General Tutorials
Why Using The GRID Hotkeys Is Important
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We all know how important hotkeys are for being a good Starcraft 2 player, since they allow you to control your units and build buildings without having to use the mouse.
Now by default the hotkeys are based on spelling, which has several disadvantages. They are pretty hard to remember, uncomfortable to play and different for each race. So what I highly recomment is using the GRID option: You enable this in the ”Hotkeys“ section in your options, and then your hotkeys will be based on location instead of spelling.
This means for every race and every unit the hotkeys will be qwert, asdfg, yxcvb, so you don’t have to even know the unit’s/building’s name, you just have to know it’s position on the screen and use the respective key on your keyboard. You will also be able to react faster since you have all of your hotkeys together and not spread over the whole keyboard.
Now by default the hotkeys are based on spelling, which has several disadvantages. They are pretty hard to remember, uncomfortable to play and different for each race. So what I highly recomment is using the GRID option: You enable this in the ”Hotkeys“ section in your options, and then your hotkeys will be based on location instead of spelling.
This means for every race and every unit the hotkeys will be qwert, asdfg, yxcvb, so you don’t have to even know the unit’s/building’s name, you just have to know it’s position on the screen and use the respective key on your keyboard. You will also be able to react faster since you have all of your hotkeys together and not spread over the whole keyboard.
Guide Review: Shokz Guide
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Today’s post will be a short review about a StarCraft 2 Guide called Shokz Guide, which I consider the best purchasable guide available on the internet.
It covers strategies for each race and goes more in-depth than any other guide I found. In addition to race strategies the guide shows you how to get the right mindset for each game, as well as Galaxy Editor guides.
One of the things I like most about it is that Shokz does not only explain the strategies, but also demonstrates each strategy with videos and pictures.
The problem with many guides you can donwload of course is that the game is always changing and some of the strategies may become outdated. This guide solves this problem, because you don’t just download the guide, you get access to a huge members area which is always updated. The author (John Greenhoe aka Shokz) is a diamond league player (you can check out his profile on the website), and he shares all the secret tricks that got him there - highly recommended.
Check it out guys!
Download Shokz Guide
Macro & Micro
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This tutorial will be about Macro and Micro.
What is Macro and Micro?
Macro is, in general, everything you do to send your army to the front. This means you have to take care of your economy, which includes expanding and having a good income. Another aspect of Macro is building Supply Depots at the right time, because you don’t want to get supply stuck, and more or less constant unit produktion.
Micro refers to the control of your units.
This includes for example pulling weak units out of the battle so they won’t get killed, and things like a clever positioning of your units in a battle.
Your melee units are pretty much useless if they are stuck behind your range/casting units.
Another important aspect of Micro is taking advantage of your environment. There are several ways to do this:
- block your ramps with your units
- go up and down the cliffs with your collossus/reapers to hit and run
- put your siege tanks on higher levels so your opponent can’t see and attack them (or have a flying unit with you to see your opponents higher level siege tanks)
- etc.
The next aspect of Micro I want to talk about is Focus Fire. To use this perfectly I highly recommend to always have the lifebars shown (you can do this in the gameplay options). Now take your ranged units and let them fire on units with low life and them out, or focus fire on strategic units (like high templars).
Very important for both Micro and Macro: use hotkeys!
I recommend using the “grid“ option so that you have all your hotkeys on qwert, asdfg, and yxcvb since this hotkeys are the same for each race.
Hotkeys are important for Micro because you can control the abilities of your units faster and react better.
For Macro you should use a combination of having your production buildings on numbers (like 5 for main base, 6 for barracks and so on) and using hotkeys to produce units, so that you can both control your units in a battle and also constantly build new units without having to leave the battlefield.
What is Macro and Micro?
Macro is, in general, everything you do to send your army to the front. This means you have to take care of your economy, which includes expanding and having a good income. Another aspect of Macro is building Supply Depots at the right time, because you don’t want to get supply stuck, and more or less constant unit produktion.
Micro refers to the control of your units.
This includes for example pulling weak units out of the battle so they won’t get killed, and things like a clever positioning of your units in a battle.
Your melee units are pretty much useless if they are stuck behind your range/casting units.
Another important aspect of Micro is taking advantage of your environment. There are several ways to do this:
- block your ramps with your units
- go up and down the cliffs with your collossus/reapers to hit and run
- put your siege tanks on higher levels so your opponent can’t see and attack them (or have a flying unit with you to see your opponents higher level siege tanks)
- etc.
The next aspect of Micro I want to talk about is Focus Fire. To use this perfectly I highly recommend to always have the lifebars shown (you can do this in the gameplay options). Now take your ranged units and let them fire on units with low life and them out, or focus fire on strategic units (like high templars).
Very important for both Micro and Macro: use hotkeys!
I recommend using the “grid“ option so that you have all your hotkeys on qwert, asdfg, and yxcvb since this hotkeys are the same for each race.
Hotkeys are important for Micro because you can control the abilities of your units faster and react better.
For Macro you should use a combination of having your production buildings on numbers (like 5 for main base, 6 for barracks and so on) and using hotkeys to produce units, so that you can both control your units in a battle and also constantly build new units without having to leave the battlefield.
Starcraft II: The Basics
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Hey Guys! On this website you will find compelling Starcraft II tutorials, guides, tips and tricks. There will be a lot of tutorials especially designed for new Starcraft II players but also a few advanced ones.
In this tutorial I want to cover some of the Starcraft II Basics that apply to every race, including early game, scouting and stuff like that.
Let’s start with the first point:
1. Probe Splitting
This is the first step in every game. Probe Splitting is basically sending your Probes, SCVs or Drones to the Mineral Fields. There are different ways to do this: The first way is to just select them all and send them to the Minerals by right clicking on them. The Starcraft II KI allows this, because it makes shure that there are not too much Probes on one Mineral.
