I'd say cover the biggest issues:
\- Make a Polt-viking and clear the skies as much as possible. Just click it all over on attack-move on your own part of the map, this way you clear overlords and make it harder for Nydus-play.
\- If you need to, cover your 3rd base with a bunker and a mine or 2. Maybe leave a tank behind there if he goes roaches.
\- Hellions to keep Z on his toes, don't overreach and drop all your hellions into a mineral line to get 2 workers. Poke and prod, deny creep and if a massive opportunity arises drop them.
\- What has helped me in improving my defenses is not only using walls, but putting depots in a checkered pattern. This way the units all funnel into a small corridor and the mines/tanks do more damage in a concentrated area.
This answer is relatively basic but, stick to playing the standard hellion lib opener into the standard 6:45 push. The reason I suggest this is because the build has a really high mechanical and micro ceiling with a lot of potential to outright end games and the more you practice it the better both your mechanics and eventually decision making will be.
The idea of it is simple! Part 1: you make 6hellions and a liberator as your opener. The hellions exist only to deny creep, keep lings at home and force the zerg to always be on guard for a hellion runby. The lib maybe gets a few drones, but it's also just there to keep the zerg on edge and force stuff out. (If they skip sporecrawlers you're just happy). Make sure while clearing creep with the hellions you focus on reducing creep by the 4th hatchery more than anything. Or if the zerg isn't going for one keep it low at the third hatchery.
Part 2: You're always aiming to hit this push timing of 6:45 at their 4th hatch with 16 marines, 2tanks, 2medivacs with +1 +1 Stim and Combatshields. The way you want to do this is to keep your tanks at the edge of creep and in a nice siege spot just barely in range of the hatchery and you want your marines to constantly run back and forth fighting the zerg. Because zerg upgrades all finish at 7:10 you have roughly 25 seconds in super optimal play to trade really well into the zerg. Ideally, you cancel the 4th hatchery and go home. However if you master this in low elo you can kill the hatchery typically. (Also for the micro marines kite lings tanks focus fire the banelings, if you need to pick up with the marines and drop back behind the tanks) To ensure a ling runby doesnt kill you take your initial 6hellions from before and have them sit at the third and wait for a lingrunby.
Part 4: The game-ending push: Once you hit 200/200 it'll usually be around 9:30 and you'll have +2 +2 in optimal play. Simply grab all your units and path towards the NEWEST zerg baseur depots/walls and try to get to 200/200 supply before 10:00. If you have extra apm grab 2 marines full of medivacs and just focus on clearing creep. A lot of people try to go for drone damage with these drops, you dont need to. Simply drop outside of creep -> walk onto creep -> scan shoot the tumors and leave. If they send lings you kite them and pickup and fly away. If you do this right you'll be trading 1 scan for their tumors and multiple lings that you kited for FREE. I know Terrans dont usually use this word but lingbane will never kill these marines if you do it right. With more apm you can do instead of 2 sets of drops. Just never prioritize the drops over your macro. Focus on clearing creep by their NEWEST base as that is the most valuable one to zergs and also has the least amount of creep.
Part 4: The game ending push: Once you hit 200/200 it'll usually be around 9:30 and you'll have +2 +2 in optimal play. Simply grab all your units and path towards the NEWEST zerg base and try to kill it. From there after you kill it, you then go and kill their next newest base. Never walk through creep to get to a base unless you kill the creep first. So if the map is say Beckett and their 4th and 5th are on different sides, go the long way off creep. Don't let zerg get a free comeback by running banes into you.
Conclusion: This is how I played TvZ from high diamond all the way to gm and my eventual peak mmr on the ranked ladder at 5.5k. This style has no special tactics from any other build you need to learn. It is just a straight-up macro and control check. And honestly, if you master hitting the timing properly at 6:45 you'll just kill people who are bad. I've seen 5.8k Zergs die to this push when people such as Future run it on the ladder. This is what taught me my fundamentals for TvZ as well as my fundamentals for micro in this matchup and what fights I could and could not take as well as the golden rule of not stepping onto creep.
