Beginner - I suck at micro

Terran Discussion
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As a new player without having played any rts for a really long time, the first thing I had to learn to beat the medium AI was just the basics of super-early macro (e.g. not spending all ur minerals on random stuff). Get a supply depot out, then a refinery and a barracks, then second supply and then a 2nd command center.

There are more intricate concepts I’ve been playing with that I’ve seen a lot, such as getting a tech lab as soon as you build the barracks, research stimpack, then after building a factory, switch them over, build a reactor and bulk marines. After a couple of medivacs you can just spam tanks etc. Against the easier AI, you can more or less just do this and then storm their base with one substantial all in attack. No 4th bases, no harassment, no real tactics, but also no real micro.

I absolutely suck at micro. When I try to play vs hard or when I try to be a little more active, I always just seem to get fkd. Hellions die as soon as they enter the base to try harass, reapers die before they pick off any workers, I lose a majority of my army to roaches or ultralisks, my medivacs always seem to get eliminated almost instantly in any fight due to their movement speed over the marines, and any tanks or ghosts I may produce just get picked off before I can control them amongst the mess. How tf do I get better at the micro? Do I just need to be using more assignable hotkeys? I swear I use one for the infantry, another for the ghosts and another for the tanks, but whenever I do this I still just lose track of everything before I can do anything significant…

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if you are looking to play ranked, you can easily get pretty decent at the game using no micro at all. I’d focus on macro if you are new. the micro starts to (sort of) be important just a liiiittle bit around diamond league.

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absolute beginner
having no clue what to do
suck at everything
…
such good time
enjoy it -have fun

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Try the challenge section in the WoL campaign of arcade SC mastery

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This is basically what I would say. Of course, micro isn’t inconsequential, but a simple a-move and seiging your tanks is generally enough to get you through to diamond league. I’m currently Diamond 2, and I suck at micro. I generally at move and try to make the biggest arc I can, but above that, there’s not much I can do simply because micro isn’t my strong suit. If you’re looking to improve strictly micro, I would suggest looking in the arcade for things such as “StarCraft Master”. This is a series of levels for all races to improve just micro, and it gives you some tasks that will help you with kiting, splitting, spreading, and reading the terrain. Really though, just play, and focus on macro, and eventually you’ll get there.

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There are a few great micro trainers:
darglein’s micro trainer (EU and US server)
pimp my micro (EU)
knalle micro map (EU)

Try out the challenges from other races, too. (i.e. the roach survivel from darglein’s micro trainer also helps with reaper control)

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Heya!

Some advice I’d impart as a Masters player in general, along with a more micro-focused one.

Don’t really focus on micro, I’d recommend getting a nice BO and learning why it works and what it doesn’t work, then once you can execute it without thinking, learn how to use the units you are making. For instance, learn to stutter step mariens with stim + medivacs, focus fire or whatever you wish. The best way is to play against other players in Ranked, and watch replays and see how they use units, as you improve your rank, they’ll play better with their units. You’ll begin to see why and when you dive or when not to.

In addition you could watch professional games and see what they do, see what the best are using their units like and try copy to some extent, you ofc won’t be nearly as good, but you’ll see quite a bit of improvement. I’m not too good with any thing beyond stutter step + I’m decent at focus fire I guess, yet I can sometimes take games off Gm’s.

Anyhow,
Hope this little bit helps, honestly.

GL HF my dude! If you got any more questions, always happy to help!

Mabadi#2380 NA if you want to hit me up

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I forgot to add because I’m special…

If you notice something going wrong, ask yourself why is it going wrong. For instance, your medivacs run faster than you marines, well then before you fight pull them back with boost perhaps, or send them to move command on marines. Easy solution,

Multiple hotkeys do help for some trickier units, although ultimately you could just tab a few times depending on the comp, for instance with MMM + Tanks you could just stim tab like twice + siege tanks, takes like half a second for me, granted I have a lot more practice. Alternatively, you could just make a second hotkey with tanks and hit that hotkey + siege. Either way is valid.

I think that’s it >.<

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Lots to say,

but generally I’d recommend to not start with micro units too much. The game’s skill is well established, too much for beginners to jump into that right away, get the hang of macro units first (like tanks, widow mines, thors, a few bats, and of course you can add more stuff, but it will get more complex…)…

You can do many things in custom games its all up to you.

So looking at your thread specifically…
I didn’t hear of that one specifially. Sounds more like a dedication problem, just focus on the micro solely, until you get the hang of it… you can play Archon vs AI for example (let the other due MACRO). ← that would be the most fun and probably efficient way.

But of course you can do alot of micro maps, unit tester maps, or I would say you can use cheats to get units quickly - because you want to have basic micro.

Last but not least, micro doesn’t matter too much, you could just ignore it and try winning with a-moves… but then again having basic micro is one skill to have…
go for it.

It is like in any sports: Do the training seperated, no one trains football by playing matches (it’s only a part), no: people train alot of things individually, endurance, general musles, kicking-, -precision, -long shots, -passes, small fights = ball control, tackling, cheating, certain corner kicks, etc., etc., etc…

So in your case go for the “small fights” = micro seperated from other elements.

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Hellions are fantastic!

Here is a tip to macro the micro: Right click behind the mineral line, shift a-move a couple tiles away on the same mineral line, shift right click to escape or move to the next base. Pay attention enough to make them all run away if necessary. Hellions outrun everything.

Going behind the minerals makes it hard for their workers to mob the hellions. We also won’t waste attack power on high hp buildings.

6 hellions is the perfect number. 4 is enough to kill workers. But 6 allows you to punch through isolated defenders, take a few casualties, run away and still be a threat. 6 hellions is enough to scorch a queen really fast. They can eat one or two siege tank blasts and still have power left. Right click as close to tanks as possible to take them out.

If you go in with 6 full health hellions and escape with 3 on red health this is good. This keeps the threat active. The enemy has enough troops to kill the hellions, but to block them from raiding and escaping requires him to adjust.