Better known as that part of play that gets glossed over
Are you tired of feeling slow? Does the world of the progamer seem like a surreal and unobtainable super human world of the over practiced gamer? Wouldn't it be nice if you could break down your play in a systematic fashion and approach the game with a new mindset that allowed for a natural growth towards an inevitable goal of 300 APM / 180 eAPM play?
Yes?
Ok then. Please read on.
This guide is intended for a player who understands the basics concepts of StarCraft 2 and RTS in general. It is not about build orders or strategy and is instead about the general concept of mechanics and their use in the most correct way possible. The basic idea of this guide is learning a new method of watching your own play, comparing it to progamers, and then being able to follow simple easy steps in order to make your play more like theirs.
You have probably not heard of me. I am not a pro gamer and I haven't beaten your favorite pro in a show match. I am a 17 year gamer living in upper New York. I began playing RTS several years ago in Broodwar and obtained the rather low rank of C on iCCup before StarCraft 2 came out. My approach to the game was rather different from most other players learning the game. I have always been more focused on finding an FPVOD of the most efficient pro gamers instead of a replay of the most solid build. To me, the mechanics of the game come first and the strategies and builds are a secondary result of sound logic applied to solid mechanics.
When StarCraft 2 beta began I was playing another game (HoN) and I didn't begin playing StarCraft 2 until early 2011. I choose the Zerg race rose to high Masters quickly based on my mechanics alone. As I began to face Grandmasters on the ladder I realized that the Zerg race did not offer to me what I was looking for so I changed race to Terran about 6 months ago.
Table of Contents
Part 1: Introduction and Concepts
1.1 What are mechanics? 1.2 "The Macro Cycle" 1.3 What tools do I need to improve?
Part 2: Introducing the "New" Replay
2.1 Why do we use FPVODs instead of replays? 2.2 Watching yourself 2.3 Watching progamers
Part 3: From Slow to Fast
3.1 Step 1: Should I spam and why? 3.2 Step 2: eAPM 3.3 Step 3: Execution speed and accuracy 3.4 A word on micro and its place in mechanical play
Part 4: Examples and other tid'bits.
4.1 FAQ 4.2 TL;DR Version of how to get faster! 4.3 Example VODs of myself with commentary 4.4 Streams that I recommend 4.5 FAQ
Change Log
2/25/12 - Concept and goals for guide established 3/9/12 - Version 1.0 Completed 3/15/12 - Version 1.1 Added a short mini guide [part 4.2]
Part 1 Introduction and Concepts
1.1 What are mechanics?
I assume that if you are reading a [G] thread on TeamLiquid.net that you have a mental definition of the word mechanics and how it relates to StarCraft 2. For the sake this guide, let’s pretend that you have no idea how the word applies to the game. Mechanics, in the world of the StarCraft 2 gamer, are the counterpoint to strategy. Mechanics are the sum total of your methods and ability to input actions into the game. With proper mechanics, any strategy is possible and should make sense. Without proper mechanics, some strategies will feel impossible and the game will become frustrating.
Most people will correctly associate macro, micro, and multitasking as the basic elements of mechanics. What most players will fail to do is to understand that these concepts are really one and the same when you look at the game in a proper way. Many players come close to understanding this and the very good players try to spell it out for us. The most simple way to restructure your understanding of those concepts into a singular concept is to focus in on "The Macro Cycle."
1.2 "The Macro Cycle"
You might be wondering why I am starting off with a discussion on "The Macro Cycle" instead of something like hotkeys or spam. The reason is simple. Everything about your mechanical approach to the game should begin and end with your macro cycle. Your hotkeys, where your eye's are looking, everything about how you play should be built and designed around the macro cycle first.
So, what is "The Macro Cycle"? The Macro Cycle is simply the quick check list of production and macro related commands that need to be done on a periodic cycle. For basic simple strategies the macro cycle is fairly simple. Take a the very common 1 Base 4 Warpgate build that many Protoss players know how to do. The macro cycle after the opening build order amounts to looking at their base every 20 seconds to Chronoboost warp gate research and then, once the upgrade is done, looking at their proxy pylon every time Warpgates come off cool down in order to Warp-in four more units. When the Protoss is not Chronoboosting or warping in units, he is advancing his first few units to place a proxy pylon and then microing his attack. A more complicated macro cycle would be one of a 3 base Zerg player that is trying to mass roaches. The Zerg player needs to focus on his army and then quickly zoom to each hatchery to inject larva, make sure he spends that larva on the correct amount of overlords, and spends the rest on roaches. The second example was simplified for the sake of it just being a comparison. We will go much more in depth into the finer points of how each element of macro and efficient mechanical play in Part 3. As you can infer, the better and more efficient your macro cycles are, the more complicated and interesting the pallet of strategies you are able to comfortably play will be. This is why everything begins with a focus on your macro cycle.
1.3 What tools will I need to improve?
There is several programs that you will want to have in order allow yourself to fully focus in on improving your mechanics. I will provide links to them at the end of the guide. You will need sc2gears as it is the best and most reliable replay analyzer available and can quickly show you your APM/eAPM. You will want some type of software with which you can record your screen during play. Thankfully, there is several great guides on setting up streams that can be found on TL and I will defer to them. Personally, I recommend using xsplit. It has the option to stream to a streaming website or you can just save the video as a local recording.
You should have a decent computer and a comfortable ergonomic setup. Again, the completeness of these items goes beyond the scope of this guide but it is important to mention that they are assumed to be present in order for the user to achieve a satisfying rate of growth. Ensure that have read up and understand how to ensure that your mouse and keyboard settings are correctly set. Please check the links at the end of the guide for some helpful links on how to set your mouse/keyboard up.
You need to have a good hotkey setup. You should have enough number keys devoted to army and production so that you can quickly select things in an efficient way. I suggest having at least 3 keys for your army and at least 2 for Production. You will almost certainly feel the need for more. You should be using either the base zoom key (default is backspace) or the location hotkeys (default are f5 through f8) (or both) so that you can quickly zoom to your base and manage the movement of workers. I am touching on this issue briefly at the moment. I personally feel there is plethora of good resources on this topic on TeamLiquid.net but if there is a large request for more on this subject I shall give it its own section. I feel that more detail than what I gave on the subject here tends to cross the line into strategy and becomes race specific. If you have a specific question regarding hotkeys, please feel free to ask.
The last thing you will need in your pallet of tools is access to the first person view point of pro gamers. Thankfully, we live in the era of streams. FPVODs were the holy grail of learning in StarCraft 1 and they were extremely rare and hard to find. With every other progamer streaming these days, you have access to thousands upon thousands of hours of recorded FPVODs.
Please, take note that while I mention having an ideal setup is, well, ideal, you should never allow your setup to be an excuse. I have first hand seen players that have atrocious laggy setups with broken mice and crappy keyboards play in a way that is just simply beautiful to behold. Don't allow yourself an excuse ever.
Part 2: Introducing the "New" Replay
2.1 Why do we use FPVODs instead of replays?
As we continue through this guide, and as you might have already noticed, you will see a lack of the replay. Replays are great for quickly going through a game to look at timings, the complete game state, decisions making, and finding errors in macro. They are not very useful fine tuning our mechanics. They lack one thing which is just too important: the mouse cursor. It is important that we be able to have as complete a understanding as possible as to how we are playing the game and how others are playing the game. Replays show us where we click but not what the mouse is doing at all other times. In a pinch, you can learn from watching your replays in the first person point of view but it will lack the full impact of what you are looking for. I highly recommend staying away from replays when applying the ideas of this guide and instead turn towards FPVODs whenever possible.
2.2 Watching yourself
*I thought a long time about whether to put this section (Watching Yourself) before or after the next section (Watching progamers). I have come to the conclusion that you could make an argument for either being a good place to start so I encourage you to read either section first.
So you have set up xsplit and recorded yourself playing a few games on the ladder. Great! You are ready to sit down and take a look at how you play StarCraft now. What are you watching for? To put it simply, you are watching for efficiency and/or the lack thereof. Let’s go ahead and make a list of some things to look for:
Mistakes: Look for times when you are giving the same command several times in a row (right click spamming) (You can do this early on to help spam/warm up but only if it is not causing you to be late on whatever you are supposed to do next) Look for times when your money floats too high or when you get supply blocked and how you deal with it (missing a macro cycle and how long this effects you) Look for times when you are not reacting to the Minimap properly (your army or base is attacked and you do not move to handle the situation as soon as it happens) Look for times when your mouse seems to move slowly to accomplish something that a sure and quick gesture could accomplish (a great example is when you are placing a building, was an almost instant movement and click or was it a slow drag of the building placement indicator to the desired spot?)
Nice Things: Look for times when you look at your base right when you need to make supply, units, tech, and/or buildings and you do so in an almost instant fashion Look for times when you give one quick sure command in an exact fashion with one click (sending a probe to scout another main should take exactly 1 right click / movement command [not 5+ which many players do]) Look for times when you react instantly to things on the Minimap
Overall: Always be looking for how fast you are able to accomplish any given task (a macro cycle, transferring workers, etc) and pay attention to EXACTLY how you accomplish it and ask simple questions and give yourself honest answers about if it could be faster.
Now you have ID'd several things about your play from a mechanical viewpoint. What now? Make connections. Where you late on starting your Forge during a PvZ where you were going Forge Fast Expand? Why was that? Where you busy scouting and giving your scouting probe 6 right click movement commands that were basically to the same exact spot? How bout in a TvT where your minerals went above 1000. What was going on then? Where you reacting to a drop you just saw on the Minimap?
As you begin to make these associations you will be able to make logical step by step improvements to your play. You will begin to make much more precise movements of your probe during early game PvZ which will free up a few seconds of time that allows you to build that forge at the exact timing you want. You will start to automatically send forces via the Minimap to get in place to stop that other Terran's drop so that you have 2 vital seconds to drop 2 depots and start 10 more marines. Without these associations, your mechanical improvements will be of a brute force raw speed nature. This focus in on the whole picture will make it possible to improve your mechanics as an artist improves their work. You will notice that the focus in my examples was completely on fine tuning things that every player of a 'decent' (I assume that most, say, platinum players scout while doing a forge fast expand but I honestly don't know) level is doing but that most of those players are doing in a poor way. Most of the mistakes you will find are when you are doing something slow or redundant in a way that impacts the next thing that you would want to be doing. This method of watching yourself play is by the far the most efficient and honest (with yourself) way of improving that mystical skill that players call multitasking.
2.3 Watching progamers
First off, let’s be honest and clear here. Not every progamer is a progamer for the same reasons. I refuse to insult anyone that is able to take this amazingly difficult game to a level where they are making money because that would be hypocritical. With that being said, this is a guide that is focused on mechanics and improving them. There are players out there, as every race, that are horrible subpar mechanically yet are able to play at a level that earns them a living. Those players offer a player like us something else. Watch their replays/streams/vods when you want to learn about a matchup or find a new build. There is something to be said about a StarCraft 2 gamer who can win hour long games with 1/5th the APM of his opponent and suffering numerous supply blocks. Players like that are amazingly gifted. For our purposes, though, they are useless.
The first time you watch a mechanically sound player play from an FPVOD point of view you will instantly notice how fast they seem. Take a second and ask yourself why they seem so fast. The answer is because their main viewing area shifts focus from task to task or area to area very quickly. It is not unusual for a player like this to spend as little as 1 second of real time looking and acting upon something before shifting the screen to a completely new part of the map. It is downright intimidating at first. Don’t be intimidated. They are just as human as you are and the only real difference between you and them is that they have played longer with a more correct focus on their mechanics than you have. If you were given 3 years to play for a few hours a day and you had the right mindset to find and correct your mistakes you would play just like them. I don't care what your starting point is, this is a factual statement.
Now that we got past the fact that not every pro is worth watching for their mechanics and we have gotten over the awe that watching a player like IM.MVP or oGs.FIN will give you the first you see it, what should we be looking for in order to better ourselves? At the most basic level we are looking for two things. Look for those things that they execute differently than you do, and look for their overall patterns.
You will notice that progamers can place buildings instantly and accomplish amazing micro with fewer clicks. Pay attention to those things! Watch their mouse cursor move. Notice the efficiency and almost mathematical precision. Try to make quantifiable statements about their mechanics whenever possible. I can't say enough how much you should focus in on their mouse cursor (you will find that it is rare for it to stop moving, and that its movements always have logical purpose). When you watch yourself play after watching a pro with this mindset, you will be much more critical of yourself and ask much harder/honest questions such as, "Why do I watch the my entire Dropship unload and literally do nothing during that time?"
