Scouting is the key to victory I hear, but can anyone explain how to actually decipher what I've learned? It has to be more than just 'now he can produce X unit'. You usually need some buildings to tech up to other buildings anyways. How can you get a clue to what your opponent is planning just by scouting his buildings?
Starcraft – How to ‘read’ your opponents building choices
starcraft-2
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The three races are actually quite balanced compared to other RTS games.
However, I think that statistics wouldn't be a very good source of information for something like this because of the way leagues are set up. Your placement is based on who you win and lose against. However, Blizzard tries to keep your win ratio at 50% so they match you accordingly against easier or more difficult opponents to try to normalize that ratio. So if there was an overpowered race, the usage statistics and win ratios would remain relatively constant. It would probably only be visible at the very top level of play, but the game was just released a few weeks ago so it's too early to be making conclusions.
As for race usage, Protoss and Terran are effectively tied, but Zerg has less players than the other two races. See http://sc2ranks.com/stats/all/1/all. I suspect the reason for the Zerg underuse is because the Zerg macro mechanics are less intuitive than that of Terran, which players are already familiar with from the single player campaign. Some also say the race is the most difficult to learn and master.
From a non-statistical standpoint, I would say there are some tweaks needed, but overall the game is fairly balanced. For example, Terran's EMP (from ghosts) is a little bit too strong against Protoss because it drains all energy AND removes 100 shield points, yet requires no research to obtain. But you can be fairly certain that a good level of balance will be obtained a few patches down the line.
Forgive me for the quality of this answer I'm on the road.
Unlike a lot of people I really feel that using drones for defense as Zerg is a completely legitimate strategy. Zerg is very much a momentum race, so many top players strategy revolves around: Power drones and build units at the last possible second. Unlike Terran or Protoss, Zerg can produce a very large army very quickly so I feel using your Drones to delay is a fairly legitimate strategy.
However, I dislike opinions, even my own, so let's see this strategy in practice:
So what have we learned:
- Drones can do Damage. Try to get a good surround, preferably out in the open where he can't use buildings to block you
- When you're not fighting, you need to be mining. When your Zerglings finally pop and you start winning you need to back off and secure your economy
- Drones are a Delaying action. Zerg is a momentum race and you're just using your Drones to delay until you have enough momentum to win.
FAQ
But Tzenes, what if he just backs off and powers Drones and has a larger economy than me?
Omnes non possunt omnis
. To pull off this rush he is making a large sacrifice, this means you have a lot of room to breath. Worry less about him backing off and more about repelling the rush. By the same token, as soon as the rush is countered, stop producing Zerglings. Chances are he can't afford a second rush, so building a lot of units here is just letting him catch up.
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Best Answer
Rep does not allow for comment, so I'll post as answer. This is NOT meant to be one though. So please, do not upvote it, as it would be a real lack of respect for all who have used the comments to post tips.
Scouting, as said, is vital to understand what your opponent can do.
This does not always translate (specially at higher levels) to what your opponent will do.
So how can you tell what will be done from what you see ?
Short answer is, you can't.
However, you can prepare yourself for what you think could happen, and with enough practice, leave the door open for rapid adaptation.
Now, I am not a high level player, nor close at all, but I have noticed that my game has dramatically improved by watching what others do. How they open, how they pwn me :D, and specially, watching others get defeated (which enables me to go "...hey, he could've done X, or Y,...").
So, the best advice I can give you is play. A lot. Watch your replays, see what your opponent does, see what you do and how you react, watch high level replays, those will teach you about adaptability, watch the Day[9] dailies ("...where we learn to be a better gamer..."), watch the GSL, etc, etc.
Of course, no one would spend 1050 min and 150 gas to build 6 tech barracks to throw you off and then go mass viking. >D
Cheers!