• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 08:53
CET 14:53
KST 22:53
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info3herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational14SC2 All-Star Invitational: Tournament Preview5RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 19-25): Bunny, Trigger, MaxPax win3Weekly Cups (Jan 12-18): herO, MaxPax, Solar win0BSL Season 2025 - Full Overview and Conclusion8Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets4$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)35
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Jan 19-25): Bunny, Trigger, MaxPax win StarCraft 2 not at the Esports World Cup 2026 Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued herO wins SC2 All-Star Invitational PhD study /w SC2 - help with a survey!
Tourneys
$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) OSC Season 13 World Championship $70 Prize Pool Ladder Legends Academy Weekly Open! SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[A] Starcraft Sound Mod
External Content
Mutation # 510 Safety Violation Mutation # 509 Doomsday Report Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained
Brood War
General
Gypsy to Korea [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Which foreign pros are considered the best?
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 Azhi's Colosseum - Season 2 [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10
Strategy
Zealot bombing is no longer popular? Current Meta Simple Questions, Simple Answers Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2
Other Games
General Games
Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Beyond All Reason Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Provigil(modafinil) pills Cape Town+27 81 850 2816
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club! The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How Esports Advertising Shap…
TrAiDoS
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1996 users

[G] ZvT Reacting to Mech

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 Next All
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
December 15 2013 20:28 GMT
#1
Hey guys saw lots of complaining about mech and I finally played against mech (versus bomber) and figured I would make a video on it show casing how I play against it and I explain other situations as well that were not done in this game.

I don't face mech much, but I know how to play against it and I still feel like it's not that great in zvt except on specific maps such as akilon.

A note: I know about the static sound, I don't know how to remove it, if anybody knows please tell me, otherwise nobody can hear it so as of right now I don't know how to make it so you can hear it good and no static .

Video:
When I think of something else, something will go here
MrMatt
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada225 Posts
December 15 2013 20:34 GMT
#2
cool! thanks for another guide blade!
Girondelle
Profile Joined December 2010
France969 Posts
December 15 2013 21:44 GMT
#3
Very cool video, what about producing a round of mutas before getting the swarmhost? I've been doing that and I think I might to reconsider it because your style with faster swarmhosts seems to work better. But, I feel that when I don't go mutas, I can't defend versus the hellbat drops and it feels like terran can skip turrets/thors and macro even faster. I'd like to get your opinion on that.
memcpy
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States459 Posts
December 16 2013 18:03 GMT
#4
Thanks for the video. What do you do when terran scouts your spire and starts early Viking production? I tried going roach > swarm host > brood lord once but found that I couldn't make enough corruptors to deal with the Vikings/thors because I was maxed on roach and swarm host.
SC2Toastie
Profile Blog Joined October 2013
Netherlands5725 Posts
December 16 2013 19:12 GMT
#5
THANKS SO MUCH 0.0!!
Mura Ma Man, Dark Da Dude, Super Shot Sos!
Jazzman88
Profile Joined January 2012
Canada2228 Posts
December 16 2013 20:09 GMT
#6
blade, have you encountered a style that doesn't open passively into mech?

I ask because I've been experimenting with very normal Reaper expands into 2-Factory Blue Flame Hellion timings, getting my third and additional tech slightly later in favour of killing a shit-ton of Drones and Zerglings. It seems to work very well versus the standard Ling-heavy openers most Zergs are using. How do you react to Blue Flame Hellions? Alternatively, if you don't scout the Blue Flame, how do you account for something like that in your playstyle if you aren't yet sure if it is mech or bio?
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
December 17 2013 01:14 GMT
#7
On December 17 2013 03:03 memcpy wrote:
Thanks for the video. What do you do when terran scouts your spire and starts early Viking production? I tried going roach > swarm host > brood lord once but found that I couldn't make enough corruptors to deal with the Vikings/thors because I was maxed on roach and swarm host.


In the video I talk about why I didn't make more roaches (notice I had 12?). No reason to max on roach/swarmhost unless he's moving out (you should know when he moves out).

You should be doing bl/corr/infestor or at least bl/corr so you can take out vikings but you do need the sh/bl so that thors can't just focus fire corruptors while vikings focus bl's.

