• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:10
CEST 07:10
KST 14:10
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash10[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy18ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT30Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book20
Community News
Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple6Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research8Weekly Cups (March 16-22): herO doubles, Cure surprises3Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool51Weekly Cups (March 9-15): herO, Clem, ByuN win4
StarCraft 2
General
Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy Blizzard Classic Cup @ BlizzCon 2026 - $100k prize pool What mix of new & old maps do you want in the next ladder pool? (SC2) Aligulac acquired by REPLAYMAN.com/Stego Research Weekly Cups (March 23-29): herO takes triple
Tourneys
RSL Season 4 announced for March-April Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament StarCraft Evolution League (SC Evo Biweekly) WardiTV Mondays World University TeamLeague (500$+) | Signups Open
Strategy
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Frigid Storage Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026]
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 520 Moving Fees Mutation # 519 Inner Power Mutation # 518 Radiation Zone
Brood War
General
BSL 22 Map Contest — Submissions OPEN to March 10 so ive been playing broodwar for a week straight. Klaucher discontinued / in-game color settings BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Pros React To: JaeDong vs Queen
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Ro24 Group E [ASL21] Ro24 Group F Azhi's Colosseum - Foreign KCM
Strategy
What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Darkest Dungeon
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Chess Thread NASA and the Private Sector Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT] Tokyo Olympics 2021 Thread General nutrition recommendations
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
[G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Broowar part 2
qwaykee
China Uses Video Games to Sh…
TrAiDoS
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
FS++
Kraekkling
Shocked by a laser…
Spydermine0240
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Electronics
mantequilla
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 13545 users

Hotkeying Pylon

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
LinK [SWE]
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden5 Posts
September 29 2010 12:50 GMT
#1
Hey guys this will be my first post, but I've been enjoying the forum for quite some time!

I came up with an idea a while ago when my macro was just so bad and I'm a very poor multitasker by nature it seams (deadly when driving and talking on my cell), I'm a protoss player and I found that hotkeying a "builder probe" was very helpful.. but when I was in fights I just always forgot to make more units because of the time it took me to find a pylong on the minimap, and warp in units.. So I started hotkeying my "warp in pylon" and this helped me so so much!
Then I started checking all the pro replays (like HuK <3) to see if they did this, but they don't..
This helped me so much so I figured it HAS to be a good tip for other protoss players out there with macro problems.

But why don't pro players do this? this has to be better than clicking your minimap for a place to warp in units?

I hope this could help some toss players to improve their game and if not, at least I tried =)
Leath
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
Canada1724 Posts
September 29 2010 12:57 GMT
#2
In my opinion, this would be more helpful in BW rather than in SC2.

Normally, I feel we don't lack map space and units spawn are rather smart. Therefore, you don't need to organize your building as neatly as we had to in BW.

You just spread pylons all around to scout your opponents movement, and they will cover a large enough area.
Normally, I leave a probe near gateways (late game only), double click the gateway hotkeys to center view, select the probe and build more stuff.
If I am only building gates however, it doesn't really matter where I get them. I could just as well double tap a nexus hotkey and build the gates there.

The "W" key will recall all WarpGates you own, so your gates can be quite spread apart.

Hope it helps too. Have fun ^^
http://www.kongregate.com/?referrer=Sagess
LinK [SWE]
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden5 Posts
September 29 2010 13:16 GMT
#3
Well I think you missunderstood my point Leath, it's not at all about building placement, just about a faster and easier way to macro.
Having for example your forward pylon hotkeyd would make it easier to go to it to warp in units than using your minimap to click your way to it or scrolling to it.. it just feels easier that way and it helped me alot so I just wanted other people to try it out and see if it can help them as well ^^

Most games I've seen protoss players have at most 5 hotkeys in use anyway, only very long games and very macro heavy players use more than 5 hotkeys.

And btw I'm not like a bronze/silver player making it to gold with this, I made it from gold to high plat/low diamond with this!
ProfessOfLies
Profile Joined September 2010
United States21 Posts
September 29 2010 13:19 GMT
#4
Thats clever. I normally use a phase prism (which I have hotkeyed) but I will give this a try when I use proxy pylons.
PegLegPete
Profile Joined September 2010
United States5 Posts
September 29 2010 13:24 GMT
#5
That's good idea that I probably should use.

