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DotA made an appearence in Starcraft as well... it inspired the new(ish) Temple Siege maps, which are quite fun.

Zerg, I have a question for you: why is the 'zergling rush' considered so powerful? Even if you manage to $#@! up your opponent's economy, you've already $#@!ed yours over with the slow start.

DotA sucks. We know what it is very well.

The zergling rush is powerful for two reasons:
First, there is the psychological advantage. It is horribly demoralizing to lose all your SCVs/Probes/Drones that early.
Second, it is possible to win the game if the opponent is only an average player. No workers, and with about three zerlings still in your base, there isn't much you can do. Even if the first wave is eventually destroyed, the second or third waves are still an option.

It doesn't always mess up your economy. If you know when to give up the rush, you can slip right back into your economy, and have hurt theirs worse than yours. It also depends on map type. Small maps are much better, since the enemy has less time to potentially get defenses or build more workers than your zerglings can handle. On sufficiently small maps, the enemy may well have absolutely no defense, meaning a quick kill. Against more than one person though, it is a foolish strategy. Other players can send troops or harbor workers.

You can have your own opinion on DotA, I guess, but then I will have to have my own opinion of you too!

A ling rush will inevitably fail against an experienced player, basic lings are weaker than workers, and if you have enough micro the rusher will have lost more than the defender. Ling rushes make new players panic, they will probably not attack with workers. Moderate players are in between, if you're good enough you can screw them up a fair amount. A ling rush is usually followed by hydra-ling or muta-ling, but you really need to know what you're doing in order to pull it off right and not screw up your economy. Not all ling rushes are equal, the two most effective are the 4pool and the 9pool. 4pool will fail on most medium+ maps because by the time the 6 lings make it to the base, you should have enough units to defend. 9pool is much more common and effective, if you can micro the lings well enough.

edit2: forgot to mention that to properly ling rush you need to scout the enemy very quickly.

Personally, I prefer a lurker rush even though it is fairly risky and just sounds dumb.

edit: 1k get!

Hi all.. just joined and poked around. This game looks great, saw it on a list of Ten Games that Won't Die, and it really piqued my interests. Especially when its free. So hopefully soon I'll be on newbie servers and such.

Virgil wrote:QUOTE (Virgil @ Apr 27 2009, 11:27 AM) Games that Won't Die

Are you here to finish us off?

Of course.. not.

Does anybody here play SC on Iccup? I'm D-.

I play starcraft, used to play frequently (then just UMS, which I got hella good at, then I stopped playing alltogether) which is why zecro's statement of 9pool being a ling rush is lulzy, as is his insistence of 4 pool.

I was really curious though why such an ineffective strategy became so iconic.

Because people suck. Remember in the early days, the spawning pool only cost 150 minerals. It was patched to be 200 because it was super-imba (also +50 for the drone). I would imagine a ling rush being a lot more effective with a pool that cost 150.

I was playing a 2v3 or something, and I ling rushed one of the players who immediately quit. Then his two team-mates quit. Kind of related, lurkers in ur minerals, killin' ur dudes because you can't comsweep enough.