Table of Contents: 1. Introduction, Speed and Spam 2. Your Body 3. Equipment 4. Settings 5. Hotkeys 6. In Game Execution 7. How to Practice and Learn 8. Conclusion 9. About Me 10. Other Guides on Mechanics
1. Introduction, Speed and Spam
Who am I? Why am I doing this? I am a musician and a Starcraft player. I’ve been in love with the game since just after Broodwar’s release and in love with eSports since the 2005 WCG grand finals. It has always been my dream to become a pro player. In my quest to achieve this goal I have experienced losing streaks of 3-500 on PGTour (the old Broodwar ladder before iCCup) and in these losses I learned something about how I played then: I was trash at the game. This realization was hard for my 13 year old self to take but it forced me to investigate the game and come to the conclusions that have allowed me to grow as a player and as a person. I want this to be a guide in mechanics that brings together all the great knowledge I have learned from players such as desRow and commentators like Day9 and Artosis. These people deserve 90% of the credit for this guide. This is a guide I've compiled from amazing resources and learned through hard work and constant searching. This is my mechanical method which has worked wonders for me. I think I have a few new things to say that just may help us all out on our journey for mechanical perfection.
Speed Many people would say speed is one of the most important things in playing Starcraft at the highest level. That is 100% true. However, in passing conversation the fact that it is accurate speed is completely missed. If you are fast but the actions are inaccurate then your speed has been for nothing. The fact that useless actions are also not an aid in playing better is talked about more but sometimes things which may look useless actually serve a function. To have full control of the game you need to have full control of your tools and the way you use these tools to execute the strategies you want. The most important thing to realize is that I suggest you start playing at a speed where you never misclick, where you never have to cancel or correct a command. This is obviously an ideal to shoot for, still, if you play slowly with 95% accuracy while your opponent plays quickly with 50% accuracy you are both probably going to come out somewhere similar. The difference will be that the faster players hands are developing bad habits and there is less room for his hands to speed up since he is already playing closer to full speed.
This means that APM is indeed important. But it is only important once you can control your mouse, keyboard and eyes well. Speed will come with repetition.
Spam Everyone has different opinions on spam. Slow players say it’s bad and useless, fast players say it gets them warmed up. When asking the question “should I spam?” you first must answer the question, “am I creating a bad habit?” For me the answer was yes. During my BW days I spammed with the goal of that eventually that speed be utilized for useful actions, however, I simply developed the habit of spamming all game long. This caused me to sometimes missing important actions. My brain was on autopilot with my spam muscle memory I had developed. I don’t know that I believe that spam will eventually convert into useful actions but if this is what you believe try it out. Just be careful that it doesn’t become a habit that impedes your progress as a gamer. Always ask yourself if your spam is becoming a habit that is taking away from useful actions you could be executing.
Also, here it is important to note that some techniques such as tapping, moving an army on multiple hotkeys or spamming boxes on workers are actually useful actions. These techniques are not useless and are important tools in playing a successful game of Starcraft. They will be described later in section 6.
2. Your Body
People don’t typically mention the fact that your body is a part of your mechanics. Day9’s daily on mechanics does a great job of illustrating good stretches and positioning for play to avoid injury. With perfect technique you should be able to play 10-12 hours a day without injury. Perfect technique is not only good positioning of your mouse and keyboard but also complete relaxation while playing. Good technique also includes regular breaks and daily exercise.
I personally have had overuse injuries both from Starcraft and from music. Sadly both my passions require my arm to execute 100+ actions per minute. Because so many actions must be executed our goal will be to use the least amount of force/tension possible. Sit at your computer with a blank word document and press a key as lightly as you can with complete relaxation in your arm and body. You want to play Starcraft in this state of relaxation.
With my own overuse injuries daily exercise was the first thing I was told to do. I was also told that you don’t want to do weight lifting or strength training since this further strains the already damaged tendons/muscles. Since our activity requires the arms I suggest avoiding all physical activity that requires the use of the arms. Go running. Let your arms rest while you raise your heart rate and make your body healthier. This is a good thing to do if you do suffer from injury or simply as prevention. After only a week of daily exercise I noticed that my pain was dramatically reduced even though the amount I was playing the same. This is my personal experience, if you have pain, consult a professional.
I think it is also important to give your mind/body a rest from the game. Take one day off a week even if you hate it. More practice is not always better. More practice in good conditions is better and resting your mind ensures that.
3. Equipment
I originally didn’t want to include this in my guide but Tasteless’s blog encouraged me to. I played for seven years on a basic $19 keyboard. What a mistake. Obviously personal preference is a huge factor here but I believe there are certain things which are a must.
Keyboard • Get a mechanical keyboard. Switches are a personal preference but it is fairly logical that if you have black keys you will be able to play for less time each day than someone who uses brown. The reason for this is that your body needs to use more resources to activate a black switch than a brown. For this reason I suggest to avoid black keys, you don’t want to get overuse injuries from pressing the keys too hard. • It is ideal if the keyboard does not have a num pad. It allows your keyboard and mouse to be closer together. Because of this you can sit very comfortably without having to spread your arms too far apart. • The least amount of “accessories” possible is the best. Extra keys are only something you could accidentally click. • You want to remove keys you won’t use. The windows key, `, F7 and 9. These keys, when removed give you a good tactile sense of exactly where 1, 8, F6 and Ctrl are which are all very important keys in a game of Starcraft. If you can hit these keys consistently without looking down at the keyboard to do so you will play a better game.
Mouse • Have a mouse pad that you can take to tournaments with you. • Get a mouse that has good DPI settings so you can adjust sensitivity this way instead of on the computer. This avoids the skipping that can occur if you turn the sensitivity too high on the computer.
Positioning The most important thing in positioning your mouse and keyboard is that you are comfortable and can stay relaxed. If you feel like you can't sit with your hand on your mouse and the other hand on the keyboard for a long time, change your position. If you ever start having pain from playing stop and reevaluate your setup, also be conscious of tension as that my be the sole factor in the injury.
When I first released this guide there was much criticism about my stance on mouse position. Wrist at the edge of the desk (recommended by Day9) has completely healed my overuse injuries that I experienced for Wing of Liberty. I used to play with my arm resting on resting on the desk but with that I had injuries. I was speaking from personal experience but now I realize everyones bodies are different. Generally it is bad if your elbow is hanging down too much so that your wrist and arm do not create a straight line. This can cause injury since it puts strain on your muscles and tendons. Avoid this by adjusting table height or chair height if you play with your wrist at the end of the table. Play in a position where you feel comfortable and use pain as a warning sign that your position (whatever it may be) might not be best for you.
This is what originally appeared and is what has worked for me: Your mouse should be close to the edge of your desk so you can use your wrist as a pivot point. This means your arm shouldn’t move that much. The goal is to keep the least amount of motion as possible. More motion, more fatigue/injury. In tandem with this you should place your keyboard close to the edge of your desk so your arm extends to the same point on your desk. The keyboard and mouse should be as close together as possible so you can sit comfortably. The keyboard should also be slanted away from your so its left corner is higher than its right. This is because your arm doesn’t come towards the keyboard at a right angle.
4. Settings
Settings in game are very important. desRow’s guide for mechanics is really excellent in showing all the basic settings that you want to have. I’ll quickly go through each setting that I have.
Graphics Everything low. I remember the talk that cloaked units were easier to see on low graphics settings. I don’t know if this is true, and I wouldn’t base my decision on that anyway. If you ever want to play a LAN, use low settings because you have no way to control the computer you will be playing on. It may run medium perfectly but not high like you are used to. It is easy if you are used to low since then the computer will either work well or it will work to the best of its ability.
Sound Sound is your second minimap/wireframe display. It tells you when you are being attacked, when a unit is completed and which units you are currently controlling. Game music can be a distraction so I choose to turn it off. Ambient sounds should be off. Move sounds enabled and Game Volume During Alerts should be low enough that alerts are VERY clear. You never want to miss “Our workers are under attack” and lose every miner at a base during a big fight.
Control • Do not enable mouse sensitivity. • The most important thing in this screen is to Disable Windows Key (which you should have already removed). I use Alt Tab to get out of the game but during tournament matches I disable that as well just in case. • Scrolling is an issue. You almost never want to be scrolling. I made the mistake of learning the game with very high scroll sensitivity and lower Drag sensitivity so I could scroll around my bases freely and attack a few screens over with ease. I leave your own scroll sensitivity up to you but you should strive to scroll as little as possible (this will be explained in detail later).
This is what I do (it may not be perfect but here is my rationale): • Mouse Scroll - Fast Mouse scroll is used to quickly execute attack and proxy finding move commands. • Drag Scroll - Medium Used to carefully setup camera locations at the start of the game.
Gameplay 1. Show Game Timer: Tons of your in game timings after your basic build order will be based on this. 2. Display Build Grid: Sim city is important. 3. Enable Worker Rally: Don’t let computer or network lag mess you up when you are at a LAN. Just get used to using this setting. 4. Display Team Colored Life Bars: DISABLE THIS USELESS THING. It is distracting and if you are purple your energy will be the same colour as health etc. 5. Always Show Worker Status: You need this to have a good economy. You can accomplish it through selecting the workers at a base and checking the number but that is much less efficient. 6. Show Current Order Indicator: Enable! 7. Enable Enemy Unit Selection: You need to be able to check their tech if it is still under construction. 8. Show Unit Life Bars: Always. This is for micro. 9. Show Flyer Helper: Always. For storm. 10. Control Groups: Unclickable. You want to be able to see the icon incase you accidentally miss bind something. But you don’t want to ever accidentally misclick on this. 11. Save All Replays: They help you learn and improve. Watch every one. If you ever want coaching from anyone they will most likely want to see replays. I suggest renaming each replay after you play the game so you know exactly what happened in the game. IE “TvP; Loss; Immortal Bust not defended correctly”.
In Game Always play in your team colour (green). It will always be the same and you always have control over that!
5. Hotkeys
Rebinding For this guide I will be using the same rebinding for all three races which would allow you to play random or switch races with the most ease possible. Also these hotkeys are all for the standard layout. I came from BW and so this is the setup I am most used to playing with. I’m sure you can still learn at least one thing from these setups even if you use grid or another custom hotkey setup.
Orange – Camera location Blue – Army Red – Production Black – Removed (Hopefully your keyboard is missing the num-pad, unlike this one)
F1-F6 as camera locations. The stuff that is currently on F1-F4 is useless. You won’t need it. There is always F7 and F8 which are physically harder to get to and they could be used as some of these functions if you really want them, but as I like to remove F7 as a tactile hint I don’t rebind the functions originally on F1-F4 to anything. I use these six locations for my bases. I center each camera location over the Nexus at each base, so, F1 = main base, F2 = natural etc. This allows for easy probe transfers and jumping between bases to build structures.
Tab and Space as camera locations. Tabbing through unit selections is the worst way to do anything. It requires you to either look down at the abilities panel to be 100% sure the right unit is selected or it forces you to enter more than 1 action to bring up the correct ability. Consider this: you have a control group with Templar, MSC, Stalkers and Zealots. You want to blink under a banshee but just as you decide to do this your MSC dies. You then have to only press tab once to access blink. Because of this you will have to check and see if the stalkers are selected before actually executing the blink.