Lastly, as you watch a progamer play several games, or sometimes you can even see this in a longer macro game, you will see overall patterns in their mouse movements, macro, and spam. You can pick up very small tricks by noticing these things such as learning the meaning of a strange hotkey setup or an elegant macro cycle that allows you to maximize your multitasking. Always take at least a passing mental note of their choice of strategy as at this level of breaking down a pro's mechanics strategy and mechanics tend to meet and interact. Take special note of FPVODs where a pro does a style or build that you yourself do. You can learn an amazing amount of information on how to optimize your macro cycles and/or mechanics from such FPVODs.
Part 3: From Slow to Fast
3.1 Step 1: Should I spam and why?
If you are looking for a simple one word answer then the answer is YES. The much more important and relevant question is the why part. Spam is step 1 to becoming a fast player. You have probably read a post from a player better than you telling you that you should spam in order to get the raw speed in place and latter on that raw speed will become more and more effective. You have most likely also heard an account of a player claiming that it is easier to spam in the early game so that you don’t have to suddenly ramp up your hand speed as the mid game begins. Whether these things are 100% true or not does not matter to us. What matters to us is what will make us a fast player in the end. To this end, ask yourself one question: Can I play a 20 minute game and have sc2gears say that my raw APM was 200+ (notice that I said play, not win)? Go prove it to yourself if you only 'think' the answer is yes. If the answer is no, then you should work on spamming. Some players push this as high as 300. Do not treat the number of 200 as a hard number. There will be players that hate that sentence more than any other part of this guide but I will direct them to the goals of this guide. We are looking to create top level pro gamer mechanics in the most efficient way possible. The first step to doing this is play at a raw and mindless fast level.
A simple exercise to achieve this first important step is to simply spam your hotkeys the entire game. Try spamming your production hotkeys (456456456) constantly between every single thing you are doing or spam between a scout and a worker that is devoted to making supply (1212121212). I cannot find a fault with either of those methods (modify them to fit your hotkey setup) and if you use those ideas to achieve a raw APM of 200+ then you are doing this step correctly. Focus on this in games until you can do it effortlessly. You will reach that level faster than you think possible. It truly is not a difficult task at all to press 456 or 12. Once you reach this stage, you should feel like you are spamming too much but your APM is always decent. That’s perfect and normal. You have accomplished the first step in going from slow to fast.
3.2 Step 2: eAPM
So now you are a 200+ APM spammer and I am betting that if you check sc2gears you will notice that you are well below 100 eAPM with a redundancy of 50%+. What does this mean? It means you now have excess APM to spend. How do we figure out how to spend this APM on efficient actions instead of spam? FPVODs. Watch yourself play (see section 2.2) and break down the things you see. If you watched yourself play before reaching a fast and raw speed you might have noticed that it just look like you moved the mouse and pressed the buttons on the keyboard slower than the pros you have watched. Now you should notice that you are pressing the buttons at a fast pace but you being extremely redundant. That’s the point of step 1. It is very abstract and difficult to discuss ideas like improving hand speed to accomplish a long list of different tasks so we simplified the matter by taking hand speed out of it. Now you can watch yourself play and make simple statements such as, "Right now as I scout I am just clicking very fast with my mouse and keyboard, what I need to do is as I am scouting his base I should make a single long movement command with as few clicks as possible shortly before I hit the timing of my next building going down, this will allow me to zoom to my base via a location or base zoom hotkey, select a worker, place the building, and reselect my scout with a double tap before he has reached his destination." If your raw APM isn't at a 200+ level, statements like that will lead to situations where you feel like your hands are not moving fast enough to do what you are trying to do. With the raw APM you should have found through spamming, your hands should be used to thinking at a much faster pace or beat.
I encourage you to have friends that you know are better than you or at least at your level to watch your FPVODs or stream and to take note of when you could be doing something else. Tell them to watch for times when you are spamming instead of doing an important task or for times when you are simply watching the screen when something needs to be done.
I also recommend that you keep watching FPVODs/Streams of high level players to keep fresh in your mind at all times the look that you are trying to achieve. The more you watch yourself during this step the more you will become aware of very easy to fix issues within your play.
This is the mechanical stage of improvement where your macro will begin to become much more solid than the average diamond or masters level player. Do not be surprised if your map awareness and crisis management seem to suffer as you correct all these issues.
3.3 Step 3: Execution speed and accuracy
At this point, your APM might or might not have dropped off a bit from where it started at Step 2. That really shouldn’t matter. If you have made your hands able to input commands at the necessary raw speed and you have gained the analytical ability to watch your own play and ID times when you should be more efficient with your allocation of APM you have succeeded with everything this guide has intended for you to attempt up to this point. Now we can talk about accuracy and execution speed.
Lets approach this step via an example question. What is the most efficient and least click intensive way to create one Supply Depot? Let’s leave how you center the screen on the desired area out of it because there is more than one correct answer for that. The answer is three clicks and four keyboard buttons. You should click on the SCV, press B, press S, click exactly where the Depot should be placed, press your keyboard command that will recenter the screen on a mineral line, press and hold shift, right click a mineral patch, and release shift. This should be done extremely quickly and above all else accurately. If it takes you more than one click to select the SCV or if you are having to make a box to select the SCV you are doing it wrong. Take pride in being able to click precisely and accurately. If you are have to make more than one click as you send the SCV back to mine because you missed that mineral patch by just a small amount then you are doing it wrong.
Now the point of that example question is to point out the attitude and desires you should have as you do tasks. You want swift, straight movements of the mouse cursor going to the correct location desired at all times. You will most likely find this difficult to accomplish when you first focus on it. Find ways to practice it all times. You will often see people spamming boxes at he start of a match or even at intervals throughout the match. Take note of how progamers, when they do this, always box specific sizes or locations. They are constantly practicing mouse accuracy. You might see them box over and over the workers that are mining minerals with the a box that barely contains each mineral patch, every probe, and does not actually contain their Hatchery, Command Center, or Nexus. You might see pro players spam the rally command between several different mineral patches very quickly even though they have a specific patch they will eventually send the worker to. When they do things like this, they are practicing the basics of mouse accuracy. I highly recommend useful spam such as this especially early in a game as it helps to refresh how your interface works on a very precise level. Some players recommend flash games such as Mission Red or mouse music games such as Osu to help improve accuracy. I cannot comment on the success or failure of such methods of training but they can be fun benchmarks to check your progress with mouse accuracy.
As you get more and more accurate and efficient in your movements, you will find you gain less and less from watching your own FPVODs. This happens because your sense of awareness and speed have finally tuned into the interface and pace of the game. At this point you should still focus on watching other pro gamers FPVODs/Streams as they might show you ideas or concepts that you were not aware of but you will usually gain very little from watching your own FPVODs. When you reach this level, please give me a shout out when Tasteless and Artosis interview you after your first GSL Code S run.
3.4 A word on micro and its place in mechanical play
You will notice that many players are able to macro with ease up till the point that they actually have to handle a situation where they need to micro. Maybe that’s one thing that you even noticed in your own play. This is a special and important topic and deserves a separation from the other steps. The entire issue can be summed up as the key to being able to win very hard micro fights, especially in the later parts of the game, is a fast and precise macro cycle.
A basic requirement for you to micro while playing a solid mechanical style is that you have to be comfortable with the style you are doing to a point where you can hit every timing of your build and you are not ever looking at the screen and thinking to yourself, “What’s the next step again?” If you are not at that point just go grind out your build in whatever preferred setting you best learn a build order in. Once you are at that point you can begin to focus on your army.
From a purely logical standpoint, the most effective way to control your units would be for you to look at them 100% of the time. As you probably know, this is not possible in practice because it would preclude every macroing at home. The next best thing compared to this ideal control situation would be to only look away from your army when it is safe to do so. This is why we work with the concept of a macro cycle. Ideally, you should be able to shift your focus back home to make supply, make buildings, use you macro mechanics, start upgrades, and anything else that must be done with the focus of the main screen in a quick and efficient series of commands that totals around one to two seconds. During those brief seconds you should glance at the Minimap at every single point possible to ensure nothing unexpected is happening to your army. As you master this idea, you will find that your overall awareness of the game will increase dramatically. You will be surprised by drops less often, your late game army will never be out of position, and your macro will seem to flow on its own accord.
One smart idea you will see some pro gamers do is that they will give their army a command that moves it towards a safe direction, go do their macro cycle, and then go back to their army and re-advance the quarter to half screen their units had moved. The concept at play here is that you never want your units to be unmicro’d during a battle while still never missing a macro cycle. The bigger and larger the battle, the more important this concept is. If you lose 100 food because you were making depots, you need to really pay more attention to your army and make sure it is safe and not fighting as you make depots. If it’s an early game battle with two zealots harassing two marauders, both players should feel like they can afford to very quickly jump out of the battle to make a supply building.
Part 4: Examples and other tid'bits.
4.1 FAQ
COMING SOON.
4.2 TL;DR of the process to get faster
Here is a shortened version of the basic premise of this guide:
1. Watch Yourself 2. ID a mistake or something that you want to improve. Be EXTREMELY specific. 3. Try to play a game where you focus on that alot. 4. Watch the game you did where you tried to improve it. 5. Watch Streams/FPVODs of pros and pay attention to how they do said thing. 6. Play more games where you work on said thing. 7. I suggest focusing on an item for 1-3 days and then moving on to another item. Play a good 5+ games each day and try to watch at least 2-3 of them.
The part that people make a mistake with is #2. They often say "I will macro harder," or "Next game I will keep my money lower."
These aren't specific enough!
Good example things to work on:
1. I will use the fkeys every time I look at one of my bases. 2. I will not watch workers cross the screen as my money reaches the amount needed to make a building. 3. I will use less redundant right clicks when moving units. 4. I will spam more. 5. I will place buildings faster. 6. I will place down Gateways #7-9 as my first Colossus comes out. 7. I will be more active with my obs and try to look at each obs and move it every time I do a warpin. 8. Everytime I warp units in, I will look at the mini map very quickly and then build pylons. 9. I will mouse scroll less and click the minimap more. 10. I will pay attention to my unit that is holding that watch tower and not let it die. If it dies, I will start zooming to it as part of my spam so that I get used to being aware of it. 11. As I spam boxes early game, I will try to click on my gas after each box so that I am ensuring accurate hand eye coordination. 12. When I shift que workers back to minerals, I will be more accurate. 13. If I mis que a worker and miss the mineral patch, I will go do one other action (look at scout for instance) so that I am not starting at the worker as it moves to make the building before I am able to correct the que back to minerals.
These are things you should be taking from you fpvods. Super small but very easy to ID and correct and think about. If you can imagine the problem in its entirety and imagine a solution then you can focus on it. If all you can do is see a vague 'problem' and have a vague 'desire for less of a problem' then you can not correct it. The human mind works in logic and exact goals, not in magic and hope.
4.3 Example VODs of myself with commentary
For now I will be sharing two commentated replays.
There will be more added to this section in the future.
You can also check me out at www.twitch.tv/Racenilatr and chat with me in the chat as I stream and I can show or demonstrate various concepts or learning ideas.
That’s far from a complete list of streamers that are going to be good to watch for solid mechanical play but it should get you started in finding more. They will at the very least show you what you should be looking for.
4.5 Links for additional learning
Some of these aren’t on mechanics but deserve a mention.
I hope this guide was of help to you in learning a new approach to mechanics. I truly believe that some of the concepts I present in here will be new to most of you because I simply have never seen this approach documented before. Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, do not hesitate to post!
I would like to extend a huge and heartfelt thanks to my friend, VaderSeven. Vader took hours of his own time to take the concepts and ideas that I have and to put words to them. He wrote the actual words you just read and deserves credit for that hard work. Thank you. I could not have done this without him.
Very cool that time was taken in order to provide this to TL, though I think it can be condensed. Try reading over the article, and make note of anything that doesn't actually provide a benefit to players in a practical way.
On March 12 2012 09:47 CecilSunkure wrote: Very cool that time was taken in order to provide this to TL, though I think it can be condensed. Try reading over the article, and make note of anything that doesn't actually provide a benefit to players in a practical way.
Oh if you have suggestions on format or on cutting some fat PM them to me. It might be more a visual thing than an actual needing condensed thing.
Perfecting mechanics is like trying to wake up in the morning. Every moment your mind is fighting against it
MorroW on zerg apm - Try to do as many things as possible at the same time.This quote really helped my multitask, because I was thinking too slow and only thinking of what to do next when I was done the previous action.
