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I've heard mixed feedback from my friends on this topic. Some say pick a race to focus on. Others say they made it to Platinum as one race and now they wish they could play the other races without dropping out of their league. So as I am still pretty fresh to the game and still in bronze league (around 70 games played) should I keep playing random to try and become well rounded or should I focus on a single race to get good with?

Recommendations?

fredley
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MetaGuru
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  • I think this is close to a duplicate of this question: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/7091/getting-better-playing-other-races – Davy8 Oct 19 '10 at 23:59
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    @Davy I'd say exact duplicate. Both questions want to know if playing other races is helpful. – tzenes Oct 20 '10 at 00:28
  • I don't think it's an exact duplicate. I am asking if I should pick a race to focus on or keep playing random for the sake of being well rounded vs. being really good at one race. The other question is asking if they should play other races in order to learn how to defeat them better. – MetaGuru Oct 20 '10 at 01:35
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    @Shogun what answer could there be for one question that you wouldn't want for the other? Either playing as other races is helpful or not; both questions need to know this. If the mechanism is learning how to defeat them better then both questions need to know that. If playing as Random isn't as helpful as specific other races; both questions need to know that. There is no purpose in fracturing our data on this. – tzenes Oct 20 '10 at 02:28
  • I'm not sure why you are arguing with me, I think you are just trolling now. It's pretty obvious the questions are different. Just because the answers contain similar data doesn't mean the questions are duplicate. – MetaGuru Oct 20 '10 at 12:56
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    We're running into a lot of old situations, it seems. – Grace Note Oct 20 '10 at 13:06
  • @Shogun I'm arguing because I honestly believe that fracturing data is harmful to people asking questions and harmful to the site as a whole. Ripper's answer here is just as useful to Brian's old question as Davy's answer there is just as useful to this question. You wanted to know if it'd make you more rounded, Davy actually says to try each race consistently (instead of going Random). I could literally copy/paste that answer and it would be valid. Should I receive rep for copy/pasting his answer? Should he receive rep twice? If one gets updated who is going to update the other? – tzenes Oct 20 '10 at 15:32
  • But remember part of the effect of stackexchange sites is that people do a search to find if a question already exists. I searched before posting this question and found nothing. If this question now exists someone may search and find it now. It's also indexed by Google. I think your approach to the site is wrong. If I posted 'how to grow carrots?' and someone answered 'plant seed, fertilize the ground, water plant' and that was also the same answer as 'how to grow grass?' it would still be better to have different questions for the sake of search, etc. That's the beauty of stackexchange... – MetaGuru Oct 20 '10 at 20:26
  • ...we are creating a resource. It's not all about peoples reputation points. – MetaGuru Oct 20 '10 at 20:26
  • Also, fracturing the data? I've been on stackoverflow.com for a long time now and many times a programming question is answered the same way for two different programming questions, the same answer does NOT mean duplicate questions. – MetaGuru Oct 20 '10 at 20:27
  • @Shogun you have to use @tzenes or I don't see these... In answer to your question about searching: close as duplicate does not delete the question. Anyone who searches and finds your question will then be linked back to the original article. So indexing still works with close as duplicate. – tzenes Oct 21 '10 at 18:40
  • In response to your second point on the differences between grass and carrots, that is an example of a case where there is information in one case you won't find in the other. For example, a question on growing grass will have information on the effects of mowing on said grass. This isn't useful information to the question on Carrots as one does not mow Carrots. More over, Carrots and Grass need different amounts of water/sunlight/fertilizer all of which are relevant. Those would be different questions because they garner different data. – tzenes Oct 21 '10 at 18:43
  • @tzenes, ok you lost me at mowing carrots (but I LOLed), anyways I think we both understand each other.. I just always thought that we should just let the developers decide what is possible in the system and not try to add our own rules and constraints manually, you know what I mean? If the software allows it, then just let it be. For example if enough people vote to close this question, then it will be closed :) – MetaGuru Oct 22 '10 at 19:06

4 Answers4

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I recommend you choose a specific race, and focus on one technique/strategy at a time. E.g., try to do a rush on (almost) every map for 10-20 games. Then, do wall in at natural on every map...

Of course, adjust this to the map and what your opponent is doing - but in general I think you'll have a much easier and faster chance to learn the techniques. Switching races all the time will just confuse you at first.

Yes, you might/will drop if you switch races once/if you're in platinum. So what? Mistakes are a great teacher, you'll learn a lot even if you don't win.

ripper234
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    I would like to add: One could play random races in leagues they don't care about, a lot of players seem to do this in 4v4. It's fine to do too in the first half of the practice league to determine what race fits you... If you decide to take it serious later playing 1 - 2 weeks in your best race will boost you up. – Tamara Wijsman Oct 20 '10 at 20:19
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Play the other races.

Sure, you might be able to advance your score faster by focusing on one build, but you're also a lot more likely to become bored. At the bronze level, the most important lessons you can learn are transferable between races, like building workers (build a lot, and keep building), building buildings, expanding, and keeping pressure up.

If you feel that this is too hard, or playing all 3 races is too much, then I recommend you focus on either the zerg or protoss and terran. Z plays very differently from P/T and you might run into frustration if you try to play Z the same way as you play P/T.

Mark
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Honestly, I'd say play random for a few dozen games, then pick the race you're most excited about. Now, commit to that race and work towards advancing up the ladder. After a few hundred games, you should be pretty familiar with your pick and could probably start playing as random every now and then.

This way, you:

  • Learn the solid mechanics of a single, well chosen race.
  • Can always have your studied race in your back pocket.
  • Can rock it when you get it, or counter it effectively when your opponent plays it.
a cat
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tim
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0

You have enough matches to start thinking about focusing in just one race. Tastosis says something like this: If you play random you won't have enough experience in the long run to be able to play correctly against all the diferent matchups (ZvZ, ZvT, ZvP, TvT, TvZ, TvP, PvP, PvZ, PvT) Because ZvT is not the same as TvZ.

So my advise for you is to stick with one race and practice a lot, you will be getting better in less time than if you play random.

Chorinator
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