[HDPhoenix]

Great read! =D

[nirvAnA]

With this article along with many of the great write ups crAzerk has done over the past month for the sc2sea community, crAzerk's new position as Head Article Writer has been cemented and well earned.

We look forward to many more quality articles from him and for those aspiring writers out there, to look to the quality of his work and dedication for a good example to follow. For those interested in joining our writing team, he will probably be doing some recruitment soon so wait for his blog announcement.

grats!

[crAzerk]

I may be following up with a very brief reactionary guide according to these flowcharts, when I have the time... Is there a demand for it though.

[TCPLemminks]

Bumping this because it may need upgrading in terms of recent patches.

Also because it is extremely awesome ^^.

[crAzerk]

Aww more work will touch up when I have time .. :/

EDIT: I've just read through the whole OP, I don't notice any changes necessary, everything still applies.
I mean, some builds like 2 rax has fallen out of popularity (to be replaced by reactor hellions / blue flame drops), but the chart is a how-to-interpret-scouting information chart, not a current-metagame chart so nothing to be changed there.

Do let me know if you notice anything out of date.

[TADivinity]

Ive learnt all of this now, but God I wish I had it when i started. Well done man!!

[PiG]

Sick guide i used in my coaching today

[Delraich]

Please can someone make a Protoss one

[sRFullstop]

How can I tell if it's a Gas before or after Rax? I scout at 13 so I get there very late.

[crAzerk]

How can I tell if it's a Gas before or after Rax? I scout at 13 so I get there very late.

Click on the Refinery, it shows you how much gas is left. From this you can tell how much gas has been mined (starting gas is 2500 I believe) and will know if it was before or after Rax. (I can't rem the exact value though, need some help from a higher level Zerg ^^ )

However, if you scout at 13, it's more likely than not that the 2nd depot wall-off has gone down, so you won't get to see the Refinery anyway.

[PiG]

12 rax 13 gas the refinery will have 2460 when the rax finishes. If it is gas first however the refinery will be on about 2400 and the factory can start pretty much the moment the rax finishes. This is often used for ridiculously fast reactor helion builds.

A neat trick to delaying it is to wait till the barracks lifts off and then standing your drone next to the reactor to block the factory landing. There are no marines out due to the nature of this build and every second delaying those helions weakens its impact.

Nice response is to just get 3-4 roaches super fast and keep droning. The Terran cuts alot of economy to do this opener.

[sRFullstop]

Originally Posted by PiG

12 rax 13 gas the refinery will have 2460 when the rax finishes. If it is gas first however the refinery will be on about 2400 and the factory can start pretty much the moment the rax finishes. This is often used for ridiculously fast reactor helion builds.

A neat trick to delaying it is to wait till the barracks lifts off and then standing your drone next to the reactor to block the factory landing. There are no marines out due to the nature of this build and every second delaying those helions weakens its impact.

Nice response is to just get 3-4 roaches super fast and keep droning. The Terran cuts alot of economy to do this opener.

Hmm... What if I get the scout in the base but the rax has been finished for a while? How do I know if he went for gas first? My feeling is that if I scout it that late it will be irrelevant because I can just scout what buildings he is making (more rax or reactor rax into factory)? If it is important to scout Gas first then when do you suggest I send my scout? Let's assume it's a 4 player map.

Thanks very much.

[crAzerk]

Don't understand your question, didn't we already answer 'how do I know he went gas first' ? Just check the gas left in his Refinery!

A little trick some Terrans do is they actually build their factory further away from ramp (so your ling can't see it even when you poke up), and they wall off with 3 supply depots instead. In that case, if you don't get the early scout in you just have to coinflip and hope for the best. That's why I prefer to scout at 10 to be able to get a feel of what's coming.

[sRFullstop]

Originally Posted by crAzerk

Don't understand your question, didn't we already answer 'how do I know he went gas first' ? Just check the gas left in his Refinery!

