Guide: Zerg vs Protoss by Sheth

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36drew
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Guide: Zerg vs Protoss by Sheth

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Zerg Guide:Tips, Advice, and Tricks For ZvP (Macro Style)


Hi, my name is Shawn Simon. Some of you may know me better as ChOseN or Sheth. I’ve been playing SC1 and SC2 competitively at high levels for a while now. I thought I would write a sort of general advice page here. If you have any questions or tips for me feel free to leave them as comments. Now to the information!


As a zerg player your initial goal is to start ahead of your opponent in expoes. First let’s discuss ZvP. There is a lot of information for all levels of players, so if the opening paragraph is too simple or too complicated please take the time to read a little more. Thanks!


ZvP (In General Terms!) [PART 1: OPENINGS]

There are plenty of different opening build orders to try in Zerg vs. Protoss. To start with let’s talk about rally points. As a zerg player you have two different rally points from your initial hatchery. When using the larva rally point I like to look at where the egg is positioned in relation to the minerals and put the rally point to a mineral patch that is closest to the egg. That way whenever the egg morphs into a drone and heads to a mineral patch it will be quickly done. The different starting build orders for zerg to start are 9 Overlord 10 Drone and then wait, 10 Overlord 10 Extractor 11 Drone. I believe both of these to be slightly superior to simply 10 Overlord. I won’t go into which of those two is slightly better, but I generally enjoy doing the extractor trick to keep my fingers going during this time.

Positions in ZvP are extremely important. I’m going to discuss positions in relation to the maps we’ve already played with Beta. On Steppes of War you have fairly close positions. When at these positions it is not beneficial to make a 14 hatchery before pool. This is a very RISKY build. The reason that is too risky to try is twofold. One a protoss will invariably scout you with his probe and perhaps block your expansion from being made anywhere near on time. The second reason is that if the protoss made a 9 or 10 gateway slightly outside of his base and decides to rush you, there is very little (read nothing) that you can do to prevent your hatchery from going down. So on maps where you KNOW that your going to be in close positions with a protoss its best to go some variation of spawning pool into hatchery at your expansion.

Maps that you know you will be in a close positions include Steppes, Burning, and Incineration. On Lost Temple and Metalopolis you can also get close positions so be careful.

On several maps you might think it would be ok to get a hatchery first, but with the ability to forge and pylon wall your small ramp I find it difficult to endorse this build order!

I would like to cover my favorite build fairly completely and not go into other builds I’m not as comfortable with. I know this is fairly bias, but its a lot to write! I prefer going 13 pool 13 gas 15 overlord 16 drone and then producing some zerglings and upgrading speed whenever you get 100 gas.

*Important note – When you have 100 gas for speed you should take the 3 drones on gas off of gas and put them back on minerals for the time being.

The reasoning behind this is very simple. I feel like trying to take an expansion before you have zerglings out to assist is very risky. If a protoss decides to put a probe in the way and micro it it is very difficult to place your hatchery down at a good timing. By getting zergling speed and then getting some zerglings early you won’t have to attempt to take your hatchery early because you won’t have the minerals. When the zerglings pop out you can then send them to harass and kill the probe and make an expansion. If you have seen with your overlord (which should be sent to your opponents base initially in ZvP) that he is playing with 1 gateway inside of his base with a blocked in wall you can simply use your zerglings to kill off his probe and you should make only drones after this point for a while. This way you can try and catch your economy up to his and you can try and use your zerglings at his front to gain some scouting information. Its important to use your zerglings wisely early. They are in affect your ghost recon team. They will let you know A. how many zealots is he getting? B. Do I see any other buildings within range of my zerglings at the front.

Around the time your overlord sees a cybernetics core being finished it is wise to remove your overlord from their base. If you can find any area with a cliff nearby your opponents base it is good to put it there. Anywhere you can gain some intel while keeping your overlord alive is a good idea. In ZvP you can also keep your overlord slightly off of the cliff so you can see more. The reason for this is that 5-6 shots from a stalker won’t kill an overlord so if RIGHT when you see either a stalker or a sentry coming out of the base you can move your overlord back on top of the cliff. I generally keep the overlord hot keyed so I can move it out of the way quickly. (Don’t know what a hotkey is? Feel free to ask in this thread!)

What if your opponent didn’t go 1 base with some sort of wall in? Let’s see what other “Normal” builds they could have went. If your opponent went for a forge outside of his base it is easy to tell he is going to try and fast expand. A good goal I have with this is to make around 8 zerglings with this speed upgrade and to check for holes in the protoss’ wall. If the protoss doesn’t completely wall of the area into his base it is possible for u to run those zerglings by the cannons and into his main base. If he has completely walled off his base you can keep him from scouting. He may have to make extra defence because he can’t be sure that your not attempting a baneling bust. (What is a baneling bust? Watch a random Dimaga Replay!) It is always good to keep a zergling outside of the protoss’ base so you can see if he is sending a probe or a zealot to scout you. (Don’t know what a zealot is? *cry*) if he attempts to scout you must be quick on the uptake and use your zerglings to destroy that probe. I usually keep my group of initial zerglings hotkeyed as well for this. I won’t go into exactly which numbers I use to hot key because everyone has a different opinion on hotkeys. Day9’s advice on hotkeys was great. Make them inidividually for you so that if your clicking s or z a lot keep it near your hatchery hotkeys. (For whatever letter it’s good to keep it near the number)

From this point you should have an expo up with several zerglings and your opponent should be getting his expo up as well. It’s important that you make your first queen at the same time as your first zerglings. This allows you to make a second queen from your first hatchery and move your other queen over to your second hatchery before it is finished. This way you will have queens ready to spit up on hatcheries by the time their finished building.

