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Hello. This will be my first post in here, and though I am by no means an expert at SC2, I do believe I'll have some information useful to some people, lower level players especially. If anyone feels there are inaccuracies in my guide, just point them out and I'll have a look.
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INTRO:
When it comes to Zerg, the entire game revolves around scouting and reacting to what you see. Things like what you do with your overlords can and will make the difference between a silver and a diamond level player or more! Just remember to keep a cool head and apply your knowledge to react to what you see.
Drone Scouts:
On a smaller map or a map with only two possible spawns, you may wish to send your first drone out slightly later than on a larger one. As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing is that you get your first drone inside their wall, and it is also vital for scouting 2rax pressure or proxies. Scouting a proxy doesn't neccesarily mean seeing the building itself, but you should be able to tell whether they have a proxy going up by what you see in their base.
when you get inside their base with your drone scout, what I love to do is take their extractor and try to remain there as long as possible. This denies any option for them doing gas heavy opening builds unless they pull harvesters to stop it. Even if they do that, though, that confirms they are planning a cheesy play so you can begin preparing for it as early as possible. If you feel they are about to get the firepower needed to take you off the gas, then I reccomend you cancel and run the drone around in their base to get as much information as possible before it dies.
Overlord Scouts:
I reccomend as soon as the game starts, you should start sending your first overlord towards the center of the map. This will mean that when you scout their position, it will be closer to their base  . I reccomend sending that overlord around the edges of their base so it can wait there until around the 6 minute mark which is usually a good time to send an overlord in. I also like to send my seccond overlord next to their base too.
This allows me to either make 2 scouts or to send them in together to get a very high chance of information. However, if you do this, make sure you are prepared to lose 16 supply and have the overlords in production to avoid being capped. Depending on your opening build, you may prefer to use your second overlord to scout for bunkers and proxy pylons in your natural instead of sending it to their base. As for your other overlords, you should never have them sitting in your base. Just select your overlords and spread them all around the map so that you will see all attacks, drops and expansions coming.
You can use these overlord placements to deny expansions and prepare really well for attacks.I used to be scared of moving overlords outside the base incase they get picked off, but you have to count overlords as somewhat expendable units. as long as you can see the whole map, then you are in control of the game and how it goes.
Also, placing an overlord behind his natural or even main base on some maps, can allow you to check for how much gas they are mining. This can also help to let you know what they are planning or what they are capable of producing. When you have a good spread on your overlords and a lair, be sure to drop creep from then, in the other expansions and just around the map. this will cause additional annoyance for the terran or protoss. When spreading overlords, bear in mind that one of the main things you'll want them to do is spot for incoming drops!
Zerglings:
Make sure you are always doing something with your zerglings. Any zerglings you have are units that could have been drones, so you want to make the most out of them as possible.
The first thing you want to do with your first lings is take both xel naga towers and run one up his ramp and then place it in his natural expansion so you can catch when he expands or moves out. You can also use them to destroy rocks and generally run around his bases to keep him on his toes, always looking for an opening to run into the opponents mineral line. Another good way to use your zerglings is to patrol them wherever you don't have overlord vision.
Overseers:
There isn't much to say about this, but if you ever feel like you're not sure what is going on in their base, then that's a good time to morph in an overseer and check it out. Make sure to use your energy on your overseers though, and not just run them in to die! They have a spell that allows they to delay the production on any building for 30 (I think) seconds. Use this ability on a protoss's robotics facility or templar archives/twilight council if they are researching from them to delay their tech. These kinds of moves can end up being significant in the game, especially if you manage to do it multiple times, you can in theory delay a building indefinately. Otherwise, you should just drop changeling when you enter the opponents base. while your overseer is checking stuff out, you should start splitting the changelings up and spreading them around the other players main and natural. They will likely be distracted sniping your overseer, and the bulk of the information you will gain is usually from the changelings themselves. Another tip with changelings, is you can drop one outside the opponent's base before you start scouting and then send it in when they are distracted by your overseer in their base!
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I hope this helped guys, I'd appreciate feedback on my first guide.