On December 17 2013 05:09 Jazzman88 wrote:
blade, have you encountered a style that doesn't open passively into mech?

I ask because I've been experimenting with very normal Reaper expands into 2-Factory Blue Flame Hellion timings, getting my third and additional tech slightly later in favour of killing a shit-ton of Drones and Zerglings. It seems to work very well versus the standard Ling-heavy openers most Zergs are using. How do you react to Blue Flame Hellions? Alternatively, if you don't scout the Blue Flame, how do you account for something like that in your playstyle if you aren't yet sure if it is mech or bio?


Haven't played mech recently but 2 factory bfh used to be pretty common all I did was make sure to be walled off and I almost always have a roach warren so I would make roaches as well so that I can make them in emergency if I see a lot of hellions or something to that nature.

When I think of something else, something will go here
MarlieChurphy
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
United States2063 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-17 02:37:44
December 17 2013 02:35 GMT
#8
Imo when meching or going for ravens, it's ideal to make tons of barracks and just pump out unupgraded marines (later on you can start upgrading them with excess gas if you have a raven mass already). Bomber could have easily had like 6+ barracks and 50 marines at the point in the game you won.

Vipers are key to dealing with mech, and ultras are key to dealing with ravens.

Another important note about locust vs tank, is to manually move them into friendly splash of enemy tanks, since they most likely won't be doing damage with their ranged attack anyways.
RIP SPOR 11/24/11 NEVAR FORGET
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-17 02:39:39
December 17 2013 02:38 GMT
#9
On December 17 2013 11:35 MarlieChurphy wrote:
Imo when meching or going for ravens, it's ideal to make tons of barracks and just pump out unupgraded marines (later on you can start upgrading them with excess gas if you have a raven mass already). Bomber could have easily had like 6+ barracks and 50 marines at the point in the game you won.

Vipers are key to dealing with mech, and ultras are key to dealing with ravens.


I disagree with you on unupgraded marines. Those are shit versus a unit composition that has upgrades. Going unupgraded marines is just a waste of minerals, better to get more CC's so you can have less scv's and more army.

I don't think any meching terran player would agree with getting unupgraded marines in any situation unless it was super super late game both of you had no gas and could only make mineral units.

What he should have done was scan more (he had plenty of CC's) and then started making vikings. Then the game would have been a lot closer then what it was. Unupgraded marines wouldn't have helped him at all in that situation.
When I think of something else, something will go here
MarlieChurphy
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
United States2063 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-17 03:01:05
December 17 2013 02:47 GMT
#10
On December 17 2013 11:38 blade55555 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 17 2013 11:35 MarlieChurphy wrote:
Imo when meching or going for ravens, it's ideal to make tons of barracks and just pump out unupgraded marines (later on you can start upgrading them with excess gas if you have a raven mass already). Bomber could have easily had like 6+ barracks and 50 marines at the point in the game you won.

Vipers are key to dealing with mech, and ultras are key to dealing with ravens.


I disagree with you on unupgraded marines. Those are shit versus a unit composition that has upgrades. Going unupgraded marines is just a waste of minerals, better to get more CC's so you can have less scv's and more army.

I don't think any meching terran player would agree with getting unupgraded marines in any situation unless it was super super late game both of you had no gas and could only make mineral units.

What he should have done was scan more (he had plenty of CC's) and then started making vikings. Then the game would have been a lot closer then what it was. Unupgraded marines wouldn't have helped him at all in that situation.


Look at his mineral count at the end of the game. He could easily just have fodder marines and barracks to soak damage or just send around the map carelessly. (even just floating barracks sitting around like overlords)

He also had only like 120 supply, so he will eventually trade out the marines for mech units and he also has the barracks infrastructure to fall back on if he needs that switch.

PS- I'm not saying it wins him the game, or it's good (I think mech is the worst to use in TvZ) but it is more ideal that making turrets or hellions with mineral excesses. He already has quite a bit of OC anyways (each of which cost 550).
RIP SPOR 11/24/11 NEVAR FORGET
CannonsNCarriers
Profile Joined April 2010
United States638 Posts
December 17 2013 03:10 GMT
#11
Fodder hellions / hellbats are strictly superior to fodder marines if the hells have upgrades. I suicide bomb those hellions into zerg mineral lines all game. 400 minerals of hellions can toss the zerg off balance and are almost guaranteed to get their mineral cost in drone kills. Hellion runbys also keep the zerg from thinking he can go up to 5 bases safely.

