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Blogs \ The Zerg: My opinion

PsychoBaBas @ 8th September 2010 14:03 (Read 1252 times).

Alright, I have meant to make this blog for a few weeks, especially after the hordes gathering around the Zerg-is-underpowered statement. I am a Diamond #16-rank player with 58% winrate on 755 points at the moment, so take my opinion as you will.

I am a former Zerg player in Starcraft 1 around the C+ iccup rank. I changed race in SC2 because I did not like the Queen mechanics and because I wanted to give Terran a try. I did not play the beta at all, even though I had a key as I wanted to play the final product :P and I suppose, wait for the right moment Xd

As a Terran player I find TvZ excruciatingly easy. There, I said it. I believe that Zerg has some serious problems in this match up. I can't comment on ZvP at all or ZvZ for that matter as I am 99% a Terran player at the moment.

So, what is wrong with Zerg AND Zerg players in my opinion? Please note the "Zerg players" because I believe there are players who give the Zerg the bad name they have. (I am not suggesting that the Zerg dont have problems to start with.)

Alright lets begin:

1. The Queen mechanics. The Queen on paper sounds really powerful. A relatively cheap defence unit, with good hp, anti air and decent damage, providing good antiharrass for the Zerg. And of course it has the "Inject larvae" ability.
This is a blessing that has turned into a curse for the Zerg. In my opinion, this presents severe problems with macroing. The management of the Queens mana + hatchery + larvae has to be spot on, or the Zerg is essentially semi-crippled until the player fixes that. It requires too much messing about in the base rather than focus on battles, scouting etc. A Terran or Protoss player can simply battle around, have all buildings on 2-3 hotkeys and macro as he is battling. How is this possible with Zerg? Am I missing something? The Zerg player has to stop everything he is doing and get those 2-3-4 or more Queens to work, BEFORE he has even started making units. And of course wait for the 40seconds for the larvae to pop out. This isnt a luxury like the mule or crono boost, this is ESSENTIAL for Zerg macro. If you dont inject larve you are left with your 2 hatcheries and their 6 or less larvae, and.. good luck with that.

2. Speed (lack of). Lets suppose you master the Queen macro. You would think that Zerg are supposed to be agile, low hp monstrosities who simply devastate opponents with their great numbers and ability to run up and down the map. The Zerg units, have low hit points in general but they are in theory supposed to make up for that for greater speed.
So how do they do that? Creep, zerglings, mutalisks. Anything else...? Hmmm. not really. Roaches and oh god Hydralisks are slow as hell. Broodlords take forever (hello Guardians). Banelings can get completely avoided with stim + mech to shield them. So you are left with mutalisks, zerglings and the creep mechanic which is supposed to boost speed. Seriously, did Blizzard actually think that creep tumours and the whole concept of creep = speed is a good idea? Not only is Zerg struggling with Queens but he has to also start spreading creep to a. Boost the pitiful speed of roaches and hydralisks and b. Have any chance of surrounding and/or retreating his army. So the Zerg, which is a race based on flanking, is far far more effective on creep, which means he has to bring the battle to his own terms. Extremely situational in my opinion. A Terran brings a Raven and gg creep tumours.
The other 2 options of speedy units are mutalisks and zerglings. Sorry but I feel that zerglings become totally useless after the 5-7 minute mark, where Terran has cancelled any all-in opportunity from the zerg, and hellions and stim come into play. Sure, they are amazing for flanking but they bunch up way too much, getting completely decimated by splash damage (hellions, siege tanks). They only become playable again when they mass some much need upgrades and get the "crack" upgrade, in the late game (if the Zerg ever bothers with them again of course...).
Mutalisks are the only in my opinion decent choice of mobility and counter attack that the Zerg have. I cant really faulter them. They are very powerful and do a great job with keeping the Terran in his base (nothing like Brood War but still "OK"). They get fucked by turrets though but a smart Zerg can overcome that.

3. Weak spells. At least, definately no Dark Swarm and Plague! XD But this isnt Brood War... BUT! The Zerg's overall ZvT principle is quite unchanged from Brood War: Expand, Contain Terran, Expand, overwhelm, win. Am I not right? The only exception would be a baneling bust. This is how Zerg works, but they do not have spells to support this. Fungal growth is very good and finally allows for a surround, neural parasite is in my opinion a bad substitute to fungal growth. But I dont see enough Zerg players using fungal growth, which is extremely effective against mass marines. Terran has the Raven and have you seen what 2 Point Defense Drones from a couple of ravens does to an army of hydralisks and/or roaches? It's basically a mini dark-swarm.

4. Zerg are sooooo prone to drops. It's like they are screaming in the game, please drop my expansion, please drop my main. A 2 medivac drop with bio will annihilate an expansion in less than 10 seconds or can kill half the Zerg's tech buildings. The options of preventing this are limited. He would have to commit units to expansions rather than having them join the main army, spreading around too thinly. I have found this incredibly effective as a Terran. The principle of dropping Zerg is the same as in Brood War: You drop your bio army, you kill as much as possible and you micro your little army to its maximum potential. But the Scourge units of SC1 shut that down completely or it made it very risky for the Terran. Sigh...

5. Reapers. We all know this. There is nothing here to say that hasnt been said a million times.

6. Broodlords and Ultralisks. Finally Zerg can own shit with 2 very powerful units. But the path to these very expensive units is not easy. Not only is the tech build so freaking slow, but he has to invest on loads of upgrades (especially for the ultralisk) or they will melt like butter. But dear god, must the Zerg wait for late game to have a chance?

I really really hope the coming patches boost the Zerg somehow because I would hate to wait until an expansion to see much needed changes (not necessary unit boosts).

comments

Trizzek 1 year ago

I used to think that speed (or lack therof), your point number 2, was the main issue with Zerg. That they really can't choose the battleground as they used to in BW and that really hurts Z. But I'm starting to change my mind. Not about it hurting Z, but about Z lacking speed. Why? Nydus worms. Z actually has incredible speed, as they can instantly pop up an army anywhere they have vision. People just have learnt to use it yet... everyone is just going for the greedy way, putting the nydus worm in his base. Instead put a few nydus worms up in different places of the map... and voila! Suddenly you can flank at will!

Also I think you undervalue the Mutas. They're incredibly strong when you reach a critical mass. Even stronger than in BW even.

Personally I feel there's nothing wrong with Zerg at the moment actually. I rather feel Terran has some design flaws (fix Marauders please!) that's fucking up the balance. But that's another discussion. :)

mole 1 year ago

"dear god, must the Zerg wait for late game to have a chance?"

Nice phrase...

PsychoBaBas 1 year ago

#1 Interesting about the Nydus Worms. Lets wait and see.

You're right about the mutas, they are strong (with the upgrades) and in my opinion a MUST in ZvT. But what about Thors...?

How do other Terrans feel about TvZ?

Trizzek 1 year ago

Actually 4 mutas is enough to kill 1 Thor if they're spread out. So that's almost even in cost. I think the problem is Marines! They're increadibly strong. ^^

VanessaFisk 1 year ago

Zerg blows in sc2

KitKat 1 year ago

The problem with nydus worms is that it transports (spit out) one unit at a time so it takes a good amount of time to transport whole army, and It can be easily killed.
U can forget about mass muta vs mass thors + marine support, when u use magic box, u cant focus fire. And after nerfin Ultra's crazy splash dmg, Mass thors > ultra. I have some bad time fighting Mass thors + hellions + some rines, but overally I have better time in ZvT than in ZvP O_o