Stalkers with Blink are a favored method of harassment as Protoss, but only those in the top tier of Protoss players micromanage them properly to minimize their losses. The more Stalkers you have in a control group, the more difficult it is to aim their Blinks properly, but there’s a way around that.
The technique for managing your Blinks correctly is not a new one (it’s been in action since early beta), but it is one that most new players or players in lower ladder brackets tend to overlook. Most players will select all of their Stalkers, push Blink, then choose their blink location. The Stalkers at the very front of their control group will reach their destination, but the ones in the back will fall short. This is extremely problematic when trying to blink up cliffs or across gaps in the terrain. Most of your Stalkers won’t make it across, you’ll divide your forces and they will be killed much more easily.
The trick is to queue commands in a specific order: Hold down shift to queue a Move command, then queue a Blink to your intended destination, and then finish with another Move command. The first move command will force them to move to a specific point before they Blink. Rather than blinking immediately and falling short of their target, they will not blink until they’ve reached the end point of their move command. Then they will blink across, and every Stalker will reach their blink target. The extra move command ensures the Stalkers don’t remain piled up at their blink destination and block further Stalkers from making it across. You do not want to issue an Attack-Move order as your third command because that can still cause your Stalker to pile up.
Queue Order:
- Highlight your entire group of stalkers (or select your control group) and issue a Move command in the direction you want to move while holding Shift. If aiming to Blink up a cliff, issue your move command at the very bottom of the cliff. If trying to jump a gap, do it at the edge of the gap closest to you.
- Continue holding Shift. Press your Blink hotkey and then click your Blink location. Make sure you have vision if going up cliffs or across gaps.
- Continue holding Shift. Issue another Move command away from your blink destination. Release shift and watch your Blink magic!
This technique is much easier to understand when seen in motion, so embedded below are two tutorial videos from this technique. One is from StarcraftScientist and the other from HDStarcraft.
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Great post, thanks for sharing! i was wondering how to do this.