• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:23
CEST 13:23
KST 20:23
  • 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
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2914Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live!19Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falters2Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)87Reynor: GSL Loss Wasn't About Preparation Format16[IPSL] Spring 2026 Grand Finals - This Weekend!18
StarCraft 2
General
How would you feel about frequent/monthly balance patches for SC2? Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Clem: "I don't have that much hope in Blizzard" Weekly Cups (July 13-19): Terran & Protoss rise; Zerg falters [D] Wireframe Casting Removed
Tourneys
IntoTheTV X SOOP SC2 League : Weekly & Monthly INu's Battles#18 - Cure, herO, Rogue & ByuN RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) WardiTV Summer Cup 2026
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Industrial Park New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate
External Content
Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 534 Burning Evacuation Mutation # 533 Die Together
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Animated Gateway BW General Discussion HORROR STARCRAFT MOVIE How Famous was FlaSh before his Debut?
Tourneys
Escore Tournament - Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [IPSL] Spring 2026 Grand Finals - This Weekend! Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers PvT advise for noobs Fighting Spirit mining rates Creating a full chart of Zerg builds
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread Diablo IV
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Artificial Intelligence Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread How to buy a book - shipping from Korea to Europe The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The HerO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently... Movie Discussion! [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 McBoner: A hockey love story
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
Northern Ireland Global Starcraft The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How Games can Help with Majo…
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3715 users

The Zerg Help Me Thread - Page 319

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 317 318 319 320 321 489 Next
Make sure you read the OP before asking a question. Asking a question already addressed in the OP will result in moderation action. Also, please put some effort into your questions.
KhAmun
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1005 Posts
July 15 2012 02:50 GMT
#6361
Well I find my solution much more reliable than cutting supply: as sensitive as gas timings are when dealing with an allin, when do you add more gas to throw down infestation pit in order to start adding them at 170, or do you use the limited gas you have? What if they aren't waiting as long as you anticipated? They move out with immo/sentry, you can't contest them on the map to waste ff energy and pick off units, so they as a result get to your base with full army and full ff. not a position you want to be in at all.
I would recommend adding drop tech, bnest, and additional gas (still stay on only 4, 5 max) at ~180 if they're yet to move out. You won't have the same issues of lack of supply, therefor no need for a pause, therefor not the same window of vulnerability.
This way, once maxed if they haven't moved out you don't have to worry about engaging on the map, you just make more banes and drop them.
This is only talking about immo/sentry btw.
quarkral
Profile Joined July 2012
58 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 02:53:13
July 15 2012 02:52 GMT
#6362
Is roach/ultralisk a viable unit composition in the early ish hive period, vs P? Like just two ultralisks will destroy all his forcefields and make his sentries worthless.

It would be a great transition from a maxed roach army since you can just use spine crawler cancelling to get 2-3 ultralisks out, and suddenly your maxed roach army is much stronger. You'd probably skip infestors for the midgame to get to hive faster.

Has anyone tried this? I would think roaches in a straight up fight can hold against a P army if it weren't for force fields making them unable to attack.
Belial88
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States5217 Posts
July 15 2012 03:35 GMT
#6363
^ Yes, it's a new style just recently, BbongBbong failed with it (his opponent was either realyl stupid or a genius, and blindly went archon/zealot on 2 base into third, although bbongbbong did have his mistakes), and Symbol succeeded with it. Check out the "Ultras in ZvP" thread I created. Basically, when you see Toss get a third, you can't quite rush broodlords since he'll kill you before they pop with that 3+ 3 base colossus deathball push, but you instead rush ultra/bane/NP, and you'll crush Toss if he does that push. It's a great way to transition into Broodlords, and assume map control even if Toss knows what you are doing.

http://drop.sc/222075

here's a game where I just did it.

You shouldn't max out on roaches though, or you won't have the ultras in time against toss. It's best done when you identify, with your overseer you make when lair finishes, that Toss is not all-inning with 6+ gates but instead expanding off 1-5, and you make maybe 10 roaches at most (skipping roach speed is a plus!), and going ling/infestor (either use spines or have roach upgrades just in case toss pushes when he 'shouldn't) with a super fast hive and fourth.

