ENT Gaming

Since most of my recent topics are wrapping up nicely, time for some more spam.

So, this time, let's talk about control groups!

I use the following:

Builder:
F1 - Titan Hunter
1 - Main builder
2 - First set of deny buildings. (All the buildings in one group. Usually 1-2 shelters, 5-6 fruits depending on race and RC.)
3 - Workers for wotw deto / Turtle.
4 - RC + ARC + Other research buildings / Second set of deny buildings.
5 - Shelters for G2L.
6 - Towers for focus fire #1.
7 - Towers for focus fire #2.
8 - Towers for focus fire #3.
9 - Workers to deto in lb #1. (Thanks to @BeeKauzh for teaching me how to deto, which is Select Workers, S, Shift D, Mass click portrait.)
0 - Workers to deto in lb #2.

Admittedly, I don't necessarily use the same numbers all the time, like sometimes if I have 2-3 different groups of buildings to deny on the map, and no workers to deto wotw, then the different building groups will be 2, 3, 4 and I just access RC through whichever group it's in. Or late game if I don't need to worry about deny buildings, towers might be on 2, 3, 4, etc.

As Demo I put scout felhound on 2 and scorp on 3 at the start. When I have dubs and I kite titan at mid with 2 scorps, one goes on 2 the other on 3. RC is on 4, shelters on 5 and workers on 9.

By kiting I mean I attack Titan with both scorpions (I know that's not what they're officially called in-game btw) and when he goes towards one, I run with it while still attacking with the other. And vice versa. Good micro practice.

I only really played Demo and Faerie since I came back ~2 weeks ago (and I was noob before then, years ago, when I last used to play), so I didn't have to hotkey other races that have other special mechanics (like Nat with all the warriors or Draenei with summoners, etc.).


Titan:
F1 - Main Titan.
F2-6 - While I try to avoid using these, it's second-nature to me due to playing lots of standard WC3. F1 is fine and I encourage using it to select Main Titan, but if you use F2-6 for minions, you will end up slipping up and selecting the wrong minion eventually when you have more than a few. (And I don't mean alcoholic beverages, but minions. Kek.) It becomes hard when you try to split up your minions throughout the map and not have them ever idling, but that's for a different topic .

1 (Siege) - Attacking units (usually Titan and highest level mini).

2 (Early game) - Scout chim.
2 (Siege) - Non-attacking units (usually all the other minis not in 1. This group excludes Chickens and anything else you might have - it only has minis.
2 (Otherwise) - Pearl mini / Chicken if Pearl not on main.

3 (Early game) - Phoenix or Shade.
3 (Siege) - All units (Main, Minis and Chickens - not Eyes or Mini Minis). Mainly used for chain nuking and pulling back.

4 (Always) - Mound and the three shops. (Thanks @Neco for shop hotkeys - shopping is now a breeze).
Note: I set Select Patron to T in CustomKeys.txt in WC3 directory. For standard WC3 I set it to Q but since that's a taken shop hotkey I had to change it for ID. And I guess I'll just fit this here, I use Z to open the select skill menu - it's also second nature now due to standard WC3.

5 (Always) - Mini minis or Spawns of Darkness (or whatever Demonicus' ability is called).

6 (Optional) - WW Chickens. When running them away or hiding them.

7 (Optional) - Non-WW Chickens. When running them away or hiding them. (Though if mini died, don't expect this non-WW chicken to live.)

8, 9, 0 (Always) - Floating Eyes.

Special - Hunting: Hunting is when you want to split your units to cover all escape routes of your prey. Usually early game after first mini. Sometimes late game if someone is daring enough to be on the map far from base.
1 (Hunting) - First hunter group (usually just main, maybe with a mini, depending on number of minis).
2 (Hunting) - Second hunter group (1-2 minis depending on number of minis).
3 (Hunting) - Third hunter group (1-2 minis depending on number of minis).

