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Introduction:
I have to apologize for not getting this up yesterday. I have been trying to come up with a decent Way to write this post, and it has just not been an easy thing to come up with!
Today I would like to talk about something another TL writer has called the "blob mindset" of current Zerg gameplay. In most Teran/Protos armies, you see quite a bit of variation (Marine/Marauder/Medivac/Viking or Zealot/Stalker/Colossus/Void Ray, etc) but Zerg armies tend to focus on one unit (the roach for example) and just mass that single unit.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of this style of play?
My Thoughts:
I have never been one for the "blob mindset." I will not pretend that it has gotten me far, but I like to have one or two units I focus on (and upgrade them as much as possible) and then sprinkling in a tech unit as I see fit.
A great example is the Infestor. I would never think about trying to get more than 3-4 of them at most with my current builds (and 3 is a stretch, honestly.) Instead, I like to mass Lings and Roaches and just pepper in one or two for ZvP to help kill his stalker mobility.
Another great example is the Mutalisk. I love muta harass, and I love the way they synergize with my favorite mix (ling/Brood Lord) later in the game (assuming I can actually keep them alive.)
Whenever I just mass a single unit, someone just makes whatever counters it and slaughters me. This may be from my own inexperience as a player (after all, we have all seen Sen's amazing Roach plays) but I just don't enjoy the playstyle. The main advantage to single-unit massing as Zerg is ease of micro. It seems to be quite a bit easier to micro if all of your units are the same, since you don't have to worry about odd timings like Fungal Growth or Transfuse (if, for some odd reason, you went the Catz way and got mass Queen).
Closing:
I am no expert. I am certain that there are advantages to massing one unit (too much diversity is always bad) but, to me, it doesn't make sense. Sprinkling in small amounts of tech units can make or break a strategy, if timed correctly, and I think this is an interesting dynamic to explore. \
What are your thoughts on diversity Vs blob in the current game?
Ps. Yes, I know I should get back to analyzing my games, but I haven't had any time to play since the patch 
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the issue is, to get many different units, you need to invest a lot in many different tech structures. As toss and zerg this is pretty obvious, as terran, well tech labs prevent you from utilizing reactors, so you also have more trouble with building the non-tech units.
Additionally, having something of each to be able to directly counter everything is nice, but usually it just doesn't work, because to fully utilize that potential, you'd have to focus each unit types fire on the proper counter units in your enemies army. You can't queue up attack targets for three or even more different unit groups at once, it's just impossible to keep up. Two works, like roach hydra a-click, and corrupter shift-target through the colossi and then the voidrays, but stuff like having marine marauder and reapers and then having the marauders shift-target stalkers and reapers shift-target sentries and then zealots from between the stalkers, and marines with a-click, and void rays shift-clicking through colossi combined with one or two thors, you just can't do that properly.
Also, having some of this and some of this makes you extremely vulnerable to having one group of units picked up because you don't want to have everything in just one ball except when your protoss, and once you've lost one part of your army, the rest is suddenly to small to defend a counter attack. Every additional unit adds an additional vulnerability to your army. Like add a thor, and when you have to run away, guess who won't be able to keep up?
and finally of course, having multiple units, it gets harder and harder to control, to the point where you are simply not able to handle it all properly. you always have to know what to do with which of these units in response to what event. When you have just two or maybe three different units, you only have to keep about five to six contingency plans in mind. With six different kinds of units, you suddenly have to execute three of fifteen contingency plans at the same time when something happens, that is often simply too much.
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I agree, there is most definitely a point of diminishing returns (to put it lightly,) but I think there is probably a middle-ground comparable to the other races. The idea of "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" every time you get attacked is going to have to die (or at least be refined more,) in my opinion.
Example: Idra (in the TSL) ran a build I thought was fascinating. He went roach/ling/hydra and got speed overlords. He wound up dropping like crazy and abusing the fact that his Protos opponent couldn't get his huge ball to all three places at once.
I was fascinated to see just how effective and fast that composition was!
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I did not want to post a new blog post for this, but this blog is going to have to stop for the time being. My school schedule is just too much for me to be doing this right now.
I'm sorry to all my readers (all 5 of you)
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EPT
