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United States2095 Posts
Zerg FAQ
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What’s the purpose of this thread?
This thread will help answer all Frequently Asked Questions for Zerg users. It will answer basic questions as well as any harder questions asked by TL.net posters.
1. How do I win as Zerg?
Ask questions and get knowledge! Feel free to ask any questions you have and the ROOT Gaming Zerg’s will be on the case. Myself, Catz, and Slush will all be checking this forum from time to time to answer your questions!
2. What’s the best Build Order in Zerg vs. Terran?
+ Show Spoiler [Answer 2] +There are multiple “good” build orders. Depending upon the map and your opponent (cheesey or non-cheesey) you can either do a 14 hatch 13 pool build or a 14 pool 16 hatchery build. These are both standard.
3. What’s the best Build Order in Zerg vs. Protoss?
+ Show Spoiler [Answer 3] +There is again no best. However the most standard build orders are 13 pool 15 hatchery, 14 pool 16 hatchery and 14 gas 14 pool. These will provide three different type games. (Slightly offensive macro, Macro, and Early pressure Micro)
4. What’s the best Build Order in Zerg vs. Zerg?
+ Show Spoiler [Answer 4] +Ha trick question! In Zerg vs. Zerg you simply want to have a better economy while still being able to defend the Zerg Swarm.
5. How do I best deal with a 4 Warpgate attack when vs. Protoss?
+ Show Spoiler [Answer 5] +I find personally that a combination of Zerglings, Roaches, and Spine Crawlers are the best combination early game to defend this and put pressure back on the Protoss. For a more in-depth answer to this question simply post a question on this thread.
6. How do I stop the “Foxer” (2 Barracks Marine all in with or without scvs) build?
+ Show Spoiler [Answer 6] +There is no easy way to defend this build right now. Some people will suggest banelings or roaches. If the Terran reaches a critical mass of marines then yes you will need roaches and/or banelings. However if it’s a very early attack you will have to make do with Zerglings, Queens, and Spine Crawlers.
7. How do I stop Banshees?
+ Show Spoiler [Answer 7] +Very Good question young zerg. The best way to do this is with proper scouting. By sending in an overlord at a critical time you can detect these banshees and defend properly. There are two different types of banshee attacks. (2 starport or 1 starport cloak) The best way to defend 2 starport is with 3 queens (at least, depending on your drone situation) and then getting several spine crawlers and watching the terran and reacting. To defend 1 starport cloak it is best to have 3 queens, and an overlord. If you keep the 3rd queen in the center of your main and natural you can move it in to help infuse your one queen with health while bringing it and your 3rd queen to help.
8. Can I safely expand ZvZ with a 14 hatch?
+ Show Spoiler [ Answer 8] + You can do this if your opponent isn't doing some sort of 10 pool or even quicker pool. On certain maps such as Delta Quadrant and Scrap Station you won't be able to hold your 14 pool against a properly played 1 base cheese.
9. When's a good time to Sacrifice an Overlord to gain information?
+ Show Spoiler [ Answer 9] +It's always going to depend on build order! Generally if your playing versus Terran you will want to sacrifice it around 1 minute or so after you've seen the factory tech finished. Versus Protoss waiting around 1-2 minutes after you see him making his cybernetics core is a good timing window! Generally you want to wait a little bit after hes finished making his open tech and started hiding it.
10. My 200/200 Army isn't as strong as his 200/200 Army what should I do?
+ Show Spoiler [ Answer 10] +Its going to depend on which match up your in. ZvT you'll want to sacrifice some of your army to free up some population to help u directly counter him, but its not that easy and you shouldn't ever get into a 200/200 army fight with a terran (think counter and dropship). In ZvP you'll have to blow most of your army (hopefully killing some of his, and possibly some economy!) and be prepared with enough minerals to make another 200/200 army thats better suited to fight his!
I’ve been hoping to get back in touch with the community after writing my guide. So I thought instead of writing a new guide I would attempt to do something like this first. Please feel free to ask any and all questions involving THE ZERG here.
If interested in more replays from either myself (Sheth), CatZ, or Slush please visit the following websites! Machine has also graciously accepted to answering a few questions. I'm sure we'll all appreciate it! Thanks to Zelniq as well for helping out with answering questions! Thanks Nour for helping out a bit too!
http://www.root-gaming.com/
http://www.gosucoaching.com/
![[image loading]](http://www.gosucoaching.com/sites/all/themes/gosucoaching/images/logo.png)
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What's a good unit composition against a Terran who goes heavy mech with blue flame hellions + mass marines in the mid-late game off two base?
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How do you decide when to drone and when to make an army?
How do you initiate timing pushes rather than scouting a push, quickly massing a counter army, and counter attacking?
