Zergling feel weak

[Nataku]

They really do, all night i have been getting rolled by t/p that mass their t1 unit and my zergling cant do much about it. Marines shoot over one another and zealots are just strong in general.... i thought the zergling stratagy was to have more of them then your enemy, but they just seem too weak to do much then bloody the ground.

[Sodamuffin]

There's a reason they cost 25 minerals each. In all seriousness though, tech ling speed and make more and they should tear through marines and stalkers. Keep them away from zealots and marauders for the most part though.

[Wolfe]

Me and my friend for fun decided to use all our food in zergling vs. zealot battles.

Every time, even with zerglings attack speed upgraded, the zealots won with even value.

[Floormaster]

Let's have 3 lings per spawn for one week, and see if it breaks the game wide open.

[Nimz]

Zerglings are awesome for early harassment you only need 2 or more inside an enemies base to cause a lot of havoc if they arnt paying attention. Plus their cost is 25minerals per which is well worth what they can do 2 zerglings can kill 1 marine, 3 zerglings can kill a zealot. I dont know lol it seems pretty even to me. Lets not change a core unit that has many uses!

[Nataku]

Dont get me wrong, i love my zerglings, but they just seem meh.... Rarely used after initial rush, just too weak vs ground, AoE eats them alive, cant hit air. Only times i found huge uses for them was either nydus swarming their base (all but impossible anymore) and once when he had alot of void rays since they are good vs single strong units and i swarmed his base and he couldnt kill them fast enough.

[Nataku]

Zerglings are awesome for early harassment you only need 2 or more inside an enemies base to cause a lot of havoc if they arnt paying attention. Plus their cost is 25minerals per which is well worth what they can do 2 zerglings can kill 1 marine, 3 zerglings can kill a zealot. I dont know lol it seems pretty even to me. Lets not change a core unit that has many uses!

But it scales, the more zealos/marines they have i need many more zerglings. Zerglings have almost no "end game" design besides fodder. Run around and get hit so the other units dont.

[Herpderp]

I found that they NEED to be upgraded to be useful, which is particularly !*@!ty if you ask me. I found they are a nice supplement to an army because I can dump a thousand or so minerals into them and make a mini army.

Their baseline stats need to be slightly buffed, if you ask me. They seem fine when they are fully upgraded.

On that thought though, pound for pound, they are probably more !!#%ty than zealots or marines. Marines can be used with medivacs and be unstoppable against !!#%ty zerglings.

The problem with them in large quantities is that they can't often get the surround and the problem with them in small quantities is that they suck *@%! and are a minor annoyance.

The only real good use I've found for them is they wreck bases really quickly and once I fought an opponent who massed immortals (like 30+ i swear) and my lings just ate them alive. Since they cost no vespene even if they lost it wouldn't be too much of a hindrance.

[Nataku]

I found that they NEED to be upgraded to be useful, which is particularly !*@!ty if you ask me. I found they are a nice supplement to an army because I can dump a thousand or so minerals into them and make a mini army.

Their baseline stats need to be slightly buffed, if you ask me. They seem fine when they are fully upgraded.

On that thought though, pound for pound, they are probably more !!#%ty than zealots or marines. Marines can be used with medivacs and be unstoppable against !!#%ty zerglings.

The problem with them in large quantities is that they can't often get the surround and the problem with them in small quantities is that they suck *@%! and are a minor annoyance.

The only real good use I've found for them is they wreck bases really quickly and once I fought an opponent who massed immortals (like 30+ i swear) and my lings just ate them alive. Since they cost no vespene even if they lost it wouldn't be too much of a hindrance.

I find a few toss do that too, kinda fun to watch.

[Fuglypump]

If you're going to zergling rush, you want the speed research, and about 10 zerglings when you start your attack, use the queen to spawn more larva to supply more zerglings to reinforce the attack in progress (rally point goes in their base)

my rush wins against most protoss and almost every zerg, although against tarren i don't bother, they've got a wall to hide behind.

and i've found that zerglings work very well when massing mutalisks, the enemy starts massing AA units to counter your mutas, then you get a small swarm of zerglings to counter their aa. It works very well because their units tend to attack the zerglings instead of the mutas. (without micro) I only make zerglings with i have the spare minerals without the spare gas from the costs of the mutas, why not make them right?

[Billymole]

If you're not researching Speedling upgrade, you're doing it very wrong. Speedlings can get across the killzone to the marines much faster, and are much quicker at getting the surround on both marines and zealots. In addition, it makes it very easy to split off a half dozen lings or so to run around the defenses and hit supply lines.

Beyond that, they make a fantastic, cheap screen for roaches or hydralisks. They make it harder for melee (zealots mostly) to get to the range, eat initial long-range shots before micro can come into play (siege tanks), and just generally round out your force for little cost.

[Macktimus]

Lings do feel weaker then the SC:BW counterparts, so do ultralisks but i think that has to do with the absence of darkswarm and the defiler.

[Conscience]

lings are weaker because you have to swarm them.

something like 4 per marine or 6-8 per zealot.

and fastlings are the most intimidating thing i've seen in this game so far.

