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[G] A Focused Approach to Perfecting Mechanics - Page 6

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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kawoq
Profile Joined November 2005
Guatemala357 Posts
March 14 2012 18:46 GMT
#101
great read, I am not a good player since I dont play too much but I have always think about this subject the way you say it, agree so much about the APM basically if you want to be faster you have to click faster and the only way is training, just as any muscle of your body need training to become faster/stronger.

Already sharing! Thank you for typing it.
"It is not a shameful thing to be unable to reach the goal. It's becoming afraid and running away, even before considering the fact that the road is long and rough, that is truly cowardly." by - Lim Yo Hwan aka SlayerS_Boxer from "Crazy as me"
501TFX
Profile Joined March 2011
Austria345 Posts
March 14 2012 22:07 GMT
#102
Very nice read, thanks for sharing!

But I would suggest Liquid'Zenio and TSL_Revival for the Zerg streaming list, as their mechanics are really awesome. (Zenio can be easily up to 300 eAPM, if he needs to ... atleast he always attacks at 3 spots at the same time)
Never let your dreams fade, run after them, run until you get them !
Archontas
Profile Joined September 2010
United States319 Posts
March 15 2012 01:05 GMT
#103
Great guide. People spend a lot of time telling lower level players to "work on mechanics" to perform better without explaining what that means, its nice to see that someone took the time to elaborate on it.

You stated it implicitly in your guide, but I think it is well worth emphasizing: focus on one thing at a time. Trying to just "work on macro" isn't as helpful as saying "I miss production cycles during blink stalker aggression, let me focus on that until I do it without thinking" or whatever.
If you ban me, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
ktffang
Profile Joined July 2009
United States120 Posts
March 15 2012 02:05 GMT
#104
Great guide. A very good read. I too struggle with mechanics.

You should add Polt's stream to the list cus he's a treat to watch and has very solid mechanics
http://sv.twitch.tv/tslpolt
7 times dowm, 8 times up
liberal
Profile Joined November 2011
1116 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-15 02:12:04
March 15 2012 02:11 GMT
#105
I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.

Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.

But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.
KoveN-
Profile Joined October 2004
Australia503 Posts
March 15 2012 02:28 GMT
#106
On March 15 2012 11:11 liberal wrote:
I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.

Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.

But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.


Nope, I'd agree.
sanddbox_sc2
Profile Joined October 2011
United States173 Posts
March 15 2012 02:46 GMT
#107
On March 15 2012 11:11 liberal wrote:
I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.

Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.

But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.


Cheese is very easy to learn how to stop once you've faced it before; mechanics take hundreds of games to get near flawless. Starcraft 2 is a game with many different skillsets; you might notice an immediate benefit from learning to deal with a type of cheese, but mechanics are going to be necessary for the long haul.
Maxtor
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom273 Posts
March 15 2012 03:25 GMT
#108
Fantastic read, thank you very much for this, I've always wanted a solid way of improving mechanics and this is the most in-depth guide I have read to date on the topic, really cannot thank you enough for the effort you've put into this.
PrAeToR.FeNiX
Profile Joined February 2010
Canada361 Posts
March 15 2012 03:54 GMT
#109
this is one of the best thing i red on tl
i bookmark this for sure
En taro Adun!
vaderseven
Profile Joined September 2008
United States2556 Posts
March 15 2012 05:02 GMT
#110
On March 15 2012 11:11 liberal wrote:
I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.

Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.

But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.


Keep in mind that macro and mechanics are not one and the same thing. You can practice the principals of good mechanics while doing a proxy 2 gate.

Mechanics are how you get things done. That's it.

Mechanics are the sum total of your methods and ability to input actions into the game.


I understand the point you are making but the fact that you make it in that fashion indicates to me that you lack an appreciation for many small mistakes in your play. I bet if you watched an fpvod of yourself being cheesed you could find many things to work on mechanically. I bet if someone cheesed you 10 times in a row and you watched a fpvod of yourself after each game looking for mechanical errors and/or room to mechanically play better your would improve dramatically.

The point you are making is that is hard to practice late game on the ladder because of the prevalence of all ins on both 1 and 2 bases. Take close notice how this guide never once talks about late game macro or the like. This is a universal skill that you can always be working in every single game.
vaderseven
Profile Joined September 2008
United States2556 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-15 05:21:59
March 15 2012 05:12 GMT
#111
On March 15 2012 10:05 Archontas wrote:
Great guide. People spend a lot of time telling lower level players to "work on mechanics" to perform better without explaining what that means, its nice to see that someone took the time to elaborate on it.

You stated it implicitly in your guide, but I think it is well worth emphasizing: focus on one thing at a time. Trying to just "work on macro" isn't as helpful as saying "I miss production cycles during blink stalker aggression, let me focus on that until I do it without thinking" or whatever.


This is the most fundamental aspect of learning. If you have a child that is bad at spelling you don't ask him to write out 5,000 random words, you give him 10 words a week for a few years and then he is amazing at it.

I will include a shortened version of the basic premise of this guide in the first revision this weekend. The idea will be:

1. Watch Yourself
2. ID a mistake or something that you want to improve. Be EXTREMELY specific.
3. Try to play a game where you focus on that alot.
4. Watch the game you did where you tried to improve it.
5. Watch Streams/FPVODs of pros and pay attention to how they do said thing.
6. Play more games where you work on said thing.

