack before colossus come into play. Same goes with any immortal build, you have the medivacs to defend.
(tbc)
TvT:
The current builds: TvT is an interesting match up because it has soo many strong openers. The gas first build can allow you to go into fast hellions, a fast widow mine drop, an early raven, a marine hellion elevator, or banshees, even more confusing is that you don't have to stop the aggression if you don't want to, you can stay on 1 base for a while, switch tech and if your opponent commits too much to their economy with out recognizing this, they will just straight up lose the game.
The banshee build: That is why I recommend learning this build as your staple TvT build, banshees are the highest aggressive tech unit you can get out from the gas first opener and if your opponent isn't prepared to face a banshee they will often times lose the game. Banshees also give you the opportunity to play greedy and take 3CCs quickly or to play aggressive and go for a 1 base tank push follow up. They are incredibly strong, versatile units.
(tbc)
I'll also be including Build orders shortly.
If you're interested in coaching email me at plutohnik@gmail.com my rate is $15/hr US.
Last edited by Sparrow; Wed, 14th-Jan-2015 at 11:21 AM.
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