I'll preface this by saying I am a silver level zerg atm. I haven't really played SC hardcore since like 2001.

On that note I am having trouble grasping what the application of roaches are. Like what signs am I looking for if I scout my opponent that say stop making lings and go roaches.

Right now my primary zerg strat is muta/ling however I realize at higher levels this is probably not the best strategy to employ it's just right now I feel comfortable executing it because that was what I ran with mostly in SC1.

imbored89

United States57 Posts

August 06 2010 19:52 GMT

I like to get roaches in ZvZ to stop banelings running over my zerglings and drones, and they're easier to micro. The purpose of the roach is to provide a beefy unit to soak up damage in battles. Also, they are armored, so they take less damage from certain units (marines/zealots/i forget what else...) Also, despite a lot of people who say that "counter" is a bad word, marauders and immortals are really good against roaches. So if you're planning to go with a roach heavy army, don't cry if a marauder(or immortal) heavy army stomps yours. Long story short, roaches are a meat shield that provide decent dps in a battle. In general you should try and have a good mix of roaches/lings/hydras as opposed to "stopping ling production and going roaches".

ensis

Germany340 Posts

August 06 2010 19:58 GMT

hmmm roaches, as protoss player i can only say, they are there to mass infinitely, absorb storms like an ultra and being only vulnerable to immortals.

BlasiuS

United States2405 Posts

August 06 2010 19:58 GMT

Hm that's a very general question, I guess I'll give a general answer.

Every race has a T1.5 anti-armored unit. Terran has marauders. Protoss has stalkers.

Roaches are zerg's T1.5 anti-armored unit. They don't have + bonus damage to armored, but they have high base damage (16), and a relatively slow rate of fire. They have high hp making them ideal for absorbing hits from high-damage units such as siege tanks and colossus, psionic storm, hydras, etc.

However they are extremely slow until they get their speed upgrade, which isn't available until after lair. Also for a ranged unit they have a very small range (3), so they are generally used more defensively until they can get their speed upgrade.

They are weak against units that have bonus damage to armored, and strong against most units that have bonus damage to light, units that have low health, and most melee units.

Against terran: good against marine, reapers, hellions, tanks; bad against marauders, large numbers of sieged tanks, any air

Against protoss: good against zealots, sentries, high templar, archons, colossus; bad against stalkers, immortals, any air

Against zerg: good against hydras, zerglings, banelings; even against other roaches, bad against ultras, any air

crimsonsentinel

United States179 Posts

August 06 2010 20:02 GMT

Roaches are pretty bad against collosi imo, since it's so easy to micro against them. Maybe on creep and if the collosi had no gateway support roaches would be ok.

Chairman Ray

United States11903 Posts

August 06 2010 20:02 GMT

They are for early aggression versus protoss. If the protoss gets too greedy, throw a few roaches at him.

proxY_

United States1561 Posts

August 06 2010 20:06 GMT

They have several uses

-If a protoss applies two gate zealot pressure roaches can turn it back pretty easily
-They also help if the protoss aggressively four gates
-In a ZvZ you can use them to block your ramp against banelings and allow you to tech up to muta maybe a little faster (though they'll lose to mass ling if caught in the open)
-If you're doing a mass hyrda build you need a roach line out front to tank some of the damage for them.
-They do well against terran mech (as well as anything that zerg can do).
-Try getting the burrow upgrade with tunneling claw, you can really catch your opponent off guard if they don't have detection readily available. Plus they rapidly regenerate hp and regenerate faster while burrowed. You can unburrow, fire a volley, and then reburrow, can be a pain to deal with.

SnakeChomp

Canada125 Posts

August 06 2010 20:12 GMT

I use roaches in my build as a stop gap measure against early aggression. In a ZvZ, I use roaches to counter a speedling/baneling player. In ZvP, I use roaches to counter early gateway aggression (like 4 gate). In ZvT they are good at keeping hellions from getting up your ramp (use the hold position command).

In the mid game I will get upgrades for them (especially burrow and tunneling claws) and use them as part of my attacking army. My mid game army is typically Muta/Roach/Infestor and I will include banelings if my opponent has a lot of light units (say mass marines, mass zealot, or mass hydras). While tunneling claws won't work against every opponent, the regeneration is quite useful for keeping roaches alive. If you micro the wounded ones and individually burrow them, even with detection present, they will survive unless they are target fired and regen enough that you can unburrow them a few seconds later to continue fighting.

sfdrew

United States201 Posts

August 06 2010 20:18 GMT

Don't think about it in terms of what roaches are good for and ask yourself what zerglings are bad at? They are the only other units you can build before you tech to t2. Hellions, and Colossi will eat lings alive. You aren't going to get to mutas or hydras until later in the game so you need a unit inbetween. Once you get burrow and the ability to move while burrowed they can be very nasty since the regen at a godly rate. Burrow, wait a second, unburrow for one shot, burrow, and repeat.

TDC

United States197 Posts

August 06 2010 20:22 GMT

#10

roaches are decent after you get your hydraden because hydra need some units to take the damage so you can do the damage. also vs terran mech, hydra die so quickly to tank fire that they're usually not worth getting... roaches are used to tank damage while doing some damage. they're the only option to stop a 2gatepush(10,11) in a zvP match up as the lings are not enough.