• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 03:43
CET 09:43
KST 17:43
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
$21,000 RyongYi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)1Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns6[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1822Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises3
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Dec 22-28): Classic & MaxPax win, Percival surprises Chinese SC2 server to reopen; live all-star event in Hangzhou Starcraft 2 Zerg Coach
Tourneys
$21,000 RyongYi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) WardiTV Winter Cup WardiTV Mondays SC2 AI Tournament 2026 OSC Season 13 World Championship
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes Mutation # 504 Retribution
Brood War
General
I would like to say something about StarCraft BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BW General Discussion StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Data analysis on 70 million replays
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Should offensive tower rushing be viable in RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
Psychological Factors That D…
TrAiDoS
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2396 users

Zerg: A Balancing Act

Blogs > Dance.
Post a Reply
Dance.
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States389 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-08 11:17:27
October 08 2010 11:09 GMT
#1
This was originally going to be a response to a thread, but the thread was closed. I just wanted to give my thoughts on zerg and the happy medium of micro and macro needed to succeed.

As a zerg player, I feel like all my games require equal attention to micro and macro. No matter how good your macro is, if you don't engage in the right position at the right time, you are done. The opposite is also true. Even if you can micro the shit out of your units, if you are not keeping up with larvae inject and balancing your drones right, the game is over. Though all races arguably suffer from this, I don't think many people would deny that zerg suffer the most (or maybe they would...).

Wether it's early game or end game, zerg can't get away with just strong micro or macro alone like the other races can. It is a constant balancing act for zerg. This is why I love playing zerg. It is so easy to just warp in a bunch of stalker/sentry and spamming force field, but engaging an army like that demands patience and a good game sense.

Please share your thoughts. Is there any aspect of your macro/micro play that you feel is significantly lacking? Specifically, how do you go about improving (I don't just mean more games.)? Let me know if you feel other races demand just as much of a balance that I think zerg do and why.

Thanks TL, you guys are great.

Edit: I put screenshots of some of my more terrible zerg engagments tomorrow.

*
It is what it is...
village_idiot
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
2436 Posts
October 08 2010 11:36 GMT
#2
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting.

You need to know your opponent's army composition at all times and be able to spread creep while larva injecting at the same time. Once you have half of the map creeped it will be much easier to set up flanks and spot possible drops and other enemy movement. Defending your expansions also becomes much easier.

I also find changelings very useful when scouting as you can see enemy tech and army composition for just 50 energy.
keioh
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
France1099 Posts
October 08 2010 12:03 GMT
#3
I feel we zerg are too much a reaction race, as some claim for a little while now.

Learning to play Zerg has tremendously improved my macro and my multitasking ability (it's not great still). I also have to consistentely look at the map and know what is going on at least at my opponent's ramp. Playing zerg FORCES me to have constant attention to most aspect of a game.

When I play the other race, first it's always in team game, second I feel I have not so much thing to do. T & P armies feel so strong when you played zerg, it's almost funny how you can steamroll a poor zerg fellow with just 50 pop. I do think they are easier to handle, but I don't think at all they're easier to master. Playing terran is so freakin' hard when you have to look at positioning... Protoss feels the same way, you feel strong but then suddenly you have no more units, 2K minerals and no gas and opponent is couter pushing.

Now my biggest problem is about decision making and when to strop droning. Which I believe is the hardest thing to master as a zerg.

By decision making I also count how and when to engage a fight, when to pull back, and which transition to do. I still find myself droning too much and losing poorly when the first protoss push come, like "hmm okay I can drone a little bit more, I saw him with only 2 stalkers and 1 zeal OH SHI- HE'S AT MY EXP AND I HAVE NO LARVAE m^ù$ùm^ù$ùm^!ù$ù ".

To improve I just try to learn some timings and to adjust better to what I have the time to scout with my first drone. I do this by playing more. And more. And more.

