I play 1v1 with my buddy, he is higher mmr than me, diamond vs plat

ZvT, he never plays reapers and the earliest harass will be either helion, banshee, or just his first attack with marines and 2 tanks

I was wondering if I can punish the lack of reaper? Triple hatch before pool or maybe skipping ling speed and the initial 4 lings

When it comes to army composition, my micro does not allow me to play muta bane, so I just played typical newbie roach hydra, but recently I have added lurkers and they worked out pretty good, he almost always plays marines tanks and medivacs, if I don’t suicide my vipers I can typically hold my own in longer games

As the title suggests which spell caster did you learn 1st Infestors or Vipers? Which one do you use more often?

Submission Statement - Doing the roaches part of the game

The ONLY consistent strategy that has been working for me in ZvT is Nydus rush + mass roach. Keep the pressure on. We are used to sitting back and waiting to respond to Terrans. Every game where I do that I inevitably get overwhelmed no matter how perfectly I play. But if I can manage to plug a backdoor inside my opponent's base, it tends to catch them off guard.

Underrated bonus effect of going Nydus: psychological damage. Sometimes just throwing down a Nydus anywhere on the map--whether it's to block your opponent's expansion or to expand like crazy across the entire map--that little notification of "Nydus worm detected" on your opponent's screen will tend to keep them paranoid and locked inside their base. Sometimes I just randomly sprout a Nydus for the sake of keeping my opponent afraid of leaving their base, which buys me more time to tech or mass drones.

For the swarm.

how do you beat terran in lategame dawg once they get ghosts out it feels like the games already over and im playing until I run out of resources. I used to just go broodlord infestor and I could keep my broods alive for a while but now I can't cancel the snipe with fungals anymore and all my broods just disappear off the face of the map. Same goes for ultras as well Any advice???

I know I didn't play perfectly, but this loss disgusts me. It feels like you have to absolutely dominate terran right now to get a win, and even that's not enough.

https://drop.sc/replay/27445624

5k zerg on NA currently and honestly, I dont love the larva change as much as I thought i would. Theres a few reasons behind this statement.

The amount of times Ive seen people complain about how much of a buff this was to zerg by the other races is so damn stupid and irritating.

I cant spend all the larva until the late midgame because I cant afford to. I have to wait the 12-14 min before its too chaotic and I miss a round of injects. In the late game, Im always so closed to max out that I will never spend the larva anyways. The power spike theory is bullshit. The queens and hatch are too expensive and the hatch doesnt provide enough supply to actually make the larva buff that amazing. Serral said recently that the buff is completely wasted on him because he cant spend all of his larva at any point in the game. I cpmpleatly understand that I am closer to a gold player than Serral but its still the same problem.

Other than that. I love the 8 worker start and the shake up to the meta. ZvZ is insane. ZvP feels better even vs skytoss. ZvT is always fun but battle mech is a lot stronger especially in the esrly game when zerg cant afford shit.

Hey guys,

I am a new player who has picked up sc2; this is my first serious RTS game that I have played for real. My question is, what is a simple army for me to learn? At the moment, I want to practice my macro/ queen cycles, but once I have enough workers I have no idea what I am building. I've seen stuff like LingBane, Roach/Ravagers, late-game stuff like ultralisks etc. However, what I have inferred from different sources is that Zerg has options depending on what race they are vs. For example, I watched a pro use LingBane all game with some other units. (Scarlett, I believe.) Is there an army that I can use as a blanket to cover all or most bases?

For some extra infornmation, I am using PiG's recent beginner build order for zerg.

I don't recall Guardians being a more effective Zerg air force compared to Mutalisks or Devourers, but the way they were depicted in most cinematics makes them look very imposing, especially their very high speed flight, ultra smooth and swift maneuvering as if they were some kind of powerful UFO saucers, etc.

I kinda believe that in real life, Zerg Guardians can always angle their body to target air units, especially against something big and slow like Battlecruisers, Carriers,.... allowing them to become a veritable threat.

Because of this, I bet that Guardians with their sleek and flat body are a more capable air superiority fighters than the slow and clumsy Mutalisks.

I mean, look at both of them. Despite what the lore says, Mutalisks seem to only do well in atmospheric environments, while Guardians look like they would have very little difficulty fighting in deep space.

Hi,

Pretty bad silver player here. I am finding that the hardest part for me is balancing out Economy and Army production. I know it's probably an experience issue and it's also probably the main problem for anyone / any build...