It's not really ultra/roach that's good, its just ultras are great in zvp, at a certain time. Just like in the other match-ups, ultras suck really bad, but there's a really, key, timing where they really shine, when broodlords would be too greedy to get but infestor/muta with ling/bane/roach is just not enough against the 3 base push.

How to build a $500 i7-3770K Ultimate Computer:http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=392709 ******** 100% Safe Razorless Delid Method! http://www.overclock.net/t/1376206/how-to-delid-your-ivy-bridge-cpu-with-out-a-razor-blade/0_100
Andykay
Profile Joined September 2010
Australia2 Posts
July 15 2012 04:06 GMT
#6364
So I just came back to SC2 after a long absence and I'm pretty rusty. I'm winning and losing my fair share, but the one strat that has truly destroyed me every time I've faced it is a Toss who gets a decent number of void rays with their ground army. I just got annihilated by a guy who had 7-8 voids and a bunch of zealots by ~14 mins or so. I made a ton of mutas to counter the voids, but even with 16-18 of them, I could barely kill one.

I don't understand how to stop this. He opened FFE and stacked a bunch of cannons around his mineral lines (~3ish) so I couldn't do much harrass with my mutas and his front was reasonably secure. I had a slight econ advantage, as I triple expanded when I saw him FFE, but it wasn't enough to apply pressure. Perhaps I should have busted in earlier once I saw the stargates, I don't know, but once he hits critical mass with his voids, it seems pretty much unstoppable, so all he has to do is not die until then.

Any thoughts?
Belial88
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States5217 Posts
July 15 2012 04:32 GMT
#6365
^ You should upload a replay, because it really sounds like you are having macro problems more than anything else. Your 16-18 mutas should be hitting before Toss has a chance to get 7-8 void rays, and even if he ge4ts 7-8 void rays, why are you fighting them?

The point of mutas is 2 fold:

1. Always, always, always beat a 2 base Toss in a base race (just make sure you don't lose too many mutas with your harass, knowing how many mutas can take on how many stalkers, go into unit tester to test it out and get a feel, and not going into his main when the base trade starts and letting him mass cannons in there while you focus his nat with ling/muta)

2. Force Toss to be stuck in his base so long on 3 bases that by the time he pushes with stalker/HT, you have a superior, pure broodlord/infestor army (mass spines helps to buy some critical time or help if you are a little low on broodlords).

A critical mass of voids does get unstoppable, but by that time you should have enough mutas to just win the base trade, or straight up ravage him as long as you engage correctly (if he spends that much on voids he won't be able to have enough stalkers, but 18 mutas doesn't fare well against 8 voids, you probably would rather engage with more like 22+). Or, enough infestors to roll it. Or, if you go hydras, a great response against stargate openers, busted him easily with enough roach/hydra to straight up kill him.

Really sounds like a macro issue, but check out the guides linked in my profile. My zvp guide goes in-depth on how to handle Toss with mutas, as well as everything. Decaf's guide to roach/ling/muta in ZvP is also probably the best written resource on how to use mutas in the match-up as well.
How to build a $500 i7-3770K Ultimate Computer:http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=392709 ******** 100% Safe Razorless Delid Method! http://www.overclock.net/t/1376206/how-to-delid-your-ivy-bridge-cpu-with-out-a-razor-blade/0_100
Andykay
Profile Joined September 2010
Australia2 Posts
July 15 2012 04:44 GMT
#6366
Thanks. I'll upload a reply when I get home. I mean I'm only in silver, so obviously I'm making tons of mistakes. But the guys I'm playing are bronze-silver, so they're making similar errors.
quarkral
Profile Joined July 2012
58 Posts
July 15 2012 07:14 GMT
#6367
If I have a significantly better army than P, how do I actually engage his army?

I just played a game where I got like 25 hydras 15 roaches to his 10 stalkers 2-3 immortals 10 sentries ish. I couldn't actually engage his stupid army cause of all the FF spam every time I tried. Even if I don't lose many units to the FF, it still allows him to get away.

