EPT
it was pretty useless anyway (explained below) because of the also undocumented change back during beta to infestor's neural parasite: infinite duration to 15 seconds
![[image loading]](http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8919/infestor.jpg)
What is it?
You may have seen, that in the undocumentated patch changes (which has just been updated with new info regarding Patch 17), Infestors can now cast Infested Terrans while Burrowed. This has allowed for an interesting development:
A new glitch allows you to cast Fungal Growth and Neural Parasite while the Infestor is Burrowed. I should say, infestors, you can do it with mass infestor just as easily. However because of the nature of its limitations, it's not as good as it may seem. You must select Neural Parasite or Fungal Growth (select, but not pick a target), in the very short time between after you told your Infestors to Burrow, but before it actually burrows.
Afterward, you cannot do any other action besides selecting a target. So you cannot tell your infestor to move after its burrowed if you want to still cast a spell. To make them move after burrowing, but still be able to cast spells, you need to have had given a move command just after you gave the Burrow command, which makes it a little tricky. And note a major caveat is that you must wait for the infestor to move to its destination, then cast, in order to perform any other actions in the game (assuming you did not queue up the actual casting (targeting) of the spell from afar, which in many cases you'd probably not want to do from far away).
[edit]:
****PLEASE NOTE: **** A lot of people are concerned about how strong this is, and if this needs to be fixed. However as it turns out, this is a pretty much useless trick in for use in any serious game. For Fungal Growth, well the infestor is revealed for 1 second while burrowed- casting Fungal. This means that since you could always be able to move Infestors while Burrowed, you could simply Unburrow, Fungal, then Re-Burrow... it's basically equivalent to casting while Burrowed because of the 1 second reveal. Only difference is that this way guarantees fungal going off (but only if they don't have detection), while if you try to unburrow and fungal then it may die before casting. And while you wait for infestors to move you cannot click/press anything else if you wanna cast something while Burrowed. In most every case you can just cast Fungal normally with just the same effectiveness as Burrowed casting, while being faster/easier to execute.
That just leaves Neural Parasite. Sad part is, Neural Parasite really blows now due to the stealth change that made it last only about 15 game seconds. And combined with the heavy time/gas/energy cost, along with how fragile/easy they are to kill (which if they did would make the entire investment backfire on you), and readily available Detectors nullifying it completely, it's really not even seriously worth getting in almost any situation. For evidence how awful it is, well if you've seen the + Show Spoiler [Razer KotB] +
idra vs TLO series Day6, in game 2 you can see how worthless Neural was on Battlecruisers with the 15 second duration
VOD of game in question, seek to 13:40
http://blip.tv/file/3921213
At the start of the following game, they even talked about how bad it is
TLO: 12 sec NP is so awful.
Idra: ya that kinda sucked
VOD of game in question, seek to 13:40
http://blip.tv/file/3921213
At the start of the following game, they even talked about how bad it is
TLO: 12 sec NP is so awful.
Idra: ya that kinda sucked
The 15 second change alone makes NP awful/a waste of resources, but let let me remind everyone anyways just how much gas and time is required for casting Neural Parasite while Burrowed:
After Lair
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/a/a4/Minerals.gif)
150 ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/e/e1/Vespene.gif)
100 ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/0/0b/Buildtime_terran.gif)
80,Research Burrow
100 100 100,Build Infestation Pit
150 100 80,Build Infestors
100 150 50 each, and you want several Infestors for Neural Parasite,Research Neural Parasite
150 150 110,After each
50 Infestor finishes, wait another 64 for 50 more Energy, as Neural Parasite costs 100 Energy.Now you can finally use a spell that only lasts
15, after which they get their unit/s back and then what? You look like an idiot for going NP. Oh yeah, and all they need is Detection anyway, which terran can easily just Scan and Protosses are almost guaranteed to have observers by then anyway. For Protoss, well infestors are already a dangerous investment for zerg to get as Feedback from HTs counter them so well, which they can certainly have well in time for Neural Parasite (no research required, only 50 energy, similar tech requirements, HTs useful for Storm as well and even archons have their uses). As for Detection, well 98% of Protosses will have cannons @ natural well ahead of any Infestors, and before/when they move out, most players will have Observers, completely nullifying this trick.
Point being, it's a cute, but mostly worthless trick, and I regret wasting my time on this guide.
[/edit]
How to do it?
- Select your infestor/s, they must be Un-Burrowed
- Press R to Burrow, then immediately right-click on the spot you want the infestor/s to move to and cast from, then spam E rapidly until your cursor changes to the Target icon (waiting for you to select a target). If your cursor didn't change, you messed up and have to try again.
- Wait patiently for your infestor/s to move in range of where you want to cast. You must not select/do anything else until you've casted the spells. If you want to cast multiple spells, hold down Shift. Finish casting the spells whenever you're ready.
- OR instead of step 3: If you already have vision of your intended targets, and are comfortable casting the spells from afar (meaning that you know you do not need to wait and see what the situation is just before casting), then you may finish targeting the spells. Remember.. if you want to cast multiple spells, hold Shift down while targeting the spells. Now you are done early, leaving you free to do other actions.
There is another way to have your infestor move after it is Burrowed, when wanting to use this trick. It's simply that if you target the spell on something out of range (for Neural Parasite, you must have the target in vision), it will move in order to cast it.
Remember when you use Neural Parasite (even unburrowed), their forces will not fire back at the Parasited units automatically. And provided they don't have Detection to kill the infestor/s, this creates a hilariously awesome scenario. Where from the enemy's point of view, suddenly some of their units started firing at their friends, while their friends just sat there taking it. Note that the tentacles are still visible to them, but not the infestor itself. Without Detection they can either kill their own infested unit, run away, or just take it.
But anyways, even with this trick, the 12 second duration is so short, 100 energy cost is so high, and with the tech requirements, it's really not that great
I hope they fix it and revert that 12 second change backWhy it should not be "fixed"
This trick to me is similar in spirit to the glitches in SC1 that allowed for 'hold-lurker' as well as mutalisk stacking.
Mutalisk stacking is undoubtedly the most influential technique used Brood War's history.
+ Show Spoiler [Jaedong's terrifying muta control] +
Hold-lurker, similar to Burrowed-Casting as it relies on the enemy not having detection, has also made a large impact.
+ Show Spoiler [hold-lurker wins an OSL Final game] +
Now burrowed-casting is not going to be anywhere near as significant as these 2 bugs have been, however the idea remains that some glitches should perhaps not be 'fixed.' You might ask, why not just patch it into the game, so all spells can be cast in a normal way while Burrowed? Well this bug adds an extra element of difficulty and provides unique limitations to its uses. Conceptually, casting spells while Burrowed fits with the infestor. As for the effective uses for this move, you discover for yourself.
big thanks to felizk from Denmark for not only these videos, but being the first to bring this bug to our attention
edit: updated with new poll
Poll: What should be done?
Leave it in (338)
49%
Remove it, but let Fungal/Neural be cast normally while Burrowed (194)
28%
Remove it completely (164)
24%
696 total votes
Remove it, but let Fungal/Neural be cast normally while Burrowed (194)
Remove it completely (164)
696 total votes
Your vote: What should be done?
(Vote): Remove it completely
(Vote): Leave it in
(Vote): Remove it, but let Fungal/Neural be cast normally while Burrowed
