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I played T and P during most of my SC time since I didn't really fancy zerg for some reason.
Anyway, I tried zerg for the first time, apart from 5 pooling, and it was where I'd put the words no-regret.
As many people already know, the first thing that strikes off zerg as being different from the other 2 races is that all units come from the same hatchery. This means that there are set period of times in a game where you are massing drones and times where you get an army. This is a really cool concept to me because I feel that it makes you have more intelligence. Like you don'tjust mindlessly make workers like T or P but rather you have to think and know when you make workers.
When I played P, PvZ was a real bitch. You'd have to handle many things and you had to scout for the most minute detail like how many lings, drone count etc. Zerg can just 12 hatch, sit with 4 lings and maybe a sunken or two and they'd be fine. 5 minutes later, they'd be coming out with 4 control groups of hydras and some mutas and you'd just get raped after your Hts were sniped.
But on a Z's perspective, it made me realise that its alot more. Firstly, losing overlords to corsairs is a really big thing. Losing one overlord as compared to two means a world of difference. Using lurkers and spreading them effectively is also more difficult than it seems from a spectator view.
It really made me understand the whole beauty of the 3 hatch spire 5 hatch hydra build and how it was even thought off in the first place. It gives you a really solid counter to any P going for a mass corsair and it gives you such a great economy to be pumping so many hydras. What's best is that switching to mutas is so easy and then sniping HTs becomes a breeze.
The absolute thing that I really loved about playing zerg was muta control. I spent 2 hours almost daily on the muta micro map trying to kill as many scourges as possible with 6 mutas. It made me realise that victory in many zerg games is all dependent on your muta control.
This is exceptionally true in both ZvT and ZvZ where if you have good control in ZvT, you can skip lurkers, get onto 4 gas and get a bunch of ultras. ZvZ is a micro-fest. I played a D game against a D+ and the difference in victory was the practice I had in the muta micro maps to kill scourges paying off for me, while my opponent got scourged everytime.
As T, I was really frustrated with players that had good muta control, killing off my turrets and workers and forcing my tech to be slower to combat with the mutas. Playing ZvT was quite difficult as I find that getting the lurker timing right is quite difficult and my macro collapses after I get my mutas. Defiler usage is also really difficult and it took alot of getting used to, like consuming and knowing where to swarm.
The one thing I hated most about ZvT is when a T goes mech. Now I really understand how difficult it is for lower level zerg players to defeat mech. The economic loss for T when he goes for a bunker rush is so much less than for a zerg who counters it. The vulture is basically the most imbalanced unit in the match where if you don't have good army positioning, the mines are going to land on your lurkers and hydras and tank splash wipes you down.
Then it brings me much respect to zerg players like Jaedong and Hogil who are my favourite zerg players because they've got great muta micro and defiler usage. I am really impressed at how smart and patient they really are and knowing when to produce what, how many at this point and having great army positioning.
 
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ZvT is so ****ing hard. MM, if they have halfway decent control, you never have enough units to defend. Mech, they can just turtle up, and if you don't expand enough, slip up on your macro a tiny bit, get harassed a bit too much, or have your unit composition wrong, you just die.
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Nice post. It's good to see an ex-terrran/protoss player appreciate how difficult zerg actually is. I have similar problems. Once I have to muta micro it's so hard to keep the macro going.
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I'm basically in the same boat as you.
I find ZvT incredibly difficult because how many things you'd have to do well. One missed dropship could literally mean GG even if you have a huge lead. I fail hard with Hive timing, as I almost never seem to get it right. Also, Defilers are such difficult units to use. They walk 10x slower than the rest of your army, and just get picked off by the SVs 
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My ZvT was the best of all my Zerg MUs when i played zerg but they were all horrible >_>...
the secret is Kwanro style
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On April 05 2010 18:37 tomatriedes wrote:
Nice post. It's good to see an ex-terrran/protoss player appreciate how difficult zerg actually is. I have similar problems. Once I have to muta micro it's so hard to keep the macro going.
