Dimaga vs Little OneHey guys,
Interenet is down at my apartment indefinitely so I can only update while at work. As such I will not be able to log on over the weekends for rounds. Know if you leave comments, I will visit you back as soon as I can.
Here is a replay from one of my favorite zerg players Dimaga. Part 2 is also available just look for link!
http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft#p/u/3/wqs760Fuo-Y
Monday, September 27, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
I'm back!
Hey,
Business trip went great, but I realized doing daily visits on a laptop computer is rather difficult. My work set up is much more conducive given a mouse/keyboard/dual monitors. I'll post later tonight and do my rounds now so hopefully I get everyone the support they deserve!
Thanks for visiting while I was away, much appreciated ^ . ^
Business trip went great, but I realized doing daily visits on a laptop computer is rather difficult. My work set up is much more conducive given a mouse/keyboard/dual monitors. I'll post later tonight and do my rounds now so hopefully I get everyone the support they deserve!
Thanks for visiting while I was away, much appreciated ^ . ^
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Maps
I was all ready to write an article about which maps favor us zerg players and I came to a realization... we get screwed pretty good in this respect. What I mean by this is that zerg players are without a doubt the most "reactive" race in SC2 and unfortunately no map is really made for us. Here's some good map tips for strategies:
Big Maps (Lost Temple)
Get the fast expand up ASAP as the rush distance is going to be very large. I usually do this even before my pool so a 15 hatch, followed by a 17 pool usually will give you an eco advantage in the long run. Train a few spine crawlers if fearing the quick 3gate or marine strategy. Don't forget your queens.
Smaller Maps (Metalopolis)
Not conducive to fast expands all the time, especially if your opp is aggressive. Short rush distance favors some early aggression with lings.
Wide open Spaces
This is the flaw of many of the maps. A good terran or toss player will take advantage of choke points to render speedlings all but useless. Without getting that good surround, their effectiveness is grossly reduced. Not many maps have wide open spaces so you need to coax your opponent with some trickery.
Ledges, High Ground, Island Expos, etc.
None of these help the zerg! Terran can abuse high cliffs with a fast thor-ship or siege tank drop. Protoss can ledge jump with blinked stalkers. Zerg need to react but cannot really take advantage of these terrains.
I'll get around to my visits tonight. Last night we stayed out late after the contract meeting so by the time we got back to the hotel all I wanted to do was sleep.
Swarm on!
Big Maps (Lost Temple)
Get the fast expand up ASAP as the rush distance is going to be very large. I usually do this even before my pool so a 15 hatch, followed by a 17 pool usually will give you an eco advantage in the long run. Train a few spine crawlers if fearing the quick 3gate or marine strategy. Don't forget your queens.
Smaller Maps (Metalopolis)
Not conducive to fast expands all the time, especially if your opp is aggressive. Short rush distance favors some early aggression with lings.
Wide open Spaces
This is the flaw of many of the maps. A good terran or toss player will take advantage of choke points to render speedlings all but useless. Without getting that good surround, their effectiveness is grossly reduced. Not many maps have wide open spaces so you need to coax your opponent with some trickery.
Ledges, High Ground, Island Expos, etc.
None of these help the zerg! Terran can abuse high cliffs with a fast thor-ship or siege tank drop. Protoss can ledge jump with blinked stalkers. Zerg need to react but cannot really take advantage of these terrains.
I'll get around to my visits tonight. Last night we stayed out late after the contract meeting so by the time we got back to the hotel all I wanted to do was sleep.
Swarm on!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sorry Guys
Sorry guys,
I had one of my best friends wedding this weekend so I was out extremely late on Saturday. Food was great, music was better, and the open bar was without a doubt the best. Yesterday was a lazy day and I thought I would get my posts and support in, but alas my Internet was down =(
Here's a SC2 related picture while I regain my bearings. I'm travelling most of this week so should have down time in the hotel.
Swarm On!
I had one of my best friends wedding this weekend so I was out extremely late on Saturday. Food was great, music was better, and the open bar was without a doubt the best. Yesterday was a lazy day and I thought I would get my posts and support in, but alas my Internet was down =(
Here's a SC2 related picture while I regain my bearings. I'm travelling most of this week so should have down time in the hotel.
Swarm On!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Soon coming to a computer near you...
Hey guys, busy busy day today. Got a big contract I need to finish up some work on this morning and lunch this afternoon for somebody leaving the office. I'll try to get on here later and post up, but for now I want to make sure I visit the kind people who left me comments yesterday.
In the meantime, discuss what your favorite map is for SC2 and how you can abuse the terrain for the zerg. I'm going to center my next discussion around maps for SC2.
Swarm on!
In the meantime, discuss what your favorite map is for SC2 and how you can abuse the terrain for the zerg. I'm going to center my next discussion around maps for SC2.