I am against spamming, because for me, I defaulted to spamming those buttons when I had gaps in my macro. I prefer to use typing speed tests to warm up. If I do spam, it is my injection hotkey sequence so that I get better muscle memory for that.
On March 12 2012 10:04 DeltruS wrote: Perfecting mechanics is like trying to wake up in the morning. Every moment your mind is fighting against it
MorroW on zerg apm - Try to do as many things as possible at the same time.This quote really helped my multitask, because I was thinking too slow and only thinking of what to do next when I was done the previous action.
I am against spamming, because for me, I defaulted to spamming those buttons when I had gaps in my macro. I prefer to use typing speed tests to warm up. If I do spam, it is my injection hotkey sequence so that I get better muscle memory for that.
It sounds like you already have the ability to have a high raw apm. It is at this point that you SHOULD be trying to eliminate spam! You should be more focused on Part 3.2 than Part 3.1 it sounds like.
There is some very good information in here but the parts specific to spamming apm are detremental. I dont see how a player with a 20 apm is going to press 45546546546546456546 during an entire game without first sabbotaging his ability to play at 100% of his current potential. Then you are giving the impression that a really slow player can now turn all the apm spamming he is using into real apm. Apm is more than just pressing a bunch of random hotkeys, and even if there is an improvement in EPM from cyclying hotkeys between actions, no improvement will be made to the ability to play and win a game. This is because there is a thought process that happens behind the actions which are relevant, and you simply cannot expect someone to now allocate extra actions in a game because he learned how to check his production tab too frequently.
I see apm as something more compareable to playing an instrument. Learn the proper mechanics, learn the song, and then through repetition alone you will gradually learn how to play faster. Hitting random keys without purpose between the actual notes of a song will not improve the speed at which you can play it, infact it will just cause confusion and promote bad mechanics. Keep in mind, you will also make a lot more mistakes when you play at a speed faster than you are capable of.
In conclusion, there is a load of very good information regarding vods vs replays and other advice, but the logic of improving APM through mindless spamming is backwards.
Awesome guide! Efficient APM and mechanics is what I find to be the most beautiful about this game, Vines is my role model when it comes to protoss. I've always been a high APM player in many different games but when it comes to SC2 and the need for very precise and fast clicks I just fall apart. I will start recording my games to see my mouse movements, I often misclick and have to spend a few seconds correcting it which is frustrating as it delays all the other aspects of my game.
On March 12 2012 10:42 MafiaCheese wrote: There is some very good information in here but the parts specific to spamming apm are detremental. I dont see how a player with a 20 apm is going to press 45546546546546456546 during an entire game without first sabbotaging his ability to play at 100% of his current potential. Then you are giving the impression that a really slow player can now turn all the apm spamming he is using into real apm. Apm is more than just pressing a bunch of random hotkeys, and even if there is an improvement in EPM from cyclying hotkeys between actions, no improvement will be made to the ability to play and win a game. This is because there is a thought process that happens behind the actions which are relevant, and you simply cannot expect someone to now allocate extra actions in a game because he learned how to check his production tab too frequently.
I see apm as something more compareable to playing an instrument. Learn the proper mechanics, learn the song, and then through repetition alone you will gradually learn how to play faster. Hitting random keys without purpose between the actual notes of a song will not improve the speed at which you can play it, infact it will just cause confusion and promote bad mechanics. Keep in mind, you will also make a lot more mistakes when you play at a speed faster than you are capable of.
In conclusion, there is a load of very good information regarding vods vs replays and other advice, but the logic of improving APM through mindless spamming is backwards.
Four Things:
1. This guide does NOT advocate spamming 45546546546546456546 as a method to maximize your current potential. This guide advocates spamming if you are a point in your play where you need to increase your raw hand speed.
2. A player of 20 apm should not be using this guide. I will add a section on what type of player this intended for. For now, just know that this is a guide for the Diamond, Masters, and Grandmasters players that have found themselves limited by their mechanics. I hesitate to include Diamond in that list but I believe that the difference between some Diamonds and Masters is not present. If you are a player of 20 apm you do not have a basic hotkey setup, worker production habits, and basic macro concepts in place to even begin to do this.
3. I view mechanics like playing an instrument as well. Your analogy is an unfair one in that it doesn't apply to the subject matter in the way you suggest. A more fair comparison is that players often play SC2 without the real time element in mind. Its akin to a musician who has never once in their life used a metronome or played with others. As such, they lack an understanding of the importance of the real time nature of (music or sc2). The APM spamming section (Part 3.1) is a prelude to the real meat of speed. The spamming of the apm is the simplest way to get a player moving their fingers in the proper fashion. At a basic level, when a player is spamming between his actions he does the real actions at the same pace as his spam. The goal is to create an internal pace that is more applicable to the speed of the game. The rest of the guide past the spamming part is completely about eliminating all redundant actions for your play.
4. I shall provide an example of another supporting this notion (day9 on how he increased his apm). When you read this, please take into account that day9 is a very clear advocate of the emphasis on eAPM instead of spam as the end goal. His daily on mechanics makes that clear. With that in mind, here is how he begin his journey to 250+ apm play: + Show Spoiler +
Day[9] on how he first became a fast player: How to improve APM (serious answer)
So over a summer i wanted to get faster and literally the ONLY way to do that is to FORCE yourself to play more quickly. Honestly, i highly recommend spamming hotkeys in mid/late game. For, although it is useless, it will help your brain get in the mindset of always needing to be doing something. Also, try to make boxes as fast as you can (ie WHIP your mouse baby) and also try to do little things very quickly in general. ie worker finishes at expansion and when you go there, try to select him and click on the minerals like ASAP.
The biggest factor which will cause you to play faster is simply remembering everything there is that's going on and trying to do all of it. However, that basically translates to "be a better player," and its impossible to just jump to that point. What will help in the "see new things to do" department is to ALWAYS be looking at the minimap. Whenever you are macroing, try to be glancing at the minimap and you will naturally remember stuff that needs to be done. The only thing you'll need to remind yourself to do is to macro. So
1) spam hotkeys 2) whip your mouse 3) look at minimap 4) remember to macro
as time passes on, you will be doing significantly less spamming of hotkeys and will simply remember everything that needs to be done and you'll naturally do it quickly.
Oh, and i strongly disagree with people who say "APM is something that comes naturally with improvement." APM is something that needs specific work in itself. One MUST sit down and say "i will try to play as fast as i can this game" in order to improve APM
I've noticed some of the most common mistakes for zerg players are sitting with 3+ larva, missing injects, and forgetting to spread creep. This is why I like your idea of using a macro-cycle to reduce the amount of time you spend looking at your base, allowing for more time spent controlling units. It's definitely helpful to get in the habit of macroing in a sequence such as...
1) use your larva 2) inject 3) spread creep
However, I think one of the important aspects of micro that you may have overlooked is that it's often correct to simply attack-move while managing production. Over-microing is as common a mistake in SC2 as under-microing!
On March 12 2012 11:02 TangSC wrote: I've noticed some of the most common mistakes for zerg players are sitting with 3+ larva, missing injects, and forgetting to spread creep. This is why I like your idea of using a macro-cycle to reduce the amount of time you spend looking at your base, allowing for more time spent controlling units. It's definitely helpful to get in the habit of macroing in a sequence such as...
1) use your larva 2) inject 3) spread creep
However, I think one of the important aspects of micro that you may have overlooked is that it's often correct to simply attack-move while managing production. Over-microing is as common a mistake in SC2 as under-microing!
Ah, great point I will make sure to add that to the first revision. I see many progamers do this as well. To be clear, I believe many people over do what you are describing as a method to cover bad awareness but sometimes its amazing to to A-Move a force into a vulnerable spot and then simply go and do a macro cycle.
The basic idea is that any time you need to go do a macro cycle you should make sure to place your forces in a spot where not looking at them for the (time it takes to macro) will not cause you to lose units in an ineffective way.
I think people seem to intuitively do what you said but they will tend to lose games because their army was idle at a watch tower while they zoomed away to macro. You are 100% correct in that A-Moving is another valid use of your army when you are not looking at it.
On March 12 2012 11:02 TangSC wrote: I've noticed some of the most common mistakes for zerg players are sitting with 3+ larva, missing injects, and forgetting to spread creep. This is why I like your idea of using a macro-cycle to reduce the amount of time you spend looking at your base, allowing for more time spent controlling units. It's definitely helpful to get in the habit of macroing in a sequence such as...
1) use your larva 2) inject 3) spread creep
However, I think one of the important aspects of micro that you may have overlooked is that it's often correct to simply attack-move while managing production. Over-microing is as common a mistake in SC2 as under-microing!
Ahh great point I will make sure to add that to the first revision. I see many progamers do this as well. To be clear, I believe many people over do what you are describing as a method to cover bad awareness but sometimes its amazing to to A-Move a force into a vulnerable spot and then simply go and do a macro cycle.
Yeah, I mean it is very situational. We're all going to make that dreaded mistake of misreading an engagement, attack moving, and losing our whole army just to do an inject and build some drones. But the more you practice multitasking, the more you realize the types of engagements where it's ok to look away momentarily.
On March 12 2012 11:02 TangSC wrote: I've noticed some of the most common mistakes for zerg players are sitting with 3+ larva, missing injects, and forgetting to spread creep. This is why I like your idea of using a macro-cycle to reduce the amount of time you spend looking at your base, allowing for more time spent controlling units. It's definitely helpful to get in the habit of macroing in a sequence such as...
1) use your larva 2) inject 3) spread creep
However, I think one of the important aspects of micro that you may have overlooked is that it's often correct to simply attack-move while managing production. Over-microing is as common a mistake in SC2 as under-microing!
Ahh great point I will make sure to add that to the first revision. I see many progamers do this as well. To be clear, I believe many people over do what you are describing as a method to cover bad awareness but sometimes its amazing to to A-Move a force into a vulnerable spot and then simply go and do a macro cycle.
Yeah, I mean it is very situational. We're all going to make that dreaded mistake of misreading an engagement, attack moving, and losing our whole army just to do an inject and build some drones. But the more you practice multitasking, the more you realize the types of engagements where it's ok to look away momentarily.
This is a great example of the meeting point of Real Time and Strategy. I think Br3ezy and I prolly skimmed over this idea because it is the type of thing that falls more under decision making or strategy. I will def add a part to Part 3.4 on this though so as not to appear to be condemning something that might in fact be the correct move in a given situation.
You should really add Liquid`HerO's stream to that list of streams. Watch his first person. To the people I have seen from FPVOD, he has the absolute cleanest/fastest play. MC is also very good but not as good as HerO in my opinion.
On March 12 2012 12:07 MjoLniRXx wrote: You should really add Liquid`HerO's stream to that list of streams. Watch his first person. To the people I have seen from FPVOD, he has the absolute cleanest/fastest play. MC is also very good but not as good as HerO in my opinion.
To this and any other people that want to recommend streams, PM me and/or Br3ezy with recommendations.
However, I think that the "spam" approach is possibly a somewhat tainted way to describe what you are trying to explain.
Just as a few people in the thread have shown, when people think of spamming, they instantly jump to the conclusion of spamming 345345345 repeatedly in order to simply improve their sc2gears APM. This is inaccurate.
The "spam" approach as you mention, is simply the act of forcing yourself to play faster, even if it means you are giving up accuracy(and thus, playing worse) for a certain period of time.
The body will not improve at anything unless you push it past the point of what it is already comfortable with.
On March 12 2012 12:39 dream-_- wrote: Good stuff.
However, I think that the "spam" approach is possibly a somewhat tainted way to describe what you are trying to explain.
Just as a few people in the thread have shown, when people think of spamming, they instantly jump to the conclusion of spamming 345345345 repeatedly in order to simply improve their sc2gears APM. This is inaccurate.
The "spam" approach as you mention, is simply the act of forcing yourself to play faster, even if it means you are giving up accuracy(and thus, playing worse) for a certain period of time.
The body will not improve at anything unless you push it past the point of what it is already comfortable with.
This most certainly a hard concept to put into word, I might reword parts of that section. The point on spam is correct, it has a place in adding to hand speed and mental pace.
Ill update some typos that were pointed out later today as well as adding MC, Hero, gositerran (had no idea he streamed, thats sick), forgg (correct url). Any other streams that should be added?
I'm not sure about the raw speed thing. My model for Terran play is Polt, and his play is very accurate, but kinda slow. And his mechanics don't seems to be lacking as a less than 200 apm player.
But the whole guide is pretty good adive, specialy the FPVOD thing.
