This isn’t a complaint thread, I think the game is balanced at a skill level above most of the leagues anyway. But honestly what keeps you playing this race? It just feels like you put in double the work for the same result. While at the same time the race is so defensive I really don’t see any interesting strategies ( interesting units like lurkers, swarm hosts are basically a non factor).
It just feels like every game is a scramble for APM to spread creep, inject, get upgrades on time, expand. Then I watch replays of my losses and see a Protoss with 70 apm, fewer upgrades and no micro, attack move across the entire map, win then say zerg is OP. I attempt to use a different variety of units but they are so situational that most of the time it would have been easier without them. Is there something you guys do to stay interested?
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I started with zerg because one of my friends plays P and the other plays T.
…but I liked the swarm style.
Reynor and serral show how efficient counter attacks are. And many Koreans show that the aggressive zerg style is also strong.
btw Railgan I can recommend if you want to play more tech than ecco.
I find zerg works on information vision and then you can play relatively flexible.
In the early game you are very defensive, but the scalling is good.
many of zerg’s victories come through marco and not through moba …ahh i my micro.
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Try early pressure builds to throw the game into uncharted territory, or offrace as protoss for a bit if you really think it’s easier. Worst case scenario you understand their weaknesses more.
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Because the units and buildings are cute. I would never be able to play terran because it’s way too ugly for me.
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many of zerg’s victories come through marco and not through micro
Is this fun though? It feels harder to pull off and is less rewarding.
Try early pressure builds to throw the game into uncharted territory, or offrace as protoss for a bit if you really think it’s easier. Worst case scenario you understand their weaknesses more.
Yeah, early pressure could be interesting. As for learning a new race I don’t care for just to get a higher win rate. At that point I would just play a different game.
Because the units and buildings are cute. I would never be able to play terran because it’s way too ugly for me.
True, I think they are best designed as well. But I am biased.
if i only want to win over micro of a group of units i play moba games.
SC2 is an RTS, things like ecco/position/ scout should be decided too.
if it is harder is not necessarily, the focus is just somewhere else.
The style, the speed, the fact that I’ve played almost 8000 zerg 1v1’s.
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They are so completely unique.
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Well at the beginning of SC I was terran main but at the begining of BW I switched to zerg, honestly I don’t remember exact reason why I switched back than it was so long ago but I liked the core mechanics of the race and now 20 years later it’s still my main race no matter I played tons of Protoss and Terran I like the Zerg the most and no balance would change this fact. I miss the BW aggressiveness of the race tho.
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I mainly started playing Zerg because the macro was a lot easier for Zerg (in the beginning). I took me no time at all to figure out and learn to use the hatchery-hotkey. And now after approximately 2k Zerg 1v1 games I just cannot learn the other races. And I enjoy the style you need to use as Zerg, with counter attacks, and everything.
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I like trying to see how quickly I can max out, regardless of harassment or delays. I like trying to see if I can max and have 2/2 going, and try and hit some late game timings. I like playing with my end game in mind, which for my taste means lurker/viper.
I also like to offrace, and see what other zergs are doing better than me. It’s fun.
I like to try and work on my harass. Bane drops. I’ve tried nydus lurker, to no avail.
Honestly as a one track minded adhd person Zerg just fits the way my mind works. Do a lot of one thing all at once then rotating. I struggle with Terran and macro because of the fact that you have to que things one at a time and keep it constantly going while micro’ing. However Terran is my favorite race from a pure enjoyment standpoint. Protoss is just boring to me because there is a lot of sitting around as the units are more expensive and you are controlling less stuff since they cost more supply on top of the fact that I’m not big on lots of spellcasters.
I played zerg in Brood War so thats one of the reasons. I played Protoss in WoL but switched to Zerg in HotS and haven’t looked back. Honestly the aesthetic is a big one for me, I love horror movies (mostly monster flicks) and these things just scream John Carpenter to me.
The speed of the units also is attractive for me. I love how fast zerglings and mutalisks are, and getting in quick to do damage and get out just fits the playstyle I like. It is kinda tough having to play reactively, but if anything that just helps you to become aware of counters and what works/doesn’t.
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I am more of a Macro player then micro. I think mechanics like creep spread and injects is interesting.
Also I play Nid’s in 40k
I think this is a good question. Honestly I’ve definitely felt the struggle as I play Zerg into Terrans who play super cheesy … like 1 reaper, then hellion, then 1 banshee, then one battlecruiser… they just make 1 unit and harrass with it and make your life hell… wow such skill… right? But here are my reasons for playing Zerg and why I love the race so much even when things get really frustrating.
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Aesthetic: I gotta say the first thing to liking a race for me is probably the aesthetics. In Starcraft I’ve always enjoyed the zerg as a very iconic race that just has a very distinctive “feel” to them. You look at them and you instantly know what they are about. There’s no question in your mind what they do… they swarm, they like to overwhelm you with numbers, they look scary but there’s gotta be a part of you that likes bugs or enjoy the movie Alien. (I also like the protoss a bit too, and I played a bit of protoss back in broodwar, but nothing felt as nice as having those ultralisks backed by hydras)
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Macro vs Micro: I like macro style play-style. I got carpal tunnel syndrome in my hands from playing Overwatch (too much flick shooting with widowmaker headshots and it really hurt my wrists). Sure, I can still easily go over 200 APM, but honestly if you’re being serious, playing macro style is easier on you in terms of APM. You don’t need to individually micro and control your units in a fight, you can just make units like 10 at a time from larva. You won’t just lose the game if you miss micro a single unit in a fight. Zerg can be a forgiving race to play in terms of micro mistakes. In fact, much of the time you don’t even need to micro, you can just A - move. There are specific situations like fighting tank marine compositions that require much better positioning, but at the end of the day, most of your time and attention is spent managing your economy and production.