Control clicking units is more efficient than this but that has big drawbacks as well. Your mouse cannot be preparing to execute the spell while you select the units (for storm or emp) and if you accidentally miss click the game may end. You want to minimize the time your mouse spends selecting units and maximize the time it spends moving them issuing spells. For detailed micro like Templar splitting or marine splitting it is important to select move with the mouse since you cannot dedicate 4+ hotkeys to just split Templar.
For these reasons I think having a hotkey dedicated to each ability is important. So to dissuade yourself from tabbing, unbind it. By doing this it gives you a cool location which is VERY useful for Protoss. A counter argument to this is that some pros still play with 3 hotkeys or just 1 hotkey for the entire army. I realize this, but separating abilities will always be more efficient however if you can play at high grandmaster level without it and you are currently playing in tournaments you do not have time to completely retool your hotkey setup. It took me almost an entire month to get familiarized with my setup. Pros do not have the luxury of time.
Patrol from P to Y. Makes it far easier to setup shift patrols after move or attack commands.
Makes this a lot easier, and it puts a lot less strain on your hands.
Queens from Q to X Deals with Queen production so that Q can be a hotkey.
Guardian shield from G to X You will never accidentally guardian shield instead of forcefield.
Also under Global>Unit Management>Choose Ability or A.I. Target you can setup so you can spam warp in zealots or spam creep tumors. Simply add an alternative hotkey that is the same button as the hotkey you currently use for zealot or creep tumor. Sadly you can only add 1 alternative so if you are playing Random you will have to change this each game or simply stick with only zealots or creep tumors using this effect. Moratzka pointed out to me that if you go "to your documents folder -> starcraft II -> accounts -> (your account) -> hotkeys open your .sc2hotkeys file with notpad and go to the line that begins with "TargetChoose=LeftMouseButton" you can add additional keys separated with commas make sure to reload the hotkey profile in sc2". The effect that this has is that when you hold the key for zealot (z) the game will spam warp in wherever your mouse cursor is. This is very useful when remaxing during a fight. Watch Khaldor's video “StarCraft Tutorials: Hotkey Trick (ability spamming)” to get an explanation of this.
Rules for Control Groups 1: Every frequently used ability should be accessible through one hotkey selection on the keyboard. 2: Macro structures and army each have their own dedicated space on the keyboard. This way your hand switches positions depending on if you are microing or macroing. 3: The same keys should always be used for the same type of units (either in function or specifically). Don’t hotkey Stalkers to two different keys at different times, they should always be on the same key.
Protoss 1 - Army Zealot, sentry, archon, and colossus. (Stalkers after they are no longer needed for drop defense). This key is used to cast sentry spells.
2 - Stalkers This allows blink to be accessible. Allows easy target firing of Vikings etc.
3 - Colossus or sentries These important units need to be the first to react in case of danger. For this key hotkey Colossus here unless there are no Colossus in the army. If that is the case instead hotkey sentries which are gas intensive and should be a priority to save.
4 - Mothership Core Use the right click follow command if you want it grouped with your army. When you select a unit for it to follow it should be the biggest unit in the army since this unit is least likely to randomly die if you micro/engage well. ie. follow the colossus not a zealot.
Q (rebound 9) - Observers and later Phoenix or Warp Prism I use this for observers so I can quickly check the Terran/Zerg’s choke to see their army composition. Once my Warp Prism pops out I instantly switch this hotkey to a harassment hotkey. It is also conceivable that if the warp prism dies you can hotkey a proxy pylon to this key for ease of access. Generally I like to have more than 1 proxy pylon and a warp prism at the same time so I just minimap click for the proxy pylon. Hotkey observers here against swarm hosts.
W (rebound 10) - Templar You shouldn’t group more than 3-4 templar together. Having templar on Q or a WP filled with templar can be key to winning engagements in PvT. Also having HT that are static and not hotkeyed is important. You can always shift add them if you decide to attack.
5 - Nexus I replace this key with a different coloured key so I know exactly where my production starts if I have to glance at my keyboard. During stressful games you can become disoriented and lose your place on the keyboard.
6 - Gateways This is better than the warp gate key for 2 reasons: 1: It allows you to see untransformed gateways and add them as soon as they have started to be built. Then you can transform them by Ctrl clicking. 2: It allows you to tap and see the specific cooldown durations.
7 - Robotics Facility Both this key and the Stargate key can be slightly awkward to use but with index and pinky finger all the key combinations are easy to execute. It just takes a small amount of time an focus to master.
8 - Stargate
F1-F6 Camera locations for bases Set these locations roughly at the start of the game and once the expo starts construction center the screen and reset these locations. This makes transferring workers easier. Also, I dislike using the Jump Through Bases button which is default Backspace. This key jumps through bases in a cycle which always picks up where the last cycle left off. You can't use this key to simply just to a specific base immediately, instead you must cycle through your bases until your reach the correct one. (This can be very useful if you are Zerg and want to inject larva).
Tab - Warp in location
Space - Upgrades It is important to have a camera location for upgrades as you can easily see the chrono boost status. Also, if the location is set at the start of the game it forces you to intelligently place your tech so that it is least likely to be sniped.
Zerg 1 - Army Zerglings, roach, hydra, ultra, and later banelings. Hotkey banelings here for mass engagements after the finer micro battles are over.
2 - Banelings
3 - Swarm hosts
4 - Infestors
Q - Muta/corruptor Or other harassment groups if muta are out on the field.
W - Vipers
5/6 - Hatcheries Don’t worry about having hatcheries individually hotkeyed since you can easily base jump by using the F keys.
7/8 - Creep queens
F1-F6 (or F7+F8)
As I am not a Zerg player you can leave Tab and Space as their regular functions. However I find a location above upgrades is helpful for checking in on them. However for zerg it may be more practical to designate 8 for upgrades so you can tap it during battles etc. Zerg and Terran are lucky since macro can be done 90% through the keyboard where as toss relies on camera and mouse control as well for macro. Tab can also be used as a rally point hotkey if you do not like to hotkey eggs (I hotkey eggs).
Terran: (very rough) 1 - Main army Marines, Marauders, Medivac, Helbat, Thors To change the Thors attack type you can simply Ctrl click it.
2 – Widow mines
3 – Medivacs (Siege tanks if you like mech) Allows you to quickly pull them away in an engagement and can be used for early game drops with only 1-2 medivacs are out.
4 – Medivac #2 and later Ghosts Allows you to have a second medivac hotkeyed.
Q - Vikings or Banshee (for harassment) Since this hotkey setup doesn’t group Vikings with your main army use a follow command so they trail just behind your medivacs. This also lets them stay out of the way of stalkers or storms which can hit clumped up moving Vikings.
W - Ravens
F1-F6 (or F&+F8)
Tab/Space See Zerg explanation.
I failed to mention where you can hotkey early hellion harassment in this hotkey setup. For me Q is the best option because I hotkey most of my harassment units there. However since you are producing hellions it makes most logical sense that it would be placed on 2 instead of widow mines.
Splitting Armies I think that this topic deserves some attention. When you need to split your army to deal with a Terran drop or as Terran to drop and attack at different locations there are several ways of doing this. The easier temporary solution if you don’t foresee the split needing to stay in place for long is just to box and deal with the situation and them simply use 1 to bring your army back together. However, in some circumstances (muta corruptor vs Protoss) you need to have 2 separate groups of army at the same time for an extended period.
In Protoss vs Terran it is mandatory to have Stalkers in your main defending against drops. In this situation stalkers in the main are hotkeyed to 2 while the army (without stalkers) is on 1 defending the natural. From this basis I used 2 for “Army in main/natural” and 1 for “Army at 3rd/nat” for defense against Muta corruptor. Because of design toss rarely splits into two forces when offensively on the map. Still two control groups can be used aggressively on the map as long as your brain knows where each hotkey will be location on the map. For example 1 can be for the army at the top/left and 2 for the army at the bottom/right. This way your brain always remembers that the top or left force is control by 1 and the bottom or right force is always control by 2. This takes practice.
Here I will mention that late game harassment with drops/zealots/lings should all be done without a hotkey. At that point in the game it is more important to have the best control possible of your primary army and production. Just make sure your harassment group isn’t grouped with your army incase your army needs to move while you are harassing.
6. In Game Execution Everyone should watch Day9’s “Secrets of Hotkeys, APM and Mouse Movement” (Daily #252). Also desRow’s guide #8 is very useful in showing a lot of good in game habits to develop. I am going to summarize some of these ideas.
You have three important things to manage when in a game of Starcraft. Your mouse, keyboard and eyes. Without good control of all of these things together you will not have strong, refined play.
Mouse The goal with your mouse is to consistently click on exactly what you want. For this reason you will see pros spam boxes or spam rally on all the mineral patches. Originally when I was younger I just did this to feel “cool” like a pro. But this serves a very practical function, it is a way of practicing mouse accuracy. Play games with yourself and try to click on a mineral patch and then a probe then a geyser as fast as possible when your probes are starting to mine. Remember you should do this at the speed in which you can be 100% accurate in order to build good habits. Push yourself to go to the limit of this speed though, don’t mentally relax and become passive. You need to engage and push yourself just to the edge of your ability.
Keyboard You need to be able to never look at your keyboard. If you look down at your keyboard this is both a problem with your keyboard proficiency and your eye control. Your eyes need to be staring at the minimap AT ALL TIMES. Sadly they can’t be, so every second you spend looking away from the minimap should be spent doing a useful action. It is possible to play without looking at the keyboard. Slow work practicing hotkeys can help to develop this ability. If you want to play fast and you try to without being able to use your keyboard correctly you will develop the habit of always looking at your keyboard to macro or cast certain spells. This is why I spent an entire month working on my hotkey setup. I would actually unplug my keyboard and simply tell myself to physically execute an action for practice.
Eyes I’m very glad I re-watched the Day9 daily 252 before writing this guide. What you are looking at is very important. Day9 is right when he says that macro is a skill that your eyes are responsible for. This will become clear after I explain tapping.
Specific Uses in Game Now, let’s examine some combinations of these three tools for actual in game actions. This will become clear. I have started with the broadest concepts and moved to the specific more detailed ones. Some of these things may already be second nature to you and it is more than likely that I have missed some cute things that can give you small mechanical edges. Please let me know about these! My contact info is below so please contact me, I want to grow this guide as much as I can. In this guide I am not covering very specific types of mechanics like exactly how to micro blink stalkers or have them blink one by one into someone’s main.
The Minimap (Combining actions) The goal is to spend all your free time looking at the minimap. When trying to refine your mechanics or to accomplish more tasks in less time ask yourself if you could combine different actions into one action. Ex. You can combine the action of moving your army with the action of looking at the minimap by always a-clicking on the minimap to move your army. This applies to scout probes, scout stalkers, rally points etc. By always clicking directly on the minimap you increase the amount of time you spend looking at the minimap while accomplishing another action. If you need to click on something specific simply left click the minimap and then select the unit/object you need to.
The Macro Cycle and Tapping I tried many times to incorporate a mental checklist into my play without any success. It isn’t intuitive for me. Still, I have found that this cycle exists during downtime. If there are no actions that need to immediately be taken care of the best thing to do is tapping. Now tapping is usually confused with spam. You see a pro cycling through CC Rax Fact many times without actually doing anything. The reason he/she is doing this is to check which of those structures needs upkeep. Do you need a marine? Or a tank? At this time it is also good at check the minimap and then your supply count. The great thing about tapping is that it also requires your eyes to focus on the lower half of the screen making it very easy to glance at the minimap.