The part that people make a mistake with is #2. They often say "I will macro harder," or "Next game I will keep my money lower."

These aren't specific enough!

Good example things to work on:

1. I will use the fkeys every time I look at one of my bases.
2. I will not watch workers cross the screen as my money reaches the amount needed to make a building.
3. I will use less redundant right clicks when moving units.
4. I will spam more.
5. I will place buildings faster.
6. I will place down Gateways #7-9 as my first Colossus comes out.
7. I will be more active with my obs and try to look at each obs and move it every time I do a warpin.
8. Everytime I warp units in, I will look at the mini map very quickly and then build pylons.
9. I will mouse scroll less and click the minimap more.
10. I will pay attention to my unit that is holding that watch tower and not let it die. If it dies, I will start zooming to it as part of my spam so that I get used to being aware of it.
11. As I spam boxes early game, I will try to click on my gas after each box so that I am ensuring accurate hand eye coordination.
12. When I shift que workers back to minerals, I will be more accurate.
13. If I mis que a worker and miss the mineral patch, I will go do one other action (look at scout for instance) so that I am not starting at the worker as it moves to make the building before I am able to correct the que back to minerals.

These are things you should be taking from you fpvods. Super small but very easy to ID and correct and think about. If you can imagine the problem in its entirety and imagine a solution then you can focus on it. If all you can do is see a vague 'problem' and have a vague 'desire for less of a problem' then you can not correct it. The human mind works in logic and exact goals, not in magic and hope.

EDIT - I actually went ahead and added that with small revision to the OP as a condensed version of the guide.

There will be a large update for typos and adding to sections and the first part of the FAQ sometime this weekend.

Thanks for the support guys, Br3ezy and I really appreciate it as we both put a lot of effort into this.
hersenen
Profile Joined November 2011
Belize176 Posts
March 15 2012 05:36 GMT
#112

3. I will use less redundant right clicks when moving units.
4. I will spam more.


Did anyone else find this part funny?
adius
Profile Joined May 2007
United States249 Posts
March 15 2012 05:37 GMT
#113
I like the encouragement to spam because I'm pretty sure a lot of low league players are used to playing modern single player games where you don't have to pay close attention and get focused on what you're doing in order to do well. Making yourself spam hotkeys could sort of wake your brain up, like "hey, it's time to stop dicking around, there's a lot of stuff I need to be doing here"
vaderseven
Profile Joined September 2008
United States2556 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-15 05:45:33
March 15 2012 05:38 GMT
#114
They both very valid things to work on.

In the highest level sense of things spam is something to eliminate. The reason to spam is if your raw apm is just hitting a brick wall. Just keep in mind you should be picking something YOU need to work on. If you have 200 apm and 140 eapm spamming will be a good move cuz you have very little excess apm to convert to useful eapm. If you have 265 apm and 110 eapm then I would say you dont need to work on spamming at all and find the parts of your play that seem the most spammy and converting those actions to useful ones will help you out alot! There isnt any bad apm but you have to balance how you increase each if you want to improve.

That being said, that is funny that I put those back to back.

A big part of the first real revision to the guide will be devoted to the section on spam. It seems to be be the needing in terms of clarification. Its so useful yet you want to get rid of it!

JollYRoGeR
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
Sweden342 Posts
March 15 2012 08:59 GMT
#115
i too believe in mechanics before strategy. i barely play sc2 because of my work, but since i got the mechanics from bw i'm easily in masters anyway. very good read!
Blazinghand *
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States25557 Posts
March 15 2012 13:25 GMT
#116
On March 15 2012 14:36 hersenen wrote:
Show nested quote +

3. I will use less redundant right clicks when moving units.
4. I will spam more.


Did anyone else find this part funny?


Those aren't necessarily contradictory statements. In fact, I daresay that 4 is laying the groundwork for 3. The first step should be to spam your APM to to a high raw APM, then focus on removing redundant clicks (in apm-strained situations) in your subsequent efforts.
When you stare into the iCCup, the iCCup stares back.
TL+ Member
Saethwyr
Profile Joined October 2011
United Kingdom18 Posts
March 15 2012 14:21 GMT
#117
Brilliant guide!

I'm a silver leaguer and this is just the kind of thing I've been looking for. Now I have the "solid, safe build" nailed down I can use this guide to work on becoming a better player, I understand that the 'unbeatable build' doesn't win matches, mechanics do.

I think this will help me a lot. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

Now all i have to do is find out which race im best as...
One's soldiers should not yell abuse at the enemy. "Arouse a bee and it will come at you with the ferocity of a dragon." - Takeda Nobushige ¦ http://saethwyr-esports.blogspot.com/
Noobity
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United States871 Posts
March 15 2012 17:06 GMT
#118
I absolutely love this thread.

Thank you, guys.
My name is Mike, and statistically, yours is not.
Damnight
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Germany222 Posts
March 15 2012 17:23 GMT
#119
nice guide thumps up
Inertiaddict
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States126 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-15 21:18:23
March 15 2012 21:18 GMT
#120
I read the guide. I'm Platinum. Found good information here. Gratz on getting spotlighted.

Thank you for writing this.
Proud to be a mod for Polt, coLqxc, Sterling, Gamegene (Rebecca), Trump, Fnatic.Rain [retired], and Liquid'Jinro [retired]!!! <3 Manner up! <3 / Knowing the worst case situation makes one amply prepared.
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