When he moves out to attack, should I just counterattack his natural or something so he's forced to engage me?
Skouaire
Profile Joined January 2012
France13 Posts
July 15 2012 07:59 GMT
#6368
@quarkal : You can make a bit less hydras and prepare a baneling drop on the sentries while pushing with your ground units.

And you have to poke the sentries all the time in order to get them as low as possible in energy.

You can also make a few speedlings / roaches drops in his main in order to keep his army in his base. If he's bad, he will take his entire army in order to defend the drop, and you will be able to push in his natural pretty easily in order to kill his probes / 2nd base / have a better concave down the choke
Pyrena
Profile Joined July 2012
7 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 08:53:04
July 15 2012 08:48 GMT
#6369
On July 15 2012 10:28 sCCrooked wrote:
^ if you have trouble in masters imagine in dia where every toss is too bad to have proper timing and just turtles up until +2 immortal/sentry ball or something dumb. We actually get punished for playing well T_T


I really think the reason for this is that people assume too much.
As stupid as it sounds, you can't expect your opponent to attack at a certain time if you scout a timing attack.
What bothers me most is that people get angry for anything they discredit as an invalid strategy.
While just maxing out after an allin certainly isn't the most optimal build (as you waste a lot of minerals in the process of getting out some of the units
very earliy and not attacking with them), it certainly is a viable choice to do so, because it forces a certain kind of reaction from your opponent.
Losing to this doesn't mean you lost because you played too well and the opponent played dumb, it's because you lacked knowledge.
Just playing unpredictably works surprisingly often, just because people assume way too much.
(zvz: telling an incoming all-in just from the drone-count at the natural, etc.. this is probably the most out-standing example)

Back to the pvz scenario:

The reason you defend an immortal all-in at the 'proper' time with roaches and lings is because you have to be cost-efficient at this point in the game.
As the immortal-count goes up, they beat an infinite amount of roach/ling because the protoss' army is just so expensive and always beats a cheaper one (the same reason why mech works in zvt)
If your opponent turtles on 2bases, you can really be cost-inefficient as fuck.
This could be with massing spines and infestors, or just with a lot of banelings, it really doesn't matter.
Personally, I prefer the baneling option as this is our only unit that allows us to beat a protoss army head on in the mid-game (because of their poor cost/supply ratio).
Pyrena
Profile Joined July 2012
7 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 09:15:31
July 15 2012 09:13 GMT
#6370
On July 15 2012 16:14 quarkral wrote:
If I have a significantly better army than P, how do I actually engage his army?

I just played a game where I got like 25 hydras 15 roaches to his 10 stalkers 2-3 immortals 10 sentries ish. I couldn't actually engage his stupid army cause of all the FF spam every time I tried. Even if I don't lose many units to the FF, it still allows him to get away.

When he moves out to attack, should I just counterattack his natural or something so he's forced to engage me?


droptech/roach burrow-movement would work really really well.
It is impossible to attack directly into a natural.
If you dislike using drops, (which to be honest, is very expensive at this point in the game, so just use it if you're far ahead)
you could just camp outside of his natural.
If he doesn't take a third until 12-13 minutes, you basically won the game.
Clarity_nl
Profile Joined November 2011
Netherlands6826 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 10:12:03
July 15 2012 09:31 GMT
#6371
On July 15 2012 11:52 quarkral wrote:
Is roach/ultralisk a viable unit composition in the early ish hive period, vs P? Like just two ultralisks will destroy all his forcefields and make his sentries worthless.

It would be a great transition from a maxed roach army since you can just use spine crawler cancelling to get 2-3 ultralisks out, and suddenly your maxed roach army is much stronger. You'd probably skip infestors for the midgame to get to hive faster.

Has anyone tried this? I would think roaches in a straight up fight can hold against a P army if it weren't for force fields making them unable to attack.


Trying to visualize these armies gave me a feeling that the toss army is actually better if he is defending.
So I went and tried to recreate it best I could and turns out I was right, assuming every sentry has 2 forcefields you shouldnt be able to beat it in a choke.