Inserting actions This is a very simple concept that I only stumbled upon during an analysis of my own play a month ago. I noticed that I wanted to build my 2 additional gates in PvT and that I simply put gate #1 down at 150 minerals and then waited until 150 more came in to put down the gate #2. Why did I wait? Because I was not thinking. I wasted valuable time just waiting. You should always insert actions between things you cannot speed up. For example, while a medivac is unloading tap and check to see if you need marines, maybe make some more and then stim and micro. Maybe you tap and everything seems fine, glance at the minimap. Again if you send a drone to make a roach warren before you have enough minerals, larva inject while it is walking and then make the roach warren. By doing this you can make your play so much more efficient.
Battles I made a post on TL about two weeks ago asking what mechanical issue is least talked about and a176 responded saying macro during battles. He said you want to experience the game and so you don’t macro and just watch. This is true, your mind says, “this battle is how I win, focus on it.” Now in BW this was more of an issue since battles could take much longer than in SC2 but as a Zerg or Terran player take advantage of the fact that your mechanics are easier in this situation and tap and macro during the battle. For Protoss users I suggest you queue large units like Colossus or Void ray during the battle and warp in as soon as you’ve cast key spells and lost a portion of your maxed army. The advantage of Terran and Zerg in battle is they can macro without looking away from the battle and so as soon as the winner of the battle becomes clear they can retreat or continue to attack whereas Protoss must move the screen away and in doing so may stay slightly too long in an engagement.
The most important thing during a battle is to remember macro. After you’ve remembered it do what you can. Cue Colossus or marines while watching the battle and if you think you starting to win go home and warp in or drop mules.
Scouting This is a fairly basic concept, but when cueing a scout marine/probe/stalker/zergling always use the attack command. If you move-command scout you will miss units that may be hidden and sometimes pass by structures and not notice. It is a sad day when you move command worker sees a probe in your base but you just miss looking at it.
This will not work 100% of the time since sometimes units will be out of the attack radius of the scouting unit. For these reasons try to scout as close to the edge of the map as is possible.
Micro I don’t want to discuss micro in detail. Every race has many different issues to deal with. Each unit requires a different type of control. Marines are different from Stalkers which are different from Swarm hosts. The most important thing is that micro is not the most important thing. Remember to tap and macro behind the micro. By watching pro vods you can get a sense of what you need to do to micro correctly, what it needs to look like. Micro is a visual thing and for this reason it is easier to pick up. If you’ve developed good mouse accuracy you will be able to execute it.
Boxing When you box you should always box from top to bottom regardless of which corner of the box you start at. I box left to right but it is possible to box right to left. The reason you should box from top to bottom is because this encourages your hand to pull towards its pivot point. Because of this you can choose very specifically when you want to stop. Boxing in the other direction is less accurate because it is more challenging to accurately stop boxing.
Workers (Adding/Removing units from a selection group) Managing workers is the last thing I wanted to touch on. By holding shift you can add units to a selection and by holding shift and clicking on the units wireframe you can remove those units from the selection. By doing this you can efficiently manage your economy. Use the shift add to gather 3 workers together to add to gas if you can’t box 3 at once immediately. Use shift remove to select down to the number of workers you want to transfer to a new expansion. Also these skills are useful when deal with drops. Box select all workers and move them away. When sending them back to mine it is hard to select 3 and 3 to mine gas if the workers form into a stacked line. Here you can send the entire selection of 22 workers to 1 geyser, remove 3, send the rest to the 2nd geyser, remove 3 more, and send the rest back to minerals. if you accidentally send a drone to a geyser or mineral patch with a piece of resource in its hands you can quickly tab c to have it return its cargo before it resumes mining from the last selected resource.
Another thing that bothers me is something I see in a lot of Terran players' play (this doesn’t apply to Zerg). Some very high level Terran build structures and don’t F1 shift click on minerals. After construction the SCV spends sometimes upwards of 30 seconds sitting there doing nothing. Day9 says every player should get in the habit of building the structure pressing F1 and the shift clicking back on the mineral patch for every structure you create. It’s good practice to do this for every structure but personally I do don’t it when I can visually already see a mineral patch where the structure is being created. It’s a small thing but it’s very good to incorporate into your play.
Always shift click! Use a camera location if you are building a structure somewhere else on the map. (I even do this for proxy pylons. Instead of shift clicking minerals I shift move the probe so it’s hidden at a different proxy location).
7. How to Practice and Learn
Practicing well is the most important part of improving. The most important thing to realize is that gamers have VERY BAD ways of practicing. In music you would never dream of only practicing or working on improving your playing during a concert. You would also never dream of simply playing the same piece over and over for 10 hours a day to improve. This will give you some results but not as many as are possible. You spend hours away from the actual act refining your technique, memorizing, playing with a metronome for tempo and practicing small portions (sometimes only a few seconds long) over and over for consistency. Practicing Starcraft is also possible this way, and it is the best way for you to see quick improvement. First, work on keyboard control by disconnecting it from the computer and learning all your keystrokes. After that you can use a tool called SALT in which you can also choose exactly what aspect of your mechanics or builds you want to refine, memorize or repeat for practice. The most important thing is that you practice in an environment controlled by you, so that you can focus on the issues you are having instead of repeating things you have already learned. Be efficient with your practice time, it is valuable.
Musical Practice and Starcraft Practice I am currently a music major in university and the way I work on new material is as follows: 1. Preliminary read through material. Just see all the broad points of interest, what might be hard that will require extra attention. (Alone) 2. Practice the hardest material first and most frequently until a level of competency is achieved. (Alone) 3. Present work to your teacher. (One on One Lesson) 4. Learn suggestions made by your teacher during your lesson. (Alone) 5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you are confident to perform. (Alone) 6. Perform the piece for a small group of people. (Maybe 15-30) 7. Repeat steps 2-4 fixing mistakes from the test performance. Do this until you are confident to perform. (Alone) 8. Perform for a jury/recital (3 judges or 50+ people)
Now sometimes I am immersed in this process for more than a year learning a single piece. Generally in Starcraft if you are playing tournaments you do not have this kind of time. But the most important thing to notice here is that the majority of my time is spent alone, in a stress-free, personally-controlled environment where I can isolate my problems and fix them. Once the problems are fixed I move outside of my isolated environment and give it a “test run”.
Starcraft should be practiced this way as well.
The key thing is that when you practice music it is away from the stress or nerves of performing. When you introduce nerves, stress and expectations your mind will function differently and if it has never been trained to play correctly without nerves what are the chances it will function well with nerves. This is a rough equivalence for Starcraft with the model I described above:
• Custom vs AI: No stress (Alone) • Custom vs Teammate/Practice Partner: Low Stress (One on One) • Ladder: Medium Stress (Random opponent, random strategy) • Tournament from Home: High Stress (Test run) • LAN Tournament: Highest Stress (What you work towards)
I want to touch on practicing on Ladder. Many pros say ladder isn’t the best place to practice but it is good enough. I completely disagree. Ladder is perhaps the worst place to practice. You have no control over which match-up, which strategy or the level of player you are facing. You could end up facing a 2 raxing Terran all day long (which you probably beat easily and learn nothing from). It is an unfocused way to play the game, if you want to just have fun, go crush people on ladder and take their ladder points, but don’t use it as a practice tool. After all that there is one benefit to ladder: if you feel that your gameplay is perfect you need to play ladder until you lose. Ladder will eventually show you large holes in your gameplay which you can then practice and correct. My personal suggestion to you is to play 100% of your games vs AI until you feel your mechanics have become consistent. Then spend 75%~ of your time vs AI or vs Practice partners. When you feel very confident in both strategy and mechanics go ladder until you lose, and then practice specifically against that.
Stress in Degrees You can see above that you should practice and spend the majority of your time in a stress-free environment. This should appeal to everyone who has ladder anxiety! You can work on the game in the best way possible without having to play ladder! Start working on improving you mechanics vs AI, then move to practice partners and correct mistakes there, test run your play in free to enter online tournaments like Zotac cup. Then take what you learnt from that experience and grow as a player by repeating everything you’ve already done this time working on the mistake you made during the test run tournament.
Mechanics of Practice vs AI When practicing vs AI you can change the game speed so you can play slower if you aren’t macroing well at the faster speed yet. If you are having troubles keeping up at Faster it is most likely a result of mouse precision, keyboard fluency or eye control. Don’t be scared to slow the game way down and consciously think about exactly how you use your three tools (mouse, keyboard and eyes). Coordinating 3 things takes a lot of time to build muscle memory, remember it took me 1 month to become fluent with my keyboard, and I still have lots of work to do on my eyes and mouse.
To become fluent with my keyboard I spent a lot of time with the keyboard unplugged just executing basic actions. I’d say to myself, “build colossus”, 7 C 5 C (builds a colossus and chrono boosts it). The first few times I’d stare at my keyboard while doing this to get used to exactly how it felt with the visual aid. Then I’d push myself to look at the wall or something else while I executed it. All of this was done building from slow to fast. Mouse accuracy is obviously best practiced in game. Just always click perfectly and slowly ramp up the speed at which you move to new targets.
If you make a mistake, stop, analyze it, and then you should correct it. If you make the mistake more than once you are starting to form a bad habit. To prevent this slow yourself down and practice only the spot you were making the mistake. My suggestion is that you use SALT to do this. It is a really nice map you can use to restart the game without having to reload a map. If you are struggling with aspects of the game after the 10 minutes mark I’d say to use this program with a practice partner as you can save the game state at any time and then reload it. So say after 11 minutes your multitasking starts to slip, save the game at 11 minutes and reload from there until you can macro well enough. This is also a great way to learn big battle micro. I was having troubles with roach hydra viper timings and so I just used this map to reload several times just before the battle and practice exactly how I was engaging the composition (of course to do this you need to know that your army is actually big enough and the correct composition to have a chance to win).
If you don’t want to use SALT you can just save and reload the map at the point that you want to start from.
Slowly when you are comfortable with your mechanics move into practice games or ladder. As your mechanics improve spend less time against AI and more with practice partners. I suggest starting each day (no matter your skill) with several run throughs vs AI to reestablish your mechanical habits before moving into a game. I run through at least 1 build from each match up now before starting my day on ladder. Defending a 6 pool isn’t a very rounded mechanical warm up so don’t take that chance.
Practice Partners You should find the highest level practice partners possible. If you can find a grandmaster who is willing to practice with you, ALWAYS practice with them. Assuming you have spent countless hours vs AI perfecting your mechanics and you know good builds you will most likely be playing at a Diamond or Masters level. You will always learn the most by playing with the highest possible level of player. Of course if you have not spent enough time focusing mechanically practicing with high level players will not be rewarding since you simply will not be able to keep up. If that is the case and you float 500-1000 minerals consistently, or can’t attack two places at once, go and work on mouse precision and keyboard fluency vs AI again.
Practice Tournaments Every tournament you will ever enter is a practice tournament. If you are playing in code S GSL it is a practice tournament. The things you will learn from the experience of playing a tournament are invaluable and regardless of the result you should learn from each experience you have. If you feel stress, that is normal, playing more and more tournaments will help you learn to deal with the stress. I have a minor sense of nervousness when I perform music but with Starcraft my hands sometimes shake violently and I feel sick to my stomach. The only reason for this is that I only started to play regular tournaments in Starcraft two months ago. I’ve been playing concerts since I was 10, I’m pretty comfortable with it now. Play as many tournaments as you possibly can.
