The HotS Zerg Help Me Thread

MaSsan wrote:
I do 17, 24, 31, 38, and so on off hatch first. Once two bases are saturated, make sure you make at least 2 overlords at a time.
Off Pool first builds, make 15 overlord instead of 17.

MaSsan wrote:
Try to inject everything at once if possible. If injects are out of sync, do not wait since you'll most likely won't have perfect injects and will eventually sync them again.

Suppy wrote:
Hatch Gas Pool, ling speed
5:50 resume gas mining
6:00 hatch
6:10 add 2nd + 3rd gas
6:10 RW
Stop drone production at 2 base full saturation
Baneling nest at RW completion
13 roaches, rally lings behind
Hit at about 8:45

Karpfen wrote:
15H
16P
2xQueens
2xQueens
@5:10 2xG
@6:00 3rd H
@100g Speed
@6:25 2xEvos 1xG(3rd)
@7:10 1xG(4th)
@100%Evos +1/+1(melee)
@7:35 Lair
@8min RW,BN
@100%Lair SpeedR,SpeedB
@9:05 G(5th)
Stop Drone Production @saturation
9:40 4th H(M)
Overlords,Roaches,Banes

MaSsan wrote:
Above build is taken from GSL WCS KR 2013 Season 1 Finals, in Innovation versus Soulkey game 5.
Link to the vod is found here

MaSsan wrote:
Best way to deal with hellbats are going roaches, and having spore each base. I focus medivacs with queens before it comes into mineral line, pull drones before medivacs get into drone line, and spores and roaches will do the rest and make sure that drop ends there.

After that, you are free to drone up.

Blade55555 wrote:
Dealing with drops what I do once the game gets going is I leave a small pack of lings with 2-3 banes with them to defend drops at my main + 3rd/4'th base location. A couple spines as well with a spore or 2. That is the best way to deal with it so you can deal with an attack while defending against a drop as well.

The spines are useful in delaying his drops from doing a lot of damage if you don't have units over there or if he kills all the ling/bane you left behind to deal with drops. The spores can kill the medivacs so he can't just run off or if you are lucky will kill the medivac before he even gets his units out.

Blade55555 wrote:
swarmhosts are the easiest way. You have to remember that mech is not bio. It takes a lot longer to get a strong mech ball then it does to make a strong bio ball. If the terran tries any cute pre-swarmhost timing, it's going to be with very little units and you will be able to make roach/ling at the last second and still hold it off easily.
You should be doing swarmhost/roach/hydra into viper/swarmhost/roach/hydra.
A guide video can be found here.

MaSsan wrote:
After getting SH army ready, you can either transition into Brood Lords or vipers. Keep making Corruptors to protect eitehr tech units, and keep on trading with locusts for his army, or prevent him from expanding all the way.

Blade55555 wrote:
If it's only 1 starport you should only put 1 at each base. In the mineral line preferably, if he starts taking shots at the hatchery and what not you can move it, then cancel the burrow when he moves his banshee away. I rarely make 2, but then normally when there is cloak banshee out on the field your lair should be close to being done so you can just make an overseer.

But generally you want 1 in mineral line of main/nat/third.

If your lair hasn't started for some reason and cloak banshee I would make 2 then.

If it’s 2 starport should probably make 2-3 at each base and add queens.

Glon wrote:

1. To defend ANY sort of 2 rax, you should:
a) Identify that it is a 2 rax. Stop droning and build an overlord (on 16 or 17 supply)
b) Send ~3 drones to your natural, and damage SCV's as much as possible
c) DENY THE FIRST BUNKER. When you see the marine and more SCV's coming up, pull almost all drones from your main and make sure to deny the first bunker. To do this: 2 drones should target the first marine, some A move into the SCVs, some attack bunker directly
d) When your pool pops, build a spine at the back of your natural and constantly pump lings. I prefer to NOT build a queen and continue ling production. If you see an opportunity, run ~8-10 lings past the bunker and intercept rallying marines.
e) Be careful with your spine. There will be a timing when you have enough lings to pull your drones with the lings and kill everything the terran has. Make sure to do this before your natural hatchery dies, and try to engage while your natural hatch still has ~500 health (so it can't just be focused)

Blade55555 wrote:

Roach/hydra/infestor will beat a roach/infestor player in a straight up fight. Hydras are actually good in ZvZ and I would recommend any Zerg to start adding them into your roach/infestor army once you get to about 130-150 supply. This doesn't mean you win for sure against a roach/infestor player though. If you attack sloppily like up a ramp or he gets a full surround his roach/infestor army will kill you.

If both of you get equel concaves or anything like that you should win unless he has more units or way better upgrades. In an even scenario though you will wint his fight 100% of the time as long as you don't engage badly.

If you want to go roach/infestor and not add hydras you need to be doing roach hit squads, burrowed infestors and try not to fight the roach/hydra/infestor army straight up unless he is going up a ramp and you get him then.

