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Watching Polt and MarineKing win tournaments this weekend I was amazed with their unit control and micro. You just do not see that kind of control from foreign players or much discussion on these boards about micro.
So I thought it would be nice if people here could share any insights into how the Koreans approach micro, what techniques they use and how they practice. I will try to compile all the good answers to this post for all Terrans to use as a micro resource.
For instance when getting roach baneling busted they target down banelings at such incredible speeds. I have not been able to replicate this in test maps, trying both shift-attack que, and simple a-click target fire.
Banshee
I would like to contribute to this thread with a unit I am pretty sure I have the optimal micro command for which is the banshee. Using Hold command when kiting marines is by far the best in my opinion, because with hold the banshee will never turn around and chase the marines getting hit unnecessarily. I also believe hold is the best command for vikings kiting battle-cruisers since their range is so superior.
Kiting zealots
?
I am still not sure what the best command is for kiting zealots, sometimes it feels like stop is superior and sometimes a-click.
Stutter-step
Every Terran should be able to stutter step their marines well enough to always kill a probe or drone passing by and if you are perfect at it even an SCV. There is really no trick to this besides getting the rhythm down. You want to move the marine as soon as its fire animation has started. If done correctly it looks like the marine is just barely raising its rifle before moving on. I use a-click move click for this but again I am not sure if this is the best way of doing it.
Marine micro vs lings and banelings
I try to stutter-step back while a-clicking banelings. This is riskier than spreading the marines, but if I get all the banelings my marines will be in a much better position to deal with the surviving lings. However if I miss banelings I am in trouble. So whats do you think the best way of dealing with ling/baneling is?
Drop-ship micro
If you want to be fancy and drop-ship micro some tanks its one of the easiest tricks to do, but it does take 100% of your attention so usually its probably better to focus on your macro. What you do is click hold on the medivac and keep it selected then D click the medivac and right click the tank once its on the ground. You can do this really quickly, and its fun to do in won games. This same concept applies to marine drops, if you want to pick them up quickly right click the marines if they are surrounded by lings and the medivac will pick them up. This is superior to boxing the marines and clicking the medivac in my opinion.
Marine/tank line vs ling baneling + infestor/muta
I know you should target fire banelings with your tanks, however I am not sure what the best way of doing this is? Also do you micro any differently if you know its muta or infestor push?
Getting xelnaga towers
I usually a-click with my entire army next to the xelnaga tower then shift click a single marine out of the group, then order the army to stop or back and only that marine will go to the tower, does require you to regroup that control group so you dont bring the xelnaga marine with you next time you move.
Hope everyone can contribute with good tips and techniques for terran micro!
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you practice. and yes, the hold position key is required for any and everything in starcraft 2. damn unit ai.
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The second to last one is covered (like a bau5) in TheDoctor's guide.
Basically you put tanks on one key, the marines/medivacs on another and right click-shift with tanks to target fire banes.
After that, THEN do all your splitting. Focus fire is more imba :D
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I presplit vs banelings, it's really easy too. I just patrol everyone, and then I hold position. Basically spreads them out and then I move clumps at a time
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Reguarding how targting banes with tanks first. I control click on a tank out of the wire frame or on screen to select all my tanks, then i hold shift and a and spam click on the blings
When i have a tank line vs mute bling ling, I tend to leave allot of my marine quite far foward before the fight then stim, run them back then split, (if i my marines get good distance away from lings i will use the patroll micro trick) and then a move again into the army.
Against infestor i tend to have my marines ready in flanking postitions, when the battle starts i first do them same method of targeting banes i descibed but onto the infestors, then stim and split my marines at the front pulling most of them back to avoid fungles then move the flanking groups in from the sides with the intent of catching infestors off gaurd as they move away after casting. My whole army is more spred out before the battle allot more vs infestor than mute.
Sorry if that was more of a psotioning thing than a micro thing.
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I dislike when people generalize stutter step micro. It's actually much harder to do than it seems...
Optimal stutter step in larger army scenarios has you maximizing your unit's surface area while minimizing your opponent's surface area. Watching some iNcontroL vs Demuslim games you see some CRAZY stutter step, as in Demuslim stims, shoots off the first volley, then splits his M&M into three groups as the zealots charge (sometimes even individually targeting closer zealots with single marauders). He stutters back with the part of his M&M that is closest to the Zealots, and splits the rest of his M&M perpendicular, in both directions, to his retreat. THEN he starts stuttering backwards with the rest of his army, with almost no missed interval, and constantly readjusts his army's retreat so that the maximum amount of DPS is dealt.
