Chicken and Egg principle.

[Nihilanthic]

Ive played Starcraft on and off since the pre brood wars days, and now Im getting back into it.

One thing that frustrates me to no end, though, is getting over the learning curve to the new ZvT strategy balance. Its really frustrating that you cant really learn unless you suceed at least once, and I don't know what I am doing wrong.

I see mutaling OR Hydralurk as what you should use with them, and I always run into an inability to break into them, even if I out expand, and I am often contained.

My micro while manging the economy is decent (yay hotkeys) but Im frankly just at a loss about how to go about tackling M&M + tanks!

It just sucks that all my wins boil down to catching a noob off guard with economy harassment and then just overwhelming.

Any advice or extended build orders?

[Bret]

Play money maps. Its easier plus it gives you a chance to just try out different combo's before you play melee maps. Melee maps become a lot easier when you know what you are doing plus have a system that works and knowing your system well enough to the point when **** hits the fan you can clean up with more ease than if you didn't have a plan. Again, money maps are where you can practice combo's and how they work against with combos. GL HF

[KiD[ReD]]

I couldn't disagree more. Money maps take away most of the skill required to play 'real' maps.

Nihilanthic, your best bet is to watch your replays when you lose, and try to find out where you're going wrong. If you keep getting contained and aren't able to get through, then you're doing something wrong.

On ZvT it's normal to be contained very early on by Terran. The usual reaction is to sunken your natural up just enough to prevent any attack, and tech straight to either muta or lurkers. If done right, you should have a few lurkers at just about the same time Terran can come in with a tank. Then you attack with lings/lurker and push him back to his base, where upon you then expand the map and contain HIM!

[Laharl]

I'd recommend avoiding money maps for training, in fact... Just plain avoid them. They're awful, and actually reduce skill. I DO recommend playing a few random unit battle games (Yes, a UMS) because they do promote some level of good micro.

[Sakuhta]

Yeah, definitely don't ever touch a money map if you want to retain an ounce of what a proper build order looks like.

Vs. T you need to do a lot of hit and run with your mutas, always take out the siege tanks first with mutas if he's going on the offensive. You're end game goal while exploiting any weaknesses you see with a mixture of lings / hydralurks is to be teching to a defiler for dark swarm. Once you get dark swarm vs. a terran, the game is essentially over as all you need to do is cover your crack lings with the swarm, and devour one if you need mana.

This, of course, is an oversimplification of a much more complex strategy, you also just need to be working a lot on simple tactics such as hydralurk micro, muta hit and run, build order and timing, etc.