Too many hydras....

This is the classic zerg problem: Errr I made too many units that I can't do anything with.

Just double expand with your superior army and drone up!
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AGAINST STUPIDITY CLARITY, I BELIEVE IN YOU! - Palmar
sCCrooked
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)1306 Posts
July 15 2012 11:38 GMT
#6372
On July 15 2012 17:48 Pyrena wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 15 2012 10:28 sCCrooked wrote:
^ if you have trouble in masters imagine in dia where every toss is too bad to have proper timing and just turtles up until +2 immortal/sentry ball or something dumb. We actually get punished for playing well T_T


I really think the reason for this is that people assume too much.
As stupid as it sounds, you can't expect your opponent to attack at a certain time if you scout a timing attack.
What bothers me most is that people get angry for anything they discredit as an invalid strategy.
While just maxing out after an allin certainly isn't the most optimal build (as you waste a lot of minerals in the process of getting out some of the units
very earliy and not attacking with them), it certainly is a viable choice to do so, because it forces a certain kind of reaction from your opponent.
Losing to this doesn't mean you lost because you played too well and the opponent played dumb, it's because you lacked knowledge.
Just playing unpredictably works surprisingly often, just because people assume way too much.
(zvz: telling an incoming all-in just from the drone-count at the natural, etc.. this is probably the most out-standing example)


This is the same sort of argument that popped up when the +2 stalker/sentry/immortal ball push popped up in the strategy threads. The point is its absolutely ludicrous that doing so much less can be so effective. If your opponent requires a certain level of multi-task to obtain say 78 supply by 8 minutes off just drones and queens (any Z will tell you this is a very high benchmark), there is absolutely no reason you should be able to do a very basic and very easy-to-execute 2 base all-in that stops at 40-something workers and for about 3-5 minutes (yes THIS freaking long) drop to 0 multi-tasking and about 5apm while doing nothing but yawn and wait for your warp gates to reset and click one time on your robo after immortal pops out.

Its a strategy that literally has "do no multi-task that requires 0 skill and 0 effort" as the key ingredient in its success. Its a very serious game design flaw in which doing more, having better macro, and having better army for a huge window yields NEGATIVE results. There's no way to scout it, and the P is not forced to do a damn thing. Just by sitting in his base, we can't touch him because its the already-invincible sentry/immortal which can't be touched unless you crumble it bit by bit across the map and we can't scout this because it looks identical to a normal 2 base all-in in which case you are absolutely FORCED to make a ton of units quickly or you WILL die to any variety of these all-ins.

tl;dr Doing much less with no regard for any sort of timing should be self-punishing, not self-rewarding in such a huge way.

User was warned for this post
Enlightened in an age of anti-intellectualism and quotidian repetitiveness of asinine assumptive thinking. Best lycan guide evar --> "Fixing solo queue all pick one game at a time." ~KwarK-
Pyrena
Profile Joined July 2012
7 Posts
July 15 2012 12:20 GMT
#6373
I really wish you'd commentate on the second half of my post.
It's not like 2 base all-in into 2base turtle into 200/200 unit composition of x is something you will
see in highlevel-play, because it isn't self rewarding.
Every minute the protoss is on 2base vs. 3, he actually gets more and more behind.
You absolutely have to prepare for it if he does move out in the next second, but you have to switch to a
more heavy weapon if he doesn't.
I really encourage you to try some baneling-play if you face that kind of problems.
sCCrooked
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)1306 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 12:35:30
July 15 2012 12:29 GMT
#6374
On July 15 2012 21:20 Pyrena wrote:
I really wish you'd commentate on the second half of my post.
It's not like 2 base all-in into 2base turtle into 200/200 unit composition of x is something you will
see in highlevel-play, because it isn't self rewarding.
Every minute the protoss is on 2base vs. 3, he actually gets more and more behind.
You absolutely have to prepare for it if he does move out in the next second, but you have to switch to a
more heavy weapon if he doesn't.
I really encourage you to try some baneling-play if you face that kind of problems.


