On September 15 2013 03:44 morgoth813 wrote: How do you deal with force fields ?
1. Choose the place of engagement well. Smaller chokes are easily forcefielded. Middle of derelict watcher for example is wide open and requires a lot of forcefields. 2. Retreat if protoss throws down a lot of forcefields. Use the time to gather reinforcements. He will have less forcefields for later. 3. Attack from multiple angles to make it harder for protoss to forcefield and make them use more forcefields. 4. Hydras with range can still sometimes shoot despite forcefields 5. Make more units to compensate for forcefields. 6. Ultralisks stomp on forcefields.
4. Hydras are more fragile than a piece of paper, yet barely have the range of a stalker when upgraded. that's really a horrible idea.
The usual hydra-ling timing is the time the hydras shine the most. You will meet 1 colossus or 0 usually. You can't use only hydra-ling as a late game composition obviously that's why you transition into corruptor-ling-hydra to end the game there or mutas/swarm hosts. Hydralisks also hold very easily the sentry immortal all-in (many many forcefields in that one) because thye can attack even when FF'd. So play the game instead of blindly call what almost every top zerg does a horrible idea.
Almost every top zerg does not try to counter force fields with hydras. So play the game instead of blindly posting unneeded sentences.
Except jd, drg and soulkey? OH WOW i just named the top zergs. The hydra ling timing is a HYDRA ling timing and not a roaching ling timing because of forcefields, get over it.
Almost every top zerg does not try to counter force fields with hydras. So play the game instead of blindly posting unneeded sentences.
Yea man........ lol, wth? Like this is blatantly false.
I'd have to say the the 2 most popular Zerg strategies I see from the Pro's (last 3-4 months) are Hydra/Ling/Roach into Viper (or Muta switch) or Ultra/Ling. I can't remember seeing that much Roach play. Yea......you'll see them added in but long gone are the days of Stephano heavy Roach. The only time I see prevalent Roach play is when defending some form of early Gateway pressure or X amount of Gateway all-ins. And even then, after the initial push is stopped you'll see them transition towards Hydra.
Here are 2 games from Rain Vs Jaedong - Group A - WCS Season 2. Go to 17m mark to begin. Jaedong opens both games Hydra/Ling and transitions to Muta (game 1) and transitions into Viper (game 2):
Zergs play Hydras because Protoss open stargate most of the time. Roaches are still much better against gatewayheavy play but since roach/hydra doesn't just roll over and die past 15mins in HotS and is actually much stronger in the lategame than roaches there is hardly any reason not to go for hydras.
Forcefields have little to do with it, especially as you don't go for hydrarange early, always for hydraspeed. And 5range hydras can touch anything behind a forcefield just as much as 4range roaches... so basically nothing unless it is a zealot.
On September 18 2013 23:01 Big J wrote: Zergs play Hydras because Protoss open stargate most of the time. Roaches are still much better against gatewayheavy play but since roach/hydra doesn't just roll over and die past 15mins in HotS and is actually much stronger in the lategame than roaches there is hardly any reason not to go for hydras.
Forcefields have little to do with it, especially as you don't go for hydrarange early, always for hydraspeed. And 5range hydras can touch anything behind a forcefield just as much as 4range roaches... so basically nothing unless it is a zealot.
not completely true.
jaedong often(if not always) goes for hydrarange before speed, most likely to specifically deal better against forcefields.
and just in general, roach/hydra (with range upgraded) fares much better vs forcefields than pure roach.
Forcefields have little to do with it, especially as you don't go for hydrarange early, always for hydraspeed. And 5range hydras can touch anything behind a forcefield just as much as 4range roaches... so basically nothing unless it is a zealot.
I was scratching my head a bit ^^ but then "hearters" already answered nicely. In my link above you see exactly that, Jaedong going Range first (it's his norm). And in most games I watch pro's grab Range 1st because it does better vs FFs, Phoenix sniping, VR, Stalker, etc. I've never gotten hydraspeed 1st, ever. I don't know who does lol.
