• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:15
CEST 01:15
KST 08:15
  • 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
TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection1Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview4[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)7
Community News
StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th68Weekly Cups (May 18-25): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League4Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double0Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th Changing from 12 to 8 is just asking for StarCraft TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview
Tourneys
GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Welcome to the External Content forum Mutation # 527 Hell Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue
Brood War
General
Every Matchup's Top 5 Winrates (all ASLs & KSLs) Pros React To: ASL S21 Finals VPN experiences Quality of life changes in BW that you will like ? BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [BSL22] WB Final & LB Semis - Saturday 21:00 CEST Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Path of Exile Dawn of War IV
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 TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Trading/Investing Thread Dating: How's your luck?
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
McBoner: A hockey love story 2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Customization Drives Loyalty…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1920 users

Quick random Zerg gameplay questions

Blogs > teh.pwnerer
Post a Reply
teh.pwnerer
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
Canada110 Posts
June 23 2008 22:30 GMT
#1
I don't think these questions are important enough to be in the strategy forum. Just wondering if some more experienced Z players could give a few short answers on the following:

1) Hotkeys: is 1-5 for units and 6,7,8,9,0 for hatcheries a good idea? So far it works fine for me but I don't know what to do when, for example, I get 12 lurks and like 60 lings and 8 ultras or something crazy like that.

2) How does 9-pool speed/overpool/12pool fare against 2-gate builds from P? What about proxy gates? Oh and about 12 pool, how is it for ZvT? I almost always 12-hatch, just looking to expand my repertoire with stuff that I would be comfortable with.

3) Against P: how good of a combo (lategame) is ultra-hydra? My ultras always get pwned by archons but I love using hydras against them. And I heard from somewhere that it's a good combo, I don't really know.

4) ZvZ: is it really a build-order triangle? I never see 9-pool builds beating 12-pools for example (I think this happened recently in Jaedong vs. Oversky?). And, can 12-hatch ever defend 9-pool?

Alright that's about it, thank you very much anyone who takes the time to answer and enrich my Zerg experience.

***
Mass Dark Archons FTW
Orome
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
Switzerland11984 Posts
June 23 2008 22:52 GMT
#2
Meh, I tried to write something but it was horribly incoherent, sorry. Might give it a try tomorrow if I can find the time.^^
On a purely personal note, I'd like to show Yellow the beauty of infinitely repeating Starcraft 2 bunkers. -Boxer
GeneralStan
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States4789 Posts
June 23 2008 23:02 GMT
#3
On June 24 2008 07:30 teh.pwnerer wrote:
I don't think these questions are important enough to be in the strategy forum. Just wondering if some more experienced Z players could give a few short answers on the following:

1) Hotkeys: is 1-5 for units and 6,7,8,9,0 for hatcheries a good idea? So far it works fine for me but I don't know what to do when, for example, I get 12 lurks and like 60 lings and 8 ultras or something crazy like that.

2) How does 9-pool speed/overpool/12pool fare against 2-gate builds from P? What about proxy gates? Oh and about 12 pool, how is it for ZvT? I almost always 12-hatch, just looking to expand my repertoire with stuff that I would be comfortable with.

3) Against P: how good of a combo (lategame) is ultra-hydra? My ultras always get pwned by archons but I love using hydras against them. And I heard from somewhere that it's a good combo, I don't really know.

4) ZvZ: is it really a build-order triangle? I never see 9-pool builds beating 12-pools for example (I think this happened recently in Jaedong vs. Oversky?). And, can 12-hatch ever defend 9-pool?

Alright that's about it, thank you very much anyone who takes the time to answer and enrich my Zerg experience.


1) Sounds like a pretty good split up. Usually when I'm dealing with large numbers of lings, I just use the mouse to move / attack with them (there's really a point of diminishing returns where having more lings doesn't help you because you can't control them)

2)

3) Ultra-hydra is a pretty idea combo, but it's very gas heavy (you're usually putting all your gas into ultras anyway) and you need a third upgrade to really make it shine. The good thing is that it requires a gas heavy counter for Toss, who now needs both archons to fight the ultras and templar to storm the hydras.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24776 Posts
June 23 2008 23:19 GMT
#4
You probably want cracklings late game zvp no matter what else is in the combination. If you have the upgrades for hydras from early in the game, then this is possible I think as long as you also have cracklings.
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
teh.pwnerer
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
Canada110 Posts
June 23 2008 23:23 GMT
#5
oooo, I love unit mixes. ultra/ling/hydra it is =) I usually play hydra/lurk/ling in the midgame anyways.
Mass Dark Archons FTW
XCetron
Profile Joined November 2006
5226 Posts
June 23 2008 23:43 GMT
#6
how can teh.pwnerer be asking tips about sc? You should already be able to micro units from 3 fronts!!
Motiva
Profile Joined November 2007
United States1774 Posts
June 24 2008 00:42 GMT
#7
On June 24 2008 07:30 teh.pwnerer wrote:
I don't think these questions are important enough to be in the strategy forum. Just wondering if some more experienced Z players could give a few short answers on the following:

1) Hotkeys: is 1-5 for units and 6,7,8,9,0 for hatcheries a good idea? So far it works fine for me but I don't know what to do when, for example, I get 12 lurks and like 60 lings and 8 ultras or something crazy like that.