Resources for Learning Replays are the best possible way to learn build orders. You can see exactly how they time everything. While it is common for pros to make timing mistakes during games you can at least see that they placed a building 50 gas late etc. VODs are the next best resource. Sometimes important information is skipped over such as chrono boosts or perhaps the production tab isn’t open when a Zerg player creates a round of drones. Usually if you spend 30-45 minutes vs AI trying to figure out exactly how to replicate the timing the pro had you can. I have figured out many chrono boost timings just by trial and error in SALT.
I suggest learning build orders for yourself. The understand you will form by analyzing the game and trying to place chrono boosts is something that can’t be learned from a VOD on a build. It’s funny that I say this since I have created a few build order videos. Still they can be a very valuable resource to a new player who doesn’t yet have the deep understanding required to rip a build perfectly. If you are new find a good educational resource like eSportU and learn a build from there. Liquipedia is filled with outdated builds and the Protoss builds that exist on TL strategy are one-hit-wonders from proleague (The 2 base Templar guide is an exception.)
Recording yourself is an amazing learning resource. Xsplit is not enough (although it will help). You need a camera to sit just behind you at an angle that captures both the screen and the keyboard. Literally stack up books or something so the camera can capture everything. This way you can focus on your physical movements and not only the result of those movements on the screen. Here you will see if your hands look tense. Also watch for tension in other parts of your body that is visible, it is very common for musicians to make strange faces etc while they are playing, this is tension that is hidden and it can lead to all sorts of pain. I personally have very tense feet while I play and sometimes after long practice sessions my legs will ache. It took me years to actually figure out that Starcraft was the cause of this pain.
Record yourself in all different circumstances. How do you deal with stress? Does playing on the ladder dramatically reduce your APM? Or does your macro slip during engagements because you get tunnel vision and forget to tap? In the past I would play on ladder around 100-120 APM while my play with practice partners was at 140-150 and vs AI from 160-200. This wasn’t useless actions either, vs actual players I just went half as fast. It took time and a lot of days spent playing only vs AI until I am finally able to consistently get 150-160 vs players. APM is just an example but lots of things can change from practice to in game situations. Look for these changes! Take note and correct them.
This last section I have decided to revise in the coming days. I feel that I got slightly side tracked and didn't elaborate on the most important thing: recording yourself and analyzing mistakes. Danglars brought this to my attention in the comments and to complete this guide I will be re-organizing this section!
8. Conclusion
I really hope I have given you something new or perhaps slightly expanded on something old. Playing this game is like playing an instrument. Don’t expect to be able to move at 200APM after doing this for a week. Don’t expect it after a month. I’ve been going seriously for 6 months now and I’ve only improved 60 APM. Progress can be slow, but if you work hard and stick with it the results are worth it.
I revised my introduction paragraph after many comments to this article. It is, hopefully, now clearer that this is my method for mechanics. This game is so diverse and there are many "correct" ways of playing it. That is one of the reasons it is such an interesting game. I do things this way because I personally believe it gives me the most advantages. You decide if this works for you.
9. About Me
I’m Deadzerg, a high Masters Protoss from Canada. I’ve just started becoming involved in the community and I really want to give back because my life has been enriched so much by Starcraft and its community. My goal right now is to build my stream and shoot for GM. My stream is www.twitch.tv/DeadzergSC2 and I will be streaming regularly focusing on in-depth analysis, coaching and creating guides.
My Twitter is https://twitter.com/DeadzergSC2. I will be tweeting about the progress of current projects/tournaments I am involved in and it will also serve as notifications for when I go live with a stream.
But what about the display style of the minimap? Would you recommend switching to an all-black background if you are familiar with the map? I recall seeing some bw players doing it in the old days.
Holy Shit, This is amazing! Just ready through most of it (started skimming a bit toward the end, will reread it soon though) and I am impressed, to say the least! This is exactly what I needed, as mechanics are my largest issue, something I;ve been trying to remedy recently. So thank you very much for taking the time to create this guide!
Read a few of the sections I thought were interesting. Pretty cool guide. But one thing to note is everyone has there own way to control things, but it is good to have a guide and than you can adjust it how you like.
But what about the display style of the minimap? Would you recommend switching to an all-black background if you are familiar with the map? I recall seeing some bw players doing it in the old days.
My thoughts on the minimap are that you need to be able to see the fog of war. You want to know if you missed an area while scouting for proxies etc. I can see how it might be helpful to have it all black so there is less distraction but I'm so used to playing with it the other way and I think to toggle it on/off to check the fog of war is too much extra time spent where it doesn't need to be.
HeeroFX my Hotkey section is just a suggestions of one way to bind things. I think its important to keep army and macro structures in different locations and have a hotkey for each ability. This is just what I think is optimal :D
just finished reading it and some points are really questionable especially this one:
I want to touch on practicing on Ladder. Many pros say ladder isn’t the best place to practice but it is good enough. I completely disagree. Ladder is perhaps the worst place to practice. You have no control over which match-up, which strategy or the level of player you are facing. You could end up facing a 2 raxing Terran all day long (which you probably beat easily and learn nothing from). It is an unfocused way to play the game, if you want to just have fun, go crush people on ladder and take their ladder points, but don’t use it as a practice tool. After all that there is one benefit to ladder: if you feel that your gameplay is perfect you need to play ladder until you lose. Ladder will eventually show you large holes in your gameplay which you can then practice and correct. My personal suggestion to you is to play 100% of your games vs AI until you feel your mechanics have become consistent. Then spend 75%~ of your time vs AI or vs Practice partners. When you feel very confident in both strategy and mechanics go ladder until you lose, and then practice specifically against that.
On August 30 2013 00:10 P_e_X wrote: nice guide man. But i dont get why weight lifting is bad for your arms? i always thought the opposite...
Weight lifting in itself isn't bad for your arms. But if you have overuse injuries or a tendency for them it will be. If you've never had any problems go ahead but be careful if you've experienced pain in the past.
I want to touch on practicing on Ladder. Many pros say ladder isn’t the best place to practice but it is good enough. I completely disagree. Ladder is perhaps the worst place to practice. You have no control over which match-up, which strategy or the level of player you are facing. You could end up facing a 2 raxing Terran all day long (which you probably beat easily and learn nothing from). It is an unfocused way to play the game, if you want to just have fun, go crush people on ladder and take their ladder points, but don’t use it as a practice tool. After all that there is one benefit to ladder: if you feel that your gameplay is perfect you need to play ladder until you lose. Ladder will eventually show you large holes in your gameplay which you can then practice and correct. My personal suggestion to you is to play 100% of your games vs AI until you feel your mechanics have become consistent. Then spend 75%~ of your time vs AI or vs Practice partners. When you feel very confident in both strategy and mechanics go ladder until you lose, and then practice specifically against that.
Practicing in an environment you can control is very key to developing really good habits. These habits once established will transfer into ladder games etc. You just don't want to start learning the game with the stress and randomness that can come with laddering. Stress will cause you to develop bad habits like tension or frantic spamming of move commands if you haven't trained yourself to properly execute it the correct way first. Ladder can be a very useful tool once mechanics are in place, but before that it is either just for fun or a waste of time.
I really like the overall tips in this guide but some look like too extreme for player that just play for fun. The AI thing is a good 'practice' thing but you will have no fun at all doing this. Since there is non ranked match now why bother practice on AI where you can practice without pressure on unranked. at worst you loose because of counter B.O but you can still practice your build and mechanics.
Your key biding relocate is awesome will try it at home !
On August 30 2013 00:42 klup wrote: I really like the overall tips in this guide but some look like too extreme for player that just play for fun. The AI thing is a good 'practice' thing but you will have no fun at all doing this. Since there is non ranked match now why bother practice on AI where you can practice without pressure on unranked. at worst you loose because of counter B.O but you can still practice your build and mechanics.
Your key biding relocate is awesome will try it at home !
Yeah unranked is an option which I did neglect. Personally I find it really rewarding and fun playing vs AI. But I know it is not for everyone. This guide was intended to people who actively want to really improve their game. I think even casual players can learn a thing or two from the guide even if they don't utilize everything. I did want to put everything in there though that I think will help you improve. Use what you want.
Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
On August 30 2013 02:29 Maegi wrote: Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
Well I was specifically talking about in game music. But music of any kind can make things harder to hear or momentarily distract you. If you are shooting for the best possible results I'd say turn it off. Of course you can still play with music if you want
The most distracting thing is the wife after all. Can't shut her off either.
Very nice guide, I'm learning from this and I'm glad that at my low level I already do a few of the things I should. Getting to gold is the next (and probably final) target for me, no gold GM.
hey i noticed in your guide you mention to use f1-f6 as control locations. can you provide additional detail on what we should use the control locations for?
Boxing When you box you should always box from top to bottom regardless of which corner of the box you start at. I box left to right but it is possible to box right to left. The reason you should box from top to bottom is because this encourages your hand to pull towards its pivot point. Because of this you can choose very specifically when you want to stop. Boxing in the other direction is less accurate because it is more challenging to accurately stop boxing.
lol not true at all (for me) I can box all ways accurately :o
On August 30 2013 03:01 shadow_orc wrote: hey i noticed in your guide you mention to use f1-f6 as control locations. can you provide additional detail on what we should use the control locations for?
Thank you! I have been doing this for awhile now and just missed it since it is second nature for me. I use F1-F6 for camera locations above each one of the Nexus. That way I can move through my bases to transfer probes, chrono probes, build structures, check probe production etc.
Boxing When you box you should always box from top to bottom regardless of which corner of the box you start at. I box left to right but it is possible to box right to left. The reason you should box from top to bottom is because this encourages your hand to pull towards its pivot point. Because of this you can choose very specifically when you want to stop. Boxing in the other direction is less accurate because it is more challenging to accurately stop boxing.
lol not true at all (for me) I can box all ways accurately :o
Yeah, that's just something Day9 said in his video about mechanics so you know, that's gospel.
Boxing When you box you should always box from top to bottom regardless of which corner of the box you start at. I box left to right but it is possible to box right to left. The reason you should box from top to bottom is because this encourages your hand to pull towards its pivot point. Because of this you can choose very specifically when you want to stop. Boxing in the other direction is less accurate because it is more challenging to accurately stop boxing.
lol not true at all (for me) I can box all ways accurately :o
Yeah, that's just something Day9 said in his video about mechanics so you know, that's gospel.
Yeah I've seem really good players box both ways during warm up at the start of the game. So it is certainly possible to be good at both. I box upwards for probe selection when I want just 1-3. But I think the main idea is that our hands are "engineer" for grasping things so it is intuitive and usually easier/more accurate to box with this grasping motion.
On August 30 2013 04:10 mechengineer123 wrote: A lot of things are arguable (or simply wrong) in this post, but this one is the worst as it is actually harmful advice:
Positioning Your mouse should be close to the edge of your desk so you can use your wrist as a pivot point.
This will kill your wrists if you happen to be injury prone or play a lot.
