Greetings fellow swarm, it's with much sadness that I read the balance notes and see EVERY hive Zerg unit nerfed, I advice grabbing your emotional support zergling and giving it the adreno upgrade since it is now the hive tech.

https://drop.sc/replay/25704926

This guy is seriously bad and making fun of me in chat while messing with me ingame. After the game he even messaged asking "What happened Reynor" "Did you have a car accident?" and bs like that which I don't even understand

Can someone please tell me how to humble r*tards like this guy since as far as I know I played totally standard and he still took me apart while floating thousands

You know what the most ridiculous part about the new patch is? The comment that they want to open up new types of mech playstyles. It feels like it's just flat out gaslighting with that comment.

Since I've started getting into higher level platinum by far the most common Terran strategy is to harass with 3-4 libs and buy enough time to build 15-20 tanks. No bio at all. It should be an easy check mate if someone builds 90% one unit, but they throw in 3-4 Thors and it feels impossible to counter. All ground units get blasted to shreds immediately, and Thor check-mates any aerial counter. The only way you can win is absolutely flawless viper execution with blinding clouds but one slip and your precious vipers are blasted to shreds. I don't have nearly the skill or APM to pull that off yet, and all the terran has to do is siege up the tanks.

The fact they felt the need to buff libs and encourage more mech play is outrageous. Mech is incredibly lame already

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Hello Zerg friends, I have a mech problem. I lose pretty consistently to it at my mmr (4600-ish). I played a warmup unranked game today, and apparently, I also lose to 3.6k mech players - clearly, I fundamentally misunderstand the matchup.

Generally, if they turtle up on 4 bases, I let them have it and take the rest of the map. Unfortunately for me, I have no idea how to fight mass thor so lose anyway.

Please watch the replay and tell me how to play against mech! Help!!

https://drop.sc/replay/25699991

If my opponent scouts my rush and makes a wall, how do I counter that?

When would you want to use mutalisks instead of broodlords or corruptors?

https://drop.sc/replay/25698027

Hi guys, been struggling a lot against Toss recently. Hoping to get some feedback on what I could improve on. Just some of my own thoughts about the replay:

• Although I won, it was a lot closer than I would have liked and I feel like the Toss left too early; had the game gone on I think there was a fair chance I would have lost since I had failed to destroy his 4th and my economy was in shambles. So I don't really consider this game a clean win.
• I think the only reason I was able to win was the lead I managed to get from a (relatively) clean 12 pool opening. Made some mistakes like losing a ling for free and I missed the initial inject on my main before sending the queen down. But other than that I got a worker lead from 22 or so workers onwards so I would consider that a win (?)
• Lost too many workers to adept and oracle harass. I know watching that oracle harass is gonna make some people cry. Oops.
• The Toss made a huge mistake going glaive adept against a 12 pool opening (I think it's probably the worst follow up to a 12 pool?), another reason I think I deserved to lose this game cos I feel like the Toss played better than me

I think these were my key errors:

• Taking too long to put up static D and also not leaving detection on bases
• I think my lurker micro is HORRENDOUS
• Had no idea what to do when tempests showed up and kind of just A-moved into it
• I'm very bad at anti-storm micro, could use some tips on that
• I think I took too long to use Hive upgrades? Not sure
• I think I took some VERY bad fights around his 4th, but with how fortified it was I wasn't sure what I could do. Could also use some tips on what the proper reaction would be

If you happen to spot more blunders please do let me know as well, thanks!!!

The patch notes say that blue flame damage on hellions is increased. Are hellbats a kind of hellion for this change? Several of the videos I've seen raise this question but none answer it.

Winter mentioned today that he doesn't like the buffs to Brood Lord because he doesn't want to bring back a Brood Lord/Infestor meta. I understand he's referring to the synergy of Fungal + Brood Lords, and that it's a meta that people have really hated in the past. I wasn't active during those periods, so it's not clear to me what made it meta in the past versus why it's not a thing anymore. Was it just the overall power level of the Brood Lord, or more specific changes that solved the problem?

