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A Concise Guide to Shift-Queue
~By AftershocK



Forum Version
Guide Version


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~Contents:





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Hello and welcome to my guide to shift-queuing in dotA.



This will be my first guide, feel free to drop by for suggestions/tips/improvements. Also, English is not my native language, so please don’t criticize on my English. I am no pro or such. I’m just a hardcore DotA player who wants to share what he has learnt throughout his gaming career to people who are not aware of it. Please note that most part of the guide is contained in spoilers to provide the ease of viewing it. You can simply click on show to view that respective content.



I will be teaching you the Shift-Queuing. I would also like to tell you that you won’t get anything by just reading the guide. You will have to experiment around in single player before moving on to public games.



Quote:
DO THE BASICS BEFORE MOVING ON TO SEQUENCING INVENTORY ITEMS!


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I. Inroduction to the technique




Shift-Queue is a function of Warcraft 3. It allows to you ‘queue’ actions in sequence. Shift-Queuing allows you to do actions lightning fast – Within a second almost, or less. Learning Shift-Queuing will allow you the advantage of quicker actions over your opponents. This technique can give you monstrous advantage when playing heroes like Tinker and Invoker especially, but it works will all heroes. Imagine a situation, you are playing as Kardel the Sniper and you are happily farming in the bottom lane. Suddenly, you see a Tinker teleporting to your lane via a creep (It is obvious he is teleporting through his Boots of Travel). You turn around to run, but resistance is futile. As soon as his teleport finishes, you see him hexing you, blinking to your side, using missile, dagon, laser and march – all within a split second and you couldn’t even blink your eye!

Now, THIS is what Shift-Queuing is. A lot of people were asking me how I use this technique is various forms. So I decided I would make a guide to help them out. This guide is dedicated to you guys. I hope you enjoy.




II. Pros and Cons

Pros:

[+] Gives you a huge advance in the game in form of quick actions.
[+] Enhances your juking skills to a next level.
[+] Makes you look ‘pro’.

Cons:

[-] Takes a good amount of time to get used to.
[-] Shift-queuing can sometimes mess things up if you queued a wrong action in some place.
[-] You cannot remove an action from somewhere in the sequence, you will have to do the whole sequence again.


For example: I am tinker, I teleport to my tower which is being destroyed. I shift queue dagon on a hero and then shift queue blink to a safe place. But as soon they see my coming, they all decide to back off. But as you know, I have already queued all my actions. So, what happens will be like this – your hero will move in one direction and look for the hero you shift-dagon’ed on. If you don’t find him, you will keep moving, well no problem as you can order a move command and cancel your queue. But you get in a disadvantage where the enemy will find you unarmed, he will disable you and kick your ass.



On the other hand, if the target you dagon’ed on is in sight and in range of dagon, you will dagon him and blink to the place to queued to, in a split second. Always consider the dark side too.
If you didn’t understand, read the next section which will show how to use the shift button and then move back to this example.


III. How to shift queue



You can do shift queue by ordering commands while pressing shift. Go to single player mode, select your hero, press shift and hold it and order move commands, you will observe small flags at the place where you have targeted, this indicates that your hero has been ordered to move there after he completes his previous action/order, which in this case is the move command.
This is exactly what shift queuing in the grass root level is. Now let us see some applications of Shift.




IV. Techniques



(IV.I) Tower Technique



Step 1: Teleport to your tower. (Click on your teleport scroll or Boots of travel and then click again where you want to teleport, the usual thing you do)

Step 2: While you are teleporting, press shift and order a move command (Right click in front of the tower while holding shift) in front on the tower

You will notice that a flag kind of thing appears where you ordered him to move, this means your action is queued or sequenced to happen just after the teleport completes. You will see that after the teleport completes, your hero moves in front of the tower (where you targeted) without wasting time. This can be really important in some situations. Before moving any further, practice the tower technique at least 5 times before moving to the next lesson.



(IV.II) Tango Juking Technique/Rune Bottle Pickup Technique




This technique gives you a boost in your juking skills. You can seemingly walk right through trees, well not really, you use tangoes on trees and with shift queue to eat the next tree which is beside the tree you ate at first, you won’t get collided with trees and this can help you juke because trees block vision. This will save you some time to use your teleport scroll or other escape mecha. You can abuse it in many other ways too. Be creative.


Step 1: Press shift, click on tango. Your cursor becomes a crosshead. Now target a tree. You will see that a flag appears on the tree you targeted and the crosshead cursor disappears and your hero starts moving towards the tree
Step 2: While still holding shift, click on tango and target another tree just beside the first one. Leave shift now.
You will notice that after eating the first tree, your character immediately moves forward and eats the second one. Well it is not just that this trick is limited to the second tree, you can eat multiple trees as long as you have the tangoes.