It is interesting that people say this since I had wrist issues before I moved my mouse to this position and now I have none. I'm thinking of re-writting this portion of the guide to be more, "if it hurts don't do it, research more and try alternatives". I really don't want to give out harmful advice, but it works well for me.
Edit: It could also be the angle at which your arm connects to your hand at. If you play with your elbow below you hand it's going to put a lot of strain on the tendons. Perhaps that is why I've seen no problems? If the table is too high and you play wrist on the edge of the desk you will injure yourself, but the same is true if you whole arm is on the desk, you are more likely to injury yourself elsewhere though (shoulder maybe?). I will be updating this very quickly, I don't want anyone unclear or changing things that will cause them injury.
Hey guys! I revised the section on keyboard/mouse positioning to make it more open ended. What works for you and keeps the pain away is the best regardless of what it looks like!
Just chiming to also say I enjoyed the OP. I liked the beginning part about body and keyboard/mouse stuff. A quick question: what would the best budget option for a keyboard be like the one you're describing if I were to get it from, say a Best Buy/Target/Walmart or something like that?? How do you know if a keyboard is "mechanical"? I kind of like my keyboard but something tells me I could be using something a lot better. It's an alienware keyboard that came with my computer.
I also followed you on twitch looking forward to your next stream!
On August 30 2013 05:02 Deep Cocoa wrote: Just chiming to also say I enjoyed the OP. I liked the beginning part about body and keyboard/mouse stuff. A quick question: what would the best budget option for a keyboard be like the one you're describing if I were to get it from, say a Best Buy/Target/Walmart or something like that?? How do you know if a keyboard is "mechanical"? I kind of like my keyboard but something tells me I could be using something a lot better. It's an alienware keyboard that came with my computer.
I also followed you on twitch looking forward to your next stream!
Mechanical keyboards should specify that they are mechanical... They will have a stat like Cherry Brown/Black/Blue/Red switches. You would most likely want Brown/Red/Blue (I play with Brown) as Black takes considerably more force to activate. Check out the keyboard enthusiast thread here on teamliquid, it has tones of useful information!
On August 30 2013 05:03 Theberlinwall wrote: who are you exactly? are you GM or anything? i find a lot of this advice questionable
Hey man. I am a long time (8 year) lurker who decided I wanted to contribute. No I am not GM, I actually hardly play ladder and focus mostly on practice games at high masters level. I have only been playing seriously for 6 months but played ever since about a year after the release of BW. http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=426163 that is a link to my blog post about my story. Most of this guide comes from my experiences and how much I have improved since applying these strategies to my own practice. All of the concepts for practice come from my experience as a musician. I curious what you think is questionable about the post?
Really enjoyed this article, especially the section on how to practice more efficiently.
I'm only a low master's player, but whenever I've really wanted to gear up for a local or online tournament, I've found the best way to prepare is to do as you suggest - practice against the AI so you can control your environment. It helps to really solidify the build orders I'm going to use, so that when the game is loading in a tournament game I feel confident in my builds instead of shaky. The nerves still affect me, but that practice at home in a stress-free environment certainly helped.
I like your suggestion on taking those builds vs. AI to the ladder, playing until you lose, and then practicing against the AI against that. I will definitely try that out.
Also, I've never had a consistent practice partner to play with. Your post makes me want to reconsider that. Thanks for the reasoning behind it. Cheers
On August 30 2013 02:29 Maegi wrote: Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
im pretty sure most korean pros play with medium or higher graphics as well (as seen by myself at several dreamhacks, asus rog and for example in khaldors first person vods), then the keyboard bullshit ... oh boy, this is already too much. all i read in the op is opinion, hardly any facts. someone should mark this as OPINION.
On August 30 2013 00:42 klup wrote: I really like the overall tips in this guide but some look like too extreme for player that just play for fun.
I don't think it's written for those players at all .
Great guide, i was familiar with most of the sources you were drawing from (day9 mechanics dailies, artsosis hotkey video, etc) but it was still good and you gave some new information as well. The part about ladder being bad practice i don't agree with personally but it depends on the person and if it worked for you then it isn't dishonest to present it as your perspective.
On August 30 2013 02:29 Maegi wrote: Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
He was talking about the ingame music, not kpop. Literally everything about hotkeys, keyboard and mouse position and technique, etc can be labeled as "preference". Why did you assume he was presenting it as fact? It is literally impossible to present any "facts" about these topics.
On August 30 2013 02:29 Maegi wrote: Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
He was talking about the ingame music, not kpop. Literally everything about hotkeys, keyboard and mouse position and technique, etc can be labeled as "preference". Why did you assume he was presenting it as fact? It is literally impossible to present any "facts" about these topics.
This was a good guide.
when you advertise something to prevent injuries while in reality it'll just augment the chance you get some (mouse position/exercise for wrists) it's not an opinion, it's just straight up bullshit and so many people go waoh great guide. Btw using 6 hotkeys for your army is stupid. All pro terrans use 2 or 3 and it's enough to win a gsl.
On August 30 2013 05:14 SerADeadzerg wrote: Mechanical keyboards should specify that they are mechanical... They will have a stat like Cherry Brown/Black/Blue/Red switches. You would most likely want Brown/Red/Blue (I play with Brown) as Black takes considerably more force to activate. Check out the keyboard enthusiast thread here on teamliquid, it has tones of useful information!
Black switches don't require that much extra force. They require the same force as blue and slightly more then browns (although it is right before they actuate), while still requiring ~%20-%30 less force then rubber domes. If you're going to get a mechanical keyboard, I'd recommend trying every switch, and then making a decision.
On August 30 2013 02:29 Maegi wrote: Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
He was talking about the ingame music, not kpop. Literally everything about hotkeys, keyboard and mouse position and technique, etc can be labeled as "preference". Why did you assume he was presenting it as fact? It is literally impossible to present any "facts" about these topics.
This was a good guide.
when you advertise something to prevent injuries while in reality it'll just augment the chance you get some (mouse position/exercise for wrists) it's not an opinion, it's just straight up bullshit and so many people go waoh great guide. Btw using 6 hotkeys for your army is stupid. All pro terrans use 2 or 3 and it's enough to win a gsl.
Mouse position comes from Day9's daily and it helped me prevent my own injuries so I felt it was worth including. I have (after the uproar here regarding it, understandably) revised that section to be much clearer. I was told to avoid strength training exercises when I consulted professionals about my own overuse injuries, simply cardio work helped me improve. This is my own personal experience, all of this is what has helped me grow, perhaps it is not for you.
On August 30 2013 02:29 Maegi wrote: Lol stopped reading at "music should be turned off, it's a distraction". I'm pretty sure most pros play with music on, and anyway it is a preference issue, like most things here. Please don't give your preferences to others as facts.
He was talking about the ingame music, not kpop. Literally everything about hotkeys, keyboard and mouse position and technique, etc can be labeled as "preference". Why did you assume he was presenting it as fact? It is literally impossible to present any "facts" about these topics.
This was a good guide.
when you advertise something to prevent injuries while in reality it'll just augment the chance you get some (mouse position/exercise for wrists) it's not an opinion, it's just straight up bullshit and so many people go waoh great guide. Btw using 6 hotkeys for your army is stupid. All pro terrans use 2 or 3 and it's enough to win a gsl.
Mouse position comes from Day9's daily and it helped me prevent my own injuries so I felt it was worth included. I have (after the uproar here regarding it, understandably) revised that section to be much clearer. In response to the exercises I was told to avoid those when I consulted professionals about my own overuse injuries. This is my own personal experience, all of this is what has helped me grow, perhaps it is not for you.
So basically vaderseven's guide touching on some side issues and some pretty authoritarian viewpoints on currently debated topics. I liked the section on mechanical keyboards and rebinding for some control groups. I have a lot of personal differences on topics that you consider essential and other mechanics-focused (and for coaches, the pedagogy of mechanics) players consider nonessential. That won't be my focus here. I'll describe a couple main issues with the guide.
Spam The short answer will always be YES for players focused on improving their mechanics, becoming faster players. It's too great a benefit for breaking old slow mechanics and too jump start your handspeed. It cannot be skipped. In the normal self analysis phase (watch your own recorded VODS), late in your development you may notice you're spamming in midgame and ignoring essential actions. If that is the case, then cease spamming. Skipping the YES answer is hamstringing the learning of mechanics whether or not you have to take some time handling an addiction to midgame spam way later on (Guide already has the mechanics of spotting this problem when it rears its ugly head and affects you).
Ladder All you know on ladder is that you will be practicing mechanics just like you trained alone. Any matchup, every matchup, any cheese, every cheese. While cheese and odd things is a distraction, you are training mechanics through distractions. If you have problems wrapping your head around that, get your head-space or try some psych tricks.
Essentially, if your problem is ladder stress, then your problem is ladder stress and not choosing to improve your mechanics during ladder. I agree that practice partners and AI come first. I disagree that ladder is necessarily bad. Anything lost in ladder can be regained, it is literally your plaything until you move from mechanics-only to the finer touches of how your race plays and responds. Reduce that medium stress hurdle to low stress and improve those mechanics on ladder!
Secondly, you don't need to focus on strategy first in the AI and Practice Partner development. You can go practice on ladder, skip the strategy, and go full mechanics. Learning the strategy behind things is in your own time, and it can be daunting to think that I need a solid grasp of both strategy and mechanics (You say "feel very confident") before you approach ladder. It is a tool for mechanics and it's as much stress as you let it have over you. For a guide that unlearns hotkeys and approaches for tons of players, it isn't an increase in difficulty in learning how to train mechanics with ladder.
Recording yourself Do record yourself VODs using OBS or Xsplit streameds or local recording! In the original and long-standing mechanics guide on TeamLiquid, it goes over why.
Mistakes: Look for times when you are giving the same command several times in a row (right click spamming) (You can do this early on to help spam/warm up but only if it is not causing you to be late on whatever you are supposed to do next) Look for times when your money floats too high or when you get supply blocked and how you deal with it (missing a macro cycle and how long this effects you) Look for times when you are not reacting to the Minimap properly (your army or base is attacked and you do not move to handle the situation as soon as it happens) Look for times when your mouse seems to move slowly to accomplish something that a sure and quick gesture could accomplish (a great example is when you are placing a building, was an almost instant movement and click or was it a slow drag of the building placement indicator to the desired spot?)
Nice Things: Look for times when you look at your base right when you need to make supply, units, tech, and/or buildings and you do so in an almost instant fashion Look for times when you give one quick sure command in an exact fashion with one click (sending a probe to scout another main should take exactly 1 right click / movement command [not 5+ which many players do]) Look for times when you react instantly to things on the Minimap
Overall: Always be looking for how fast you are able to accomplish any given task (a macro cycle, transferring workers, etc) and pay attention to EXACTLY how you accomplish it and ask simple questions and give yourself honest answers about if it could be faster.
Now you have ID'd several things about your play from a mechanical viewpoint. What now? Make connections. Where you late on starting your Forge during a PvZ where you were going Forge Fast Expand? Why was that? Where you busy scouting and giving your scouting probe 6 right click movement commands that were basically to the same exact spot? How bout in a TvT where your minerals went above 1000. What was going on then? Where you reacting to a drop you just saw on the Minimap?
emphasis mine
Making and analyzing your own VODs instead of replays is an incredibly important tool in developing your mechanics. Analyzing your own replays is good and spots all kinds of mistakes. Analyzing your own VODs helps identify where you were looking someplace out (mouse cursor is captured) as well as a host of other things--mistakes you never knew you were making. It's a step removed from going out to the store and spending money and piling books, and if you hit that masters league and want to do all kinds of fun tournaments, you can add in the posture, head angle, and tension.
