Zerg player just promoted to platinum-getting raped...

Hey guys its Kaiiiii back again asking for some help from the community. Today was the first day I stepped foot in the platinum league. However, I'd like to say it is not as smooth as I hoped as every oponent I'm going against rapes me. For example in this replay, the toss seems to open with a 2 gate but instead opts for the 4 gate. When I see the 4 gate I just pump drones and that zealot pressure freaked me out. This happens many times in many games in which early pressure such as marines/marauders almost fully rapes my expansion and pretty much its game over.
Questions: What different play patterns would I have to achieve in order to be successful in the platinum league?

 

errh, getting your evolve chamber earlier for tech up? both your roaches and hydras were weak without it.

 

Hey, I play solo Zerg and I'm ranked 9th in the Diamond league

Watched your replay, took notes. I'll just copy down my notes, if you did something good ill start with GOOD, and the same for bad with BAD.

BAD. at 10 food had to cancel a drone to make an overlord. dont make this mistake, you need your larva

GOOD. scouted at 12 food.

BAD. you chased his probe-scout WAY too far. just ignore it unless it is attacking you

GOOD. 14 pool, that was appropriate after you scouted him and saw what he had.

BAD BAD BAD. your extractor was sooo late. i usually build an extractor before i get a pool. you need the speedling upgrade asap.

GOOD GOOD GOOD. after scouting and seeing he had nothing, you got an expansion. very good.

BAD. be proactive on your overlords, dont get food blocked

BAD. By the time those 2 zealots came to harass, you could have easily had 6-10 lings. its good to make drones, but you need to protect them too.

BAD. micro your lings, after the zealot hits a ling, pull it back and than immediately attack click back toward the zealot. by this time the zealot will have switched targets. do this well, and you will minimize your ling losses.

BAD. this isnt terrible, but you built a spine crawler in your main after you already had your expo up, just put it at your expo


BAD. a little slow on the inject larva, but not terrible.

BAD. after you had your expo up and running, you continued to pump lings. get a roach warren

GOOD. your mineral line harass was GREAT. i thought you won the game at that point.
but. BAD: dont just chase his probes if his army is sitting there massacring your lings. you coulve ran your lings out after your harrass, they dont have to die.

GOOD. hydras. BAD. hydras before roaches. get some roaches first to cover the hydras.

BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD
This is why you lost the game: you had wayyy too many unspent resources. Build more hatcheries, get another expansion, you need to have lots and lots of larva to spend those resources. 2 hatches with queens is not enough for late game.

BAD BAD BAD
no evo chambers? another reason you lost is you had no upgrades. you had so many resources, and so much time. you could have had 2/2 upgrades on your hydras and roaches by the time you fought him

BAD.
put your hydras behind your roaches! zealots will take hydras out fast. this would have saved you a lot of hydras

BAD.
again you had so many unspent resources, when you saw he had quite a few zealots, you couldve laid down a baneling nest. this isn't a must, but in this game it would have made a huge difference.

BAD. when you saw his expo, you didnt make another expansion. zerg must always have at least 1 more expo than toss and terran if they want to keep up.

BAD. the second you see collosus, lay down a spire. make 3-4 corruptors per collossi. you had the time and resources to do this.

GOOD. you surprised me with ultralisks. that was good.
but
BAD: A. ultras were unupgraded
B. you massed them with lings instead of hydras, they wouldve been a great meat shield for hydras
C. for some reason, you didnt attack his army. your ultras were running around without attacking, then they died


You played well, basically you lost because you had too many unspent resources, not enough larva to rebuild your army quickly, and no upgrades.

I just wrote down here what I wrote in my notes as I watched your game.

Hope it helps, let me know if you have any questions

 

@Tempest.

Could you explain the rationale behind the # of corrupters per collosi. I lost you there. Thanks.

 

And also, I've run into many problems with the ultras not attacking... should I just right click his army or A-move?

 

3-4 is ideal, because you want to bring those collossi down fast, especially if they are upgraded. If youve watched 2 corruptors vs a collossi, it'll take them 10-15 seconds to bring em down. But 3 or 4 with the corruption abiltiy will bring them down fast.

Now if he has like 6 or 7 collossi, (which is unlikely) then i dont think you need to get 21 corrupters.

I'd say 3-4 corruptors per collossi up to a max of 8-10 corrupters. at that point you can just focus fire them one at a time.


In diamond league I usually see 2-3 collosi with an army backing them up, i would counter this with about 8 to 10 corruptors.