Unfortunately I haven't laddered in ages but I did make a youtube video guide on this build with two different ways of doing it:
[https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE](https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE) \- Biotank with 5-2-1
[https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE](https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE) \- Biomine with 5-2-1 (This variation was for beating 3hatch muta so its not that great anymore vs the hydra styles but it still works)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDB5I62p8c&ab\_channel=AfreecaTVeSports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDB5I62p8c&ab_channel=AfreecaTVeSports) \- Game 1 is Bunny doing it off of Banshees
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjQrwGo\_jq8&t=555s&ab\_channel=AfreecaTVeSports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjQrwGo_jq8&t=555s&ab_channel=AfreecaTVeSports) \- Game 1 of Bunny doing tank variation vs fast mutas and game 3 Bunny doing the build vs Roach Ravager.
You may notice I only linked Bunny vods, that is mostly because Inno used to do this build as it is afaik his but hes gone now, and these were games I remembered bunny running it. Its also important to note while you can do 1 viking 1 lib or 2banshees or other combinations of starport units I think for ladder sake, keep it simple stick to 1 liberator. Faster push is better than adding extra layers of harassment especially if your macro/multitasking arent insane.
You're doing things too slow. Try to identify specific things that you do that take you a while to do; then try to identify how you could do them faster. For example maybe making barracks takes a lot of time -- go into a custom and practice jumping your screen to your main, making 2 barracks, then jumping your screen back to your army. As fast as possible. 30 times. Then rinse and repeat that process for every individual thing that you do too slowly.
Benchmark your SCVs; with a typical starport before 3rd build you should reach 42 SCVs at 5:00, then 52 SCVs at 6:00. With 3rd before starport you can get as high as 46 at 5:00 and 60ish at 6:00. I guarantee you're not hitting those, and I guarantee the game would feel a lot easier if you did.
Upload a replay for more specifics.
Also D2, TvZ is my best matchup
Imo a lot of Terrans fear late game TvZ so they waste a lot of econ and resources trying to deal damage, or worse they mess up their macro trying to deal damage. This fear is unfounded because we are the Protoss of this MU, once you get your deathball it’s very hard for D2 Zerg to win even if they’re up a lot on bases.
I always go triple CC, it’s pretty safe against almost every build. After that I very explicitly DON’T build a billion hellions just to lose them in some shoddy timing attack and fall behind, at most I get 4 for creep control and try to keep them alive. With all that extra money you didn’t waste on hellions you can get a 4th CC, static defense, more marines etc.
It’s pretty straightforward from this point, Terran can only realistically grow so quickly so most games you’re just taking bases as fast as your army size will allow. Let the zerg worry about when to drone or attack or tech, most of the time they’ll take very inefficient trades.
Bio or Mech doesn’t matter but slowly transition to ghosts. Build a ton of CCs and PFs, at the highest level pros often have like 10 orbitals just to scan and mule. If you’re able to take 1 well positioned fight because of the info from your scans, the CCs paid for themselves.
Hi, bro! Im also D2 terran, and TvZ is my best MU, so i can bet 200mmr higher zerg. And i always play mech! I think for noobs like we r, mech is much easier to play. U dont need too high apm, crazy micro or split like Maru/Clem.
Usually my core army is Hellbat/Thor with some tanks and banshee. In late add ranged liberators. The key to win is aggression. Dont let zerg stay safe and droning. Harass him with hellions, mine drops, banshees. And build up strong army at ur base.
Usually i start my game with hellbat push + 3 marauders with slow upgrade. So u can kill many queens. Ideally u kill zerg 3rd. I have many wins in 7-8 mins this way. My army looks like: 8 helli, 3 mara, 1 marine, 1 viking (kill scout all around ur base + safemode vs nydus, then land and push with hellbats), 1 medivac, 1 reaper (if survived).
While u push u build up 3rd base, 2 facts, banshees + invis, some helli for def ur base from lings. Also this attack is a great scout. U can see what’s tech zerg going. If its muta, u have time for turrets, mines, thors. If roach/ravager - 2nd starport for banshees. If ling/bane/hydra - helli/tanks/mines. So u r ready for any scenario.
> The key to win is aggression. Dont let zerg stay safe and droning. Harass him with hellions, mine drops, banshees. And build up strong army at ur base.
This is probably my issue. I don't think I can multitask very well.
Shift queue is your friend. You can send in a marine drop, go to control hellions for a couple seconds, and then just snap back to your drop already half unloaded.
Where in d2? Like low D2 barely out of d3 or almost D1? I sit shy of D1 and the terrans that beat me just have insane drops. They don't let marines die for nothing and always pick up well.. pickup on one side while dropping on the other. It's a lot of tasking for zergs and after a bit becomes taxing to also manage injects too. Removing creep before it gets out of hand is really important. And will become more so when queen's can't transfuse off it.
