(D) The Hydra Pilgrimage Part TWO! Mech - Page 2

On February 16 2012 15:46 kineSiS- wrote:
Well... the fact is.

Blue flame hellions rape hydras, thors rape hydras, tanks rape hydras.

Hydra are twice the gas of roaches. Roaches are in this case, more cost effective due to regenerative healing while burrowing, allowing for early game pressure with roach infestor into muta and then broodlords, then etc.

But, I love your ability to be creative, albeit not practical.

If ONLY IT WAS BROODWAR T_T R.I.P. THE HYDRA

On February 17 2012 03:52 ODKStevez wrote:
Yay!! Part 2 this is so awesome! Can we get a few replays of the screen shots you have? ^_^

On February 17 2012 04:03 salehonasi wrote:


Actually, Thors do NOT rape Hydras; interestingly enough, as Thors are somewhat inefficient against Hydralisks, as they overkill significantly (second attack does 20 of the 60 potential points of damage). Thors do this to Roaches as well with their 3rd attack, but I'd argue that the added DPS of Hydralisks, along with their superior range, justifies their usage against mass Thor over mass roaches.

Unfortunately, you won't find a player with JUST Thors outside of Bronze-Gold; Hellions do indeed crush Hydralisks like no other, and Hydralisks simply cannot actually enter an engagement against a tank position unless the Terran decides to seige up deep inside your creep (In which case they deserve to lose horribly). I don't even use tanks in my TvZ, but Hellions are so incomprehensibly cost-efficient against Hydras that it doesn't really matter.

As a note about Burrow, I think this is actually a great metagaming idea; Terrans are usually able to get away with not having a Raven because so few Zergs punish it, and then only with baneling mines. Mech players tend to scan an area they want to move into, clear it out, and take control of it, preventing any more burrow antics. pre-emptively placing a small task force of burrowed units somewhere where they won't scan and unburrowing later is good to force the terran to back their lines up, or risk having their forward force crushed if they only send their hellions back.

Unfortunately, I think roaches would probably serve this role better, as you have very little chance of getting out alive with your costly Hydralisks, whereas roaches are cheaper, and can usually force a couple of extra scans by quickly destroying turrets and then burrow + reposition. Hydralisks need burrow movement in HotS, if you ask me. If you really want to do counterattacks with Hydralisks, Nydus is the natural choice, as you can actually run away. Hydras are nice for this because they can abuse their high-DPS to wreck infrastructure at an alarming rate without being forced to fight and suffer from their low durability and high-cost casualties. Situational, but I think every Zerg should get a Nydus Worm; you should never expect to win with it, but if you ever spot that Terran neglected to get vision on a part of their main, it potentially could.

On February 17 2012 04:11 Huggerz wrote:
People like you keep me sane, don't stop being awesome

On February 17 2012 04:36 EdSlyB wrote:
I love the potencial that the hydra has. The problem is that the hydra is not a good unit overall. It has two big flaws: slow speed off creep and are very fragile by themselves. So people go for the all around good unit: the roach. Fast speed with upgrade, lots of health and good damage dealing when in large numbers.

But if you get a composition that makes uses of the qualities of the hydra (like get the ultras tanking and soaking the damage) they will melt everything.

Please continue forcing those hydras out! They are amazing!

On February 17 2012 07:47 SadCheese wrote:
Loving the shots. Mech can be a real pain in the butt especially when you screw up and let
him take his third. I had a stint using hydras in zvt back when I was in platinum and realized
that I was utterly unable to make it work except against mass and poorly upgraded thors. As
someone else said--nobody actually does this who is any good. Although occasionally some
jagoff will try to pull a 2 thor rush or something, in which case hydras can pop the thors pretty
good if you can't knock out all the SCVs with banes since their DPS can overcome the repair.
Also, I have used them effectively against mech in that 1:4 hydra:roach that works so well
against toss. Just a little extra DPS, helps put you over the edge.

Subsequently I have actually found a really good use which I use currently (and I'm not sure
why more people aren't using it.. well okay I know why, it's fragility): end-game, brood lord
pushes. Other people mentioned the biggest downside of the hydra as being it's vulnerability
to AoE attacks; the BL push totally negates tanks and it shouldn't be a concern. Big stim marine
pushes in somebody not protecting their BLs effectively, vikings and (soon-to-be-nerfed) snipes
are pretty much the main counters. Assuming you have some infestors to take care of the
clumped marine fodder trying desperately to stop your push, hydras are actually super effective
in dealing with the vikings. Negating snipes just requires vigilance, good fungals, overseers,
prayer, etc.

I will generally start my push out with whatever I can muster as far as infestors/lings for my
8-10 brood lords (assuming life has been kind) and I reinforce with hydras. The BL push
is so slow that if you are patient, lose some lings here and there, they are usually frantically
pumping out 2-6 vikings at a time in an attempt to pick off your BLs. When they come to hit
you with their 15 vikings once you finally make it to their side of the map you should have a
healthy number of hydras. Even if it's only 5, assuming you can get one fungal off on the
vikings (not usually that hard) you can usually take out their whole clump. If not, you can hold
them at bay and just march your sweet little BLs towards that PF that's been eating your
zerglings (seriously what retarded developer thought that making an invulnerable base for one
of the races was somehow in balance?)

So try that sometime.. 20 hydras, 6 infestors supporting 10 BLs.. can stomp through a whole
ton of terran. At least at low master/high diamond, when it works, when I feel like doing it,
and when I haven't already demoralized him with my fourth infestor breakdown of his spotted
drops.

On February 16 2012 14:06 IconicSC wrote:
If they use anything that doesnt involve factory units, it is not mech

Playing anyone with a marauder/tank/hellion army is asking for mutas.

Just curious,
What league are you?

On February 17 2012 08:52 Big J wrote:
some things on the OP:
-) you are mad
-) hydra/roach is pretty good premax against the usual (thor/hellion heavy) mechstyles
-) hydras in ZvZ is nothing special, plz keep doing it vs Terran or Protoss :-)
-) are you still in masters now?