I believe everyone here would gain from improving their mechanics. That being said its not an easy thing to do. I have tried a few times to increase my APM but I never stuck with it because spamming decreased my skill by so much I couldnt stand losing games just because I was working on my APM.
Also could you talk about how being relaxed affects your mechanics? If you see a masters player compared to a pro-gamer the pro will play just as or faster but look way more relaxed in doing all the actions.
On March 13 2012 00:46 Noocta wrote: I'm not sure about the raw speed thing. My model for Terran play is Polt, and his play is very accurate, but kinda slow. And his mechanics don't seems to be lacking as a less than 200 apm player.
But the whole guide is pretty good adive, specialy the FPVOD thing.
I believe you are regarding that as starcraft 2 apm. In real apm, it would come out to be around 250
On March 13 2012 01:42 ShaneFeit wrote: Great post!
I believe everyone here would gain from improving their mechanics. That being said its not an easy thing to do. I have tried a few times to increase my APM but I never stuck with it because spamming decreased my skill by so much I couldnt stand losing games just because I was working on my APM.
Also could you talk about how being relaxed affects your mechanics? If you see a masters player compared to a pro-gamer the pro will play just as or faster but look way more relaxed in doing all the actions.
The real result that you are seeing when a progamer plays is that it has nothing to do whether they look relaxed or stressed, but that they have practiced what they did enough so that it has become their default habits while a masters player will generally not have practiced at the same level. Because of that, the masters player will not have the solid smooth play to fall back on when his subconcious begins to take over. You can never remove stress from play that matters to you. Don't try to! The real answer to achieve that result is to practice things CORRECTLY to the point that your matches that matter will default to that style.
Uh what if you're in a situation where your APM between races varies HUGELY? When i play Zerg i have an APM of 240, eapm of 160, when i play Terran I have an APM of 200 and EAPM of 110, and when I play Toss I have an APM of 140 and EAPM of 105. My Zerg and Toss are probably at a high diamond level, and my Terran is at a high plat to mid diamond level. Can you explain these differences? All these values are from sc2gears.
On March 13 2012 09:52 theLiminator wrote: Uh what if you're in a situation where your APM between races varies HUGELY? When i play Zerg i have an APM of 240, eapm of 160, when i play Terran I have an APM of 200 and EAPM of 110, and when I play Toss I have an APM of 140 and EAPM of 105. My Zerg and Toss are probably at a high diamond level, and my Terran is at a high plat to mid diamond level. Can you explain these differences? All these values are from sc2gears.
For me, my zerg is about 290 apm/200eapm and my terran is 290apm/170eapm and my protoss is like 260apm/160eapm. Its just the race and that some like terran need to be more redundant then others and the actions that you have to do with say zerg more then terran or vice versa.
Your skill with each race also will tweak things a little bit, but in general zerg is equal or greater then terran and then protoss should have the least apm
Could you post some FPVODs + Videos of your hands on your keyboards? I mean having those synced up, so i can kinda see what you're doing all the time? Cuz I actually have no clue how you could play Toss at that speed. It seems like you play really fast, and with pretty low redundancy.
Just as a warning to protoss players watching the suggested streams; while hero and HuK are great protoss' with good mechanics, they do a lot of crazy shit. If I were a player looking to improve my mechanics, I would steer more toward a standard sort of player.
good guide, nice that people take time to write stuff up.
On March 13 2012 00:46 Noocta wrote: I'm not sure about the raw speed thing. My model for Terran play is Polt, and his play is very accurate, but kinda slow. And his mechanics don't seems to be lacking as a less than 200 apm player.
But the whole guide is pretty good adive, specialy the FPVOD thing.
I believe you are regarding that as starcraft 2 apm. In real apm, it would come out to be around 250
Might be. But in the same game where Polt was at 175 average apm, Stephano was at 320. So that would mean he gets to a real apm of 400+ ? That's crazy.
actually the problem I have is not injects/creep spread, it appears that I actually forget to produce stuff = = My cycle is: inject, creep spread, control army (and sometimes I would produce) and repeat.
I think the spam section could be extended to differentiate between good and bad spamming. A lot of people who want to spam in the early game will just spam-box their drones. While this sure is spamming, it doesn't actually do anything except warm up your mouse a bit. To improve it, you can go for very specific boxing, such as boxing between hatch and a specific mineral, to improve mouse accuracy.
Personally, I try to spam, but I always try to do useful spamming. For example, I don't set 3 drones to different hotkeys and spam between the hotkeys, instead, I set camera hotkeys to main, nat and maybe even third, hotkey my overlord... then I spam between those. Not just spam as in pressing buttons, but conciously jumping between them, going "time to check my nat... oh, where's my overlord. Damn, need to look at main". Unlike pure spamming which only makes your fingers warm, this kind of spamming translates into real usage later in the game when you need to be jumping around a lot.
I really like this guide!!! I pride myself as having better mechanics than decision making/build orders. Is that a good thing? i dunno lol.
My favorite keyboard spam has to be 12344123441234412344 (1=ring finger, 2=middle finger, 3 and 4 = pointer finger). This helps me practice moving my pointer finger (as it does most of the hotkey pressing 4-6) and helps practice double tapping. Its also a cool waterfall motion that is enjoyable while playing or even not playing.
Theres 2 mouse spams I often do. First is setting rally point to each mineral in a row (I rally eggs so it often doesnt effect where drones go). Trying to do it as fast as possible without missing a patch. Another nice mouse spam is drag box all workers, then left click on each geyser and repeat. This can teach you to dragbox fast and then click accurately.
These are pretty general concepts that have been covered before. I like the idea of a guide to mechanics, the game is not just about strategy. But really custom maps would be a better use of time. Remember the map in BW were you practiced micro against scourge with mutas? Why cant we have more of that in SC2?
On March 13 2012 23:16 treekiller wrote: These are pretty general concepts that have been covered before. I like the idea of a guide to mechanics, the game is not just about strategy. But really custom maps would be a better use of time. Remember the map in BW were you practiced micro against scourge with mutas? Why cant we have more of that in SC2?
There's a TON of that in SC2, ever searched custom games? There's pretty much minigames for every single micro problem you can imagine.
On March 13 2012 23:16 treekiller wrote: These are pretty general concepts that have been covered before. I like the idea of a guide to mechanics, the game is not just about strategy. But really custom maps would be a better use of time. Remember the map in BW were you practiced micro against scourge with mutas? Why cant we have more of that in SC2?
There's a TON of that in SC2, ever searched custom games? There's pretty much minigames for every single micro problem you can imagine.
Also "multitasking observers" by turbn is really good too. You macro up, keep a scout probe alive, defend timing attacks, dropship micro, and then attack near the end. All with a time limit, resource max limit, macro energy limit, and probe lives limit. Really fun map ^^
Hey man. Great guide! You could add a link to the State of the Game episode where Lobber called in and asked about improving his mechanics, specifically speed. Day9 provided him with a pretty good answer, including a personal example of when he spammed for a few weeks, lost a lot, but improved in the end on BW. Nony also provided an answer as well.
I forget what episode it was, but it was recent. Ill edit in a link later or if someone could dig it up that would be great!
Sc1 pro's used to constantly spam 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a in the window as the game counted down. I try to use that even now before a game starts. The only difference is that I will use "t","e" and "f". On my hotkeys that I use for infestors, ghosts, and Templars. So 1a2a3a3f4sd55v66v77v for Zerg. It really helps give muscle memory. More than 12341234.
alright thanks for all the great feedback on the guide! there have been a lot of posts regardi ng spam and I think I will write up some more about it going into more specific things that should make ut make more sense
I'm so happy you put GosiTerran on the stream list as well as Heart. Gositerran is definitely top 3 mechanics to watch. The one time I watched Heart I was blown away as well. I am definitely going to follow this guide once college ends and I'll have free time.
On another note, I love when people write beautifully organized threads.
I like that you recommend using FPview when analyzing your own replays. One tip along similar lines I have for zergs is to use the "Units" tab in replay view as it displays available larva now. Any time your larva starts to pile up, take a close look at what you're focusing on in the game and remind yourself to try to squeeze in production during that action in future games.
It's funny how this is basically what I realized when I was trying to work on my mechanics, it's certainly not widely recognized concept yet one I have to fully agree with. The cycles are everything and you routinely see many pros miss them when they micro some crucial units.
This is the Holy Grail of information for any new/mediocre player looking to improve. I wish you had posted this guide a year ago when I was struggling to get out of Gold/Plat. Many lower level players will benefit immensely from this guide. Well done, my friend.
Not sure if this is a typo, or just unclear: "I am a 17 year gamer living in upper New York." Should this be "17-year-old gamer", or have you played games for 17 years?
Br3ezy I don't feel you address the method of learning new hotkeys from the very beginning. When players are faced with a new set of hotkeys (location keys) and other smart hotkey tricks, the very first thing to do is get accustomed to them. This can only be done by taking it very very slow. The ideal way would be to play versus the CPU on very easy where there would be no pressure whatsoever. Every time you make a mistake, you go back and redo it how you were supposed to do it. Thus you make sure you don't start on any bad habits. Once the player feel he can do more he could naturally raise the CPU level. The mechanical speed should only be risen if the player feel capable of pressuring himself without making too many mistakes. The main thing is to correct yourself every time you make a mistake.
While spamming is good to keep the momentum and warm up, it is also huge problem in creating bad mechanical habits.
This is absolutely wonderful. Many people want to improve and constantly visit TL to do so. What you have presented is a wonderful laid out track of HOW to improve. Not only is it a well written guide, but it's a guide to one of the most frequently asked questions in Starcraft history. Thank you . I will personally be using the many suggestions in here.
On March 14 2012 07:56 Mikkerthebhu wrote: Br3ezy I don't feel you address the method of learning new hotkeys from the very beginning. When players are faced with a new set of hotkeys (location keys) and other smart hotkey tricks, the very first thing to do is get accustomed to them. This can only be done by taking it very very slow. The ideal way would be to play versus the CPU on very easy where there would be no pressure whatsoever. Every time you make a mistake, you go back and redo it how you were supposed to do it. Thus you make sure you don't start on any bad habits. Once the player feel he can do more he could naturally raise the CPU level. The mechanical speed should only be risen if the player feel capable of pressuring himself without making too many mistakes. The main thing is to correct yourself every time you make a mistake.
While spamming is good to keep the momentum and warm up, it is also huge problem in creating bad mechanical habits.
We will add a step to the "from slow to fast" part of the guide. We made the guide with a target audience of a say 120+ apm masters player as the starting point. We will extend that starting point down lower to make this even more useful. Wait for the first revision of the guide (prolly this weekend).
EDIT-
SICK we got spotlighted. Br3ezy and I are beyond happy that are efforts are recognized. We spent a while on the v1.0 of this.
I really appreciate this guide, it's bookmarked now for me, and I will be referring to it often. I never really realized the importance of APM in general, and I also didn't really think I could ever get above 40-50. Well I started spamming like you suggested, and according to SC2Gears i got 117 APM and almost 80 EAPM. Huge change from my 40-50 usual, and I felt much more in control and aware of what was going on. Thanks!
On March 14 2012 07:56 Mikkerthebhu wrote: Br3ezy I don't feel you address the method of learning new hotkeys from the very beginning. When players are faced with a new set of hotkeys (location keys) and other smart hotkey tricks, the very first thing to do is get accustomed to them. This can only be done by taking it very very slow. The ideal way would be to play versus the CPU on very easy where there would be no pressure whatsoever. Every time you make a mistake, you go back and redo it how you were supposed to do it. Thus you make sure you don't start on any bad habits. Once the player feel he can do more he could naturally raise the CPU level. The mechanical speed should only be risen if the player feel capable of pressuring himself without making too many mistakes. The main thing is to correct yourself every time you make a mistake.
While spamming is good to keep the momentum and warm up, it is also huge problem in creating bad mechanical habits.
Im sorry if my first post sounded offensive, i was trying to touch upon a point similiar to this about mastering the mechanics before improving speed. I wasnt quite sure that your target audience was for fast players trying to go supersonic, however the ideas could be tailored to specific skill levels by a coach with ease.
On March 14 2012 07:56 Mikkerthebhu wrote: Br3ezy I don't feel you address the method of learning new hotkeys from the very beginning. When players are faced with a new set of hotkeys (location keys) and other smart hotkey tricks, the very first thing to do is get accustomed to them. This can only be done by taking it very very slow. The ideal way would be to play versus the CPU on very easy where there would be no pressure whatsoever. Every time you make a mistake, you go back and redo it how you were supposed to do it. Thus you make sure you don't start on any bad habits. Once the player feel he can do more he could naturally raise the CPU level. The mechanical speed should only be risen if the player feel capable of pressuring himself without making too many mistakes. The main thing is to correct yourself every time you make a mistake.
