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Giving Infestation a try.

Blogs > ExO_
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ExO_
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States2316 Posts
October 12 2011 05:56 GMT
#1
Hello my name is David "ExO" Hart and I'm gonna (try to) switch to Zerg. I'm not the first, won't be the last, but hopefully I'll be successful. I'm going to keep a record of the process I go through, and hopefully somebody will find it entertaining or useful; though I have no idea how the TL blog system works. I'm gonna start with a little history then go on to the first steps I'm taking.


Sc2 Gaming History
+ Show Spoiler +
Currently, I'm a High Masters Protoss player in season 3 of the ladder. I was Grandmaster in season 2. As a player I feel like I've gotten better overall, but I struggle heavily dealing with all-ins and having inconsistent practice habits especially when playing on ladder.
I've played at 2 MLGs, play for my Universities CSL team, and played in a few online tournaments (very few of late however).

Current stats
[image loading]
Yeah I know, terrible win ratio.


Reasons for Switch
+ Show Spoiler +
I have always tried to play a style based heavily on Economy Management and Macro. I like to take calculated economic risks. Micro is not my strongest point but I'm not terrible at it.
Considering all of this I think Protoss as a race doesn't particularly play to my strengths. Protoss bases are the hardest to secure, and the hardest to protect. This translates into more easily getting punished for trying to get ahead on bases and economy. Protoss is extremely reliant on higher tech units and spell casters as the core of their army. In comparison to Roach/Ling and Marine/Marauder, I feel like zealots and stalkers just don't match up for the costs. I do feel like Protoss is rather supply efficient, making their largest armies, or "death balls" very strong; however contrary to popular belief I hardly think they are unbeatable. Protoss is also the most rigid and least reactive of all the races. Each Protoss tech route is very far apart and unrelated to the others, and takes a long time to fully develop. Again, this leads to having really strong late game armies, but with lots of trouble getting there.

In contrast, I believe Zerg to be the better choice for me. Expansions are much easier to take and utilize. Zerg is very reactive, and allows the player to play very economically. Zerg units are quick, mobile, and cost efficient (generally). Zerg also has the easiest time with tech switching rapidly. I believe Zerg is more rewarding of good mechanics, and more punishing of bad mechanics than the other 2 races.

So with this in mind, I'm going to give Zerg a try!



Step 1: Reforming the Keyboard:
The first thing I'm going to do is re-do my entire hotkey setup on my keyboard. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, but didn't think was ever entirely necessary. But now since I know zerg larve injects greatly benefit from having a good hotkey setup, and I'll likely want more hotkeys to control my army. Right now I'm just using the standard hotkeys in game, and the setup shown below for my control groups.
[image loading]

Obviously this isn't the most efficient setup, and is a by-product of my BW days (though I did use all 1-10 at the top then). So since I've decided I'm really going to give this a legitimate shot, I might as well go for broke and remake my entire hotkey + control group setup into something clean and efficient, though I suspect it will be a much harder task than I'm currently thinking, and will definitely take some getting used to in-game.

Process
+ Show Spoiler +
So the first thing I did was get a huge image of an empty keyboard. I'm definitely going to need it to visualize how the setup will work.
[image loading]
I actually put the little numbers in myself, (part of the reason why some of the keys are blank. My next step is to get a full list of hotkeys from the game, and try to arrange them on the keyboard in the best way I could. I have no idea how this is going to turn out...
...and it was at this point......
[image loading]
That I realized I need to first make a list of what I really wanna get out of my keyboard. What are the goals I want to accomplish

1. I want to have easy access to multiple control groups. I'm thinking 1-5 being army, and q-t being base/queen type control things.

2. I want all my commands to be relatively close by. Attack is very important as well as shift and control (both of which I can change, as long as the current functionality of those keys is assigned elsewhere).

3. I specifically want the larve inject method to be really easy, so this means putting the current backspace key and the "v" key somewhere close.

4. And I think I could accomplish all of this fairly easily, the problem is I have to find somewhere to put all of my building hotkeys that I'll be able to remember.