The Colossi never get more than a single volley off for the entirety of the battle and Storms are simply avoided because of High Templar move speed. It's a sight to behold.
iNcontroL usually backs off when this happens, because against that kind of control, you can't just A-move, you need to choose your battles or just die.
So cool~!
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I think hold position is always >> stop, other than that a micro trainer is pretty good.
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On February 29 2012 01:18 SlipperyPeteLoL wrote:
I think hold position is always >> stop, other than that a micro trainer is pretty good.
I almost always use hold position and so far i've found only one use for stop command. It's stopping medivacs from unloading units. If you use the d+click on medivac style of dropping while allowing movement, hold position will only stop the movement but not the actual dropping.
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I don't see why you would use hold position to kite vikings against BCs. I always use A-move in this scenario so that the ones too far from the BCs turn around and fire, while still being out of range from the BCs' attacks. Hold position would just decrease your DPS for no increase in survivability.
Same thing with banshees. If you have more than one and they are not perfectly stacked or in line with each other, if you use hold position to kite against marines, sometimes the banshee farther away will just sit there while the other banshee does all the fighting (and taking all the hits, which is bad).
So generally for air units I use A-move to kite. For ground units I use A-move if I'm stutter stepping towards the enemy units and stop / hold position if I'm moving away.
p.s. there's a really nice micro map called "Darglein's micro trainer" or something like that on NA. Should check it out if you haven't.
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First off, don't treat it as a "terran" micro type of thing as Micro affects all race in generally the same manner. The difference between the races determines the flexibility of control.
Day[9] did a great daily that covers about controls and hot keys and they are a great start to microing in general. If you can't macro/hotkey then microing is just out of the question.
But lets get into detail here for you.
Banshee
As far as Banshee go, if you click move behind the target and then press "hold" it will fire immediately before fully stopping. This also applies to Zerg's muta. You box your muta and right click behind your target and then hit "hold". They shoot before fully stopping.
Kiting Zealot
Box your marines right click where you want them to run, hit "hold", then right click and repeat is generally better than spamming a click move. Why? because if a Zealot has charge they actually stop right before engaging. That and Marine seems to have trigger happy finger and will finish shooting before running if you a move. Doing the hold move, sometimes you're lucky or (just amazing that way) it will save you a hit while dealing same amount of damage.
Stutter Step
As you said, no trick here. Just find the rhythm through practice. Eventually you will release simply knowing the timing is better than just watching the animation.
Marine micro vs lings and banelings
This is kinda situational. If you have a ton of marine then it's 100% better to spread out your marines. Most zerg tend to just box their banelings/lings together and just a move. Higher level of play same deal except better zergs will have multiple control groups and banelings won't just randomly target a marine instead, they will flank you with lings before charging with the banelings. It only sounds intuitive until you realize how often zergs just a-move their armies.
Getting xelnaga towers
I'm actually at a toss about this one. You pretty much spend as much APM on this regardless of the route you prefer. Since you will have to hot key your unit each time if you pulled it from your main army. Only other way I see this is to pull a freshly finished marine by hitting space when prompted and instantly select it/send it off before you add the rest your rally troops into a new control group.
I hope this helps
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be korean. nuff said.
i have a account on taiwan/KR and even the gold/plats micro marine like they are insane
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Banshee micro: I think you hit it on the head, you should always use hold position
Kiting zealots: Watch which units the zealots are going after and pull that unit away, optimally in the oppitisite direction of your army, I think its really inefficent to kite zealots with your entire army because if you get this method down enough you can kite zealots even if they have speed. Vs mass zealot you should let them blow their charge then just kite with your whole army though, your going to get surrounded if you don't.
Stutter step: Use single clicks, right click -> a -> left click towards your opponents army (so that further away units turn around and shoot)
Marines vs ling/bane: stutter step like twice then with a stationary army split like a mad man, Its difficult because lings have more surface area but banes can really take a chunk out of your amry
Medivac drop micro: Easiest way to do it is to always have your medivac selected and click the button to lift a unit (default L, you probably should rebind it to something easier) so that your medivac will go it it and lift it, then click the portrait of what your trying to drop (instead of pressing D which will drop everything, which means you can only do this with one unit at a time. if you click the portrait of what you want to drop you can drop micro many units at the same time)
Side note: a marine being drop micro'd can kill a banshee
Marine tank vs Zerg midgame army: always seige your tanks before stimming your main army then re-select your tanks and A click the banes then re-select your marines and stutter step, if he has infestors split your army as your run it back
Grabbin' the xel nagas: a click a unit there and deselect it with a shift click, rehotkey your army
Micro has always been easy for me, the best way to practice is to get on skype with a friend and tell him to make units and come and attack you with them and just have micro wars on either shattered temple or shakuras (open/ flat maps). It helps to be really good with your mouse accuracy too
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On February 29 2012 03:59 OriginalBeast wrote:
Banshee micro: I think you hit it on the head, you should always use hold position
Kiting zealots: Watch which units the zealots are going after and pull that unit away, optimally in the oppitisite direction of your army, I think its really inefficent to kite zealots with your entire army because if you get this method down enough you can kite zealots even if they have speed. Vs mass zealot you should let them blow their charge then just kite with your whole army though, your going to get surrounded if you don't.
