Mastering Starcraft 2 is not the easiest thing to do in the world – it involves a lot of dedication, time, practice and mastery of the hundreds of Starcraft 2 tactics and strategies. Add to that the fact that Starcraft 2 pros are easily the most competitive gamers in the world, and you’ve got yourself a very difficult playing field. 
Nevertheless, it is possible for you to match up to the ranks of experienced players, once you’re pointed in the right direction early on.
We’re here to do exactly just that. If you are still trying to figure out your game and you haven’t got an idea which Starcraft 2 tactics you should prioritize on, then we’re gonna point you in the right direction with these pieces of advice below:
1) Focus on one race first.
You can’t just pick “Random” and hope for the best, and we don’t recommend alternating the usage of Protoss, Terran and Zerg either. You have to master that one race that best fits your style and your skill level. Here at Starcraft2GamingTactics, we think that Terran has always been the “basic” race (but by no means is it the weakest). The units you can build in Terran diversify completely only on midgame, unlike Protoss and Zerg which requires a lot of control early on in the game. Also, Terran has better defense early game than the other two races, so you can just turtle and defend your bases initially while you build up your economy (Protoss and Zerg are more scout-oriented and need to harass early on). However, if you feel like Protoss and Zerg fits your gameplay better, there is nothing wrong about that.
How long should you train on your main race before you can select the other two? Well, the issue here is difference between LEARNING a race and MASTERING the Starcraft 2 tactics of a race. You can learn your main race within a few hours, but it can take a lifetime to truly master it. Give yourself at least two, three months to practice your main race, and if you feel like you’ve got the hang of it, switch to the other two races.
2) Learn to scout.
Scouting is one of the most essential Starcraft 2 tactics for a couple of reasons, the most important of which is map control. If you know where the resources in the map are, and if you get to them first, you are at an advantage. If you know where the enemy’s base is, they lose the element of surprise, because you will now know where the attacks will be coming from. Scouting also sets up a lot of Starcraft 2 tactics such as rushing.
This is where your basic builder (SCV, Probe, or Drone) comes in. They are the initial scouters of the game as they are initially available and are expendable. Learn how to scout the entirety of the map real fast and once you get to see the enemy base, learn how to irritate your enemy by making his/her units chase your measly probe. This will serve as a distraction while you mass produce units for your chosen Starcraft 2 tactics.
3) Learn hotkeys.
Hotkeys are very crucial in Starcraft 2 as it improves your APM (Actions Per Minute). While APM doesn’t necessarily reflect your game performance, it does measure how fast you can build/create/disperse units. Basically, if you master the basic hotkeys, you can harass faster, build defenses faster, and win the game faster. Let’s start off with some of the most important hotkeys to always use during a Starcraft 2 game:
Unit Groups (Ctrl+[1-9]) – It’s crucial that you learn how to control your units into groups. You won’t survive the game if you have to manually select your units ALL THE TIME. I recommend putting your Nexus, Command Center or Hatch on hotkey #5, because it’s easiest to access it over there (and 1-4 is usually reserved for mobile units). Double pressing a group hotkey will make your camera view center on the chosen group. If you’re still a true beginner, you can select all your attacking units to unit group #1; you can specialize later once you get the hang of it.
Building Hotkeys – This is the second aspect of Starcraft 2 hotkeys. Normally, you can just click the “Build” or “Upgrade” icon on the lower right side of the screen, but that takes too much time, especially in competitive games. So, in practice games, take time to look at the hotkeys for each building or building upgrade. For starters, pressing B and then E will give you a Pylon (for Protoss). V-C will instantly give you Twilight Council, and B-G is the shortcut for Gateway. You can select all your Warpgates by pressing W, and W-Z will instantly make Zealots warp into your Warpgate.
And those are just the most basic hotkeys, from there it gets increasingly diversified and complicated. Don’t worry though, as you master the game you will naturally learn these hotkeys. Also, you need to learn the hotkeys fast as it is useless to memorize build orders when you don’t even know what the hotkeys are.
4) Learn proper micro and macro.
This is probably the most rehashed tip on Starcraft 2 tactics, but it is very essential nonetheless. (Before anything else let me differentiate between micro and macro. Macromanagement is the ability to handle multiple game tasks at a time, while micromanagement is the ability to control individual units while still managing them as a group.)
See, Starcraft 2 is not just about making the most number of units and harassing the earliest; it’s about making the most out of the units you create and making a strategic attack using the right combination of units against the most compatible enemy. Also, it’s not just endlessly sending waves of attacks to your enemy, it’s about attacking, then retreating, then attacking some more, then another attack from another front, until your enemy’s got nowhere to hide. It sounds easy on paper, but micro and macro skills take years to perfect.
So, where do you start to learn micro and macro Starcraft 2 tactics? Here is where my fifth tip for all beginner players comes in…
5) Get more information online.
There are lots of tutorials and guides swirling on the Internet right now, given the popularity of Starcraft 2. 
You can get a glimpse of these Starcraft 2 tactics on forums and tutorial sites, but they don’t offer that much, and they usually give only fragments of information, which is the same as no information at all. If you truly want to learn Starcraft and all the Starcraft 2 tactics in one go, I recommend the eponymous Shokz Guide created by Stacraft 2 Top 100 player Shokz himself.
The Shokz Guide is a collection of easy-to-understand videos with in-depth analysis of Starcraft 2 tactics, unlike most “guides” which are just mishmash of PDFs and bonus content. If you want to check out the Shokz Guide for yourself, the link is right here: