Terran production is separate from its economy – you can produce SCVs and marines at the same time. Zerg production is dependent on economy and visa versa – if you make a drone, it’s 2 fewer zerglings. If you make 2 zerglings, you have 1 less drone. In order to keep up with terran in workers, you simply don’t have the production to make army unless you take a third hatchery. It’s just basic linear math. 2 base zerg styles are not viable vs an equally skilled opponent.
Back in HotS, zerg’s economy was robust enough to afford a macro hatch while on 2 base, but that’s patently insane in modern LotV. I blame the mineral patch change for this, e.g. because minerals run out faster you have to expand faster. So, your third hatch has to be an expansion and not a macro hatch. You just don’t have the resources.
This affects much more than just 2 base muta. 2 base roach was deleted as well. There were other changes that deleted 2 base roach styles, such as the removal of burrow-healing. The efficiency of roaches is so absolutely awful that you have to have a large economy so you can afford net negative trades. You just can’t afford that on 2 base. If a zerg is making 2 base roach work, he’s at least 1,000 mmr higher than his opponents. If you look at Snake in GM, he used to be 6100 mmr and he’s now 5100 because he refuses to stop doing 2 base roach styles. People on these forums will legit tell you, with a straight face, that these styles are good. That’s how you know you are talking to some crazy who’s locked up in the loony bin. These styles aren’t good, you’re just facing a tremendously talented player.
All that happens when they push a unique map is that it’s veto’d at the professional level until a grand final where they’re forced to play it and everyone complains. Neohumanity and Altitude were the unique maps in this pool, guess which ones are being removed.
Professionals love that every map has the same presets and that’s especially true for professional zerg players. Imagine asking them what they think about an island base or spawning right next to each other. We saw what happened to 4 player maps, now we’d have siege tanks being able to shell the opponents third from their own.
The brood speed buff was a trap. The easiest way to get money snipes on all your broods is if you’re sending them to respond to threats which means they’re completely isolated from the rest of your army and more importantly the detection. Dark is still using them in the same way and the other zergs are still relying on lurker-viper instead. I would like to see the use of broods pre patch and post patch, I doubt it’s that different.
People who make roaches are the wolves in tournament play, rabbits are still massing ling, bane. Serral apparently takes a -1k MMR dip to give his opponents a chance.
That’s why all of them need to be unique except 1. You get 1 normal map per season.
You’d add safeguards to make it balanced. The maps where you spawn in the middle would have air blockages that create long travel times by air, or what travel paths that are short are very limited and easy to defend. Island maps would be fine with a simple balance change (allow mining through a nydus OR hatchery-drop-a-lords).
You don’t do that, ever. That’s a no-brainer. Broods are useless without lots of support units. The problem in the past was that the broods were so slow that a terran could expand faster than you could stamp out bases, and/or he was very advantaged in a base-trade scenario. Zerg basically had no choice except to give up his main base. You just can’t keep the last base on the map and your main base. Both those scenarios are much more zerg favored with the Ferrari-broods. You can defend your main and your far-off bases just fine.
Serral doesn’t do 2 base roach. I’ve always said the strongest way to play ZvT, and this has been true for almost 10 years now, is to take a double gas after your third, and make 8-12 roaches. This number of roaches makes you totally safe vs all aggression, has the ability to do counter pressure, it also looks very similar to a full blown roach allin and it can be either a roach allin or a macro play.
You make your 12 roaches and the next choice is to allin or drone. If drone, you have to choose between 1/1 or lair first. This isn’t complicated stuff. If you see gas at the natural, you allin. If you see a techlab starport but no banshees, you allin. If you see a fusion core, you allin. If you see a third cc, you allin. If you see a techlab starport and banshees, you go lair. If you see lots of bio or medivacs, you go 1/1. If you see a factory making tanks or cyclones, you go lair. It’s really simple stuff.
What I am talking about being bad is 2 base roach. It’s an awful build. The whole mass roach style just is pure garbage even on 3 base. If you go roaches you have to mix in hydras and then lurkers and/or a large amount of ling bane. Roaches just don’t have the DPS to deal with medivac healing. On 2 base, you can’t afford a more complex unit comp. It’s roaches and only roaches. Roaches just can’t do it on their own.
This has been the defacto standard way to play ZvT for over 10 years. That’s how incredibly stale ZvT is. Half of dark’s wins come from doing this exact strategy. He just flips a coin and ravager allins terrans half the time and makes drones the other half. It’s amazing to me that it’s 2023 and people still can’t pick up on the obvious patterns in the game. The game is so rote and boring it’s like looking at a crayon picture drawn by a toddler. There is nothing interesting to see there. Spamming roaches off 3 base is like the sc2 version of scribbling on a wall with crayola. I mean, there are actually people out there who think SC2 is a complex game. It’s like, what are these people smoking. If you do this 3 base build and flip a coin you can get GM with ease. There is nothing to it except memorizing a build order and practicing it until you can click really fast.
the person I was replying to was suggesting a Gas heavy Tech Zerg build. Those units are more larva efficient than Zerglings or drones. I do agree 2 base style is impossible since you would lack economy and queens.
