EPT
I was going through my previous blogs and saw how much of a great discussion I received from my "Corsair or Phoenix?" blog. I'm going to be creating more types of these, now that SC2 has pretty much gotten to the place where everyone knows what build order to go. So today will be about the defiler... or the infestor. Enjoy!
First, the Defiler.
Cost: 50 minerals 150 gas
HP: 80
Energy: 50/200 or 62.5/250 + upgrade
Abilities...
1. Consume: Zero energy, gains 50 energy, no matter what unit. This is how the defilers get energy quickly, unlike how long the other spellcasters of the game get energy. Very quick to regen more energy for Dark Swarm or Plague.
2. Dark Swarm: 100 energy. No ranged damage is taken, but splash is (tanks, archons). However, spells like storm and maelstrom are still able to function. Useful to push back an army with mainly ranged units.
3. Plague: 150 energy. Reduces the enemy units by 4 hp/second until a maximum of 300 hp lost is taken (or 75 seconds of plague time).
vT: The defilers are one of the most popular units to get since only the tank's splash and firebats are able to do any damage to units under dark swarm. also, spider mines can also deal some damage. Since the main focus of TvZ is marine/medic, marines can't do damage to the swarmed units, and they tend to clump up, causing them to be big plague targets, along with the occasional vessel clump. Needless to say, defilers are the most popular among TvZ.
vP: The defilers tend to be used only later in the game than in TvZ where they are brought out ASAP. Normally, plague is used considering that a protoss ball heavily uses zealots and archons, though the dark swarm is used so dragoons can't do any damage. however, storm and reavers still rip through swarmed units, so plague is mainly used.
vZ: In ZvZ, defilers are hardly ever seen (unless you have by.great playing xD GREAT HWAITING!!! BEAT HYDRA!!!) anyways, when they are used, they are mainly used to hit a big plague on huge clumps of muta so they melt to a smaller muta grouping.
Now, the Infestor.
Cost: 100 minerals 150 gas
HP: 90
Energy: 50/200 or 75/200 + upgrade
Abilities...
1. Fungal Growth: 75 energy. Fungal growth does damage to a cluster of units while causing them to be immobilized. However, the units can still attack. Fungal growth has the ability to kill off an weakened units, thus useful for sniping injured units like marines or zealots.
2. Neural Parasite: 100 energy. This spell can used used over a time period of 15 seconds by controlling the enemy. This spell is great against important units such as collosi, immortals, or spellcasters.
3. Spawn Infested Terran: 25 energy. Infested Terran are slow moving, however they have a time span of 30 seconds and have 50 hp. These are great if your army has no anti-air (ultra/ling or roach/ling) and there are pesky air units above.
vT: Neural Parasite is mainly used on Thors, BCs or tanks. This is so that these high power units are able to do some damage to the opponent, causing the battle to swing in the Zerg's favor. Fungal Growth and baneling is a great combo against large amounts of marines. you fungal the marines, so while they are frozen, send in your banelings. note however, the marines can still shoot, so don't just send in 1 or 2. Infested terrans are great for using them in solo suicide missions (how ironic xD) when tanks are sieged near the army. the tanks will do splash to the units and possibly even kill some.
vP: Neural Parasite is used against the collosi or the high templar. you can use the high templar to storm the opponent while having collosi do heavy splash damage to weak zealots. Fungal growth is mainly used for landing them on the weak zealots, so stalkers may get trapped behind them, though they can always blink.
vZ: You really never get into infestors in ZvZ, though you can use the Fungal growth on zerglings and banelings. Mutas are also good targets as they are usually clumped. However, there are no real units for Neural Parasite... since the ultras can't be controlled.
So the big question, which do you think is better and why? Again, there will be many "Which do you like better? The apple or the orange?" questions, however I'd like people to please try and avoid those.
For me personally, I prefer the defiler. First off, consume was just imba, although I loved the game where this zerg player consumed like 9 ultras... forget the game. second off, the dark swarm ability is amazing. no ranged units??? good-bye Terran. and finally, plague was awesome. mass plagued vessels vs one muta? LOL. The infestor DOES have the mind control... its just not the same from the DA from BW.
Thanks, and please post your response!
