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Locust DPS: 23.25 (+2.33)
Cooldown: 43 s + Duration: 18 s = 41.9%uptime
23.25*0.419*2locusts = 19.46 effective swarmhost dps if locust starts shoot at release
For example, a rouch will not always shoot, it will probably shoot only 1% of its time
Roach DPS: 11.2 (+1.4)
Roach Defence: 145life 1armor
Spine Crawler: Defence: 300life 2Armor
1 drone harvest a little less then 1mineral per sec
1 drone cost food and hatchery, so it cost about 75gold
1 swarmhost when locust are there, does 4times the damage of a roach
4roach*125gold and gass/43sec locust cooldown = 11.6drones required to make roach attack for 18sec before it dies, every 42sec
So you need 3to12drones to make drones pay for roach-dps, to outperform 1 swarmhost-dps
a swarmhost cost like 213gold and gass
3to12 drones, cost like 225to900minerals
buildings, spines, locust and swarmhost, it outperforms the roach when it comes to tanking, with a factor +/-200%
the factor rize to 666% if opponent starts to damage locusts
ofc, you need to micro the swarmhost and keep them in fight over a long duration
ofc, opponent can do things aswell, like:
1) bait locust and dodge them
2) make buldings tank locust
3) shoot locust down fast with hellbats or protos-air
So lets say, i have 30drones, and 16swarmhost
thats a economie that could outperform 16*4+30=94 drone count
To support 94drones, you need 5bases, and protect them
when the Swarmhost build only need 1, 1.5 or 2 basses, makes static defend be 300%more effective, multiplied with the defender advantage of swarmhosts forcing the opponent to attack your position
in the worst scanario, a swarmhost, will only uptime shoot for 25%(instead of 42%), when do so, it hits the sheapest building, a gateway
thats 11dps against 1000gateway hitpoints===>90sec of 1 swarmhost shooting===>1.666gold drained per 1 sec per 1 swarmhost = 1 swarmhost performs as good as 1.7drones (instead of 3)
So when bad micro, and bad locust release timing, a swarmhost is still 66.6%as cost effective as a drone
Compared to a zergling dps instead of roach-dps
ofc the zergling is alot sheaper, and have huge dps per mineral spent,
but when 20 zerglings are attacking the enemie
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Swarmhost have a few downsides
1)not mobile
2)depends on timing
3)bad a-click
4)not shoots air
5)can be outplayed, bye things like madivac
6)not that super great to finish enemie off, like destroying its base ones it's units have die, a 25cost zergling can do that alot better
So it needs some backup units!
1)Spines verry OP, like mentioned above, they also add time in fights to wait for locust cooldown
2)Roach is ok, not that good (not shoot in air), however if enemie goes full-ground, decent to end the game when suckers not surrender, overall nice vs zerg aswell, great a-click
3)Hydra, decent, great against air-toss, but overall verry weak and immobile, Lurkers need big tech-investment and are ground only, great when have verry hard economie, great a-click, can be verry weak against bio or bane
Roach and hydra also require mobility upgrade
4)Zerglings, well, decent for clearing buildings, but without upgrade not super great, more spine better mineral dump
5)Mutalisk, pretty OP-unit since it can support locust waves, and it regen life when locust is on cooldown, it's great combined with Spines, verry Mobile, decent anti-air when also attack ground, like air-roaches
howevery they are expensive, and not great against air-toss or missle-turrets+planetairy-fortress
Verry hard to micro, when combines them with corruptors and swarmhost
Tech hits in later then swarmhost itself
Verry good to support traveling swarmhost instead of proxy or nydus-swarmhosts (pretty crazy since no creapspread)
A nice gass-costs, witch allow compact basses, less mineral-drones and more spine-golddump
6)broodlords, i not played alot with them, but range seems nerved, i lost to a terran with it, after i destroyed his main, when engage a plenetary-base
7) i not realy love queens, only 1 (or 2)
mass creaptummor not required and mass injects not required
therefore i not like to mass them for the defend
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Still working on the perfect 1v1 build!