Even Blade55555 grabs Range 1st in every single Z vs P he plays.
Roaches are still much better against gatewayheavy play
IMO this is not anywhere close to true. Versus a small Sentry count and only facing zealots and Stalkers, then I'd agree. Any time sentry count gets high and you're facing quite a few Ranged Protoss units, such as Immortal/Sentry/Stalker who can all kill Roaches w/out taking damage themselves (FFs) then you're in a bad spot.
And that's why you see #1 Zerg in the World, Jaedong open 2 important games (above) Hyda/Ling.
Forcefields have little to do with it, especially as you don't go for hydrarange early, always for hydraspeed. And 5range hydras can touch anything behind a forcefield just as much as 4range roaches... so basically nothing unless it is a zealot.
I was scratching my head a bit ^^ but then "hearters" already answered nicely. In my link above you see exactly that, Jaedong going Range first (it's his norm). And in most games I watch pro's grab Range 1st because it does better vs FFs, Phoenix sniping, VR, Stalker, etc. I've never gotten hydraspeed 1st, ever. I don't know who does lol.
Even Blade55555 grabs Range 1st in every single Z vs P he plays.
Roaches are still much better against gatewayheavy play
IMO this is not anywhere close to true. Versus a small Sentry count and only facing zealots and Stalkers, then I'd agree. Any time sentry count gets high and you're facing quite a few Ranged Protoss units, such as Immortal/Sentry/Stalker who can all kill Roaches w/out taking damage themselves (FFs) then you're in a bad spot.
And that's why you see #1 Zerg in the World, Jaedong open 2 important games (above) Hyda/Ling.
both dof the shown games are against stargate openings. There is no reason to go roach before hydra once you see a stargate, you dont need the roaches defensively and often cant use them offensively, while you can use hydras extremely well defensively and offensively. It is simply better to go hydras into roaches against stargate play, while against groundplay it is the other way around (or in case of fast colossus play like the 2-2-2, you dont really want a lot of hydras) Even more, when the opponent opens stargate he is not going to be sentryheavy.
Lately on streams I have noticed that many players hotkey hatcheries individually, at least in the very beginning of the game, some even throughout. Players like Jaedong, Blade, Idra etc. What is the benefit of this? I might already know the answers, but I am wondering if its worth to switch my play up now to do the same.
On September 19 2013 08:04 JacobShock wrote: Lately on streams I have noticed that many players hotkey hatcheries individually, at least in the very beginning of the game, some even throughout. Players like Jaedong, Blade, Idra etc. What is the benefit of this? I might already know the answers, but I am wondering if its worth to switch my play up now to do the same.
You can do it, I dont. At the beginning of the game it can help but again you dont need to. It can be useful for, say a toss is all ining you, you select your main, make units from there. Select natural, make units from there. But I just use hotkeys and when he attacks, I will select all hatches and shift-deselect the one that I dont need.
I used to hotkey my hatcheries individually when i started but switched from it. Don't think theres any real advantage coming from it but rather players used to it from bw. the only possible advantage is really early game when you want to build units/queens from specific buildings and you have enough apm to waste there anyway and hotkeying and changing probably interupts you rutine and hurts your play more. what is superimportant is to have camerakeys to be able to go to each base individually. hotkeying hatcheries provide somewhat of a less efficient replacement to this but i really recommend to use camerakeys instead.
On September 19 2013 08:04 JacobShock wrote: Lately on streams I have noticed that many players hotkey hatcheries individually, at least in the very beginning of the game, some even throughout. Players like Jaedong, Blade, Idra etc. What is the benefit of this? I might already know the answers, but I am wondering if its worth to switch my play up now to do the same.
When I do it, its just because I'm a stubborn ass who won't change his setup for SC2 and kept a lot of habits from BW. One of those was hotkeying each hatch at each expo so I could have more than 1 way to flash the camera over to it if I needed to do something quickly while microing muta vs marine or something.
