Battle Micro

[Revelade]

I'm wondering what you guys do when you are in battles. If I have ranged units, I will FF on weaker units. I'm not sure what to do with melee units. Do I want my entire melee force FF? Or should I have a couple FF, while the others just randomly fight? When should I attempt to assassinate their hero?

How do you group your units? I'm trying to get my heroes at 1, my primary units as 2, my specialized units as 3 and buildings as 4.

[Chris]

I usually group heroes with no skill units (like hh or grunts with them). The 2nd group is for casters and the 3rd are usually for raiders. I only put heroes and units on seperate if I too many regular units.

In one of my wins in a Orc/Hu vs 2 Hu fight. I had my grunts take on the enemy with my friend's foots. Then I selected my trolls and FFed using them, since they are more effective at damage then grunts are (even though thier attack speed is slower and have less life).

When holding alt in that scenario, focus firing on the weak is easier with the trolls. The grunts are there for a head on unit to keep the trolls safe. But they still need to be microed along with the heroes.

Melee FF depends on what you want dead and is that unit able to escape or have others near it. I see melee more of a in your face fighting unit to keep them distracted for your ranged to be safe. I would use range to ff or use melee ff on solo'ed heroes, units, or to make a hero run in some scenarios.

[Tobli]

For me i use at 1: Melee Hero/Units
2: Range Hero/Units
3: Caster Hero/Units
It's generally not a good idea to group your heroes together cuz then you'll have to switch between them. In some cirumstances you can just use F1 etc for heroes.

[Ntrik_]

1: all heros + main units/all units
2: any units in the beginning, then MG
3. Bears
4: Ranged units (dyrads, etc) or air

[G-Blunted]

usually you want your melee up front blocking the enemy's path to your ranged...this usually consists of an "Attack Move" which is hit 'A' and click towards the enemy....and then you select ranged units weather with subgroup or hotkey and queue up focus fire targets. You hit "A" then hold shift and alt while you click red health units first and then unarmored, light, etc etc...also, in these situations u find out it's better to have your ranged units on different hotkey than melee because if he runs a unit you're focusing on, back to his base, then your ranged will try to follow. Well to stop this you either hit 'H' for hold, or you tell them to move back, or you just give them new targets. And most of the time you don't really want your meat shield to do any of those things, and so just because your range is messed up and you gotta fix it, doesn't mean your meatshield has to suffer. It's a bitch when you have to reassign your focus fire targets, but that's why i usually don't assign them more than 4 or 5 deep, and also that's what micro is all about right!?

Once I got my units all targeted and positioned well enough i'll usually start looking to use hero spells, or items, or examine how my opponent's units are positioned and targeted and see if there's going to be some troubles, and if so do something about it. (examples of troubles would be if my meat shield was aboout to disappear, or if he got a bunch of melee past the shield and they're going down the line killing my spiders)

Also, when attacking with primarily melee (like lots of ghouls or grunts) you generally do an attack+move and then select smaller groups of units (like 1/2 to 1/3) and queue up targets for them...unless of course you're trying to just overwhelm them with melee for the win...like wagonmancer...but then again you arn't suppose to micro that strat.

Also with buildings i put them all on one hotkey (Hotkey 5) and make extensive use of Tab to cycle through and Ctrl+Click to set rally points for individual buildings (can use it with small mixed armies as well as to not mix orders) When you do this with your buildings they will always be in the same tab order (Crypt first, necropolis second, alter third, gyard 4th, etc etc) so i can produce/upgrade just as quick as having each building on it's own hotkey...

[Chris]

Originally Posted by G-Blunted

usually you want your melee up front blocking the enemy's path to your ranged...this usually consists of an "Attack Move" which is hit 'A' and click towards the enemy....and then you select ranged units weather with subgroup or hotkey and queue up focus fire targets. You hit "A" then hold shift and alt while you click red health units first and then unarmored, light, etc etc...also, in these situations u find out it's better to have your ranged units on different hotkey than melee because if he runs a unit you're focusing on

This is a fine example of how the little things in battle can lead to big changes in the outcome. But be ready for people that will go around your melee and try to kill these ranged. Orc and NE should definitly be prepared for this style of combat: considering thier basic ranged has low hit points and don't take damage too well.

[TheoStormhawk]

Originally Posted by G-Blunted

usually you want your melee up front blocking the enemy's path to your ranged...this usually consists of an "Attack Move" which is hit 'A' and click towards the enemy....and then you select ranged units weather with subgroup or hotkey and queue up focus fire targets. You hit "A" then hold shift and alt while you click red health units first and then unarmored, light, etc etc...also, in these situations u find out it's better to have your ranged units on different hotkey than melee because if he runs a unit you're focusing on, back to his base, then your ranged will try to follow. Well to stop this you either hit 'H' for hold, or you tell them to move back, or you just give them new targets. And most of the time you don't really want your meat shield to do any of those things, and so just because your range is messed up and you gotta fix it, doesn't mean your meatshield has to suffer. It's a bitch when you have to reassign your focus fire targets, but that's why i usually don't assign them more than 4 or 5 deep, and also that's what micro is all about right!?