Really awesome guide and I agree with almost everything on it. But one thing that can be misunderstod easily in the text: "Since our activity requires the arms I suggest avoiding all physical activity that requires the use of the arms." Yes the sentence is out of the context, but since you dont highlight the importance of physical training for your arms to avoid injuries in the text, I think it can be misleading.
great guide but is there an alternate way to add or set control groups to 6, 7 and 8? My hands a very small and I feel that using the my other hand is incredibly ineffecient.
Amazing tutorial Ive actually been trying to find out as much as I can the last few days on how to improve. Im glad you took the time to write such a good post about your personal experiences and findings. It is greatly appreciated
Thank you everyone who posted! I made so many changes and the article is much better off with all of them! It was my first post but I know you didn't take it easy on me, thanks for the honesty!
On August 30 2013 02:51 BaneRiders wrote: The most distracting thing is the wife after all. Can't shut her off either.
Very nice guide, I'm learning from this and I'm glad that at my low level I already do a few of the things I should. Getting to gold is the next (and probably final) target for me, no gold GM.
Really unique perspective, a very enjoyable read. People here are harping on things you say (like how you suggest no music), but you are just suggesting the optimal learning environment. You aren't saying that listening to music keeps a person from succeeding, but that it might help your practice not to have that distraction (even if the benefit is marginal). While not all of your suggestions are for me, I really enjoy your dedication to optimizing practice and improvement. You offer many useful tips most people probably wouldn't even think about! Considering I was expecting regurgitated info like "practice a lot" and "play with people better than you", I was pleasantly surprised with this enjoyable read. You clearly put a lot of effort into it and in my opinion you created a gem in the process. Ignore any haters, this is good stuff =]
Your mouse should be close to the edge of your desk so you can use your wrist as a pivot point
because that's a pretty big no for extended playing. If your sensitivity is high enough to play from wrist pivot you gotta be really careful not to mess your wrists up and probably can't play for as long as somebody who can transfer that motion into a less sensitive/vunerable area like the fingertips and lower arm while relaxing the wrist
On August 29 2013 23:33 SerADeadzerg wrote: F1-F6 Camera locations for bases Set these locations roughly at the start of the game and once the expo starts construction center the screen and reset these locations. This makes transferring workers easier. Also, I dislike using the Jump Through Bases button which is default Backspace. This key jumps to the closest base but for this reason it is very inefficient for all tasks other than injecting larva.
Bold part is completely incorrect. The key 'cycles' through your bases in a rotation, and each successive keypress picks up where the last one left off in the sequence. It has nothing to do with "closest base".
On August 29 2013 23:33 SerADeadzerg wrote: F1-F6 Camera locations for bases Set these locations roughly at the start of the game and once the expo starts construction center the screen and reset these locations. This makes transferring workers easier. Also, I dislike using the Jump Through Bases button which is default Backspace. This key jumps to the closest base but for this reason it is very inefficient for all tasks other than injecting larva.
Bold part is completely incorrect. The key 'cycles' through your bases in a rotation, and each successive keypress picks up where the last one left off in the sequence. It has nothing to do with "closest base".
Thank you, editing the guide to be accurate. Still a frustrating key to use if you aren't Zerg.
Really cool guide for the nubies. I like to open discussion like this.
I wonder if there is a standard table height? Like for tournaments. I think my desk is a little high. Most of the stuff you find online regarding posture and desk height is for office work.
On August 30 2013 07:35 Danglars wrote: So basically vaderseven's guide touching on some side issues and some pretty authoritarian viewpoints on currently debated topics. I liked the section on mechanical keyboards and rebinding for some control groups. I have a lot of personal differences on topics that you consider essential and other mechanics-focused (and for coaches, the pedagogy of mechanics) players consider nonessential. That won't be my focus here. I'll describe a couple main issues with the guide.
Spam The short answer will always be YES for players focused on improving their mechanics, becoming faster players. It's too great a benefit for breaking old slow mechanics and too jump start your handspeed. It cannot be skipped. In the normal self analysis phase (watch your own recorded VODS), late in your development you may notice you're spamming in midgame and ignoring essential actions. If that is the case, then cease spamming. Skipping the YES answer is hamstringing the learning of mechanics whether or not you have to take some time handling an addiction to midgame spam way later on (Guide already has the mechanics of spotting this problem when it rears its ugly head and affects you).
Ladder All you know on ladder is that you will be practicing mechanics just like you trained alone. Any matchup, every matchup, any cheese, every cheese. While cheese and odd things is a distraction, you are training mechanics through distractions. If you have problems wrapping your head around that, get your head-space or try some psych tricks.
Essentially, if your problem is ladder stress, then your problem is ladder stress and not choosing to improve your mechanics during ladder. I agree that practice partners and AI come first. I disagree that ladder is necessarily bad. Anything lost in ladder can be regained, it is literally your plaything until you move from mechanics-only to the finer touches of how your race plays and responds. Reduce that medium stress hurdle to low stress and improve those mechanics on ladder!
Secondly, you don't need to focus on strategy first in the AI and Practice Partner development. You can go practice on ladder, skip the strategy, and go full mechanics. Learning the strategy behind things is in your own time, and it can be daunting to think that I need a solid grasp of both strategy and mechanics (You say "feel very confident") before you approach ladder. It is a tool for mechanics and it's as much stress as you let it have over you. For a guide that unlearns hotkeys and approaches for tons of players, it isn't an increase in difficulty in learning how to train mechanics with ladder.
Recording yourself Do record yourself VODs using OBS or Xsplit streameds or local recording! In the original and long-standing mechanics guide on TeamLiquid, it goes over why.
Mistakes: Look for times when you are giving the same command several times in a row (right click spamming) (You can do this early on to help spam/warm up but only if it is not causing you to be late on whatever you are supposed to do next) Look for times when your money floats too high or when you get supply blocked and how you deal with it (missing a macro cycle and how long this effects you) Look for times when you are not reacting to the Minimap properly (your army or base is attacked and you do not move to handle the situation as soon as it happens) Look for times when your mouse seems to move slowly to accomplish something that a sure and quick gesture could accomplish (a great example is when you are placing a building, was an almost instant movement and click or was it a slow drag of the building placement indicator to the desired spot?)
Nice Things: Look for times when you look at your base right when you need to make supply, units, tech, and/or buildings and you do so in an almost instant fashion Look for times when you give one quick sure command in an exact fashion with one click (sending a probe to scout another main should take exactly 1 right click / movement command [not 5+ which many players do]) Look for times when you react instantly to things on the Minimap
Overall: Always be looking for how fast you are able to accomplish any given task (a macro cycle, transferring workers, etc) and pay attention to EXACTLY how you accomplish it and ask simple questions and give yourself honest answers about if it could be faster.
Now you have ID'd several things about your play from a mechanical viewpoint. What now? Make connections. Where you late on starting your Forge during a PvZ where you were going Forge Fast Expand? Why was that? Where you busy scouting and giving your scouting probe 6 right click movement commands that were basically to the same exact spot? How bout in a TvT where your minerals went above 1000. What was going on then? Where you reacting to a drop you just saw on the Minimap?
emphasis mine
Making and analyzing your own VODs instead of replays is an incredibly important tool in developing your mechanics. Analyzing your own replays is good and spots all kinds of mistakes. Analyzing your own VODs helps identify where you were looking someplace out (mouse cursor is captured) as well as a host of other things--mistakes you never knew you were making. It's a step removed from going out to the store and spending money and piling books, and if you hit that masters league and want to do all kinds of fun tournaments, you can add in the posture, head angle, and tension.
Oh my god, forgot the most important part! Somehow I missed that the SALT project was still current for hots! Thank you for showing me that its in Custom Games and not Arcade (Doh) and that the HOTS maps are on it and functioning.
On August 31 2013 00:57 TRaFFiC wrote: Really cool guide for the nubies. I like to open discussion like this.
I wonder if there is a standard table height? Like for tournaments. I think my desk is a little high. Most of the stuff you find online regarding posture and desk height is for office work.
I would expect it to be pretty much the same.
I was reading through the initial post, which can certainly be described as extensive. While reading I mainly thought it was pretty extreme everything. Also quite often imo you are just pushing your personal preference, but okay. So I was wondering to which players this was aimed. Considering how extreme everything was my guess was sub-pros, so lets say GMs/high masters who want to get a bit further.
Imagine my surprise when I came to this part:
100% of your games vs AI until you feel your mechanics have become consistent. Then spend 75%~ of your time vs AI or vs Practice partners. When you feel very confident in both strategy and mechanics go ladder until you lose, and then practice specifically against that.
Wait, wut? We are talking about people who should only be practising vs AI? Later you call them diamond-masters in skill. Personally I doubt you beat he average gold player when only playing vs AI: Not only do I doubt it is so easy to beat a 2-rax as you claim if you only play AI, but you also simply completely miss the practise against common tactics the AI does not use. Granted I don't play much vs AI (read: pretty much never), but last time I did the strat the AI used had little to do with what I see on ladder. So you are playing against builds that you will never run into, and more problematic, you aren't playing against builds you will run into.
And sure watching streams will give you some idea of those builds, but it isn't the same as playing against them.
Now to make my point: imo if you worry about all this stuff and play like this you really should be wondering if you aren't taking the game way too serious. It is supposed to be fun, now I understand people want to become better, but what are you giving up for it? If you aren't at the very least mid-masters by just playing casual you will never become a pro player. Sure it is nice to become better, but doing it like this is making it your job. I am afraid many who do it will practise alot, become better still be a no-name, and suddenly realise they don't actually enjoy what they are doing.
Of course everyone has to do what he/she wants to do. But don't stop playing for fun simply because of the illusion of becoming a pro. And maybe it is just me, but I don't see it as more fun if I have to remove keys from my keyboard, disable my horrible youtube playlist and lower graphics settings. Yes if you do everything you might play at a higher level. And you still win only 50% of the games. Yeah you might get a bit further in the tournament organized at your university (or random other local tournament), but thats it.
On August 30 2013 05:14 SerADeadzerg wrote: Mechanical keyboards should specify that they are mechanical... They will have a stat like Cherry Brown/Black/Blue/Red switches. You would most likely want Brown/Red/Blue (I play with Brown) as Black takes considerably more force to activate. Check out the keyboard enthusiast thread here on teamliquid, it has tones of useful information!
Black switches don't require that much extra force. They require the same force as blue and slightly more then browns (although it is right before they actuate), while still requiring ~%20-%30 less force then rubber domes. If you're going to get a mechanical keyboard, I'd recommend trying every switch, and then making a decision.
I read this quite often related to rubber dome vs mechanical. However everywhere where they actually state rubber dome actuation force it is roughly the same as mechanical keyboards are specced as. Sure might be more variations, but not less force on average. And those are just the average ones, you can also get rubber domes which require only little force.
Personally I doubt you beat he average gold player when only playing vs AI: Not only do I doubt it is so easy to beat a 2-rax as you claim if you only play AI, but you also simply completely miss the practise against common tactics the AI does not use. Granted I don't play much vs AI (read: pretty much never), but last time I did the strat the AI used had little to do with what I see on ladder. So you are playing against builds that you will never run into, and more problematic, you aren't playing against builds you will run into.
