[Delraich]

Please could someone explain a good way to execute blink stalker micro please? I tried to practice it and came up with 2 ways, neither of which felt particularly slick or easy.
1) look at the group of stalkers and then watch the health bars and manually try and click on the low health one and then hit B and then blink it back (you need good aim and this reminds me of trying to catch probes to send to the assimilator!)

2) look at the control group and then click on a red stalker and then blink it back. With this one you need to keep hitting your control group to get all the stalkers up again (or double clicking the stalkers again) which seemed really distracting.

My hunch says the first one, but i really don't know. Hopefully there is an easier way that i missed out.

[iMSystem]

The way I do it is through the 1st tactic.

But in 2 stages, I blink them out individually 1st when they hit 0 shields, then if they get back towards the firing line, blink when they are near death.

Its easier to 1st technique but does require a decent mouse accuracy just needs practice

[cruxis]

I also notice a lot of people just do groups of 2-4 to blink back.

[SiF]

This is how I prefer to do it ...works well for me

Hotkeys:
1 - Entire Army
2 - Stalker
3 - Spell Casters

Game Options:
Health Bars on

In battle:
IF vs. melee units - single stalker micro (left click damaged stalker, B, left click right behind other friendly unit shift + A, left click enemy unit

IF vs. ranged units - single stalker micro as above

IF vs ranged + melee - boxed micro - as above but select 2/3 at a time to get them away from melee

IF vs mass ling - hotkey "2" (select all) - blink to an area that is a choke or against a wall to minimise ball surface area - when blink cools down revert to single stalker micro

[Delraich]

Nice one! thanks so much.

SiF, regarding that last bit with Shift and A... is that attacking moving the blinked unit so that it carries on fighting again? Good thing you pointed that out otherwise only 1 dude would be fighting by the end of it all - lol.

[SiF]

Yeah you've got it mate. When you blink the stalker back it will attack if it's in range but sometimes when you blink back they can be idle as you've moved more than 6" away.

So yeah if you're micro isn't heaps tight I recommend just blinking away and then quickly A moving them so they reengage. If you're micro is good blink back and then shift right click on the unit your main group is already targeting.

Or if you want just blink back then hit "2" and right click one of the enemy units. Up to you really.

[SiF]

Oh and by the way as you're in bronze it might be more worth your while focusing improving on macro and aggression as this makes more of a difference in a game than micro.

[HuT]

Originally Posted by SiF

This is how I prefer to do it ...works well for me

Hotkeys:
1 - Entire Army
2 - Stalker
3 - Spell Casters

Game Options:
Health Bars on

In battle:
IF vs. melee units - single stalker micro (left click damaged stalker, B, left click right behind other friendly unit shift + A, left click enemy unit

IF vs. ranged units - single stalker micro as above

IF vs ranged + melee - boxed micro - as above but select 2/3 at a time to get them away from melee

IF vs mass ling - hotkey "2" (select all) - blink to an area that is a choke or against a wall to minimise ball surface area - when blink cools down revert to single stalker micro

Wait a minute...

SiF..

are you saying..

that..

you have a build that involves..

..the Twilight Council..

WHERE YOU DON'T BUILD A DARK SHRINE STRAIGHT AFTER IT!?!?!?!

What has the world come to..

[aztecx]

I generally just watch the screen. It's a lot easier because you know which stalkers are at the front and taking the most damage. As well as this units die too fast in sc2 to be able to react in time if you're using the second method.

In a video of ROOTDestiny learning protoss and ROOTMinigun teaching him, minigun actually states you should never blink the stalkers back one by one and actually blink them back in small groups. Obviously that would be situational but as a rule of thumb.

[SiF]

Originally Posted by nGenHuT

Wait a minute...
YOU DON'T BUILD A DARK SHRINE STRAIGHT AFTER IT!?!?!?!

Nono HuT I open with DT and then transition into Blink... You'd know this bro if you ever lived past my DT Harass

[Xeen]

Click on the stalker that is taking significant fire and losing shields, or group that is positionally disadvantaged.
Press B, and click somewhere else.