I was going to try saving you some face by not showing that part, but these are just really bad comments said in the face of overwhelming evidence.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=337516

That right there is a link to the long thread of discussion following a build and style suggested by EmpireMista. Other Protosses have since created variations of this build.

These are progamers. The others that have been using variances of this build are GM at the top and continue all the way down to mineral-league levels.

It IS self-rewarding in a very big way. You can even see Mista winning against Code S Stephano using this build in an embedded VOD.

bane/ling is not effective either. The only option they really mentioned there was a base-trade with that army type.

*Edit* I've suggested it before and I'll say it again, if they don't move out by 11:00, I'm making infestors. If they use this 14:30 move-out I'm just going to mass-fungal them and hope its enough to kill off a big portion of their push. However, even that is still close to a coin-toss if they go for this sort of build.
Enlightened in an age of anti-intellectualism and quotidian repetitiveness of asinine assumptive thinking. Best lycan guide evar --> "Fixing solo queue all pick one game at a time." ~KwarK-
Clarity_nl
Profile Joined November 2011
Netherlands6826 Posts
July 15 2012 13:35 GMT
#6375
Guys this isn't a balance discussion thread, nor should we care about the level of effort required in doing strategies.
You question has been answered a bunch.
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AGAINST STUPIDITY CLARITY, I BELIEVE IN YOU! - Palmar
FrogOfWar
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany1406 Posts
July 15 2012 13:48 GMT
#6376
I am Zerg, and I need help.

My problem is that I can't win against a fast expanding Protoss. Played three matches today: First a ZvT in which I roflstomped him. Second a ZvZ in which I roflstomped him. Then a ZvP in which I got roflstomped by him. It's not always this extreme, but this was no coincidence either.

I know this is a rather unspecific question. But maybe someone can enlighten me with some general guidelines on how to play ZvP. I don't get it. Protoss units just seem so much stronger than what I can muster up, which is made worse by their usual upgrade advantage. Ground armies get nullified by force fields. Protosses open fast expand, build their army and then just walk over me, no matter if I two base or three base. If I try three base, the third doesn't really kick in before they attack with their superior army, so that my third gets killed while their third gets up.

I do watch pro games, I know the Stephano style. Now, I don't have Stephano's macro. But the thing is, in other matchups I don't need Stephano's macro. In ZvP it seems I do. I'm always so happy when a Protoss cannon rushes me or does an old style four-gate, rushes for void rays or DTs, because I know how to defend against that. At this point, I think i have the best chances vs a fast expanding protoss when I do something silly like a spine crawler rush, hatchery in his base, two base mutalisk or fast baneling drop. Roaches seem to give me a window when I have quick burrowed movement and they have no observer, but if they do, roaches getting slaughtered while burrowed doesn't really help me out. Quick attack upgrades also don't help when they eat five times more fire than they dish out because they're trapped in force fields. Same for hydras. Roach/Hydra only seems to work with a macro advantage, but how am I supposed to get that when Protosses can get a massive upgraded army on their well fortified two-base?

I really must be missing something. There is nothing in the other matchups that I am anywhere near as clueless about as I am about playing straight up vs. a macroing Protoss.
sCCrooked
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)1306 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-07-15 14:06:22
July 15 2012 13:53 GMT
#6377
On July 15 2012 22:35 Clarity_nl wrote:
Guys this isn't a balance discussion thread, nor should we care about the level of effort required in doing strategies.
You question has been answered a bunch.


Balance is not being discussed and we're discussing a very real ZvP scenario that never really had a "normal" response figured out. Stop trying to mod when proper discussion is being held please.

*Edit*

I am Zerg, and I need help.

My problem is that I can't win against a fast expanding Protoss. Played three matches today: First a ZvT in which I roflstomped him. Second a ZvZ in which I roflstomped him. Then a ZvP in which I got roflstomped by him. It's not always this extreme, but this was no coincidence either.

I know this is a rather unspecific question. But maybe someone can enlighten me with some general guidelines on how to play ZvP. I don't get it. Protoss units just seem so much stronger than what I can muster up, which is made worse by their usual upgrade advantage. Ground armies get nullified by force fields. Protosses open fast expand, build their army and then just walk over me, no matter if I two base or three base. If I try three base, the third doesn't really kick in before they attack with their superior army, so that my third gets killed while their third gets up.