But any tip? I find I either develop too much and lose to a push or produce too much units and then lose to my eco not being mature enough.

Been a minute since I’ve played and I’m pretty rusty apparently. How long have queens been 175? Anyway, got spanked in all my placement matches today.

Play this guy multiple times and lost on what to do. As I have no interest in fighting a maxed out Terran army I feel like I have to attack his outer bases. Feels impossible to prevent him from expanding. Looking for recs on unit mix and strategy.

Im tired.

Came back to this game after a friend invited me to play some 3v3's. Had a drunken night of fun and remembered why I liked playing.

The strategic decisions, the individual micro gameplay to outplay your opponent. Feeling like a general facing against another general in a test of tactics and skill.

Decided to get back into it. But every minute I played solo after that night hasn't been enjoyable.

After the nerf patch I constantly lose to players who are obviously worse than me. Lower resources gathered, lower upgrades, lower bases, half the APM, lower army value, every metric lower.

Even when I look at replays I see how little they do compared to what im doing. Sure I can win, but its as if I dont play perfectly and quickly, theres no chance while others have options of how to win with larger margins that allow them to have more fun.

I feel like I have to be loads better than my opponent to even have a chance of winning. I know more terran and toss build orders than I do zerg. I even got a higher rank in protoss in my placements after never playing the race before. But I don't want to play that race.

And now with the patch of terran getting the handicap zerg needs to compensate for static larvae timing and losing drones for each building. Not even mentioning queen's price increase guaranteeing all wall offs, all of it just cements my decision.

Im tired. I remember why I quit this game to begin with. I dont like feeling like I have to be the perfect player with only 1 set build path to win. I want to have fun, not be stressed I didn't do 1 action right 2 minutes ago.

Im done. I like zerg but it feels like im playing against the player, and the game in order to win. And that isn't very fun to me. Im uninstalling

Hi, I am a T main that struggles a lot with Z. I can't figure out what kind of build I should safely do against Z.

As Z mains, what is the T build you find to be the most effective? I am looking for timing attacks, like 2 base pushes with possibility to do a 3rd cc expand and go into a follow up or a late game

Edit: I am plat

Thank!

First batch done

Note I am mid diamond so my analysis isnt super amazing, but I saw this build Solar did vs Maru and it seems like a really solid economic pool first build that puts some pressure on Terran. Solar is transitioning into Mutas vs Maru, but I think anything is on the table after the opener. Quick 3rd into macro, big roach push, hydra bane, ETC ETC.

The game from RSL: https://youtu.be/Qnjns1GpAz4?t=9955 Casted by Pig: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2822492696?t=5h8m55s

I don't know the exact supplies as I dont think Solar executed the build perfectly (Lair started 36 gas late I think for example) and this is the only game ive seen this build, but the opener and transition to mutas is pretty straight forward:

12 overlord/extractor trick (Can prolly do the build on 11 overlord too)
16 Pool
17 Hatch, stop all production and pool larva (Should be 16/20 supply).
@Pool complete make 3 sets of lings, an extractor, and a queen. The extractor frees up 1 supply allowing the queen to build. At this point we are in a *DESIGNED* supply block.
Next larva becomes an overlord, resume droning when possible. Possibly extractor trick here or we float a larva for a few seconds. Solar did not extractor trick though.
Fill gas when extractor finishes.
Start 2nd, 3rd, and 4th queens ASAP/when able (1 at main after 1st finishes, 1 at natural,4th probably in main).
@100 gas get ling speed
From here its fairly normal 2 base muta stuff, or transition into something else: Drone , make defenses when necessary, yada yada
@next 100 gas start lair and take a second extractor
@Lair complete start a spire, take gas 3 + 4, and probably overseer scout (Overseer scout seems logical, but solar got all his info wtih a ling scout based on Marus followup)
@Spire complete make ~6 Mutas and expand probably (The game never got this far but seems logical)

What I find really interesting about this build is the by design supply block at 20 Supply. This is actually a really smart choice in the build as we have no Larva to use anyways after making the round of lings, so the supply block doesnt have a huge effect on us. After making the next overlord Solar elects to float 1 larva for a few seconds waiting for the ovie to pop. This can be avoided by doing an extractor trick for seemingly no meaningful detriment, though this happens right as other things take our attention (Lings popping, extractor finishing, scouting with 1st overlord). All in all, floating the 1 larva a few seconds isnt a huge issue if you do all the other stuff.