[Guile]

HAHAHAHAHA you crack me up man... I had this guy beat me cause he went double hatchery and pumped out nothing but zerglings and only researched THEIR tech.
by the time i went out to do my early push (3-4 min in) he already had 20-30 zerglings that swarmed my marines/marauders. forcing me to turtle up a little bit. got hellions and dropships.

by the time im about to move out. he swarms my base with going towards 80-100 fully upgraded zerglings. (he got an expansion)

it was a massacre.

zerglings are good if you swarm them and back them up with other units like you're supposed to.

[Naroga]

I agree that zerglings need buffs.

I decided to go cracklings one game, hoping to swarm their base and eat their buildings quick. I commanded my swarm to attack an open base (expecting SC1 results) but the damage they produced was laughable, I even double checked I had upgraded their 20% attack speed increase.

Buff lings, nerf roaches.

[Frozen]

They really do, all night i have been getting rolled by t/p that mass their t1 unit and my zergling cant do much about it. Marines shoot over one another and zealots are just strong in general.... i thought the zergling stratagy was to have more of them then your enemy, but they just seem too weak to do much then bloody the ground.

they are kinda crappy in the early game, but 30+ of them in mid-late game is awesome. I cannot tell you how many times I've just run a ball of lings into a base, killed a hatch, and run away because their army is too slow to chase the lings. great expansion destroyer.

[Idkanything]

Used right lings are actually more on the "feel really strong" end of the spectrum.

They're fast
They're cheap

That right there makes them insanely valuable. If you can get any lump of units of equal or lesser value surrounded (easy to do with a speed upg) the zlings will eat them. They also provide excellent cover for your mutas later in the game ( marines can only shoot so fast - and if the Zlings pop into range first they'll eat at least the first couple of shots that your mutas should have had to deal with.

And if your enemy has a force you cant meet head on use them as worker harass. Run into the mineral line - attack - once they get their actual combat forces into an effective position run them away and start attacking a building or something - rinse, repeat.

Takes LOTS of micro to kepe this and building/reasearch going - but once you get it down you'll realize they're quite powerful

[Mecha]

peoples are failing with lings because they are Attack move with them. They're fast by pass the front lines and attack specific things line minerals and tech buildings.

[Suicidemech]

They really do, all night i have been getting rolled by t/p that mass their t1 unit and my zergling cant do much about it. Marines shoot over one another and zealots are just strong in general.... i thought the zergling stratagy was to have more of them then your enemy, but they just seem too weak to do much then bloody the ground.

When you use zerglings think horde of locust and not 3 lone wolves...

[Wyndrunner]

upgraded zerglings late game are great against Thors and Colossus. I think they still have their spot later in the game but it's very specific.

[Meat]

Zerglings do not need a buff, you do.

[Zulgaro]

Let's have 3 lings per spawn for one week, and see if it breaks the game wide open.

Right off the bat, I wouldn't think it would be a good call.

Random thought: How about adding an ability to the queen?

Mutate Larva: Target Cocoon will generate additional Zerglings based on the mineral cost of the unit being spawned. For every 50 minerals, a Zergling is spawned.

Give it a cooldown, or a high energy cost, and you should be set. Since you have to target the cocoon individually, it shouldn't give you too many Lings...

New to beta, so I might be way off.

[Anti]

Gotta use a LOT of zerglings and use them in such a way that they surround an enemy group.

Either surprise attacks, burrow, sheer numbers, move instead of attack move, etc. will help get the job done. Just don't run straight at a group of enemy units and expect your lings to win.

Also, they're great in conjunction with other units. Better your lings get smoked (for 25 min a pop) on the way to the front lines than your hydras/roaches/whatever, right?

As to the poster who said he/she lost a max unit game of lings vs. zealots - well yeah. That's only what, 2 lings per zealot? 4 at most? With max shield and attack upgrade on zealots, that's not a pretty picture. Even in SC:BW you needed 4 lings per zealot to win (maybe 3 with awesome micro), more if they had attack upgrade maxed out.

Think disgusting hordes of evil locusts. Swarms and swarms of clawed death. That's how you use zerglings in mass quantities.

Other option is...

Sneaky, devious, devil-spawn that sneak in a base and pillage workers before they can defend.

Great SC:BW trick...

Hide your lings outside their main. When you see the other army move out (with ONE scouting ling), before they reach halfway to your main you rush into their base and cause havoc. Either they a) continue the assault and trip to your main (which you should have time to stop if you're macroing well) or b) they return to their own base to defend, buying you more time at your main.

Either way, you're doing damage.

[Madrhetoric]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx7mMyJWZOk

[Wyvern]

The thing about Zerglings is that they're kind of an all-or-nothing unit. In the right situation, it's entirely possible for a horde of Zerglings to completely obliterate an opposing ground force down to the last man. But if you don't have quite enough, they can all die without getting a single kill.

So even though they can be really useful in the right situation, you can't have a ton of other units and then say, "Hey, I have some leftover minerals; I think I'll throw a pack of Zerglings in there for good measure." That doesn't do anything, and it makes them feel pretty useless if you're not already committed to them. That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't doing what they need to with their current stats, though.