The Escapist Presents: Starcraft 2 101: Zerg

[Eric the Orange]

All I gotta say is,

NERF ROACHES

Seriously those guys are over powered. Perhaps not game breakingly so but the fact that they can go from 0 to 100% in about 15-20 seconds while burrowed and have a lot of life (relatively speaking) makes them a mean force to be reckoned with. then later in game they can essentially stealth travel around the map while they heal. No doubt good "professional" players can deal with it, but us non-skilled plebs are going to have a hard time with it.

 

[Weaver]

From what I've heard about the Zerg, people seem to regard it as an OP race or as a UP race because of certain units it has. Hard to tell if that's because it's still new and no one has figured out the appropriate counter or it is really is the case of being overpowered.

Great video though, can't wait for the Protoss 101 video.

A lot of complaints I hear about the Zerg are that they're just so flexible. Since with a queen you can have like 10 larva saved up at each hatchery/hive/lair/ it's easy for them to counter whatever another race is building. So for instance, if you scout an enemy protoss and find they're massing carriers you can very quickly get a lot of anti-air.

I feel though that these complaints are not AS bad as they seem. Firstly, if I'm going to just spawn 30 corruptors out of nowhere I need to have an INSANE bank of minerals and gas ( 3000 minerals 4500 gas). You really, really shouldn't be allowing your opponents to gain THAT MUCH reserve completely unmolested. Also, zerg as a race are probably the worst at late game scouting as they have no cloaked flying units. Though sacrificing a muta or overlord for precious knowledge is generally worth it (for the hive!).

On the flip side, I can see how it's really annoying. Since no other race can produce a counter so potentially quickly. The reality though is that if your enemy is out resourcing you at every level the game was over awhile ago you just didn't realize it.

Also, the zerg's hatchery spawning is also a weakness. If you destroy a hatchery that is a MASSIVE amount of production potential down the drain. Queens are also very valuable. Without a queen you cannot compete at all as larva generate too slowly. If the enemy can do a quick raid and take out a queen, they've really left you hurting.

Anyways, my take on the whole situation is thus: Zerg are a reactionary race. You find out what your enemy is doing, and you need to very quickly adapt to beat them. Zerg have no "that one unit" (like carriers for instance), so you need your forces to work together. Protoss and terran (to a lesser extent) are what I like to call preparedness races. You really need to be ready for as much as you can. Unit variety is absolutely key for survival early game. Basically, if you can't react as fast as a Zerg player just leave yourself with no reason to need to react at all. This is obviously harder done than said but just my $0.02.

 

[baconfist]

I've always thought zerg were great at scouting just not in the same way as terran or protoss. I like to burrow zerglings across the map if done right you can see what your enemy does for pretty much the whole game. Parasite used to be my favorite ability in the original.

 

[ninjajoeman]

Like piranhas shredding a cow...
You know how long that takes?!
Those lazy gits take forever to chomp down a cow.
Red one's, sure, they're faster, but their not going to devour a cow in less than a few hours still...

A better comparsion would be "Like a fat kid goes through cake."

but I thought zerg were fast?

how about...twilight chicks on edward?

 

[Comic Sans]

From what I've heard about the Zerg, people seem to regard it as an OP race or as a UP race because of certain units it has. Hard to tell if that's because it's still new and no one has figured out the appropriate counter or it is really is the case of being overpowered.

Great video though, can't wait for the Protoss 101 video.

A lot of complaints I hear about the Zerg are that they're just so flexible. Since with a queen you can have like 10 larva saved up at each hatchery/hive/lair/ it's easy for them to counter whatever another race is building. So for instance, if you scout an enemy protoss and find they're massing carriers you can very quickly get a lot of anti-air.

I feel though that these complaints are not AS bad as they seem. Firstly, if I'm going to just spawn 30 corruptors out of nowhere I need to have an INSANE bank of minerals and gas ( 3000 minerals 4500 gas). You really, really shouldn't be allowing your opponents to gain THAT MUCH reserve completely unmolested. Also, zerg as a race are probably the worst at late game scouting as they have no cloaked flying units. Though sacrificing a muta or overlord for precious knowledge is generally worth it (for the hive!).