While spamming is good to keep the momentum and warm up, it is also huge problem in creating bad mechanical habits.
Im sorry if my first post sounded offensive, i was trying to touch upon a point similiar to this about mastering the mechanics before improving speed. I wasnt quite sure that your target audience was for fast players trying to go supersonic, however the ideas could be tailored to specific skill levels by a coach with ease.
Don't worry we didn't take offense. We agree with your point even!
On March 14 2012 11:56 Snoodles wrote: Can someone post what screen recording software they use?
I use FRAPS and Xsplit.
To be specific, these are the best 2 free pieces of software (free atm in the case of xsplit). Xsplit is the software that both Br3ezy and myself use, as well as almost every streamer as far as I know.
I have been asked several times, Xsplit CAN do offline recording. Just select Local Broadcast as your place to broadcast to.
On March 14 2012 12:22 Pigzyf5 wrote: Great post Man. It would be nice to see some comments about computer set up. Things like mouse sensitivity, mouse acceleration, that type of thing.
Will be added at some point, not a first priority since we felt those things are documented very well already and the subject matter (specially of using fpvods and focusing on using raw apm that is later converted to eapm) we focus'd on was not.
On March 14 2012 06:21 UncleVinny wrote: Not sure if this is a typo, or just unclear: "I am a 17 year gamer living in upper New York." Should this be "17-year-old gamer", or have you played games for 17 years?
I'll correct that, Br3ezy happens to be 17 and I have played games for 17 years cuz I am ancient, but that was supposed to be from his perspective.
I think this is just what i need. Especially since i have 8 hours a day at work where i can't do any thing but watch youtube videos (twitch and tl are blocked -_-). I started today. I definitely noticed things. I need to be more precise with my mouse! So inaccurate. Thank you so much for the post! probably the most helpful thing I've read in a while.
I tested spamming apm in the early game and not spamming it on myself. When I spammed I felt really good and could control my units with real ease and do some amazing micro, multitask and maintain high apm. When I didn't spam apm I felt I was playing slow and as if I didn't do everything as fast as I need to, like playing without a warm up. It was a clear difference.
Just want to put in a word, ForGG and HerO have nice mechanics, but hands down the most flawless mechanical player I have ever watched is Zenio. When you watch his stream, it is just inspiring the way he plays. I barely ever watch anyone other than protoss players stream but I watch Zenio all the time specifically because of how good his mechanics are.
I have to say that I've been stuck lately and this guide seems like a great stating point to really focus on improving. I'll be starting with looking for a more efficient hotkey setup and using this guide to build my mechanics!
On March 14 2012 07:56 Mikkerthebhu wrote: Br3ezy I don't feel you address the method of learning new hotkeys from the very beginning. When players are faced with a new set of hotkeys (location keys) and other smart hotkey tricks, the very first thing to do is get accustomed to them. This can only be done by taking it very very slow. The ideal way would be to play versus the CPU on very easy where there would be no pressure whatsoever. Every time you make a mistake, you go back and redo it how you were supposed to do it. Thus you make sure you don't start on any bad habits. Once the player feel he can do more he could naturally raise the CPU level. The mechanical speed should only be risen if the player feel capable of pressuring himself without making too many mistakes. The main thing is to correct yourself every time you make a mistake.
While spamming is good to keep the momentum and warm up, it is also huge problem in creating bad mechanical habits.
We will add a step to the "from slow to fast" part of the guide. We made the guide with a target audience of a say 120+ apm masters player as the starting point. We will extend that starting point down lower to make this even more useful. Wait for the first revision of the guide (prolly this weekend).
EDIT-
SICK we got spotlighted. Br3ezy and I are beyond happy that are efforts are recognized. We spent a while on the v1.0 of this.
Congratulations on the spotlight! :D
I really didn't know that the target audience was that high a level. And I can see you have added more steps to your thread which is very good. I wrote a small mechanical guide with some tips and tricks in Danish on another webside, I wonder if I can translate it and pm it to you? Just for the sake of inspiration.
I've set my sensitivity a bit higher than usual on my desktop at work. Since I'm on a computer all day at work, I try to focus on accuracy in everything I do. Whether it's selecting and opening folders, or going through menu's, or just waiting around...I'll sometimes box specific excel cells just to work on mouse accuracy.
The content of the guide does not seem revolutionary to me. I think most players passing a certain threshold know about the concepts stressed in the guide, even although they may not be able to put it as eloquently as the OP. However, knowing what would be good does not necessarily imply you can or should achieve it. You need two things to follow the OP suggestions:
1) Your hands should move fast and with high precision. 2) Your brain should be capable of recognizing situations extremely fast. Pros look at a screen only for a fraction of a second and are both able to grasp what is happening on the screen and to draw the right conclusions/take the right actions.
1) and 2) come only with concentrated and extensive practice. Even ignoring the time constraint me and many other face, I personally decided that 2) is not worth it. Once, I have seen a Broodwar player claiming something like "I could recognize a drone moving on a screen in a millisecond, but wasn't able to read a book calmly". Well, for my happiness and my career prospects, I hope I'll continue to be capable of focusing on stuff for more than a millisecond...
As a former competitive cs 1.6 player and all around fps guy, the switch to sc2 was a dificult one considering my only extensive experience with rts was single player command and conquer games. I was really slow at first and always misclicking things. Then one day, I realized that I needed to try and play sc2 with the precision/accuracy/ and efficiency that I played cs with. Playing sc like a shooter has greatly improved my game. When I need to click single units fast I almost treat it as if Im going in for the headshot on a terrorist fool and If I dont shoot him first he will shooot me. This sense of fps-urgency has made all the difference. Anybody feel the same way?
I've been looking at my vods that are recorded by xsplit and I know what you're talking about. Replays, unfortunately, do not show mouse strokes and mouse accuracy is crucial when aiming to play with perfect mechanics. Look at how Polt warms up in his stream. He opts NOT to make boxes in the early game. Instead he selects individual scvs when planning to build a building
Spamming could make you make habits, and then you will forget about other important strategic things I really believe.
I really don't believe anyone spams.. I play at 300 apm and i never spam hardly anything other than possibly move commands because army control is so important. Meanwhile I am barely keeping up expanding, transfering drones, spreading creep, spreading overlords, ling scouting, base scouting, upgrading, injectin, etc..
again, my average apm is 270ish from all the games i play, and my EAPM averages pretty high and my redundancy is usually 30%
besides that, i really enjoyed this guide
FPVod is good idea, you can really see where you make mistakes. You really do see where you make mistakes, get caught up on things, supply blocked, etc.. you will see things you had missed, like when you could spread creep, or an inject you missed, or upgs you saw finish but wasnt paying attention to in the game, etc.
Great guide. Something I definitely need to do. It’s funny SC2Gears APM and EAPM are not comparable to the APM and EAPM in SC2. In SC2 my EAPM, which I think is backwards when you watch your replay… is 110-120. My regular APM is between 60-80. However, in SC2 Gears my APM is roughly 170 and my EAPM is 120, but with a 40% (give or take) redundancy. I definitely need some improvement. I haven’t reviewed a FPVOD, but I can only imagine that I have all kinds of redundancies.
My biggest cycle keys are 4 and 5 because those are my production keys, but even with my APM I feel like it’s never enough. If I could eliminate the 40% redundancy I’m sure I’d be doing a hell of a lot better.
I’m only gold and it frustrates the hell out of me! I also wish I could have a 300APM, but I feel like my fingers are already going as fast as they can
**Edit** Ok, apparently I'm blind. I rechecked my APM numbers and I was wroonnggggg. My SC2Gears APM is roughly 140. My EAPM is 85 with a 40% redundancy. Where I got those numbers from, I have no idea.
In all honesty if you are gold with 120 eapm you need to work in other aspects of the game. I recommend reading cecils guide or vers guide that are linked at the bottom of OP of this thread.
On March 15 2012 02:37 vaderseven wrote: In all honesty if you are gold with 120 eapm you need to work in other aspects of the game. I recommend reading cecils guide or vers guide that are linked at the bottom of OP of this thread.
GL!
Will do, thank you! I'll take a look. At this point, I'm willing to do anything. I'm tired of being gold!
great read, I am not a good player since I dont play too much but I have always think about this subject the way you say it, agree so much about the APM basically if you want to be faster you have to click faster and the only way is training, just as any muscle of your body need training to become faster/stronger.
But I would suggest Liquid'Zenio and TSL_Revival for the Zerg streaming list, as their mechanics are really awesome. (Zenio can be easily up to 300 eAPM, if he needs to ... atleast he always attacks at 3 spots at the same time)
Great guide. People spend a lot of time telling lower level players to "work on mechanics" to perform better without explaining what that means, its nice to see that someone took the time to elaborate on it.
You stated it implicitly in your guide, but I think it is well worth emphasizing: focus on one thing at a time. Trying to just "work on macro" isn't as helpful as saying "I miss production cycles during blink stalker aggression, let me focus on that until I do it without thinking" or whatever.
I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.
Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.
But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.
On March 15 2012 11:11 liberal wrote: I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.
Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.
But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.
On March 15 2012 11:11 liberal wrote: I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.
Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.
But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.
Cheese is very easy to learn how to stop once you've faced it before; mechanics take hundreds of games to get near flawless. Starcraft 2 is a game with many different skillsets; you might notice an immediate benefit from learning to deal with a type of cheese, but mechanics are going to be necessary for the long haul.
Fantastic read, thank you very much for this, I've always wanted a solid way of improving mechanics and this is the most in-depth guide I have read to date on the topic, really cannot thank you enough for the effort you've put into this.
On March 15 2012 11:11 liberal wrote: I really find it difficult to reconcile threads like this with my own experience, where I get cheesed or 1/2 base all inned the majority of my games.
Like I get that macro is a great skill to have, but when the high master ladder is filled with cheese and all ins, it really defeats the purpose of learning mechanics. Feels more productive to learn how to cut macro and defend, or learn some "counter build" myself. Even though I try to play macro every game I rarely get to use it.
But I guess this guide will be very helpful for people below masters. Or maybe my experience is way out of the norm because I play random.
Keep in mind that macro and mechanics are not one and the same thing. You can practice the principals of good mechanics while doing a proxy 2 gate.
Mechanics are how you get things done. That's it.
Mechanics are the sum total of your methods and ability to input actions into the game.
I understand the point you are making but the fact that you make it in that fashion indicates to me that you lack an appreciation for many small mistakes in your play. I bet if you watched an fpvod of yourself being cheesed you could find many things to work on mechanically. I bet if someone cheesed you 10 times in a row and you watched a fpvod of yourself after each game looking for mechanical errors and/or room to mechanically play better your would improve dramatically.
The point you are making is that is hard to practice late game on the ladder because of the prevalence of all ins on both 1 and 2 bases. Take close notice how this guide never once talks about late game macro or the like. This is a universal skill that you can always be working in every single game.
On March 15 2012 10:05 Archontas wrote: Great guide. People spend a lot of time telling lower level players to "work on mechanics" to perform better without explaining what that means, its nice to see that someone took the time to elaborate on it.
You stated it implicitly in your guide, but I think it is well worth emphasizing: focus on one thing at a time. Trying to just "work on macro" isn't as helpful as saying "I miss production cycles during blink stalker aggression, let me focus on that until I do it without thinking" or whatever.
This is the most fundamental aspect of learning. If you have a child that is bad at spelling you don't ask him to write out 5,000 random words, you give him 10 words a week for a few years and then he is amazing at it.
I will include a shortened version of the basic premise of this guide in the first revision this weekend. The idea will be:
1. Watch Yourself 2. ID a mistake or something that you want to improve. Be EXTREMELY specific. 3. Try to play a game where you focus on that alot. 4. Watch the game you did where you tried to improve it. 5. Watch Streams/FPVODs of pros and pay attention to how they do said thing. 6. Play more games where you work on said thing.
The part that people make a mistake with is #2. They often say "I will macro harder," or "Next game I will keep my money lower."
These aren't specific enough!