To counter, zergs must make two spines per hatch. If you have no spines, you will lose drones constantly.
Dun tuch my cheezbrgr
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
December 17 2013 04:15 GMT
#12
On December 17 2013 12:10 CannonsNCarriers wrote:
Fodder hellions / hellbats are strictly superior to fodder marines if the hells have upgrades. I suicide bomb those hellions into zerg mineral lines all game. 400 minerals of hellions can toss the zerg off balance and are almost guaranteed to get their mineral cost in drone kills. Hellion runbys also keep the zerg from thinking he can go up to 5 bases safely.

To counter, zergs must make two spines per hatch. If you have no spines, you will lose drones constantly.


Mhm also having hellions run around and transforming them into hellbats is really strong as well. Can deny bases if there isn't enough defense.
When I think of something else, something will go here
MrMatt
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada225 Posts
December 17 2013 04:33 GMT
#13
Did someone use mech recently to make it much more popular. Usually don't see it often. Got it 4 terrans in a row today laddering. Good thing I watched this guide. Won all 4 and went 9 and 0 woot.
Metalcore1993
Profile Joined November 2012
New Zealand92 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-17 06:00:09
December 17 2013 05:59 GMT
#14
mech has been viable for a while now but the widow mine nerf was the tipping point for most people to switch styles. PLayers like avilo and mario have been meching for quite some time and there are many other top masters players that do it as well.
https://twitter.com/MetalcoreSC2 http://www.twitch.tv/metalcore1993
MockHamill
Profile Joined March 2010
Sweden1798 Posts
December 17 2013 07:46 GMT
#15
On December 17 2013 13:33 MrMatt wrote:
Did someone use mech recently to make it much more popular. Usually don't see it often. Got it 4 terrans in a row today laddering. Good thing I watched this guide. Won all 4 and went 9 and 0 woot.


Well HTOMario has proved that mech works in all matchups even at Grandmaster level. So as long as you are not up against korean pros mech works.

Plus the double upgrades in the latest patch really made it easier to fight air transitions from Zerg and Protoss. I think that if mech just got cheper armouries or cheaper factories it would work at top korean pro level as well.
MarlieChurphy
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
United States2063 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-19 12:06:46
December 19 2013 12:05 GMT
#16
On December 17 2013 12:10 CannonsNCarriers wrote:
Fodder hellions / hellbats are strictly superior to fodder marines if the hells have upgrades. I suicide bomb those hellions into zerg mineral lines all game. 400 minerals of hellions can toss the zerg off balance and are almost guaranteed to get their mineral cost in drone kills. Hellion runbys also keep the zerg from thinking he can go up to 5 bases safely.

To counter, zergs must make two spines per hatch. If you have no spines, you will lose drones constantly.


The reason why I say marines is better though is because: they can shoot up, they build uber fast, and they are better all around unit, but most importantly you don't want to be wasting additional gas on hellbat upgrades or factories, and you don't want to be taking up factory build times with them. Barracks and marines are straight up cheap and only cost minerals and the barracks can be built out in the front as walls for instant marines in combat as well.

I'm not saying hellions and hellbats aren't needed or useful, I'm just saying this is much better as far as just spamming the mineral excess out and keeping your supply cap high at all times.
RIP SPOR 11/24/11 NEVAR FORGET
Faust852
Profile Joined February 2012
Luxembourg4004 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-19 12:24:00
December 19 2013 12:19 GMT
#17
On December 19 2013 21:05 MarlieChurphy wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 17 2013 12:10 CannonsNCarriers wrote:
Fodder hellions / hellbats are strictly superior to fodder marines if the hells have upgrades. I suicide bomb those hellions into zerg mineral lines all game. 400 minerals of hellions can toss the zerg off balance and are almost guaranteed to get their mineral cost in drone kills. Hellion runbys also keep the zerg from thinking he can go up to 5 bases safely.

To counter, zergs must make two spines per hatch. If you have no spines, you will lose drones constantly.


