Question on Queen Hotkeys

My normal hotkey setup for zerg is hatches on '1', queens on '2', main army on '3', air or infestors on '4', and detection/evo chambers on 9 or 0. Hatch is on 1 since I hotkey to my bases a lot. Queens on 2 since I can inject if they are all on 1 key quickly. Army is 3 since my hand rests near there anyway.

But I'm seeing on pro games and some of my own replays that some zerg players but all their queens on separate hotkey buttons(like 2-4 are using a queen).

What is the advantage of this since IMO it seems easier to just use them all on one key and use mini map to inject, without having to remember which hotkey is for which base?

On one key, I just have to 2, v, click, v, click, etc; whereas the other method i would have to 2, v, click, 3, v, click, 4, v, click.

 

main army on '3" dude....I hope you realise that zerg is the most micro based race, right? You cant have all units on same hotkey if you want to be able to beat your opponent´s, FLANKING is all zerg is about...You cant do that while you got all units on same hotkeys, a piece of advice for you is to learn how to use 8 hotkeys at the time...

1. Hatches
2. Queens
3. Zerglings
4. Roaches
5. Hydras/Mutalisks
6. Infestors/Corruptors
9. Overseer

That way you can control the zerglings to attack the enemy´s mineral line, attack with the roaches on his exps, using the mutas to harass the exp´s mineral line and avoid fighting your opponent´s army with infestor grab...Thats how a skilled zerg player does Feel free to pm me if you want any other information.

 

true, but I really only play team games, and splitting up forces like that will get them killed since most put defences everywhere.

I pretty much go roach/hydra, which work fine together, and only like going air if other side has colossus or tanks. I do know I need to get infestors more often, but infestor pit usually slips my mind until I realize I need it to get the hive for my 3/3 upgrades.

And you didnt answer the reason I created this thread

 

The most important with keybinds is to do something fast, while also feeling comfortable. It's how you rationalise and make a hotkey setup and then how you get used to it to feel natural to you...
What I see as an advantage to having queens bound in different keys like 4-6 is that you can double tap each key and inject at the hatchery nearby while also getting a glimpse of you base to assess if something's missing.

What I've seen a few of the top zergs do(I think fruitdealer and nestea both do that, and also Sen iirc) is have each hatch bound in a different key, like have 1-3 for the army and then 4-7 being hatches. What I see as an advantage in this setup is that while you can do inject fast by double tapping the hatch key and selecting the queen to inject, you can control which hatch makes which unit easier.


Also:

Apparently you don't realise that having played only zerg doesn't make you the best judge on which race "requires" more micro. Also flanking is the easiest thing you have to do micro-wise in this game especially if the units you flank with are the fastest units in the game.

 

Lol, team games are something completely different, ignore whatever pro things you see, team has nothing to do with 1v1.

 

well, the "main army on " also scared me (usually multiplayer).

Whar works for me: army is 1-4 grupoing them, usually from lighter to heavier or air. 5-7 are hactcheries .. but I usually group them so in case I need aditional hotkey I dont have to re-bind the hatcheries to a new hotkey ... I will need to try to separate them in each number as stirlitz comments ...

 

Guess I'll just stick to hatch and queens on 1 & 2. Seems like that is faster for me.

As for main army, that consists 90% of the time as roach/hydra, which I might as well keep together because my hydras will die otherwise. And I hate going mutas because I feel that they are as cost effective in battle compared to other zerg units, so I dont use spire often, even against terran players.

I would try more 1v1s, but being by myself against an enemy makes me lose confidence in my skills and that really distracts me, causing me to start to mess things up, like forgetting upgrades or teching. So I play much smoother in team games than in 1v1 games, even when just playing with random allies.

 

Yeah, team games are both more relaxing(since you get that feeling of having someone to back you up) and way different than solo games... They're also extremely richer in things you can do, since you can pretty much do any tactic that's unviable for 1vs1 due to severe weaknesses as your partnair can cover up for these weaknesses instead...