P.S: also posted on reddit
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Good advice, some of it might be obvious, but it's important to know nonetheless. Might want to talk about having an overlord behind the natural, to check for expansions; also, on some maps, the overlords can hang around the back/side and peek in to look at gas. Overlords are amazing, best zerg unit imo.
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Thanks for the feedback. That's true, I don't often put an overlord there though I probably should, just because I check for their natural expansion with a ling outside their ramp. And I do a lot of scouting with lings, but that point about checking gas is a good one and I do have overlords there sometimes.
I was going to add a section with good counters to different Protoss and Terran builds, but I realized that would take forever because of all the different stuff they can do and the different ways to react.
EDIT: Overlords behind natural and Overseers section added.
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The spell can also be used on a command center to slow down it's change into a planetary fortress or orbital command.
Is that just pure guessing on your part? Unless the unit tester lies, the only thing that contamination does for a CC is stops it from making scvs. Can morph into anything just fine.
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On August 20 2011 01:28 ThreeStep wrote:Show nested quote +The spell can also be used on a command center to slow down it's change into a planetary fortress or orbital command. Is that just pure guessing on your part? Unless the unit tester lies, the only thing that contamination does for a CC is stops it from making scvs. Can morph into anything just fine.
I can confirm this. It also just delays egg production (of a hatchery) doesn't delay lair/hive.
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I think a "what to look for when and how to respond" guide would be more helpful. This stuff is basic information, although its still important. More specific knowledge is more useful IMO.
For instance I just had to post a thread asking when I should be expecting a Toss Expo, and what information I could draw from when their expo goes down.
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I like the initiative.
But the key missing info imo are timings and interprétation of the patterns you scout. What means 2 gas plus 3 gates at 5min for example. Sending a unit is one thing. Knowing what youre searching for is another.
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@Yourself2k8 & @GreyMasta
I was going to add that, but it would take up probably 100 pages and I'm not necesarilly qualified to give defintive answers. Also, it is so subjective which style is better since there is so many reactions to different builds. I could, however, add what some things that you see might mean, but at that rate I could add anything to the guide, I'll keep it as a scouting guide right now.
Also, I'll edit out the Overseers stopping buildings morphing.
P.S: 2 gas 3 gates would normally be a 3gate sentry expand right?
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Does anyone know how to delete posts and edit titles?
EDIT: Crap...like for this double post I meant to edit it onto the last one.
By the way, I might add a lot more information, anyone request stickey for this please?
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Bump If That's allowed.....I plan to develop this into a really good guide but I can't do that without feedback.
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This would be a really useful guide if it included what to look for at what timings and in different contexts.
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Yeah, they don't really do stickies around here unless it's Rules and Reminders and stuff from TL mods and admins.
Also, that's pretty shameless bumping. Don't worry if everyone doesn't post feedback to your guide. Contribute to other threads and keep getting involved. Look at other people's guides and see if you can help contribute to their discussions, too.
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I only bumped because if it goes down too far in pages, nobody will see it and it won't be worth updating it with new information because nobody would see it.
I could keep it higher up and update it more if it was in a specific guide section. Is there one?
Thanks for the comments.
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Any suggestions for dealing with players who know where a Zerg will place overlords (usually because we have no choice) and preemptively sends units to those locations to pick them off either while they're on the way or stationary/preparing to enter the main for info.
I'm surprised more players don't do this to be honest. Some maps are just so freaking easy to deny scouting that it's a joke. 2/3 marines or a stalker/sentry in the right spot will kill the OL before it sees anything of value.
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
What about zerglings patrols at key locations, where there are no overlord? Zerglings are cheap and very fast to cover nice territory. And you will have always alert, if enemy coming, cuz zergling will be killed. And you lose 0.5 supply instead 8 provided supplies.
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its a fair guide, but i do have to say that your intro to zerg isn't always true.
"When it comes to Zerg, the entire game revolves around scouting and reacting to what you see. Things like what you do with your overlords can and will make the difference between a silver and a diamond level player or more! Just remember to keep a cool head and apply your knowledge to react to what you see.
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well the whole game is based off scouting and reacting. Also note that some zergs can just macro up off a 2-base timing or even just 1 base.
