I've been playing a lot of ZvP recently and have been told that the ceiling preventing me from getting any better is lack of APM. Now, Bakuryu only has around 160 APM over a game but it's mostly EAPM; I'm at about 150 APM and it's, well, not mostly EAPM. It's usually around 90-100 EAPM according to bwrepinfo. How can I increase my EAPM and overall APM? I haven't had any APM increases in about 6 months. Obviously I don't want to learn to spam, I want to be doing useful things with the increased APM.
Increasing APM/EAPM
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Birdie
New Zealand4438 Posts
I've been playing a lot of ZvP recently and have been told that the ceiling preventing me from getting any better is lack of APM. Now, Bakuryu only has around 160 APM over a game but it's mostly EAPM; I'm at about 150 APM and it's, well, not mostly EAPM. It's usually around 90-100 EAPM according to bwrepinfo. How can I increase my EAPM and overall APM? I haven't had any APM increases in about 6 months. Obviously I don't want to learn to spam, I want to be doing useful things with the increased APM. | ||
evilfatsh1t
Australia8520 Posts
it sounds obvious, but it doesnt actually happen a lot. anyways this will increase your apm if you focus on it for a reasonable amount of time. eapm however, will only increase when all this stuff becomes routine for you and your game sense is heightened. | ||
iFU.pauline
France1388 Posts
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L_Master
United States7946 Posts
1) know your own gameplan solidly, and what you are trying to do 2)Practice doing things quickly and preciesly. Some people are kind lazy with their mouse and placing things. You want to move very quickly to do something, but also preciesly so you don't miss and have to try again 3)Watch FPVoDs to see how the good multitasking zergs do it. How long do they focus on macro? How long on army? When generally in battles do they glance away? How have they organized hatches for macro? Which actions are prioritized? etc. etc. Study and understand those and then try to match that rhythmn. 4)Practice playing overly fast vs CPU. Try to jump screens like mad. Army. Hatches. Army. Drone Mine. Army. 3rd Base. OL repoistion. Army. Macro. You get the idea, go so fast your almost out of control and your play is on the brink of getting sloppy. This can kinda jumpstart your brain into the habit/though process of thinking at a faster, more multitask heavy rate. 5) Precision - This is like music style. If your trying to get used to going through hatches first, start off very slow making sure each click is perfect. Then get faster once you're good at it. Keep getting faster and faster once you master the previously speed until you've got that blazing precision and speed. | ||
traceurling
United States1240 Posts
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greenelve
Germany1392 Posts
..and it increases your apm.. also there are practice maps, where you do your build order while microing a worker in the middle of a map, on a small area, against a choboling. Then you need to have to increase you apm to keep your worker alive and do your build order. | ||
Golgotha
Korea (South)8418 Posts
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sluggaslamoo
Australia4494 Posts
On April 24 2013 18:47 Birdie wrote: Hi, I've been playing a lot of ZvP recently and have been told that the ceiling preventing me from getting any better is lack of APM. Now, Bakuryu only has around 160 APM over a game but it's mostly EAPM; I'm at about 150 APM and it's, well, not mostly EAPM. It's usually around 90-100 EAPM according to bwrepinfo. How can I increase my EAPM and overall APM? I haven't had any APM increases in about 6 months. Obviously I don't want to learn to spam, I want to be doing useful things with the increased APM. Its unnecessary, and I doubt that is what is preventing you from getting better. When you get better, your mechanics will naturally increase. I used to have 250 apm, now I have 150 and I am twice as good as I used to be, I have better macro, micro, multitask even though I've "lost" 100 apm. | ||
HungrySC2
United States191 Posts