Similar thing is done in rune picking. Click on bottle, click on rune, press shift and order a move command. You will move without stopping to pick the rune.




(IV.III) Shift-Queuing Items




Shift-queuing items is tough, but a piece of cake if you practice enough. Reading my guide would cut off some hours and save some time from your practicing session. This technique will be primarily used when you are teleporting. This is because while teleporting, you get 3-4 seconds which you are going to use as the time for shift-queuing your item. Please note that it can be used with any hero, not just with the heroes I mentioned.


Example 1:

This is probably the easiest Item shift queuing. I am Tinker, The items in my inventory are like this –



Step 1: I select BoT and teleport to a creep who’s fighting other creeps of the opposition team
Step 2: I hold shift and left click on Dagon. Your cursor becomes a crosshead. Release Shift.
Step 3: Hold it again and while still holding shift, left click on any enemy creep.
Step 4: Result

Notice that the teleport has just finished and immediately I have dagon’ed the creep.
Practice this a few times before going on to the next example exercise.



Example 2:



I am Tinker, The items in my inventory are like this-


Step 1: I select BoT and teleport to a creep who’s fighting other creeps of the opposition team
Step 2: I hold shift and left click on Dagon. Your cursor becomes a crosshead. Leave shift.
Step 3: Hold shift again. I left click on the enemy creep. Now leave shift.
Step 4: Hold it again. I left click on dagger and now leave the key again.
Step 5:I press shift again, I left click again on some random place. Now leave it for peace /
Step 6: Try queuing your blink in fog and Become Ninja Hattori


Also, Notice the teleport animation on my talon creep, it isn’t even over and I got blinked to the place where I had targeted while having used dagon the enemy creep. Fast? Yes. Try it yourself and see.



Example 3:



I am Shadow Fiend, The items in my inventory are like this -


Now you see that’s a lot of actives. I find a centaur farming at mid and I decide to kill him. Here’s how I use shift-queue for the task.
Step 1: I use BoT on a creep near the centaur
Step 2: This is where shift comes to use, I hold shift then I left click on bkb and release it, then i press shift again, left click on ethereal blade and left click on centaur and release it, then press it again and left click on dagon and left click on centaur, leave it again and at last, keep holding shift and left click on dagger and left click near the centaur and press R (This is the hotkey for requiem of souls).

If you manage to do all this within 4 seconds, what happens, will be this-
As soon as you teleport, you will be in avatar mode (from bkb), you will have used ethereal blade on centaur, dagon’ed him, blinked next to him and channeled your requiem of souls. Well that will happen in a split second of time. You must be getting the idea now how useful this really is. Here's a screenshot.


Remember, Shift just queues, while you are holding shift, the game records your orders and implements them as soon as the previous order is completed.





(IV.IV) Pudge Force Staff Trick (1800 ranged meathook)

Note: Force staff is required to use this trick
Note 2: This trick doesn’t work with meathook level 1, but will work with meathook level 2 and above.








Yeah, there's something special for pudge fans. Using shift, you can EXTEND your meathook by 600 distance using your force staff. This technique is very tough when using in real games, so practice this a lot in single player first. You need proper positions and a good handwork with shift key to use it. You need to order everything in about 1.5 seconds when you want to hook a hero (when you are chasing the hero). Also, you need fast hands to pull this one out. So here’s how you do it –

Step 1: Order a move command, as you are practicing, order your hero to move a good deal of distance like from your base to your bottom tower (in sentinel)

(Do the next steps before pudge reaches his ordered destination)

Step 2: Press shift, select meathook (Hotkey T) and left click somewhere
Step 3: Leave shift now, then press shift again and left click on force staff and left click on your hero (or your hero’s image in your console)
You can leave shift now.

You will launch an extended hook with range 1800 (with meathook level 4) almost every time. Also, it requires very good positioning and you will have to judge where the hero will be after you launch your hook. Practice this A LOT before you try it out somewhere because it is tougher than other techniques.


P.s. The hook will travel a bit more distance, I actually failed to adjust the screen so couldn’t take a perfect screenshot. But you should get the idea with it.





(IV.V) The Bottle Crow Technique




This technique allows you to abuse bottle by using your flying courier to take it to the fountain and return it back for you. Using this technique gives you a tremendous advantage in terms of healing and spamming. I do this especially when I am playing a intelligence hero or a hero that has a good farming/ harassing skill that uses quite a lot mana. Use this technique when you are going mid solo.



To start, I will be considering you have just bought the bottle which is with your courier in your base.