Good example things to work on:
1. I will use the fkeys every time I look at one of my bases. 2. I will not watch workers cross the screen as my money reaches the amount needed to make a building. 3. I will use less redundant right clicks when moving units. 4. I will spam more. 5. I will place buildings faster. 6. I will place down Gateways #7-9 as my first Colossus comes out. 7. I will be more active with my obs and try to look at each obs and move it every time I do a warpin. 8. Everytime I warp units in, I will look at the mini map very quickly and then build pylons. 9. I will mouse scroll less and click the minimap more. 10. I will pay attention to my unit that is holding that watch tower and not let it die. If it dies, I will start zooming to it as part of my spam so that I get used to being aware of it. 11. As I spam boxes early game, I will try to click on my gas after each box so that I am ensuring accurate hand eye coordination. 12. When I shift que workers back to minerals, I will be more accurate. 13. If I mis que a worker and miss the mineral patch, I will go do one other action (look at scout for instance) so that I am not starting at the worker as it moves to make the building before I am able to correct the que back to minerals.
These are things you should be taking from you fpvods. Super small but very easy to ID and correct and think about. If you can imagine the problem in its entirety and imagine a solution then you can focus on it. If all you can do is see a vague 'problem' and have a vague 'desire for less of a problem' then you can not correct it. The human mind works in logic and exact goals, not in magic and hope.
EDIT - I actually went ahead and added that with small revision to the OP as a condensed version of the guide.
There will be a large update for typos and adding to sections and the first part of the FAQ sometime this weekend.
Thanks for the support guys, Br3ezy and I really appreciate it as we both put a lot of effort into this.
I like the encouragement to spam because I'm pretty sure a lot of low league players are used to playing modern single player games where you don't have to pay close attention and get focused on what you're doing in order to do well. Making yourself spam hotkeys could sort of wake your brain up, like "hey, it's time to stop dicking around, there's a lot of stuff I need to be doing here"
In the highest level sense of things spam is something to eliminate. The reason to spam is if your raw apm is just hitting a brick wall. Just keep in mind you should be picking something YOU need to work on. If you have 200 apm and 140 eapm spamming will be a good move cuz you have very little excess apm to convert to useful eapm. If you have 265 apm and 110 eapm then I would say you dont need to work on spamming at all and find the parts of your play that seem the most spammy and converting those actions to useful ones will help you out alot! There isnt any bad apm but you have to balance how you increase each if you want to improve.
That being said, that is funny that I put those back to back.
A big part of the first real revision to the guide will be devoted to the section on spam. It seems to be be the needing in terms of clarification. Its so useful yet you want to get rid of it!
i too believe in mechanics before strategy. i barely play sc2 because of my work, but since i got the mechanics from bw i'm easily in masters anyway. very good read!
3. I will use less redundant right clicks when moving units. 4. I will spam more.
Did anyone else find this part funny?
Those aren't necessarily contradictory statements. In fact, I daresay that 4 is laying the groundwork for 3. The first step should be to spam your APM to to a high raw APM, then focus on removing redundant clicks (in apm-strained situations) in your subsequent efforts.
I'm a silver leaguer and this is just the kind of thing I've been looking for. Now I have the "solid, safe build" nailed down I can use this guide to work on becoming a better player, I understand that the 'unbeatable build' doesn't win matches, mechanics do.
I think this will help me a lot. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.
Now all i have to do is find out which race im best as...
Holy crap, the FPVODs make a huge difference. I did it for the first time yesterday and it's night day in being able to understand what your issues are.
Though for some reason my VOD kept cutting in and out every time I was cycling my keys?
I also just did an FPVOD but I am not sure how much I gained from doing so. Would be fun if some people uploaded their FPVODS and we could all analyze and look at the together.
First off, great post. I will definitely be using some of the stuff said here to try to improve.
One question though about part 2.2 Watching yourself..
I know you mentioned xsplit, which I downloaded.. but I didn't see an option to capture videos? at least not for free? I didn't look into this too much, but I was wondering if you had a guide or something on how to do this for free. My only other option was using FRAPs, but my videos end up taking up huge amounts of hard drive space.. Do you usually need to convert your captured videos afterwards to save space?
Thanks for the guide Br3ezy. I like how everything was laid out in the introduction-> body format I do however have some serious concerns over Part 3.
3.1 Step 1: Should I spam and why?
If you are looking for a simple one word answer then the answer is YES. The much more important and relevant question is the why part. Spam is step 1 to becoming a fast player. You have probably read a post from a player better than you telling you that you should spam in order to get the raw speed in place and latter on that raw speed will become more and more effective.
The above statement is no better than saying "Why do we spam? Because it makes us faster and gives us raw speed which then make us effectively faster". Having read this, even If I did agree with you, it sounds like baloney. It's not really an argument, you might as well have said "Why do we spam? Just cause". I was expecting more of a statement saying of how you started out slow and got faster through spam. This is the classic issue where people who are fast spam and people who are not fast generally don't spam. This proves a correlation but no causation.
In contrast your earlier section section shown below gives an excellent analysis on why FPVODs are better due to lack of information on the mouse cursor.
2.1 Why do we use FPVODs instead of replays?
As we continue through this guide, and as you might have already noticed, you will see a lack of the replay. Replays are great for quickly going through a game to look at timings, the complete game state, decisions making, and finding errors in macro. They are not very useful fine tuning our mechanics. They lack one thing which is just too important: the mouse cursor. It is important that we be able to have as complete a understanding as possible as to how we are playing the game and how others are playing the game. Replays show us where we click but not what the mouse is doing at all other times. In a pinch, you can learn from watching your replays in the first person point of view but it will lack the full impact of what you are looking for. I highly recommend staying away from replays when applying the ideas of this guide and instead turn towards FPVODs whenever possible.
So concerning the mouse spam, why do you believe that it's a good way increase your EPM? i.e. Is it necessary to increase your APM first and then your EPM? I would just sidestep the whole APM thing, it's not what you want anyways.
I have sort of been busy lately, but I do plan on making some adjustments on the SPAM section. I have an idea that will make things more clearer and it will probably make a lot of things click so youll just have to wait for that for now sorry!
Basically the whole idea is that before you increase your eapm, you first have to increase your apm. Again I have a pretty good idea of what I want to add to this now that there has been so much feedback. I just need to find some time to do it
On March 17 2012 22:57 Br3ezy wrote: I have sort of been busy lately, but I do plan on making some adjustments on the SPAM section. I have an idea that will make things more clearer and it will probably make a lot of things click so youll just have to wait for that for now sorry!
Basically the whole idea is that before you increase your eapm, you first have to increase your apm. Again I have a pretty good idea of what I want to add to this now that there has been so much feedback. I just need to find some time to do it
I am really appreciating the time and energy you put into this article. I especially appreciated the "focused" nature (as the title infers) on strictly mechanics. Thank you!
Last summer, I spent countless hourS wasting time and not practicing properly. By september, I was still Plat.
I quit in October and I'm starting SC2 all over again, mainly because its awesome and I love the community.
I'm at the same level as a gold leaguer atm, but I'm in Plat. My goal is to reach Diamond by May/June, only playing between 30 minutes and an hour each day. I started playing this weekend and my plan is to find a build for each matchup and practice them until I'm comfortable, and then try the ladder. I have a notebook that I use to analyze each of my games and what I need to change.
In your opinion, would this goal be achievable, given my constraints? And what should I focus on to get the most out of my practice time?
Put differently, some pro gamers make mechanics the cornerstone of their play, and others go a different route but have their mechanics at a level where it doesn't hinder them enough to keep them from highest play. Fully agree with that section about what pros to watch. Keep challenging us in the community (that read the good threads) to accept no substitute until we've trained to have the best mechanics possible =)
On March 19 2012 10:27 acgFork wrote: Last summer, I spent countless hourS wasting time and not practicing properly. By september, I was still Plat.
I quit in October and I'm starting SC2 all over again, mainly because its awesome and I love the community.
I'm at the same level as a gold leaguer atm, but I'm in Plat. My goal is to reach Diamond by May/June, only playing between 30 minutes and an hour each day. I started playing this weekend and my plan is to find a build for each matchup and practice them until I'm comfortable, and then try the ladder. I have a notebook that I use to analyze each of my games and what I need to change.
In your opinion, would this goal be achievable, given my constraints? And what should I focus on to get the most out of my practice time?
Thank you.
I would focus almost 100% of the small time on playing.
If you were playing between 1-3 hours a day and hitting like 15 hours a week I would say 2-5 hours on looking at your play (replays or fpvods depending on strats or mechanics) and the rest on pure playing.
30-60 mins a day is sometimes what is needed to get warmed up to the point where you are playing at your peak. You almost have to double that to give yourself time to get warmed up and then to learn.
Thats hard to pinpoint without KNOWING you though. Everyone is different in how much 'warm up' vs 'learn time' they will get out of a session.
It might be better, IMHO, to try to find like 3 days a week where you can play 2-3 hours and spend like the other days looking at your play from those longer sessions.
There is just something that cant be gained with single long sessions. Again, this is IMO and this is beyond the scope of the OP.
On March 21 2012 13:45 Danglars wrote: Put differently, some pro gamers make mechanics the cornerstone of their play, and others go a different route but have their mechanics at a level where it doesn't hinder them enough to keep them from highest play. Fully agree with that section about what pros to watch. Keep challenging us in the community (that read the good threads) to accept no substitute until we've trained to have the best mechanics possible =)
Ya exactly. I think people often see a good player and say too simple a statement like, "See, the Panzer General isn't fast but he wins vs amazing players so you don't need to be fast so why worry about that." Statements like that often are used to justify over learning one area that you feel you are stronger at or enjoy more. I see people poo-poo on that 'slow but smart' players in the other way as well and it is just as invalid. Its really important to always be aware of the strengths of a player and learn from those. Its a fallacy to focus on the strength of a player and allow that justify weakness. That is a logical trap that many people fall into in learning and I can't express enough how important it is to always be questioning your own assumptions about your learning process so that you find and squash those thoughts in yourself.
It is a fun fact that Br3ezy is by far a player that places mechanics as the corner stone of his play and I place the other aspects as the cornerstone of my play. We both have said to each other many times that we are of invaluable help to each other because of our ying/yang nature. When he watches his own play he will often note how he would have won if he controlled the battle better or multitasked harder. He would say that in the face of going pure marine vs speed bane / queens (for creep) / Infestor. If I was in the same spot, my first thought would be how to change my build or scout better so that I didn't have to be in that situation.
I can't express how helpful it is for me to get help from him and I am sure he would say the same in return. We see the true flaws in each others play ♥. I encourage all of you to listen to the people that look at your play and point out something that seems true but pointless because of (he said improve my micro and multitasking when it was really my build that was bad / he said my build was awful and I should have done X tech instead of Y tech when I saw Z but really I could have won had I just spread better and had a crisper macro cycle). They might be pointing something out that you think is not relevant but if you stop and ask if they are at least right that you COULD have done that as well and it would be stronger... then they have found the weakness you are hiding from yourself.
The reason I helped him right this guide is I have been going through the process outlined in the guide and I have watched my rather low eapm go from a lowish number average to another number 30 eapm higher in a period of about 6 weeks. Lets leave the specifics of that out of here because I don't like blushing (because of shame or brag you will never know! [shame]), but I am a personal testament to the fact that watching your own fpvods and streams of highly skilled mechanical players is by far the best way to quickly improve the mechanical aspects of your game.
On March 19 2012 03:46 S. aureus wrote: I am really appreciating the time and energy you put into this article. I especially appreciated the "focused" nature (as the title infers) on strictly mechanics. Thank you!
One thing I plan to point out when we update this thread is that this is kinda the counter thread to a thread/guide Ver made a long time ago. It was called 'how to improve' and the information he has in there on how to learn strategy is beyond amazing. He touches on mechanics in his guide but the parts on learning decision making / builds / reactions is, in my opinion, the best method outlined anywhere in the StarCraft community.
On March 19 2012 10:27 acgFork wrote: Last summer, I spent countless hourS wasting time and not practicing properly. By september, I was still Plat.
I quit in October and I'm starting SC2 all over again, mainly because its awesome and I love the community.
I'm at the same level as a gold leaguer atm, but I'm in Plat. My goal is to reach Diamond by May/June, only playing between 30 minutes and an hour each day. I started playing this weekend and my plan is to find a build for each matchup and practice them until I'm comfortable, and then try the ladder. I have a notebook that I use to analyze each of my games and what I need to change.
In your opinion, would this goal be achievable, given my constraints? And what should I focus on to get the most out of my practice time?
Thank you.
Yes. Honestly, Diamond is not that hard to achieve. What race do you play?
As you have already planned, I suggest having one, maybe two, opening builds for each matchup, and just grind games out. It would be better if it is a solid macro-oriented build.. this way, you will be more likely to improve than if you say went 6 pool every game (or something cheesy). Have a solid game-plan for each matchup, and try sticking to it best you can. Don't try like 10 different strategies because you will not get enough practice for 1 specific strategy. You want to end up with 1 really good strategy that will propel you into diamond.. from there you can branch out to other strategies.
