|
Hey, I've been reading these forums for awhile now but I never registered. This is my first post... I am currently in the SC2 Beta Plat Division.
My question has to do with Focus Fire, mainly what is the most effective way to go about this? I am a Zerg player and I am having the most trouble with the ZvP matchup... alot of the times the Protoss player will make an initial push with a few zealots, sentries, stalkers and 1-3 immortals. He will often use force field to push my units back, this becomes an even bigger problem later in the game when he has colossi and he can get free shots on my army.
When going up against any force, it is obvious that there are certain units you should take out first... should i be focusing the sentries since their spells are really powerful? Sometimes i will focus down a sentry but it is in the back and my units end up running around trying to get to said sentry but instead they just get picked off by his other units.
How do I effectively micro this? Should I be shift-queuing attack commands? If there is a unit in behind his meat shield that I should be taking out but cannot reach it, should i just say screw it and attack his front lines?
thanks.
|
Shift + Right Click for units like Hydra. If mobility and positioning is an issue, it's actually easier and far more effective to just A-move with units that have crap range like Roaches and Zerglings for example. For them, you should focus more on proper concaves or surrounds. Practice deviating from the 1 hotkey syndrome and just get in the habit of hotkeying your squadrons so they can flank and retreat seperately. That'll do far more for your army than focusing your 1 group on one unit at a time.
|
Flanking that composition with zerglings is pretty much a must. Right click (move) into the center of the immortal/sentry/stalker blob for a good surround, then a-move somewhere to start hitting them. Do your best to get your roaches up in his face so that he can't force field you away without potentially splitting his own units, and so that all your roaches (with their pathetic 3 range) can hit.
If you notice a lot of your lings dancing around trying to get a surround, drag select some and manually get them to attack a different target.
I probably wouldn't a-move anything if you're fighting vs P with sentries, he's probably going to put in the apm to crush you with force fields so it's definitely worth it to put in the apm to make sure you don't get screwed by FF AI.
|
I lost earlier today because my opponent kept his hydra roaches at his natural choke, and hid his lings outside the choke at the gold minerals (this was on blistering sands). I used several FF to split up the hydra roach army and then got completely surrounded by lings. My zealots where completely out of place killing hydras so my sentries and immortals were decimated. When the force fields fell I got swarmed and my entire army was completely destroyed. The thing is I had more units than him. Very frustrating.
|
What to target depends on the situation. There's no concrete answer. Between a stalker and a sentry, though, I'd usually go for the sentry because it's easier to kill, does more damage, and casts those annoying force fields and shield.
Shift click is great in sc2 because it shows you exactly where you are queue'ing your actions. That said, don't overly rely on it in ground army focus firing as your units can end up going for less than favorable targets as the masses shuffle up. Shift clicking is great for mutas on probe lines almost all the time, though, until they pull probes at least.
This immortal push gave me a lot of trouble when I started beta, too. People I think are starting to get over the immortal push phase, though, in favor of strats that actually work in modern sc2 play. If you spot this immortal push happening, make 24-36 some-odd speedlings exclusively off one of your hatches so that if he does decide to push out, you can just kill his entire force and continue into his base immediately and win. Sounds like a lot of ling but you essentially get to tech to whatever you want. This is how I deal with it, at least. Obviously don't do this if you are unsure of what's going on.
|
dont use shift click
often you can over micro your units and lose a battle you would have won if you just let the ai take over. if thing start getting close in a big battle, once the numbers get low, you can take 2 or 3 units (roaches) at a time and focus them on the lowest health units of the opponent.
this was popular in PvP in bw with goon fights, but it was more difficult then cuz you had to actually click on the units. with the added health bars this is easier than ever.
just be very wary of over microing.
|
Sometimes it can be effective to FF single units but in reality if you have a diverse army, and so does your opponent, the best way to micro it (imo) is to use specific units to attack the units they hard counter. By doing so you aren't wasting any dmg and you get the most out of dmg bonuses.
|
A big key to ZvP is not fighting at chokes. Take his army on in open where you can get good surrounds and he can't FF as effectively.
But yes, in some situations it's useful to FF. I know I FF with my center group of my arc of Roaches in almost every ZvZ fight.
mOnion has some excellent advice as well about FF'ing only with a small squad during a large battle.
|
On April 29 2010 03:23 w_Ender_w wrote:
A big key to ZvP is not fighting at chokes. Take his army out in open where you can get good surrounds and he can't FF as effectively.
As a P player, nothing pleases me more than when the zerg does something stupid, like leaving the bulk of his army inside his main when I arrive at the natural. It is just about GG at that point, cause you are never getting out until I let you out. I can literally lock a player in there till they either nidus worm or research sacs.
|
if it's a small battle where focus fire won't make your army run across the middle of the battlefield, I would shift click focus fire on 5 guys in a row, but that's usually if I know I will when the battle. If it's a close battle or one I might lose I'm too busy kite microing (attack run attack run attack run)
|
Against collosus I would run in focusing colosus which will naturally be moved back then just a-move to start hitting closest while doing sc1 goonlike stutter walk away from the colosus so he then has less active firing time with it and it's relative speed to most other units will let it catch up so you can rinse repeat. If there are sentry dart in and out a few times until forcefields are gone or big units are dead (colossus + imortal) it is important to focus stargate / robo units as they can't be produced en mass like warp-gate units and their relative gas cost and effectiveness is usually vastly superior freeing your tech choices up more.
|
If I see the attack coming I try to get a good amount of zerglings burrowed where they will go and when they start hitting my army, unburrow and hit from the rear
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