However, I run out of hotkeys, at least the accessible ones, so there's no room for the proxy Pylon to be keyed.

1-3 is units
4 is nexus
5 is gateways (warpgates)
6/7 is robo/stargate, depending on BO
8 might be a forge, but honestly after 7, I lose interest in hotkeying because I don't like picking my hand up to hit those higher numbers. That may be lazy; I like to lie to myself and call it efficient.

I will say that if I go warp prism, I bind that to 3 almost always, and it is convenient to have that easily accessible, so I can see your point.
I curse the shark that stole me leg.
DeCoup
Profile Joined September 2006
Australia1933 Posts
September 29 2010 13:28 GMT
#6
Idk why people put warpgates on a key when you van press W. IMO make 5 your pylon bind and use w for your warpgates. (You can use 5 for gates till you have warp since you don't need a pylon bound without warp anyway).
"Poor guy. I really did not deserve that win. So this is what it's like to play Protoss..." - IdrA
SONE
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada839 Posts
September 29 2010 13:28 GMT
#7
i do this, just for one frequently used forward pylon. it helps
LinK [SWE]
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden5 Posts
September 29 2010 13:33 GMT
#8
On September 29 2010 22:28 DeCoup wrote:
Idk why people put warpgates on a key when you van press W. IMO make 5 your pylon bind and use w for your warpgates. (You can use 5 for gates till you have warp since you don't need a pylon bound without warp anyway).


Very true! That is something of a starter that made me think of this actually.. I'm a huge fan of Day9 and watch his videos constantly and he seem to prefer hotkeying his gateways so naturally I tried that.. it just didn't help anything, W is just so close and easy to use that hotkeying your warpgates to 5 or 4 or whatever is redundant..

I'm glad to see some positive respons to this! :D
Remember who you got it from haha
Darpa
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada4413 Posts
September 29 2010 13:39 GMT
#9
Alot of pros use the F5-8 keys to hotkey areas like that for fast access, they just dont use 1,2,3,4,5 ect.
"losers always whine about their best, Winners go home and fuck the prom queen"
cauchy.riemann
Profile Joined May 2010
Switzerland13 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-29 13:43:21
September 29 2010 13:42 GMT
#10
I use 1 and 2 For army, 3 for gates, 4 and 5 for Nexi, 6 robo and 7 Stargate....

So since all is used i just put F5 to a pylon at the front of my base, i dont have much use for F5-F8, and its faster since you dont have to doubletap, well a tiny tiny bit faster....and you dont have to reach all the way to 8,9 or zero....

So i prefer F5-F8 for my Pylon

Edit: Ah, got beat by a minute...
LinK [SWE]
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden5 Posts
September 29 2010 13:43 GMT
#11
I've never seen it actually.. but my main objective here is only to share a tip that helped me very much
and if I can help even one person here I'm happy ^^
freshjive
Profile Joined August 2010
United States32 Posts
September 29 2010 13:48 GMT
#12
Can you explain in some depth how the hotkey macro works.

I hate having to move my screen, hit W then hold down S or Z to warp in units while I fight with my main army.

I understand how to apply the macro to the pylon (ctrl+#) but can you warp in on the fly.

like W, Hotkey 2, SSSSSSS for example...

Thanks in advance
If I'm going to bet on anyone, I'm going to bet on myself
Rannasha
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Netherlands2398 Posts
September 29 2010 13:53 GMT
#13
On September 29 2010 22:48 freshjive wrote:
Can you explain in some depth how the hotkey macro works.

I hate having to move my screen, hit W then hold down S or Z to warp in units while I fight with my main army.

I understand how to apply the macro to the pylon (ctrl+#) but can you warp in on the fly.

like W, Hotkey 2, SSSSSSS for example...

Thanks in advance


If you double-tap the number of a control group, the screen is centered around that group. So if you hotkey a Pylon under 5, you can do the following:

5 5 W [whatever warp-in commands you want to give]

This way you get your favorite army-deployment area (say, a proxy pylon) on the screen when you want to warp in and you don't have to click the minimap first.