Nydus worm pretty good, but it requires a nydus-rush build, and it hits in pretty late, and secondary non swarmhost units come in even later.
It's nerved aswell
Still the main 4v4 tactic
and it works in 1v1 aswell
however the 1min delay on the swarmhost rush is pretty massive
and you not have spines at the frondline
Against the zerg, i like to skip roach and baneling fase all togethor, seems proxy-hatch is the best option here, spines super OP against zerglings
Proxy hatcher super effective, often its your first building. it can be on a safe location aswell
However the cheese factor is huge here
And your main is in danger for counter-rage, but huge spines and a fast-roach-follow up prevent this
Verry low economic
Follow up units, its not that huge
1 Queen for tumor can be nice, if proxy is 1 screen away from locust launch position
Finally, the defender tactic
where you rush tech for secondary unit, mostly Spines+ hydra or muta for me
build units to defend
after that, swarmhost
finally go attack with locust (around 6min mark)
hits in late, and you rush tech without cheese, not seems to work well in ZvZ, can be risky vs timing attacks
nice for the longer games, good to learn sc2
have 3hatch faster then a drone mines the 2nd base (hatch-pool-hatch-Lair///pool-hatch-Lair-Hatch)
2 queens can be nice to connect bases and make creep tumor to enemie bases, to support swarmhost speed and vision, almost a must have if include Hydra
its pretty hard to transition into somehing else after swarmhost-muta, you not realy wana go roach-hydra after, i just mass better nxt time
Warrior drones:
i not build defender queen or zerglings, only Spines
if loose 2-4 drones to a reaper, adept or zerglings, i not matters at all!
1ste of all, thouse suckunit would have foccused drone anywhy, even if you attack it with 4zerglings, so why not attack it with 10drones instead
That zergling or queen becomes useless, when a drone or spine stays usefull for the rest of the game, even if its not cost effective to defend in the verry eurly game
Its about tech effectivniss
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So you rush swarmhost and release locust, when maintain some form of economie and/or defend or proxy
Then you have for example 10muta, to protect and support 10swarmhost
If enemie not counter attack, and fight locust, you build another 8swarmhost
If enemie dodge locust and counter attack instaly, you ram spines+muta, and may tech roach
If enemie counter attack and transition in anti-air, you tech hydra or spam corruptor and more swarmhost
Verry important to transition good and fast, to crush hope
When contained a good enemie that survives, be sure to economie behind it instead of overrush yourself
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Swarmhost super OP, because they add to verry great Zerg-OP-kit
1)Creep tumor, to make swarmhost run fast and to have vision to defend, and vision to attack, and invisible freebuilding combined with free unit, and free-tanking, and denie enemie buildings
3)Zerg buildings, Hatchery everywhere, enemy forced to attack it between locust waves, i like it when this fuckidiot is destroying my hatcheries
just spam hatchery everywhere and only put 3drones on it and a spine+spore, even that if zergpower, better defend and larve then any queen gives
zerg buildings heal life
4)Spines (even spores), that is a
0 food zerg unit, witch allow a infinite big army, witch benfit from zerg building and creep tumor
So there are massive battles from start to end, and my zerg loose the same amounth of minerals then the enemie, i still loose only 10%of food as whet my enemie loose
5)Speed, the more speed the better, speed upgrades, speedy muta, buildings and vision that create reaction speed
i have 2 army groups (maybe 3) hotkey6=1or2queen //hotkey7=worm // hotkey1 and F2=all army // hotkey2=swarmhost // hotkey5=all hatch
So i mostly maintain swarmhost attacks on enemy base, when sent other army back against a dodge-rage-push
at that moment i need my spines to support my other units, and most of my swarhhost not join the army fights
6)endgame monster endboss: the drone
if you never lost a worker all game long, only zerg can say: i still make drone
thats something a SCV or probe can be verry jelly about!