I do watch pro games, I know the Stephano style. Now, I don't have Stephano's macro. But the thing is, in other matchups I don't need Stephano's macro. In ZvP it seems I do. I'm always so happy when a Protoss cannon rushes me or does an old style four-gate, rushes for void rays or DTs, because I know how to defend against that. At this point, I think i have the best chances vs a fast expanding protoss when I do something silly like a spine crawler rush, hatchery in his base, two base mutalisk or fast baneling drop. Roaches seem to give me a window when I have quick burrowed movement and they have no observer, but if they do, roaches getting slaughtered while burrowed doesn't really help me out. Quick attack upgrades also don't help when they eat five times more fire than they dish out because they're trapped in force fields. Same for hydras. Roach/Hydra only seems to work with a macro advantage, but how am I supposed to get that when Protosses can get a massive upgraded army on their well fortified two-base?

I really must be missing something. There is nothing in the other matchups that I am anywhere near as clueless about as I am about playing straight up vs. a macroing Protoss.


The best way to play against protoss right now is a 3 base opening into massing drones. There are also ling/bane options available that utilize less drones, but they are tailored to meet a specific push we've been discussing here called "Immortal/Sentry all-in". If you want help with that, there are varied ways to deal with it, but nobody has a super-clear view right now on how to properly handle it. It seems more to do with having better mechanics and micro for exchanges than anything else.

For general ZvP, you can expect either a 2 or 3 base push at 10:00 and 15:30 respectively. The first, you should be trying to hit certain macro benchmarks in your build. The biggest one being at 8:00 checking your supply count and seeing how high you have managed to make it. 70+ is considered to be very good while 60-70 is moderate and under 60 being very poor. Keep trying to drone and hit injects until you can consistently make 70+ and you'll have no trouble with 2 base pushes in general (except for the scenario I've been explaining above).

If you find the P takes a really fast third (like before 9:30), there's a few ways to respond. There's a muta style which takes advantage of P being spread out pretty thin, but its very APM-intensive and you need to be able to maintain harassment while changing into a lategame T3 army with 4-5 bases and BL/festor. The other option is to take a fast fourth yourself and make more drones with a huge spine wall. You eventually get infestors (throw down the pit as soon as you see their early third) and use fungal/spine to deter any earlier-than-15:30 timings with an army. You use this safety wall to rush hive and BLs to go with your festors and then you slowly move forward by re-arranging the spine wall and spreading the BL/festor army so you don't get vortex'd. Either style has been proven to work.
Enlightened in an age of anti-intellectualism and quotidian repetitiveness of asinine assumptive thinking. Best lycan guide evar --> "Fixing solo queue all pick one game at a time." ~KwarK-
FrogOfWar
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany1406 Posts
July 15 2012 14:49 GMT
#6378
On July 15 2012 22:53 sCCrooked wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 15 2012 22:35 Clarity_nl wrote:
Guys this isn't a balance discussion thread, nor should we care about the level of effort required in doing strategies.
You question has been answered a bunch.


Balance is not being discussed and we're discussing a very real ZvP scenario that never really had a "normal" response figured out. Stop trying to mod when proper discussion is being held please.

*Edit*

Show nested quote +
I am Zerg, and I need help.

My problem is that I can't win against a fast expanding Protoss. Played three matches today: First a ZvT in which I roflstomped him. Second a ZvZ in which I roflstomped him. Then a ZvP in which I got roflstomped by him. It's not always this extreme, but this was no coincidence either.

I know this is a rather unspecific question. But maybe someone can enlighten me with some general guidelines on how to play ZvP. I don't get it. Protoss units just seem so much stronger than what I can muster up, which is made worse by their usual upgrade advantage. Ground armies get nullified by force fields. Protosses open fast expand, build their army and then just walk over me, no matter if I two base or three base. If I try three base, the third doesn't really kick in before they attack with their superior army, so that my third gets killed while their third gets up.

