Here's what I consider to be by far the safest build. I'll put in a few comments as well:
1. Just always go overpool (i.e. make 9 drones, then overlord, then make pool at 200 mins right before OL pops out. Make 3 more drones in succession. When you're at 200 mins after THAT, send 2 drones out, one makes expo, other scouts). Chances are, his probe will find you before you make your expo, and attempt to block your expansion with his probe. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART: most protoss players think that, since they've delayed your hatchery, they've also delayed your first 6-8 lings, and they'll get greedy and make nexus before cannons. So it's VERY IMPORTANT that, while he's blocking your hatch, you pay attention to your pool and make lings IMMEDIATELY when it's done. Involves a decent amount of micro, but I cannot begin to tell you how many games I've won due to this simple fact.
To recap: protoss players base their forge/cannon/nexus build order entirely on what they think the zerg is doing. If zerg goes overpool -> 8 lings, they have to make forge/cannon/cannon/nex, or they're fucked. If they see zerg goes 12hatch, they're safe to go nexus/forge/gateway/cannon, get earlier econ, and hit you with early zeal. For this reason, I'd stay away from 12hatch unless you have really good macro and timings.
2. When you have 8 lings, do your best to run through his cannons into his main. THIS IS CRITICAL. If you can get 2 lings through, you're golden. 3 is way better, and 4 usually means instant gg. This is why my first point is so critical--if protoss gets greedy, then you can get 8 lings through while he only has 1 cannon up. Also, if only one cannon is up and the 2nd isn't even close to done, and you have 8 lings, you can probably kill the cannon, pump a few more lings, and gg it right there. Just kill his pylon-->he'll lose his forge, can't make a zeal, and loses his nex. Too far behind at that point.
3. Let's say he responds properly, you get 1-2 lings through and do minimal damage on his econ (btw: this requires good apm, and it's a GREAT way to practice--constantly harass his probes as much as you possibly can, but not at the expense of your own economy). Don't make any drones after your initial 8 lings, the next 300 mins should go to your 3rd hatch. You can make it either at an expo (what JD likes to do) or in your main--either is pretty safe.
4. At this point, keep a ling or two outside of his base to look for stray zealots sneaking out so you can respond, and just DRONE PUMP THE FUCK UP. Seriously, you should NEVER have any larva sitting around if you can help it. Make sure to remember to build overlords before they're needed. If you're just drone pumping, you'll want to make an OL at 22/27 so by the time your 27th drone pops out, your OL can take you up to 35, etc. Whenever you get 300 mins, drop a hatchery. As a general rule: it's safer to clump hatches together than spread them out. On FS, for example, the typical hatch build order is: 1. your main, 2. your immediate expansion, 3. adjacent corner of map's expo (i.e. mirrors your #2), 4/5 hatches next to #2 and #3, then 6th is in corner, protected by your #3 and #4.
4. Keep an eye on him, and know your timings. KEEP ON EYE ON WHEN HIS CYB CORE FINISHES. When that's done, he'll probably start his stargate, and at this point make a hydra den (costs 50 gas). When that's done, make 2 hydras and keep one chilling at your main and one chilling at your expansion. You DO NOT want to lose overlords if you can--it'll halt you drone production, murder your economy, and put you way behind. Getting your hydras out before his corsairs and not losing OLs is key to winning.
5. Get lair sooner than later--if you're doing this typical 5hatch build that I described above, you want lurkers and sunks to help defend, and scourge are key to taking out his corsairs to prevent scouting and prevent OL loss. I like to start my lair on my 3rd hatch, and I immediately make spire when it's done to get scourge as soon as possible. Next 200 mins/200gas goes to researching lurkers. Lurkers are also an awesome way to stop his 3rd expo for a while. Just try to hold him off, don't let him steamroll you (by having good defenses), and just slowly tech up. Get your spire. Upgrade your hydra range and speed. Get 2 evos at some point and research armor and ground attack (do all 3 if you really want). I'd recommend getting ground attack over range attack because late game Hive, your cracklings benefit from attack upgrades twice as much as hydras do due to their 2x attack speed.
6. One key thing to remember throughout the game: it's good to have 2-3 lings at every one of protoss's potential expansions. Protoss has a REALLY easy time grabbing expansions: toss generally has a greater probe count than terran SCVs or zerg drones (due to not being needed to build stuff), so they generally eat minerals at a faster rate. Cannons go up really fast, so once a toss gets a pylon on a hill, they've basically got the expo solidly until you can get swarm to beat it. PROLONG EXPOS as much as you can. The few lings will stop his probe from building initially, and keep an eye on them on the minimap--the second you see a probe, it means he's going to be sending a few zeals to clear out your lings. Send more with a few more lurks, delay him even longer.
7. Late game: hopefully you're just huge by this point, with shitloads of expos. You've teched to hive eventually (don't do it too early, you need a superior economy to defeat protoss). There are two key things about hive: 1. adrenaline upgrades, and 2. dark swarm. Dark swarm is by far and away the most important thing about hive: it will negate probably half the protoss's potential for damage. His goons will be rendered useless, and archons, which rape zerglings up both their assholes, will have severely reduced damage. Cannons will no longer have any power over you--the only thing you really have to worry about are zealots and storm.
That's about all I can say. The things I mentioned take a LOT of practice to master: don't think they'll come easy. Try to remember everything--there are lots of little things to know. Keep plenty of scourge available--I usually have around 10 chilling around the map, hovering near my mineral lines to prevent shuttles with DTs and templars. Get OL speed upgrade pretty early after his corsairs come out, it'll help you a lot. Keep an eye on the size of his army, and don't make drones at the expense of army IF YOU NEED TO. Don't let sairs kill your OLs, and make sure you keep all of your bases protected from DTs. I'll often throw down a spore at each base just to be safe--nothing sucks more than being caught by DTs with no detection. They're sneaky little fuckers and can really wreak havoc on your drones and lings. Oh yeah, I mentioned scourge for the shuttles: do not let him kill your drones with templars. Keep an eye on your mineral lines all the time, especially on the minimap, and if you see his red dot appear, ctrl-click your drones, press f2, and click on your other mineral patches. I suppose I should mention workers here briefly as an aside:
Drones have two modes of operation: mining and everything else. When drones are mining, their clipping is turned off, which means they don't collide with other units (otherwise mining would be a disaster). Practice this on your own, select on your drones and right click somewhere on the map. They'll fumble around, bump into each other, and get nowhere at all. A protoss could storm the area and every single one would die. Now instead, select your drones and click on a mineral patch. Ta-da! They all move perfectly smoothly. Practice this and remember it. It'll work on gas too, not just minerals. This is also how you use drones for defense if he has zealots--select your drones and click on a a few mineral patches back and forth. The drones will all combine together to form one big super-drone. The zealot attacking can't really hit the same drone twice (i.e. damage will be spread out), and since drones have very short range attack, they'll attack with 5dmg # drones, which can actually be pretty powerful. Know how to work your drones. Pro tip: this also makes moving your workers around more easily. When you pick a drone that's mining and send him out, right click on a far away mineral patch instead of just right clicking--he'll sail right out of the mineral line instead of getting stuck.
Ok, that's all I can think of now, and this ended up going on for much longer than expected. Let me know if you have any more questions--keep practicing and good luck! |
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