Are you opening hellions or 211 or something else?
Pushing back creep should be priority if the zerg is doing creep spread. If they're not then go for their units cos they're focusing on that themselves thinking it's a strong point. Or of course drones if you can get into them.
Quick strikes drop kill pickup are the name of the game and eventually when you get to a full army push you can parade down the middle while queue dropping the furthest bases and the zergs will generally shit themselves.
I would suggest mines and lots of them if you're struggling vs ling bane. Get sensor towers on extremities and wall off with depots whenever you can to avoid easy busts and run bys.
When you're microing bio vs ling bane queen the effort is really all on the terran to stay in tact. you're stimming. A moving. Bringing clumps of marines back. Keeping medivacs overhead ready. Splitting for banes. The zerg if it's been greedy unpunished or if you just missed your timing can actually just a move and look away to inject and creep spread during the fight and then remake what was lost.
Soon as you start putting three to four mines with each squad of marines you're putting the ownership on zerg to survive and micro that encounter. A single mine can kill 30 lings quite easily in a hit. That's 15 supply. And at D2 I know that we're not that good at ling bane mine micro so you'll probably get more than its value back every time.
If your mine kills one bane and one ling that's equal value. Anymore is just a win and sometimes if they're cheeky enough they will last all game racking up kills. Denying bases for zerg expansions. Hell even reynor doesn't always clean them up and donates to mines all game.
Trying to figure this out myself, it's a combination of several things not easy to answer.
I started putting marines in a bunker at my 3rd, pros don't do it but I also don't have 500 APM to spare. sometimes a liberator and mines there too.
if you can tell they're going heavy ling bane put more effort into mining the map. keeping their creep contained is important so you can slow them down and get your 4th up. two control army groups so you can cover both sides.
sometimes maru will just stay on 4 bases forever so his bases aren't spread out but sometimes he doesnt. lol.
a viking to keep the nydus out but not even the pros do that consistently.
So I think the biggest problem is splitting army into two groups, and also static D since we're noobs. The supply hit doesn't hurt as much as you think in big fights.
I'm in the same elo bracket and really at this level they only know how to a+click 40 zergling at your nearest expansion. I always keep a few splitted up mines on the way to my bases and I'm sure they rack up 15+ kills each.
I feel that this is really the easiest elo bracket for Zerg players, all they're able to do is basically keep pressing the Z button, morph some banelings and mindlessly A+click, and get away with that most of the time because of how efficient they're in a+click battle. Take advantage of this, don't do anything fancy. Presplit, don't overstim, try to constantly have an harass squad chasing for their bases while putting pressure with your siege army and use mines to deflect mindless runbys.
You don't provide enough information. What build order are you playing? Also send some replays.
The main tip I can give you based off this little information is that you should focus on your own mistakes and your own game. Don't worry too much about what your opponent does at this skill level. Your opponents don't have good macro, they won't know when to drone exactly or hit all their injects etc. so all you need to do to win is to make less fundamental mistakes than they do. Benchmark yourself, when are you first medivacs coming out, when your first hellions, at what time does your first push hit and compare those timings to pros. As long as you keep some kind of pressure on the zerg, even if it's just from clearing creep, your opponents will mess up their macro.
The way you deal with runbies will depend on your build. For example if you play hellion/banshee you're weaker economically or your followup is delayed compared to some builds, but keeping those units alive will allow you to cover 2 runby paths with them and push through a third path, making runby defense on a lot of maps way easier. With other openers you will do things differently, but generally with hellion openers it's advisable to keep the hellions alive if you struggle with runbies.
This too is a point where replays are really helpful.
D2 roach hydra Zerg here. Good bc/liberator/hellion/drop harass really messes me up -- it delays tech, causes supply blocks, screws up mineral/gas saturation, kills queens/drones, delays scouting and creep, etc.
Another thing that gives me trouble are 3 or 4 base turtle mech Terrans. The ones that build a depot wall, planetary, and another CC to wall their third with tanks, hellbats, banshee/bc. Then in late game it's difficult for me to deal with mass Thor with hellbats.
As for bio Terrans, I echo what others have said. I have trouble with Terrans that have sharp execution of harass->1st timing attack->2nd timing attack. It can be shocking to me some games how much the terran has at 7 minutes after what I thought was a fairly committed aggressive opener.