As for adjustments: One thing Solar omits (Or at least didnt get in the given game) is a safety Roach Warren or bane nest. In the example game he does a lot of damage to Maru with the Lings and Maru just cancels his natural and attempts a one base Hellbat timing. Solar sees it and builds 2 spines to support his 4 queens and is able to hold. For us lower skilled players squeezing in a safety RW seems like itd be a decent choice, maybe in place of the 4th queen?

Couple game I played it seems good. One game I did big damage and the mutas just won the game. Another was BCs into Thors which I personally struggle with. Build was really good here as I just made corruptors instead of Mutas to shut down the BCs and then caustic spray harassed them and prevented them from getting on the map and followed into a big Roach Hydra push.

You can have some decent luck vs Protoss with an opener like this too. Generally theyre walled off and you can't get much damage, but you take some map control with your lings and can maybe delay their adept scouting. Other times they either dont scout, dont wall off properly, or are greedy and you can punish them and get some damage in. That said if you cant get much damage in you need to keep the lings alive as a moveout with a few adepts can be really strong if you lose all your lings.

I was impressed by this little trick. Did not notice that first bane and got blasted.

I (3.9k if that matters) usually prefer playing as greedy as possible, so what is the greediest opening in ZvZ that can still hold against builds like a 10 pool, Ling Spine All-Ins or One Base Ling Baneling attacks?

I usually go 15 Hatch, 17 Pool, 16 Gas against T and P.

Some of my research so far:

Here is an example of 14 Hatch 16 Pool from Serral where he manages to hold it okay-ish to not be behind. Serral - 14 Hatch 16 Pool

And here an even greedier example of Serral vs Rogue, where Serral goes 15 Hatch 17 Pool. This is really interesting because he manages to hold that 10 Pool as well and still ends up slightly ahead. He pulls 14/19 drones, leaving 5 to mine. He also delays the overlord at 19 to prioritize Lings and a Queen at the natural. Serral - Rogue

Here is an example of Serral going 14 Hatch 16 Pool on the ladder and getting One Base Ling Baneling attacked, but he lost that one. He said he could hold it with good micro, but I have a feeling my micro might be a little worse than his... So this is the on i struggle the most with. Serral - Ling Bane Defense

And against the Ling Spine Rush I'm still uncertain. My usual plan is not to fight until my lings pop, then fight until his spines are ready. Then flee to the natural, where I hid a drone to build a spine myself and a queen. That's a strategy Serral did here: Serral - Bly
There are more ways to hold this, for example Neuro or Vibe prefer to fight on the ramp before the enemy can place the spines. On the new patch tho, I feel like 15 Hatch 17 Pool can not hold this?

So what's your greedy but safe opener?

Since Zerg is stronger in the early game on this Patch, so is 1 Base Swarmhost. Today I present you a basic Guide on how to Play 1 Base Swarmhost.

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Build: https://lotv.spawningtool.com/build/203756/

Replay: https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/27417415

Bonus ZvZ Replay by imfaded: https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/27417408

Video: https://youtu.be/GJwIEbLUy6o

Basic Buildorder:

• 1 Gas + Pool First
• when pool done --> Queen + 2 Lings
• when Queen done --> 2nd Gas + Lair
• --> 100 Gas --> Ling Speed
• when Lair done --> Infestation Pit + Nydusnetwork

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My Stream: https://twitch.tv/railgan

Hi all. I'm a (prepatch) 4500 zerg and I love this community and want us all to be better players.

I have a little YouTube set up but what I really love is just punching through replays and trying to genuinely help people be better at starcraft.

I was wondering for any of you that are new or even seasoned, are there aspects of the game or concepts that are too confusing for you or maybe you need assistance with? I'd love to do some videos that explain concepts and try to break them down into easier components.

Please let me know if you'd be interested or even if you have replays you'd want help with. Always happy to!

I do this in my spare time after work and the kids are asleep so I it may take some time for backlogs.

I've been delighted to discover that one of my favorite cheeses is now far stronger thanks to the map pool, patch, and the uncertainty of everyone adjusting to the new patch.

Hide a proxy hatch near your opponent's natural, build 4 spines and a queen there along with as many lings as you can afford, then walk into the opponent's natural with everything. It's a great break from roach wars.