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So recently I met a person at a LAN that lives near me and has become my SC2 buddy. We talk lots of strat, and everything SCII. The other day he posed a question that stumped me. To explain it, I will put in some pretty pictures!
So here you are as a fellow Brotoss getting ready to make a quick expansion off of a 3 gate expand.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OrqbF.png)
You see an attack incoming and realize you are woefully unprepared for this attack. You only have 2 stalkers!
So you warp in 2 Zealots and a Sentry, which is still not probably enough.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Yjmlv.png)
You rally your warping in units to the natural to help in the defense but knowing you are still outgunned you need MORE! You glance at your chrono boost and notice you have 50 energy, and 2 of your 3 warpgates will be ready quicker then the 3rd (because they made Zealots). So you want to use the 50 energy on the two that warped the zealots.
Now comes the question:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ccgYn.png)
Now normally before I did some experimentation I would have just said "idk and I'm not clicking each one individually so I'll just chrono a random 2 and hope it works!"
Now I can tell you however:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rJaCh.png)
What? How do I know? Because of where I spawned the units. Yes that is the key. The closest Warpgate to the place being warped in is the one being used. If you look back to step 2 I spawned the left Zealot first, right Zealot second, and the Sentry third. Based of the location where I spawned them you get this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gK9vm.png)
Don't believe me, here's the proof:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ihwSN.png)
For the record, I tested also this theroy with hotkeying the gates in a sub optimal way, and even with tons of X-Y plane testing. It's how it works.
Since I found this out a whole 3 days ago I never have to look at gates anymore to chrono the right one, and I've begun experimenting with different end game warpgate layouts to optimize the searching process.
So I know this isn't like change everything huge, but it should help some people out, as I know it's helped me out!
Much <3 TL
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This is great to know, but you gotta wonder why blizzard couldn't just give us a cooldown bar over the warpgates just like every other race gets progress bars for their units building...
Thanks for figuring it out pat <3
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Nice find, every little fact helps :>
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Interesting, thanks for the heads up :D
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useful little piece of information! thanks! :D
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United States1005 Posts
Interesting find. I can see this being helpful. In the heat of the moment, I don't have to time to click and compare. I often end up randomly clicking. Nice work.
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Hey, this is really useful to know! especially in hectic early-game pressure, thanks for the enlightenment 
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Awesome thank you I've actually been wondering about this for quite a while. Wish they could make it clearer though
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Now normally before I did some experimentation I would have just said "idk and I'm not clicking each one individually so I'll just chrono a random 2 and hope it works!"
Your new method is interesting, but I've always just clicked the hotkey for warpgates, then clicked the individual gate that had the longest cooldown period remaining (you can glance at every warpgate's cooldown at once if they're selected). You can then click the "unit portrait" area to center your screen on the warpgate you've selected, i.e. the one with the most cooldown remaining, and chronoboost from there. This may be less efficient if you have multiple chronoboosts to be used however, since you'd have to click warpgate hotkey > warpgate with most cooldown > unit portrait > nexus hotkey > c > click > back to warpgate hotkey > next warpgate with most cooldown > unit portait > nexus hotkey> c > click, etc.
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only problem is this works out nicely for the first warp in. but afterwards, the cooldowns on everything will be staggered.
thus, the wg used is not the closest, but the closest that is NOT ON COOLDOWN, which could be any where
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On July 27 2011 07:06 o29 wrote:Show nested quote +Now normally before I did some experimentation I would have just said "idk and I'm not clicking each one individually so I'll just chrono a random 2 and hope it works!" Your new method is interesting, but I've always just clicked the hotkey for warpgates, then clicked the individual gate that had the longest cooldown period remaining (you can glance at every warpgate's cooldown at once if they're selected). You can then click the "unit portrait" area to center your screen on the warpgate you've selected, i.e. the one with the most cooldown remaining, and chronoboost from there. This may be less efficient if you have multiple chronoboosts to be used however, since you'd have to click warpgate hotkey > warpgate with most cooldown > unit portrait > c > click > back to warpgate hotkey > next warpgate with most cooldown > unit portait > c > click, etc.
