Hi there. In early Beta, when a lot of players didn't even know about the changeling, it was an awesome unit. Back then you could drop one in the back of your opponent's base, walk around and have it follow the army. Those changelings would last for up to a minute, sometimes even longer. That's some serious useful scouting info!

Nowadays in platinum, the changeling gets killed nearly instantly by the enemy.. seems this mechanic is no longer stealthy enough...

So my question for this topic goes to the diamond league players: do you use the changeling and if yes, how and what do you use it for?

lovewithlea

168 Posts

October 12 2010 12:41 GMT

drop full energy changelings in the back of the base and scout all directions

they'll get killed eventually but at least some info. other than that i often use it for xel naga towers

Undercroft

United Kingdom166 Posts

October 12 2010 12:43 GMT

I still use them for scouting, just i need to be careful with it. Most of the time i'll get to see a bunch of the base before it gets killed, but that's better than seeing nothing. If i can i try to position behind buildings so they can't see the changeling.

Against terrans i'll try mix it into their M&M ball. Nothing sweeter than a changling walking along with their army giving me intel on their position and composition. It's allowed me to set up some sweet ambushes with banelings and the long grass on steppes :D

Fiel

United States587 Posts

October 12 2010 12:43 GMT

Plat here. I use changelings to poke up ramps when I don't want to give away the fact that I'm attacking soon or I want to see what the opponent has. I'll put the changeling on the ramp, attack behind him with mutalisks then see if I can bust open the wall with the mutalisks and let a flood of zerglings in. Of course, once the flood of zerglings enter it's game over.

I also use it to check for expansions. I'll send my overseer over the map and drop changelings where I think he might expand to next. I often put the changeling next to a geyser or minerals so it blends in on the minimap.

Often if you go mutalisks it can be hard to get changelings in his base. Photon Cannons and Missile Turrets are both detectors which are commonly created to counter mutalisks. Just remember that the point of a changeling is that it costs next to nothing to have (Overseers almost always have max energy), so any scouting that you get is good.

SwampZero

Greece350 Posts

October 12 2010 12:49 GMT

I literally use changelings on hold-position aggressively to force-field ramps while I attack naturals. 1 full mana overseer is enough, 2 are plenty.

You'll be surprised how many times people just won't react fast enough when harassed to target-kill them.

Johnny_Vegas

United States239 Posts

October 12 2010 13:02 GMT

Changelings have won me games. Usually they are most valuable when I fly the overseer to the back of their base and move it into position with their marines. They are hard to notice sometimes, even when you drop a changeling in plain view of the enemy, as the player may have his screen focused on something else.

Last night my overseer was about to get shot down by marines, so I dropped a changeling (can't hurt), well it turns out after watching the replay the terran attacked the overseer then shifted his attention elsewhere... My marine blended right in, and was critical to winning that game as a result.

Perfect way to drop a changeling is to first distract the player, and get his focus on some other event in the game. If you drop your changeling at this time, your chances of successful infiltration go up greatly.

Keilah

731 Posts

October 12 2010 13:35 GMT

haha nice to see JV (or any nohunters guy) again!

That channel made me into the siiiiiiick pro that I am, and gave me many a laugh on BGH 8FFAs to boot =]

My name back then was kinda... impolite, but the acronym was GUTA. Sup!

Tommylew

Wales2717 Posts

October 12 2010 13:41 GMT

Really underrated and undersued, most people dont even assume theyll be used. They are good for scouting if used properly, like a zealot sitting in the middle of the base or in the probe line is easily going to be noticed. plus they are cheap for the amoun of scouting they can do before being noticed, can eaisly see a tech or similar before they dieand u need to get overseer possibily anyway.

weiliem

2061 Posts

October 12 2010 13:42 GMT

i just dont understand, y can Protoss sentries halucinate a unit easily which is so hard to kill for scouting. but Zergs can only produce useless changelings which would die in 1 shot?? People realise it so quickly and is instantly killed.... y cant changeling be stronger like halucinated units, being with the same hp as the unit it changed to but without atk?? blizzard is so unfair....

osten

Sweden316 Posts

October 12 2010 13:47 GMT

#10

I don't want to delay or sacrifice my contaminate. Scouting is not hard without this spell. If it's really important that I get scouting information this is not reliable. If I get an overseer it's for detection or I see a window to contaminate. When I have it I try my best to use the mana for contaminate. If I cannot contaminate I use them by dropping them far away, not in plain sight. If I have forgotten an overseer I spawn loads and use them to patrol around in front of my opponents army preferrably on a ramp and watch him aim for them and taking note of his attention span and apm speed. I think we all feel this is a spell that kinda dosen't belong, but it's fun to use.

