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ZvT Rant

Blogs > neobowman
Post a Reply
neobowman
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Canada3324 Posts
August 21 2010 07:47 GMT
#1
I've reached 800 points or so in diamond, which makes me top 500 in NA. I can't seem to get higher though because of my Brood War C- level mechanics. Posting here because the thread's probably going to get closed in strategy.

At any rate, whenever I'm up against Protoss and I lose, I can figure out why I lost and learn from there. For example, a few games ago, I lost to an early stalker zealot push because it came before the 4 warpgate timing I'm used to. Cool, I'll scout that a bit better and maybe add a sunken at my nat earlier. Early pheonix into chargelots? Maybe I should get spores up if I see a stargate. Everything's pretty logical and I can see how I can improve in ZvP.

But ZvT holy shit, that's a whole different story. Terran just has RIDICULOUS amount of options in the early game. Take this situation for example. Actually happened.

Steppes of war, I early drone scout in case of a reaper rush. I see nothing unusual, I send drone back to my base to mine. I open with pool, then hatch. He tries bunker rush, I scout it and he salvages just before I can kill it. No worries, I'm on 2 base to 1.

Now what? I scout his wallin with a zergling, see tech lab on barracks, see factory and a couple of marines. What the hell is he doing? Delayed reapers into mech? Maybe going for Banshees. Thor drop? I don't have a clue. I sacrifice an overlord to get a scout in, see a starport but by that point, I've already gotten ling speed against possible hellions and I have a roach warren in case any mass reapers comes along. My lair is really delayed so I try to catch up by adding an evolution chamber and maybe making a spore at each base and pumping a few more drones.

Then WTF A DOZEN MARINES AND FOUR HELLIONS COME RUNNING TO MY BASE! I have 4 lings, not nearly enough larva and I can't do **** against it. I type gg shortly afterwards.

Point is, Terran just has a ridiculous amount of options they can do and Zerg can't respond in time. To compensate for everything a Terran can do, I have to make:

1. Fast lair
2. Fast ling speed
3. Fast roach warren
4. Fast expo
5. Have enough army NOT TO DIE IMMEDIETELY

Tell me that is fair. Proposed balance changes, maybe shorten the time to make a spine crawler BY HALF AT LEAST! Make ling speed cheaper, roach warren cheaper, hell make it so Zerg can at least figure out what the Terran is doing before lair tech. Playing blind is no fun at all and it's just stupid what Zerg has to do to stay alive. Sure, weaken the later game if you need to BUT MAKE IT SO ZERG CAN STAY ALIVE PAST 8 MINUTES!

ModernAgeShaman
Profile Joined January 2008
Norway484 Posts
August 21 2010 08:03 GMT
#2
I find delaying your lair while powering economy and getting 4-6 queens is a good bet, also putting down 3 crawlers and getting some roaches is a good safe way to play blind. the queens make fast work of banshees (although if he keeps massing them you'll need hydras and overseer possibly, but that would take him a lot more time and therefore you can easily have lairtech by then without rushing for it). note that you don't really need speedlings if you get a lot of queens like this as they are very capable of holding off reapers by themselves (if he masses them throw a few roaches to defend and don't forget transfuse, it's also very important to spread the creep fast and far, the earlier the better). queens are very durable and I think the answer to a lot of the zerg problems can be solved by more queens.
anyway, doing this you don't need a fast lair. you don't need fast ling speed. you don't need a fast roach warren. you can however expo and power your economy before you try to tech to 4 things at once and rape your income.
MrBitter
Profile Joined January 2008
United States2940 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-21 08:18:21
August 21 2010 08:08 GMT
#3
Safe, one base play into expand is the answer, imo.

I've been using one base mutas and one base roach, and I've probably won 18 of my last 20 ZvTs.

