EPT
The Ghost : Expensive and powerful yet fragile. Sneaky little bastards can wreak havoc with well-placed EMPs and tactical nukes. Without detection, these damn ghosts can take down a ton of workers swiftly!
But let's cut back to the main subject of this post : Snipe!
Snipe can be used in various situations. Obviously, what first comes to mind is against a Zerg, since all of their units are biological. Snipe takes down mutalisks in 3 hits, Hydralisks in 2 hits, Ultralisks in 12 shots. Snipe has also its uses against a Terran who goes bioball. You can one-shot un-upgraded marines, and 3 shot marauders. That is pretty damn efficient, considering how fast snipe can be. Against Protoss, Snipe is very useful versus templars as it can 2 shot them. It is also mildly useful vs. Zealots, but it takes 4 shots to take those guys!
So where am I going with this? Well, I've tried using this ability efficiently, mostly to counter Ultralisks in the late game, and I have found some interesting stuff about the Snipe mechanism. First, I'll explain how I used to do it before I tested it more thoroughly in the unit tester, and then I'll explain the RIGHT way to do a clean and efficient job at sniping. You will also find a video at the end of this post showing the different methods used.
HOW I USED TO DO IT :
Step 1 : Have my ghosts in a separate control group. (So far so good)
Step 2 : When encountering Zerg army with ultralisks, try to keep ghosts alive by putting them behind other troops. (Still good enough)
Step 3 : Use my control group of ghost, spam R-Click-R-Click-R-Click-R-Click on every ultralisk, 12 times per ultralisk!
Ok, looks kind of decent in theory, and that's what I was first thinking when I went ghosts against ultralisks. But then I realized in the mist of the action that I got a bit too excited about spamming R-Click-R-Click, and ended up double clicking once and selected the ultralisk instead of sniping him, making me lose focus of snipe for a second. So I thought: Well, SC2 has an awesome Queue system, let's make use of it!
Here's what I tried afterwards: (I won't repeat Step 1 and 2 as they are pretty generic)
Step 3 : Use my control group of ghost, engage with the army and Shift-R then Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click EVERY god damn ultralisks in the massive zerg army! TAKE THIS YOU BIG BAD UGLY STUFF! Or so I thought.... Then I saw a bunch of green lines showing queuing actions, and barely any sniping sounds coming out of my ghosts’ C-10 Canister Rifle! I was baffled and wondered what went wrong there…
Well, I really thought I had found a solution to my bad micro from the first scenario, but instead, my poor ghosts just stood there, attacking my targets without actually sniping them. That made me a sad panda! I had to find what went wrong because I KNEW I had spammed this mouse button so much! There's NO way those Ultralisks could've withstood all those almighty clicks!
So I went in the unit tester and finally found the PROPER way to do it, and exactly WHY that last method that SHOULD'VE worked actually failed miserably.
HERE'S HOW TO REALLY DO IT :
Step 3 : Use my control group of ghost, HIT F (for holding Fire) and H (hold position), Shift-R then Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click!
Woah! What a difference... Things actually die fast. Very very fast! This ability is actually worth using, I thought! Ghosts aren’t to be relegated to cheesy cloak tactics, EMP bots or to be sent on suicidal nuke missions. They can effectively and with very little effort be one of the main source of DPS in your army.
WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?
Why hold fire? There's a very simple answer to that. When a ghost engages a target, he is set on "ATTACK" by default. If you then Shift-R and Click, that means you're queuing "SNIPE" after "ATTACK", and since "ATTACK" won't stop until its initial target is dead, then "SNIPE" won't happen as quickly as you thought it would've, especially if the AI is targeting a very high HP unit, like the ultralisk. And that is why Holding Fire is so important! It makes it so the AI doesn't accidently put "ATTACK" in front of "SNIPE".
So then, why do you hold position? It is simply to clear any "MOVE" command you could've given to your ghosts group beforehand, thus streamlining your Sniping action even further.
ANOTHER WAY OF DOING IT : UNLEASHING THE POWER OF SNIPING ALL AT ONCE!
Here's something very interesting I found out. It's a little trick that allows you to take someone by surprise by unleashing many snipes at once (or very quickly anyway!). The original method consists of holding fire before sniping. But what if you A-moved your ghosts, held position, Shift-R Clicked everything, and then Hold fire? Well, your ghosts’ snipe will first be “stalled” because ghosts are busy with the “ATTACK” command and they'll launch a snipe or two after their initial targets are dead. Then you hit hold fire (without Queuing it), and BOOM, every single snipe action unleashes VERY quickly.
GETTING ATTACKED WHILE HOLDING FIRE
Another particular thing about Holding Fire : Ghosts that are hit while holding fire will run away a few steps, kind of like a worker that gets hit by a military unit. If you first held position, then that won’t happen UNTIL THE FIRST SNIPE ACTION has been performed, and then your ghosts won’t be on “Hold position” anymore.
This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the perspective. It can be good because ghosts get out of harm’s way and spread your ghosts out so they don’t get splashed by ultralisks or banelings. It can also be bad, because every time you get hit by a unit, the AI will add “MOVE” in front of “SNIPE” that the ghost had. This means it will delay the sniping ability while the ghost backs off. However, the sniping action will resume after the ghost stops.
How do you prevent the backing up while on hold fire? Well, read up one section above for the technique I explained. Since you only seem to lose your “hold position” after a snipe, this means that by delaying your sniping action a bit, your ghosts will stay in place.
OTHER APPLICATIONS TO THIS THEORY
Unfortunately, it is pretty hard to find other applications from this theory, but we can understand some stuff that goes on in a fight. One example comes to mind: Yamato Cannon. The BattleCruiser and the Thor, like the ghost, have a damaging “magical” ability while also able to deal normal damage. This means that as soon as they are engaged and you shift clicked Yamato Cannon or 250mm Cannon, your action won’t proceed until the initial “ATTACK” target is dead. Since you can really hold fire with those units, you can only be very careful while using queue attacks like that. If a unit has to be immediately killed, it is probably better to just spam the ability instead of queuing it.
Alright, that’s all for me today, hope you enjoyed my first post.
VIDEO :
+ Show Spoiler +
I'm not too sure how to include youtube stuff in the forum, but that link will do the trick for the moment