The goal is to improve consistently, so try strategies that improve your overall gameplay rather than winning. Practice improving your macro. Don't let your minerals or gas get over 1000. Trying perfecting larva injects, creep spreads, etc. Find your weaknesses, and work on fixing them.
1/2 hour to 1 hour per day is plenty of time. I started playing this game back in the beta and I was pretty bad. I watched pro games as well as tutorials. I was a protoss player back then, and my 2 main openers were 4 gate and 3 gate robo. I never used a different strategy. I got into diamond pretty easily I would say. Not long after masters league was introduced, I started watching FP vods of pros, mainly Idra because he had commentary. It inspired me to play better and to switch races to zerg. In the beginning, I was really bad with zerg because of the inject mechanics.. I could never keep up. But I worked on it slowly and surely like you did, about 1 hour of play every day, and in about a month or 2, I got masters. I watched a lot of GSL and Idra videos during this initial learning period. My weakest matchup was against P and I watched a few ZvP lessons (12 weeks with the pros by Mr Bitter) to work on the weaknesses. Even now, I still watch GSL and other pro games as well as FPvods to try to get better. Although I get frustrated when I lose stupid games (Protoss deathball really is invincible :D), at the end of the day I do realize that I didn't play well enough that game to win it.
I went from 90 APM avg to 190 APM avg over the course of a game. My league jumped from plat to diamond (I'm a random player). I was catching drops, catching supply blocks, and doing more damage in my own drops. Pretty effective practice regime if you ask me. When you get used to having your hands move fast, suddenly your brain wants your strategy to do more. If I'm getting colossus, I'm also pushed towards getting a warp prism and dropping while getting colossus. If I'm pressuring a Terran, I want to be moving forces towards his third AND his natural and feinting back whichever side has more units. It's a pretty awesome feeling. I have a lot more improvement to make, but harassing got way more fun with a focus on mechanics.
On March 19 2012 03:24 Mementoss wrote: I can't even spam up to 200 APM. Fuuu
Try this:
type asd over and over as fast as you can.
Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm.
Not even joking.
Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental.
If you can hit a single keyboard button eight times a second, you are unusually fast. Just saying....cuz 1,400 APM is about 23 APS.
If I had said spam asdf or alskdjf would you have quibbled that lol?
I do in fact know people that can hit that rate though, not uncommon in the music game world.
That's pretty cool then. I've been using computers for just 6 years and used the same shitty keyboard throughout -_-, maybe that's why I can only do 540 APM of asd. I type at 100 WPM, which apparently corresponds to 500 keystrokes a minute. I wonder how fast those people can type? o_o
On March 19 2012 03:24 Mementoss wrote: I can't even spam up to 200 APM. Fuuu
Try this:
type asd over and over as fast as you can.
Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm.
Not even joking.
Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental.
If you can hit a single keyboard button eight times a second, you are unusually fast. Just saying....cuz 1,400 APM is about 23 APS.
If I had said spam asdf or alskdjf would you have quibbled that lol?
I do in fact know people that can hit that rate though, not uncommon in the music game world.
That's pretty cool then. I've been using computers for just 6 years and used the same shitty keyboard throughout -_-, maybe that's why I can only do 540 APM of asd. I type at 100 WPM, which apparently corresponds to 500 keystrokes a minute. I wonder how fast those people can type? o_o
1000apm divided among 8 inputs (2000 notes and the song is exactly 2 minutes long, burst apm if I remember correctly is like 1600) -
Do not doubt your body when you need to play starcraft. We love to talk it up with apm and the like but the extremeness of apm is not about muscles or reaction time. Other games challenge those items to a much larger degree and prove that.
On March 19 2012 03:24 Mementoss wrote: I can't even spam up to 200 APM. Fuuu
Try this:
type asd over and over as fast as you can.
Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm.
Not even joking.
Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental.
If you can hit a single keyboard button eight times a second, you are unusually fast. Just saying....cuz 1,400 APM is about 23 APS.
If I had said spam asdf or alskdjf would you have quibbled that lol?
I do in fact know people that can hit that rate though, not uncommon in the music game world.
That's pretty cool then. I've been using computers for just 6 years and used the same shitty keyboard throughout -_-, maybe that's why I can only do 540 APM of asd. I type at 100 WPM, which apparently corresponds to 500 keystrokes a minute. I wonder how fast those people can type? o_o
1000apm divided among 8 inputs (2000 notes and the song is exactly 2 minutes long, burst apm if I remember correctly is like 1600) -
Do not doubt your body when you need to play starcraft. We love to talk it up with apm and the like but the extremeness of apm is not about muscles or reaction time. Other games challenge those items to a much larger degree and prove that.
On March 19 2012 03:24 Mementoss wrote: I can't even spam up to 200 APM. Fuuu
Try this:
type asd over and over as fast as you can.
Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm.
Not even joking.
Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental.
If you can hit a single keyboard button eight times a second, you are unusually fast. Just saying....cuz 1,400 APM is about 23 APS.
If I had said spam asdf or alskdjf would you have quibbled that lol?
I do in fact know people that can hit that rate though, not uncommon in the music game world.
That's pretty cool then. I've been using computers for just 6 years and used the same shitty keyboard throughout -_-, maybe that's why I can only do 540 APM of asd. I type at 100 WPM, which apparently corresponds to 500 keystrokes a minute. I wonder how fast those people can type? o_o
On March 19 2012 03:24 Mementoss wrote: I can't even spam up to 200 APM. Fuuu
Try this:
type asd over and over as fast as you can.
Congrats, you have now spammed up to ~1,400 apm.
Not even joking.
Don't think its a muscle or hand speed thing. Its mental.
If you can hit a single keyboard button eight times a second, you are unusually fast. Just saying....cuz 1,400 APM is about 23 APS.
If I had said spam asdf or alskdjf would you have quibbled that lol?
I do in fact know people that can hit that rate though, not uncommon in the music game world.
That's pretty cool then. I've been using computers for just 6 years and used the same shitty keyboard throughout -_-, maybe that's why I can only do 540 APM of asd. I type at 100 WPM, which apparently corresponds to 500 keystrokes a minute. I wonder how fast those people can type? o_o
i type at 120wpm yo
To mr. Demohunter: your statement, as I understand it, is this:
"Typing just ASD over and and over again, I can only hit 540 APM. Typing words in a regular fashion, I can type at 500 APM."
If you can hit 500 effective APM (hitting the keys you want to hit) with a maximum raw apm of like 540 with your left hand, I'd actually be fairly surprised. I'm sure your raw spam APM is higher than that if you're legitimately typing 100 words per minute.
hi br3ezy and vaderseven... what do you think about the grid hotkey setup to improve mechanics? are they more effective for improving mechanics over standard, and so all fingers of the left hand will be used? for the mouse two fingers are all that are really needed afaik...
Hey i know i haven't really gotten a chance to stream yet, but i just wanted to say im currently streaming righ tnow. You can watch it right here http://www.justin.tv/racenilatr
Ahh... I'd forgotten about this, then remembered as my mechanics went to the dump for some reason. I can't wait to start really improving my mechanics. :D
On May 13 2012 17:59 Fencer710 wrote: Ahh... I'd forgotten about this, then remembered as my mechanics went to the dump for some reason. I can't wait to start really improving my mechanics. :D
I really need to work on mouse accuracy......
Try clicking on certain thing at every start of a new game. Like rally to new mineral patches, click on different SCVs and such.
I have started to play for one month and improve thanks to all the nice guide and stuff i have find in TL but now i am stuck at plat level and think i need to improve my mechanics to try to go further ahead.
I have read this guide which is very well writen and explained and now try to put it into practice.
However i face a huge huge problem cause i made a lot mistakes that i did not make before like being supply block or forgotten some upgrades cause "typing" get some attention to me as i am not used to do it all the times (i only type when i had to produce some stuffs ... but not when i don't need to so it is no automatic for me). I wanted to know if it is normal and if i had to continue or if i am too low level to start typing all the time. I think this method can help me cause i am not ease with my control keyboard especially when i had to use control group, my nightmare is in TvP when i had tou coordinate my army (1), ghost (2) and vikings (3) i often mess all and fall apart.
i am sorry if my post is not 100% clear to sum up : i feel like i am doing less good that what i used to when i try to up my apm by typing, is it normal ? if no what i do wrong and how can i fix it ? if yes should i continue, how long does it take to get used to it (in average)
I also wanted to ask a question about the placement of the hand on the keyboard, i tend to use only my little (pinky) finger for produce rines(a),cv(s) and my 1,2,3 control group ...my middle finger for other control group and that's all what is the standard way to use fingers on keyboard, is my way to do ok or do i need to change ?
Sorry for all noob questions and thanks a lot for people who will take time to read and answer.
I have started to play for one month and improve thanks to all the nice guide and stuff i have find in TL but now i am stuck at plat level and think i need to improve my mechanics to try to go further ahead.
I have read this guide which is very well writen and explained and now try to put it into practice.
However i face a huge huge problem cause i made a lot mistakes that i did not make before like being supply block or forgotten some upgrades cause "typing" get some attention to me as i am not used to do it all the times (i only type when i had to produce some stuffs ... but not when i don't need to so it is no automatic for me). I wanted to know if it is normal and if i had to continue or if i am too low level to start typing all the time. I think this method can help me cause i am not ease with my control keyboard especially when i had to use control group, my nightmare is in TvP when i had tou coordinate my army (1), ghost (2) and vikings (3) i often mess all and fall apart.
i am sorry if my post is not 100% clear to sum up : i feel like i am doing less good that what i used to when i try to up my apm by typing, is it normal ? if no what i do wrong and how can i fix it ? if yes should i continue, how long does it take to get used to it (in average)
I also wanted to ask a question about the placement of the hand on the keyboard, i tend to use only my little (pinky) finger for produce rines(a),cv(s) and my 1,2,3 control group ...my middle finger for other control group and that's all what is the standard way to use fingers on keyboard, is my way to do ok or do i need to change ?
Sorry for all noob questions and thanks a lot for people who will take time to read and answer.
For me personally, back when I used standard, I used my pinky for Q, A, Z, shift, control, and 1. I used my next finger for W, S, X, and 2. I used my middle finger for 3, E, D, C, and **maybe 4? I used my pointing finger for everything to the right of what my middle finger does. My thumb is useless.
*I play Terran.
**I don't remember if I used my pointing or my middle finger to press the 4 key.
***I didn't use screen hotkeys when I played standard.
I have started to play for one month and improve thanks to all the nice guide and stuff i have find in TL but now i am stuck at plat level and think i need to improve my mechanics to try to go further ahead.
I have read this guide which is very well writen and explained and now try to put it into practice.
However i face a huge huge problem cause i made a lot mistakes that i did not make before like being supply block or forgotten some upgrades cause "typing" get some attention to me as i am not used to do it all the times (i only type when i had to produce some stuffs ... but not when i don't need to so it is no automatic for me). I wanted to know if it is normal and if i had to continue or if i am too low level to start typing all the time. I think this method can help me cause i am not ease with my control keyboard especially when i had to use control group, my nightmare is in TvP when i had tou coordinate my army (1), ghost (2) and vikings (3) i often mess all and fall apart.
i am sorry if my post is not 100% clear to sum up : i feel like i am doing less good that what i used to when i try to up my apm by typing, is it normal ? if no what i do wrong and how can i fix it ? if yes should i continue, how long does it take to get used to it (in average)
I also wanted to ask a question about the placement of the hand on the keyboard, i tend to use only my little (pinky) finger for produce rines(a),cv(s) and my 1,2,3 control group ...my middle finger for other control group and that's all what is the standard way to use fingers on keyboard, is my way to do ok or do i need to change ?
Sorry for all noob questions and thanks a lot for people who will take time to read and answer.
Are you resting your hand on the desk or keyboard?
In order to progress beyond plat, or at least to progress beyond some point, you will need to master the art of pressing 1, 2, and 3 at the correct times. I play with my hand resting on nothing and I tap my keys semi-hard (i like to hear the click). Make sure you aren't resting your hand as your motion will be very limited.
As far as which finger hits which button? I think you need to think more in terms of one finger to a button in each hand position (don't try to map that out, use that as a guiding idea or philosophy). If I want to hit 1, 2 and 3, I certainly don't do that with my pinky. I use my Index, Middle, and Ring fingers to do that usually. One finger per button in that case.