On the flip side, I can see how it's really annoying. Since no other race can produce a counter so potentially quickly. The reality though is that if your enemy is out resourcing you at every level the game was over awhile ago you just didn't realize it.

Also, the zerg's hatchery spawning is also a weakness. If you destroy a hatchery that is a MASSIVE amount of production potential down the drain. Queens are also very valuable. Without a queen you cannot compete at all as larva generate too slowly. If the enemy can do a quick raid and take out a queen, they've really left you hurting.

Anyways, my take on the whole situation is thus: Zerg are a reactionary race. You find out what your enemy is doing, and you need to very quickly adapt to beat them. Zerg have no "that one unit" (like carriers for instance), so you need your forces to work together. Protoss and terran (to a lesser extent) are what I like to call preparedness races. You really need to be ready for as much as you can. Unit variety is absolutely key for survival early game. Basically, if you can't react as fast as a Zerg player just leave yourself with no reason to need to react at all. This is obviously harder done than said but just my $0.02.

I agree with everything up until the last paragraph. However, I wouldn't consider Protoss a preparedness race. If anything, they are more reactionary than the Zerg. Protoss are completely reliant on scouting out their build and reacting to it, since their tech trees are so linear. If you go Robotics, you have no chance at all against Mutas without a lot of Sentries. If you go Stargate, a massed ground force makes that investment worthless (except if they lack AA and you can snipe their tech with Void Rays). A Twilight Council is always good but requires even more teching before you can get new units, and those are quite specialized (DTs are worthless if they get detection, HTs need you to research Psi Storm before they are even worth building). Unlike the other races, who can go pretty much anything on their tech tree and feel safe knowing they can still adapt to a situation, Protoss NEED to know what the enemy is doing so they don't get rolled by something their current tech cannot counter effectively. They cannot control the flow of the game at all, and can usually win by hard countering the enemy, since with the exception of their AA they are VERY good at hard countering. So rather than a preparedness race they are the absolute most reactionary of the three in the game. They need to invest the most in their tech tree to be effective, and with their expensive units this extra cash spending makes it hard for the Protoss to have enough force to fight back if they don't have enough of the particular hard counter they need once the engagements come.

In my opinion Zerg are the ones best able to force game flow, since they can get so many units out at once at the drop of a hat (or larva). Their current force not cutting it? Just pop out 7 of a different unit all at once, and the tables turn. The enemy has to always watch out that they aren't blindsided by a quick tech switch, since you can't see what Zerg are building even with a scout. If I see a Starpart glowing, I know to be ready to counter air. If I see the enemy has 7 eggs outside the Hatchery, I have NO IDEA what is coming until it happens. They force the enemy to react to a radically different army composition more than the other races.

 

[Kimarous]

Rolling swarm of explosive death, huh? I loved doing that in Command and Conquer: General Zero Hour as the GLA's Demotion general, sending hordes of suicide bikers to overrun my enemy's base. That is, until they discovered the value of turrets... >_>

Sounds interesting, although I'm a little hesitent on account of losing interest in the RTS genre. We'll see, though.

 

[fanklok]

SC2 really can't be released fast enough. I'm currently investing time in playing the first Starcraft so I can, well, not suck.

Hey man me too

When is this damn game coming out I wanna play or get into the beta did anyone in the beta not give away one of those sign up a friend for free beta keys?

 

[ottenni]

Just out of curiosity, what sort of damage would be caused if your opponent where to go after your hatcheries in a raid as opposed to your workers?

Other than that, BANELINGS!!!

 

[DeSpiner]

You can kill off workers much more quickly than you can take out a hatchery, so in a raid, you're better off going after the drones, or even the queen, if you can.

With that said, I've seen Protoss players teching quickly to Void Rays (air units with increased damage over time on a target), getting a couple of them, killing the Queen (the only early anti-air Zerg unit) and then taking out the hatchery for a quick win, or the expansion for economic advantage.
The Protoss can only get away with it if the Zerg doesn't scout properly.

