when to mix in ultralisks?

gamelord12

United States11 Posts

September 09 2010 03:27 GMT

I play zerg, and honestly, my game probably needs improving in other areas, but the ultralisk is the one unit I've never touched once out of a lack of ability to see when it's useful, and I want to find it useful. If I'm against an opponent that's turtled in or otherwise has a massive army, brood lords + corruptors seem infinitely more useful than ultralisks + anything else just due to the amount of space required to accommodate a force composed of ultralisks. Ground-to-air attacks aren't even much of a concern because of the brood lords' rang. When is a time that's actually useful to mix in ultralisks?

denzelz

United States604 Posts

September 09 2010 04:11 GMT

I've recently found that ultras work really work in ZvP. I think I have a some replays of that. I've been practicing in custom games so the opponent might not be top notch but, as you will see, it works.

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/76166-1v1-protoss-zerg-blistering-sands

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/76169-1v1-protoss-zerg-lost-temple

So the build is basically a rush to Hive while making a ton of zerglings and delaying until ultras pop.

Hope that helps.

Ryalnos

United States1946 Posts

September 09 2010 04:22 GMT

Ultras can be beastly against protoss, especially stalker/colossus but in general almost anything they will throw at you on the ground. It's not easy for a toss to produce many immortals to counter it, and then you can just toss in zerglings with your extra minerals.

xand

United States65 Posts

September 09 2010 04:33 GMT

Ultralisks are actually really powerful against any ground unit. However they can be vulnerable to Void Rays, Banshees, Mutalisks, Battlecruisers, and Carriers especially since a general late-game ultra army often ends up with little air defense.

Zintis

41 Posts

September 09 2010 05:01 GMT

they are generally just cost-efficient except in a few instances, such as against mass marauderor mass zealot/archon. If you are upgrading melee/armor then they are a must once you get to tier 3. However Broodlords also provide powerful ground presence for a very similar cost if you are attacking.

I think the real advantage comes when you are defending and maneuvering a defensive army on creep. In that instance the ultras become much more useful than the broodlords.

Draken

Canada61 Posts

September 09 2010 07:19 GMT

Something I have noticed in replays is that with a general army (lings bane mutas infestors), the infestors will get sniped in a blink especially vs bio ball with stim. But if you transition into ultras (after having upgrades for ground lings anyway) they will heavily block the enemy army from reaching into the back of your troops and thus the infestors will be safer and you can easily fungal + baneling + optionally damage from mutas, the damage from the ultras seems almost like a bonus.

In theorycraft just fungal + ultras would work with no need for banelings (since ultra already take care of splash damage), but i rarely see pro players abandon banelings even in the late game and there must be a reason... Probably because the banelings are more cost effective and you only need the ultras to restrict the enemy's movement like what sentries accomplish with barriers.

Randomaccount#77123

United States5003 Posts

September 09 2010 07:30 GMT

--- Nuked ---

DreamSailor

Canada433 Posts

September 09 2010 07:45 GMT

Ultralisks get a bonus damage to armored, but they do A) Splash B) Attack incredibly fast, and share upgrades with Zerglings C) Are incredibly hard to kill, and the only real drawbacks are it takes forever for them to pop, and they can't attack up.

Fully upgraded ultralisks have what? 5 or 6 armor, Marines and Zealots, even when upgraded, do pathetic damage to them. The attacks cleave and the splash is so huge and fast that any ground unit is shredded. They are probably easily the most powerful ground unit in the game atm.

Neuuubeh

138 Posts

September 09 2010 08:40 GMT

Meh they are easily kited off creep, especially with blink stalkers

.

Still do quite well tho :D

Neuuubeh

138 Posts

September 09 2010 08:41 GMT

#10

On September 09 2010 16:30 Barrin wrote:
Ultralisks are so incredibly undervalued right now it's ridiculous. Once you're on them you pretty much won any ZvT or ZvP game (unless you're just way behind anyway). Throw in some hydras for anti air and infestors for mind control / fungal growth and zergligns just because you can afford them and I honestly believe you are pretty much invincible when good micro :D

Well I hope so, you just said "get half of ALL units we have available, and you should do good, provided you micro well". Kinda moot point, no??

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