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[D] Infestor, when?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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Knix
Profile Joined April 2010
United States67 Posts
August 29 2010 20:27 GMT
#1
I've been wanting to incorporate more Infestors into my play, without doing something really odd like a infestor centered play(burrow rush to mineral line, mass infested terran, etc) but I just can't seem to find a good place or time to use them.

It always seems like I'm better off just getting more roaches or whatever unit I'm making at the time.

Has anyone else had success with Infestor play?
Drewbie: "Here I realize 'oh shit, I can't kill him' so I double expand."
charlie420247
Profile Joined November 2009
United States692 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-29 20:37:11
August 29 2010 20:30 GMT
#2
i played a total noob once while i was in a FFA in gold that made mass infestor and when i came in with my pretty balanced roach ling hydra army he massed like 40 infested all at once and then laid down a couple good fungals on my army. i was like 60 food ahead and i barely won. i should have scouted his infestors but i was really still trying to get down basic mechanics at the time. but at the same time so was he so MAYBE it could be viable.

EDIT. also have been brainstorming on making 5-6 infestors if i get to 200 army just so i can get around 240~ food in the final engagement. did that make sense?

EDIT. for some reason i thought you were talking about infested terran spell not infestors. infestors fungal growth spell is freaking AWESOME!! and is diffinately there best spell. best targets are those with high mass and low hp. ie mmm balls, ling/hydra/roach/muta balls, protoss gateway balls, and of course workers. just 2 infestors for any army can really really turn the tides of battle. also throwing infested units ontop of mmm to draw tank fire =D
there are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who dont.
comis
Profile Joined April 2010
United States333 Posts
August 29 2010 20:30 GMT
#3
I try to work infestors into every ZvT. I also had a lot of success with infestors in ZvP in beta, but Blizzard made sure that would never happen in retail.

Infestors are also nice in ZvZ if the game makes it that far.
Crushgroove
Profile Joined July 2010
United States793 Posts
August 29 2010 20:32 GMT
#4
I find that infestors are best used when you only get a few of them, to augment.

You're right in that getting 10 infestors is silly... should just get more roach/hydra/baneling/muta/ultra/whatever you're making

but lets say you have a roach/hydra army of around 65-70 food, and you have a choice of 1 more hydra or two roaches or an infestor... in this scenario 1 fungal growth then microing in the army would be monetarily more beneficial to the outcome of the battle than a couple of roaches would have been.
[In Korea on Vaca] "Why would I go to the park and climb a mountain? There are video games on f*cking TV!" - Kazuke
Undercroft
Profile Joined April 2010
United Kingdom166 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-29 20:37:18
August 29 2010 20:35 GMT
#5
My ZvT play used to be sling/bling/infestor for a while. I'd grab the pit straight after lair tech, get the energy upgrade asap and pump a couple. Really handy vs the heavy marine builds i used to see.

Currently however I'm favouring hydras more in the matchup (yet to face heavy meching terrans so hydras are fun :D).

Also grab burrow asap if you do plan on using infestors. it gives them a little more surviability and harrassability. Neural parasite research you can always leave out getting till later in the game when you have a decent number of infestors and your army is starting to swell up.

anyways in short:
If you suspect lots of marine based bio, get a couple infestors, possibly as the first tech building after you hit lair. They do make for decent anti air defence to buy enough time to pop out a hydra den. Also fungal means they can't retreat from your blings :D

(had an awesome game once where i held off 56+ marines with a handful of infestors and half a dozen blings)

[edit]
fungal also rocks vs hellions. negates their speed and kiting allowing your army to catch up and crush them (hydra vs hellion gets so one sided if you can fungal them in place :D)
Our dronessssss are under attaahck!!
Altsa
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Finland990 Posts
August 29 2010 20:43 GMT
#6
Infestor is the best unit in ZvZ, completely owning any ling, baneling or mutalisk.

Against terran infestors+baneling=dead MM ball

In PvZ, helps alot dealing with chargelots.

