new zerg player here, need some guidance pls.

Hi everyone.

I just started playing sc2, primary playing as zerg and am in the bronze league now, as such most of the matches I play will be small maps I assume. Therefore I think a rush will work well in small maps, so I'm thinking of attempting a high risk 6pool build. Appreciate if anyone can comment or give some tips on what I should look out for.

6 pool rush build:
Start of game, gather till 200min, pool 5/10.

Make 2 drones 7/10

Wait for pool to be up, make 6 lings 10/10

Use extractor trick make 2 more drones 12/10

Lings should be ready now, send them to opponent base, make overlord.

Scenario #1 - economy build, no defense and wall not up (terran and protoss)
Proceed to destroy depots, before engaging the scvs/probes. Make more lings and send in reinforcements.

Scenario #2 - no defence, wall up (terran and protoss)
Proceed to destroy depots (so that they can't produce marines and zealots), then barracks. Make more lings to support.

Scenario #3 - wall up, marines and zealots sighted.
In this case opponent will be sacrificing economy like me, as such i will just use lings to stay around and scout and harress. In this scenario, should i go on making more lings? Or boost up my economy?

All comments will be greatly appreciated

 

If there's a wall and you're confident that your patrolling lings will keep the T/P from coming out early, you should expand as Z. However, I find early banelings to be very effective and fun to use

 

Don't 6-pool...You should be playing with the intention of getting better. Yes, some cheesy 6-pool build will get you up to silver quickly maybe, but then what? Learn to build an economy, expand, counter units, good micro techniques...I switched from an 8-pool build to a 14 pool/15 hatch and my game got better as a result. It makes you have to manage more things and helps you get a better APM. I do often revert to my 8-pool build against zerg because they very often try to send a cheese rush, which wrecks a late pool build. Watch a lot of idra replays...he's hands down the best zerg player in sc2 right now and he always late pools. Granted his macro skills are absurd and light years ahead of my own, but most top zerg players go for 13/14 pools. It is incredibly hard to win with zerg without the economic advantage.

 

Im not using rush build to end games fast. im merely rushing for harassment purposes. I will run my zerglings into their base to kill their supplies and harass some mineral gatherers thats all, and then i'll let the drones die off. Doing this merely pushes the economical advantage to me. Plus it puts them on the defensive mode, giving me more time for expansion.

I found out that 7 pool is actually better than 6 pool.

Time taken for 6 pool to spawn 6 zerglings : 1min 50 secs

Time taken for 7 pool to spawn 6 zerglings : 1min 56 secs.

While slower by 6 secs, economically 7 pool is much better.

Here's what I did.

7 pool

make 2 drones 8/10

right before pool is up, extractor trick 7/10

make 6 zergs, stop extractor 11/10 (or u can do another extractor trick to make it 9 drones with 12/10. Im not sure if this is better though, as I didnt try to calculate the benefits)

I find that this build is better than pure 6 pool. Its only 6 secs slower than a pure 6 pool build. but economically u will be much better off.

 

Ok. To be brutally honest with you, saying there is anything economical about a 6 or 7 pool is outright ridiculous. A 6 or 7 pool is called an all-in build because if its stopped, you're so behind, that any decent player will over-run you easily. If you wanna do a more economical rush, maybe 10-pool, but there is nothing remotely economical about a 6 or 7 pool. Both are cheese builds.

 

Zerg cheese?

I agree with Antiport. You aren't going to get a valuable enough economy to counter better players. Just like in Starcraft 1, a six zergling rush only caught a very small number of players with their pants down. It may be more effective in the lower leagues, but believe me: you're going to need a better build to get to diamond with zerg. There's guide suggestions in my signature if you're interested in full build orders etc. Also keep in mind that your b/o should change based on what race you're playing against. If you still want to use this build, and you see that they have wall up and have marines or zealots, you're going to want to see if you can harass them while upping your economy. If you keep the pressure on with a limited number of zerglings you can force them to make more troops than they need at a lower economy. You should have an advantage if you trick them into making a bunch of tier 1 stuff. Just adapt to what they do. You know what your forces can handle. Make sure you aren't the one to get caught with your pants down

Hope it helps,
Zeratooled

P.S. 10pool is better than 7 is better than 6 IMO

 

6 and 7 pool are legitimate if the map allows for it. It HAS to be a small enough map for it to work though. You just need good enough micro/macro to make it count while not slowing down your own production.

You shouldn't expect it to kill better opponents, but you should be able to do enough damage to warrant it. Like anything, if they expect and properly prepare for it then you're in trouble. That said, I would think diamond league players to be less likely to anticipate it, simply because it is a less flexible, more risky strategy that is probably (I'd have to check) not well supported by many of the ladder maps.