ATTN: Zerg - Should I use INFESTORS? ...theory craft 101

J

jamdrew

New Member
Please critique and ask questions!

This thread is for those who question whether or not infestors are useful. We know they are expensive and it may just be better to get a few extra roaches or hydras. We must also consider protoss has psistorm that does way more damage and terran has a unique ability on every unit, but these are not valid reasons to stay away from infesors or call them underpowered...enjoy.

Let's assess the worth of getting 2 infestors instead of 4 hydras (roughly the same price)

Price:
2 infestors = 200 minerals/300 gas
4 hydras = 400 minerals / 200 gas

2 infestors

Benefits of Fungal Growth:
  • Mass damage - The infestor's ability deals 4.5 dps for 8 seconds or a total of 36 damage. In a large fight, this spell can be spread to upwards of 10 units. If you get a good cast and reach 10 units, the end damage totals to 360 damage. And this is just one cast! If the infestor has full mana and casts fungal growth over 40 units this would add up to 1440 total damage or the equivalent of 4 hydras shooting 30 times in 8 seconds without dieing~:eek:

Opponents army gets stuck
  • This creates some crowd control ie: if this is casted on zealots they are unable to do any damage to your hydra/roach army
  • Your opponent is unable to run away, many games the fight begins and your opponent realizes they are slightly outnumbered. They will turn and run to their defenses and mass up more units to even out the odds. Of course if you use fungal growth this prevents this and causes a quick gg. Watch my ZvZ on the zerg replay thread for an example. When you opponent is stuck it also gives you a free chance to surround their army completely with zerglings/banelings.
  • You realize you are outnumbered, you are free to walk away and replenish your army to even the odds (assuming of course your opponent didn't get infestors :p )

Benefits of infested terran:
  • Quick way to add 10 marines to your already strong zerg army
  • They tank extra damage coming from zealots
  • They provide a quick counter when being harassed by mutalisks/banshees/phoenix or void rays

Benefits of Neural Parasite:
  • In good position when you take a powerful unit such as a Thor in TvZ this can completely change the game for you. Suddenly instead of killing 6 thors at one time you only have to deal with 3 thors for 12 seconds, additionally the unit you possess is also dealing more damage to their army. One time I stole 3 thors and the terran had mass banshees...it didn't go over well for him, he clumped all his banshees up to focus down my infestors, this led to a huge splash damage from the thors and when the infestors finally died, it left the banshees directly over the hydras! GG


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So, should I get a few more hydras or infestors?

  • At this point I'd say it's hard to argue that a hydra will gurantee as many benefits. Hydras will indefinitely die before dealing the same amount of damage as an infestor will. They do not make an entire army immoble, they don't cast neural parasite.

So, lets just mass infestors then because they obviously are better!

  • Obviously, this isn't the case. Infestors are best used in small numbers. I wouldn't recommend getting more than 4-6 in your army. I did some testing and if you cast fungal growth over the same units twice simultaneously the damage does not stack (otherwise this would be extremely over powered)

Cons of infestors:
  • They are squishy, you have to micro them I know we want to be terran and just a+click a random spot on the map to win, but it's just not going to happen that way.
  • The effectiveness of an infestor depends on positioning, timing and how many units you are able to cover with fungal growth.

My advice:
It may take some time and getting used to, but you will notice that incorporating them at the right times can greatly affect the outcome of the game. They are a great support unit in large fights and do not eat up your food population. Proper burrow micro also makes it possible for you to keep a few infestors alive for a very long time. I would strongly advise giving these units a try no matter what skill level or league your in. I hope you enjoyed this :)

JaM

ps: why can't I create a signature, it said I need more access :(
 
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The answer to this very scientific question is quite simple. It involves going to the store and picking up a copy of unreal tournament III for the PC.
 
its hard to compare the use of infestors and hydras that way, instead of the infestors u could get 6 roaches, without attack or defense upgrades the roaches beat hydras i think (6v4), and those 6 roaches will kill 2 infestors easy. So i know you probably didn't mean it this way, but to clarify for anyone else. You need an army before you get the infestors to tank the damage for them, or else the balance swings in the other direction.
 
Shinigami Naruto said:
its hard to compare the use of infestors and hydras that way, instead of the infestors u could get 6 roaches, without attack or defense upgrades the roaches beat hydras i think (6v4), and those 6 roaches will kill 2 infestors easy. So i know you probably didn't mean it this way, but to clarify for anyone else. You need an army before you get the infestors to tank the damage for them, or else the balance swings in the other direction.
Click to expand...

Most of the post was about large fights...6 roaches would obviously take down 2 infestors, but if we are talking about 50 roaches vs 44 roaches and 2 infestors. The 44 roaches would dominate.

Sidenote: it'd be intresting to see if I could kill 6 roaches vs 2 infestors in a micro battle :) - infested terran + fungal growth? It might be closer than you think.

Furthermore, 5-10 hydras mixed in with roaches would beat an all roach army because there aren't many platforms for 50 roaches to be able to shoot at the same time unless you bunched them together, burrowed and assaulted. But, in mirror i usually have a detector to counter such a mishap~
 
well yeah, thats why i said to clarify for everyone else, you need an army b4 u get infestors so that the other units tank the damage for it.

Maybe a punctuation fail in my original post.
 
I've had Infestors used really well against me a few times and turn a battle that a few hydras would not have done the same damage. The most recent example was a battle where I had about eight stalkers two sentries and two immortals against maybe ten to twelve roaches and two infestors. The Immortals should have walked over the roaches until they got Neural Para-sited and just demolished my stalkers.

I think it really depends on what your enemy is doing. If you can steal a unit that counters their army or they are going with a few large expensive tier 3 units i think it would be useful. Against Bioball or chrargelots fungal growth can be amazing too.
 
The difficulty I have with infestors is (1) how much they cost in terms of minerals, gas, and time and (2) how incredibly fragile they are. I'd like to add them into my army mix more often, but first I have to actually survive long enough to get to tier 2.5 AND have enough left over that I can afford the buildings, infestors, and energy upgrade AND still produce enough units to survive that long.

Playing Zerg is the RTS equivalent of juggling with flaming chainsaws: awesome if you can pull it off, but more often than not, you just end up with a charred nub.

I agree infestors can be awesome units, but I think they're going to remain uncommon in certain levels of play until they're more accessible.

All that being said, I'm going to try start using them more often. Sometimes it takes time to get the hang of a unit (especially a squishy caster unit).
 
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Don't infestors remind you of pill bugs? I think it would be cute if for 25 energy you can have them roll up into a little defencive ball for 10 seconds that makes them invulnerable :D
 
Maybe if the pill bug defensive made them take additional damage. You could even make it a passive skill.
 
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