Zerg Queen

[Drake Clawfang]

I have to say that after playing Zerg, I find the Queen insanely useful and one of my fav new mechanics to SC2. Zerg don't need to build a million Hatcheries to build a large army now, Queens automatically produce more larva, and more or less by the time they hatch the Queen has enough energy to do it again. I still build multiple Hatcheries of course but I don't feel as pressured to do it as in SC1. Three games now I built up a huge force of Hydralisks and Zerglings with only two Hatcheries via the Queen's larva abilities.

The Creep Tumor mechanic is also a nice bonus, I can spread Creep all over the place and get a speed boost, and I don't need to waste Drones building Creep Colonies to do it.

Overall I'm very impressed with the new Zerg mechanics now that I have a chance to use them.

[Hammy]

Are you going anywhere with this? :s

[Drake Clawfang]

Just commenting on the Queen and seeing what others think. As a note, I don't see how others think of the Zerg as the weakest race. With Queens always keeping me swimming in lots of Larva I can produce an army at light speed. My only complaint is that their specialized units like the Roach, Infestor, Corrupter, etc, I haven't had much need to use, but IIRC they were that way in SC1.

[Hoywolf]

Just commenting on the Queen and seeing what others think. As a note, I don't see how others think of the Zerg as the weakest race. With Queens always keeping me swimming in lots of Larva I can produce an army at light speed. My only complaint is that their specialized units like the Roach, Infestor, Corrupter, etc, I haven't had much need to use, but IIRC they were that way in SC1.

The queen is no doubt great, its our macro ability as well as our only T1 AA unit. But if you compare the other marco abilities and the fact that you can go 5-6gate or 4-5 raxs, you will see that other races can mass just as well as you can. A single unit like the queen will not keep the zerg from being the weakest race, it is actually the roach, infester, overseer, and the ultralisk that are not performing up to par.

And by weak, its not weak by a large amount, a small buffs here and there, or creating more synergy in the units may help out as well. The zerg just need a bit more polishing right now.

[VVheat]

I am seriously thinking about massing Queens as AA, especially in my ZvT games.

I use a Hydra + Broodlord combo in the late game, but I am going to try Queen + Broodlord (it's the only way to beat mass Tanks). I will still need roaches to keep the enemy busy, and infestors for support. But I believe I can do better by not getting a single hydra.

Queens don't have mobility issues if you mass them. Mass Queens = Mass Creep tumors.
Queens don't get owned by Hellions. Terrans get these very often in TvZs.
Queens are cheaper Hydras.
The Queen has more than double the HP of a hydra, and is not light (not heavy either!)
The Queen's AA ability is only slightly weaker than a Hydra.
Transfusion works great on Brood Lords.
Queens suck at anti-ground with compared with Hydras, but that is not an issue when you got Brood Lords.

So when the vikings come to eat my Brood Lords, I pull them back to my line of Queens, while recieving transfusions.


Mass Queens would suck in ZvZ, coz spreading the creep helps your enemy...
Mass Queens as AA won't be really needed in ZvP, coz Hydras are generally very useful against many Protoss units. I still want mass queens for late game.

[Dread_Reaper]

The only issue I have with the Queen is the Infusion move. I have yet to use this once in any Zerg game, because its only 150 HP that it heals. If you're in trouble, that can only buy a building a couple of seconds, tops. Compare this to the Terran SCV, which can constantly heal, and you can use multiple of them to counter the damage per second being dealt to something.

The other problem is that it costs 50 energy. That's 2 Spawn Larvae you could have done instead. I don't feel its ever worth it to sacrifice that for the healing. Of course, even if it was 25 energy I wouldn't use it, but I WOULD use it for 50 energy it it healed, say, 600 HP or something. At least enough to save one worthwhile unit of structure that can have an impact on the game, like an Ultralisk or Broodlord or Hatchery.

-Dread_Reaper

[Drake Clawfang]

I've used Infusion to support Muta and Overseer harassment teams. Pull my units back, Infuse any weaker ones, send them back. Mutas especially since they're so fast, I once had three Queens ready to keep them at top health to keep harassing.

