• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 13:48
CEST 19:48
KST 02:48
  • 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
[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies18Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)5Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview5[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12
Community News
Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double0Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !18Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0
StarCraft 2
General
herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists
Tourneys
Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 524 Death and Taxes
Brood War
General
25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 (Spoiler) ASL21 Winner's Interview vespene.gg — BW replays in browser [ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies UA StarCraft: Mawin (T) vs hanniGan (P) Showmatch
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues 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
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Dawn of War IV ZeroSpace Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
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
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Trading/Investing Thread US Politics Mega-thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software)
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Esports Organizations: Raisi…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1534 users

Dark Swarm - too strong in zvt? - Page 5

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next All
Ready2[ESC]
Profile Joined October 2002
Hungary1436 Posts
November 29 2004 14:56 GMT
#81
like someone said earlier :

swarm is balanced
consume is not
--- Nuked ---
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28804 Posts
November 29 2004 15:30 GMT
#82
yeah I mean zerg needs swarm
and it requires high skill to use, so I don't really mind it. but if the zerg and the terran are evenly matched before swarm comes into play, then terran is gonna get owned by a zerg who has really good control. and the fact that you can shut down an expansion with 1 lurker and 1 defiler regardless of how many tanks he has *is* kinda fucked up. its not always imbalanced, and it's a necessity to balance the matchup, but sometimes terran just can't do anything about it. (unlike storm in pvz, which is oh so much weaker if the zerg has great micro. and it's the offensive use of swarm that is too strong, you can't run any further into your own base. for defense or any kind of battles in the middle, it's not any better than it should be. )
Moderator
Alpha
Profile Joined September 2004
France1495 Posts
November 29 2004 18:26 GMT
#83
well, lately i've been laying vs zergs usinf fast ultra ling.. So i guess using swarm will become very popular maybe even replacing the hydra lurk game vs marines and tanks. Anyway terran can still use bats so it depends on the skills of both players
The psi bolts enlighten me.
hasuwar
Profile Joined April 2003
7365 Posts
November 29 2004 18:54 GMT
#84
I guess it depends..but I mean, when you encounter that, it's usually only lurkers under there, right? tanks kill whatever else, and if you move your vessels back so they can't see the burrowed lurkers, they'll more often than not lose their defiler from tank shots too.. blind, irridiate, firebats..there's options :O Did you know that restore will actually kill a swarm? Of course they can recast it, but if you got tanks, the shit under there is gonna be dead in a second or two anyway..














































SIKE
Diablo3 ID: Exalted#1710 -------R.I.P. http://hasuwar.isgsa.org. Much love to Toptalent
NeverTheEndlessWiz
Profile Joined November 2003
Singapore827 Posts
November 29 2004 19:03 GMT
#85
swarm isn't so bad; it is zerg's most realistic chance of winning in late game compared to other hive techs
the only problem is that defiler and swarm is immobile but this can be solved marginally by overlord transport
irradiate does have "range" to avoid scourges so at any rate its still pretty much irradiate > all zerg units
Retired Brood War player / WCG SG Top 8 for 2002, 2003, 2004, retired, then made minor comeback to Top 8 at 2008. 2009 = bleh xD
InFiNitY[pG]
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
Germany3474 Posts
November 29 2004 19:07 GMT
#86
there are a bunch of arguments mentioned that -to me- dont seem to make sense.

a) zerg needs defilers to be able to come back when he's losing. One of my main arguments was/is that defilers enable a zerg to come back and win games that he simply should not have won anymore. has anyone ever seen a toss come back from a 50 to 120 supply with 2 arbiters? or a terran with 2 science vessels? surely not, but i've seen plenty of games where zerg managed to do this with 2 or 3 defilers. I myself won at least 10 games that i would never ever have won with switching to ultralisks or guardians. But noone here will doubt that both are amazing units even if they are hive tech. But the points is that they are worth their cost, while one defiler is worth a lot more than his actual cost.

b) Terran has to kill zerg before he gets enough defilers. When did terran become stronger than zerg in midgame? Early game has always been hard for zerg, but lets say both manage to go to midgame evenly, is terran stronger than zerg then? No. to quote Grot "terran users should try to keep the zerg from being even with them". this implies that, if both players play equally well until the zerg gets defilers, he usually wins, which is exactly my point. Is there another matchup where one player has to keep the opponent from being even with him?

