Everyone wants the quick and easy strategies to become an amazing Starcraft 2 player, but the fact remains that becoming great at anything takes an incredible amount of time and devotion. But that isn’t to say that there aren’t any tips that can make the grind a little bit easier.

When most are discussing how they can improve their Starcraft game, there is a significant amount of fixation with the opening, the builds, when to expand or when to push and it seems that perhaps one of the simplest aspects of the game has been overlooked. Map selection is one of the most important and fundamental building blocks for the better development of your game.

The obsessiveness over specific builds has led a number of players (myself included) to enter every single match with a predetermined idea of what exactly the game plan will be. The obvious and overarching problem with this concept is that certain map attributes lend themselves, both positively and negatively, to certain races, builds, strategies and even play styles. This is exactly what this simple tutorial will explore: how to be able to distinguish map characteristics and how to apply them to your developing strategy in Starcraft 2.

This article will deal with choosing maps depending on personal play style as well as for the Protoss race, a follow up article will deal with selecting maps for Terran and Zerg.

As of right now, the Season 8 Ladder Map Pool is:

- Cloud Kingdom LE

- Daybreak LE

- Ohana LE

- Antiga Shipyard

- Condemned Ridge

- Entombed Valley

- Shakuras Plateau

- Tal'Darmin Altar LE

This map pool consists of a total of eight maps, three of which the user is able to veto, allowing for anywhere from 5-8 playable maps on the ladder.

The question now becomes: which ones? To begin to answer this question, you should begin to think about your play style. By that I mean the following: are you an aggressive player or do you prefer to defend? Do you prefer longer, macro style games or are you a more “all-in” kind of player? Once you’ve established this basic parameter you can begin to focus down your map selection.

For you aggressive types, you should be trying to find maps that have relatively short rush distances (that is the distance between you and your opponent) and preferably fixed position, two player maps. In recent seasons, more and more maps have been added with slightly longer rush distances in an attempt to minimize the so-called “cheesy” gameplay, however, these maps do still exist. Furthermore, there are a number of maps which are fixed position two player maps. These maps include:

- Cloud Kingdom LE

- Daybreak LE

- Ohana

These maps would be a good starting place if you feel that you are a more aggressive style player. Something of importance to note here is that this does NOT take into account any inherent race bias a map may have, so it is important to cross-reference these maps with other racial map tendencies.

Macro players like to sit back, establish two or three bases and build up an economy before they really build an army, this type of “passive” play style is certainly more suited to larger maps that can be either two or 4 players without fixed positions. A map like Entombed Valley is a good example of this. Players can spawn in any of the four positions (in the ladder edition) and distances are relatively long.

Certain maps, such as Daybreak (which I mentioned as an aggressive map) can also tend to be more macro style maps. The reason for this is that Daybreak is an exceptionally large map. It makes a good aggressive map as a result of the fixed positions, however, the long rush distance can lend itself to a much longer type of game.

Play style is one thing, but specific map characteristics and traits are quite another. Maps with longer, less visible cliff lines, location of high ground and watchtowers, accessibility of expansions, existence of ramps and chokes can all play a significant role in deciding whether a map should be in your rotation or not. In this respect, race does come into play.

I will begin this section by stating that in my experience as both a player and a spectator, most maps currently used on the ladder and in tournaments are relatively well balanced. I don’t feel that any map is atrociously bad for any particular race, although there obviously are benefits for certain races on certain maps.

Map Characteristics by Race:

Protoss:
What should you be looking for in a map as a Protoss player? The answer is actually a few different things. Many Protoss players like to play the “death ball” style where they sit on a comfortable three bases and build up to the “super army” and try to simply crush their opponent. However, in order to obtain that kind of army, you need to be able to secure your expansions. This is perhaps the most important factor in determining a Protoss map: how easy are my expansions to obtain and defend.

The reason for this is simple: Protoss units are more expensive than their Terran and Zerg counterparts and move slower, as a result, it takes more time to amass them and position them appropriately and maneuver between bases. In light of this, a Protoss player should be looking for a map with has a close natural expansion and a Third that is relatively close and not completely exposed. A good example of this would be the aforementioned Entombed Valley.

As can be seen, this map has two expansions which are close to the main and only one ramp leading to each of the bases. A map that would be particularly bad for Protoss in terms of securing expansions would be Shakuras Plateau.

On this map, a player must decide which base they will secure as their third. While the more northern base is closer to the main, the amount of attack paths leading to it can be overwhelming. Most players opt for the more southern third and although it does have fewer attack paths, its location is somewhat far from the main and natural making it potentially difficult to hold on to.

Another incredibly important factor in Protoss map choice is the existence of ramps and chokes. As any race it is always important to try and get the best concave while attacking. That is to have the most amount of your units attacking while preventing as many of your opponent’s from doing so. While the Protoss race has methods of creating artificial choke points (the use of a Sentry’s force field) many maps offer narrower attack paths which allow for natural chokes and easily creatable artificial chokes via Sentries or structures. The existence and use of ramps to your advantage is also an important aspect of using the maps features and creating choke points. An excellent example of a map with these features is Cloud Kingdom LE.

The sheer number of ramps on this map is astounding and the use of them can be quite beneficial. Trapping units on the low ground, without vision, can provide an easy victory in a battle near the middle of this map. The presence of the destructible debris at the ramp leading down from the natural expansion makes the placement of force fields exceptionally easy, especially in the early – mid game.

An additional map feature which Protoss players can use to their advantage are large and exposed cliff lines. This is extremely beneficial for a few reasons: the placement of proxy pylons for use with Warp Gates and the use of Blink Stalkers. Maps like Antiga Shipyard have an immense amount of cliff around the edge of the map which Protoss players can exploit by blinking into a base, doing damage and quickly escaping before the opponent has time to respond. This is a very important map characteristic to keep in mind when deciding your vetoes.

To summarize, as a Protoss player, you should be looking for maps which have ramps, natural chokes and easy to secure and hold expansions. Simply by following these steps, you can make your experience on the ladder much easier.

Stay tuned for the Zerg and Terran based article.