The Zerg Players thread

[Afrogator]

True, but i just got the impression that a handfull of Ravens could make an entire Zerg army run with their tail between their legs. In any case, yey for the Raven nerf!

[GRUNT]

True, but i just got the impression that a handfull of Ravens could make an entire Zerg army run with their tail between their legs. In any case, yey for the Raven nerf!

According to what I read at TL, Dustin was talking about some changes to the Seeker Missile.

Apparently, it's going to only need a Tech Lab to be researchable (no longer needs the Fusion Core), and will be less powerful due to its easier accessibility.

Personally, I'm not sure if this is a buff or a nerf. I've gotta say that I'm really worried about seeing SMs earlier in the game. Even in a nerfed form, I'm sure that they'll still be pretty strong, and that would mean that my window to inflict damage with Hydras is pretty small .

If such Raven play were to become more common, I'm not entirely sure how to react. Mutalisks get chewed apart by Marines, so I'm wondering if getting Corruptors would be a good choice. They're rather pricey and aren't as fast as Mutalisks, but they have 6 range which lets them snipe Ravens more safely than Mutalisks. They also have 2 armour, so they're more resilient to Marine attacks, and are respectable against Vikings.

Goshdarnit, I wanna see more Corruptors! At the moment, I can't even remember a situation where I got Corruptors to deal with air .

[Hoywolf]

To be more specific, the 8 pool can have your pool up by 2:05. The 13 pool gets it by 3:00. The 13 pool won't be able to repel the attack. A 10 pool will get the Zerglings in the base just after the 13 pool Queen comes up on Lost Temple.

Also you almost always need to build those 6 zerglings and Queen asap. I almost always 10 pool, and I love it when I come against a 13 pool that delays the Zerglings in favor of drones. It doesn't kill them, but I can take out their Queen. If I can do that I'll have a 12 larvae advantage, and a free pass to early expand.

You may have noticed that I really like to post times. I'd really like to know what the timings are for some of these builds. I'm particularly interested in what units you have by the 4:00 mark.

I agree I also like to start with a 10 pool as well, with the extractor trick to get up to 11 drones while i wait for my pool and overlord to finish.

[Hammy]

Meh, except on Steppes (because of rush distance), 10 pool isn't such a big deal for a 13pool. With a queen in the middle of my drones I'll lose one drone before he falls back, or two drones if he doesn't, and then my 2 first zerglings pop out immediately, and that's that.
I agree that an 8 pool is much more dangerous, but also much more risky because the 13pool player just needs to save 3 larvae before the pool finishes and he might be able to repell you (he'll take drone damage, but you need to do tons of damage to make it worth your while).
I generally don't like 10pooling though, it's in that gray area where you can't do much damage but aren't getting an economic lead. I like being 10pooled though! Although it's intense to defend, you've got all the right tools to do well against it.

I don't mind doing overpools on small maps as well. It gets your queen out early, as well as a fast expansion. If you play your cards right and use your overpool early map domination you can get a very solid mid game (perhaps more solid than a 13pool because of that earlier queen/hatch).

Perhaps this is just an old BW habit, but I don't like 10pooling very much, for the reasons stated above

[keruya]

any of you have youtube reply of baneling bust?

[Xadr]

So, the baneling bust is the way to go? For every race? what happens if the attack fails and they go air?

[Aldrius]

So, the baneling bust is the way to go? For every race? what happens if the attack fails and they go air?

It's good against Terran.

I suppose it could work against Protoss, but it'd be completely pointless in ZvZ.

[Jabber Wookie]

Alright, so I just finished reading all of the posts to make sure no one has talked about this yet. Firstly, there are some great suggestions/observations in this forum
I especially like IslandSnake's list of things to look out for when facing a Terran player; although, I too cannot think of many counters for those damned Terran harassment strategies.
EDIT: I also want to add that I have been using the Baneling bust against Terran, and not only is it effective, but it might be one of the funnest strategies I've used. Thanks for the info!

Anyways, I have a really simple Zerg strategy that is specifically for Incineration Zone. I am ranked 20 in Gold and just won 5 games in a row (all of which were played on Incineration Zone... coincidence I guess) against two Terran players and 3 Toss players. Basically, you start pretty standard, but the BO and strategies differ depending on whether it's a Toss player or Terran player (I've never tried this against Zerg).

Against Terran

10 - Overlord
13 - Spawning Pool
12 - Extractor and place 3 drones for remainder of game
15 - Overlord
16 - Queen
18 - Zerglings continuously while throwing in a few drones to keep up eco
18ish - Baneling Nest

I don't know the exact numbers after this, but the strategy is more important:

Place an overlord on top of the two cliffs outside of each player's natural expansion. These will serve as great observers in case the opponent is moving in; however, marines can reach your ovies so be careful.

Before your first group of zerglings finish, place your rally point on the destructible rocks next to your base. Any units spawned afterwards will automatically attack the rocks, thus reducing your need to focus on this.
Then, it's pretty straightforward after this. Simply destroy both destructible rocks and attack opponent who is often caught by surprise. Platinum players may be more aware of their surroundings and build a structure near these rocks, thus making this BO/strat pretty useless in that league. But even in Gold, I have been able to win many times using this strategy.

Also, make sure to upgrade your hatchery to a Lair at some point in order to gain access to anti-air units (mutas, hydras), because Toss and Terran players often build air units on this small map to harass or all out win.

Against Protoss (even more effective than against T)

Same exact BO pretty much except roaches instead of banelings. Still get about 6 to 8 lings to start at rocks. This works much better than the strategy against Terran, because the lings hit the rocks while the roaches use range on it, thus making the destructible rocks go down much more quickly.

This allows you to often get into the Toss base with about 6 roaches and 6 lings before he even has an Immortal out (maybe 1 at most). After that, it is simple, yet poetic destruction!

[YohSL]

Hey, first time poster.

I found out a rather weird trick with the zerg the other day, but I'm not all the sure how useful it is as I don't have a beta key, so I can't test it on a live target.


It involves the Queen's creep tumor ability.
It turns out that if you use a Drone and start building a hatchery, then cancel, it leaves behind a brief section of creep, allowing you to place a tumor in the canceled hatchery's place.
(you also get all you minerals back if I'm not mistaken)

Meaning you can basically place creep wherever you want as long as you have a Queen and a Drone.


I can only think of a couple of reasons you would want to do this, as the Queen is so bloody slow.
1: To place creep near your main base choke point, as to lay early Spine Crawlers, to protect against early rushes.
2: Along key pathways to act as forward scouts.
3: Placing creep in you non-zerg opponents natural expansions, to slow them down, or just to screw with them.

Weird, IDK, could be useful I guess.


~Yoh

[Islandsnake]

Yeah I've been spine crawler rushed using that before, it was pretty good before but now with the slow moving creep the only use you could get out of it is to put some spine crawlers are u choke before you start ure expo, which could indeed be useful...still takes 20 years for your queen to get down there though haha