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@idkju Even if you are doing an all in off of 1 or 2 bases, the fact remains you will still lose to hellions, void rays, banshees, 2rax, 6rax, cannon rush, turtle economy, 4gate, sentry drop, vikings, phoenix and so much more if you don't scout as a zerg and react properly. You can't just sit back in your base and follow a build like Terran does. Don't pretend that zerg isn't far more relient on scouting and reacting than the other races.
@Mjolnir Well, if they take a few units out to kill overlords, then you can just kill them with speedlings. If they take out too many units, you can counter attack their base or flank their army. If they take out air units, you can make a couple of corruptors or muta and in the meantime just keep sending overlords.
@Existor That sounds pretty good.
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Spreading overlords over the map in mid game is imo really important. And unless opponent is going straight to some nasty air anti-ovierlord fleet, it is worth risking their lifes for scouting information. Also, really important thing is to remember about dropping creep from them, ideally on expansions that your opponent will want to take in future.
I would also like to hear some ideas how to smuggle changeling into opponent base/army in best way. I am failing with this so badly most of the times;P
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One key use of Overlords is also to place them around the area of your base and natural to spot incoming drops, spread them to get maximum vision around. Also place one further into the path that a dropship would likely be coming from to give you more time to react. This is really important and someting that I and most zergs don't do enough. I've started doing this ALL the time now and it has greatly improved my ZvT. I hope this comes into the scope of your guide.
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@DnameIN Added what you said about pooping creep. When it comes to changelings, I find it best to just drop them in their base with the overlord while you scout and spread them as quick as you can like I said in the guide. Also, you can drop one in front of their base and run it in to their army when they are distracted with your overseer!
@Flix I did say you should spread overlords, if you've been doing it well you should be able to spot drops easily by the time they've got medivacs. Just use common sense with placing overlords.EDIT:Noticed I didn't say that was one of the main things to think about when positioning overlords so I added it to my guide.
Thanks for the feedback!
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That's a really nice basic guide on how to scout, even though players that need this kind of help would probably also benefit from tips about what to scout for, ex. no gas opener with terran means prolly 2 rax expo or on some cases 1rax expo or 6rax.
Also you might add poking up the ramp often with zerglings to see unit counts, WG timing and addons. No sentries and no WG chronos will mean some kind of tech cheese whereas lots of sentries are usually 3gate expo, fast reactor means usually hellions etc.
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july with a doable RO4 match!
Edit: Sry wrong thread :D
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Yes, the problem is that there is so much different things a race can do and a zerg can do to react to it, but I will try to add something like that in the future (with pictures I guess) but will be difficult for me =D
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Another tip: 1 second after your opponent moves out (especially little pokes early game), try to sneak a zergling or two up their ramp behind their army. It won't work every time but you can often get complete scouting of their base for a bargain price.
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Good for diamond and under. There is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much you're missing that high level players use.
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Really underused trick is IMHO the Mineral-Trick with a drone and a few Zerglings to soak up the initial Zealot-Hit against Protoss wall-in's. If you do it at around 4 mins to 4:30, you can easily get the drone in there and have a decent timing to scout for 4gates...
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On August 24 2011 22:15 kickinhead wrote:
Really underused trick is IMHO the Mineral-Trick with a drone and a few Zerglings to soak up the initial Zealot-Hit against Protoss wall-in's. If you do it at around 4 mins to 4:30, you can easily get the drone in there and have a decent timing to scout for 4gates...
Yeah and you don't even need those lings since the zealot doesn't kill the drone when it goes past. Also I don't think 4gate is worth worrying about anymore, at least I haven't seen it in ages.
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Keep up the good work! As a silver zerg, i'm always finding myself clueless about what i just scouted! I'll be definitely watching this thread for more information!
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Thanks a lot Maldito! I'll keep working on it. Add me btw EneMalicious.963
I'm going to take a picture of a forge fast expand and then work on some other builds =D
EDIT: Builds information removed for now. There is so much work to do if I do all of that. If/When I complete them all, I'll add it to the guide as a package. Still, add me maldito and I'll help you with that!
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very helpful, a very straight forward guide, being a platinum player, i feel theses little thing may get me into diamond... good post.
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Thanks a lot for the comment, I'll try not to forget about updating this guide.
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EPT