Glon wrote:

You can identify whether it's a macro 10 pool if you opponent takes a hatchery (your first scouting overlord should be parked at the natural). If your opponent does not take a hatchery at a reasonable time (I will edit in the exact time stamp tomorrow, I'm tired), then immediately do NOT inject with your queens and pull both to the ramp. Build a spine in your main, at the edge of the creep closest to the ramp. If you took gas, build a baneling nest before speed. Get ready to hit some snap transfuses are banelings crash into your queens. As long as you can buy time for your own banelings to come up, you're in good shape.

Constantly sink your money into lings, and when possible, a few extra queens never hurt anyone.

MaSsan wrote:

Optimally, you can take 3rd right as they take theirs after 4 roaches or so. As long as you don't fall too far behind in economy, your upgrade advantage as well as tech advantage(roaches) should carry you over to next phase of the game.

Blade55555 wrote:
What I do is add my 4th queen when my third finishes. I found this a great way to spread creep well. I have so far found this to be the best way and it helps a lot verse early air since you have 4 queens already.

What I like to do in general is with my first queen inject, then instead of injecting on the next 25 energy, I lay down a creep tumor. Then I make my 4th queen out of my third hatchery and just keep creep spreading from there.

Blade55555 wrote:
If protoss pylon blocks your natural 2 things you can do.

Wait for lings and then take the expansion, or take your third as an expo. Now taking the third first can be risky if the protoss is going gate first, but normally when you get pylon blocked it's going to be forge expand.

Now if you wait for lings to kill it, it's fine you have to remember he's delaying his tech just like he's delaying your expo. It evens itself out and it's not something to freak out over or react in a different way. Just play normal, take the expo a little later and you'll be fine.

Blade55555 wrote:
Scouting with lings is VERY important when facing gate expand. You can shut down a 4 gate zealot MSC by just denying probes/pylons. You should make lings, control the watch towers and the rest should be scouting for proxy pylons or hidden probes. This is the best way to shut it down.

If not roach/ling can hold it you just need to make sure you see it coming at a good time and not be caught by surprise.

MaSsan wrote:
I recommend opening 3 hatch build(in general Q&A Thread), go up to 55-60 drones, and then massing roaches and lings.

Blade55555 wrote:
I have only faced it twice (both from puck) and I absolutely smashed it the first time with swarmhosts + static defense. A key giveaway to it coming is when the toss player makes a stargate and robo at the same time and once you see that get swarmhosts, some static defense (mainly spores with a couple spines) and you can do roach/ling with it while using queens + spore to kill the voidrays.

MaSsan wrote:
Hydra+static+ lings works great too, try not to upgrade more than 1/1 and focus on producing units out first before investing for future.

Glon wrote:

This is correct. In every situation, there's almost no reason to lose your third. Even just pulling all of your queens and quickly throwing down 3-4 emergency spores will save it (say if it was like a 2 stargate that you didn't see). Don't forget to put down 1-2 in your main/natural though, don't want him just moving to your main and killing everything there.

Also don't forget to control the map with zerglings. If you see gateway units moving out with a probe (you already should have scoured the map for a proxy pylon), make roaches/lings. In the case of a stargate/+1 gateway aggression, roaches and queens are your friends. Zerglings tend to melt, however are great for spotting around them and harassing the proxy pylon(s) while the protoss is making his first pokes with his zealots.

Blade55555 wrote:

Once you stop having a mobile army and are transitioning into bl/corr/infestor as well as having a bank of minerals, that is when you want to start putting static defense everywhere. I would put spores at the end of your bases so they can shoot at the warp prism and spines just a ton of spines everywhere. Make sure to remake drones when doing this!

If you do not remake drones you will fall behind economically because you will have very little minerals due to low drone count. This is very important to do as going from 80 workers to 50 is a huge difference in economy and you do not want this. Also make sure to have static defenses blocking and guarding tech structures such as infestation pit and the greater spire. There is nothing more annoying then losing your greater spire .

BatesCsC wrote:

9 Overlord
14 Pool
16 Overlord
16 Hatch
Queen + Gas ~ (3:10)
Queen (4:00)
Speed (4:40)
Hatch - 3rd (6:00)
Queen (6:10)
Lair (6:30)
Macro Hatch (6:50)
Gas x2 (7:00)
Roach Warren (7:30)
Infestation + Gas x3 (8:00)
Hydra Den (8:10)
*Pool resources
Hydra x10 (9:00)
Hive (9:30)
Hydra range (9:40)
Evo chamber (9:50)
Roach speed/+1 ranged (10:30)
Hydra speed (11:00)
Viper x3 (11:15)
*Mass hydroaches
Attack (12:00).

Example: http://www.twitch.tv/taketv/b/420293664?t=23h02m30s