Congrats, you are now blink stalker microing.

[duanloves]

Either way works. It is just based on preference and how well you can micro.
Some people don't like health bars to be switched on. Pressing Alt will also bring up health bars.
Lets analysis

Manually clicking an injured stalker requires you to mouse over it and left-clicking to select it. Then press B on your keyboard and scroll your mouse back. The actions involve require you to be very focused on the main screen. In a Day9 video where he teaches mechanics, the mini-map is the most important place you are suppose to look at. Followed by the unit control groups right beside the mini-map and lastly the main screen.

So if you to focus mainly on micro-ing your stalker to make them as efficient as possible, using the 1st method, you have to sacrifice your macro and your mini-map detection making you vulnerable to drop play and other harassment.

I would suggest downloading oGsMc and WhiteRa's replay pack and see how they use. Then tailor it to fit you. Remember that every player is different.

[deL]

Also if my stalkers are getting targetted down I blink it far away, but if it's just getting on low health from the opponent's random a-move attacks I just blink it to the back of the line out of range of the opponent but still in range of an attack.

Also the 1st option is a lot easier in my experience and you can actually improve on it and get better at it with experience as opposed to the 2nd way which is solely on reaction speed and click accuracy.

[Delraich]

Thanks for all the replies, this is really helpful. I still suck at it though, but at least I can work on it now that I have a good understanding of what I should be doing.

I appreciate SiF's comment on not worrying about micro and focusing on macro. My experience though, is that although he is right, i think i need reasonable micro as well. OK so maybe I'm not ready for blink micro just yet, but i always seem to mess up an engagement that i think i could have won if played better. once that first battle is lost and my army is basically toast, the opponent marches up and squishes my expo or base. I actually have another micro related question, but i'll start a new post for that one!

[deL]

Both micro and macro can win you the game, no use focussing on macro when you can win with just micro. This isn't BW - you have to make the call on which to focus on (though default is macro!) and use your experience in various situations to help your decision making whether to commit to microing or whether you should take the time to keep your macro ticking over. If you do amass a lot of minerals and like to opt to micro a lot you should at least have a plan for spending when you have a lot of resources built up and not just waste it. A lot of people go back to base after microing and panic because they have 1000 minerals and just spam one unit - make sure to keep making buildings you need (don't overmake them) and keep your ideal unit composition don't just small all zealots or all stalkers when you realise you have been microing too hard. Keeping this in mind it should be fine and you won't suffer too much from focussing on micro at the right time.

[inFeZa]

The great thing about going blink is you can get out of sticky situations while poking pretty easily, but limits your unit mix somewhat if your still on 1 base, as you dont want to warp in zealots because you invested in the blink.

Another thing to keep in mind is when you bring them back you want to blink them right before they start taking actual HP damage, so the sheilds can regenerate in time.
Just practice it and you'll understand how important it is to keep your units alive and will rub off onto other units and their value when they stay alive and you win battles that you thought you couldnt have with out it

[ke_ivan]

This is a bit off topic, but how do u get stalkers to individually blink off a ledge? I've seen in some games where they walk up to a ledge and then blink individually down, but they're all on the same hotkey.

[nirvAnA]

use the shift command. shift click to location on edge of cliff and shift click blink.

[PantlessPete]

Originally Posted by ke_ivan

This is a bit off topic, but how do u get stalkers to individually blink off a ledge? I've seen in some games where they walk up to a ledge and then blink individually down, but they're all on the same hotkey.

Shift queue the blink. So tell the whole group to move near the edge of the cliff, then hold shift and tell them to blink down. What will happen is that as a stalker reaches the point you specified, he will blink! It's good for when you want to make sure none are left behind (have you ever blinked a group, and 2-3 at the back are still stuck on the highground with their blink used up?).

[duanloves]

Something i recently learnt is to invest in a the right gear and I learnt it the hard way. A cheap ass mouse will do you more harm than good. =D