Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The basics of Macro


Hello all, this is my first post and I would like to start things off by going over a few basics.
So you want to play Starcraft 2 because all your friends, even you mom, is into Starcraft 2, but you don't know how to counter that overlord rush at the very beginning. Well here is a few things you should remember as well as terms you should know:

Macro and Micro in Starcraft 2.These two things are very difficult to master, and most players tend to be better at one or the other while the pro players are better at both. One of your end goals should to have a very good balance of both. Macro being the first to work on, and micro can help you for matches that go into mid game(and sometimes help you early on).

So lets define what macro is. Macro in Starcraft 2 is the ability to continually be making units, buildings, and research even when you are in the middle of a battle or concentrating on something else. This also applies to having a strong economy and knowing when to expand. What can help you become a good macro player is for one, control grouping your unit producing structures. 

For example, I set all my Warp Gates, I play protoss primarily btw :p, to control group 9( for those of you not aware on what control groups are, simply select the units/buildings or both that you want, and press Cntrl+9 or any numbers to make that group yours. This has been a standard form of grouping for almost all Real Time Strategy Games.  Also try control grouping your upgrade buildings as well, forge, evolution chamber, or engineering bay as well so you can keep track of these and stay on top of it through your match.

My next blog post will talk about some commonly overlookced things you can do that can seriously boost your speed. Remember APM’s are not what im talking about. You can have below 50 APM’s and still be a very skilled player. And do not worry, I will keep discussing other topics of macro and how to improve over the next few days.





1 comment:

  1. Nice post! I didn't think there were that many SC2 blogs out there, so always excited when I find a new one.

    I'm still working on my micro and macro abilities, but agree that they're both core to improving your game. If you don't mind, I'll be adding your blog to my blogroll at thelittlezergling.blogspot.com

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