Roach Use

Hey All,
I'm just curious how many of you use roaches, and when in the game you usually go for them (early/mid/late)?

I tend not to use them, and usually go from speedlings into hydras or mutas, depending on the situation. If I have time to harass I'll go mutas, if I know something like void rays are coming I'll go hydras. I'm thinking there's probably better ways for me to use roaches as I pretty much ignore them.

 

There not something I typicaly use myself, especialy in the early game. The fact they use gas and can't deal with air makes them a bit unattractive to me. However they do have some uses. Notably there one of the few zerg unit who the term, hold the line, can acturly be used in the same sentence as.


Burrowed movement and rapid regeneration makes them usefull for sneak attacks too, but for that job I like infestors more.

 

they have lots of uses... lately i've been going 15 hatch 14 pool in all my matchups and it's been working very well. the backbone unit early on is usually roach. zvz-to hold off baneling/ling zvt- told hold off early hellion/reaper pressure while u get your nat saturated, pvz told hold off two gate and early gateway pushes.

mid game- in zvz roach/hydra/infestor works great.

against T- roaches are going to be essential when T goes mech, because ling/hydra/muta isnt the greatest option (unless they skimp on thors and you can overpower with muta)

against P-if they go fast collosi before you get corrupters/hive/NP for infestors, roaches can keep u alive long enough to tech.

not that it matters, but for folks who NEED to know everyones rank im 1200 D zerg

 

I feel like they're only good against toss if they are 2 gating. Stalkers beat roaches pretty hard. If I see 1 gate, cyber I skip roaches.

 

When I first played zerg I used Roaches a lot because I loved to burrow them and crawl away, plus it gave me an excuse to get my lair up. One thing roaches are good for is if there is a bio ball of rines and such they'll get raped fairly quick by a sizable group of roaches. I wouldn't advise going roaches though after mid game unless you have gas and minerals to spare and you'r etired of looking at hydras.

 

Cool thanks for the thoughts. I just watch some vids, and people do a good job busting open enemies bases with them, and holding things off, but have yet to get a good timing down with them. Maybe just some practice will do.

 

hey hey,

i have the same problem...i never use roachs..i rather skip directly to hydras instead...

but there was this situation where i used and really worked out well (i ended up by losing the game...it gave me some more time lol)

ZvT (i was Z fc)

he had surrounded my base with (at the main ramp) S.tanks, Vikings and one or two ravens....

i had this hydras...but they couldnt do much against that ST+VIK...so i decided to build some Roach...
i used them to atack the sieges, how? underground movement =D just unburrowed them right in front of the ST's where they have no range, but it wasnt a mass Roach so..the vikings ended up by killing them =( but still got like 3-4 ST's down

sSoulSs

 

i allmost allways go for speedling - roach - hydralisk... i dont really like speedling/hydra because they seem to get owned pretty easily.... (they are both "light" and the hydra has only 80 health )
but maybe i should do that more often xD

i actually have a noobish replay where i allmost go 100 % roaches with burrow of course and all that
and i ended up unborruwing my army right under my enemys thors/marines/marauders xD and i completely owned them

i won btw with allmost only roaches.... he should have gone more marauders... but i think he was afraid of mutalisks

 

I find roaches almost useless. I see them in games almost as much as I see ultras -- that is to say, not at all. I think they needa remove their gas requirement (bolster their mineral cost to counteract this, if need be) or give them greater range, because right now there are just way better options.

 

Roaches at the early stages may not be good...
They are Zergs Marauder if you wan to...

but they have quite good abilities:

underground movement and super-high HPregen

16 base damage, +2 per upgrade, total 22 damage

they are good to kill the enemy army with an ambush

i never use Roaches thou, but im trying to...

if you do Roach vs Hydra
Roach will win


Roach is also good for scouting udnerground....if you place like 6 roach waiting for your enemy to build an expasion there you can finish him in seconds...

but yeah....Roach are pretty much useless xD

EDIT: ive just noticed that i already posted in this thread xP ,but i ended up by adding some info about roach use

 

Oh another use. There also one of the few zerg units that do well in chokepoints.

 

Roaches are good against a zealot rush, or a ton of reapers.

 

Oh, and they are also not bad if you want to try to time a nydus attack on toss before they get units for there four gate.

 

OMG- I had to register just to put in my two cents to this post.

You people are totally tripping. Roaches are bar FAR the best zerg unit for early game. While others pump out Zealots or Marines in early game, I go straight to roaches. They are technically tier 1.5 so they own other tier 1 easily. Its so easy to pump them out and once I upgrade speed I can kite zealots and trample marines no problem. By the time they get stalkers or marauders out- I have so many more roaches that numbers alone overpower the stalkers.

As for mid and late game, roaches have more hit points than hydras- so work best when you put them in the front line and have your hydras behind.

Every unit in this game is valuable, and has its place. There are very few games when I actually skip roaches, and those are usually ones I win with lings/banals or my opponent goes straight to air.

 

Roaches tend to obliterate the early Terran harassment openings that involve reapers and hellions. (Obviously they are not a viable counter to banshees) I usually get 4 out fast in order to deny the units and save the other larva for drones. You can easily out macro your opponent at this point because they probably invested in killing your economy instead of building up theirs.

 

How much will the range upgrade effect the use of the roach? Do you guys think you'll start using them more now that their range is greater?

 

I think this is going to help roaches tremendously. They were already very useful units IMO and the patch has just reinforced my desire to use them.

I've noticed they are pretty nice against marines, as well as a good counter to zealots/stalkers, as long as you back them with some Hydras, or at least upgrade so you can sneak them around.

However, they become pretty obsolete mid-late game when you should have Ultras out.

 

I go for Roach before anything in early game, i hit their base in a ton of 2v2 and sometimes can nearly destroy both armies and one of their main bases. Then I keep roaches going but tech up to to hydras, that way I get range units with air support. The only trouble I have is when they go mass air later on, but I tech to muta and brood with hydra and roach for gound support .

 

Zerg: don't forget to take lings with you just in case the good protoss get 1-2 imorts out, (if they scout you correctly)

 

In ZVP:
I tend to go roaches quite often because of how well they do against zealots, or rather, how poorly lings do. If you supplement your roaches with a good sling army, then you can use your slings to counter stalkers and immortals. Since roaches do very well against colossi, this only really leaves you vulnerable to air. Incorporate a few hydras and you're good to go.

In ZVT:
I tend to get roaches when I want to counter hellions early on. I try to avoid roach heavy builds because of how easy it is for a terran player to counter them with lots of marauders.

In ZVZ:
Roaches do well against lings in early game. This makes them useful when following up on spine crawlers to defend against a 6/10pool, and also for countering slightly later ling harassment. Roaches are a good answer to banelings because of how well they can tank baneling explosions. Roaches are most often used as a meat shield for hydras when countering mutaling builds with roach/hydra.

In all match ups:
- Roaches can block your base entrance quite effectively
- Roaches are an easily massable tier 1.5 unit if you watch your food count, especially if you find yourself fast expanding in most games
- Roaches are one of the few tanky zerg units, which makes them a good meat shield for your armies
- A roach army can be a good distraction when executing the baneling carpet bombing technique
- The roach's massive regeneration while burrowed is extremely useful when microing sizeable roach armies. Similarly to how a protoss might blink away damaged stalkers, one can burrow severely damaged roaches and periodically unburrow those with high health to keep your numbers from dwindling.
- The ability to move while burrowed can be quite useful in very particular situations