Step 1: Select your courier, Press T to transfer items to your hero and then press R to activate burst speed.
Step 2: When you receive the bottle, select your crow and move it to a place where it can’t be seen by enemy heroes and creeps.


Here are some good places for keeping your crow


In Sentinel:
Sentinel Left Point



Sentinel Right Point


In Scourge:
Scourge Right


Scourge Left


Rune Spots
Spot 1 (Near Sentinel Top Lane)

Spot 2 (Near Sentinel Bot Lane)



Step 3: After you have used up your bottle charges, order your courier to move to your hero
Step 4: When the courier is in range, right click on your bottle to select it and left click on the courier to put it on your courier
Step 5: Click on your courier to select it, now press these keys according to this sequence – E, R and Shift + T

This will order your courier to REturn to base, Activate BuRst speed to reach the base faster and when the courier has reached your base, It will Transfer Items to your hero. When the courier has delivered you your bottle, order it to go in the same spots I already mentioned about in the last screenshots.

Now repeat Step 3 to Step 5 to do it over and over again.
Sidenote: Actually E, R and Shift + T has nothing to do with refilling your bottle, it just orders your courier to return to base and then transfer items to your hero, your bottle gets refilled in the process


(IV.IV.I) Subgroup/Control Group

Control Group your hero to key 1 (Not on the numpad, it’s the numerical keys above the alphabetical keys) And your courier to key 2. This will help you to use bottle crow efficiently and quickly.
Here’s how you do it – But first, enable the subgroup hotkey option in the settings of Warcraft III.


For Sub grouping your hero and courier,

Step 1: Select your hero and Press Ctrl + 1. Your hero will be selected automatically when you press 1.
Step 2: Select your courier and press Ctrl +2. Your courier will be selected when you press 2.

Note:This technique is really useful when you are playing heroes that require micro, like Syllabear. When playing Sylla, I usually add Syllabear to key 1, the bear to key 2 and then I select both of them and add them to key 3. This makes it easier to control my units. Likewise you can use it to micro your units for acquiring greater efficiency in their control.


Subgroup order modified key is reliant on
Scattered movement of mass units, so make sure you have kept the scattered movement selected. Here's a screenshot to aid you.



(IV.IV.II) Shift-Patrol Neutral Stacking






If you did all my previous techniques, this one would be pretty easy to do. All it needs is perfection in timing the shift patrol move. The video is self explanatory so I won't be writing on it much here, but note that your controlled unit should be leaving your base for the ancient camp at around 34 seconds of each minute.


By allowing subgroups one can mass up a group and by holding down control only the highlighted SUBgroup will follow the next given commands, this can be useful to make faster units catch the enemy in their back while the slower more direct units will be send out in front of your target. If you don't get it, try practicing in Single Player to get the hand of it.








V. CONCLUSION AND CREDITS




Ok folks, that’s it. My Concise Guide to Shift-Queuing! Hope you enjoyed and learnt something new. But I would still like you guys to suggest on how I can make this guide better. And one more thing, please don’t flame on my guide without any reason, this is my first guide and I think i've worked hard enough for it. But if you find anything inappropriate or think I have missed something, please inform me immediately. Thankyou.



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Credits


~ Amrut Mohanty (Pu.Nk on Garena) for helping me out with some minor things, content and reviewing this guide.

~ Nishant Varma (Airrun on Garena/Equinox.Castiel on Steam) for motivating me to write the guide.

~ My friends Harsh, Lightdragonx and vgn at Garena for precious feedback

~ PlayDotA Member and my friend Xstorm666 for help and support related to formatting and publishing my guide

~ Lycan for providing content, screenies, the Neutral Stack video (also, credits to Flodian for making the video) and valuable feedback for the IV.IV. section


Sorry if I missed someone out


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VI. Changelog



<Tuesday 17th April, 2012> Started with the guide
<Tuesday 17th April, 2012> Completed the guide
<Thursday 19th April, 2012> Added New content – Pudge Force Hook – Bottle Crow Technique and few more screenshots.
<Thursday 19th April, 2012> Started working to port it on playdotA
<Friday 20th April, 2012> Started and Completed all the formatting and adding screenshots, phew!
<Friday 20th April, 2012 around 11:00 P.M> Finished everything and successfully ported to playdota
<Saturday 28th April,2012> Added new section IV.IV.II about Shift-Neutral Stacking and a video about it and screen shots (All thanks to Lycan)
<Tuesday 1st May,2012> Added a new POV video to clear doubts related to shift hook.
<Wednesday 30th May,2012>
Guide awarded a spotlight
<Tuesday, 12th June,2012>
Fixed the guide's alignment problem and added some news instructional videos wherever I felt they were required Thankyou Cheaterhater





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Date Posted: 04/19/12
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