I did this in a blog once and I got bashed by other people saying 'youre just not used to the race its actually really easy' and things of the like. But enough about me, I congradulate another person in opening their mind to other races, may you apply the same views in real life as well :D
No underlying meaning intended, but if neccessary may apply.
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For me in ZvT, Hold lurkers make a huge difference, because for some reason Terrans love to push out as soon as their Vessels spawn, but its never together with their army until they're half way across the map.
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On April 05 2010 19:50 Gao Xi wrote:
For me in ZvT, Hold lurkers make a huge difference, because for some reason Terrans love to push out as soon as their Vessels spawn, but its never together with their army until they're half way across the map.
I off-race as terran every once in a while and to answer why they push out when the vessels spawn is because to the terran it is a perfect time to do a timing push from the terran point of view.
to OP: I used to(and still am in terms of muta/macro) have a time during which I tried switching to T and to Z from toss and I found that I hated T mech because its just 3 units every single game and it gets repetitive as its also the same exact strategy(basically). I could only do SK terran(go figure lol) and recently I found out about a nuke push during which I push out with 1 ghost with a nuke ready and a vessel as well as a MnM army. Thats right! Its a sunken break but the ghost(protected with defensive matrix and army just next to/behind it) nukes the sunkens so I lose less of my army.
I then decided to go to Zerg and I expected heavy losses from mass sairs but I can't figure out how Jaedong micros his mutas AND macros at the same time. I lost every single time in ZvZ unless I 5pooled(lol) or proxy hatched to my opponent's 3rd or 4th and then went from that to making my mutas there and even then I lose because I can't macro! If someone knows how u macro and micro at once, PM me plz! I don't want many people to find out, least not yet.
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Hey (:
I play TvP/TvZ and ZvT
I found that I don't know the correct mindset to take when I'm playing ZvP, but ZvT i love that shit.
I love the muta micro part, actually, and lurker/ling. Haven't gotten the hang of defiler/hive play yet.
When you play against mech, learn to abuse the power of your army's mobility against his immobile army. If he went mech, he will go for some initial vulture harass. 3 sunken shots kill one vulture, so just place a sunken where it can cover your ramp and most of your mineral line.
Be careful of a wraith build too, a vulture doesn't guarantee a ground based mech build. So whatever you do, open 2 hatch or 3 hatch mutas. I prefer 3 hatch because of the economy it gives me.
After you scout mech going down with your mutas, get +1 carapace, immediately cancel lurker (if you started getting it already), get speed and range on hydras, place two evos and get range and carapace.
Then expand like mad while tearing around his base with your mutas and annoying the fuck out of him.
I mean, at our level, D or D+, (and as far as I know, the only Singaporeans past D+ level is Pangshai and Konadora) the Terran will just commit far more mistakes than he should like leaving tanks undefended or committing too heavily to turrets.
Snipe here and there, you've got this shit. Then macro a whole ton of hydras and mutas and 1a2a3a, rinse and repeat. Be sure to get a good mix though, and constantly upgrade. If it comes down to a push where he wants to kill your bases, counter into his main for the GG.
I just love playing ZvT mech, i actually win more of those than ZvT M&M.
Good going man :D
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On April 05 2010 18:36 neobowman wrote:
ZvT is so ****ing hard. MM, if they have halfway decent control, you never have enough units to defend. Mech, they can just turtle up, and if you don't expand enough, slip up on your macro a tiny bit, get harassed a bit too much, or have your unit composition wrong, you just die.
I love ZvT. I find it the most fun. However, once you're behind, it's probably the most frustrating. You can kill that ball as many times as you want, but those vessels will keep irradiating everything, and the mnm will keep coming back. Drops everywhere killing your bases, combined with the massive ball that stops anything that passes. So frustrating.
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I find the hard part is knowing what to build. Like say if you're against T, you have to know which larvae goes to hydras for lurkers and which for lings etc. As terran you just know that rax--> rines/medics and facs--> tanks and all that shit. Zerg is for smart guys i guess lol.
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EPT