Another method is to first send them all to one Mineral patch, and then while they are walking selecting a few and sending them to another one. This requires more micro, but you will manage it with a little bit of practice.
The third big method is the so called F1 split. F1 will select one of your idle Probes, so you can use this to send each one to a seperate Mineral Field.
Now, what is the best method for you? The truth is: There is absolutely no difference. You should just use the method that you like most. The same applies to the question if it’s better to first build the Probe and then send them to the Minerals or to do it the other way round - the difference is only a few milliseconds.
Way more important is that you stay calm and don’t act to hectically. A misclick that will cause the Probes to walk behind the Minerals is worse that clicking a few milliseconds slower than your opponent.
2. Always build Probes
This is one of the most important points of the game as well as one of the commonest mistake beginners make. Simple rule: If you stop building workers, you lose.
Always build new Probes if you got the Minerals.
And don’t forget to set the waypoint of your main base to the Mineral Fields by right clicking on them so that the Probes will walk to the Minerals directly.
3. Always send 3 Workers to your gas
Once you finished your gas, immediately send 3 workers. If you don’t do so, chances are that you forget about the gas and wonder why you don’t have enough gas the whole game long.
The same applies to the Mineral Fields: They are perfect used with 3 Workers, since there will be always one worker on the Mineral Field. 4 would be too much though, because they would block each other.
4. The Expansion
There is no best time to build your expansion, it always depends on your own strategy and on what your opponent is doing.
A fast expansion can be a huge advantage, but is also very risky. Especially in the early game you lose a lot of minerals that you can’t spend on other units. A common mistake is that players think an expansion just costs the 400 minerals, but they forget about the huge amount of probes they have to build to use the expansion effectively, which again cost 50 minerals each.
On the other hand your decision has to depend on what your opponent is doing. If he already has an expansion and you don’t have one, you know it’s time. If you don’t answer with an own expansion, he will have an too big economic advantage.
5. Scouting
You need good scouting to know what your opponent is doing. Especially in the early game scouting is one of the most important points, because if you don’t scout you can’t prepare for a rush of your opponent. A good time for scouting is at about 9-11 supply, since your opponent should now be at the point at which you can see what he intends.
For example if your opponent is Protoss and builds two Gates, you can be pretty shure you are about to get rushed.
Scouting is most often done by sending a worker into the opponent’s base, but can also be done by fast flying or invisible units later in the game.
Another very common mistake is that players only scout at the beginning of the game and then get overrunned by units they can’t counter.
A good way to prevent this is scouting by attacking your opponent with a few units, so that he has to show his army, and besides that you can inflict some damage and harrass him.
In this tutorial I want to cover some of the Starcraft II Basics that apply to every race, including early game, scouting and stuff like that.
Let’s start with the first point:
1. Probe Splitting
This is the first step in every game. Probe Splitting is basically sending your Probes, SCVs or Drones to the Mineral Fields. There are different ways to do this: The first way is to just select them all and send them to the Minerals by right clicking on them. The Starcraft II KI allows this, because it makes shure that there are not too much Probes on one Mineral.
Another method is to first send them all to one Mineral patch, and then while they are walking selecting a few and sending them to another one. This requires more micro, but you will manage it with a little bit of practice.
The third big method is the so called F1 split. F1 will select one of your idle Probes, so you can use this to send each one to a seperate Mineral Field.
Now, what is the best method for you? The truth is: There is absolutely no difference. You should just use the method that you like most. The same applies to the question if it’s better to first build the Probe and then send them to the Minerals or to do it the other way round - the difference is only a few milliseconds.
Way more important is that you stay calm and don’t act to hectically. A misclick that will cause the Probes to walk behind the Minerals is worse that clicking a few milliseconds slower than your opponent.
2. Always build Probes
This is one of the most important points of the game as well as one of the commonest mistake beginners make. Simple rule: If you stop building workers, you lose.
Always build new Probes if you got the Minerals.
And don’t forget to set the waypoint of your main base to the Mineral Fields by right clicking on them so that the Probes will walk to the Minerals directly.
3. Always send 3 Workers to your gas
Once you finished your gas, immediately send 3 workers. If you don’t do so, chances are that you forget about the gas and wonder why you don’t have enough gas the whole game long.
The same applies to the Mineral Fields: They are perfect used with 3 Workers, since there will be always one worker on the Mineral Field. 4 would be too much though, because they would block each other.
4. The Expansion
There is no best time to build your expansion, it always depends on your own strategy and on what your opponent is doing.
A fast expansion can be a huge advantage, but is also very risky. Especially in the early game you lose a lot of minerals that you can’t spend on other units. A common mistake is that players think an expansion just costs the 400 minerals, but they forget about the huge amount of probes they have to build to use the expansion effectively, which again cost 50 minerals each.
On the other hand your decision has to depend on what your opponent is doing. If he already has an expansion and you don’t have one, you know it’s time. If you don’t answer with an own expansion, he will have an too big economic advantage.
5. Scouting
You need good scouting to know what your opponent is doing. Especially in the early game scouting is one of the most important points, because if you don’t scout you can’t prepare for a rush of your opponent. A good time for scouting is at about 9-11 supply, since your opponent should now be at the point at which you can see what he intends.
For example if your opponent is Protoss and builds two Gates, you can be pretty shure you are about to get rushed.
Scouting is most often done by sending a worker into the opponent’s base, but can also be done by fast flying or invisible units later in the game.
Another very common mistake is that players only scout at the beginning of the game and then get overrunned by units they can’t counter.
A good way to prevent this is scouting by attacking your opponent with a few units, so that he has to show his army, and besides that you can inflict some damage and harrass him.