I just lost a game against a cannon rush and I don't know what I did wrong. I got contained the entire match and didn't know what strategy or units to use. Any help is appreciated!

Heres the link: https://lotv.spawningtool.com/84315/

Let me give you a quick background of my sc2 experience. I have peaked Diamond 3 about 4/5 years ago and eventually quit because the ladder experience manages to be more frustrating then League's ladder.

Cameback to the game about 2 weeks ago and i have been slowly getting back into it with my build order, unit composition and a steady macro cycle. Things are not perfect and they are probably not diamond level at this point but im working on them!

Now to the issue at hand. Turtle terrans are giving me back pain. They take 3 bases extremely fast, some of them even make a planetary in their natural and then start spamming BCs.

The first games i have done against this style i was folding because i wasnt scouting the fusion core in time, but eventually i got it down to where i can respond to the BCs threat early in order not to loose the game as soon as they jump on my side of the map.

The midgame is where i start to fall apart. Corruptors are nice and all but they cant shoot down. These terrans have learned that spaming mines and spreading them througout my creep and their bases is all they need for their BCs to not have to deal with them. I dont have APM enough to deal with this.

There is no point explaining myself further when it is all the replay for you to enjoy.

What im looking for is what type of response can a low level, low apm zerg have to deal with this back-pain inducing, hemorrhoid producing, headache summoning Style of play.

Thanks alot!

https://drop.sc/replay/25696376

Do you think there will be any changes to build orders or any new build orders with this new patch? I don’t think there will be but haven’t put much thought into it…

I was thinking maybe rushing a quick 3rd hatch and earlier 2nd timing would be a new norm but would that slow down queen count? Is that worth it? Will people still do 15/15 builds?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Has anyone experimented with proxy spine cheese on the PTR? Or played against it? I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Is it OP? Is it a nightmare in ZvZ?

I just tested the build against AI and have concerns about how easy and effective it is. Of course, with the Spine Crawler buff I've heard speculation that this cheese would be stronger, but the cheaper Hatchery might play a role as well.

On live, I like to rally my 13th drone across the map, play it like a 15/15 build order, and rally 3 more drones to the proxy before pool pops. But on PTR, I can send an initial drone and build ASAP without interrupting droning, so it's 12s quicker for me. I drop the pool sooner in turn and pull 6 drones off minerals when hatch is half done to defend spines. It's quicker, easier to execute, and more effective than my live build.

IDK how it performs against humans or what other people's builds are for spine cheese, so I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Patch 5.0.14 contains the following qualitative change the ultralisk.

While moving, Ultralisk is now able to push allied units.

The intention of this change is to avoid cases where ultralisks are stuck behind friendly units and not doing any damage.

I have not seen the changes to GGlords (which, btw, retained their speed increases while getting buffed broodlings) and ultralisks discussed very much. But I do think they are very significant when considering zerg units as a whole. In particular, I think roach ultralisk might be a powerful unit composition post patch.

Let's talk about the roach. Roaches cost 75/25 minerals to gas. All starcraft economies, if working at max, mine minerals at a ratio of about 73/27 minerals to gas (22 workers per base, 6 on gas, 16 on minerals). Because the cost of roaches matches the resource intake of the zerg economy, building roaches is a very efficient way to spend money.

This cost efficiency is balanced by making roaches very unit inefficient. A maxed roach army is defeated by almost any army of equal supply. The consequence is that roaches need more supply efficient units, like hydralisks, to back them up, and roach based armies generally drop off after the mid-game.

Now, ultralisks are more supply efficient than roaches. But because ultralisks get stuck behind roaches, a roach ultralisk army is really going to be as supply efficient as pure roaches, because few ultralisks can get in the fight.

But this is no longer the case in the new patch! In the new patch, the ultralisks will always be in front and the roaches will always be dealing damage in back. This makes Roach Ultralisk far more supply efficient. Furthermore, Roaches and Ultralisk both have armor bonuses which means their upgrades synergize and both units are cheap (relative to their place on the tech tree) and quick to build.

