Infestor Micro Assistance

[endserenading]

I'm a Gold-level Zerg player; I'm nowhere near "good," but I don't think I'd be considered "awful" either. I don't quite think I'll ever have the dexterity and skill to make it into true high-level play, but I'd be content with staying in Gold for the rest of my Starcraft II career--as long as I work on my shortcomings, that is. Ostensibly, as one usually seems to discern from a Gold player, it would seem that I win most of my matches. I don't.

Maybe my losses are due to me fat-fingering (do not get derive sexual connotation from this) my keys, or simply a result errors in my build order or strategy. Whatever the case may be, I'm still "working out the kinks." By that accord, my seemingly flawed--although sometimes effective--strategies usually revolve around a typical Roach-Hydralisk-Zergling-Infestor-army. Granted, I may have erred in the choice of such a strategy from time to time, but that particular unit composition is one I favor and have fun with.

I hope to incite a rewarding discussion about properly microing and utilizing Infestors to help myself and others.

What I'm asking for is some help on the Infestor side of my army; I think I have worked out the pivotal details of microing such an army, even if there are a few modest mistakes here and there. Any general tips on such an army are more than welcome, but as a whole, what I'm looking for is some helpful information about properly using Infestors.

Here are some techniques I'm struggling with, bullet-pointed for your reading convenience:

- I absolutely love Fungal Growth, but it seems that I can never get it off when I most need it. I try to keep my Infestors in the back of my army, but sometimes I just cannot seem to position my units correctly to get this off. Any advice?

- Relating to the above question, what exactly is the best method to place my Infestors? I find them getting focus-fired and destroyed quite often, and I also don't seem to burrow them when I should. Suggestions?

- When and in what order should I get the Infestor upgrades? I realize that researching Neural Parasite is slightly reactive; teching to Neural Parasite to deal with Thors, Colossi, Battlecruisers, etc. goes without saying. I usually ignore the burrow upgrade--is this a bad choice?

- Properly using Neural Parasite on a Colossus without the advantage of high ground is extremely difficult to me. Am I alone in this?

- Frenzy: amazing enhancement or miniscule buff? Personally, I'd assign myself to believing the former, but I've read many anecdotal reports leaning toward the latter. It's obviously best utilized on Ultralisks and Brood Lords, though rarely do I even use or see such units. I've found Frenzy has wonderful uses when cast on Hydras and Roaches that are taking out expansions. All this is failing to mention that it's inherently effective against Maruders as well.

Succinct as my tactics may sound, I am probably more than lacking in any general Infestor knowledge, so please drop any videos, tutorials, replays, statements, or tidbits that you can to help me out. I'd post a replay, but seeing as how replays are seriously messed up right now, that action seems nigh impossible.

I'll most likely be updating this topic quite frequently depending on the amount of information that is shared and received. Thank you!

Resources and References:

PsYStarcraft's Basic Micro and Infestor Techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1jZ3oPZxlM

[DutuCatalin]

i play as random and when i get zerg i play with hydra and infestors..

i always use fungal growth,i put the infestors in the middle of my army and i can use the fungal growth always
you also can burrow them and put them behind his army , then fungal growth and maybe mind control on thors,colossi and ultralisks would be great because they put the massive units behind




sry for my english,still learning..

[GRUNT]

Infestor micro is something I need to work on, myself :].

However, I gotta say that at the moment, Fungal Growth is pretty much the only reason why I get them. And even then, usually only against Terran and Zerg.

Neural Parasite is great against Thors, but the problem is that due to the extra investment in time to research Neural Parasite, as well waiting for a whopping 100 Energy to actually cast the spell, there'll usually be an uncomfortable number of Tanks supporting whatever number of Thors the Terran may have.

Even a couple Tanks is enough to make Neural Parasite a lot less effective.

As for Colossi, I would strongly discourage getting Neural Parasite to counter Colossi. Colossi have 9 range (a competent Protoss almost always researches Extended Thermal Lances as soon as the Robo Bay is up) - they're generally going to be just behind the Protoss front line. Neural Parasite also has 9 range. This means that your Infestors need to be at the front of your army to cast the thing, and they'll probably die in a moment.

You could always try to flank with your Infestors, but it's not always possible.

I prefer the flexibility of just getting Corruptors. They don't take down Colossi as fast as Vikings, but it's a much safer (and in my opinion, more reliable) option than Infestors.

[Islandsnake]

- I absolutely love Fungal Growth, but it seems that I can never get it off when I most need it. I try to keep my Infestors in the back of my army, but sometimes I just cannot seem to position my units correctly to get this off. Any advice?

Well honestly I keep mine in the front of my army, but what im wondering about this is are you falling under "one control group syndrome"? I find that if I have everything grouped together its harder to get my fungal growths off. Honestly I think you should be able to get one off with most infestors before they die, most of the time the infestor will die after casting it but thats ok.

- Relating to the above question, what exactly is the best method to place my Infestors? I find them getting focus-fired and destroyed quite often, and I also don't seem to burrow them when I should. Suggestions?