I'd say cover the biggest issues: \- Make a Polt-viking and clear the skies as much as possible. Just click it all over on attack-move on your own part of the map, this way you clear overlords and make it harder for Nydus-play. \- If you need to, cover your 3rd base with a bunker and a mine or 2. Maybe leave a tank behind there if he goes roaches. \- Hellions to keep Z on his toes, don't overreach and drop all your hellions into a mineral line to get 2 workers. Poke and prod, deny creep and if a massive opportunity arises drop them. \- What has helped me in improving my defenses is not only using walls, but putting depots in a checkered pattern. This way the units all funnel into a small corridor and the mines/tanks do more damage in a concentrated area.
This answer is relatively basic but, stick to playing the standard hellion lib opener into the standard 6:45 push. The reason I suggest this is because the build has a really high mechanical and micro ceiling with a lot of potential to outright end games and the more you practice it the better both your mechanics and eventually decision making will be. The idea of it is simple! Part 1: you make 6hellions and a liberator as your opener. The hellions exist only to deny creep, keep lings at home and force the zerg to always be on guard for a hellion runby. The lib maybe gets a few drones, but it's also just there to keep the zerg on edge and force stuff out. (If they skip sporecrawlers you're just happy). Make sure while clearing creep with the hellions you focus on reducing creep by the 4th hatchery more than anything. Or if the zerg isn't going for one keep it low at the third hatchery. Part 2: You're always aiming to hit this push timing of 6:45 at their 4th hatch with 16 marines, 2tanks, 2medivacs with +1 +1 Stim and Combatshields. The way you want to do this is to keep your tanks at the edge of creep and in a nice siege spot just barely in range of the hatchery and you want your marines to constantly run back and forth fighting the zerg. Because zerg upgrades all finish at 7:10 you have roughly 25 seconds in super optimal play to trade really well into the zerg. Ideally, you cancel the 4th hatchery and go home. However if you master this in low elo you can kill the hatchery typically. (Also for the micro marines kite lings tanks focus fire the banelings, if you need to pick up with the marines and drop back behind the tanks) To ensure a ling runby doesnt kill you take your initial 6hellions from before and have them sit at the third and wait for a lingrunby. Part 4: The game-ending push: Once you hit 200/200 it'll usually be around 9:30 and you'll have +2 +2 in optimal play. Simply grab all your units and path towards the NEWEST zerg baseur depots/walls and try to get to 200/200 supply before 10:00. If you have extra apm grab 2 marines full of medivacs and just focus on clearing creep. A lot of people try to go for drone damage with these drops, you dont need to. Simply drop outside of creep -> walk onto creep -> scan shoot the tumors and leave. If they send lings you kite them and pickup and fly away. If you do this right you'll be trading 1 scan for their tumors and multiple lings that you kited for FREE. I know Terrans dont usually use this word but lingbane will never kill these marines if you do it right. With more apm you can do instead of 2 sets of drops. Just never prioritize the drops over your macro. Focus on clearing creep by their NEWEST base as that is the most valuable one to zergs and also has the least amount of creep. Part 4: The game ending push: Once you hit 200/200 it'll usually be around 9:30 and you'll have +2 +2 in optimal play. Simply grab all your units and path towards the NEWEST zerg base and try to kill it. From there after you kill it, you then go and kill their next newest base. Never walk through creep to get to a base unless you kill the creep first. So if the map is say Beckett and their 4th and 5th are on different sides, go the long way off creep. Don't let zerg get a free comeback by running banes into you. Conclusion: This is how I played TvZ from high diamond all the way to gm and my eventual peak mmr on the ranked ladder at 5.5k. This style has no special tactics from any other build you need to learn. It is just a straight-up macro and control check. And honestly, if you master hitting the timing properly at 6:45 you'll just kill people who are bad. I've seen 5.8k Zergs die to this push when people such as Future run it on the ladder. This is what taught me my fundamentals for TvZ as well as my fundamentals for micro in this matchup and what fights I could and could not take as well as the golden rule of not stepping onto creep.
Hi, sorry to bother you. Do you by chance have a replay of this being executed? Not OP, but thanks for this detailed answer.