After his collossi die, dont just ignore your corruptors either. you can cast corruption on land units too (put this on immortals and stalkers first)

 

I would use attack-move. not right clicking a specific unit


This doesn't mean you should forget to micro them though. pull them back when they are low or if they are being focus fired, then send em back in when the enemy changes targets

 

But the thing with the corruptors is how would I micro them to get to the colossus if the stalkers don't snipe them down first?

 

If his stalkers focus only on your corruptors, then your hydras and roaches will quickly eat away at his stalkers, and you will get to his collossus with those units.

If he doesnt focus your corruptors, then your corruptors will take out his colossus.

Either way is fine if you get to his collossus, you just dont want to be fighting his stalker wall while his colossus eat at your hydras

 

Kind of gas heavy though. Specially in mid-late game. Better have an expo or two to support a hydra/roach/corruptor army.

 

Eh when is it generally alright to take a 2nd expansion as I'm usually skeptical because I heard I don't want to make too many drones and not enough army size.

 

If you have the resources, you want to be expanding...the larvae from your 2nd expo are bonus to what you would usually have, so it shouldn't harm your army production.

Just keep an eye on your food and be proactive with overlord production.

Also, try to keep an eye on the map with xel'naga towers and overlords so that you can be prepared for any assaults on your expos.

 

Hey guys.. against protoss i usually go
Speedling and then Hydras and then staight for Ultralisks
i've found that the Hydra/Ultra strategy works great.... and even better if you flank with the ultralisks

 

You should go roach/hydra mid game to ultra/hydra late game. Otherwise you're vulnerable to mass zealots or rushed colossi taking out your undefended hydras.

Early roaches to hydras also makes for a strong opening vs zealots or stalkers, whereas speedlings are only strong vs stalkers.

Be sure to get corruptors late game too...to snipe down any colossi sitting behind your opponents army.

 

Any tips for ZvZ? It seems as if the early ling/bling play doesn't really work anymore if they get like 5-6 roaches to hold the ramp

 

Lol ZvZ, everyone's favourite matchup...

Most important is to scout early with a drone to check for 6-10pool attempts, I usually send one at 10 food after I get my overlord.

If you see an early pool, then you want to get your own pool started to get a spine crawler and queen asap (keep in mind, a successful defense almost ensures victory against them because of their crippled economy). Keep an eye out for enemy spine crawlers in your base...try to snipe them down with your own spine crawler and lings before they finish if you can.

If your opponent's pool is just starting then you have the green light to fast expand...go ahead and make a hatch before your pool. Just make sure to throw up a spine crawler and some units at your expo as soon as the pool finishes to help defend it.

As for actual strategies...most people either go lings/mutas or roaches/hydras. Personally, I prefer going roaches/hydras. If you're having trouble getting a good early hydra force to counter a muta harass then it's quite easy to build a spore colony or two until you get a decent army. As long as your economy is running smoothly, your hydras should be able to win out against mutas which usually forces the opponent to change their build. You can also get some banelings if there are too many lings hassling you.

If you can force your opponent to give up on mutas, then you need to watch for a few things:

If they go for sling bling, you should try to have infestors ready to fungal growth them. Fungal growth should kill either unit efffectively but more importantly, will immobilize blings away from your fragile hydras.

If they tech for ultra/infestor or ultra/hydra then you should try to attack them with a big force before they're prepared for you. Otherwise, you can neural parasite ultras or counter with air.

If they try to mirror your roach/hydra army then you should be ahead of them with your ground upgrades and army size, so you will have an advantage. Get some infestors to support your army if this happens.

Try to consistently scout your enemy so that you know what kind of army they're building and what to counter with. It's difficult to wall a base off with zerg so you can often just sacrifice a few lings for a good look at their buildings and/or army composition.

REMEMBER! to keep on top of your creep highway, any time you work on a hydra force this must be one of your top priorities. Hydras are terribly slow without creep, which can be annoying when you're trying to chase down mutas that are harassing between your main and your expo or harassing while your main hydra force isn't at your base.

Also remember to stay on top of carapace and ranged attack upgrades, build 2 evo chambers if your economy permits it.

 

The problems with my current ZvZ is them holding the ramp with Roaches and I don't know if they are going mutas are going for a timing push and when I make a hydralisk den, they push with 8+ roaches which end the game. By the way, I open with Bling/sling combo to try to cripple their economy

 

Get the overlord upgrade or scout with changelings then.