Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Basic Zerg Openers

I wanted to use this to discuss my basic openers in all matchups, and maybe get some feedback and share other possible openers and builds.  So without further ado...

ZvT Macro Opener
17H / 18G/ 17P
19 OL, halt drone production for now
@pool, 2x queens, 2-4 lings
@100 gas ling speed
2-4x lings if necessary, resume droning
32 3rd hatch if safe
31 OL
My most common build against Terran.  With this setup you can immediately start production of 2 queens, ling speed, and 2-3x pairs of zerglings based on whether you think you can handle reaper openings.  After this, you may pull 2 workers off of gas for extra mineral income, or leave them for roach/ravager production. If you scout with a drone, if you notice no expansion from the Terrans, do not make your 3rd hatchery yet.  If you see no expansion after 4 minutes or so, expect some all-in.  Roaches should handle hellbats, queens for banshees, ravagers for liberators (3-4 ravager bile shots to kill a liberator).  More lings against more reapers; as long as you micro them a bit and avoid mines.  Your first set of lings should pop up just in time to handle a standard reaper opening on any map.  It gets a lot easier to defend once speed is done.

ZvP Macro Opener
17H / 17P / 17G
19 OL
@pool, 2x queens, 2-4 lings, resume droning
32 hatch if safe
Here, this accommodates the possibility of some proxy shenanigans or offensive cannon rushes at your expansion.  You could also use my ZvT macro build if you feel safe, and even omit the ling speed if you want to really rush ravagers; just remember to get ling speed at some point because lings are always good reinforcement units and you want them ASAP (I didn't mention to get ling speed because you may skip it in some cases).  Your initial zerglings can either scout or deal with pylon blocks at your expansions.  Gas isn't needed ASAP like against reapers.  You'll probably have adepts to contend with, in which queens and zerglings can hold them off.  You may need up to 8 lings to deal with 2 adepts backed up by a queen.

ZvP Safety Opener
17P / 17H
@pool, queen, 4 lings
@100 minerals OL
If for whatever reason you suspect some really cheeky play by the Protoss, you can open with a pool first to ensure that any proxy can be dealt with.  After this, the rest of the build sort of follows the macro opener, except of course you can't get speed nearly as fast.  Just ensure you have 250 minerals when the pool finishes to make a queen and 4 lings immediately.  Also watch your supply count; what I just mentioned needs 4 free supply.  That would normally mean halting drones at 18/22 supply until you start producing lings.  Only issue with this is that since the hatchery is later, there is a higher chance of a pylon block occurring.

ZvZ Blind ling/bling rush
13G / 12P
13 OL
14 6 lings, ling speed
17 lings
18 queen
20 lings
21 lings
@50 gas bane nest
21 OL
Yes, this is a very quick gas and pool.  As much of a rush strategy, it is almost standard given how drone scouting in ZvZ puts you at in inherit disadvantage right now, even on 4 player maps.  After getting lings at 21, you should get to your opponent's base and decide if you want to continue the attack or resume drone production.  Saw this first explained in Fenner's stream, and it's quite used at high level play.  Success is determined mostly by how your opponent reacts if their opener wasn't 13/12 or 14/14.

ZvZ rush defense
17P / 17G / 17H
A safer opener, but obviously puts your economy behind a hatch first opener.  Faster access to queens and lings, and spines if you need it.  Right now, OLs can't get proper intel in a timely manner; usually you can see a ling rush while your OLs are still flying to your opponent's base.  Start practicing your ling/bling micro.  You could also swap the gas and hatch timing if you are committed to defense, but I still prefer the faster speed.  If a rush is spotted, get a spine crawler.  Good sim city is also preferred to prevent surrounds on your queen, spine, or getting into your mineral line.

14/14 speed opener
14G / 14P
Not as extreme as the 13/12 ZvZ opener, but can really punish certain T or P builds that expand quickly.  I don't use this much in LotV, since OL scouting isn't quick enough to determine if this can punish an greedy build unless you do a really early drone scout.  In HotS there was an extension of this which was a quick +1 carapace build.  You'd get ling speed immediately and continue to get gas, and then start an evo chamber once you got 72 gas, allowing you to have 150 gas when the evo chamber finished.  In the current meta, I'd doubt you'd finish +1 armor before pressure arrived at your doorstep.

What's so magical about 17?
16 workers will give optimal mining at your mineral line.  That 17'th worker will make buildings without disrupting it.

Why is drone scouting bad in ZvZ?
A big change from HotS to LotV was the initial worker count doubling from 6 to 12.  This means you can execute a build much faster.  It mostly removed the initial stages of the game where almost every build order just built workers and supply up to a number in the teens.  Now this just cuts that part out, which speeds up the game overall.  It also means your scouting information will come later than compared to HotS.  Usually, with a drone scout it will already be too late.

This is obviously not comprehensive; there are other sites that have builds that go into huge detail about timings and what to expect.  But this is a listing of builds I consider at my level for now.  I'll try to incorporate more as I play more.

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