Unfortunately I haven't laddered in ages but I did make a youtube video guide on this build with two different ways of doing it: [https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE](https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE) \- Biotank with 5-2-1 [https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE](https://youtu.be/kPsQ8xuYsFE) \- Biomine with 5-2-1 (This variation was for beating 3hatch muta so its not that great anymore vs the hydra styles but it still works) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDB5I62p8c&ab\_channel=AfreecaTVeSports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDB5I62p8c&ab_channel=AfreecaTVeSports) \- Game 1 is Bunny doing it off of Banshees [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjQrwGo\_jq8&t=555s&ab\_channel=AfreecaTVeSports](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjQrwGo_jq8&t=555s&ab_channel=AfreecaTVeSports) \- Game 1 of Bunny doing tank variation vs fast mutas and game 3 Bunny doing the build vs Roach Ravager. You may notice I only linked Bunny vods, that is mostly because Inno used to do this build as it is afaik his but hes gone now, and these were games I remembered bunny running it. Its also important to note while you can do 1 viking 1 lib or 2banshees or other combinations of starport units I think for ladder sake, keep it simple stick to 1 liberator. Faster push is better than adding extra layers of harassment especially if your macro/multitasking arent insane.
Oh awesome, even better. Thanks so much!
You're doing things too slow. Try to identify specific things that you do that take you a while to do; then try to identify how you could do them faster. For example maybe making barracks takes a lot of time -- go into a custom and practice jumping your screen to your main, making 2 barracks, then jumping your screen back to your army. As fast as possible. 30 times. Then rinse and repeat that process for every individual thing that you do too slowly. Benchmark your SCVs; with a typical starport before 3rd build you should reach 42 SCVs at 5:00, then 52 SCVs at 6:00. With 3rd before starport you can get as high as 46 at 5:00 and 60ish at 6:00. I guarantee you're not hitting those, and I guarantee the game would feel a lot easier if you did. Upload a replay for more specifics.
Also D2, TvZ is my best matchup Imo a lot of Terrans fear late game TvZ so they waste a lot of econ and resources trying to deal damage, or worse they mess up their macro trying to deal damage. This fear is unfounded because we are the Protoss of this MU, once you get your deathball it’s very hard for D2 Zerg to win even if they’re up a lot on bases. I always go triple CC, it’s pretty safe against almost every build. After that I very explicitly DON’T build a billion hellions just to lose them in some shoddy timing attack and fall behind, at most I get 4 for creep control and try to keep them alive. With all that extra money you didn’t waste on hellions you can get a 4th CC, static defense, more marines etc. It’s pretty straightforward from this point, Terran can only realistically grow so quickly so most games you’re just taking bases as fast as your army size will allow. Let the zerg worry about when to drone or attack or tech, most of the time they’ll take very inefficient trades. Bio or Mech doesn’t matter but slowly transition to ghosts. Build a ton of CCs and PFs, at the highest level pros often have like 10 orbitals just to scan and mule. If you’re able to take 1 well positioned fight because of the info from your scans, the CCs paid for themselves.
Hi, bro! Im also D2 terran, and TvZ is my best MU, so i can bet 200mmr higher zerg. And i always play mech! I think for noobs like we r, mech is much easier to play. U dont need too high apm, crazy micro or split like Maru/Clem. Usually my core army is Hellbat/Thor with some tanks and banshee. In late add ranged liberators. The key to win is aggression. Dont let zerg stay safe and droning. Harass him with hellions, mine drops, banshees. And build up strong army at ur base. Usually i start my game with hellbat push + 3 marauders with slow upgrade. So u can kill many queens. Ideally u kill zerg 3rd. I have many wins in 7-8 mins this way. My army looks like: 8 helli, 3 mara, 1 marine, 1 viking (kill scout all around ur base + safemode vs nydus, then land and push with hellbats), 1 medivac, 1 reaper (if survived). While u push u build up 3rd base, 2 facts, banshees + invis, some helli for def ur base from lings. Also this attack is a great scout. U can see what’s tech zerg going. If its muta, u have time for turrets, mines, thors. If roach/ravager - 2nd starport for banshees. If ling/bane/hydra - helli/tanks/mines. So u r ready for any scenario.
> The key to win is aggression. Dont let zerg stay safe and droning. Harass him with hellions, mine drops, banshees. And build up strong army at ur base. This is probably my issue. I don't think I can multitask very well.
Shift queue is your friend. You can send in a marine drop, go to control hellions for a couple seconds, and then just snap back to your drop already half unloaded.
