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So... We've gone through the beta and several months of release. Multiple top-end tournaments and tons of ladder games.
I think it's safe to say that Zerg players aren't missing anything at this point. It has all been tried over the past several months, and there have been SOME developments, but nothing truly impressive.
Zerg is broken, it's not a lack of good players utilizing their units in new ways. Still, that's not the point of this thread. The point is to ask a simple question: "What the hell happened to Zerg?"
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/4/41/Zergling.png/200px-Zergling.png)
The Zergling has lost its teeth. No longer do they trump every other T1 unit in a straight-up fight. No longer are they considerable end-game DPS. No longer do they have this perfect synergy with... well... everything else in the Zerg arsenal... Instead, we tend to make them simply because we have nothing else to spend minerals on.
Looking back to broodwar, Zerglings were actually smaller, had higher DPS, and tended to live longer due to less splash damage and lower DPS across the board. What used to be one of the scariest units in the game due to their extremely low cost and huge potential for being massed into an unstoppable ball of death, is now a super-fast tickle-troop. Where did my beastly lings go?
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/5/55/Hydralisk.png/182px-Hydralisk.png)
This piece of trash doesn't deserve to be called by the name given to it ingame, and for the length of this post, I won't disservice the Hydralisk by giving this unit that title.
In Broodwar, the Hydralisks was a very scary thing. They were basically marines on crack, you were ok spending that 25/25 extra on them because they came with twice the HP, were super fast, and did solid damage. Probably not as iconic a unit as the Zergling or Mutalisk, but still a HUGE part of the Zerg army.
The piece of crap in the picture above? Make a Marine, stick another marine to him, reduce the speed of their bullets, throw away 50 gas, and you have this pile of crap.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/b/b8/Lurker.png) + 10 years of development = ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/6/69/Baneling.png/200px-Baneling.png)
WTF? Lurkers somehow evolved from giant spider-like defensive death-machines into much slower 1-time shot balls of goop that die when the wind blows too hard...
This move really confuses me... WTF was Kerrigan thinking?
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/d/dc/Mutalisk.png/200px-Mutalisk.png)
Probably the Zerg unit that made it through most unscathed, but still a shadow of their former selves.
Mutalisks used to be a roaming cloud of death. Nothing was safe. If you were a Marine, you hoped you were at the center of the ball as all those guys on the edge were constantly getting picked off. If you were a High Templar, you knew you were dead even in the middle of the ball, the Mutalisks were relentless.
The modern Mutalisk has forgotten how to shoot and fly at the same time, is clostrophobic, and is one of the only ranged units to not have its range increase (infact, it has effectively been decreased).
Man... What used to be the scourge of the sky has become little-more than a mild annoyance...
Speaking of scourge...
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/5/58/Scourge.png) vs ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/a/af/Corrupter.png/200px-Corrupter.png)
One of these units has a use in all match-ups, can be used to effectively shut down drops, reduce the effectiveness of your opponents mutas while providing cover for your own, and kill pretty much anything that flies.
The other one? Well... it has a beak AND pincers... that's pretty cool!
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/5/5f/Ultralisk.png/200px-Ultralisk.png)
Not sure how you feel about direct criticism... but dude... you got fat! The ultra actually didn't lose much DPS (and has the potential of doing more due to splash), but it did get siginificantly slower and larger, both of which are huge problems in the way this unit was used in BW and continue to be problems in modern SC2.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/1/1e/Overlord.png/193px-Overlord.png)
Perhaps the biggest loss for the Zerg army. The overlord used to provide detection for Zerg back in the day. It was never super effective in this role, but given their comparatively low cost and the fact that you need to get them for army anyway, you USUALLY had detection where you needed it. Still, DTs were a core part of PvZ and Wraiths were a very viable, even common tech path in TvZ. Now? Banshees and DTs run rampant and Zerg must spend more on upgrading a pre-existing Overlord into an Overseer than it costs a Protoss player to make an invisible scout which can provide the same service...