I think its good to keep them near the middle of your army, but the biggest thing is keep your "hand" on them at all times - if there army moves into your natural and your not looking at them they'ere bound to get picked off. One method you could employee is keeping them burrowed until its time to use them. However that could casue delay but would be a safer bet.

- When and in what order should I get the Infestor upgrades? I realize that researching Neural Parasite is slightly reactive; teching to Neural Parasite to deal with Thors, Colossi, Battlecruisers, etc. goes without saying. I usually ignore the burrow upgrade--is this a bad choice?

A few days ago I would say never get the burrow upgrade, however theres a few key uses for having this.
- If you intend to harrass with your infestor the movement helps
- If you plan to keep them alive with burrow often or keep them burrowed
- If you want to creep up to someones army and slam them with a fungal growth before the battle gose down.

Get the upgrade after you have 2-3 infestors in action, that way you should be safe enough to buy it without trouble.

- Properly using Neural Parasite on a Colossus without the advantage of high ground is extremely difficult to me. Am I alone in this?

No, and I don't think that anyone should rely on mind controlling colossi or anything for that matter. Colossi are high range units, its not surprising that its hard to grab them :d I think NP is best used vs the thor and STs than anything else, but thats me !

- Frenzy: amazing enhancement or miniscule buff? Personally, I'd assign myself to believing the former, but I've read many anecdotal reports leaning toward the latter. It's obviously best utilized on Ultralisks and Brood Lords, though rarely do I even use or see such units. I've found Frenzy has wonderful uses when cast on Hydras and Roaches that are taking out expansions. All this is failing to mention that it's inherently effective against Maruders as well.

Frenzy Is not a good addition to the infestor, theres lots wrong with it- so much so that it warrants its own thread, however I will give you a quick run down of my logic. Frenzy is a single target spell, single target spells should really be worth the extra attention when you cast them (feedback comes to mind) However when the player clicks on frenzy, its confusing on who to cast it on? And who will get the most benefit? Also you will get more DPS from casting fungal growth which allows you army to attack running away targets and dose damage to them. I won't tell you never to use this spell but I don't think its very good. I really feel like there just tossing darts at a spell board lol.

Lastly I think its worth saying that ALOT of people get infestors and don't have enough troops to support it.

So far it seems like the best way to use the infestor is to go, ling/infestor. But no matter how you decide to do it, remember that fungal growth can really do some pain to units...I mean most small units wll die from 2 of them...so if you can harass there army with it as there moving out and across the map by the time they even get across the map there army will be very weak.

[Hammy]

To me the most important thing is hotkeying your infestors seperately so that they don't just run into the melee but you can keep them close enough.

I don't really know what to say about not being able to place fungal growth. It's an instant AoE so maybe you're keeping your infestors too far away when the battle begins?

I haven't had a chance to use frenzy much but it's looking like a bit of a silly spell for now. Even on broodlords it isn't optimal since a big part of a BL's dps is from broodlings (though it's worth it to frenzy BLs of course). Ultralisks die so quickly anyways so whatever...

NP is still great though. It's a bit expensive to upgrade, but once you've got it I think it's definitely worth it. I don't use it all that much on collossi though... I've used it on thors, tanks, and immortals. My response to collossi are usually corruptors rather than infestors now that NP requires and upgrade.

Edit: Island beat me to it with a more comprehensive response so just read that

[endserenading]

Thanks for the really helpful responses, everyone! I'm glad people could throw out some extremely proactive responses.

To answer some of your questions: No, I do NOT fall under "one control group syndrome," haha. I may be pretty mediocre, but I'm not quite that inexperienced. I could see how you could get that connotation, though.

I don't really know what to say about not being able to place fungal growth. It's an instant AoE so maybe you're keeping your infestors too far away when the battle begins?

I think this is my biggest problem: I'm always afraid my Infestors are just going to explode as soon as an enemy so much as looks at them. (You can't really blame me for such a notion; it is true in some cases!)

I'll work on transitioning into Corruptors as well. I always seem to neglect them and I think it's costing me dearly.

[DutuCatalin]

well the best thing you can do is research the move while burrowed upgrade for them and keep them on another control group

when the battle begins sneak with them anywhere you want on the battlefield and cast fungal growth

[endserenading]

Yeah, that's what I try to do, I just seem to mess it up every time. I just played a really intense 1v1 and could most likely attribute my victory to a Burrow-move + Neural Parasite on Colossi. I'm getting better!

Anyway, I've updated the main post with a "resources and references" section that should help others out as well. I found a really intuitive video that PsYStarcraft put up on some basic micro mechanics for Zerg that could serve as a basis for this thread and topic.

[Hoywolf]

Ive been playing around with an infestor more lastly, but its very soft, much like a HT. If you can predict where the battle will happen its great because you can position them on the high ground, but this is really hard to do.

Generally your ground and air army should have different control grps, and your caster to be in another as well as your ground, that is how i have been doing it.

I dont really use the borrow move at all, my infestors are just AoE control for easy surrounding.