1. Know your build inside and out. Don't focus on anything until you can macro out your build for at least 10 minutes without any mistakes. 2. Use hotkeys. Make sure you are hotkeying everything. I know hotkeys for production are different between the two games, but make sure armies and locations are getting hotkeyed and being used constantly. 3. Watch your minimap and money. If you glance at your minimap and your money and don't instantly need to do 2 or more things. You're doing something wrong. 4. Find patterns. Something I'm trying to learn is to move my army away from the enemy when I go macro. Then move forward when I'm done. It's not neccesarily the example itself that I'm trying to point out, but the idea that "because my army is moving away I have time to do something else" This type of planning can be used in all aspects of the game. For example I know in my build order that I don't have to add production or make supply depots after I start the next building so for 10 seconds afterwards I can focus on doing something else. 5. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Because you're willing to make mistakes you can play games with yourself. Force yourself to move all your army hotkeys at least one time between every macro cycle. Add all the new units to hotkeys between every macro cycle. Scout somewhere on the map between every macro cycle. etc etc. The more things you realize you could be doing. And the more you practice doing them. The more likely you are to be able to fit them into your game and naturally improve your APM. Focus on the basics and then slowly add things in. 6. Play against people worse than you (or against noone/computer). To improve on things you haven't done before. So you can try to add them into your game. 7. Play against people better than you. To force yourself to become faster at doing the things you need to do. | ||
RednBlack
Canada24 Posts
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idegelchik
Russian Federation376 Posts
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vanatir
Germany355 Posts
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sabas123
Netherlands3121 Posts
On April 26 2013 16:57 idegelchik wrote: im 170-180apm(100-120eapm) protoss user, dont know how guys make 250-300apm... TT by playing ALOT also force your self to constatly have some amount of apm in the game, like have apm alert for 300 or something. | ||
therockmanxx
Peru1174 Posts
But I guess you can try your multitasking. This is usually what make EAPM very strong Practice along very repetitive thing and go for cycles of production. Move army Then scout some other place then Macro Some Units Then build Supply Then Reinforce Army Then Tech up And Repeat Even if you are in battle you should never try to stop doing this. Look for the right moments to do this during battles. Repetion is the Key | ||
GoShox
United States1834 Posts
On April 26 2013 16:57 idegelchik wrote: im 170-180apm(100-120eapm) protoss user, dont know how guys make 250-300apm... TT When I started playing, I shift clicked my scouting Probe around cause I thought it was impossible for anyone to keep it alive with multitasking lol. I never used any certain tricks or anything.. I just played the game and got faster over time. I took a lot of long breaks from a few weeks to months and oddly enough, every time I came back, my APM jumped a bit. Probably just differs from person to person. | ||
Thor.Rush
Sweden702 Posts
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t0ssboy
Bulgaria679 Posts
On April 28 2013 21:05 Thor.Rush wrote: As a high master terran (or gm when im more active), my apm for sc2 is usually around 200 using my laptop. My epm is almost the same as my apm. When I switch to a mechanical keyboard my average apm is 250 or more, but I don't think I play better; it's just easier to hit the keys more often. Also the sound of the keys just makes me spam a bit more unconsciously. And how does this help him or any other user looking at the topic? | ||
KadaverBB
Germany25639 Posts
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Crimson)S(hadow
Philippines516 Posts
and this whole apm/eapm thing drives me fucking insane, especially as a zerg. so i spam move click to keep my mutas stacked, smoothen out flight path, and keep them at maximum flying speed, and some silly algorithm decides that those actions should be considered spam? i spam 5sm6sm7sm because as a zerg, i cannot see the progress of larvae production while i'm away from my hatches and muta microing, and that is considered spam? the usefulness/uselessness of some "spam" actions are very debatable. | ||
popzags
Poland604 Posts
Have your hotkeys mapped optimally and learn to eyeroll fluently between main screen, resource counter and minimap. Also, for many people spamming high APM early on is very important, as it allows them to maintain the proper tempo of playing right from the word go, so they don't have to go on a high gear when things heaten up. If the game ends and you feel pushed to your limits and exhausted and if your hands feel a little tight from the workload they did, you're on a right track. | ||
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