What i find peculiar too is that all the top players (trek, eri, tomson, day) see the problems with dark swarm while many others don't, which brings me to the conclusion that some of you just don't have lots of experience in either effectively using dark swarm or playing vs zerg that's good at using dark swarm
"I just pressed stimpack, and somehow I won the battle" -Flash
InFiNitY[pG]
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
Germany3474 Posts
November 29 2004 19:22 GMT
#87
On November 29 2004 20:24 Excalibur_Z wrote:

It seems to me that Defilers operate at a relatively equal cost to Science Vessels. The cost of a Science Vessel is 100m, 225g. The cost of a Defiler is 50m, 150g. A Defiler will most likely consume at least one ling to immediately get enough energy for Swarm, at an effective cost of 25m. Then when you count the two Scourge (at 25m, 75g), required to destroy the Vessel, the total cost comparison becomes 100m, 225g to 100m, 225g. So on the surface, they are directly balanced against each other.

However, when you factor in other units, control, the sizes of attack groups, mobility, number of expansions controlled, and macro ability, things become more complicated. As a rule, players that do not have a large number of Science Vessels are practically asking for the Zerg player to get Swarm. You need good eyes and a fast reaction time to properly Irradiate Defilers (obviously) before Swarm gets too out-of-hand. Of course, you know all this already because you are a high-level player, but still consider the alternatives of a frontal attack:


You completely ignore the most important factor here. Terran does not have the minerals/vespine that zerg has. Back in the day terrans always played with mass barracks +1fac tanks +1port vessels, which was good vs standard zerg style, which was either a )muta harass to lurk contain to guard or ultra b) lurk contain to muta harass to guard or ultra.
However, the zerg players eventually learned to adjust, going for mass hydra/lurk which beat the shit of the terrans until they started going for 2fac tanks with only a few vessels. But now we've reached a point where the zerg can simply choose his strat according to the terran's. Few vessels ask for swarm, few tanks ask for mass hydra/lurk (or ultra/ling/scourge) A vessels might be as strong as a defiler, but you cannot compare their cost because as someone (i think it was eri) already mentioned the defiler is an incredibly cheap, strong spellcaster for a race that used to rely on simply outnumbering the opponents forces

Anyway, you may have already tried most or all of these things, but if not then please attempt all avenues before claiming imbalance =)


Day already explained that. Defilers *can* be countered to a certain extent, but even he can only name 4 games where that actually happened, with all of them featuring two of the top 5 terrans in the world. So on uber-pro level defilers might be balanced, but everywhere below to me they are still too good
"I just pressed stimpack, and somehow I won the battle" -Flash
Smurg
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Australia3818 Posts
Last Edited: 2004-11-29 19:33:45
November 29 2004 19:30 GMT
#88
Cast Defensive Matrix on an SCV and run it in there and get the tanks to shoot it and cause the splash to kill the lurks.

If you've got a sci vessel in the area, you should if not already have it, be researching Irradiate.

Remember defilers are pretty slow and can't attack. So I'd say vult spamming + kamikaze on defilers. It's 75 minerals vs 50 mins and 150 gas. Could be a useful way to kill defilers, whilst dodging any other outward attacks of say lings/lisks or whatever. Remember if they have defilers, the game should be at a point where resources aren't scarce, but aren't in abundance, so vult kamikaze sweeps on defilers would be useful. Don't forget to lay a few wayward mines to slow down any other attacks or make them progress more slowly by having to take them out. Tanks > Defilers in so many ways as well.

If they try something like this. Kill all their overlords with Valks or something. ^_^
xCx
Profile Joined October 2004
Poland123 Posts
November 29 2004 19:53 GMT
#89
They are not as strong if You can make irriadiates as well as Boxer can.That is true I lost a few games only by well used defiler.I still think thats if terran froce zerg to stop expoing He will beat Z which has defilers because of economy advantage.If Z expo map he can do defilers and easily beat Terran.They are a little to strong but 80% of Zergs can t use them properly.
tranCe[RaGe]
Profile Joined November 2004
United States420 Posts
November 29 2004 19:58 GMT
#90
Dark swarm is clearly putting zerg at a advantage, another question what about ENSNARE!
Carpe Diem, Love and Hope...
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28804 Posts
November 29 2004 20:06 GMT
#91
I recall a game of yellow where he came back from 50 vs 150 supply with defilers
that just isnt possible with anything else. of course it wouldnt have been possible if the terran had played well either, but considering he got a 150 vs 50 supply advantage vs yellow he's obviously not bad

surprise carriers or arbiters can be just as gamechanging as defilers. but they cost far, far more.
in certain scenarios swarm is necessary. but in some, I really do feel it is too powerful. in particular the ability to shut down an expansion at *minimal* cost. (and terrans are very often limited to only one expansion, as defending an exp requires a considerable amount of supply, unlike zerg and toss. ), thus that starves them off completely.
Moderator
AirMouse
Profile Joined November 2004
Canada106 Posts
Last Edited: 2004-11-29 21:57:18
November 29 2004 20:25 GMT
#92
On November 29 2004 12:23 InFiNitY[pG] wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 29 2004 12:21 yOOysi wrote:
Without swarm zerg's haven't any chances against Terran in late game.

