For a while there you could download the client and watch replays but they did 2 fast patches which quickly disabled that. Sorry! I imagined they would have left it in so that everyone can sort of get a feel for how well it would play on someone’s computer and get first hand insight to the TOTALLY AWESOME replay system they’ve setup.

Replays will no longer stop working when a new patch hits. What they appear to be doing is creating an old version history folder of the executable and so when you watch a replay, it checks version, then launches the correct version of Starcraft 2 and you’re in. Totally great! Also they did a crazy back to back patch thing last week which is very cool. I’m hoping for good fast responses to various imbalances that crop up. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two patches released that quickly from Blizzard.

Anyway, I’ve been playing mostly 2v2’s. I’ve got several Platinum level teams and one silver level team. My general playstyle for protoss was 2-3 gateways then tech and respond. However just last night I tried switching up to heavy zealot/sentry with up to 6 warp gates and it’s been kind of great. It’s much more stressful macro-wise because you have to sort of watch when the warp gates come off cooldown to get maximum use out of them. A few losses I tended to micro battles too much and when I needed fast response in unit production I would only have 5-6 units made when I could have had 10-15 at least. Needs some work.

My gut reaction to the sentry though is that force field is crazy powerful and guardian shield I don’t use enough of, but it could be incredible if I did. The damage of the sentry isn’t something notable until you have more than 5 or so focused on one unit. I feel they’re probably due for a nerf. Probably raise in cost and raise in mana cost for force field. I didn’t expect to have as large an army as I did with just one town, but you can get a hefty sum of zealots/sentries and they’re quite effective dealing with air units. For the most part I feel like the stalker lives in the shadow of the sentry now.

The new ladder system does pick some good matches, maybe too good. I do miss the days where I could go on 8+ win streaks fairly effortlessly, every game I play I feel like if I make tiny mistakes I’m very powerfully punished for. It raises the stress level and makes 20 minute games feel so much more taxing when they’re over, win or lose.

I’m kind of amazed at how some of the early strategies have fallen off the map. Reapers and roaches were quite annoying and now I rarely see them or if I do they’re easily fended off now. I still hate mutalisks though but if you can be aggressive on the zerg you can stop them prior to getting their spire. People have lately tried to do protoss offensive towering (all unsuccessful so far) but I have yet to see too much proxy pylon stuff. I should try to add then into the mix now that I use warp gates.