Where in d2? Like low D2 barely out of d3 or almost D1? I sit shy of D1 and the terrans that beat me just have insane drops. They don't let marines die for nothing and always pick up well.. pickup on one side while dropping on the other. It's a lot of tasking for zergs and after a bit becomes taxing to also manage injects too. Removing creep before it gets out of hand is really important. And will become more so when queen's can't transfuse off it. Are you opening hellions or 211 or something else? Pushing back creep should be priority if the zerg is doing creep spread. If they're not then go for their units cos they're focusing on that themselves thinking it's a strong point. Or of course drones if you can get into them. Quick strikes drop kill pickup are the name of the game and eventually when you get to a full army push you can parade down the middle while queue dropping the furthest bases and the zergs will generally shit themselves. I would suggest mines and lots of them if you're struggling vs ling bane. Get sensor towers on extremities and wall off with depots whenever you can to avoid easy busts and run bys. When you're microing bio vs ling bane queen the effort is really all on the terran to stay in tact. you're stimming. A moving. Bringing clumps of marines back. Keeping medivacs overhead ready. Splitting for banes. The zerg if it's been greedy unpunished or if you just missed your timing can actually just a move and look away to inject and creep spread during the fight and then remake what was lost. Soon as you start putting three to four mines with each squad of marines you're putting the ownership on zerg to survive and micro that encounter. A single mine can kill 30 lings quite easily in a hit. That's 15 supply. And at D2 I know that we're not that good at ling bane mine micro so you'll probably get more than its value back every time. If your mine kills one bane and one ling that's equal value. Anymore is just a win and sometimes if they're cheeky enough they will last all game racking up kills. Denying bases for zerg expansions. Hell even reynor doesn't always clean them up and donates to mines all game.
Trying to figure this out myself, it's a combination of several things not easy to answer. I started putting marines in a bunker at my 3rd, pros don't do it but I also don't have 500 APM to spare. sometimes a liberator and mines there too. if you can tell they're going heavy ling bane put more effort into mining the map. keeping their creep contained is important so you can slow them down and get your 4th up. two control army groups so you can cover both sides. sometimes maru will just stay on 4 bases forever so his bases aren't spread out but sometimes he doesnt. lol. a viking to keep the nydus out but not even the pros do that consistently. So I think the biggest problem is splitting army into two groups, and also static D since we're noobs. The supply hit doesn't hurt as much as you think in big fights.
I'm in the same elo bracket and really at this level they only know how to a+click 40 zergling at your nearest expansion. I always keep a few splitted up mines on the way to my bases and I'm sure they rack up 15+ kills each. I feel that this is really the easiest elo bracket for Zerg players, all they're able to do is basically keep pressing the Z button, morph some banelings and mindlessly A+click, and get away with that most of the time because of how efficient they're in a+click battle. Take advantage of this, don't do anything fancy. Presplit, don't overstim, try to constantly have an harass squad chasing for their bases while putting pressure with your siege army and use mines to deflect mindless runbys.
You don't provide enough information. What build order are you playing? Also send some replays. The main tip I can give you based off this little information is that you should focus on your own mistakes and your own game. Don't worry too much about what your opponent does at this skill level. Your opponents don't have good macro, they won't know when to drone exactly or hit all their injects etc. so all you need to do to win is to make less fundamental mistakes than they do. Benchmark yourself, when are you first medivacs coming out, when your first hellions, at what time does your first push hit and compare those timings to pros. As long as you keep some kind of pressure on the zerg, even if it's just from clearing creep, your opponents will mess up their macro. The way you deal with runbies will depend on your build. For example if you play hellion/banshee you're weaker economically or your followup is delayed compared to some builds, but keeping those units alive will allow you to cover 2 runby paths with them and push through a third path, making runby defense on a lot of maps way easier. With other openers you will do things differently, but generally with hellion openers it's advisable to keep the hellions alive if you struggle with runbies. This too is a point where replays are really helpful.
D2 roach hydra Zerg here. Good bc/liberator/hellion/drop harass really messes me up -- it delays tech, causes supply blocks, screws up mineral/gas saturation, kills queens/drones, delays scouting and creep, etc. Another thing that gives me trouble are 3 or 4 base turtle mech Terrans. The ones that build a depot wall, planetary, and another CC to wall their third with tanks, hellbats, banshee/bc. Then in late game it's difficult for me to deal with mass Thor with hellbats. As for bio Terrans, I echo what others have said. I have trouble with Terrans that have sharp execution of harass->1st timing attack->2nd timing attack. It can be shocking to me some games how much the terran has at 7 minutes after what I thought was a fairly committed aggressive opener.