I do watch pro games, I know the Stephano style. Now, I don't have Stephano's macro. But the thing is, in other matchups I don't need Stephano's macro. In ZvP it seems I do. I'm always so happy when a Protoss cannon rushes me or does an old style four-gate, rushes for void rays or DTs, because I know how to defend against that. At this point, I think i have the best chances vs a fast expanding protoss when I do something silly like a spine crawler rush, hatchery in his base, two base mutalisk or fast baneling drop. Roaches seem to give me a window when I have quick burrowed movement and they have no observer, but if they do, roaches getting slaughtered while burrowed doesn't really help me out. Quick attack upgrades also don't help when they eat five times more fire than they dish out because they're trapped in force fields. Same for hydras. Roach/Hydra only seems to work with a macro advantage, but how am I supposed to get that when Protosses can get a massive upgraded army on their well fortified two-base?

I really must be missing something. There is nothing in the other matchups that I am anywhere near as clueless about as I am about playing straight up vs. a macroing Protoss.


The best way to play against protoss right now is a 3 base opening into massing drones. There are also ling/bane options available that utilize less drones, but they are tailored to meet a specific push we've been discussing here called "Immortal/Sentry all-in". If you want help with that, there are varied ways to deal with it, but nobody has a super-clear view right now on how to properly handle it. It seems more to do with having better mechanics and micro for exchanges than anything else.

For general ZvP, you can expect either a 2 or 3 base push at 10:00 and 15:30 respectively. The first, you should be trying to hit certain macro benchmarks in your build. The biggest one being at 8:00 checking your supply count and seeing how high you have managed to make it. 70+ is considered to be very good while 60-70 is moderate and under 60 being very poor. Keep trying to drone and hit injects until you can consistently make 70+ and you'll have no trouble with 2 base pushes in general (except for the scenario I've been explaining above).

If you find the P takes a really fast third (like before 9:30), there's a few ways to respond. There's a muta style which takes advantage of P being spread out pretty thin, but its very APM-intensive and you need to be able to maintain harassment while changing into a lategame T3 army with 4-5 bases and BL/festor. The other option is to take a fast fourth yourself and make more drones with a huge spine wall. You eventually get infestors (throw down the pit as soon as you see their early third) and use fungal/spine to deter any earlier-than-15:30 timings with an army. You use this safety wall to rush hive and BLs to go with your festors and then you slowly move forward by re-arranging the spine wall and spreading the BL/festor army so you don't get vortex'd. Either style has been proven to work.


That was quick, thank you! I guess I'll start by looking out for those benchmarks.
wcr.4fun
Profile Joined April 2012
Belgium686 Posts
July 15 2012 14:54 GMT
#6379
What's the best way to handle with early pressure from a Toss when you're going the standard 3 hatch (14 pool 15 hatch as opening) before gas. Lings don't waste any gass, but most often they'll have +1 on their zealots which means you need even more lings. You could get roaches but that means you'd have to get your roach warren at 6 minutes or earlier to have some roaches to hold that off (typically hits at 7.30 or something).

Same question to the early 3 zealot pressure (after FFE).

Is it acceptable to make spine crawlers or just mass lings (both situations)? I feel 1 spine crawler + your queen can sure scare the toss a lot (which might end up being a lot less intense on your larvae).
sCCrooked
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)1306 Posts
July 15 2012 15:17 GMT
#6380
On July 15 2012 23:54 wcr.4fun wrote:
What's the best way to handle with early pressure from a Toss when you're going the standard 3 hatch (14 pool 15 hatch as opening) before gas. Lings don't waste any gass, but most often they'll have +1 on their zealots which means you need even more lings. You could get roaches but that means you'd have to get your roach warren at 6 minutes or earlier to have some roaches to hold that off (typically hits at 7.30 or something).

Same question to the early 3 zealot pressure (after FFE).

Is it acceptable to make spine crawlers or just mass lings (both situations)? I feel 1 spine crawler + your queen can sure scare the toss a lot (which might end up being a lot less intense on your larvae).