Once I got my units all targeted and positioned well enough i'll usually start looking to use hero spells, or items, or examine how my opponent's units are positioned and targeted and see if there's going to be some troubles, and if so do something about it. (examples of troubles would be if my meat shield was aboout to disappear, or if he got a bunch of melee past the shield and they're going down the line killing my spiders)

Also, when attacking with primarily melee (like lots of ghouls or grunts) you generally do an attack+move and then select smaller groups of units (like 1/2 to 1/3) and queue up targets for them...unless of course you're trying to just overwhelm them with melee for the win...like wagonmancer...but then again you arn't suppose to micro that strat.

Also with buildings i put them all on one hotkey (Hotkey 5) and make extensive use of Tab to cycle through and Ctrl+Click to set rally points for individual buildings (can use it with small mixed armies as well as to not mix orders) When you do this with your buildings they will always be in the same tab order (Crypt first, necropolis second, alter third, gyard 4th, etc etc) so i can produce/upgrade just as quick as having each building on it's own hotkey...

Interesting.
I will choose an race example to understand me better: human

first group is the AM with the footmans and other meat shield like knights and sometimes breakers.
second group MK with range units, like rifle, dragon, even gryphs.
third group the palladin with the supporting casters (priests) if I use sorc I assign them to MK also.
I use alot of tab subgrouping and control for subgrouping movement, for the hero I directly use F1 or F2 or F3.
I move my army in a row I mean, first group is moving and the second has the first group hero on patrol and the third group the same first group because I keep my priests in the middle of the army.

About the heroes, the thing is that I used them alot like in campaign, I mean the palladin on the first group with knights, but I don't think it is right, because he can get easily FF even with divine shield; the MK is very esposed to this too.
FF is a highly strategic weapon these days because when u fight and see that u can get killed if u have the means u can ff and kill fast the heroes and the opponent will go back, he needs his heroes.
So in my opinion the melle heroes shouldn't stay with the melle units unless it is not possible like when using BM or DH.

Also I don't understand this all hero on a control thing. This is not right people, u must always have direct control to all the heroes and units abilities.


My buildings stay on the last controls keys.

[G-Blunted]

Ya the worst thing about heros and control groups i have is when I don't go DK>LICH>CL or CL>DK>LICH I get ****ed *every* game because I'm hitting the wrong keys for the hero i want...like whenEVER i change heros i get i get screwed up...i gotta work on that shit...

[Revelade]

Ghouls really aren't a great meat shield. I'd say they are more like shock troopers that go in and out fast. They CAN deal a lot of damage, but only if they aren't attacked. You would want dual aura, stats, sac skull, with cannabalize and frenzy. Even then, chainwave or fan of knives will rip ghouls up. Perhaps you might want to get some banshees with AMS.

Also, I find using the Paladin is easy. If you put boots on him, you don't need to go divine shield. Stick with light and aura. At level 5, if you are using knights and gryphons, get level 3 light, if you are using smaller units like rifles, go with level 3 aura.

[brightlight]

but divine shield isn't mainly used for survivng death, rather then taking damgage. Due to paladin coming late.. hes ff can really dmg him and put him out of fight.

[Rhymer]

What does FF mean? Fighting Focus? :susp

[Chris]

Focus Fire. It is when you take every unit you have a focus all your attacks on that unit. There are some players that use FF too much to a point where they will often sacrifice everything just to kill one unit. Its a real unit killer, even in some situations when your micro is second-to-none.

For human, if your paladin can't escape a conflict, there is an item called Staff of Sanctuary. It has saved my heroes and some units countless times, even Mystic Sorcerer gets 1 staff for each of his heroes. Cause healing these units is easier then replacing them.

[Rhymer]

Where do you get the sanctuary staff? I haven't seen it in any shops. :nooob

[TheoStormhawk]

Originally Posted by Rhymer

Where do you get the sanctuary staff? I haven't seen it in any shops. :nooob

From the arcane vault, u can buy it only if u have a castle. This teleports the targeted injured unit near the castle and heals it with a number of hp per second. During the healing the unit is stuned and cannot atack, move or cast spells.

[Chris]

Which is why timing is important when you use the Staff of Sanctuary. IF you are at your base and your enemy is there too, this might not be a safe idea because your unit is rendered useless. Then the enemy can either attack it to prolong the healing process or kill it. In this scenario, either run them out of invis them. However, if you are somewhere very far away, this is a good item to consider when you want to micro your units.

Really microing allows players to keep the units they have, without the cost of replacing them. Cause honestly, it costs less (gold and mana) to heal then it does to replace (gold and wood and time).

[G-Blunted]

Originally Posted by brightlight

but divine shield isn't mainly used for survivng death, rather then taking damgage.

That's just wrong. Divine shield doesn't take any damage at all, and is solely used to survive death....Soooooo, yea...

[Chris]

Or if you need to do some undead destruction and not be touched. But you can also use to it to keep an invisible medic if you don't want him to be attacked. However, at this point that is hoping your paladin has lvl 3 shield.

[*Turok]

Staff is too expensive no1 buys three unless he has an expansion or 2 ... he cant get 3 each one costs 250G

[Chris]

Not if you fast expo? Mystic Sorcerer does in most of his replays for that matter. The only con is you need to wait before you can get a new one. In NE, I often start getting archers after 6 hunts to increase my power of picking off hunts and other unarmored schmos. I often use my siege weapons as well to pick off casters, because thier supportive buffs and de-buffs can be your downfall.

[G-Blunted]

Who the hell is this Mystic Sorcerer guy you keep praising??