General tactics are fungaling escaping units, infested terran harrasment/AA and burrow-mindcontrolling
AoD
Floophead_III
Profile Joined September 2009
United States1832 Posts
August 29 2010 20:45 GMT
#7
Infestors are the only t2 unit that concerns me in TvZ. Take that for what you will.
Half man, half bear, half pig.
Neuuubeh
Profile Joined July 2010
138 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-08-29 20:59:36
August 29 2010 20:59 GMT
#8
Fungal on retreating med-evacs + spawning 3-4 infested terrans below them is kinda nice .

Fungaling a ball of workers (well, you attacked his mineral line, he put them in some "safe" spot in his base, guess what waited there ) is even better.

Still, most fun is fungaling a ball of mutas after making sure they stack - attacking some unit or so. 3 fungals later, all those mutas are gone.




Really gotta start using em more tho
Litess
Profile Joined July 2010
Bulgaria40 Posts
August 29 2010 21:29 GMT
#9
After a failed rush against another Zerg he had a pretty solid ball of mutas while i had a handful of hydras which fended the mutas off with the help of static deffence. 3 infestors and a couple fungal growths later, his 20-25ish mutas were gone
Also very nice on high ground against infantry.
I assume 3 or 4 infestors wouldn't count as infestor cetered play.
Nehm
Profile Joined August 2010
Netherlands22 Posts
August 29 2010 21:36 GMT
#10
When to get something is always a hard question. Obviously I can't give an awnser like: wel at 75 food or when you take your third. I Think the tier 3 of zerg is great and in order to get there you need the pit so might aswel make a couple of infestors.

Appart from that i would always get it against bio terran. And if you then still dont feel like you make use of them enough dont be afraid to just get them early and lose as an experiment. I think youll be surprised how usefull they can be. Hope this helps
What if I say I will never surrender?
MforWW
Profile Joined July 2010
United States157 Posts
August 29 2010 22:26 GMT
#11
Can anybody calculate how much damage a single FG is worth? at least approximately?

What I mean is to calculate the total damage caused by a single FG on a marine/marauder mix, versus the total damage you would cause over the same amount of time if you had an equivalent number of hydras/roaches/lings.

To do this I guess we'd need to know
1. How many units a FG can hit (assume a tightly packed MM ball)
2. How long FG lasts
3. How much total damage FG does
4. The DPS of the comparison units

Calmwinds
Profile Joined July 2010
57 Posts
August 29 2010 22:35 GMT
#12
Here is how I decide to use infestors, often when when we are in our staple mid game composition such as hydra roach or muta baneling we need to transition to end game to fight the critical collosi mass, or the critical mech much mass, where the mid game composition is no longer equal in defeating it, assuming equal supply.

You know the push is coming before you will be able to get brood lords or ultralisk, and you need a transition unit to "hold you down", as you get there. This imho is the job of the infestor,

You use burrowed neural parasite on siege tanks, thors, collosi, and you fungal growth the MMM blob to run banelings into it.so your mutas can clean up. They are so to speak to get you even with their army so they cannot run you over and win the game outright, they help you "Transition" and it is worth delaying your end game in favour of neural parasite infestors to make sure you actually survive, because it is not until ultra late game that infestors+ mid game will no longer hold you down.

How to burrow neural parasite
-
Hit R(Burrow) and then E(Neural parasite) to give you the cursor for neural parasite as you are burrowed, then click selected target, and your infestor will be underground while neural parasiting the other unit.

etc
Alphasquad
Profile Joined August 2010
Austria505 Posts
August 29 2010 22:38 GMT
#13
the best use is imo right after you teched to lair, combined with speedlings, banelings or hydras it should destroy all infantry

the ability to create infested terrans in burrowed mode is quite nice as well but fungus should be your main focus

i wonder if anyone has a rep of using them in ZvP
starrywisdom
Profile Joined August 2010
United States26 Posts
August 29 2010 22:42 GMT
#14
On August 30 2010 07:26 MforWW wrote:
Can anybody calculate how much damage a single FG is worth? at least approximately?

