We crack things off with some talk about trainers, cheats, and Blizzard bannings. Excited to hear your take on all this stuff as well.
Map of the Week
Name: Infernal Arena
Author: Ahnaris
Type: 3v3
Description: 3v3 map that is 1v1 until you break through the destructible rocks to help your ally.
Mod of the Moment
Name: Crush Company
Author: Bibendus
Description: Double Dragon Style Beat ‘em up
Unit Spotlight
Unit: Hellion
Primary Use: Harass, Light Ground Units in Clusters
Strong Against: Zergling, Zealot
Weak Against: Marauder, Roach Stalker
Upgrades: Infernal Pre-igniter
Achievement Unlocked
Achievement: It’s Morphing Time
Condition: Morph a Lair within the first 285 seconds of a melee game.
Strategy:
- Drone
- Drone
- Spawning Pool
- Gas
- Drone
- Drone
- 3 Drones on Gas
- Lair
Zerg Tips From Ryan
Extra Food Early On
One thing that slows our economy early game is that we have to buy more food supply before getting more workers, this is true of any race but zerg is impacted by this the most because we only start with 10 food rather than 11. You, can, however, offset this by doing a nifty little trick. When you hit 10/10 food start building two extractors and immediatly start morphing two more workers. Then cancel both extractors before they finish. You will now be at 12/10 food which puts your economy at one worker ahead of your Protoss or Terran opponents before having to build a supply production unit. It doesn’t seem like much but every little advantage helps.
Creep Control
The biggest thing I see less experienced zerg players suffer in is that they don’t take advantage of creep. When on creep Zerg gain a huge advantage in terms of manuverability. A zerg player should spread his creep far and wide. Try to cover the entire length of the walk to your opponent’s base. All it takes is a 25 energy investment from your queen to create your creep highway. Also you get vision of all this area which gives you another advantage.
Pick Your Fights
Don’t engage unless you have the advantage. Don’t let your opponent bait you into a fight where you lose the advantage. For example, zerglings need to surround to dominate. If your opponent is at a choke point or up against a wall, don’t engage. Thanks to your creep highway, you should have the speed to control when and where fights occur. Take advantage of terrain. If you have roches and hydras use high ground. If you have flying units dart over impassible terrain.
Thors and the Magic Box
The general consensus is that Thors cream Mutalisks, here is a link to a video that shows with proper unit control you can eliminate the Thor’s advantage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68H8FeZHkWg (i didnt make it)Overlord DropsI have noticed a lot of players have forgotten that overlords can carry units. It is an expensive upgrade but if you constantly dart overlord scouts into their base throughout the game they won’t think much of it until one overlord is filled with banelings and they lose their mineral line.
Lots of Expansions
The general consensus is that a zerg player should aim to be one expansion ahead of his opponent at all times. Try to stick to this and even extend this if you can. Economy wins games.
Keep Building Workers
A lot of zerg players will build a bunch of workers at the start of the game and stop. However, they continue to create building which costs them a worker each time that doesn’t get replaced. Always replace your workers. Also try to get lots out. 25 workers is not enough. Go for 50-75.Buy An Overseer.I almost always pick up an overseer as soon as my lair finishes. (unless I am resource strapped and am sure I don’t need him) Why? They aren’t all that expensive and having an overserver in your base can be key to stopping fast Dark Templars or Banshees. Also don’t forget to send those morphlings into your enemy’s base constantly to keep an eye on what he is doing.
Position Your Overlords Around The Map
Not all of them! They are your food supply after all but a few in key locations can give you a huge advantage in terms of map awareness. I like to place one over top of all the less commonly used expansions so my opponents can’t create one on the far side of the map without me knowing.
Fungal Growth Is Your Friend
Infestors are amazing for their Fungal Growth ability. Take advantage of it! It is an area of effect stun that does damage. A few well placed growths in a fight where the enemy is all grouped up can be devastating. Especially against air.Burrow To Save WorkersTry to get burrow fairly early on. Even if you aren’t using it offensively. Nothing is better than seeing an enemy come in to take out your mineral line only to have all the workers burrow leaving their fragile harassment units sitting there with nothing to kill completely exposed.
Get Extra Queens
For 150 minerals the queen is a beast. It can heal, create tumors, make larva, and deals great damage against air and ground. Its only problem is that it is damn slow off creep. Queens are great for saving you from those early void ray rushes or banshee pushes. Don’t forget to use their healing ability!
Get An Extra Hatchery in your main
Ya, a Queen is great with larvae but having 2 htcheries with 2 queens gives you a serious production boost
Keep Building Zerglings
If you do things right you are going to have a heck of a lot more minerals than gas. Spend that extra cash on zerglings, Don’t just let it pile up. Even if you don’t need the lings they can be great to harass or protect your base from drops. Minerals in the bank can’t kill anything.
Split Your Zerglings Into Groups
Zerglings have the advantage when the opponent is surrounded. Don’t just keep your entire mass of zerglings in one big unit. Break em into 2 or 3 smaller units and attack your enemy from all sides which leads to a much faster surround.Bring Some Overlords To Big FightsLate game replacing a few overlords is cheap. They take up tons of space on the screen, when they are “above” your army or mixed in with your flyers they will absorb some of your opponent’s fire which results in greater survivability for your damage dealing units. Just be careful not to bring too many and supply strap yourself.
Don’t Get Greedy
Zerg are at the core very fragile. If you win a fight be careful. Don’t just go chase down the enemy and die to poor positioning or towers. Let them run back to their main. Instead harass an expand while they are out of position and gain greater map control.
Be Annoying With Your Scout
If you arrive at a terran’s base early game with your scout start beating on the worker building the barracks. The terran player is then forced to pull a worker off the line to come stop you. Thus leading to a few less minerals. Don’t let your worker die though!
Scout with An Overlord When Possible
Certain 1vs1 maps have very close flight distances to your opponent’s base. In this case send your initial overlord over instead of a worker. Your opponent still will have to scout with a worker thus you gain an economic advantage. If the opponent is protoss leave the Overlord in their base until you see the Cybernetics core go up. If they are Zerg do the same until the Spawning Pool is complete. With terran be more careful and book it out of there before they can get a marine up. If you lose this overlord this early in the game you will be severely handicapped.
Place An Overlord Over Destructive Terrain
Nothing is worse than getting surprised by a marine ball in your backdoor because you weren’t paying attention. Always position an overlord over the rocks so you know long before 20 marines waltz into your main.
Learn From The Best
If you want to be really good, watch replays by the best zerg players. My two favorites are Fruit Dealer and TheLittleOne but there are tons of great zerg pro players that will use units in ways you could never have imagined.
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