Zerg Review

Notable buildings
Extractor is 25 minerals =D, that is cheap! 25 less than SC1
Spine crawlers suck real hard as static defence, 75 less min than SC1 for 20 dmg less and can move, 40 dmg per shot was huge. 20 is very insignificant. Losing a drone for this building is only when you are desperate. No longer spreads creep
Spore Crawlers are not bad, seems like a smaller range than original spore crawlers, but their detection in SC2 makes it so important(Overlords no longer see cloaked/burrowed units) No longer spreads creep.
Nydus Wurm is BADASS 100/200 for this baby. It’s ability is OP at the moment with a cost of 100/100 to put any exit wurm to any VISIBLE location. You don’t even require creep. In addition, it acts as a transport, so you can load up. Even when you lose the exit tunnel, as long as the main one is alive, no unit loss will be incurred. There is no cooldown between putting down nydus worm exits.

Queen
150 minerals, and is a must have unit. It’s not really an offensive or defensive unit, but it’s abilities make up for it. Spawn Larva 25 energy for 4 larva/40 secs, must use every 40 seconds. This unit is essentially another hatchery. Do not LOSE it! When your macro gets heavy, you will have surplus energy, and would want to use it’s first ability,
Creep tumor. 25 energy and puts a “cloaked” building that acts like the old creep colony that spreads creep and has the ability to multiple itself once in a certain radii after a few seconds. Good for getting Creep Around.
It’s last ability is the heal Ability for 50 energy around 150 HP I believe. Can’t heal itself, but it’s very good to heal mutas coming back from an harass.

Zergling
About the same as SC1, but can move a tad bit faster or it’s just workers moving slower >.> Not much change here.

Banelings
Evolves from zerglings 25/25. 20 dmg splash to units, 40 to buildings. Can upgrade speed at lair tech. It’s uses are ONLY good against zealots, marines, reapers, sentinels, and workers. If your opponent goes something else, like marauders, stalkers or roaches, their uses are no economically feasible. Remember they suicide on atk, so you lose a unit for 20 dmg splash =T. The unit is fairly balanced imo, no changed necessary or else it may make them OP. The building to build it should requires 25 gas instead of 50.

Roaches
Roaches are the new tier 1 hydras with more life and CONSIDERED ARMORED. They regen like mad while burrowed and can move underground after upgrading(lair tech). Roaches are strong against every tier 1 unit(zealots, marine, lings, reapers,banelings). They are not good against mostly everything else. Not overpowered, but maybe a HP adjustment(lowering).

Overlords
Bad just bad, lost detection, for spreading creep? Now zerg are most vulnerable to detection. What’s the point of spreading creep if the Nydus doesn’t need creep? Change the nydus to need vision and creep, and its useful then.

Overseer
Upgraded overlords for 50/100. Get detection and changelings. Changelings are awesome, 50 energy for a spy that last a long time. Won’t get atk until it encounters static defense or someone manually targets it.
100 gas for a DETECTOR. You lose this overseer, u just lost supply, and a detector with only 200 supply and move s slow. HORRIBLE. What race requires 100 gas for a detector. Toss have observers that are cloaked and have no major penalty if it dies. Supply hit hurts a LOT. This is worse than terran in SC1 detection.

Hydralisks
Price hike to 100/50, but no longer suck against melee units(no reduced dmg). They shoot fast and have a buff 10hp. Hydralisks right now amazing and sit very nicely where they are. Blizzard did a great job. They are very costly, so you can’t mass them up as much as SC1 5 hatch build, but they are very effective. They loss their speed upgrade, which is quite sad, but makes sense(charge/blink/slow would be useless if they had it).

Infestors
It’s only viable ability is to take control a unit parasite ability for 10 secs. Only good against HTs. The other two abilities suck and shouldn’t even be mentioned. This unit needs to be fixed.

Mutalisk
Blizzard tried to recreate mutas, they are decent, but not as overbearing as they were in SC1 especially, in zvz. Hydras rip them a new one. Very effective against toss, probably more now, and about the same against terran marines. Only change is they don’t stack as well / duration stacked.

Corruptors
150/100 units, that have anti air, and disable buildings for 30 seconds. It’s ability should go back to the infestor, it does not need any abilities, not a bad anti air unit as it is required unit to become broodlords.

Broodlords
Buffed up version of guardians, insane dmg and effect. 25 dmg per toss, and throws in 2 broodlings that last about 3 seconds realtime. Actually worth getting a few if possible, if guarded with air unlike sc1 where they were piece meals.

Ultralisk
100 increase in minerals, but 200 buff in HP and 2 in supply I believe. Haven’t used them much, since I never usually go up to end game because hydralisk are so powerful mid game. Can’t give a proper evaluation of this unit, but does do 60 dmg to buildings. Looks as viable as old ultralisk even without darkswarm, and tanks do 10 less dmg in siege and no reavers.

Shorten Version: Zerg is pretty balanced with a bit of tweaks left except nydus worm of course.
Any thoughts and comments will be appreciated

 

Geez, the Zerg sound sloppy. It sucks that the spine crawler is basically useless. What about Lurkers? It sounds like the overlord to overseer thing is sloppy too. The Nydus sounds like the best new feature. Ultras sound like they are alright. Not too sure how I feel about the Zerg right now. I'll have to wait until I play the game.