If you aim for or train for using it you are doing it wrong. Always always contaminate is better and they use the same resource. The people that say it's good dosen't take into account that it also costs something. You can't have something for nothing so stop saying everything is good.

I like swampzero's thing =)

onmach

United States1241 Posts

October 12 2010 13:53 GMT

#11

I find if you let your overseer itself get scouted, they tend to look in that area suspiciously because of the flight pattern of a ninja overseer, where it floats in, stops, and then tries to float out.

I think it is more useful on terran than protoss. Zealots are too big and not plentiful enough to hide in most times. Often times I'll march it up to his front and try to join in with the ball. If I succeed in hiding one with his marines, I can constantly add new ones to his group for the rest of the game and I'll probably win.

Me personally, I can't see a changeling at all. It is completely invisible to me unless it is taking a weird path around my hatchery or something. I've had other zergs completely destroy me by just having a zergling keeping an eye on my stuff.

Carefoot

Canada410 Posts

October 12 2010 13:54 GMT

#12

Out of all the units you can suicide into their natural to see their army - the Changeling is free so even if instantly killed its better lost then a zergling.

Maybe they could change it but right now I like it.

TiBe

Mexico200 Posts

October 12 2010 14:08 GMT

#13

Low Diamond here, I do prefer to use contaminate instead, because you can actually scout without any trouble when you have an overseer (Changeling could be better on overlords early game

), and contaminate gives you precious seconds without thors :-)

teh_longinator

Canada725 Posts

October 12 2010 16:36 GMT

#14

I just use Contaminate when I'm facing Zerg... not much they can do without their lavae...

Otherwise, I'd prefer Changeling

Eknoid4

United States902 Posts

October 12 2010 19:11 GMT

#15

contaminate is great for putting on a robo bay if you do a roach push and he's making immortals

Carras

Argentina860 Posts

October 12 2010 19:25 GMT

#16

the fact with changelings is that u gear the sound..
so if you can make them far enough so he doesnt hear them , they ll provide some decent intel..

Johnny_Vegas

United States239 Posts

October 12 2010 19:26 GMT

#17

On October 12 2010 22:35 Keilah wrote:
haha nice to see JV (or any nohunters guy) again!

That channel made me into the siiiiiiick pro that I am, and gave me many a laugh on BGH 8FFAs to boot =]

My name back then was kinda... impolite, but the acronym was GUTA. Sup!

yoyoyo, I remember you Keilah, good to run into somebody now and then!

JohnnyVegas.834 if you want to play some time

The NH forum is still going strong, lotta NH guys are into SC2 now.

SgtRock

Canada93 Posts

October 12 2010 19:32 GMT

#18

On October 12 2010 22:42 weiliem wrote:
i just dont understand, y can Protoss sentries halucinate a unit easily which is so hard to kill for scouting. but Zergs can only produce useless changelings which would die in 1 shot?? People realise it so quickly and is instantly killed.... y cant changeling be stronger like halucinated units, being with the same hp as the unit it changed to but without atk?? blizzard is so unfair....

Maybe they are used for COMPLETELY different things? And apart from that, you have to upgrade hallucinate, and changeling comes from the overseer as an automatic ability.
Hallucinated units show up as the enemy, changelings show up as your own unit. Hallucinated were designed to devise army make ups and changelings are meant to quickly scout.
You can't honestly compare two completely different things.
You can't compare auto-turret with psi-storm... for example.

truckerdaves

United States66 Posts

October 12 2010 19:48 GMT

#19

On October 12 2010 21:43 Undercroft wrote:
I still use them for scouting, just i need to be careful with it. Most of the time i'll get to see a bunch of the base before it gets killed, but that's better than seeing nothing. If i can i try to position behind buildings so they can't see the changeling.

Against terrans i'll try mix it into their M&M ball. Nothing sweeter than a changling walking along with their army giving me intel on their position and composition. It's allowed me to set up some sweet ambushes with banelings and the long grass on steppes :D

I do this all the time and no matter who you are going against, this is an awesome strat. You can zoom in to get a better view behind buildings and then select that you want the changleings to move there and they stay very well hidden. Or you can try and use the map if you can position it correctly. Changelings are incredibly useful, but alas, not as useful as observers =] but zerg usually has the advantage when it comes to scouting anyways so i cant complain