My ex-roommate plays teamgames on my account and while he's terrible in 1vs1 due to next to 0 experience(he's played like 3-4 games total) he's got a liking to go for late tech, and relies on his partnairs to keep him alive, and expands a lot. Then at some point he pushes out with a maxed and upgraded army when his team is about to lose, and turns the battle over, which is something that you cannot do in solo games...


Edit: Talking about micro: One of my favourite games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAJ6Om33vvc&feature=player_embedded#

 

My hotkeyes are :
1 Ground army
2 Air army
4 scouting overlord
5 all hatcheries
6 queen in main
7 queen in natural
8 queen in third base

 

0 is Nydus Canal
1 - 3 is reserved for armies
4 - 6 is reserved for queens (that way, to spread larvae to my expansions, I just tap 4 twice, press v, click on hatchery, tap 5 twice, press v, click on hatchery, tap 6 twice, press v, click on hatchery)
7 is all of my hatcheries

 

That takes a total of 12 actions per injection cycle - way too much.

0 - flank A
1 - flank B
2 - infestors
3 - harassment/corruptors
4 - queens
5 - hatcheries
6 - evo chamber (wip)

I'm in the process of configuring my new layout from the one I posted in another thread (I think) but the above is what I generally have in mind (and doesn't differ much from my previous groups).

 

Most pros individually hotkey their queens, and for good reason. I think only Vibe keeps all queens on one hotkey. It's important to be able to jump to a point on the map (for emergencies, quick macro clicks, etc.) without scrolling your mouse to the minimap.

Quick tip for those that individually hotkey their queens:

Use spacebar for injects.

Thank my later

 

IIRC Sheth also keeps his queens together. And I use location hotkeys so I can jump wherever I want to. Not just (established) bases, but anywhere.

Also, you can't use space bar for injections. You need to remap it first to <next base>. I'm not a fan of overly customising my stuff, plus I'd rather inject my own way (which I haven't seen anyone else do btw) rather than just copy others.

 

I use spacebar as "inject larvae". So if my queen is hotkeyed 5,6,7 etc. I go 55 spacebar click, 66 spacebar click, etc.

I've gotten coaching from Sheth back in SC2 beta. He does not keep his queens together.

He uses hatcheries on 1,2,3 etc. and selects queens manually after jumping to each base. He doesn't even have all hatches on one hotkey, but builds from each hatchery separately. He's the one that told me to not keep my queens together because it's bad. That's a BW background for ya!

 

Well I'm positive one of the proish gamers keeps his queens together. On top of being able to inject faster another perk of keeping them together is much easier defence (and transfusions) against banshees and VRs.

 

Yea I know Vibe does it and he's pretty solid. Moral of the story - do what you're comfortable with

 

I know who I've been thinking of, it's Spanishiwa who keeps all his queens on 1 group. Proof enough for me that this method works

And I've been doing it long before I learnt about who he was, too

 

1 - all hatcheries
2+3+4(+5) - army
5 (or 6) - Queens

You guys do know that you can use Backspace (or in my case Space) to switch between individual hatcheries and inject all of them in approximately one second if you've got all Queens for this purpose on one hotkey?

 

I use hatch 4
Queen main 5
Queen 2nd base 6
Queen 3rd base 7
1-3 for my armies

I got the hotkey from Idra that's what he use and it works really well. It allows you to switch between bases really quick.

 

stop talking about what you bind your hotkeys to, its a question of preference.

as for the queens, what gives the zerg an advantage is having as many larvae as possible, therefore your injects are what is most important. I was told that 4-6 queen bindings is that its easier for the player to select his queens, so he can control which section of his territory, and in case he miss-taps he will still get a queen.

ex: i have my observer binded to 7 to 0, so when Im in panic mode cuz theres a cloaked unit in my base, i just slap my keyboard at that area to select my obs lol.