What if your opponent went for a fast 1 gate outside of his base or even 2 gates outside of his base and attempts to rush you with zealots? I find this to be the most popular pvz build at the moment followed by attempting to fast expand. I love going 13 pool because these initial zerglings + your first queen can provide a solid defence vs. a rush. You will be able to get your zerglings out in time to defend your hatchery if you properly micro. Don’t be afraid to let your hatchery take some damage from a probe and a few zealots. You don’t want to attack until you have an advantage. How will you know when you have this advantage? You will have to practice a lot to figure out the exact numbers. In general its best if you have 3-4 zerglings per zealot and 1-2 zerglings per probe. 4 zealots and 1 probe? 20 zerglings will keep you safe and sound in your base. When you get speed finished you will be able to chase the zealots a lot easier and it removes the ability of the protoss to do that annoying zealot step micro. (Zealot step micro is where the zealot moves back a step and hits and moves back a step and repeats) If you can surround the protoss’ zealot early army it is good to do so if you know you have superiority. This ability to chase the zealots back is the main reason I go 13 pool with zergling speed. I feel it allows you to then take a third or macro from your 2 bases very well after you have put that initial pressure on the protoss.

If you allow the protoss to get a lot of zealots, 6,7,8,9,(22?) then you have to be careful about not attacking them when they are in a line. If you cannot surround the zealots with your zerglings it becomes very important to have a ranged unit assisting. You can do this with either early roaches or early spine crawlers. Depending on the timing of the attack you can use queens as well. I prefer to use a combination of spine crawlers with your queen and zerglings to defend. If a zealot gets into a small space where only 1 or 2 zerglings can attack it at a time, it’s wise to bring a queen over to deal with it. If your opponent tries to wall off your small choke leading to your natural it is wise to bring a queen to attack.

What if your opponent goes for a 2 forge early cannon push? Sure your opponent can do some weird ghetto build, but don’t let it freak you out and just play intelligently. When you have prevented any threats he may have had you can continue to build up your economy.

At this point it’s very important to simply make pure drones. You want to continue to grow an economy while slowly getting a lair upgraded and more gas. You will want to keep only 1 gas in your main until you have a generally large amount of drones. When I say generally large amount I’m thinking somewhere around 20 or so drones. You might say WHAT 20 DRONES BEFORE MORE VESPENE GEYSERS ARE YOU CRAZY? The reason for this is that it allows you to remove 3 drones from minerals and put them on gas while still continuing to use all of your larva at both hatcheries . Keeping all larva used and your minerals low is a good mind set. By leaving larva unused you will LOSE some possible larva. When your hatchery has 3 larva it will stop producing any extra larva unless you spit on it, so it is wise to use these larva as soon as you can.

This provides what I believe to be a solid opening strategy for most games against protoss. It leaves you with map control as you will have speed zerglings to prowl and it lets you at least keep even with the amount of economy you have coming in. By keeping a separate overlord around his base you will always have the option to sacrifice into his base so you can see exactly what tech your opponent is going. This is a very important idea to go if your opponent hasn’t shown you any of his tech ideas. If you see plenty of zealots early with sentries it’s wise to make enough defenses for an early push. If you see just zealots you might want to think “what is he spending all that gas on?” If he has fast expanded you can fairly confidently geuss he will go 1 of 3 basic builds. The Stargate, The Gateway Units, or the Mixed Robo Gateway builds.

I never realized quite how much information I had to write on ZvP openings as I did. I will put a few more tricks in bullet form underneath this.

*If you have your minerals saturated (Saturated is 2 drones on a close patch and 3 on a far patch) then whenever a mineral patch is completely mined out you can take 2-3 drones off of that minerals and send them elsewhere.

*Placing an overlord at ALL possible protoss expansions and spitting creep is a great idea. Placing an overlord at his obvious third base is always a great idea as well if you don’t have the time to place them everywhere.

*Creating a third queen for creep colonies and transfusion can help keep you alive if you’re in trouble and promote the spread of creep.

*It is wise to get either overlord speed or 1 overseer whenever your lair comes up to gain intel on your protoss foe.

*Putting an infested terran at your opponents mineral patch during a fight can hurt their eco a little and is something that might make them look away that critical second.

*Nydus worms are good for harassment, but I believe upgrading overlord drop is just as good or better. The Exception to this rule is for super late game when you have the minerals and gas to spare. Instant Transport is very important then.

* The game is still fairly new and in its early phases, so I'm simply trying to help you with what I know. This works for me at my level of play and although nothing is for sure I hope it helps you

I hope you have enjoyed this guide! If you would like me to write more about ZvP or ZvT and ZvZ please let me know!
Last edited by 36drew on Tue Aug 09, 2011 11:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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deadhanddan
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Re: Guide: Zerg vs Protoss by Sheth

Post by deadhanddan »

decent guide


starting close to a protos is always aggravating >(
- Dan
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