Which units do you find yourself using as a good core unit for each matchup?
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If a Protoss has one or two cannons at their choke, when is the best time to attack them and with what units before they get their gateway ball + collossi?
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United States2095 Posts
On November 24 2010 02:37 Msrobinson wrote:
How do you decide when to drone and when to make an army?
How do you initiate timing pushes rather than scouting a push, quickly massing a counter army, and counter attacking?
Which units do you find yourself using as a good core unit for each matchup?
Part 1 : Early in the game you have to try and either start with aggression or drones. I personally choose drones. (It leads to a macro game, think 14 hatchery 13 pool) After that point your goal should be to make as many drones as you can while still defending the Terran / Protoss army. If you can hold off the early aggression from them you can choose to either start building up an army or continue to macro. All of these choices basically lead you to think "hey should I build up an army and pressure him back now or should I continue to macro?" Sense this is a rather general question on when to make drones, I would recommend you make drones WHENEVER you don't have to be actively defending or when your not doing a timing attack. Have 50 drones? Make more!
Part 2 : This is a very interesting question. I'll assume your referring to ZvT for the sake of my answer. Early if they expand or do a ground army you can do a timing push with speed Zerglings. Later in the game you can do one with Zergling / Baneling or Roach / Ling. Zerg doesn't have that many timing push options because most of them are all-in to some affect. Think building an army and then using baneling drops, zergling drops, mutas harass and the like and then you'll have an army saved up for if he counter's you.
Part 3 : For vs. Zerg I generally make many many roaches and 1-2 queens per base. For vs. Terran I find my core is Zergling / Baneling / Muta. (For this composition +1 melee attack, +1 air defence are key upgrades!) For vs. Protoss I find that Zergling / Roach are best for early game, into either Ling / Roach / Hydra or Ling / Roach / Corrupter / Infestor.
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On November 24 2010 02:33 Dysk wrote:
What's a good unit composition against a Terran who goes heavy mech with blue flame hellions + mass marines in the mid-late game off two base?
Hi,
It has to be roach heavy. If you scout multiple factory you need to switch your composition to roaches. Assuming you went speedling first, keep them as they will be usefull in battle. Have your roaches seperate in another control group so that when the terran try to harass you with hellion you can deny them.
When the terran have seen you go heavy roaches he will presumably stop producing hellions and go marines. This is where zerg is good for transitioning back to speedling and banelings.
UPGRADES: vs Mech I prefer attack upgrades. The caparace wont do much vs hellions that 2shots lings and tanks/thors that 1 shot them. vs BIO Carapace is a good choice as the marine fires faster.
TECHING: vs tanks, your ultimate goal will be to reach the broodlord tech. The broodlings deny almost any tanks from sieging as they shoot their own unit basicly.
So the mix (lings banelings roaches 1-2 infestors and broodlords)
Hope that helped.
SLush
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On November 24 2010 02:39 HelloSon wrote:
If a Protoss has one or two cannons at their choke, when is the best time to attack them and with what units before they get their gateway ball + collossi?
If protoss has one or two cannons at their base, that means they're giving you map control FOR FREE!
sacrifice an overlord, don't just assume they will get gateways + colossi, they could easily be going DTs or Voidrays as the 2 cannons are basically saying "I don't wanna make units!" (at least for a bit)
this should tell you: I want to make drones get a huge economy lead and let him move whenever he wants to move, no need to be aggressive in this situation, in my opinion just taking as much of the map and saturating as much as possible would be the best thing to do inmediately and then depending on what you scout with the overlord you'll sacrifice for information you react accordingly, if they are going DT or Voidray and you scouted it too late to make a lair cause you were being too greedy, some spore crawlers will do until you can get some overseers. if they are going colossi and gateway units, gear up for it getting some roaches, less hydras (if colossi) and some corruptors, that should do the trick!
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Here is more of an opinion question rather than strategy. Do any of you guys think zerg needs to be revamped some way to engage more efficiently in and around choke points?
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On a map like LT or Metal, do you always send your ov to the nearest position and risk giving your position away quickly if they see it?
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Hi Sheth, Slush and Catz,
As a zerg player I find it very hard to deal with protoss. I'm not sure where my week point is, but I've tried hard. Mainly 4 gate (A lot of stalker some zealots and sentries)!!
Even though I scout correctly, then get roaches / lings by the time of the initial push. I find it very hard to engage the protoss army because of the force fields. Almost every matchup with protoss i end up losing because of this.
Terran has stim, protos has force fields by fairly early game. What do zerg have?
Thanks.
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vs. 4gate warpgate:
do you sit in your base and prepare to defend that initial attack or is there a way to engage them outside your base?
if engaging outside your base, do you focus down the pylon first to stop reinforcing units or focus on the existing units first?