The reason why I say marines is better though is because: they can shoot up, they build uber fast, and they are better all around unit, but most importantly you don't want to be wasting additional gas on hellbat upgrades or factories, and you don't want to be taking up factory build times with them. Barracks and marines are straight up cheap and only cost minerals and the barracks can be built out in the front as walls for instant marines in combat as well.

I'm not saying hellions and hellbats aren't needed or useful, I'm just saying this is much better as far as just spamming the mineral excess out and keeping your supply cap high at all times.

Unupgraded marines will never have the time to shoot up anyway, at best they can kill drones and it will take time, hellions are much faster, they can transform into hellbats that deal quite well to kill bases if not enough statics defenses. + with more reactored factory, you can start making thousands of mines if the decide to go mass ultralisk and you are already heavy sky oriented.
blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
December 19 2013 13:30 GMT
#18
On December 19 2013 21:05 MarlieChurphy wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 17 2013 12:10 CannonsNCarriers wrote:
Fodder hellions / hellbats are strictly superior to fodder marines if the hells have upgrades. I suicide bomb those hellions into zerg mineral lines all game. 400 minerals of hellions can toss the zerg off balance and are almost guaranteed to get their mineral cost in drone kills. Hellion runbys also keep the zerg from thinking he can go up to 5 bases safely.

To counter, zergs must make two spines per hatch. If you have no spines, you will lose drones constantly.


The reason why I say marines is better though is because: they can shoot up, they build uber fast, and they are better all around unit, but most importantly you don't want to be wasting additional gas on hellbat upgrades or factories, and you don't want to be taking up factory build times with them. Barracks and marines are straight up cheap and only cost minerals and the barracks can be built out in the front as walls for instant marines in combat as well.

I'm not saying hellions and hellbats aren't needed or useful, I'm just saying this is much better as far as just spamming the mineral excess out and keeping your supply cap high at all times.


No see that's where you are wrong. It's not worth it, they are slow and weak (unupgraded marines). Even with just stim no upgrades makes them shitty. They won't do anything, especially versus broodlords lol. It is never a better option to go marines then hellbats/hellions when going mech.
When I think of something else, something will go here
Sapphire.lux
Profile Joined July 2010
Romania2620 Posts
December 19 2013 14:40 GMT
#19
Congratz on beating Bomber, but it was a pretty bad game. He just didn't scout the BLs and rolled over.
Head Coach Park: "They should buff tanks!"
MrMatt
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada225 Posts
December 19 2013 15:50 GMT
#20
how do you beat the raven planetary everywhere style?
1 2 3 4 5 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 19h 7m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
BRAT_OK 87
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 4473
Rain 4444
Flash 2011
Horang2 1044
Shuttle 751
Hyuk 728
Light 596
ZerO 574
EffOrt 526
BeSt 490
[ Show more ]
Soma 304
Rush 284
Soulkey 268
Snow 249
hero 204
Zeus 199
Mong 180
Hyun 125
Last 111
JYJ 96
Pusan 88
Mind 53
Barracks 45
Hm[arnc] 28
ToSsGirL 22
Free 22
Yoon 18
Nal_rA 17
scan(afreeca) 17
sorry 16
Shinee 16
Noble 12
GoRush 11
910 11
SilentControl 10
Icarus 7
Terrorterran 6
Dota 2
qojqva1591
Fuzer 179
XcaliburYe143
Counter-Strike
olofmeister2684
fl0m2032
x6flipin450
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor124
Other Games
Liquid`RaSZi1317
B2W.Neo1167
hiko425
crisheroes301
DeMusliM260
RotterdaM251
Pyrionflax221
Happy179
Mew2King103
Rex50
ZerO(Twitch)13
ToD12
Organizations
StarCraft 2
WardiTV671
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV352
• lizZardDota273
League of Legends
• Jankos3044
• Stunt882
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
19h 7m
HomeStory Cup
1d 22h
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
HomeStory Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
HomeStory Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Wardi Open
5 days
WardiTV Invitational
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-26
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Acropolis #4 - TS4
Rongyi Cup S3
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W6
Escore Tournament S1: W7
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals
HSC XXVIII
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.