First off, he's high Masters, and the lessons contained within the guide are aimed at anyone and everyone who wish to dedicate themselves to seriously improving - anywhere from bronze to masters and even higher. Of course this is all based off of his own experience and preference, as all such guides on the subject inherently must be. He talks about how after having a solid basis of mechanics you should find practice players to play against - not just AI. So your dig about "doubt[ing] he [could] beat he [sic] average gold player when only playing vs AI" is baseless and BS, because you strawman what he is saying, and replace his argument with a weaker one - just sayin'.
Second, getting into what you said about playing versus AI: The point of that part of the practice strategy isn't to learn how to counter builds, but has the very specific focus of improving mechanics. You're entirely missing the point of the exercise.
Now of course this guide isn't for everyone. It's not for casuals who just want to play a game here and there after they get home from work, it's for people who enjoy Starcraft as a hobby and have a passion for it, for those that want to improve and challenge themselves.
I was watching Hero stream today. I found his mechanics and multitasking just astonishing. There were moments when I couldn't even tell how he was doing stuff.
Now I'm watching Grubby stream and... Hero is just a league above him. Isn't even funny how better he is. How better he is in comparison to any other protoss streamer.
Then I was thinking and came to this conclusion: before anything, you have to improve your mechanics. Its the most important factor of this game. If your mechanics suck, you'll just waste time discussing builds, and strategies and such.
Besides the common things that all we know and others that were posted on this thread, watching Hero playing I came to this three things:
1 - Screen hotkeys. You should never screen scroll with mouse. 2 - Hotkey each unit in the moment you build it. 3 - Keep moving your army nonstop (wisely).
On August 31 2013 07:57 Tiaraju9 wrote: I was watching Hero stream today. I found his mechanics and multitasking just astonishing. There were moments when I couldn't even tell how he was doing stuff.
Now I'm watching Grubby stream and... Hero is just a league above him. Isn't even funny how better he is. How better he is in comparison to any other protoss streamer.
Then I was thinking and came to this conclusion: before anything, you have to improve your mechanics. Its the most important factor of this game. If your mechanics suck, you'll just waste time discussing builds, and strategies and such.
Besides the common things that all we know and others that were posted on this thread, watching Hero playing I came to this three things:
1 - Screen hotkeys. You should never screen scroll with mouse. 2 - Hotkey each unit in the moment you build it. 3 - Keep moving your army nonstop (wisely).
How important are this three things?
I actually had a similar experience to you when I saw Jaedong stream yesterday. He is so exceptional.
1 - Scrolling the screen can be okay for quickly seeing things in battles but that problem with it is that you are moving your camera while staring at the main screen. If you spend the majority of your time clicking on the minimap to move around you will be looking at the minimap more maximizing your map awareness (provided you have good vision with units). Screen locations are also super important in executing tasks like probe transfers, chromo boosts, warp ins, larva injects etc. These tasks can be very tedious without them.
2 - Yeah this is important. If you don't it might get left behind. If you want units left behind in your base for defence though obviously don't hotkey them.
3 - Yeah. Either move it and be active all the time or pick a smart location to defend in. When you move around a lot it should be for a reason. Perhaps to pressure the opponent or to react to the army movement of your opponent. You can also be just poking trying to find a hole or catch him out of position.
On August 31 2013 00:57 TRaFFiC wrote: Really cool guide for the nubies. I like to open discussion like this.
I wonder if there is a standard table height? Like for tournaments. I think my desk is a little high. Most of the stuff you find online regarding posture and desk height is for office work.
I would expect it to be pretty much the same.
I was reading through the initial post, which can certainly be described as extensive. While reading I mainly thought it was pretty extreme everything. Also quite often imo you are just pushing your personal preference, but okay. So I was wondering to which players this was aimed. Considering how extreme everything was my guess was sub-pros, so lets say GMs/high masters who want to get a bit further.
100% of your games vs AI until you feel your mechanics have become consistent. Then spend 75%~ of your time vs AI or vs Practice partners. When you feel very confident in both strategy and mechanics go ladder until you lose, and then practice specifically against that.
Wait, wut? We are talking about people who should only be practising vs AI? Later you call them diamond-masters in skill. Personally I doubt you beat he average gold player when only playing vs AI: Not only do I doubt it is so easy to beat a 2-rax as you claim if you only play AI, but you also simply completely miss the practise against common tactics the AI does not use. Granted I don't play much vs AI (read: pretty much never), but last time I did the strat the AI used had little to do with what I see on ladder. So you are playing against builds that you will never run into, and more problematic, you aren't playing against builds you will run into.
And sure watching streams will give you some idea of those builds, but it isn't the same as playing against them.
Now to make my point: imo if you worry about all this stuff and play like this you really should be wondering if you aren't taking the game way too serious. It is supposed to be fun, now I understand people want to become better, but what are you giving up for it? If you aren't at the very least mid-masters by just playing casual you will never become a pro player. Sure it is nice to become better, but doing it like this is making it your job. I am afraid many who do it will practise alot, become better still be a no-name, and suddenly realise they don't actually enjoy what they are doing.
Of course everyone has to do what he/she wants to do. But don't stop playing for fun simply because of the illusion of becoming a pro. And maybe it is just me, but I don't see it as more fun if I have to remove keys from my keyboard, disable my horrible youtube playlist and lower graphics settings. Yes if you do everything you might play at a higher level. And you still win only 50% of the games. Yeah you might get a bit further in the tournament organized at your university (or random other local tournament), but thats it.
On August 30 2013 05:14 SerADeadzerg wrote: Mechanical keyboards should specify that they are mechanical... They will have a stat like Cherry Brown/Black/Blue/Red switches. You would most likely want Brown/Red/Blue (I play with Brown) as Black takes considerably more force to activate. Check out the keyboard enthusiast thread here on teamliquid, it has tones of useful information!
Black switches don't require that much extra force. They require the same force as blue and slightly more then browns (although it is right before they actuate), while still requiring ~%20-%30 less force then rubber domes. If you're going to get a mechanical keyboard, I'd recommend trying every switch, and then making a decision.
I read this quite often related to rubber dome vs mechanical. However everywhere where they actually state rubber dome actuation force it is roughly the same as mechanical keyboards are specced as. Sure might be more variations, but not less force on average. And those are just the average ones, you can also get rubber domes which require only little force.
2 ears, 1 mouth man. You write this long post, but fail to understand OP.
1) Playing AI is a great way to practice new builds and get them PERFECT so when you`re being harassed, you got your timings crisp in a real game.
2)Black switches do require ALOT of extra force. Trust me, I been playing on the steelseries 6gv2 with blacks for 6 months and am swapping it for reds ASAP.
This should be on resources in action, perhaps spoilered (You'll see the variance between Ser's shoulds and pro-gamer real preferences, but the core essentials are there): Khaldor's FPVODs
There's more, but the videos I linked include the hotkeys & camera hotkeys and spam (YES). You can see the smoothness of flicking through the battlefield using minimap and hotkeys. On the closeups you can see the gamers macroing while starting or continuing a harass or engagement. It's pretty instructive. Complete list here.
Personally I doubt you beat he average gold player when only playing vs AI: Not only do I doubt it is so easy to beat a 2-rax as you claim if you only play AI, but you also simply completely miss the practise against common tactics the AI does not use. Granted I don't play much vs AI (read: pretty much never), but last time I did the strat the AI used had little to do with what I see on ladder. So you are playing against builds that you will never run into, and more problematic, you aren't playing against builds you will run into.
First off, he's high Masters, and the lessons contained within the guide are aimed at anyone and everyone who wish to dedicate themselves to seriously improving - anywhere from bronze to masters and even higher. Of course this is all based off of his own experience and preference, as all such guides on the subject inherently must be. He talks about how after having a solid basis of mechanics you should find practice players to play against - not just AI. So your dig about "doubt[ing] he [could] beat he [sic] average gold player when only playing vs AI" is baseless and BS, because you strawman what he is saying, and replace his argument with a weaker one - just sayin'.
Wow nice ad-hominem attack. Next you are going to say I kill kittens as a hobby and pull the wings out of butterflies? I didn't say he couldn't beat the average gold, I said I doubted that the target of his post who should only play vs ai can then beat the average gold. That you disagree with what I write, fine, everyone his opinion. But accusing me of complete BS to make me look bad is extremely sad.
it's for people who enjoy Starcraft as a hobby and have a passion for it, for those that want to improve and challenge themselves.
So yeah, if you enjoy SC as a hobby I really wouldn't take it this serious myself by not playing with music anymore and pulling out keys of your keyboard.
On August 31 2013 00:57 TRaFFiC wrote: Really cool guide for the nubies. I like to open discussion like this.
I wonder if there is a standard table height? Like for tournaments. I think my desk is a little high. Most of the stuff you find online regarding posture and desk height is for office work.
I would expect it to be pretty much the same.
I was reading through the initial post, which can certainly be described as extensive. While reading I mainly thought it was pretty extreme everything. Also quite often imo you are just pushing your personal preference, but okay. So I was wondering to which players this was aimed. Considering how extreme everything was my guess was sub-pros, so lets say GMs/high masters who want to get a bit further.
Imagine my surprise when I came to this part:
100% of your games vs AI until you feel your mechanics have become consistent. Then spend 75%~ of your time vs AI or vs Practice partners. When you feel very confident in both strategy and mechanics go ladder until you lose, and then practice specifically against that.
Wait, wut? We are talking about people who should only be practising vs AI? Later you call them diamond-masters in skill. Personally I doubt you beat he average gold player when only playing vs AI: Not only do I doubt it is so easy to beat a 2-rax as you claim if you only play AI, but you also simply completely miss the practise against common tactics the AI does not use. Granted I don't play much vs AI (read: pretty much never), but last time I did the strat the AI used had little to do with what I see on ladder. So you are playing against builds that you will never run into, and more problematic, you aren't playing against builds you will run into.
And sure watching streams will give you some idea of those builds, but it isn't the same as playing against them.
Now to make my point: imo if you worry about all this stuff and play like this you really should be wondering if you aren't taking the game way too serious. It is supposed to be fun, now I understand people want to become better, but what are you giving up for it? If you aren't at the very least mid-masters by just playing casual you will never become a pro player. Sure it is nice to become better, but doing it like this is making it your job. I am afraid many who do it will practise alot, become better still be a no-name, and suddenly realise they don't actually enjoy what they are doing.
Of course everyone has to do what he/she wants to do. But don't stop playing for fun simply because of the illusion of becoming a pro. And maybe it is just me, but I don't see it as more fun if I have to remove keys from my keyboard, disable my horrible youtube playlist and lower graphics settings. Yes if you do everything you might play at a higher level. And you still win only 50% of the games. Yeah you might get a bit further in the tournament organized at your university (or random other local tournament), but thats it.
On August 30 2013 05:14 SerADeadzerg wrote: Mechanical keyboards should specify that they are mechanical... They will have a stat like Cherry Brown/Black/Blue/Red switches. You would most likely want Brown/Red/Blue (I play with Brown) as Black takes considerably more force to activate. Check out the keyboard enthusiast thread here on teamliquid, it has tones of useful information!