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Reserving a spot for my question.
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On November 24 2010 03:12 HelloSon wrote:
On a map like LT or Metal, do you always send your ov to the nearest position and risk giving your position away quickly if they see it?
yes. there's 2 ways to do this: overlord has a bigger range of vision than nexus or cc's so if you can just pay close attention, as soon as you see a blue (or whatever color they are) dot on the minimap, you pull back to your base and your overlord won't be revealed.
in high level play, some players like KiWiKaKi, HuK and qxc are always scouting for that scouting overlord early on with an scv (pulling 1 scv off minerals and scouting their own base as the overlord is flying in) so that's the best way to counter the scouting overlord HOWEVER, against top players in important matches, many times i'll have my overlord sit in between bases outside of the probe or scv's vision range, so that IF they do this, i will see them with my overlord and reveal their position without revealing mine, so there's a counter to the overlord scout, but there's also a counter to that counter. hope this helps.
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@Wire
Normally by the time I findout my opponent is going for 4gate I already have expanded. And immediately I'll start roaches, spinecrawlers. But mainly what happens is, even if the 4 gate army can't breach my front defence, I'll be pinned to my main and natural (pin = forced to be limited as day9 says :D ) !!!
**Edit: I would really appreciate if someone can give me some replays where they counter (or at least survive and win later) a 4 or more gate mass stalker + sentries with forcefields (and some zealots may be) push at early to mid game.
Thx.
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United States2095 Posts
On November 24 2010 03:11 SONofaGUN wrote:
Here is more of an opinion question rather than strategy. Do any of you guys think zerg needs to be revamped some way to engage more efficiently in and around choke points?
I feel like this isn't a problem too much because of the maps. There are maps such as Kulas Revine which contains only choke points. On maps like that then there is a huge Zerg disadvantage because of this however on maps with open places there is an advantage for Zerg's to attack there. I view it as part of being a Zerg player that we must learn not to engage at points that our opponent dictates to us! There are also ways such as infestors, banelings, and dropships that we can avoid even those chokes on Kulas. Hope this answer helped even though it is just my oppinion ! : )
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1. What is the best response to a FE Protoss going double stargate;
1a. only seeing it after spire is halfway complete by an overseer morphed immediately after lair finished.
1b. scouting it with your first batch of mutas (6-7)
2. When is a good time to sac an overlord against T assuming you only see a naked rax and 3-4 marines at ramp?
3. Opening FE 2 base Mutas on close spawns (9-12 or 3-6) leaves you vulnerable to some sort of strong ground push but if you don't, you risk getting dropped on ledge with thors/marines/scvs, soooooo what are some things you need to do in order to force the game into a mid game that doesn't put you massively behind?
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I've read already 100 thread about ZvZ, but I still dont get to the breakthrough. ZvT and ZvP seems so simple to me and I usually understand where I fucked up after watching the replay of a lost match. But for ZvZ it seems that I simply don't understand what I have to pay attention for.
Do you got some general tips on what to focus in ZvZ? What are the most important aspects about ZvZ?
It was mentioned before, that it is important to be ahead in economy. But how the hell can I know if I'm leading or not? How do I judge when it's a good moment to produce drones? And are we talking about squeezing out 1-2 drones or like a few injections worth of drones?
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Once late game is reached, which matchups favor building Ultralisks? building Broodlords?
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Stealth protoss here trying to reap some intel:
What's in your opinion the best response to the nowadays very common 5/6 gate timing attack (~10 minutes ingame), mostly with +1 off two base (be it after a stalker-harass, be it after a sentry-expand, the timings are very similar). Because I found that for a classic ling/muta-play you'd probably have to go crazy on spines....for roach-openings I think early burrow? Don't let yourselves limit by my guesses. Although I'm protoss I hope it's ok to ask what's the best response to this timing-push is, because I'm curious to learn about the biggest weaknesses this heavy gateway push with delayed tech has from the perspective of a zerg-player.
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United States2095 Posts
On November 24 2010 03:14 Dragon768 wrote:
Hi Sheth, Slush and Catz,
As a zerg player I find it very hard to deal with protoss. I'm not sure where my week point is, but I've tried hard. Mainly 4 gate (A lot of stalker some zealots and sentries)!!
Even though I scout correctly, then get roaches / lings by the time of the initial push. I find it very hard to engage the protoss army because of the force fields. Almost every matchup with protoss i end up losing because of this.
Terran has stim, protos has force fields by fairly early game. What do zerg have?
Thanks.
Zerg has Burrow and the ability to Flank and Mass. Try burrowing under forcefields, and try coming from two directions against protoss. Against terran we have Fungal growth to counter stim. (Among other things!)
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EPT
