How to improve micro?

godspal

I am starting to play high-gold and platinum players and micro is letting me down something awful. Any tips for improving?

Decerto

Dargleins micro trainer, search for it in customs, so sick, covers about 80% of the common micro situations in the game for all races

Other that, micro comes kinda naturally from playing alot

Jhax

I've played 1,000 games in my 1v1 career and I'm only now starting to get the hang of micro. I've been A moving all this time which is why I haven't advanced in skill. I think the first thing you should be focusing on at your level is unit positioning. Spread your units out before a fight and make sure to use mana on units effectively. BTW what race are you?

RoyalMarine

wtf is mana?!?!?!

UnholyGregor

wouldnt worry about micro til your at least diamond league, really. Macro is what really sets the lower leagues apart from the higher ones. Of course, its always a good idea to get a good concave when fighting, and try connect the banes with marines instead of the tanks, but dont bog yourself down with all the details until you got a good grip of game mechanics,

Xios

I've said this to Saini a lot.

PLAY 4V4's!!!!!

You'll learn how to use different unit compositions and above, learn the strenghts and weakness of those units. Saini figured that his zealot/sentry/stalker mix could take on a lot more zerglings than he previously though, just by microing his forcefields correctly.

Like, in 4v4's it's fun to just go all infestors, or all lings, not in monobattles, but you will learn the parameters of each unit that way.

UnholyGregor

4v4's can be fun, but 1v1 is by far the best enviorment to improve in sc2.
If the only reason you're playing 4v4 is to learn the 'parameters' of each unit, you might as well just play micro tester or some other custom, and save yourself the cheesiness of team games.

RoyalMarine

^^

another player who thinks 1v1's are the only real part of sc2......

damn some of you people really grind my gears....

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

It is.
do you think hitting a ball against a wall with a racket is tennis?

Columc

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

It is.
do you think hitting a ball against a wall with a racket is tennis?

no its squash!

RoyalMarine

Columc wrote: »

no its squash!

game set and match

UnholyGregor

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

do you think hitting a ball against a wall with a racket is tennis?

No, its a waste of time, just like 4v4, for the purpose of improving.

freepower

UnholyGregor wrote: »

No, its a waste of time, just like 4v4, for the purpose of improving.

... improving at 1v1 you mean. :P

RoyalMarine

UnholyGregor wrote: »

No, its a waste of time, just like 4v4, for the purpose of improving.

thats complete and total bollocks.

Im not a great player. im struggling between silver/gold in 1v1.
in 2v2, im diamond.
in 3v3, im diamond.
in 4v4, im diamond/masters.

since i started playing 4v4's, my macro and micro have improved to the point where im beating gold/plat players on the 1v1 ladder with no real difficulty. before i played 4v4, i was getting my ass kicked on a regular basis.

between saini and xios, they have given me so much help in 4v4's when we play together and its improved my game 100 fold.

so to say it again,
thats complete and total bollocks.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

you would have improved alot quicker if you'd just played 1v1's instead of farting about with team games

RoyalMarine

i doubt that very much. by playing team games, i see how my team mates and opponents react to everything differently. i get to see 7 players perspectives in replays. if i played 1v1's, then i only get to see my own and my sole enemy's perspective.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

that... doesn't make sense

RoyalMarine

how does it not make sense?

i play 4v4... (thats 8 players in a game...)
in a 1v1, there are only 2 players...

in the 4v4, i get to see how all 8 players perform and build
in the 1v1, i only see myself and my opponent.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

because each time you're only looking at one player. whether it's a seperate opponent in seven 1v1 games or 1 4v4 game doesnt matter except that 4v4 is ****ing retarded and 1v1 strats don't neccesarily work in it.

RoyalMarine

this is not about 1v1 strats. its about improving micro.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

gold players dont need micro, the reason they're gold players is because they're bad at macro. and if you focus your time on team games, yeah you'll get a bit of macro practice but you wont be working on viable builds or game plans that can work in 1v1.

UnholyGregor

basically what the above has said. All that time you sunk into team games will serve very little meaning 1v1, theyre totally different games. fyi, master 3v3 or 4v4 takes about as much skill as platinum 1v1.

If you get two people who have never palyed sc2 before, and one plays 500 4v4s, and the other plays 200 1v1s, the 1v1 player will destroy the 4v4 player every time, if that makes sense.

simply put, team games are a fun way to play sc2 with your friends, but if you want to get better at the game, play 1v1, as team games dont mean **** 1v1 since you dont have other players to lean on. In fact team games can have a detrimental affecct on 1v1 performance in some scenarios. For example, imaging your ally gets the detection every 2v2. You start playing 1v1, and lose to a dt rush, since you dont have detection worked into your build, and you don't know how to scout it 1v1.

you can learn some things in team games, but ultimately, 1v1 is far superior for improving in every aspect.

NeoSlicerZ

You need to micro in 4v4? lol. Sure use team games to practice macro but micro, not really unless you mass blink stalker and nothing else.

IRL_Sinister

This thread makes no sense

RoyalMarine

NeoSlicerZ wrote: »

You need to micro in 4v4? lol. Sure use team games to practice macro but micro, not really unless you mass blink stalker and nothing else.

i love how you mention blink stalker as the only unit that needs mirco...

Columc

RoyalMarine wrote: »

i love how you mention blink stalker as the only unit that needs mirco...

In a 4v4 enviroment, blink stalkers would are the only heavily induced micro units, everything else is just macro the ****.

NeoSlicerZ

RoyalMarine wrote: »

i love how you mention blink stalker as the only unit that needs mirco...

Even basic unit repositioning is pretty much impossible in a 4v4 due to lack of space and how fast **** dies.

RoyalMarine

i mirco my roach very well in 4v4s the same as someone would micro blink stalkers.

NeoSlicerZ

RoyalMarine wrote: »

i mirco my roach very well in 4v4s the same as someone would micro blink stalkers.

roach "micro"

godspal

Stopping jacking my threads! i don't want another closed!

as for weather or not gold players need to know micro. As I outlined in my OP I was playing high-gold, low-plat players (emphasis on the was, after a disastrous weekend I have had to work my way back playing low gold - mid gold.)

And the question I asked is how to improve my micro. When I was playing platinum players (even played 1 diamond, which made my day) I was losing to very early aggression such as Marine/Maurder and Hellion Pushes from Terran, and Zealot/Stalker aggression from Protoss. Even when I amassed more units in the early game, cutting my supply, I was still losing a lot of my army, preventing me from counter attacking, and therefore making my investment worth while. Hence the question: "How do I improve my micro?" I did not ask "Is micro important in the lower leagues?"

And I know my macro needs improvement, and I know my in game decision making needs improvement, and I know my game awareness needs improvement. But one thing at a time.

EDIT: And why Xios suggested 4 v 4 is because when you have three other players backing you up, you get to focus on one aspect of the game that you think needs improvement. However, for me, I find playing team games are only a supplement to 1v1 games, and can help you improve aspects of your game, but should not be relied upon.

UnholyGregor

NeoSlicerZ wrote: »

roach "micro"

Protoss micro= 1a