Recently, I've discovered that one of the major flaws in my gameplay is that I don't know what units counter what. Obviously, countering your opponents units is one of the most important things to do in a Starcraft game, but I can't do this if I don't know what the correct counters are. I know a little information about counters, such as the fact that Vikings destroy air units and Siege Tanks in Siege Mode destroy masses of infantry, but when the enemy throws something else at me I have no idea what to do. What counters Marauders? Mutalisks? Colossus? Etc. I just have a basic idea of counters, but when a game lasts longer I need to know a bit more. I don't know what units I should keep certain units away from, and which units I should chase down with certain units. I've searched the forums for any counter threads, but the only one I found was rather unorganized since people just posted whatever counters they figured like posting. Thanks in advance. Also, a side question: Are Helions useful? I've heard people say to never use them, however I often see them used in replays I watch on YouTube.
Hi, I'm in a pretty similar situation as far as getting familiar with all the hard counters. In the help section of the game, there's a list of all the units for every race. It outlines what units they're strong and weak against. It's a lot to digest since there's like 3 units strong and 3 units weak for everything, so I made a cheat-sheet that I keep next to the keyboard. That was the fastest way for me to learn.
Wow, I never thought to look in the actual game itself, thank you so much! That certainly helps a lot.
Marines are good against most air units, assuming they are in a large enough group. They really need Combat shields and Stimpack though, preferably grouped with medivacs. Marauders counter most armored units. Stalkers, roaches, etc. However, some armored units still beat them out, such as siege tanks because of their range, or colossus because of their huge AoE damage output and range. Reapers counter light units that are slower than them, such as zealots and zerglings (if they are non-upgraded). Ghosts counter protoss (especially immortals) because of their EMP. Hellions counter large amounts of bunch light units, such as zealots, zerglings, marines. Siege tanks counter nearly all ground units, except for immortals because of their hardened shields. Thors counter masses of light air, such as mutalisks, phenoxes, banshees, etc. Vikings counter capital ships, such as Battlecruisers and Carriers (also Colossus). This is because of their +damage and long range. Raven counters cloaked units and units that fire projectiles, such as hydras and stalkers (with point defense drone). Banshees counter any ground that don't specifically counter them. They do okay against normal aa ground units (such as stalkers) but not well against thors. I find them great against slow, heavy ground like tanks and colossus. BCs...don't counter anything I guess. Well rounded but expensive. Just because a unit doesn't counter something doesn't mean it's not good. You can use vikings as expansion raiders instead of capital ship killer, for example. Or ghosts as a counter to everything if you hit them with a nuke =D.
About BCs, they have about the same role as Banshees, only differece are more hp, more armor, other armor type, shoots faster but only 10 damage and yamato gun instead of cloak. Shure BC can also shoot at air but they are only doing the same damaga as a single marine = lower air attack than ground attack. Yamato shoots are prefered to be saved towards air units or to yamato down cannons to clear the way for Banshees (or other units) etc. BC can fight longer and can be used as a siege unit and Banshees can be used as a harrasment unit using cloak.
Bamboo, I can't find what you are talking about in the help. I can find the tech trees but all it does is show the different units and where they come from. Am I looking in the right spot? And thanks for the huge post IronyNinja! Gonna' print that out now. Also bragesjo, I never would of thought of BCs being bad against air units, so thanks for that as well because up until now I think I've been focusing my BCs on air units.
suggestion to blizzard show the weak against and strong against units in a box above the build options for each unit, something to similiar to C&C generals, that should be in the single player at least
no, they dont counter stalkers. marines counter stalkers, stalkers are light units. if you take marauders in to kill a group of stalkers, they will be practically useless because 1)stalkers are light units, marauders target heavy, and 2)concussive missiles (or whatever its called) is useless against stalkers as they can just teleport away reapers dont counter anything. they're harass units and archons, especially raven point defense drones cant shoot down hydralisk spines and stalker lasers.
Last time I played Stalkers where considered to be armored. Has that changed in some recent patch (have not played for a while do to lack of time)? Quick look at wikis and stats sites indicates that Stalkers are still armored. Also, EMP does 100 damage to shields vs all units, the only thing completly wiped out is energy .
What you're asking is definitely the right question. Learning the counters for the units in the game is one of the key pieces of information that you will NEED in order to win games. And as you know it's not just enough to know your own units, you're going to have to learn every unit in the game, Terran, Protoss, and Zerg, and what armor type they are, if they do bonus damage, fire rate, etc...There's a lot to learn. There's whole guides dedicated to this because of the vast amount of information there is, but you can learn it on your own if you want to put in the work. Ironyninja has a pretty good list started there. Here's a few more though: Immortals will be tough because they do so much damage to your armored units and have hardened shields that keep them alive. But if you have a bunch of marines the Immortal will go down fast. Death by a thousand stings! ha If you're having trouble with Colossi decimating your marine army, then get a bunch of vikings. Colossi can be hit by anti air stuff so they can be sniped by the long range of vikings easily. High templar and infestors can be literally sniped by Ghosts ability from range 10 I believe. If you have a big ground army, banelings can be VERY troublesome, as they will just roll through and destroy it so fast. Tanks do a good job of blowing those guys up and good micro can really help lessen the losses. Hope these few things help out a little bit.
I checked out Blizzards official site and they actually think that BC:s are good vs Carriers! However they must mean using Yamato Guns agianst them. I still think that Vikings are to be prefered vs Carriers but a few BC using Yamato can be usefull as well as well a Ghost using EMP or lots of focusfiring stimpacked marins+medivacs..
A battlecruiser does the same damage as a marine? Last i checked, it was 6 damage with a colddown of 0.225, meaning it is a constant stream of laser, instead of the marines relative slow attack speed. One Battlecruiser without Yamato will kill one Carrier with 8 interceptors. You need to focus fire the carrier tho.
