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I haven't seen this technique discussed or used in tournaments yet, so I thought I'd bring it up. The idea is very basic and simple: use AoE damage to kill creep tumors without having to use detection. This technique was used in Brood War a few times, such as using a Corsair to destroy cloaked wraiths with its splash damage.
So in a real game, what's a practical application for this technique? The best one I can devise is using Hellions to kill tumors. The stage in the game that Hellions come out (right around the time Zerg wants to spread creep, meaning tumors are still manageable) and cheap cost of the Hellion makes it a perfect choice.
Some pictures to demonstrate:
First, position a target unit at the location of the creep tumor. Here I'm just using another Hellion.
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Then, have a Hellion attack the target unit. As long as the fire attack hits the tumor, it will take damage. It takes 7 attacks to kill a creep tumor with the hellion's attack.
+ Show Spoiler +
As you can see, 7 attacks just happens to be the number of hits a Hellion can take from another Hellion as well. We killed the tumor, but sacrificed a Hellion.
+ Show Spoiler +
Use Hellions to attack each other so each one only takes 3/4 hits, and kill the tumor twice as fast!
+ Show Spoiler +
Repair afterward!
+ Show Spoiler +
Alternatively, you could use a Marauder as the target unit, as he will not take bonus damage from the Hellion's attack. However, he cannot be repaired and is slow. But if you're moving out with a timing attack anyways, using a Marauder as the target can be very efficient.
So what are the disadvantages of using this technique?
Cons:
- Unit(s) take damage
- Slower and more micro intensive than using a scan
- Judging positions of tumors that are not at the creep frontier can be tricky
Overall, this should only be useful once in a while when you catch tumors at the edges of the Zerg creep spread. Against clusters of tumors, using a scan ends up being much more efficient. But against a low number of tumors, this can punish the Zerg early on.
I focused on Hellions here, but of course there are other situations where you can utilize this ability. Some examples:
- Siege tank. Curbing the creep spread so that Banelings cannot fight on creep is important during siege pushes.
- Collosus. Use with Zealot target when no observer is available.
Anyhow, that's all I have to say on the subject.
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Its hard to do because it is extremely difficult to know where a creep tumor is placed since creep is large and theres no "center" easily distinguishable. I have seen games were the helions accidently kill the creep tumor when attacking zerglings though =/
+ Show Spoiler +and if terran knew where it was from scan then he would have killed it
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Doesnt seem worth the time to be honest.. unless your hellions are just chilling in your base you might as well use them i suppose.
Interesting read though.
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You only really need to worry about extensive creep spread in mid-late game. By that one one raven will solve all your problems. Yea targeting your siege tanks on marines to kill Lurkers worked in BW but as the above poster pointed out you dont know where the creep tumor started from the creep spreads itself out and in the new patch it spread evenly in all direction so even harder to find source.
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imagine a a creeped out map from a terrans point of view, you just see a mass of gray, no distinguishable "middle" . And also if this takes place in the early game when he first startes to spread creep, to do this you would have to be literally in his base. with two helions on either end of the creep. this wont happen.
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Seems like too much of a hassle to kill one creep tumor that you aren't even sure you are hitting. Takes way less time for them to just plant another tumor in the same spot.
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i doubt this works in a real game
lategame creep is troubling, but a raven with banshees snipes these guys easily
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As much as I see you have put time into this, unfortunately I think that it has been time wasted due to the fact that, as people have stated, you do not know where the creep tumors are. Other than that, I also just feel that it seems not worth all the effort anyway.
Nice concept but unfortunately just not practical IMO
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Wastea too much apm to be actually used. Ur much better off getting a raven
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Another reason for terran's to refuse to get a raven.
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Lalalaland34503 Posts
Most zerg decent players are placing 3-4 creep tumours and spreading them simultaneously in the same direction. In this scenario it would be too difficult to do this.
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How many siege tank splashes would it take to kill a tumor? I feel like that is a much more practical and economical way to get rid of tumors.
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Make one Raven. Problem solved.
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Remember that a scan could instead be used for a Mule. So Scans really are quite expensive.
If you go Ghost tech anyways, and then happen to have enough money for an extra nuke just to kill 2-3 creep tumors, I think that would be worth it (saves 1-3 scans, or 260-780 minerals vs what it takes for 1 nuke).