Note that you can also use (CTRL+) F5-F8 to store and recall map-locations just as you would units/buildings.
Such flammable little insects!
Demarini
Profile Joined May 2010
United States151 Posts
September 29 2010 13:53 GMT
#14
On September 29 2010 22:48 freshjive wrote:
Can you explain in some depth how the hotkey macro works.

I hate having to move my screen, hit W then hold down S or Z to warp in units while I fight with my main army.

I understand how to apply the macro to the pylon (ctrl+#) but can you warp in on the fly.

like W, Hotkey 2, SSSSSSS for example...

Thanks in advance


If you can then I'm about to hit top diamond.
LinK [SWE]
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden5 Posts
September 29 2010 13:55 GMT
#15
Ok, lets say you have the Pylon you want to warp in next to as Hotkey 4, that's what I use. Then you double click 4, then click W to select all warpgates and then just warp in the units you want.
it's the part of only needing to doubleclick a hotkey so you get to a pylon that makes this work faster and better than just scrolling over.
DavidMcF
Profile Joined August 2010
United Kingdom189 Posts
September 29 2010 13:56 GMT
#16
I really like this idea, I often bring a probe with my army to build a sneaky proxy pylon for super good push reinforcement but I never thought to hotkey the pylon.

I'm gonna start doing this, thanks !
yarkO
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Canada810 Posts
September 29 2010 14:21 GMT
#17
On September 29 2010 22:28 DeCoup wrote:
Idk why people put warpgates on a key when you van press W. IMO make 5 your pylon bind and use w for your warpgates. (You can use 5 for gates till you have warp since you don't need a pylon bound without warp anyway).


Because hitting 'WW' won't center on your cluster of Gates, so hotkeying them helps for when you want to get to them and Chronoboost or something.
When you are prepared, there's no such thing as pressure.
Iamyournoob
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany595 Posts
September 29 2010 14:26 GMT
#18
awesome tip! gonna try it asap! thanks man
zzaaxxsscd
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States626 Posts
September 29 2010 14:28 GMT
#19
I remember Day9 talked about this...

hotkey your forward pylon to 0 for example

then when you see your warpgates are ready
0,0
W, <spam units>

1,1 back to the fighting
JesseT
Profile Joined August 2010
Australia3 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-09-29 14:36:24
September 29 2010 14:31 GMT
#20
good idea but really there's isn't enough hotkeys for builder probe n pylons
1~0 is not enouhg..!
i donno y they didn't put the F2 F3 F4 screen saves...
it would be so much better
i'm T player so it might be diff but when i used to P
i used to
1~5 units
6~9 buildings(gates/robo/stargate)
depending on my eco stage i often used to change from warp to standard
since i'm used to bw the warp in was so new in that beta season
0 usually nexus or observer

rite now i'm Terran as i play terran in bw

1~5 maybe to 6 if i'ts needed

6~8 rax/fac/star maybe 7~9
n the order changes on what i'm macroing the most
it's diff at the start but it's around mid game
n 0 usually CCs

try having the shuttle thing n use prism if u practice it it will help quick reinforcement
show me the money
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 4h 50m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
WinterStarcraft483
RuFF_SC2 212
NeuroSwarm 179
ProTech125
Ketroc 51
UpATreeSC 36
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 5653
BeSt 1251
scan(afreeca) 371
ggaemo 135
Nal_rA 111
Pusan 99
Shinee 51
Noble 16
Bale 16
Icarus 8
Dota 2
monkeys_forever665
League of Legends
JimRising 744
Counter-Strike
m0e_tv382
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor131
Other Games
summit1g15899
C9.Mang0228
Nina32
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV106
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH285
• Light_VIP 15
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Lourlo1143
• Rush890
• Stunt336
Upcoming Events
Afreeca Starleague
4h 50m
Wardi Open
4h 50m
Replay Cast
18h 50m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 4h
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
BSL
5 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
BSL
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Elite League 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
CSL Season 20: Qualifier 2
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
Nations Cup 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W2
IPSL Spring 2026
Escore Tournament S2: W3
Acropolis #4
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
RSL Revival: Season 5
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
IEM Rio 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.