Builder
1) Builder
2) Research centre + ARC + any other building that requires research
3) fruit trees for full deny base
4) Shelter for worker pump, prioritised by mid worker deto pump, on pizzly for deto
5) Worker deto
6) Turtle
7-0) towers

Titan
1) Main titan
2) Pearler, then attacking units (usually pearl is on F2, but sometimes I need to pass it to other minions because mana) - Chickens are always (2)
3) all minions
4) all minions + titan
5) teleport/punish
6) chimaera scout or any scouting unit like molt bird or demonicus shade and mini-minis
7-0) shops and gold mound, normally I don't bother though. Recently I just double tap (5) then start shopping.

Use hero portrait F1 to F6 A LOT.

The thing about using F1 for main titan is that there is a bug when you -titan that your main titan will be F2 or F3, and it's also closer and an old habit, else I'd use F1.

I'd recommend always having a separate group just for your main titan because a good thing when sieging is using 4) all units to back, then selecting 1) Main titan to go back to attack the wall when minion rushing, which makes it so the minion being focused at the front won't be blocked as much. Of course, this only works for weak towers or tanky minions. You could also use control group 3, but your main might not be in front.

-Burn

Burn wrote:I'd recommend always having a separate group just for your main titan because a good thing when sieging is using 4) all units to back, then selecting 1) Main titan to go back to attack the wall when minion rushing, which makes it so the minion being focused at the front won't be blocked as much. Of course, this only works for weak towers or tanky minions. You could also use control group 3, but your main might not be in front.

That's why I use 1 for attacking units (Main + 1 mini) and 2 for all the other minis.

I guess we can discuss sieging tactics too. Too lazy to make another topic and it kind of ties in.

My tactics when sieging are usually (assuming everyone has titanic off cd):
- Throughout the siege: pay attention to debuffs and make sure to Punish instantly. Especially Eye.
- If low max hp hunter, or LE, chain nuke hunter.
- Titanic to first mini in group 2. (Or first Chicken. Note: If LE, Chickens hold Pearl.)
- Order group 2 to one side of wall and shift hold position. (To absorb tower shots of workers not microing.)
- Select one mini from group 2 and order to other side of wall and shift hold position. (Same thing, other side.)
- Order group 1 to attack wall.
- Use titanic, shift swap to 2nd mini in group, shift hold position.


At this point pay attention to the following things:
- If wall is getting low, shift queue attack next wall with group 1.
- If minion in group 1 getting low, select it, send it back, press Shift+2 to add it to group 2, select a healthy minion, order it to attack wall, shift select Main, re-assign group 1.
- If minion in group 2 getting low, select it and send it back.
- If something is getting REALLY low, WW it back.
- If something is getting REALLY low and WW on cd, or you think WW won't save it, select group 3, move back and instantly mass E Tab for heal.
- If ward is getting focused, put down another ward in a safer position and swap Titanic to next mini, if last mini, to main.
- If main getting low, order it back, and if wall not low, order everything back. If wall low, order group 2 to attack it and order all low minions back.
- If rewaller, order group 3 to move closer first then start the chain nuke. Might have to pearl.

If there's only 1-2 layers of walls left, depending on base strength, use all offensive items (zerker gem, scroll of beast), start mass healing and order everything to attack. Whenever something gets low, ww and send it back. If main gets low, ww and stay there near ward.
Use your own discretion as to which builders to kill instantly and which to leave for feed.

Any comments on this?

I missclick all the time so I put the same stuff on more than 1 hotkey.
Starting hotkey/Later replaced by this

I always use the following:

Builder
1-Main builder
2-RC/Mid workers/Towers or WB shelter(s)
3-RC/Mid shelter/More towers
4-RC/Turtle/Even more towers
5-RC/Additional towers required when solo-basing
6-RC/Additional towers required when solo-basing as Murloc or Makrura
7-RC
8-RC
9-RC/Fruit trees/Arc
0-Base shelter(s)

I put mid workers and shelters hotkey as close as possible to my main builder to select them fast.
I never have base workers on hotkey, I usually send 12 workers on one side of the shelter and the 13(18) others on the other side for easy Drag-select. I deto 2 workers from the other side if I bring workers mid.