Swarm on!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Infestors
Infestors are an interesting SC2 unit. I have seen people do some pretty ridiculous "sneak attacks" with them I'll explain below, but as a whole I think this unit is drastically underused and is invaluable in tipping the tide in Zerg's favor. I'll break this down by skill and what it dominates:
Fungal Growth
I could write a novel about this skill alone but that wouldn't be the most interesting read. Over an 8 second time span, this 75 energy 9 range gem stops the army in the tracks as well! For this "stopping" effect along it is invaluable for catching units in transition, especially air units like medivacs on their way to harass. It is much more effective against biological terran units than it is against the shield heavy protoss. Many zerg players complain of having no solution to the "bio ball" that is 3M (Marine, Marauder, Medivac), but make no mistake, fungal growth is the solution. Cast and BACK UP letting the full damage take place and clean up with whatever troops you may have. Similar tactic can be used to tip a ZvZ battle in your favor. Did mention this comes standard on all infestors, no upgrade needed...
Neural Parasite
I myself am not the biggest fan of this spell, and since the beta has been over it doesn't get used all that often but this is a temporary mind control for all you SC BW fans. For 100 energy, you control the other unit so long as your infestor does not die or move out of range of the unit. You cannot burrow and use this ability (same for fungal above) so while controlling you are fairly vulnerable to attacks. I find it better to use this against an early rush when there are fewer troops to kill infestors. This of course is hard to do given the late acquiring of the tech. Target tanks, thors, and collosi and start attacking their own troops as soon as you gain control. Hopefully you can splash around some damage and make this worth it. IMO, throwing a fungal down and backing up will do far more damage...
Infested Terrans
A fun little parlor trick I have seen (but have not successfully carried out myself) is to get infestors with burrow and infested terrans, burrow a large group of 6-8 into an enemy base, and spawn a slew of infested terrans to cause harassment. If they have no detectors (at the stage you get them, most non-zerg players will, some zerg have been moving towards the overseer sooner but still rare imo) it can decimate economy and target tech. I find these far more useful to intercept air troops on the move in conjunction with fungal growth. Spawn 6-8 terrans and then lay down the fungal to make quick work of low hp troops.
Swarm on!
Fungal Growth
I could write a novel about this skill alone but that wouldn't be the most interesting read. Over an 8 second time span, this 75 energy 9 range gem stops the army in the tracks as well! For this "stopping" effect along it is invaluable for catching units in transition, especially air units like medivacs on their way to harass. It is much more effective against biological terran units than it is against the shield heavy protoss. Many zerg players complain of having no solution to the "bio ball" that is 3M (Marine, Marauder, Medivac), but make no mistake, fungal growth is the solution. Cast and BACK UP letting the full damage take place and clean up with whatever troops you may have. Similar tactic can be used to tip a ZvZ battle in your favor. Did mention this comes standard on all infestors, no upgrade needed...
Neural Parasite
I myself am not the biggest fan of this spell, and since the beta has been over it doesn't get used all that often but this is a temporary mind control for all you SC BW fans. For 100 energy, you control the other unit so long as your infestor does not die or move out of range of the unit. You cannot burrow and use this ability (same for fungal above) so while controlling you are fairly vulnerable to attacks. I find it better to use this against an early rush when there are fewer troops to kill infestors. This of course is hard to do given the late acquiring of the tech. Target tanks, thors, and collosi and start attacking their own troops as soon as you gain control. Hopefully you can splash around some damage and make this worth it. IMO, throwing a fungal down and backing up will do far more damage...
Infested Terrans
A fun little parlor trick I have seen (but have not successfully carried out myself) is to get infestors with burrow and infested terrans, burrow a large group of 6-8 into an enemy base, and spawn a slew of infested terrans to cause harassment. If they have no detectors (at the stage you get them, most non-zerg players will, some zerg have been moving towards the overseer sooner but still rare imo) it can decimate economy and target tech. I find these far more useful to intercept air troops on the move in conjunction with fungal growth. Spawn 6-8 terrans and then lay down the fungal to make quick work of low hp troops.
Swarm on!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Discussion patch changes
Hey guys,
No strategy directly today, instead I have something from blizzard's website discussing the patch changes for 1.1 This looks good for us zerg since they might terran are finally getting nerfed a bit to make our race a bit mroe viable to play, heres the list and link, tell me what you think!
Balance Changes
Maps
We're going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.
Protoss
We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby "proxy" gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.
Terran
There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.
Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we're changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.
Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We're aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.
Zerg
Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.
Link for those who want it:
http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/554901
No strategy directly today, instead I have something from blizzard's website discussing the patch changes for 1.1 This looks good for us zerg since they might terran are finally getting nerfed a bit to make our race a bit mroe viable to play, heres the list and link, tell me what you think!
Balance Changes
Maps
We're going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.
Protoss
We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby "proxy" gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.
Terran
There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.
Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we're changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.
Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We're aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.
Zerg
Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.
Link for those who want it:
http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/554901
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