You'll have to be a bit more specific with "early pressure" as in "from how many gates?" but I'll try to give a generalized answer.

The biggest thing is scouting his gate count and when they're up. Its also a good idea to send in a ling every 30 seconds to his front to just keep an eye on his move-out time and his zealot count.

If they're indeed waiting for +1 to finish, I'm guessing this is a 4 gate +1 zealot pressure into delayed robo+warpgate all-in. There's a way to see this coming with an overlord at his natural and look at his gas geysers. If he has no geysers at 6:45, you should be worried about this potentially coming. Plop down your roach warren immediately (if he has no gas by 6:30, you can put it down then too to be safer but it will cost you a little economy) and cut your droning up at about 7:00-7:15 depending on his move-out timing. Switch into pure roach/ling and you should be able to hold it.

There's another variation which is more of a 2 or 3 gate expand (its kind of bad and weird but you'll see it on ladder). The way I handle this is scouting the earlier gates and making sufficient lings accordingly. Then, I watch carefully during the zealot attack with an overlord in their main to see when they add on the secondary wave of gates and pump robo units. There's a small window where you have enough to hold off their zealot pressure and you can get a round of drones in. This should boost your economy to over 60 drones and thusly enough to hold off the next all-in push.

If I didn't answer your concern here, please make another post and be more specific about which variation you meant (or supply a replay, that helps!)
Enlightened in an age of anti-intellectualism and quotidian repetitiveness of asinine assumptive thinking. Best lycan guide evar --> "Fixing solo queue all pick one game at a time." ~KwarK-
Prev 1 317 318 319 320 321 489 Next
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
CrankTV Team League
11:00
Crank Gathers S4: Playoffs
LiquipediaDiscussion
KCM Race Survival
10:00
2026 Season 3 Week 3
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 1293
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko280
RotterdaM 32
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 5165
Calm 4593
BeSt 1910
Bisu 969
Zeus 830
Jaedong 715
Horang2 651
firebathero 574
Mini 412
EffOrt 284
[ Show more ]
Soma 226
Soulkey 207
Snow 194
Stork 184
Light 164
actioN 154
Last 107
Larva 101
Mong 99
Hyun 98
Mind 96
Dewaltoss 88
Pusan 77
Rush 53
ggaemo 47
ToSsGirL 45
sorry 34
Shine 31
hero 30
yabsab 27
[sc1f]eonzerg 25
Movie 23
Sea.KH 23
Sharp 23
Bale 22
Sexy 22
Sacsri 21
JulyZerg 19
JYJ 18
Barracks 13
HiyA 12
ajuk12(nOOB) 12
Terrorterran 11
Noble 7
zelot 6
Dota 2
Dendi316
XcaliburYe53
Counter-Strike
shoxiejesuss968
markeloff64
Other Games
gofns10663
FrodaN1816
singsing1687
B2W.Neo304
crisheroes285
Sick154
Liquid`LucifroN56
CosmosSc2 17
Trikslyr14
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 31
StarCraft 2
angryscii 20
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 10
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH325
• StrangeGG 88
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• sooper7s
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1587
• WagamamaTV250
• lizZardDota2144
League of Legends
• Jankos1822
• TFBlade365
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Summer Champion…
38m
Replay Cast
12h 38m
Escore
22h 38m
CrankTV Team League
23h 38m
Big Brain Bouts
1d 4h
Soulspirit vs goblin
TriGGeR vs Bunny
Korean StarCraft League
1d 15h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 16h
RSL Revival
1d 21h
Serral vs SHIN
herO vs Solar
Online Event
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
2 days
Clem vs ByuN
Rogue vs Lambo
OSC
3 days
WardiTV Weekly
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
INu's Battles
4 days
Cure vs herO
ByuN vs Rogue
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
The PondCast
5 days
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
Patches Events
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
CrankTV Team League
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-07-22
HSC XXIX
Eternal Conflict S2 E3

Ongoing

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
SCTL 2026 Spring
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W4
ASL S22 SEASON OPEN Day 2
Escore Tournament S3: W5
ASL Season 22: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 22: Qualifier #2
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 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.