10 tanks + M&M with ups 2:2 is able to crush a huge number of zerg units.


you can go hydra/guardian, or mass hydra/lurk, or ultra/ling just like people did before defilers became so popular ( and many people still do play without defilers successfully )


Hydra Guardian sux because a terran can use irradiate two vessels, and float them to 8 guards , and kill them all
Edit : ^ That only works in certain circumstances lol T_T but, imho guardians are quite immobile, and it's quite rare to win a z vs t w/ hydra guards unless you had already had it won, or he made way too many tanks.
There is a huge imbalance without dark swarm. Zergs NEED IT, or else it's so hard to compete with 2 fact tank, or even 3 fact tank(TheCruise style)
Yeah, it's quite possible to win without a defiler mound, but very hard to do so vs very gosu korean terrans. Drops are a must without defilers.

baelrog
Profile Joined July 2004
Austria705 Posts
November 29 2004 20:27 GMT
#93
On November 29 2004 11:23 InFiNitY[pG] wrote:
i do think so.
example: 1 darkswarm + 2 lurks can make a way completely impassable(?) for a whole terran army while you can easily counter his main with all you got.
example 2: 1 darkswarm + 2 lurks can completely shut off an oponnents expansion. not only that, but thanks to consume you can pretty much cast swarm over and over again. The only way effective way to kill those is obviously irradiate. but its pretty much impossible, thx to the ai, to keep vessels alive vs zerglings + scourges.


how to counter a terran leaving his tanks with a mass of tanks and rines??? lurk/hyd will die so as lurk/ling. and unless u can afford really manny upgrades ultras+cracks u have no chance because guardiens die if they are not used over a cliff. and swarm is also available just with hive tech. so whats your point man? without swarm zerg couldn not win a single z vs t on high levels because the old hyd/lurk still you are still using in z vs t doesnt work vs the good terrs anymore.
just because your terra gets slaid at wgt by the gosu zerg swarm is not imba.
i love u
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28804 Posts
November 29 2004 20:27 GMT
#94
On November 30 2004 05:25 AirMouse wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 29 2004 12:23 InFiNitY[pG] wrote:
On November 29 2004 12:21 yOOysi wrote:
Without swarm zerg's haven't any chances against Terran in late game.

10 tanks + M&M with ups 2:2 is able to crush a huge number of zerg units.


you can go hydra/guardian, or mass hydra/lurk, or ultra/ling just like people did before defilers became so popular ( and many people still do play without defilers successfully )


Hydra Guardian sux because a terran can use irradiate two vessels, and float them to 8 guards , and kill them all
There is a huge imbalance without dark swarm. Zergs NEED IT, or else it's so hard to compete with 2 fact tank, or even 3 fact tank(TheCruise style)
Yeah, it's quite possible to win without a defiler mound, but very hard to do so vs very gosu korean terrans. Drops are a must without defilers.


yeah, irradiating two vessels and flying them over his guardians works great against the hydra/guardian combination
Moderator
AirMouse
Profile Joined November 2004
Canada106 Posts
November 29 2004 20:30 GMT
#95
On November 29 2004 14:40 88)WhyYouKickMyDog wrote:
there are some pro zergs who almost always get defiler tech and spend a lot of their practice time working on their defiler usage (such as Dream.t)theSiva), but they havent gone too far in the leagues.
.


Almost every zerg is using defilers in korean leagues, at one point, the announcers said they didn't believe it was possible to win z vs t without hive tech. So I don't know what you are talking about. Look at GoRush, July, etc.
Relifed
Profile Joined November 2004
Dominican Republic47 Posts
November 29 2004 20:41 GMT
#96
wtf.. why do people just wanna gang on zerg so much? even though they're losing a shitload... >_<
TheGoliath
Profile Joined September 2004
United States682 Posts
Last Edited: 2004-11-29 20:55:03
November 29 2004 20:49 GMT
#97
On November 30 2004 05:30 AirMouse wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 29 2004 14:40 88)WhyYouKickMyDog wrote:
there are some pro zergs who almost always get defiler tech and spend a lot of their practice time working on their defiler usage (such as Dream.t)theSiva), but they havent gone too far in the leagues.
.