783 Diamond right now.

Edit: Also, ohai bowman ; )
Tabbris
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Bangladesh2839 Posts
August 21 2010 08:59 GMT
#4
Ur right they do have alot of options
However i got some questions
Did you have some early spine crawlers just in case?
Did your ovi die from just a couple marines and he hiding rest?

kaleidoscope
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Singapore2887 Posts
August 21 2010 09:24 GMT
#5
On August 21 2010 17:59 Tabbris wrote:
Ur right they do have alot of options
However i got some questions
Did you have some early spine crawlers just in case?
Did your ovi die from just a couple marines and he hiding rest?



precisely, it just takes a couple of marines and u can prevent the OL from diving into ur base to scout.. and also knowing the positioning and the angle where the initial OL comes in, you can hide the fact that you may take 2 gas; u can place ur hidden tech.. and even scouting a starport with tech lab can be different strategies.. the key is not to just know the tech, and also the number of buildings he commited to (1fac/starport is different from 2-3 facs/starport)
대지따라 돌린게 시간이다.. 흘러가고 돌아오지도 않고..
Severedevil
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4839 Posts
August 21 2010 09:38 GMT
#6
In Broodwar, if you don't tech to mutalisk quickly, Terran has tons of crazy options against you. It sounds like the same is true for SC2.
My strategy is to fork people.
SubtleArt
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
2710 Posts
August 21 2010 09:56 GMT
#7
Thors are way too good vs mutas. 1 thor and some marine support takes out 67244 mutas, its ridiculous
Morrow on ZvP: "I'm not very confident in general vs Protoss because of the imbalance (Yes its imbalanced, get over it)."
Severedevil
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4839 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-21 10:05:51
August 21 2010 10:05 GMT
#8
Marine/Valkyrie was pretty sick against mutalisk too (and Science Vessels were ridiculous, once they were up). The presence of mutalisk will still drastically reduce the opponent's options and force him to build defenses.
My strategy is to fork people.
SubtleArt
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
2710 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-21 10:38:33
August 21 2010 10:37 GMT
#9
On August 21 2010 19:05 Severedevil wrote:
Marine/Valkyrie was pretty sick against mutalisk too (and Science Vessels were ridiculous, once they were up). The presence of mutalisk will still drastically reduce the opponent's options and force him to build defenses.


It won't though, mutas just suck royally vs thors and turrets. There so easy to shut down its a joke. As for the Sc1 marine / valk thing, perhaps u need to review what mutas role is in ZvT
Morrow on ZvP: "I'm not very confident in general vs Protoss because of the imbalance (Yes its imbalanced, get over it)."
Sentenal
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States12398 Posts
August 21 2010 13:16 GMT
#10
It feels like that in PvT too. Just not to that extreme, but its still incredibly frustrating.
"Apparently, Sentenal is a paragon of friendship and tolerance. " - Ech0ne
mesohawny
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada193 Posts
August 21 2010 13:41 GMT
#11
ZvT sucks... we need bigger maps so we can actually get spines up and build lings in time to counter those kind of garbage strats.

is it is right now, it takes terran 25-30 seconds to get to your base on msot maps.... spines take 50 seconds to put up.... looooovely.
love you long time
sva
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States747 Posts
August 21 2010 21:15 GMT
#12
If you spread your muta's out against Thor's muta's actually gain the advantage, but if you clump them up the Thor is better.

Keep in mind that Thor's are great because of splash damage, spreading muta's cuts damage down significantly.

I agree that Terran has more options then zerg does early game, but I don't think it's what people make it out to be.
Megalisk
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States6095 Posts
August 21 2010 21:28 GMT
#13
On August 21 2010 19:05 Severedevil wrote:
Marine/Valkyrie was pretty sick against mutalisk too (and Science Vessels were ridiculous, once they were up). The presence of mutalisk will still drastically reduce the opponent's options and force him to build defenses.


Mutas role in sc1 were 99% for harassing ands delaying his push so that you can safely get to 3rd gas and hive, not as head to head combat units.
Tear stained american saints and dirty guitar dreams across a universe of desert and blue sky , gas station coffee love letters and two dollar pistol kisses from thirty five dollar hotel room stationary .
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