This means a pure roach army very naturally builds into a Roach Ultralisk army once hive tech becomes accessible. As roaches drop off in power towards the late game, you can build ultralisks to supplement them. Add in mutalisks in the midgame for air control, harassment, and keeping the enemy army at home and I think someone not in gold league could make a good build order.

TL;DR: Turtle behind roaches, then a-move with roach ultralisk. The balance council has spoken!

I like to make hundreds of banelings and overwhelm the AI that way. But they only morph one at a time which is fast, but not nearly as fast if I can just hit one button to turn all 500 at the same time. Does a short key even exist?

I have been playing more ai games as of late to get fundementals down and i have been consistantly getting clapped in every match up of ZvT and ZvP against the ai, i have been keeping good macro, creep spread , upgrades and abit of base harassment but every headon engagement with the AIs army i die immediately as the army snowballs onto all my bases, any ideas on how to improve , the only other thing i think i can reasonably improve at is finding at actual unit composition but everything gets countered by siege tanks and i get stomped on before i can get vipers out in time either because the ai has already snowballed or because i just lost an engagement and need to replenish my army and i fucking suck at microing units, any useful critques or suggestions would be helpful. :)

https://drop.sc/replay/25688680 ( ZvT lost)
https://drop.sc/replay/25688646 ( ZvT lost)
https://drop.sc/replay/25688686 (Almost lost due to losing an engagement)

I thought he had the perfect unit composition, enough of each unit to counter anything Zerg had. Is there really no counter to ghost even at diamond level?

https://drop.sc/replay/25688669

I'm stuck at 200, but I want to get a lot faster. That way I can keep up the economy and do multi-pronged harassment. Essentially become an even better player. I'm D2 btw. Any advice on how to increase APM?

I usually do control groups on: `-8 and then control group 9 on w. I use F1-F8 for base cam and I put inject queens on 2 and creep tumor queens on 3. Bases on 1. Army on 4-8 and evolution chambers on w. ` is for scouting units like an overseer or early ling. I play Standard those things aside. I'm trying to adopt drag cam cause the pros do that I still scroll cam (unintentionally) and try to get rid of that habit. Any advice to get my Effective APM to 300-400 would be great.

Which maps would you consider vetoing as Zerg in the current 4v4 map pool?

Several casters have shown games on brand-new maps, presumably candidates for the next map pool.

Last cycle, you could find the candidate maps by searching "TMCL19" in Custom/Melee. I have not been able to figure out an equivalent way to reach the candidate maps this time. Does anyone know how?

I am slow to warm up to new maps, so I want to give myself as much chance as possible, even knowing that the ladder version may not be identical to the current one.

I'm trying to improve my Zerg skills and hoping to get some advice from some better players. I know all the basics, and a lot of what I need to work on, but I have some specific questions I'd love to get answers to.

1. are macro hatches a good idea? Or just expand and take another mineral patch?
2. how many queens per hatch? 1 and then some extra to work on creep?
3. any guidance on where to be spreading creep other than connecting my bases together?
4. where and how to use overlords? I tend to be bad and clump them in my base to protect them, but I realize that I am making a great target for them to get killed off and I'm gimping my chance to use them for map vision. Yet I'm paranoid about getting supply blocked. Should I just overbuild by a certain number or percentage?
5. how many overlords should get turned into overseers?
6. is there a place for overlord drops when we have nydus?
7. I feel like being able to switch tech with zerg is a advance of the race, is that right and how best to use it? Swap from ground to air or the other way around or both? Other?
8. what is the best mineral dump late game? Speedlings with upgrades? (or queens or both? I know this patch may change that answer...)
9. I heard drone to about 80 is a good metric, weaving in fighting units as you go is a good general target, is that right?
10. I tend to be good at macro, and garbage at micro, so much that I don't even build caster units with any race. Saying that, is there a good a-move strat I can use until I master the fundamentals better and then work on micro? Or am I making a mistake and should work on my micro as well as my macro?