Almost every zerg is using defilers in korean leagues, at one point, the announcers said they didn't believe it was possible to win z vs t without hive tech. So I don't know what you are talking about. Look at GoRush, July, etc.


yellow has crazy assed fucking defiler usage, watch his game vs xellos on bifrost in the olympus final, yellow loses, but during the middle of the game yellow tears xellos apart with plagues, and then crashed xellos's base with 12 lurkers and swarm, truely amazing.

as for defilers themselves, zerg needs swarm against terran late game, period. also, in terms of army battles vs army battles late game its still usually an even fight, because terran can micro tanks an irradiate well as well as keeping marines out of harm, the problem with swarm vs terran is two things:

1. zerg can attack bases far far far too well with swarm, because terran cannot outmicro the swarm as he needs to be able to.

2. zerg can shut down expansions with one or two lurkers and swarm.

when finding a solution to this problem, basically you need to be able to keep defilers strong in battle but weaker for the above purposes. my best idea is to make swarm last less time, so that way it lasts long enough with battles, but not so long that they can camp mineral lines for years at a time.

one question i have, eri says that consume is imbalanced, how so?

EDIT: ok, i have one more thought, about consume, because swarm is so good for base attacking, swarm energy should be higher so zerg has to consume more, making swarms harder to create, this might help balance out dark swarm in this situation.

EDIT AGAIN: i read the the thread again and noticed that eri posted the above idea, if he likes it then it has to be good
goliaths are awesome because they kill evil carriers - yay i have internet at my home now ^_^
jtan
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Sweden5891 Posts
November 29 2004 20:51 GMT
#98
I think its possible to beat, but T should try to be so agressive that the game is over before swarm comes.
Enter a Uh
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28804 Posts
November 29 2004 20:57 GMT
#99
I didn't say that consume is imbalanced, plenty others did
at least I don't think I did. consume is part of why defilers are so great, but I think it's necessary. although paying 50 minerals for a swarm is well, extreemely good.

Moderator
poor newb
Profile Joined April 2004
United States1879 Posts
November 29 2004 21:06 GMT
#100
sci vessals > zerg
just mass sci vessals and irradiate everything, get some mm to protect aginst scourage
How do you mine minerals?
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Showmatch
15:00
Shopify Rebellion Sunday #2
ByuN vs ShoWTimELIVE!
Harstem548
LamboSC2293
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Harstem 537
LamboSC2 300
BRAT_OK 87
ProTech80
EmSc Tv 18
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 47216
Mini 435
Dewaltoss 210
firebathero 158
Last 110
ggaemo 106
Zeus 78
Hyun 69
910 36
EG.Machine 27
[ Show more ]
Rock 24
Nal_rA 20
Sacsri 18
NaDa 14
GoRush 14
IntoTheRainbow 10
Dota 2
Gorgc10390
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
fl0m1563
Other Games
FrodaN5539
Grubby2296
singsing1900
Liquid`RaSZi1655
B2W.Neo573
Beastyqt553
KnowMe348
Hui .248
mouzStarbuck237
Liquid`VortiX149
RotterdaM65
dOTY1
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick920
StarCraft 2
angryscii 21
EmSc Tv 18
EmSc2Tv 18
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Reevou 10
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 10
• Michael_bg 6
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1284
League of Legends
• Nemesis3646
• Jankos2192
Other Games
• imaqtpie906
• WagamamaTV281
• Shiphtur242
• tFFMrPink 9
Upcoming Events
BSL
1h 13m
DragOn vs Dewalt
TerrOr vs OyAji
Patches Events
1h 43m
OSC
6h 13m
Universe Titan Cup
17h 13m
Rogue vs Percival
Wardi Open
18h 13m
Monday Night Weeklies
22h 13m
Replay Cast
1d 6h
Kung Fu Cup
1d 17h
GSL
2 days
herO vs Classic
Cure vs Clem
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
3 days
GSL
3 days
Maru vs SHIN
Zoun vs Rogue
WardiTV Spring Champion…
3 days
SKillous vs Strange
Lambo vs Strange
Ryung vs Strange
Lambo vs Ryung
Ryung vs SKillous
Lambo vs SKillous
Replay Cast
4 days
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
TBD vs SHIN
TBD vs Rogue
IPSL
5 days
ZZZero vs WorsT
Julia vs eOnzErG
Replay Cast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
IPSL
6 days
Dragon vs Artosis
dxtr13 vs Hawk
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W8
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
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
YSL S3
Acropolis #4
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
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
ESL Pro League S23 Finals

Upcoming

CSCL: Masked Kings S4
Escore Tournament S2: King of Kings
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
Bounty Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
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.