[Insidious]

Hey Guys I have only been playing Sc2 for a couple of weeks, And Im trying to develop my protoss gameplay as much as possible.. I ranked silver straight away and i realise there is a lot of noob tactics to rank up eassily however I want to learn (not just win) as a result I was wondering when engaging an enemy i read that it is good to use force fields to split the enemy army into smaller groups.. However when I "A" move with my army Hotkeyed #1 sentrys #2 and HT's #3. I try to use Force Fields to split the enemy but because I am holding shift the sentries do not forcefield until after the Attack move has resolved. My question is this.

Is better to have sentries hotkeyed as 2 issue a stop command and then chain forcefiedls across the army using shift+F+spaming clicks...
Or is better to attack move and then just F+click+F+click+F+click+F+click+etc..
Or is there someway to micro this better so I can use force fields to there full potential??

Thanks in advance

[[TA]LoSt]

I don't know if my way is the best, but I just have my sentries hotkeyyed on 1 with my main army (One of the useful yet bad habits of playing Protoss - having all units on 1 hotkey) and just 1a then f click f click f click really fast. There's no need to have your sentries on another hotkey as it would just delay both their movement by having to 1a2a and their forcefields by having to swap hotkey groups.

At silver level you shouldn't be trying to make things harder for yourself, you'll naturally get faster and be able to do multiple group hotkeys with different spellcasters however for now I think it's just best to have your zealot/stalker/sentries all on one hotkey and f click as fast as you possibly can.

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by [TA]LoSt

I don't know if my way is the best, but I just have my sentries hotkeyyed on 1 with my main army (One of the useful yet bad habits of playing Protoss - having all units on 1 hotkey) and just 1a then f click f click f click really fast. There's no need to have your sentries on another hotkey as it would just delay both their movement by having to 1a2a and their forcefields by having to swap hotkey groups.

If I was going to have my sentries hotkeyed to 2 for fast ffs, I would have my entire army (including sentries) hotkeyed on 1, so I can 1a, then I can hit 2 and f-click to land ffs. (This is more useful if you have other units in your army that mean you have to tab to get your sentries for FF though).

[Insidious]

Yeah Thanks I do have all my army hotkeyed to 1 but outside of that my sentries also have a special hotkey of 2 so i can just hit 1+A move. I know I have only been playing for two weeks and im looking at Micro techniques for higher levels.. I just dont want to have to adjust my play at higher levels if I can learn what i need to learn here and now... hope that makes sense.. I dont mind loosing games as long as I am improving in the way I play... How im thinking..... and How i approach situations.. I want to learn the right way.. as they say

[Halstrom]

I always have sentries hotkeyed into my main army on 1 then just f-click-f-click. I sometimes have the same sentries hotkeyed as 2 so I can move them about quickly. IMHO shift-f-clicking is brought with terrible danger. Forget you know about it now!!!

Edit: when hotkeyed with other units, sentries abilities take priority over all others

[Insidious]

ahah ok thanks, it seems F+click is the right way to go.. I just wasnt sure.. and the Pro's seem to hit up those force fields so fast :/

[Rythos]

If you want to get your forcefields down faster, I find just holding F and then clicking several times works really well. If you want to use this method, it's worth going into your PC's Control Panel, opening the Keyboard settings and adjusting the Repeat Delay to the shortest setting, and your Repeat Rate to the fastest.

Quick Comments

	PiG:	Yep thats how i do it too, didn't realise you could change the settings though!
	porkchop:	this is awesome, very useful

[Insidious]

:O..... really??? you can do that.... wow hold F and just click,click,click,click,click??? hmmm well thats sounds pretty easy/usefull thankx Rythos

[AZKziek]

I hotkey my Sentries to 3 and have my whole army on 5 and 6.
If you have no other Spellcasters selected, Sentries will be the default unit class selected so it's up to personal preference.
As for casting the actual spell, I got used to clicking F then an area, and so on for each time you Force field. The more you practice it the more precise you will get.

[Maynarde]

Hey dude, give Micro Training 101 a go, saw it in a different thread on this site.

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=1935

Looks pretty handy for some FF practice

EDIT: Ooo it's on the front page, if you haven't used it yet I highly recommend!

Quick Comments

Insidious:

Thanks for the Micro 101 post

[SkyBreaker]

Originally Posted by Maynarde

Hey dude, give Micro Training 101 a go, saw it in a different thread on this site.

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=1935

Looks pretty handy for some FF practice

EDIT: Ooo it's on the front page, if you haven't used it yet I highly recommend!

100% this! Micro Trainer 101 is fantastic; and not just for FF's either, there's a tonne of useful training exercises for Protoss (and the other two races as well).

Was just going to +rep you May; but apparently I need to spread it around

[maximusPrime]

shift+F and then just click where you want to drop them. There's no point in making things more difficult for yourself and constantly mashing F+click, F+click, F+click. Drop your first ones down with shift+F+click and then if you need to drop down a few more precise ones then F+click singularly

[jason]

Forcefield :
Against marine marauder : 1. Either STOP the units from moving, so that your zealots can do maximum damage.2. OR split the army in half so your stalkers can atk the firist half of the army and not get hit by the 2nd half.

Do 1 if you are more zealots heavy. Do 2 if you are more stalkers heavy.

So how do you do 1? First of all, you place a forcield right in the middle and behind the army. Let's say the army then moves to the left side of the forcefield, THEN you place another one on the left. Most of the time you will see players just SPAM forcefield, but that is wrong. Put on right behind and in the centre of the bio army, then whichever side he moves, put another one behind that army. and place some more if you need to trap the army.

For 2, just simply place forcields in the middle of that biological army, and move back your army by a bit. So that your stalkers can attack the first half of that army, and not get hit by the second half of that army.

Against zerg : 1.If he is going zling heavy.
2.Roach Hydra heavy.

1. Put forcefields around your own ball, so that the zlings can't hit you (Don't do this if he has baneling bombs, unless you have blink or something which can avoid that)

2.Try to force that roach hydra army into a smaller area, so that you colossus can deal maximum damage. Also you can split that army in half as well, to do that just refer to the 2 from Against Terran.

Hope it helped.

[Cyanide]

IIRC, shift+abilities usually mean they finish attacking before casting their spells for most units when you a+move and shift+ability.

what i do is A-move and then control click the sentries and then f+click away. same goes with other abilities, such as blink, storm, graviton beam etc.

[Insidious]

ahhh thanks guys that micro training 101 was a huge help. Thanks Maynarde