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Queens: I think what really closed the deal for me is the existence of Queens in SC II. Not the old flying Queen that can infest terran command centers. But the larvae injecting, creep tumor spreading, transfusion slinging queens that can hit both air and ground to defend your base against threats and are central to your race’s macro. Something about Queens in the zerg race just feels really good, it just really meshes well with the whole concept of zerg and I think it is what Zerg had been missing the whole time in SC I and Broodwar. Queens are stylistically amazing as well… they look cool, they do A LOT for the zerg race, and there’s never a time when you feel like you don’t want them around. They’re always useful and doing something to help you in the macro. Larvae are a resource that zergs use to really support their macro style… creep tumors are AMAZING at providing map vision, and there’s also the transfuse which can give Zerg some backbone to their army against some early pressure or timing attacks that otherwise would shatter the zerg army. If there’s one single unit in the game that convinced me to play Zerg it would be the Queens in SC II. Without Queens… I would honestly probably play Protoss.
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Zergs can get tricky or creative too like the other races but their creativity lies not in the amount of choices they have in terms of crazy units that do fancy things… sure you can argue that you have infestors (crazy hard to use, since they die so fast in large army vs army fights) and that there are vipers and swarm hosts that do tricky things… but when you get creative with Zerg it’s more about how you play and how you execute your plays… I’ve gotten away with building a hatchery inside my enemy’s main base before to make roaches inside their base… I’ve done nydus all ins… I’ve done the blocking of their natural with the evo chamber… I’ve blocked my opponent’s gas (especially against terran) to prevent them from getting the gas necessary for fancy cheesy units… force them to stay on the ground with marines… Zerg has a lot of tricks up their sleeves to also play that harrass/cheese/fancy tricks style too but it’s all about being creative about what you do and not about “hey look at me! I made a battlecruiser super early… I win!” Zerg doesn’t have that one magic unit that just wins them the game because Imba. I’m sorry but terrans and protoss have many units that just say “If you don’t have the counter to this unit, then I win the game or do serious damage to you”. (A side note here… this is also why I love Queens… they help you against all that cheese in the early game… if you have Queens, and a spore crawler or Overseers… you’re good to go to counter any weird cheese being thrown at you) So I guess basically it feels more rewarding when I win using something creatively? I don’t just rely on “rushing battlecruisers” as like a way to win. Zerg has never been about that kind of victory. Even if we win with say a Roach all in, it’s usually a timing attack that needs to line up with upgrades being timed to line up correctly with the attack. It is not like I can make one single roach and be like “I win! I have a roach! Take that!” Whereas races like Terran or Protoss could be like “I got a single Battlecruiser!” or “I have 2 Dark Templars and you have no detection up yet” and then it’s just GG. I like this actually that Zerg doesn’t have this… because we are players who don’t rely on imba to win. We rely on macro, we rely on skill, and we rely on the fact that Zerg tend to be that race that can very quickly adapt.
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Which brings me to the final reason why I love zerg. How quickly can you switch from going all mech as terran to going bio? Not easily… you’d have to make more barracks… if say you have like only made multiple factories all game… it’s going to be hard to switch. Same goes for Protoss… if you have like 6 warp gates… and you want to switch to Air Toss… you’re going to have to full on make a few stargates first… But as Zerg, we make everything from Larvae and Larvae can become ANYTHING as long as we have the tech for it. We can instantly switch up tech and play a style of “forcing the opponent towards a certain tech path” and then punish that tech path by switching unit composition ahead of time to constantly punish the opponent. I know a lot of people say zerg is the “reactive race” and sure we can do all the reacting to what the opponent has… but we can also force opponents to react to us and throw them off by switching tech around to counter what they build ahead of time. This type of flexibility and adaptability makes playing as zerg very interesting to me. I don’t like having to just spam Marines all game… Sure, if you play perfectly, Marine, Medivac, Tanks is pretty much unbeatable… but is that truly fun? I get bored just LOOKING at that marine medivac tank army… I don’t know how some terran players can stomach that … I can’t. (You can tell I really dislike the terrans… huh) Zerg is for the player who likes to think ahead of time and play creatively. Zerg is for the player who like macro… Zerg is also for the player who wants to play a race that can be forgiving if you lose half your army in a bad engagement. I think these are all great reasons for weathering the storm as a Zerg player against all the cannon rushes, and proxy barracks, or the occasional Battlecruiser cheese.
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I played zerg in sc because I thought they looked cute. Come sc2 I play zerg because of Life (shame what happened). In my personally opinion, LOTV really took a step back-wards in terms of how fun the game is to play. It appears they really made this game with the viewers in mind instead of the players and as a result the game is more talored towards the best players (players people would actually watch). I play terran now 
I’m a sweet and salty kind of guy. Terran and Protoss tears are a perfect balance to accompany that insatiable urge I have for sweet and salty foods.
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I like zerg because they are unique, no other faction in all of RTS plays quite like a zerg.
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Their combat style and battle engagement is much more decisive. I’ve never had good results with using the technical approach in rts, microing and using high value units that carry the weight of the battle in their grasp singularly. Zerg is more forgiving if you lose a few units here and there because it’s unheard of for a Zerg player to use only a couple of any given unit type, except in rare situations.
I also lean toward the more aggressive, damage oriented races in rts games
The most fun race is Terran I think, but harder to play for low APM gamers.