How to you stop a pylon block, and a delayed cannon rush?
I just had three games in a row where the enemy protoss went for a delayed cannon rush.
The first game I won. I saw two probes so I pulled two drone and went for a 15 hatch, 15 pool. He didn't attempt to pylon block, so I used threw down my hatch with one drone, and patrolled the ramp wit my second drone. An overlord caught a probe building a pylon in a wide open area, so I grabbed 5 workers and tried to kill the probe. I let the pylon finish. One the cannon started I began to auto it with my drones. Round 2 came shortly thereafter, but by then I had lings.
Game two I lost. I did the exact same thing except my opponent executed better. He only brought 1 probe, and utilized mineral walking to escape my surrounds.The first pylon went up, blocking my hatch. I had one drone paroling over top of where I wanted my hatch, but he (guessed correctly?) and got a pylon down anyway.This time however he went for a pylon in my minerals, and then blocked himself in with the cannon. With no lings and no way to get a surround, I couldn't hope to get through fast enough. Frustrating loss.
Game three was the worst. Once again I saw one early probes. I sent two drones. Only began to patrol and he dropped a pylon anyway. (Is it even blockable?). I sent one drone to my third and one drone to my fourth. He went to my third and dropped a pylon block... then went to my FOURTH and dropped a pylon right next to my hatchery. Obviously I am way too far away to pull drones, so I let it finish. He then begins building a cannon. Screwed again. (My reaction was to cancel to hatch and go for a one base roach all-in. I did no damage. Luckily I actually managed to win in the late game with a good mix of 3 Hatch Ultra/Ling!)
So am I forced to pool first versus protoss? I am the guy that NEVER pools first, so it will grind against my nature XD.
On September 19 2013 08:04 JacobShock wrote: Lately on streams I have noticed that many players hotkey hatcheries individually, at least in the very beginning of the game, some even throughout. Players like Jaedong, Blade, Idra etc. What is the benefit of this? I might already know the answers, but I am wondering if its worth to switch my play up now to do the same.
I think idra only does it for the first 3 minutes and then puts it into a hotkey where every other hatchery goes.
I do it because I like to have control of where my screen goes (when i want to go to main I can press 55 and I am at my main, rather then clicking there and all that). I hate all hatcheries on 1 hotkey because then it goes to my closest and drives me nuts. I also was just to lazy to change it from bw (which required 1 hatch per hotkey, no mbs).
For jaedong he probably does it for the same reason and the fact he has so much apm it shouldn't affect his play at all either.
On September 20 2013 12:38 VerdeCreed wrote: How to you stop a pylon block, and a delayed cannon rush?
I just had three games in a row where the enemy protoss went for a delayed cannon rush.
The first game I won. I saw two probes so I pulled two drone and went for a 15 hatch, 15 pool. He didn't attempt to pylon block, so I used threw down my hatch with one drone, and patrolled the ramp wit my second drone. An overlord caught a probe building a pylon in a wide open area, so I grabbed 5 workers and tried to kill the probe. I let the pylon finish. One the cannon started I began to auto it with my drones. Round 2 came shortly thereafter, but by then I had lings.
Game two I lost. I did the exact same thing except my opponent executed better. He only brought 1 probe, and utilized mineral walking to escape my surrounds.The first pylon went up, blocking my hatch. I had one drone paroling over top of where I wanted my hatch, but he (guessed correctly?) and got a pylon down anyway.This time however he went for a pylon in my minerals, and then blocked himself in with the cannon. With no lings and no way to get a surround, I couldn't hope to get through fast enough. Frustrating loss.
Game three was the worst. Once again I saw one early probes. I sent two drones. Only began to patrol and he dropped a pylon anyway. (Is it even blockable?). I sent one drone to my third and one drone to my fourth. He went to my third and dropped a pylon block... then went to my FOURTH and dropped a pylon right next to my hatchery. Obviously I am way too far away to pull drones, so I let it finish. He then begins building a cannon. Screwed again. (My reaction was to cancel to hatch and go for a one base roach all-in. I did no damage. Luckily I actually managed to win in the late game with a good mix of 3 Hatch Ultra/Ling!)