Sometimes though, I want to kill protoss users so badly I have to stop playing for a while ^^
GIMME ALL THE BELGIAN WAFFLES I CAN GET FOR THIS MONEY !!!!!! BELGIAN WAFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFLEEEEEEEEES
Scorcher2k
Profile Joined November 2009
United States802 Posts
October 08 2010 12:58 GMT
#4
I think this is honestly how all the races are now. I honestly miss the play style of reaver+goon and Bisu build from BW a lot when I play because I felt that if I could pull off some good micro then I could seriously turn the tide and make up for my poor macro (vice versa of course). The game kind of feels bland at times right now because it doesn't have this kind of play imo.
SubtleArt
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
2710 Posts
October 08 2010 15:29 GMT
#5
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....
Morrow on ZvP: "I'm not very confident in general vs Protoss because of the imbalance (Yes its imbalanced, get over it)."
AssuredVacancy
Profile Blog Joined September 2008
United States1167 Posts
October 08 2010 15:32 GMT
#6
On October 09 2010 00:29 SubtleArt wrote:
Show nested quote +
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....


Really.. half of the terrans I play don't scout besides the initial scv, and push blindly on one base while cutting scv at 26. There's nothing about defending/macroing or scouting in there.
We spend our youth attaining wealth, and our wealth attaining youth.
SubtleArt
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
2710 Posts
October 08 2010 15:36 GMT
#7
On October 09 2010 00:32 AssuredVacancy wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 09 2010 00:29 SubtleArt wrote:
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....


Really.. half of the terrans I play don't scout besides the initial scv, and push blindly on one base while cutting scv at 26. There's nothing about defending/macroing or scouting in there.


Then you play horrible Terrans
Morrow on ZvP: "I'm not very confident in general vs Protoss because of the imbalance (Yes its imbalanced, get over it)."
AssuredVacancy
Profile Blog Joined September 2008
United States1167 Posts
October 08 2010 16:04 GMT
#8
On October 09 2010 00:36 SubtleArt wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 09 2010 00:32 AssuredVacancy wrote:
On October 09 2010 00:29 SubtleArt wrote:
I feel that zerg is all about defending, macroing and scouting


Three general terms that apply to all races....


Really.. half of the terrans I play don't scout besides the initial scv, and push blindly on one base while cutting scv at 26. There's nothing about defending/macroing or scouting in there.


Then you play horrible Terrans


Probably, I don't know the level of 1400-1500 diamond terrans right now because of point inflation. But most of them do some sort of blind one base push involving thor/marine/hellion, or banshee/marine/hellion, or marauder/hellion/scv while cutting scvs.
We spend our youth attaining wealth, and our wealth attaining youth.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 19h 17m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft528
SortOf 129
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 18564
GuemChi 3637
Hyuk 1499
Pusan 480
Shuttle 459
Mini 143
Movie 111
Light 109
Killer 95
Dewaltoss 84
[ Show more ]
EffOrt 82
Sharp 64
NotJumperer 47
Barracks 44
Nal_rA 34
Mong 30
JulyZerg 26
soO 25
ZergMaN 24
Noble 16
NaDa 13
Sacsri 11
Bale 10
Rush 6
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm93
League of Legends
JimRising 710
C9.Mang0512
Other Games
crisheroes298
Happy285
ceh9265
Fuzer 216
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick31071
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 100
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 1
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Doublelift4847
• Scarra2263
• Rush1169
• Lourlo1058
• HappyZerGling151
Upcoming Events
SOOP
19h 17m
SHIN vs GuMiho
Cure vs Creator
The PondCast
1d 1h
Wardi Open
1d 3h
Big Gabe XPERIONCRAFT
1d 4h
AI Arena Tournament
1d 11h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
IPSL
2 days
DragOn vs Sziky
Replay Cast
3 days
Wardi Open
3 days
[ Show More ]
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
4 days
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-06
WardiTV 2025
META Madness #9

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
Escore Tournament S1: W3
OSC Championship Season 13
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
Thunderfire SC2 All-star 2025
Big Gabe Cup #3
Nations Cup 2026
Underdog Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.