Black switches don't require that much extra force. They require the same force as blue and slightly more then browns (although it is right before they actuate), while still requiring ~%20-%30 less force then rubber domes. If you're going to get a mechanical keyboard, I'd recommend trying every switch, and then making a decision.
I read this quite often related to rubber dome vs mechanical. However everywhere where they actually state rubber dome actuation force it is roughly the same as mechanical keyboards are specced as. Sure might be more variations, but not less force on average. And those are just the average ones, you can also get rubber domes which require only little force.
2 ears, 1 mouth man. You write this long post, but fail to understand OP.
1) Playing AI is a great way to practice new builds and get them PERFECT so when you`re being harassed, you got your timings crisp in a real game.
2)Black switches do require ALOT of extra force. Trust me, I been playing on the steelseries 6gv2 with blacks for 6 months and am swapping it for reds ASAP.
Okay, I fail to understand the OP. Maybe mention how? I think I understand the OP pretty fine. I just think it is a little on the extreme side for everyone who isn't at least mid-high masters and wants to become better. And I worry if you use it as random plat player you will certainly get better, but after a while suddenly realise it is another job for you instead of a hobby.
1. There is a difference between playing vs AI to practise a new build and get the timings correct (I can understand that fine), and only playing versus AI.
2. Huh? So you say blacks require alot more force, and the one I reacted on said they require alot less force. This is kinda confusing tbh.
On August 31 2013 09:14 Gorilla23 wrote: I've never understood why people remove the tilda key. I mean, if you use tab and 1, why would you not use tilda? It's right there...
I always thought the same thing so I rebound one of my control groups to tilde but for some reason I never use it. I want to use it but I never press it.
2. Huh? So you say blacks require alot more force, and the one I reacted on said they require alot less force. This is kinda confusing tbh.
Black switches require a lot more force, I second that, they just don't have a sensible actuation point like blues or browns, which makes them easier to use in an RTS than those (which are best for typing). But I have been using red switches for almost a year now (which are basically blacks with less actuation force required) and I must say these are by far the best I've ever tried for playing this game (so so much better than everything else).
Pretty damn good advice all around. Some of it is nonsense though, like the comments about weight lifting are based solely on his own experiences, not on solid research. I am not sure he has played with a black switch keyboard either. I have a ducky shine II with black switches, and can play all day, the switches don't feel tough at all. Anyway, thats my only two problems with this guide.
Great read! Some stuff I disagree with and isn't necessarily the best or most optimal and is just personal preference but alot of the stuff in there was really valuable.
On August 31 2013 20:17 BaneRiders wrote: One question: Why should mouse sensitivity be disabled? Isn't it rather helpful if you get used to 100% mouse sensitivity?
100% mouse sensitivity is very inaccurate, because it's most likely skipping pixels on your screen.
On August 31 2013 20:17 BaneRiders wrote: One question: Why should mouse sensitivity be disabled? Isn't it rather helpful if you get used to 100% mouse sensitivity?
100% mouse sensitivity is very inaccurate, because it's most likely skipping pixels on your screen.
Oh I see! Thanks! I was just fooling around with it, but back to normal then!
6 - Gateways This is better than the warp gate key for 2 reasons: 1: It allows you to see untransformed gateways and add them as soon as they have started to be built. Then you can transform them by Ctrl clicking. 2: It allows you to tap and see the specific cooldown durations.
First of all, thanks for an excellent guide! Nice consolidation of everything you need mechanically and also a couple of things that I haven't seen anywhere else. Definitely a go-to guide for improving at SC2.
One question though - wouldn't it make more sense to have the additional control group available as protoss and just using the warpgate key? The reason why I'm asking is because the 2nd reason you listed isn't valid anymore as far as I know - you can see the cool down on warpgates by using the warpgate key (was patched quite a while back if I recall correctly). Seeing untransformed gateways is still a good argument, but wouldn't a camera hotkey over your gateways also suffice (which can double as a easy way to chrono all your gates)?
Also, what is your opinion on putting your forges in a control group to see how far those upgrades are and quickly getting the next upgrade?
6 - Gateways This is better than the warp gate key for 2 reasons: 1: It allows you to see untransformed gateways and add them as soon as they have started to be built. Then you can transform them by Ctrl clicking. 2: It allows you to tap and see the specific cooldown durations.
First of all, thanks for an excellent guide! Nice consolidation of everything you need mechanically and also a couple of things that I haven't seen anywhere else. Definitely a go-to guide for improving at SC2.
One question though - wouldn't it make more sense to have the additional control group available as protoss and just using the warpgate key? The reason why I'm asking is because the 2nd reason you listed isn't valid anymore as far as I know - you can see the cool down on warpgates by using the warpgate key (was patched quite a while back if I recall correctly). Seeing untransformed gateways is still a good argument, but wouldn't a camera hotkey over your gateways also suffice (which can double as a easy way to chrono all your gates)?
Also, what is your opinion on putting your forges in a control group to see how far those upgrades are and quickly getting the next upgrade?
Well obviously hotkeys are something that is based on personal preference. I prefer the location over the forge to the gateways since usually your most gateways will be clustered in your main and you can very quickly F1 back to your main to chrono those. A camera location allows you to see the progress on ups as well as chrono them. It does add one extra action to select them to queue more upgrades. Of course you can add them to a control group but double tapping a control group to center your screen on forges for chronos is an action your preform more than adding new upgrades to the queue.
I didn't know the warpgate key had been patched! Whoops. Yes an additional control group could be useful as an observer dedicated key etc. But I suggest in this guide 6 keys for army and this is a lot more than other guides/players may suggest. Most pros play with 1-3 groups for army so perhaps 7 is too many? It is up to you of course. I prefer to bind gateways right as a create them so at anytime without changing my camera I can transform them.
On August 31 2013 09:14 Gorilla23 wrote: I've never understood why people remove the tilda key. I mean, if you use tab and 1, why would you not use tilda? It's right there...
I always thought the same thing so I rebound one of my control groups to tilde but for some reason I never use it. I want to use it but I never press it.
Tilde I use for my second walloff camera hotkey (Spacebar the other) I'm very used to hitting the key because it was my teamspeak/ventrilo push to talk key for many years in other games. It's definitely available for use as a control group or camera hotkey. Just make sure you have something custom to set it, because Control+Tilde is rather hard, even compared to Shift+Tilde.
I wish such a guide was around when i started sc2 haha Great guide. Tho i dont really agree with your thing on keyboards. Yes it helps but ive been 9x GM with a keyboard that cost me 10 dollars haha. On the other hand, ive had it happen sometimes that when i moved my army quickly around like 1 click 2 clikc 3 click, and the 2nd group wasnt going anywhere hehe. Lost some games that way
Thank you for all your work putting this together. I am in the process of building a school team from the ground up, and although they are keen, they really have no idea about professional, disciplined practice. This will be an excellent resource for getting them to target specific skills.
Just like you OP, I too have rebound tab and space to camera hotkeys. I use tab over my production facilities/forges, or over my 5th if the game gets to that point. My space bar camera hotkey is set over my closet proxy pylon. This makes it very easy to warp in units and reinforce during a fight as I simply tap the spacebar and immediately am centered over where I need to be to warp.
In addition to having rebound tab and space, I have rebound Q,W,E and R to camera hotkeys as well. Q for my main, W for my natural, E, for my third, and R for my fourth. I've noticed in my time playing starcraft, that almost everyone I've seen has there camera hotkeys bound to the F keys (starting at f2 if you played broodwar). I felt that this wasn't actually the most efficient setup, and more of a relic from the past. After watching enough Korean pro gamer POV's, it became apparent how important camera hotkeys are. Coming from an FPS background, most of my keystrokes were centered around q,w,e and r so I felt if I could familiarize myself with this setup, I could be faster in the long run. It was somewhat of a challenge rebinding the default protoss actions that were on q,w,e,r to other keys, but it worked out quite well. I am very happy with my current hotkey setup.
It took me a month or so to get used to my new setup, but since then I would say my play has improved VASTLY. My overall production, macro, and drop defence has gotten much better due to using camera hotkeys regularly. Rarely do you want to be scrolling around your bases. If I see a drop flying in on the minimap to say my third, my brain now thinks, "third in trouble?" tap e, or, "wanna throw down a robo at my natural", tap w, etc.
On August 31 2013 09:14 Gorilla23 wrote: I've never understood why people remove the tilda key. I mean, if you use tab and 1, why would you not use tilda? It's right there...
I always thought the same thing so I rebound one of my control groups to tilde but for some reason I never use it. I want to use it but I never press it.
I agree with this as well, which is why I have bound my tilde key to unit patrol. Makes it very easy to patrol observers/units on the fly.
I'm curious to know what other people think of my setup, and if you notice any problems with it, or ways to improve it, or if you have any questions about my other keybinds.
On September 11 2013 09:22 Entropy137 wrote: Just like you OP, I too have rebound tab and space to camera hotkeys. I use tab over my production facilities/forges, or over my 5th if the game gets to that point. My space bar camera hotkey is set over my closet proxy pylon. This makes it very easy to warp in units and reinforce during a fight as I simply tap the spacebar and immediately am centered over where I need to be to warp.
In addition to having rebound tab and space, I have rebound Q,W,E and R to camera hotkeys as well. Q for my main, W for my natural, E, for my third, and R for my fourth. I've noticed in my time playing starcraft, that almost everyone I've seen has there camera hotkeys bound to the F keys (starting at f2 if you played broodwar). I felt that this wasn't actually the most efficient setup, and more of a relic from the past. After watching enough Korean pro gamer POV's, it became apparent how important camera hotkeys are. Coming from an FPS background, most of my keystrokes were centered around q,w,e and r so I felt if I could familiarize myself with this setup, I could be faster in the long run. It was somewhat of a challenge rebinding the default protoss actions that were on q,w,e,r to other keys, but it worked out quite well. I am very happy with my current hotkey setup.
It took me a month or so to get used to my new setup, but since then I would say my play has improved VASTLY. My overall production, macro, and drop defence has gotten much better due to using camera hotkeys regularly. Rarely do you want to be scrolling around your bases. If I see a drop flying in on the minimap to say my third, my brain now thinks, "third in trouble?" tap e, or, "wanna throw down a robo at my natural", tap w, etc.
On August 31 2013 09:14 Gorilla23 wrote: I've never understood why people remove the tilda key. I mean, if you use tab and 1, why would you not use tilda? It's right there...
I always thought the same thing so I rebound one of my control groups to tilde but for some reason I never use it. I want to use it but I never press it.
I agree with this as well, which is why I have bound my tilde key to unit patrol. Makes it very easy to patrol observers/units on the fly.
I'm curious to know what other people think of my setup, and if you notice any problems with it, or ways to improve it, or if you have any questions about my other keybinds.
I started off playing SC 2 on a laptop, and since the F keys were just way too small and I realized that it should be more efficient to rebind F keys, I rebinded them. I use something similar for F keys (W,E,D,Z and Y). I'm now back to using a regular keyboard, but I still have the same setup; however, your post has made me consider changing them back...
As someone that used F keys a lot in BW, I haven't really noticed the kind of gains I would have expected via rebinding. I just feel more comfortable going to my fourth and fifth now. As for the tilde... I made that my select all army hotkey. I really shouldn't have... I use it way too much now. Just too convenient now.
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