Titan
1-Gold mound
2-Titan
3-All minions/Sometimes some minions/All minions
4-Summoned Units/The other minions
5-Summoned Units/More minions
6-Summoned Units
7-Summoned Units
8-Summoned Units
9-Summoned Units
0-Summoned Units

The titan is the center hotkey. I'm always on this hotkey unless chase/siege.
The gold mound(TP/Punish) hotkey is next to titan's hotkey. How convenient.
The minions hotkey is next to titan's hotkey. How convenient.

I never use F1-F6 unless chasing last builder alive.
I never hotkey shops and I don't think I ever will.


Any other way to hotkey your stuff seems silly to me.


Sieging tactic?
I like to shift queue everything and see how things goes.
Retreat and heal if needed, nuke rewaller if I feel like it.
I never nuke titan hunter anymore, I'm scared for life.

BeeKauzh wrote:I missclick all the time so I put the same stuff on more than 1 hotkey.

This is me as well, I fat finger a ton, so I often bind the same thing to multiple keys (especially in the last two months, I've had a huge bandage on my left ring finger from surgery repairing a severed tendon, which is causing a lot of mistakes in my gameplay)

For builder, I tend to bind things early, but when basing i never bind RC, ARC, or anything like that. Sometimes, depending on the builder, I might change one or two things (such as putting slow tower in its own group, skipping titan hunter grouping because I never built one, etc)

Starting hotkey/Later replaced by this

Builder
1-Main builder
2-RC / Titan Hunter
3- Deny Fruits / Towers
4- Shelter / Towers
5- Shelter / Towers
6- Towers / Turtle
7- Towers / Turtle
8- Turtle
9- Turtle or not used
0- Turtle or not used

Titan keys change depending on the time of the game and how I choose to macro the map / position the seige.

Starting hotkey/Later replaced by

Titan
1- Main Titan (always and forever, I've always put heroes as group 1)
2- Gold mound / Main minion group
3- Gold mound / Everybody
4- Gold mound / Second minion group
5- Gold mound
6- Gold mound
7- Gold mound
8- Gold mound / summons
9- Gold mound / summons
0- Gold mound / summons

I often change it for sieging (depending on the situation)

1- Main Titan
2- All Minions
3 - Everybody
4 - Gold Mount
5 - Eye
6 - Gold Mound
7 - Gold Mound
8 - Gold Mound / summons
9 - Gold Mound / summons
0 - Gold mound / summons

I find this easier for me, because when minion rushing I tend to look at all the hp bars in group and ww/retreat the focused minions from there. When seiging i do a significant amount of box selecting to micro minions, having them in two separate groups tends to lead to feeding them. Also, its really easy for me to hit 4 and purge, hitting 6 or further to purge can fuck me up sometimes.

Never use F keys, just never been a habit of mine. Almost never bind workers, either, because noob.

uhhhhhhhhh i do
Builder:
1: main builder
2:any seed shelter
3: rc
4:hunter or turtle
5:workerblock
6:maphack

Titan:
1:main titan
2:mound
3:first minion
4:second minion
5:third minion
6:maphack

When I'm trying to trap builders, I always use F2 F3 F4 to trap, that way I don't have to waste control groups. F1 to F6 is also good for upgrading skills, I always skill nuke and WW first, so if I see two skill points saved up, I put it instantly into lvl 2 heal. Else, sometimes if I need lvl 2 nuke, say for nuking down a builder in a seed, I"ll just skill a lvl 2 nuke to nuke him down.

Saving skill points is used a lot in DotA2, which is something I think we should also be doing!

-Burn