30 replies to this topic

[duke_Qa]

good that there is some SC2 forum here. Now I can ask around for other strategies and the likes.

Personally i use Liquidpedia alot to find strategies, but they aren't always too detailed. Right now I'm playing zerg because I find that is the race i got the most problems playing properly. I still got a few practice matches left, and i have to say the practice maps doesn't make it easy on zerg.

But all in all, I usually go ol9, SP13, roach-warren around 14-16 and queen on 16, also while Queen is coming up I'm making one or two more OL's so that i can handle the Roaches. if it's a bigger and slower map i might go quick expansion before SP, but then i have to scout properly to make sure i don't get air-raided. All in all I would say I'm strong in the early-game, but once the opponent got critical mass I usually fall behind. Zerg is mentioned to be a reactive race, where you have to keep a few larvas around until you see the enemy pushing towards you, build the right counter and defeat the push, then Counter straight away. I can agree on that to a certain point, but you always need to be on the move and have map control to even get that far. I guess my macro is still too sucky

[The Best Guest]

For zerg i usually try to 6 pool, and get the rush out as soon as possible and then go straight to banelings, and if that doesnt work i add hydralisks and nexus worms to my arsensal.

[duke_Qa]

6pool is going to get you killed against half-good players. most know how to scout, and once that has been spotted they will easily fuck you over with little effort since you got delayed big-time. But then again I dunno how hard the different leagues are so who knows.

[The Best Guest]

They're just a harass, theres not much they can do if you get it out quick enough.

[duke_Qa]

its more all in than a harass, it's a cheese tactic if you go 6pool, since you ain't building any drones to begin with. you will be like 3 minutes late compared to someone who went drones, if it fails you will most likely lose quickly.

10pool or 12pool is more of a harass that you can come back out of if it fails, worst case you will be able to scout some of his base. If he walled off you can prolly save the rush lings and go baneling and try to break through.

Edited by duke_Qa, 24 August 2010 - 09:21 PM.

[Gfire]

Yeah, I usually 10gas 10pool and push when ling speed is up.

I'd suggest getting a queen as soon as your pool is up, though, as larva translates into a stronger economy or military, and is the main limiting factor at that stage in the game. (An additional 4 drones before your roach warren is huge.)

Otherwise, have you tried teching to lair and skipping roaches?

[The Best Guest]

Oh damn, I meant 10 pool, sorry yeah I max out drones before I get zerglings.

[Gfire]

You guys usually get straight up 10pool or 10gas 10pool?

[duke_Qa]

I usually just go for gas around 9 so that i can keep producing another drone while the OL is being trained. also, you can cancel that extractor once you've started training that second drone to get 10/9, although it costs like 19 minerals or something, so people might say it isn't worth it.

Yeah, i usually go for a queen at 16, it is alpha omega in getting more stuff out. But i usually don't go pool before 13 if I'm not planning on being extremely aggressive.

[The Best Guest]

I'm generally more of a protoss player myself actually, I only use Zerg when doing team matches.

[Gfire]

Oh. With 9gas 13pool, will you have enough gas to get a roach warren and ling speed? I generally just get the gas and pool in sync to have 100 gas when the pool is finished.

[duke_Qa]

It's not a bad combo to have those 100 gas when its done, get that speed up quickly. I dunno when the best time to build the extractor would be for that but I bet there are BO's for it out there.

apparently 10pool with extractor around 9 should be quite efficient at that, although it has to be a small map.

But my biggest problem playing Zerg vs toss has as of yet been killing off void-rays. Unlike terran with tons of marines, Zerg only have the hydralisk, mutas and corruptors at 2nd tier, and the queen at 1st to take care of those: all expensive units which easily die when they get hit by a pumped up void-ray. I guess you have to be prepared and get that counter up before he is in your base, but I think it's easier for terran and toss to get there.

[Gfire]

You have to get extractor and then build one drone and then get pool, and it i will be about right. I do 10gas 9drone 10pool 9overlord. I get a faster queen this way and then push when speed is done.

Generally if they go for a super fast Void Ray, I'll attack them before they can get it out and they won't have enough units to deal with me (how I won my last tournament game.) I'll usually go for pretty early lair for hydras so those will be out before a later Void Ray attack.

Queens are very cost effective though, so if you see they're going for rays and can't get hydras in time, you can just get a second queen. The energy will be useful later to use on creep tumors and transfuse (or on future expos.)

[duke_Qa]

Hehe, my first game today was against a protoss who went quick voidray. I didn't really notice it before they were in my main base and raping my stuff, but at the same time i had 30+ zerglings and 4-6 roaches that just broke through his rocks(still playing the warmup, i know, i don't play it that much, just 5 games left now though. ), and it turned into a base-trade where i had the edge with my second hatchery and a hidden extractor.

On top of that he seemed flabbergasted once he took out my lair, then realized his nexus, probes, stargate and assimilators had already been wiped by zerglings, So he forgot to keep attacking my buildings, giving me plenty of time to kill off his. A single voidray was desperately trying to kill off my zerglings, but they just ran off to the next building and left him in their dust. also, voidrays against zerglings is not optimal . Not a single zealot or stalker around, just a photon cannon at the first rocks, which I rarely attack anyway.


the BO was a bit fubar, since i accidentally bought a 9drone instead of a overlord, so i then went for a 10Pool gas, extractor, drone9 and overlord. built a few zerglings to start killing off the rocks, then a roach-warren and a evo-chamber for air-defense.(which i ironically built too late to be of any help). It worked just fine against this guy though, he should have been more prepared for an early zerg rush

[The Best Guest]

Anybody use any good protoss strategies? I usually use a modified 10/10 gate and build 3 more with a cybercore at around 18/18

[Gfire]

Generally the standard 12gate, Cyber and 1-3 more gates, forge, twilight council and robotics as needed. Usually I would get a pretty fast council and get zealot lets up pretty early. Robotics if you need observors and warp prisms, or immortals for support.

I get mostly zealots and stalkers, and generally outproduce and out-upgrade my opponents in order to win. I haven't played Protoss in a while though, probably not since beta.

[The Best Guest]

Have you ever tried a 3gate and stargate combo, im interested in trying it out to see if it will work.

[Gfire]

I've seen that or something similar done with Phoenixes by Nony and Void Rays by Whitera, I believe. Rarely use Stargates myself, just haven't gotten that far yet.

Still, it can definately be successful. Stalker/Zealot/Void Ray would be pretty effective, or Zealot/Phoenix/Immortal maybe.

[The Best Guest]

I was thinking about trying out an early game phoenix harrass and then switch over to zeal/stalker/void

[Gfire]

That sounds good. Even though Phoenixes and VRs are at the same place in the tech tree, I rarely see players use both, or even transition from one into the other. Unless it's like a team game and they are massing only air units, but that's not very effective in a regular game if you put pressure on them.

Still, Stargates are a hard thing to utilize because you need observers and warp prisms from the robotics and the twilight council for critical stalker and zealot research, and to enable level 2 upgrades, even if you aren't getting Templar. Then it's an easy transition into HT/DT or Collossus, and it's hard to justify the cost of air units. To be really effective with VRs you need speed which means a fleet beacon, as well.