I realize that is a lot, so if people can answer all questions, awesome, and just a few, that's also very appreciated. Thank you and have a great day. For the swarm!

How do you respond to harstem's 4 gate from standard 16/16?

Are we going 17 hatch? 14 hatch? 15 hatch?

Hello Swarm,

What hotkey do you use when playing Nydus style?

I normally have 1-3 army and spell casters, 4 hatcheries, 5 creep & defense, 6 upgrades, 7 kamikaze backstab unit… I have been putting Nydus on 7 but that’s too far for me.

Hi! So ive been hating ZvT vs Mech/BC a bit lately, so I thought I might rework gameplan. And rather than going into trail&error right away I thought I check with the experts if I'm basically on the right track.
Ive disliked going into lategame against a turtle terran and then getting rolled by a F2 A-move Thor army because I messed up spellcasters or misstimed my multi-angle surround (you might be detecting some salt).
So I thought I might go for a gameplan that ends this early.
For Context Im around 3,7-3,8k on EU atm.

16/18/17
1 gas rule
5 CreepQueens
3:45 Ovi scout ramp (I think I should be able to scout if its Mech here right?)
4:00 RW
4:30 Lair + 1 Evo
Rescout with overseer after Lair

4:45-5:00 spores in all mineral lines

Clues that it might be BC
scout 3rd gas with Ovi
No Techlab on Barracks
No Starport Unit by 5:00
Viking first

Response to BC
(arrives @5:20 is that about right?)
Pull 4 Queens to Main
Pull drones away from BC
Keep building queens and drones
4 Roaches to defend against hellion runbuys
Build an extra spores against 2nd BC
Spire against 2nd BC

Once defended go for a 66 drones Roach Ravager Corruptor Push @160supply. ~5 corrupotors per BC
(Lambo did a queen walk, but that was before the patch so im not sure if I have the APM or gas to get Ovi-Speed and Queen drop)

Response against Mech
the way I see it my response should work similarly well vs battleMech/tank heavy/ Thor heavy
+1 Roach Ravanger Allin/attack of 66

Here Im very unsure, since I havent done anything like this really and I havent seen guides for this.
I have copied a (roach burrow attack)[https://www.reddit.com/r/allthingszerg/comments/16cmf1w/build_order_guide_zvt_3_base_tunneling_roach/] from u/two100meterman a while ago, but I thought with burrow I cant afford ravagers, which I think might be a good idea to get if only to practice my ravager control.

So I guess that should be an 8:00 timing attack with close to 200/200? Is that a good idea/timing vs mech? how many ravagers do I need?

I guess from there if I dont win/lose out right I could switch into RRLB (although ive had some dumb fun games with Lurker hydra viper recently, but I guess that doesnt flow as nicely since id have to get rid of all the roach supply before that can shine)

Or is a more allin version of ~55 drones also a good option?

1Base shinanigans
Im farmiliar with 1 base BCs, 1base thor or 1base mass marine thats hard to scout Idk... I die way to often against dumb stuff like that.
scout the entire map. get 35 drones, queens, RW 3:30, maybe I need a timing for when to get lair and when to get extra spores

So Im looking for any and all feedback, thoughts and suggestions. Maybe stuff I missed or forgot and so on.

https://youtu.be/NKxN8k03qas?feature=shared

So toss gets fucked,terran gets major buffs, zerg is meh, late game is better but more campy.

They specifically contradicted thier own stated goals. With reducing campy play styles. By making terran more campy.

They should nuke all the terrans on the balance council. Which confirmed is 95% percent of the council. Wtf are these changes where are the ghost nerfs.

I think every toss and zerg player should insta quit any time they match with a terran. Let these guys play endless TvT. BOYCOTT TERRAN.

If they dont revert the changes from the last 2 terran buff patches. I hate the sneak terran buff they manage to get the last few years. Probably time to mass quit this game.

Terran player here 4k mmr, US east, I play bio everygame and would like to find some people to practice TvZ with, if your within 500 mmr of 4K thats good!

DM me and I'll send battletag if your interested!