What I mean is to calculate the total damage caused by a single FG on a marine/marauder mix, versus the total damage you would cause over the same amount of time if you had an equivalent number of hydras/roaches/lings.

To do this I guess we'd need to know
1. How many units a FG can hit (assume a tightly packed MM ball)
2. How long FG lasts
3. How much total damage FG does
4. The DPS of the comparison units




There are way too many variables to even bother attempting to try that. In order to make the data relevant you would need to factor in a whole lot of information - your army size, composition, upgrades against the other. Seeing as how no game has the same unit composition, upgrades, direction of attack etc etc the data wouldn't even remotely be worth it. It's enough to say that 1 FG can dictate if you win, or win greatly. FG on an MM[m] ball is obnoxiously good - and honestly your playing Zerg 'incorectly' if you aren't using it in a ZvT.
Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
August 29 2010 22:47 GMT
#15
Infesters are underused and have great potential. I'll try to incorporate them into my standard Zerg play vs almost every race and I hope they will become standard.
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
MalVortex
Profile Joined May 2010
United States119 Posts
August 29 2010 22:50 GMT
#16
Don't focus on the damage of fungal growth, its not psi storm. The 6 second snare is the more important part, because it lets you do some rather ridiculous tactics against enemy forces. Immobility is a huge debuff, and units like the hydralisk can really exploit it. If you fungal a pack of mutalisks, for example, you can quickly kill them off with even a small force of hydralisks, without the mutalisks able to retreat or able to hurt your hydras. Fungaling units like MMM might not hurt them due to medivacs.... but the inability to run makes your banelings far more potent.


In terms of strict damage output, fungal doesn't do much to MMM, high-hp units like roachs, or to protoss (shields). Still, every bit of damage always helps, just don't think of it as psi-storm. Units the damage does matter against include mech (can't readily be repaired), zerglings (live with 1 hp), banelings (kills them, and leaves them immobilized until they die), and marine/marauder without medivac support. Of course, when your units are pounding on fungaled enemies (regardless of the fungal damage vs. hp/regen), that 36damage can easily save a salvo or two per enemy - think of it like a free +1 or +2 weapons in that fight.


For optimal infestor use, you should also consider getting burrow. It can naturally move while burrowed, making it the only spellcaster in the game with some form of evasive cloaking ability. This really can allow you to get good positioning before a battle, retreat after casting spells, or engaging in cute tactics like throwing an infested terran next to a group of siegetanks. At the very least, they are harder to scout and plan for.


Neural parasite is also a good ability, but you need to scout out a unit composition that is worth the cost. Super powerful units, like colossus, thors, any tier-3 air, are all good targets of this ability. Given the duration timer though, it needs to be used at an appropriate time. The infestor is paralyzed while parasiting, so positioning them beforehand is the only thing that will keep them alive. Still, even a temporary mindcontrol of a few thors could be a major swing of a fight...

Anyways, these are my observations, zerg isn't my main race and I'm sure there are all manner of cool tactics you can discover with them once you play around with their abilities.
People are like the stars - There are bright ones and those that are dim
Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
August 29 2010 22:55 GMT
#17
One thing I'd like to know is, does Fungal Growth stack? If you do 2 fungals right after each other on a marine, does it take only 36 damage or the total of 72 damage for both fungals?
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
sooch
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada299 Posts
August 29 2010 23:00 GMT
#18
It doesn't stack.

I'd go infestor more if spire wasn't so tempting in every single matchup
Bagi
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany6799 Posts
August 29 2010 23:32 GMT
#19
Infestors are kinda like ravens in the way that they havent really found their niche and become a staple unit yet.

However, abilities like FG and PDD are borderline OP, so I'm sure people will start using them more and more.
a_monkey
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada106 Posts
August 30 2010 00:43 GMT
#20
FGing units and outranging them is probably the most fun you can have in SC2. I've found that mass infested terran die far too quickly if they're the main part of your army...so energy is usually saved for FG.
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