I'm not going to go in to all the fixes that Zerg needs. We all know Z needs some love... but taking a step back and looking at the Zerg army... wtf happened?
 
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Damn... I forgot to put Defilers vs Infestors up there...
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I was sad when I first tried going hydras in SC2 after using them in BW : (
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kerrigan kinda took over the swarm
when the overmind died the swarm devolved a bit
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^ Yeah, that's all I kept thinking the entire time I was writing this up.
Kerrigan is like one of those CEOs running a corporation into the ground. Sure she had a good year when she took over (mostly due to previous management IMO), but since then things have been going from bad to worse.
It's a good thing her ass got dumped in Wings of Liberty!
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This is a very bad analysis. You see only bad points, which isn't possible considering that Zerg players do win. You're not taking a step back, you just dived right into it and lost all sight of what matters.
What you're basically saying is that SC2 units aren't BW units.
So?
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That's why I put this in the blog section, cuz it's only half-analysis. Also supposed to be a bit of griping and humor involved as well.
No, it's not 100% serious.
Yes, I am saying SC2 units are not BW units. When you look at the Zerg army, for the most part, they're much worse.
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well u can still compare queen vs queen 
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Queens are holy-fucking-ridiculous units. That's why Zerg is OK even though their main units got nerfed.
Roaches are also pretty powerful.
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Even archons feared a crackling army.
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Defiler vs infestor is actually somewhat fair. I'd take the defiler over the infestor, though, to be completely honest.
EDIT: A lot of these arguments can be made for Protoss too (and, to a lesser extent, Terran. Terran air and infantry is better but mech is worse)
The reaver>colossus, storm got nerfed, carriers are useless, no arbiters, speed zeals are gone, stalkers are comparatively weaker than dragoons, warp prisms are weaker, DTs more expensive, etc. etc.
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Yeah... comparing the near-useless queen of old to the one unit that is currently holding Zerg together in SC2 doesn't really line up with the gripe-making motive here. (also note that I left out Broodlords, which are hands-down better than Guardians)
Though I really liked the abilities from the old Queen, they were far too expensive for what they did to be utilized in BW.
New queen >>>>>>>> old queen.
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I miss lurkers so much. :<
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i think the main reason ultras got worse is cuz the other races have a lot more units that do very well against them and the defiler was removed which was the main reason late game zerg was so beastly compared to the pathetic useless gotta remax and throw units away thing it is now.
i remember as toss just being so sad once defilers, zerglings and ultras came into play. But then it stopped mattering cuz 5 hatch hydra became popular and destroyed me anyways lolol
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United States4307 Posts
Humans and Protoss evolve, Zerg devolves. 
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On March 12 2011 05:05 LoLAdriankat wrote:Humans and Protoss evolve, Zerg devolves.
I don't know. Scivessels and goliaths were a pretty big loss for T, and arbiters/goons/reavers were pretty damn pimp.
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at least banelings dont have to be burrowed to kill
but that can still do that
i always found lurkers to be gimmicky and mainly useless
I also disagree when you said mutas are the carryover
micro in sc1 vs micro in sc2.... hmmm i wonder
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For sure all races have major losses. Obviously, the OP is contrived to make Zerg look like they're miles behind when, honestly, everybody lost something compared to BW.
I do feel that Zerg did lose more, though not to the extend that I make it seem in the OP. Pretty much everything they have got weaker across the board. The ONLY solid up-trade Zerg got was the Queen.
Everything else has either seen a reduction in effectiveness or an increase in cost. Or in the case of one unnamed unit, both.
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On March 12 2011 05:14 Bill Murray wrote:
at least banelings dont have to be burrowed to kill
but that can still do that
i always found lurkers to be gimmicky and mainly useless
I also disagree when you said mutas are the carryover
micro in sc1 vs micro in sc2.... hmmm i wonder
You couldn't be further from the truth, regarding the lurker. You also couldn't be more confusing, regarding the mutalisk o.O
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EPT