Plus the zerg player might think their drones are being nuked, bringing their drones outside of the base and therefore possibly losing all of them xD
For those saying it's too much APM... it really doesn't require that much time. It's 260 minerals (before repair costs) that we're talking about vs a few clicks.
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alternatively, you could bring 1 hellion + 2 scvs. target one scv with the hellion while the other scv repairs it. the 2nd scv shouldnt take splash. i dont know how many hits an scv can take, may require stopping the hellion half way through to repair.
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I never saw a corsair gunning a cloaked wraith in bw... who did that?
im curious, how can a decently microed wraith be taken down by that technique.
i know Bisu and some other toss did kill a cople lurkers with Archons/zealots, but lurkers cant move while burrowed, and wraiths are really fast...
As for your trick, you have to be carefull, ok cool you want to save a scan to get an extra mule BUT you use 3 scvs in your picture, those scvs are on creep , they actualy walk there, you lose 3 scvs mining for (X) seconds AND repairing your hellions cost money, then you have to actualy do all those actions, making it harder for you to use that time to harrass plus your giving out info on what your building.
If your a zerg going on 14 hatch and see 2 hellions coming on your creep attacking eachother to kill a tumor then run away, the only thing u can really do is L O L OL O L OL, 5q 
Think about it, a queen is 150 minerals, can infuse and shit tumors, if you waste that much money (scvs mining, hellions repair, hellions) AND time (move there, move there, attack this one, then this one, get scvs, repair bla bla bla bla) to kill 1 tumor and have no hp left to harrass, no way this is even close to being worth it, this is fancy like that mining trick where zerg put nydus at gold expo and micro mine it in beta. LO LO L OLL.
And i dont think a decent zerg would give you all free time on creep early on, dont forget queens are always there, doubt they would just stand there and laugh. but still.
Your better off trying to fight lings zerg use to defend over the creeps tumors and hope to splash it 
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It seems to me like the best use of this would be with Colossi. First, they deal 30 damage per hit, and second, Protoss units have shields rather than actual health. Unfortunately, this thrilling knowledge is made slightly less so by the fact that if you have Colossi you will have had the ability to produce Observers for the past couple of minutes.
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Do you really want to save mules that much? I mean, I know you're not getting those minerals faster, but by late game where you have 3+ OC's, scans come pretty frequently. You can destroy a game's worth of creep spread with all that energy piling up. Or better yet.. just get a freakin Raven. I heard those are pretty good units.
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On December 05 2010 12:56 Drayne wrote:I never saw a corsair gunning a cloaked wraith in bw... who did that? im curious, how can a decently microed wraith be taken down by that technique. i know Bisu and some other toss did kill a cople lurkers with Archons/zealots, but lurkers cant move while burrowed, and wraiths are really fast... As for your trick, you have to be carefull, ok cool you want to save a scan to get an extra mule BUT you use 3 scvs in your picture, those scvs are on creep , they actualy walk there, you lose 3 scvs mining for (X) seconds AND repairing your hellions cost money, then you have to actualy do all those actions, making it harder for you to use that time to harrass plus your giving out info on what your building. If your a zerg going on 14 hatch and see 2 hellions coming on your creep attacking eachother to kill a tumor then run away, the only thing u can really do is L O L OL O L OL, 5q Think about it, a queen is 150 minerals, can infuse and shit tumors, if you waste that much money (scvs mining, hellions repair, hellions) AND time (move there, move there, attack this one, then this one, get scvs, repair bla bla bla bla) to kill 1 tumor and have no hp left to harrass, no way this is even close to being worth it, this is fancy like that mining trick where zerg put nydus at gold expo and micro mine it in beta. LO LO L OLL. And i dont think a decent zerg would give you all free time on creep early on, dont forget queens are always there, doubt they would just stand there and laugh. but still. Your better off trying to fight lings zerg use to defend over the creeps tumors and hope to splash it
pretty sure Fantasy used valkyrie to kill observer once, atacking his e-bay
also, Boxer killed DTs by using tank splash targetting his own SCV
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i think some people have also considered using tank splash to do this same thing, cept both of them are way too time consuming/hard to judge the position of tumors to have this pay off.
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