 

Lurkers are gone from the melee, probably set aside as a hero model

 

Wow, seriously? So no lurkers for Sc2 battle net matches? I think I'll stick with the original.

 

You'll be the only one. FFenix, I'm having a blog set up for you!

 

Good review, what you say makes sense

 

baaw I want to have lurkers

 

Same here. Lurkers are a nice equivalent to tanks and reavers. I always have Lurkers defending my base from drops and ground assaults.

 

No lurkers? :O

Overlords sound crap now. No detection.. .seriously have Blizzard nerfed my favouriate race.

I'm off to roll Protoss.

 

Same here, my whole defence strategy revolved around lurkers. I like the addition of the roaches but to totally take out lurkers is like taking out tanks for Terran.

 

Thx Jon XD,

Everyone thinks the defense strat revolves around lurkers, but that's sc1 talking. The reason you used lurker/ling combo in orignal, cuz terran could get early mm and push really hard for a cheap cost. Making Lurkers were a must to take them down with easy. Against protoss, they were really only effective against zealots cuz with the speed upgrade, they could run around every so quickly.

Now in SC2, there's no more speed upgrade on lots(only charge),, which make them less mobile. Also hydras are VERY effective against them now, unlike SC1 , where they did reduced dmg. MM is no longer possible early any more,and banelings are the counter to mass marines. That defeats the purpose of the lurker in SC2, as it does not have ANY role at all. Though I'd love to see it back, I don't know what they will be for.

 

I think it would still be useful for defending your base while your army is attacking, or for defending your base against drops. It's always handy to have a trap waiting for the enemy that drops on your minerals.

 

How about a burrowed ultralisk?

 

That could work, but I prefer having Lurkers because they attack while burrowed and I don't have to micro them while I'm attacking something else. My main defence strategy in Sc1 is to put the Lurkers under other units so it blocks land assaults at my choke more effectively and I need less units to stay at home in the base.

 

That's the lazy side talking. You would rarely see high tier player leaving lurkers at their base to defend their mineral line/chokes UNLESS they see a drop coming and move them there. Aside from that, lurkers are offensive traps to prevent the enemy from pushing, rather than defensive. Any decent player can move their units out of the lurker's range and attack your buildings/workers. You have to have SOME micro.

If your main army is somewhere else, and you have X amount of lurkers defending, you are not going to live if their opponent sends their full force at you. Lurkers need canon fodder to live and to maximize their damage.

 

I don't like the Corruptor. I mean, it is a somewhat strong air unit, but It doesn,t corrupt anything anymore. It has a corrupt ability that make a BUILDING stop working for a short time. WTF?!?!? That should be an Infestor ability, it has nothing to do with your armored aerial warrior. I too liked better the old Devourer (which didin't Devour anything, but still) who at least augmented the damage of other units.

 

In general the Zerg are doing great but we are holding on to a little to much of broodwar, which is our problem, you want some base defence for a drop? Burrow banelings and blow all to kingdom come that get into range.

The Zerg are more of a full ofensive race, if you want a race that's insane at defening then play Terran, if you like a little more of both play the protoss.

Inorder to stay alive as the Zerg you need to be quick on you're feet, mass units, and great money managment. (which I can really only do ok at mass units T_T lol)

as I see it Zerg are doing great for sc2 but would suck compared with sc1 style stuff. sure overseerers suck and so do overlords but have you seen any games on YouTube where people are cloaking other then with the mother ship?
SC2 seems to be about giant GROUND armys that are VERY diverse instead of about lots of casters and air units and sc1 stuff.
(of course for some of the stuff I said we just have to wait for pros to start playng "pro-ly".)

 

That's too bad because the Zerg used to be awesome at defence. I was able to defeat mass zealots while barely losing a unit if I used a combo of Lurkers, dark swarm, Hydras, and Lings. I always hoped that they would upgrade the Zerg towers a bit since each one can only target ground or air.

 

Everything about zerg right now is pretty awesome it terms of balance and offensiveness. Only complaint is really the lack of detection. Now the terran's have banshee that are veryyyy annoying, if you don't scout it, (really hard when choke is blocked/changlings is a bit late), the cloak is a *****. It forces a person of non-plat calibur apm to put down spore colonies, because of their hit and runs. Keeping hydras both front and back was too much for me in a 1v1. Now if someone has DTs, oh man spreading them out in multiple places, forces one to scuddle to overseers which is so LITTLE of due to costing a 50/100 upgrade, and losing it will cost you big time. One thing i noticed that I didn't though before is, the speed upgrade is now 50/50, which is pretty sweet as before in sc1 150/150. So when I thought it was too much for overseers to keep up with cloak units, it doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

At the moment, lots of people won't have troubles with burrowed/cloaked units, but later on, with PRO micro like bisu or like flash, ppl will be ripped apart by banshees and DTs.Hell Bisu build looks quite viable to me. Surprised no one has tried it XD.

On a side note to the rant, the overlords upgrade to drop seems useless until they fix nydus worms, nydus is still pretty damn sweet. In addition, infestors after the recent patch had a huge buff. Infested marines are back, you can neural parasite ANY units making it my butt buddy, and now that i actually get this unit, the fungal growth is VERY viable. Fungal doesn't stack in dmg, but it forces the enemies' unts to no retreat for a good 10 seconds. Sweet buff to the ONLY offensive caster.

 

Simple question: How do Zerg counter Marines + Marauders + Medivacs?