 

[Slycne]

From what I've heard about the Zerg, people seem to regard it as an OP race or as a UP race because of certain units it has. Hard to tell if that's because it's still new and no one has figured out the appropriate counter or it is really is the case of being overpowered.

Great video though, can't wait for the Protoss 101 video.

A lot of complaints I hear about the Zerg are that they're just so flexible. Since with a queen you can have like 10 larva saved up at each hatchery/hive/lair/ it's easy for them to counter whatever another race is building. So for instance, if you scout an enemy protoss and find they're massing carriers you can very quickly get a lot of anti-air.

I feel though that these complaints are not AS bad as they seem. Firstly, if I'm going to just spawn 30 corruptors out of nowhere I need to have an INSANE bank of minerals and gas ( 3000 minerals 4500 gas). You really, really shouldn't be allowing your opponents to gain THAT MUCH reserve completely unmolested. Also, zerg as a race are probably the worst at late game scouting as they have no cloaked flying units. Though sacrificing a muta or overlord for precious knowledge is generally worth it (for the hive!).

On the flip side, I can see how it's really annoying. Since no other race can produce a counter so potentially quickly. The reality though is that if your enemy is out resourcing you at every level the game was over awhile ago you just didn't realize it.

Also, the zerg's hatchery spawning is also a weakness. If you destroy a hatchery that is a MASSIVE amount of production potential down the drain. Queens are also very valuable. Without a queen you cannot compete at all as larva generate too slowly. If the enemy can do a quick raid and take out a queen, they've really left you hurting.

Anyways, my take on the whole situation is thus: Zerg are a reactionary race. You find out what your enemy is doing, and you need to very quickly adapt to beat them. Zerg have no "that one unit" (like carriers for instance), so you need your forces to work together. Protoss and terran (to a lesser extent) are what I like to call preparedness races. You really need to be ready for as much as you can. Unit variety is absolutely key for survival early game. Basically, if you can't react as fast as a Zerg player just leave yourself with no reason to need to react at all. This is obviously harder done than said but just my $0.02.

I agree with everything up until the last paragraph. However, I wouldn't consider Protoss a preparedness race. If anything, they are more reactionary than the Zerg. Protoss are completely reliant on scouting out their build and reacting to it, since their tech trees are so linear. If you go Robotics, you have no chance at all against Mutas without a lot of Sentries. If you go Stargate, a massed ground force makes that investment worthless (except if they lack AA and you can snipe their tech with Void Rays). A Twilight Council is always good but requires even more teching before you can get new units, and those are quite specialized (DTs are worthless if they get detection, HTs need you to research Psi Storm before they are even worth building). Unlike the other races, who can go pretty much anything on their tech tree and feel safe knowing they can still adapt to a situation, Protoss NEED to know what the enemy is doing so they don't get rolled by something their current tech cannot counter effectively. They cannot control the flow of the game at all, and can usually win by hard countering the enemy, since with the exception of their AA they are VERY good at hard countering. So rather than a preparedness race they are the absolute most reactionary of the three in the game. They need to invest the most in their tech tree to be effective, and with their expensive units this extra cash spending makes it hard for the Protoss to have enough force to fight back if they don't have enough of the particular hard counter they need once the engagements come.

In my opinion Zerg are the ones best able to force game flow, since they can get so many units out at once at the drop of a hat (or larva). Their current force not cutting it? Just pop out 7 of a different unit all at once, and the tables turn. The enemy has to always watch out that they aren't blindsided by a quick tech switch, since you can't see what Zerg are building even with a scout. If I see a Starpart glowing, I know to be ready to counter air. If I see the enemy has 7 eggs outside the Hatchery, I have NO IDEA what is coming until it happens. They force the enemy to react to a radically different army composition more than the other races.

I would say it even goes one step further, it's simply another way that the game races are balanced and different. Each race has different ways to scout and respond to that, with each one having different abilities that allow for various degrees of flexibility.

