On January 21 2013 03:26 EuSpex wrote: I think the biggest threat for swarm host is the raven. You can pdd queens / hydras and get your seekers on. Even with 5 sec delay you will hit them. But thats what blizzard wanted right? They wanted the swarm host to force an reaction not immediately but you have to ensure to get something out to deal with them.
At the moment I face zerg players getting swarm hosts and sending the locusts wave after wave into my siege line but do not capitalize on their advantage (I cannot move away). I really think you can abuse (especially mech terran) so hard with swarm host / overlord drop and nydus network + creep spread.
locusts activate pdd; with so many locusts, pdd energy vanishes in seconds.
Been watching Rekatan's stream. He really makes great use of swarm hosts, in ways I was hoping to see. He does 'hit and run' where he lets loose a pack of locusts, unborrows, repositions and lets loose again.
Very rarely do his hosts ever even get hit by the enemy army, and most of the time they are above ground, only burrowing for a few seconds to let loose their next wave. He 'kites' enemy armies with his host ball and its real hard to get close to them. I've also seen him spread them out to send locusts in from multiple angles.
He's also making great use of the fast hydra, mass queen and viper pull to deal with mass collossi, air, or anything hosts can't deal with.
Makes me excited for the next few months when we will see the top korean zergs using them.
Here are nice or just good replays with good demonstration of Swarm Host usage in different matchups. Also I will add some basic tips, based at every replay.
Blade (Grandmaster League) trying to use Swarm Hosts in different matchups, also here are some tips around his replays: • You should be active, don't stay at one place for a long time. • Don't leave them in one spot unless you know you can safely. If you see him moving up throw down a wave of Locusts and run back with Swarn Hosts. • Don't use only Swarm Hosts. Get a good support for them so they will support you too. Add Zerglings and Corruptors against Stalkers and Colossies. Use Vipers to fight better against Terran mech. • Try to make transitions with Swarm Hosts. With using Infestation Pit you're one step away from Hive technologies which are Vipers, Ultralisks and Brood Lords. • Try to make a small Special Strike group with some Hydroaches or Zerglings and Vipers against Terran. When Terran fighting on front side, you can always runby into blinded Siege Tanks from the back side.
You can download Blade's replays with Swarm Host usage in this thread
If you will find nice replays with Swarm Host usage, post here and I will add them too to first post.
So every time I relocate the swarm host I lose the attack rally point. Is there a quicker way to do this without having to click the rally point every time I relocate the SH? This is especially annoying when im moving small packs of 3-4 hosts at a time forward (leap-frogging). Thanks.
On February 05 2013 03:11 Prime Directive wrote: So every time I relocate the swarm host I lose the attack rally point. Is there a quicker way to do this without having to click the rally point every time I relocate the SH? This is especially annoying when im moving small packs of 3-4 hosts at a time forward (leap-frogging). Thanks.
No solution. It isn't really hard to click again somewhere
It is annoying that you can't queue the rally tho. If you issue a move-burrow-move it should assume the final move is a locus rally so you dont have to baby sit them as much.
TLO played a bunch of games with SH today one of which made them seem very viable vs standard Protoss (WoL standards anyways). TLO vs BlinG Game starts around 1:47:00 http://it.twitch.tv/liquidtlo/b/364009877
TLO opens with Roaches (standard) and pushes back Bling's early stalker pressure. The only real hiccup I saw in Bling's play was when TLO manages to force a cancel on his third. I guess Bling should have taken the rocks on his ramp out sooner and could have stalled with FF but I'm not sure it would have mattered. From that point TLO basically uses his Roaches as a buffer while he transitions into pure SH and establishes a contain. TLO maxes out on SH and just before Bling can get the critical number of Colossus needed to kill the locusts TLO gets Vipers out allowing him to abduct and kill the Colossus so Bling ggs.
I see people saying that Skytoss is a counter to SH and while I agree to an extent the interesting thing is that Skytoss is actually kind of immobile. SH are much quicker than Void Rays and I have seen both TLO and Blade simply reposition their SH when the Voids get too close. Since toss air doesn't do any AoE if you have enough SH they will be forced to focus on killing locusts instead of your SH which gives you the time to unburrow and move to one of the other toss expansions. There is a game vs Grubby in that same stream session from TLO where Grubby goes air and TLO wins by simply being more mobile.
I really want to have access to the Swarm Host rally point at all times, even when unburrowed. Thus you wouldn't lose the rally point when you unburrow, and you would be able to set the locust rally point when they are lumbering their way across the map.
Having the rally point go away every time you unburrow, and being unable to set it while unburrowed, I find to be really laborious. Really really unfun unit micromanagement.
On February 16 2013 01:57 Hairy wrote: I really want to have access to the Swarm Host rally point at all times, even when unburrowed. Thus you wouldn't lose the rally point when you unburrow, and you would be able to set the locust rally point when they are lumbering their way across the map.
Having the rally point go away every time you unburrow, and being unable to set it while unburrowed, I find to be really laborious. Really really unfun unit micromanagement.
So much good information - thanks for this post, dude! This one thing just jumped out at me because it was such a good idea that just never occurred to me.
quote: • ZERG vs TERRAN. Because Terran can slowly move half of his Siege Tanks under defence of other deployed tanks, Terrans can slowly come closer to Swarm Hosts. Try to make 2 waves of Locusts spawn or make a constant Locust spawn without big time rooms for Terran, allowing him to relocate his Siege Tanks. It can make every Locust wave weaker, but at same time Terran have more risk to lose undeployed Siege Tanks.
Small but usefull tip that i didn't find in the OP.
When you siege your swarm hosts, there are those situations where you click so fast that they don't actually borrow (but walk to their dead). Solution: Do not use right click to issue the rally command, but use the rally hotkey of swarm hosts. Yup, go check, there is one in the command card!
On February 22 2013 06:38 Kaleidos wrote: Small but usefull tip that i didn't find in the OP.
When you siege your swarm hosts, there are those situations where you click so fast that they don't actually borrow (but walk to their dead). Solution: Do not use right click to issue the rally command, but use the rally hotkey of swarm hosts. Yup, go check, there is one in the command card!
Woah, really useful tip. I will add it to HOTS tips and here too
Asking people who have watched and played more HoTS than me (I am top 8 masters in both games but I haven't really played much HoTS especially with new units, or watched a lot of pro streams because no good Zergs actually stream): is ling/corruptor or roach/hydra better support for swam host in ZvP?
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Di4vnpl.png)
