starcraft-2starcraft-zerg
I've seen some posts about a 3RR+lings which is supposed to be similar to the 7RR, but with only 3 roaches and speedlings, allowing easier worker harassment once the roaches breach the wall-off.
What is the exact build order to use for this, and what should you look for when scouting to see if you should perform this build? (or cancel it)
So there seems to be a bunch of misinformation going on here, mostly around how dangerous a 7 Roach Rush is.
I've run it a number of times, especially on very fast maps and I'll tell you right now: it is very weak.
As others have pointed out even though his Roaches finish around 4:40 his push doesn't come to ~5:30. For people comfortable with 3 Rax timing pushes at 6:00, this should feel very manageable. What's worse, is that if you commit to this rush you're left with 16 Drones around the 5:30 minute mark. That's usually an economic loss which is almost impossible to come back from.
What usually scares people is that a Zerg player is being very aggressive early in the game, and its something most players aren't used to. Where as early Zergling play is usually handled by a wall off, no similar option exists for Roaches. What's more with their longer range Roaches can now pick off wall ins with out taking damage. Finally, the Roach Den itself doesn't go down till 3:45, so unless you've blind committed to 2 Gate or Void Rays, there really isn't an opportunity to switch your build. This also means that he has every opportunity to switch out of his Roach rush by spotting an early second gate (or Starport).
While that may seem scary try to remember that Roaches themselves are only really strong against Zealots and Marines, and very weak against Zerglings, Stalkers and Marauders, so most standard builds will actually have decent forces in place to deal with this. Unless you're trying for some crazy Zealot or Marine only push what you build in the natural course of a 3 Rax, 3 Gate, or Speedlings, should actually be enough.
Let's take an example:
Let's say my brother is player Zerg. My brother isn't great so he goes 14 gas 14 pool without ever scouting, delayed expansion on 22, and doesn't even notice the Roaches till they're moving out at 4:40. So he cancels his expo, throws down 3 spine crawlers and pumps Zerglings... you know when he remembers to, so like at 5:03.
Now he's playing on Steps of War, the map with the smallest rush distance where you really have to scout, so the rush arrives at 5:20! His Spine Crawlers aren't finished, and to make matters worse, his opponent has squeezed out a magical 8th Roach.
Now my brother kind of sucks so he doesn't even really micro he just sends in his Zerglings + Queen, while the Roaches take out one of the still building spinecrawlers and are even reinforced by a 9th Roach! And what happens?
He doesn't even spend those 5 extra larva on Zerglings, but opts for workers instead. Now, my brother is ahead on Workers, has those two Spine Crawlers he can use to discourage a second wave of Roaches and can expand since he has 400 minerals... that baddy.
When I say 7 Roach rush is weak I really mean it. Its not the sort of thing you even need to really make a special build for, any "normal" play really counters it.
But Tzenes... I'm a super ultra mega baddy who's even worse than your brother... what can I do?
The reason many lower level players like the 7 Roach rush is because its really spelled out for them. Do X at time Y. Very easy to execute. By comparison saying something like: Just go 14 gas, 14 pool and build a bunch of Spine Crawlers when he leaves his base... you should be fine is not easy to execute. It leaves out important details like: build your Queen as soon as the Spawning Pool finishes, Zergling speed will finish right as your first Larval injection does and most importantly if he goes around to your workers instead of your Spine Crawlers, just pull the workers away, let your 10 extra Zerglings finish and then you can catch him in the open and Speedlings destroy Roaches in the open.
So where do you learn these things you ask? By polishing a build order.
If your build order is polished, you won't be waiting an extra 23 seconds to even start your first wave of Zerglings like my brother did. You won't be supply blocking yourself at 26, and you'll get a third wave of Zerglings while the Roaches are attacking. So my advice to you is: go download YABOT, and fear 7 Roach Rush no more.
So there is no good answer to this question, or it would already appear in the larger build order questions on this site. Unlike the early game (which is well defined) mid to late game doesn't have an easy answer, and anyone who gives you a BO past 20 is a snake oil sales man.
Even in the Zerg question you linked the answer was: What ever feels best.
Let's look at some of the basic Protoss builds and how they progress:
4 Gate
Usually this build is very all-in, and you're banking on winning early. However, if you do enough economic damage with a 4 Gate, but don't win you can still be at an advantage. At this point if you pressure more you're going to end up against a higher tech opposing force and probably lose, so you can expand here and maybe add on a Robo or two more Gateways.
3 Gate
One of the great things people like to do with 3 Gate is provide pressure so that they can expand. This sets them up with a nice little force as they transition into the mid game. Once expanding there are some people who like to progress to 5 Gate + Robo, or 3 Gate + Double Robo, or even (recently) 3 Gate + Double Starport. There is even a nice 4 Gate + Robo to provide pressure so that Protoss can take a third expansion.
You probably notice a number of trends between these two builds, even though I picked two builds that could not be more different there were a number of important ideas:
Now you'll notice that a lot of what's being discussed is Income vs Production and there are a couple tools you can use to help you out:
Remember: To get good at Starcraft you need to get good at Execution and Decision Making, not get good at following a road map.
Best Answer
I should warn you, this is an extremely poor build (very cheesy), with little or no chance of winning. It hopes to catch your opponent unaware.
The build itself works something like the following:
Its a derivation of the old 14 Gas/14 Pool builds, except that you go for a very early Roach Warren, don't build more than 15 Drones, and all in around ~3:45. You use your Roaches like a Baneling bust with lings to back up
I really don't recommend it, its largely inferior to the kind of pressure you can bring with a 15 Expand Roach/Ling build at the 6 minute mark. What's even worse it teaches you very bad habits (late or no expansion) and actually is amazingly weak against any standard play.