[Twilice]

The way to use transfusion I guess it to have 2 queens in one base. It's another 150 but one to keep spamming larva and the other to transfuse and spread tumours.
Idk if it works though, I usually tend to time the spawn larva pretty bad so I will get some extra mana for tumours. Specially when I always get alot of extra hatcheries.

[RamiZ]

The way TLO(TheLittleOne) plays Zerg is really awesome. He is always going for Speedlings and not Roaches and he is always making a lot of Queens, they help vs. Void Ray/Banshee harass a lot, and spread creeps everywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggeYQ186u8 - part 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FYaKj6tRrQ - part 2.
TLO vs. Strelok in this game, so you should all watch this. It is not some super extra cool move, but I just liked how did he played overall!

The only issue I have with the Queen is the Infusion move. I have yet to use this once in any Zerg game, because its only 150 HP that it heals. If you're in trouble, that can only buy a building a couple of seconds, tops. Compare this to the Terran SCV, which can constantly heal, and you can use multiple of them to counter the damage per second being dealt to something.

The other problem is that it costs 50 energy. That's 2 Spawn Larvae you could have done instead. I don't feel its ever worth it to sacrifice that for the healing. Of course, even if it was 25 energy I wouldn't use it, but I WOULD use it for 50 energy it it healed, say, 600 HP or something. At least enough to save one worthwhile unit of structure that can have an impact on the game, like an Ultralisk or Broodlord or Hatchery.

Wow... sorry to tell you this and no offense but you are terrible... :x
Saw many games where Transfusion is used for healing Hatchery, or where Zerg is defending with 2-3 Queens vs. early Marines/Zealot push and using healing instead of Spawn Larvae. It heals 125, and that is a lot, even for 50 energy it is quite useful. Also, saw game where TLO defeated WhiteRa's fast Void Rays with 6 Queens spamming Transfusion on each other... or where he heals Overlord that is about to die and would make him supply blocked.

So let me get this straight, you will chose to spawn larvae instead of transfusion, even if you won't do anything with spawn larvae, because they will kill your Overlords and Queen(s)? I just don't see the point. Even if you have 1 Queen per base, it is better to use Transfuison, and not always Spawn Larvae, and not talking about players that makes 2-3 Queens per base.

And why are you comparing it to the SCV? SCV is worker, Queen isn't. Her job is to defend the base, if you are repairng with SCV, he isn't mining, also it cost minerals to repair instead of energy, he has 45 HP, so he can be killed quite easy, and SCV's repair isn't instant like how Queen's transfusion is. Better comparison would be Queen's Transfusion to the Medivac's Heal, but even then, you can't really compare them.

[Blackdogkt]

The only issue I have with the Queen is the Infusion move. I have yet to use this once in any Zerg game, because its only 150 HP that it heals. If you're in trouble, that can only buy a building a couple of seconds, tops. Compare this to the Terran SCV, which can constantly heal, and you can use multiple of them to counter the damage per second being dealt to something.

The other problem is that it costs 50 energy. That's 2 Spawn Larvae you could have done instead. I don't feel its ever worth it to sacrifice that for the healing. Of course, even if it was 25 energy I wouldn't use it, but I WOULD use it for 50 energy it it healed, say, 600 HP or something. At least enough to save one worthwhile unit of structure that can have an impact on the game, like an Ultralisk or Broodlord or Hatchery.

-Dread_Reaper

You're right if you have one queen per hatch. If you make extras however, the spawn larva mechanic can't be "banked". Chronoboost or mules you can forget and then still use the energy that you you massed up in one go, but no matter how much energy a queen has, you can't do multiple larva injections on a single hatch. So, if you have extra queens you're not really wasting anything. In fact you would be wasting energy if you were not using transfusion and creep tumors.

So, it's not so much a case of "what to do with queens" but a question of "how many queens do i have?". I do get a couple extras overall, i would like to get more but i keep forgetting about it or get caught up building other stuff after a certain point in my games.