2) How does 9-pool speed/overpool/12pool fare against 2-gate builds from P? What about proxy gates? Oh and about 12 pool, how is it for ZvT? I almost always 12-hatch, just looking to expand my repertoire with stuff that I would be comfortable with.

3) Against P: how good of a combo (lategame) is ultra-hydra? My ultras always get pwned by archons but I love using hydras against them. And I heard from somewhere that it's a good combo, I don't really know.

4) ZvZ: is it really a build-order triangle? I never see 9-pool builds beating 12-pools for example (I think this happened recently in Jaedong vs. Oversky?). And, can 12-hatch ever defend 9-pool?

Alright that's about it, thank you very much anyone who takes the time to answer and enrich my Zerg experience.




1) I do 4-9 for hatcheries.... I try to put an Evo on 0 or an OL... It depends. 1-3 for units. And Hotkey zerglings last if at all... Just get fast at spamming a-move But this is just how I do it. Not sure how others do it.

2) I'm probably not good enough to answer this correctly, so don't listen to me. but pool/overpool/and 12 pool shoeuld be fine with proper defense. 12hatch FE can have some trouble if you're not ready. Proxy's can be hard. 12pool can pull it off with strong micro... I would think

vs Terran I'd recommend either 12hatch or 9pool speed. You can do all sorts of things out of either builds. 12pool is perfectly viable though.

3) I usually go crackling-ultra and then when/if they get too many archons, I switch to hydra-ultra. This is just me, I'm not sure what good players do.

4) Meh it's more of a rounded triangle. Each build has a slight advantage over another build... to a degree.


Dunno, I'm just a D+ Zerg... Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me where I'm wrong?
Jonoman92
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
United States9109 Posts
June 24 2008 02:54 GMT
#8
1) You're never going to be able to hotkey every single zergling because you get so many. hopefully if you have 5 control groups you can move the rest quickly enough with box click I think? I'm not a zerg player though.

2) Vs normal 2 gate I think 12 pool is best and vs proxy 12 pool is probably best as well. Vs T I think you may as well 12 hatch unless you are fearing a bunker rush in which case 12 pool is safer.

3) Well if you can afford it ultra/hydra is quite strong since archons are best counter to ultra but hydras mop archons up pretty quickly so in order to deal with it toss needs to have a lot of unmorphed hts for storm which means they have less archons to deal with ultras.

4) eh, the BO triangle has largely been disproved. It may put you at a disadvantage but if you lay better you can still win. And yes depending on map 12 hatch can defend 9 pool, if a colony is made and morphed right when pool pops and bases are fairly distant (like cross positions on luna) then I think 12 hatch can come out ahead vs 9 pool.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PSISTORM Gaming Misc
23:00
s11 supplemental draft
Freeedom9
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ZombieGrub252
SpeCial 229
JuggernautJason153
PiGStarcraft61
Codebar 13
StarCraft: Brood War
NaDa 10
Dota 2
capcasts88
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King78
Other Games
summit1g10127
Doublelift976
qojqva402
uThermal380
C9.Mang0283
ViBE53
KnowMe30
minikerr7
JimRising 1
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick449
BasetradeTV197
Counter-Strike
PGL179
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 67
• RyuSc2 33
• musti20045 32
• mYiSmile19
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt283
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
45m
RSL Revival
7h 45m
Lambo vs SHIN
Solar vs Rogue
herO vs Clem
Maestros of the Game
11h 45m
SKillous vs Ryung
Solar vs Percival
Maru vs sOs
Lambo vs Arrogfire
IPSL
16h 45m
ZZZero vs WorsT
Julia vs eOnzErG
BSL
19h 45m
TerrOr vs Dewalt
Bonyth vs eOnzErG
Replay Cast
1d
RSL Revival
1d 7h
Maestros of the Game
1d 13h
SHIN vs Nicoract
Rogue vs Gerald
ByuN vs Shameless
Cure vs TriGGeR
OSC
1d 13h
IPSL
1d 16h
Dragon vs Artosis
dxtr13 vs Hawk
[ Show More ]
BSL
1d 19h
Wardi Open
2 days
Monday Night Weeklies
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
WardiTV Spring Champion…
3 days
Maestros of the Game
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
WardiTV Spring Champion…
5 days
Maestros of the Game
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
Maestros of the Game
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

ASL Season 21
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

2026 KK StarCraft Pro League
BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
KK 2v2 League Season 1
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
Escore Tournament S2: King of Kings
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026

Upcoming

YSL S3
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
Heroes Pulsing #3
Heroes Pulsing #2
Bounty Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
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.