Stutter step: Use single clicks, right click -> a -> left click towards your opponents army (so that further away units turn around and shoot)
Marines vs ling/bane: stutter step like twice then with a stationary army split like a mad man, Its difficult because lings have more surface area but banes can really take a chunk out of your amry
Medivac drop micro: Easiest way to do it is to always have your medivac selected and click the button to lift a unit (default L, you probably should rebind it to something easier) so that your medivac will go it it and lift it, then click the portrait of what your trying to drop (instead of pressing D which will drop everything, which means you can only do this with one unit at a time. if you click the portrait of what you want to drop you can drop micro many units at the same time)
Side note: a marine being drop micro'd can kill a banshee
Marine tank vs Zerg midgame army: always seige your tanks before stimming your main army then re-select your tanks and A click the banes then re-select your marines and stutter step, if he has infestors split your army as your run it back
Grabbin' the xel nagas: a click a unit there and deselect it with a shift click, rehotkey your army
Micro has always been easy for me, the best way to practice is to get on skype with a friend and tell him to make units and come and attack you with them and just have micro wars on either shattered temple or shakuras (open/ flat maps). It helps to be really good with your mouse accuracy too
Good stuff thanks!
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against BC's i would spam right click to get your vikings 'stacked' outside BC range, then use stop/hold position to fire a volley, then spam right click a little further away to stay out of range etc.
i think some of the originalbeast's methods are unneccessarily complex...
stutter step - you'd be better off with stutter step if you just right click > H > right click > H... the units out of range won't have time to get in range in the 0.5 seconds between your marine attack 'stepping' so a-move is lowering your dps...
medivac - why press L and click on unit, when you can just right click on the unit? two button presses versus one button press. clicking on the unit portrait seems like the best way to drop though - one button press versus two button presses.
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I'm pretty sure the Koreans do a move click for all stutter steppey things. Practice is the only way I guess. Don't let noobs tell you that stutter step is easy. If it were, we could all 2 rax DRG on metalopolis and win easily.
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On February 29 2012 08:15 Micket wrote:
I'm pretty sure the Koreans do a move click for all stutter steppey things. Practice is the only way I guess. Don't let noobs tell you that stutter step is easy. If it were, we could all 2 rax DRG on metalopolis and win easily.
i think most of the time you'll see a korean a-move and then box the group of units that have units chasing them, stutter step with that group only.
it's not only about 'kiting', stutter step stop lings and zealots being able to surround - and if they get a surround on your marines then your marines actually get owned by ling/zealot.
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I use stop commands for basically every category of microing. I am skeptical that you can get better results with hold position or attack move. In some situations of course you need to focus fire. Attack move stuttering is particularly bad since it is so prone to catastrophic control error.
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It's also about the decisions you make when trying to micro as well.
Like kiting zealots, they don't always kite their whole MMM ball, usually they'll kite in small groups to get the maximum dps while not suffering much losses.
Drops, they know WHEN to drop and not randomly drop because you're terran and supposed to drop.
Overall, if you want to do marine splits or something as fast as the top Terrans do, you have to practice practice practice. There's no other way around it.
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Does anyone know the best way to pick up marines that are surrounded by lings?
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France12794 Posts
On March 01 2012 00:39 ShaneFeit wrote:
Does anyone know the best way to pick up marines that are surrounded by lings?
Box the marines and click on the medivac, then move the medivac near the marines and it'll pick them up auto.
edit : @to Micket : 2rax isn't really about stutter step, stutter step is usefull of course but depending of the 2rax it depends on mindgames, timing, bunker placement knowledge, focus fire, load'n'repair etc.
edit 2 lol :
for most of units (not sure about banshee but you can check with korean replays if they use hold or a-move), the best way to stutter step is a-move.
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EPT