Well this is gonna be fun *roll eyes*. I hope to have it finished before I sleep tonight.


Results:

And Wala! In about 3 hours I was able to remap my hotkeys. Now my control groups look like this
[image loading]

This caused me to have to change a few hotkeys for specific units. At first I took a little too much of a gun-ho approach to it. I was remapping things left and right. Then I decided it would probably make the transition easier on myself if I only remapped the things I had to because of the new control groups, while leaving most of it the same. Overall, I like the way it turned out
+ Show Spoiler +
[image loading]

The hardest changes for me to get used to will be the buildings/infestor I think. The baneling/overseer had hotkeys I had to change that I didn't really know anyway so they won't be too bad. I think it'll take 2-3 days but I think I'll be able to get used to it. I'll be spending my next gaming sessions getting used to this new feel playing vs computers mostly, but once I get used to it I'll post my next entry on the first games going into transition.

Overall, remapping was not as hard or drastic as I thought it would be, but I'm fairly certain now it's not worth doing unless you are switching races; I am hopeful though that it makes me just slightly faster on the keyboard. It should be noted that I left a lot of unbound hotkeys for T/P with this setup (because when I play T/P I plan on using just the standard once again).

On a final note, I'm not sure if anybody will read this, but if you have any (serious) suggestions for me changing for P to Z, or if you just have any general comments or questions I'd really like to hear it. I do plan on updating this (again, once I figure out how the TL blogging stuff works) so hopefully I'm entertaining to at least someone. Until next time though, toodles!

David "ExO" Hart

nttea
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Sweden4353 Posts
October 12 2011 06:12 GMT
#2
Good post! i feel your post about your reasons to switch to be very accurate and fair to both races and yes i would agree it seems zerg would suit you better! make sure this isn't just a case of grass being greener on the other side though, zerg definitely has it's incredibly frustrating moments ^_^ welcome to the swarm... hope you stick around.
XXXSmOke
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
United States1333 Posts
October 12 2011 06:20 GMT
#3
Interesting read, Ive considered switching to Z for many similair reasons, I love a strong macro econmic style with a heavy influence on mechanics. Whats worse for me than you is that I play T and late game for T is pretty awful compared to Z and P IMO.

Il give you a fair warning, Z is really frustrating, your going to play so many games where your just going to get your economy in check and then get all-inned.
Emperor? Boxer disapproves. He's building bunkers at your mom's house even as you're reading this.
shawster
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada2485 Posts
October 12 2011 06:35 GMT
#4
zerg definitely is the most reactive but you'll find some difficulties with the race. it's gonna take a few games to down the whole defending + droning + making forces thing. to be honest i play random and skills are generally transferable so you'll be up there in no time. you're gonna have some difficulties with defending early with z though it just feels really scrappy and off when you defend all ins or timing attacks.
Felo
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Germany392 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-12 07:00:41
October 12 2011 07:00 GMT
#5
I also think that your general problem obviously will be cheese and defending early agression - but its this way with all race switches, because your general skills will transfer easier into longer games while crisis management often requires a very concrete reaction to survive it.

Anyway I like your well thought out post and wish you the best of luck with zerg

And if you dont like it too much then you can always come back with some more knowledge than before ^^
EU GML P | Check my Stream (with commentary!) -> www.twitch.tv/xFelo
ExO_
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States2316 Posts
October 12 2011 07:13 GMT
#6
I've been thinking about making this switch for months now, right around May was when I was very close to doing it. I eventually decided against it because I felt like I was running away from my problems (I was seriously struggling with PvZ and still am tbh). I felt like I would run into these kinds of issues with every race, and I know it's not gonna be just instantly easy peasy with zerg. I'll probably hate myself for a month getting used to it. But I do hope it pays off in the long run.

And on a side note, PvP was my best MU I think. But I'm not looking forward to ZvZ XD
BabyToss!
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Czech Republic588 Posts
October 12 2011 13:11 GMT
#7
Good luck friend, although as you know, I'd still like to see you stick to Protoss. ;(
Nowadays a Filthy Casual | Follow your dreams |
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