Yes but that's still more time wasted. Plus in the late game with tons of gates it becomes less and less effective to of that method. This method holds true all game and only becomes a pain if you have gates all over the map.
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is the old method hotkeying all your gates pressing w then u see which one is behind in cooldown click on that gate and it will highligh it and then chrono it .
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United Kingdom1190 Posts
Surprisingly effective way actually to keep tabs on cooldowns, nice find there. I can see this being a real helper in PvP especially.
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On July 27 2011 07:07 iCCup.Diamond wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2011 07:06 o29 wrote:Now normally before I did some experimentation I would have just said "idk and I'm not clicking each one individually so I'll just chrono a random 2 and hope it works!" Your new method is interesting, but I've always just clicked the hotkey for warpgates, then clicked the individual gate that had the longest cooldown period remaining (you can glance at every warpgate's cooldown at once if they're selected). You can then click the "unit portrait" area to center your screen on the warpgate you've selected, i.e. the one with the most cooldown remaining, and chronoboost from there. This may be less efficient if you have multiple chronoboosts to be used however, since you'd have to click warpgate hotkey > warpgate with most cooldown > unit portrait > c > click > back to warpgate hotkey > next warpgate with most cooldown > unit portait > c > click, etc. Yes but that's still more time wasted. Plus in the late game with tons of gates it becomes less and less effective to of that method. This method holds true all game and only becomes a pain if you have gates all over the map.
Agreed, I was just pointing out a potentially better method than your previous method. I do agree that this new method is probably the most efficient once you get used to it.
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On July 27 2011 07:00 -orb- wrote:
This is great to know, but you gotta wonder why blizzard couldn't just give us a cooldown bar over the warpgates just like every other race gets progress bars for their units building...
Thanks for figuring it out pat <3
Seriously would be helpful I'd say. Good thing to know though, even if I'm not toss.
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I found this thread to be extremely informative, thanks for taking the time!
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very interesting! this something i've always wondered about myself. thanks for putting in the work op
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That is pretty cool, thanks for figuring this out and making a post about it.
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On July 27 2011 07:06 o29 wrote:Show nested quote +Now normally before I did some experimentation I would have just said "idk and I'm not clicking each one individually so I'll just chrono a random 2 and hope it works!" Your new method is interesting, but I've always just clicked the hotkey for warpgates, then clicked the individual gate that had the longest cooldown period remaining (you can glance at every warpgate's cooldown at once if they're selected). You can then click the "unit portrait" area to center your screen on the warpgate you've selected, i.e. the one with the most cooldown remaining, and chronoboost from there. This may be less efficient if you have multiple chronoboosts to be used however, since you'd have to click warpgate hotkey > warpgate with most cooldown > unit portrait > c > click > back to warpgate hotkey > next warpgate with most cooldown > unit portait > c > click, etc.
IMO this would take too long. It takes me about 2 seconds to go to my gates, and then nexus shift c click click click click double tap army hotkey. If I ever get around to learning to use camera hotkeys I could probably reduce this to ~1.5ish.
I would like a cooldown bar, possibly like the inject timer on a hatch, would make split second decision making more vital. Rather than blindly chronoing the first 2 gates under my cursor, taking the 200ms to decide which 2 gates would finish first is a small buff to the best players, although I feel chrono isn't a resource which is too important after the first 8 minutes of the game.
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On July 27 2011 07:00 -orb- wrote:
This is great to know, but you gotta wonder why blizzard couldn't just give us a cooldown bar over the warpgates just like every other race gets progress bars for their units building...
Thanks for figuring it out pat <3
Because the other races dont get to be able to spawn units anywhere on the map without having the whole construction building there.
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EPT