As the other two have been addressed already - Terrans are probably the least flexible of the three races, with their production always being tied to individual building which must be constructed start to finish by a worker, but that doesn't mean they are without any ability to do so. Attachments themselves give you freedom to churn out lots of some units or tech for better ones. Also being able to hot swap your attachments by lifting off buildings gives you a surprising amount of reactionary ability. A favorite use of mine is to simply daisy chain attachments up the tech tree and let the older building construct a new one when they land, so that I am never waiting around, for example, for my Starport to finish it's reactor so that I can start pumping out Medivacs. Another good use is to borrow a tech lab to research something and then land back on your reactor.

Terrans are also what I would consider second best in scouting ability. Com Scan may effectively cost you 270 minerals(the amount a MULE could pick up), but it provides a no risk guaranteed look at their base. In the end scouting is always important for all three races though.

 

[yopomo]

how does one get into this god beta

KEKEKEKEKE ZERG RUSH

 

[Plurralbles]

I really hope my pc can play this game when it comes out...

But it looks like I'm going to get absolutely raped in multi.

 

[Epictank of Wintown]

There's one thing I want to hear in this game that I absolutely loved in the original.

The signature "FWOOOMSH" of the Siege Tank firing. They still have that?

 

[Amnestic]

I really hope my pc can play this game when it comes out...

The minimum system requirements for the Starcraft II Beta are as follows:

PC Minimum Requirements:

? Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7

? 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor

? 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7

? 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card

? 1024x768 minimum display resolution

? 4 GB free hard space (Beta)

? Broadband connection

*Note* the final requirements for Starcraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.

(Source [http://www.starcraft-source.com/article/news/view/?id=459])

Bear in mind those are minimum rather than recommended, but those are the latest specs I could find.

 

[Plurralbles]

I really hope my pc can play this game when it comes out...

[spoiler/]

The minimum system requirements for the Starcraft II Beta are as follows:

PC Minimum Requirements:

? Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7

? 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor

? 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7

? 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card

? 1024x768 minimum display resolution

? 4 GB free hard space (Beta)

? Broadband connection

*Note* the final requirements for Starcraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.

(Source [http://www.starcraft-source.com/article/news/view/?id=459])[/spoiler]

Bear in mind those are minimum rather than recommended, but those are the latest specs I could find.

So... it seems it will be okay, just not top-notch.

Thanks.

 

[Korey Von Doom]

This is why I don't play RTS online, zerg rushing.

 

[martin's a madman]

ZERG RUSH



KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE

In all seriousness, I had a lot of fun making this. The Swarm has quickly become my favorite race in the beta

I was mainly a Protoss player in the first one, but in the beta I've been mixture of Terran and Protoss, haven't even played Zerg once. I tried my friend's copy of the beta. I really hope I get a key and REALLY can't wait for the release of the game. Any particular unit you like best?(To use)

 

[UnusualStranger]

Am I the only one who started laughing at the end of the video when all those banelings and Zerglings got wasted by the Protoss?

Anyway, being incredibly interested in this game, there is one unit I am extremely worried about.

Roaches. Since its a little long winded, I'll save some space and people by tossing it below.

Spoiler: Roaches

I have watched many videos with all the races involved. While I am dismayed with the Protoss AA, (as well as tech flexibility) and happy Terran buildings can actually move now, Zerg somewhat displeases me with its new unit.

This is a unit with quite a bit of health, and 2 armor to boot, as well as a slight ranged attack. Slight range means with micro, it is death to anything attempting to run at it. The armor it has is better than most units in the game. (Seriously, I think BATTLECRUISERS are the only thing with better armor) And the ability to get a huge army of them quickly with a Queen to help, as well as get burrow (and, subsequently, moving burrow) you have an army that can stealth into a base, kill, burrow (with insane regeneration) and not worry too much. I see nearly all Zerg Vs. Zerg games have just tons of roaches, because they are just so powerful, that if you don't get your own quickly, you will get rolled.

/Rant.

In other news....C'mon beta....and if not, hurry up damnit. I want to see this game in action!

 

[Shadow of Nex]

Zerg are quiet epic. Though not that many people play them. Been playing the beta since it came out. ONly come across maybe 4 zerg playrs, not that many people play them. If you can play them well boy your in for a quick mathc. If you can't then its curtens for you.