Developers Update : Heart of the Swarm - Page 93

On April 23 2012 09:12 Antimatterz wrote:


Why broodlords? They are actually one of the better units imo, they create a more intense dynamic in the late game. The zerg has to constantly keep them spread out while preventing the other race from getting under them, while the other race has to backstab and snipe the zerg.

On April 24 2012 08:50 razy wrote:


Because they make late game tank usage extremely limited encouraging thors and making mech look too much like a bio.

What is more important they turn zerg into extremely campy race. It used to be so that zergs would play extremely defensively but once the desired economy was reached they would explode with tons of different kinds of units and start breaching their opponents expansions putting immense pressure while expanding more and more (yes, i'm talking about BW and i suggest you watch some good 40-50 min TvZ to actually feel what i'm talking about, i can link it if you want).

What happens now is zergs transition from infestor\ling campiness into even more defensive playstyle featuring infestors, broodlords, spines, spore and etc using slow 1 control (not literally) group death balls over things that should really be zergs strong points in late stages of the game: incredible speed, huge waves of reinforcements and extreme flexibility in terms of what units they need right now (i know that late game tech switches from BLs into ultras against terran are pretty common but thats pretty much it, in BW u could see all kinds of units from super lategame zerg including basic hydras, lings and variety of high tech stuff like queens, defilers, lurkers, ultras).

In current metagame we see zerg race playing very similar to toss blob army style in the late stages with tons of unused larvae and slow, boring style throughout the entire game, which is not their fault actually. BLs are just straight up better (more like, much easier to use) option than ultras, while roaches are supply inefficient (again, this is very crucial factor for stage of the game that we are talking about) and hydras are just bad overall leaving only lings as the only basic unit u can really add to ur hightech units.

Part of this has to do with terrans not being able to find the straight up answer to zerg BL\infestor and dealing with them by constantly being super aggressive (they are basically playing the aggressors role through all the game stages unless zerg is allining or going for mutas), which is the main reason why TvZ is not suffering from SC2 late game 1a curse that much.

But yeah, i'd rather watch infestor\ling\spine\nydus camping backed up by extremely greedy play transitioning into an extremely aggressive hive tech play style featuring swarms of zerg units (with ultras leading the charge, of course *_*) that overwhelm their opponents rather than what we have now. And broodlords are one of the reasons this is not present.

I tried to make this as compact as possible but it's really hard for me to explain this idea in foreign language so be gentle please If you want to clarify anything feel free to ask.

On April 24 2012 09:07 windsupernova wrote:


Well, to be honest I think the reason for the Zerg turtliness in SC2 is more due to Fungal than due to Broodlords. As you said in BW Zergs were kinda turtley until Hive\The economy they wanted but once they got defilers they broke out and started overruning positions.

While I don't dislike Fungal by itself I do feel the removal of Dark Swarm impeded the Zerg from being the overrun race.Yeah sure they can make a craptopn of units still but Dark Swarm was Vital to break positions for a Zerg.

Which I hope they make the Viper spell more similar to Dark Swarm.With Dark swarm they can make turtle zerg and overrun Zerg viable.

On April 24 2012 09:07 windsupernova wrote:


Well, to be honest I think the reason for the Zerg turtliness in SC2 is more due to Fungal than due to Broodlords. As you said in BW Zergs were kinda turtley until Hive\The economy they wanted but once they got defilers they broke out and started overruning positions.

While I don't dislike Fungal by itself I do feel the removal of Dark Swarm impeded the Zerg from being the overrun race.Yeah sure they can make a craptopn of units still but Dark Swarm was Vital to break positions for a Zerg.

Which I hope they make the Viper spell more similar to Dark Swarm.With Dark swarm they can make turtle zerg and overrun Zerg viable.

On April 24 2012 09:20 Xiphos wrote:


In Zerg vs Protoss of BW, it is all about Protoss surviving the initial onslaught send out by the Zerg player of either the Hydralisk Burst or Mutalisk harassment and then try to find a good timing of opportunity to strike at a point where it is the weakest in the Zerg's defence. The whole perception of the Zerg's turtleness in BW is just Zerg vs Terran where the Zerg will struggle for gas until the third base is online. But even then, the Zerg player will have the upper in aggression with Mutalisks.

Beside you don't really have to rush for Hive in order to maintain Map Control, you can simply add two more evo chambers for that mighty Defiler-less 2/2 Lurker-Ling composition.

On April 24 2012 09:41 razy wrote:



I actually can't agree on that one: fungal is an extremely versatile spell that can be used both defensively and offensively. There is pretty basic example is using them in combination with ultras: they boost cows in a pretty decent way and make them fearsome even for marauders.

Also believe me or not but defilers are EXTREMELY defensive unit, much MUCH more campy than infestors.




Nowadays BW zergs tend to play extremely greedy getting 4th base and trying to tech to hive before tosses are even thinking of securing their 3rd and only rarely mixing it up with some hydra allins.