A little trick some Terrans do is they actually build their factory further away from ramp (so your ling can't see it even when you poke up), and they wall off with 3 supply depots instead. In that case, if you don't get the early scout in you just have to coinflip and hope for the best. That's why I prefer to scout at 10 to be able to get a feel of what's coming.

Oops, sorry, I need to make myself clearer. What I meant was that, PiG's method of determining gas first was based on the rax finishing. If my drone didn't scout in time to see the rax finish, and when I get to the base I see a (completed) rax and a gas, how do I determine whether he went gas first or not?

[ScubaBear]

Originally Posted by Fullstop

Oops, sorry, I need to make myself clearer. What I meant was that, PiG's method of determining gas first was based on the rax finishing. If my drone didn't scout in time to see the rax finish, and when I get to the base I see a (completed) rax and a gas, how do I determine whether he went gas first or not?

You could check how much gas he has mined by clicking on it.
Less gas=earlier gas

Someone could point out the exact amount and timing.

[crAzerk]

If my drone didn't scout in time to see the rax finish, and when I get to the base I see a (completed) rax and a gas, how do I determine whether he went gas first or not?

Answer:

You could check how much gas he has mined by clicking on it.
Less gas=earlier gas

And if you're going to say 'what if he has walled off?' then you're scouting too late. Your only alternatives are then to poke lings up the ramp to check for the reactor swap , or sac an OL.

Someone could point out the exact amount and timing.

12 rax 13 gas the refinery will have 2460 when the rax finishes. If it is gas first however the refinery will be on about 2400 and the factory can start pretty much the moment the rax finishes

But I do have to say not to memorize this because different players may not execute the build perfectly, just use it as a rough gauge.


Regardless, in the current state of TvZ metagame, it's safe to say that 80% of the time it's going to be reactor hellions lolol. It's just what they transition into (blue flame/expansion/banshee/etc).

[TriggerSappy]

Wow, this is EXACTLY what I've been looking for.
Crazerk, I'm actually now a writer for GameReplays.Org, and I was wondering if I had permission to suggest this guide to my peers, and maybe get an artcle written on it?

[DemisodaSPR]

Nice.

But without numerous XX:XX timings inside your brain, your build range estimator for ZvT and ZvP will be inferior to one that does have the relevant clock timings memorised. I'll just quickly list some scenarios where this is the case:
- Some guy depot walls his ramp before your drone can see gases or anything. That lame depot wall thing really early can be fit in to 12 rax, 12 rax 13 gas, 11 gas 13 rax (albeit for the latter it's economically inefficient) and you're guessing lest you know the correct timing (2:40 post-patch).
- U just see 1 rax and OC after rax. You dunno timings so u dunno if hes 12 14 proxy, or 11/12 proxy with 2nd rax in main.
- U dunno if he's 1 rax proxy (some ppl in GSL started doing this last season) or 2 rax proxy cus u dunno when to loko for OC morph and how many SCVs he's supposed to have at XX;XX etcetc
- Insert another 50+ scenarios here that you wouldn't even know exists unless you've played for over a year.
- Gas first PvZ
- A gazillion other spots lol I really cbf listing more though

[RicocheT]

This is awesome for Zerg players, really good as it covers the 'mainstream' builds. Extremely handy, although should also be said to also continue to scout throughout the game as a Zerg, something I'm guilty of not doing.

[crAzerk]

Originally Posted by TriggerSappy

Crazerk, I'm actually now a writer for GameReplays.Org, and I was wondering if I had permission to suggest this guide to my peers, and maybe get an artcle written on it?

Oops sorry abit late reply, but sure of course why do you need my permission to suggest it to your peers haha. If you're going to use stuff from it to give me credit of course

@demisoda
The problem with having exact timings memorized is the timings are assuming a perfectly streamlined build. What if your opponent is a couple of seconds off? The effect snowballs and you'll be confused
If you're going to say 'but top players DO a streamlined build', my response is - top players don't need this guide