StarCraft 2 gameplay can be divided roughly between two major sections, Macro and Micro. Macro involves the building of your base and resource gathering, while Micro breaks down into micromanagement of units in battle. If you are good at Macro but bad at Micro, you probably still win a fair number of games. However, working on your Micro skills after you’ve mastered Macro yields great results.
What Does Micro Involve?
When you watch a pro player skilfully moving damaged units in and out of battle to avoid losing them, that’s micro. If you see him dividing different types of units in the same blob into different control groups, that’s micro. When he pops abilities at just the right moment, or lures an enemy into a trap, that’s micro. As you can see, good micro can lead to great advantages in the middle of a fight.
Problems Related to Micro
The problem with micro is that it usually involves all or most of your attention. When you focus on your fights, you stop focusing on other important things like continuing to produce units and construct buildings. Often, if you just focus on your micro you get defeated by the player with better macro, since you just can’t keep up with their unit production.
How You Can Improve Your Micro
Okay, fine, micro equals awesome unit control. But how can you, the player, get better at it? Well, the first way is to read guides. But after that you have to actually practice. That means playing against other players or the AI. I recommend AI opponents, since your losses against them don’t matter.
In battles, pull heavily damaged units out of the front line. Make sure your units concentrate on damaged enemy units, rather than engaging his whole force at once. Destroying individual units quickly often adds up to victory for you over just letting your units attack whatever they like.
Divide your own units up into squads within your army by adding them to control groups based on abilities (select units, hold down Ctrl and press 1-9 to assign them to that number). Use these groups to keep units at appropriate spots in your army. That means melee units out front, healers and long-range units in the back.
Learning the Specifics
Each race in StarCraft 2 has its own units and abilities. Each requires different micro. For instance, your micro of Protoss Sentry forcefields is different from keeping control of large groups of Zerg Speedlings. Read up on the specifics for your preferred race or races, watch pro replays, and (most important) practice! Finding good information and practicing using that info are the best methods of getting better.