So am I forced to pool first versus protoss? I am the guy that NEVER pools first, so it will grind against my nature XD.
if he probescouts you should always go pool first since he wont probescout with gatefirst (or later on at least). some Ps get tricky and go FFE into delayed probescout to make you hatch first and then cannon rush you. on some maps like belshir bottom i dont think its possible to deny a cannon rush with hatch first.
but if you really want to take the risk, pull 4 drones once he puts down the pylon, let 1 drone follow probe, and 3 drones on patrol each on 1 side of the pylon so he cant wall himself in. once he starts cannons, pull 4 drones per cannon (4 out DPS a warping in cannon).
On September 21 2013 00:15 LordImmortala wrote: Why has the build order changed to 15hatxh/pool or 15pool hatch? In wol wasnt it like 16 hatch?
In ZvP I play 14p/15h, with the reasoning that you want to deal with hatch blocks or canonrushes asap. In ZvT it's 15h/15p for me because of reapers. No need to stress yourself a lot or even lose drones just for a tiny bit of extra money.
On September 21 2013 13:54 iPhoneAppz wrote: I've been playing 15h 16p in ZvP and ZvT but I've been playing 12 pool in ZvZ due to the large amount of cheese in the lower levels.
Hate to break it to you, but that zvz doesn't get better in higher levels. What you see as cheese is normal everyday zvz. Might as well learn a stronger opening now. 15 pool is pretty good agains most cheeses too.
Diamand Zerg here, ex-master, I have some ZvZ issue with the meta.
I don't get why Koreans go for roach gazless, then 1/1 upgrades. Honestly, each time i do i get crushed by early agression. Even if i don't get all-ined, mutas styles seem to be stronger (map contrôl, can take safely more base). And when you push with roach, they just need mass spine to be safe. And they can go for mutas into roach/hydra, mutas/baneling wich crush hydras, or ultra.
Even with the roach style, i don't get why Snute says it's better to go pure roach and research only +1 attack, +2 attack. But the best code S korean go for 1/1, cut roach before 200/200 for hydra tech, or infestor tech while it seems weak to a pure roach timing push.
Honestly if someone can explain me the reasons behind ZvZ meta, it will be awsome.
A few weeks/months ago the #1 Korean GM (zerg) user opened gasless in most of his ZvsZ's. And as you mentioned, most Korean pro's do the same thing. So obviously, if executed right it has the potential to be very strong........otherwise Korean's would never use it right?
Gasless works well on maps that can accomplish good sim-city with 3 buildings. It's a good idea to lay a creep tumor at your natural first so you can wall off ASAP. The Snute way gets you an earlier +1 which comes in handy during your initial push, pre Muta, or just as they are morphing (you should be attacking with +1 in the 9:10 - 9:25 range)......which works great in offsetting defensive lings. Also, by only going one evo you can accumulate more Roaches sooner, or rather, you need fewer drones initially which allows you to start making Roaches sooner. Additionally, with only 3 initial gases you can grab your 3rd Hatch sooner and have a nice window to produce more Roaches.
So don't underestimate the importance of you possessing Xamount more Roaches than your opponent. If you have 26 Roaches vs 22 Roaches you'll win with 9-10 Roaches left. Earlier +1 and earlier 3rd can lead towards 2 nice timing attacks. And when going Roachs vs Muta/Ling/Bling you can transition into Roach/Infestor (can attack as soon as you get Infestors out) or go the Roach/Hydra route but then you really need to wait for 200/200 2/2.
Try watching some of the Koreans games from the WCS America and Korea, and recent Dreamhack tournaments. You'll find lots and lots of Z vs Z games Roach vs Roach, with different variations. You find Muta play too!! but just not nearly as much of it.