The situation you describe (tvp ghost army viking) is hard to control. Don't label yourself bad at something because your first attempts fail horribly. It takes time.
That is some very good hand movements (don't let their speed discourage you!). You can at least see the general way the hand will move and how the various fingers are used. Do what they are doing at 1/4th to 1/10th the speed!
If you watch KawaiiRice on twitch.tv and stare at the hot key layout at the bottom of the UI while he's playing, you'll see him spam 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 to cycle through his rax, cc, SCV, Marines, and other stuff. Other pro players do similar things depending on their hotkey setups. It's more a matter of training your fingers to move both quickly and accuratly.
I doubled my apm (though it's still painfully low) in a couple of weeks by playing typing games and osu, and then striving to keep my fingers moving in an SC2 game.
I'm no expert though, so don't take my word for it. I suck at this game. Just trying to help.
Because of this thread I'm now keeping a video diary of my games on Twitchtv. I'm already taking notice of what things lead me to neglect my main/macro, how long i have idle workers, where i pay too much attention to micro, etc. I'm also noticing moments of hesitation, where I look at my base but my mind goes blank and im not sure what the next thing to do is. I want to come up with some sort of default action for when I'm hesitating, because doing a sub-optimal thing is better than doing nothing. Im thinking something like..."when confused, make more barracks and spam more marines." Worst case I have more marines, or I figure out what to do a few seconds later and cancel the rax.
This guide really helped. My APM/EAMP has gone from 100/50 to 250/80. But it has kind of gotten stuck there. I play protoss mostly and am not sure what else I could usefully do to drive up my EAPM further.
Please, take note that while I mention having an ideal setup is, well, ideal, you should never allow your setup to be an excuse. I have first hand seen players that have atrocious laggy setups with broken mice and crappy keyboards play in a way that is just simply beautiful to behold. Don't allow yourself an excuse ever.
That was the first thing that came on my mind when I thought of improving mechanics, thanks for the push!
On May 26 2012 10:45 mrangry wrote: This guide really helped. My APM/EAMP has gone from 100/50 to 250/80. But it has kind of gotten stuck there. I play protoss mostly and am not sure what else I could usefully do to drive up my EAPM further.
Any suggestions for how to proceed from here?
Well, you could practice Blink micro. It's just that the Protoss' units don't have nearly as much micro potential as Terran units, and the macro is a bit meh for Protoss, so you don't actually need that much APM unless you're doing something like splitting Blinkstalkers against Banelings.
I use : 1: army 2: ghost 3: viking 4: cc 5: rax 6: facto 7: starport 8: ghost academy 9: armory upgrade 0: Ebay upgarde
I always feel like my hand is on the 1, 2 ,3 but all my production building are very far 4,5,6,7. So I always have to move my hand from 1,2,3 to 4,5,6,7 . Am I the only one with this problem ??
That's a pretty good setup for standard, although you could switch your entire hotkey setup to The Core or DarkGrid if you don't want to take out keys on your keyboard.
Edit: You may also want to put your Ebays and Armory on the CC hotkey, and possibly move all your production onto one hotkey if you're sticking with standard, and moving some hotkeys onto alt, spacebar, capslock, ~, etc so you can use your keys for more harassment, and possibly separate your Medivacs from your Bioball allowing you to heal your bio while it's kiting, and open up a variety of micro options although you will have one more hotkey to press whenever you want to move your army.
On May 15 2012 18:26 vaderseven wrote: As far as which finger hits which button? I think you need to think more in terms of one finger to a button in each hand position (don't try to map that out, use that as a guiding idea or philosophy). If I want to hit 1, 2 and 3, I certainly don't do that with my pinky. I use my Index, Middle, and Ring fingers to do that usually. One finger per button in that case.
That is some very good hand movements (don't let their speed discourage you!). You can at least see the general way the hand will move and how the various fingers are used. Do what they are doing at 1/4th to 1/10th the speed!
Nice points you make there and nice vid for illustration. I used to fall into this mental trap until a short time ago, that, just like with typing blindly, you should always hit one specific key with one and the same finger at all points in time.
However, from watching Bomber play on stream and spam/cycle throughout the game (pay attention to the hotkeys), I noticed that depending on the current state of the game, his spam/hotkey cycles change and with them changes the hand positioning and the fingers that press the different keys in order to maintain the same speed. It feels a bit uncomfortable to start doing that at first, but once you get used to it, you will notice that you will be much more flexible in your hand movements. Spamming between F-keys and number hotkeys, in a similar way that lastshadow does, also helps you become more flexible in that regard.
I have 450/150 APM/EPM, and I'm sort of stuck. Lol. I'm looking to develop better finger patterns and change some of my old spam habits so that I am doing more. For one thing, using camera keys really helped. Really, really, really helped.
I am doing so much better now. Fuck backspace method, lol.
I need to remember to frontload overlords whenever I get a larva inject so that I am able to keep production, b/c right now I produce too fast lol.
Also I am looking for more ways to translate my APM into EAPM. Off to read the guide!
Ok, here's a little rant/--
I find the hardest thing to do is sort of "split your concsciousness" so to speak. Ok that's not it.
Hmm.
Well in Ver's guide to improvement it talks about the ability to triage ruthlessly. That's part of it.
But it's also one's ability to jump inbetween different tasks as fast as he/she can without little pauses. What I find is that this is actually so demanding for the brain that you slow down after awhile.
The best example is watching Bisu play BvZ. His FPVs are beautiful. The heart of what he is doing is switching his attention so fast that he is getting more done. That is the real trick/hardest thing to improve, I actually think that it is sort of like a "muscle" in that your ability to switch focus can be improved. I'm really looking into that.
Also camera keys really help that, lol. So much manual control. I love it.
Also if you are going to switch/move around really fast and get things done in addition to triaging your macro cycle I think you have to have really fucking precise mouse movements. I actually waste a lot of time trying to box drones when I am at a base for gas/ select creep tumors while otherwise flying across the screen. That is my weak point. Also have to set up xsplit so that I can test it out. I think that I am going to make xsplit demo sessions using YABOT so that I don't waste so much time with a ladder session.
Really fuck it I'm going to follow this guide completely. I think that methods are going to help my mechanics a lot. <3. Gotta come up with some more concrete goals though, and that's the hardest part.
There are players out there, as every race, that are horrible subpar mechanically yet are able to play at a level that earns them a living. Those players offer a player like us something else. Watch their replays/streams/vods when you want to learn about a matchup or find a new build. There is something to be said about a StarCraft 2 gamer who can win hour long games with 1/5th the APM of his opponent and suffering numerous supply blocks. Players like that are amazingly gifted. For our purposes, though, they are useless.
Not that many people can make a living at Starcraft. Most GSL games go about ~ 12-25 mintues, not an hour, and they rarely get supply blocked for any reason other than having overlords or depots destroyed. I'm not sure who you are talking about that actually makes a living at SC2 but has such sloppy macro?
I generally see your guide like steer horns. A point here, a point there, with a lot of bull inbetween. I agree with the people who see spamming as a bad way to improve. If you improve your multi-tasking, then the speed will follow, because otherwise you won't be able to pull it off. You have to practice.
You think you've given us the second coming of Jesus and you defend it at every corner, but in reality you just packaged up a lot of old and well-known advice in an infomercial style "guide". The introduction reads like those bad internet ads.
"Progamers hate him! A HoN player figured out this one weird trick to rappidly improve you SC2 performace. After quickly rising through the ranks, he is now prepared to share his secrets for only $29.99"
Not that many people can make a living at Starcraft. Most GSL games go about ~ 12-25 mintues, not an hour, and they rarely get supply blocked for any reason other than having overlords or depots destroyed. I'm not sure who you are talking about that actually makes a living at SC2 but has such sloppy macro?
The GSL is the best-of-the-best tournament. There are many pro players who have not competed in the GSL, such as Stephano, and some who are very very good despite having extremely low APM, such as Goody.
I generally see your guide like steer horns. A point here, a point there, with a lot of bull inbetween. I agree with the people who see spamming as a bad way to improve. If you improve your multi-tasking, then the speed will follow, because otherwise you won't be able to pull it off. You have to practice.
Yes it is written in a fluffy way, but I would hardly call it 'bull'.
You think you've given us the second coming of Jesus and you defend it at every corner, but in reality you just packaged up a lot of old and well-known advice in an infomercial style "guide". The introduction reads like those bad internet ads.
"Progamers hate him! A HoN player figured out this one weird trick to rappidly improve you SC2 performace. After quickly rising through the ranks, he is now prepared to share his secrets for only $29.99"
This is no 'weird trick', and no this is not exactly 'well known'. Sure if you ask around some people will talk about it, but this is still very helpful to those who are still working on their basics as it condenses all the bits of information you slowly learn as you climb up the ranks.
All from my perspective, I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong on some points.
There are players out there, as every race, that are horrible subpar mechanically yet are able to play at a level that earns them a living. Those players offer a player like us something else. Watch their replays/streams/vods when you want to learn about a matchup or find a new build. There is something to be said about a StarCraft 2 gamer who can win hour long games with 1/5th the APM of his opponent and suffering numerous supply blocks. Players like that are amazingly gifted. For our purposes, though, they are useless.
Not that many people can make a living at Starcraft. Most GSL games go about ~ 12-25 mintues, not an hour, and they rarely get supply blocked for any reason other than having overlords or depots destroyed. I'm not sure who you are talking about that actually makes a living at SC2 but has such sloppy macro?
I generally see your guide like steer horns. A point here, a point there, with a lot of bull inbetween. I agree with the people who see spamming as a bad way to improve. If you improve your multi-tasking, then the speed will follow, because otherwise you won't be able to pull it off. You have to practice.
You think you've given us the second coming of Jesus and you defend it at every corner, but in reality you just packaged up a lot of old and well-known advice in an infomercial style "guide". The introduction reads like those bad internet ads.
"Progamers hate him! A HoN player figured out this one weird trick to rappidly improve you SC2 performace. After quickly rising through the ranks, he is now prepared to share his secrets for only $29.99"
What are you talking about?
This guide teaches a lot to people who are ready to actually focus on the heart of mechanical improvement. It makes things that were once abstract less abstract and gives you concrete ways to improve your play.
It gives you the tools.
And yes, ffs I see a lot of pros who aren't actually mechanically strong and I pride myself on my mechanics. That's why I play this game. Not actually for the gameplay at all. Just mechanical improvement.
There are players out there, as every race, that are horrible subpar mechanically yet are able to play at a level that earns them a living. Those players offer a player like us something else. Watch their replays/streams/vods when you want to learn about a matchup or find a new build. There is something to be said about a StarCraft 2 gamer who can win hour long games with 1/5th the APM of his opponent and suffering numerous supply blocks. Players like that are amazingly gifted. For our purposes, though, they are useless.
Not that many people can make a living at Starcraft. Most GSL games go about ~ 12-25 mintues, not an hour, and they rarely get supply blocked for any reason other than having overlords or depots destroyed. I'm not sure who you are talking about that actually makes a living at SC2 but has such sloppy macro?
I generally see your guide like steer horns. A point here, a point there, with a lot of bull inbetween. I agree with the people who see spamming as a bad way to improve. If you improve your multi-tasking, then the speed will follow, because otherwise you won't be able to pull it off. You have to practice.
You think you've given us the second coming of Jesus and you defend it at every corner, but in reality you just packaged up a lot of old and well-known advice in an infomercial style "guide". The introduction reads like those bad internet ads.
"Progamers hate him! A HoN player figured out this one weird trick to rappidly improve you SC2 performace. After quickly rising through the ranks, he is now prepared to share his secrets for only $29.99"
You, sir, are either missing the point and not wanting to reconsider or are trying to talk down about something that you actually do not know anything about. Seeing as you directly are insulting my writing abilities and the technique that I developed with the help of practice partners and research I must say that you are full of shit. I was stuck at 80apm and 70 eapm for the the longest time in sc1. Like a year or so. The way I broke that wall is pretty much detailed in the guide.
As far as mechanics vs making a living... I was very obviously talking about the player known as goody who tends towards very long games (especially in his TvT) even though he has lower apm and lesser mechanics than those he is playing vs. If you could not tell that then you probably are new enough to the sc world that you should take a step back and read the words of the guide with an open mind instead of with the goal to say NO YOU ARE WRONG.
I feel you should add Losira ? But totally agree with the chosen I follow Idra / Sen / Stephano already. On a side note I follow Hero because of his epic micro even though I am zerg.
^ Does not display in the Strategy forum. For this thread, this guide is awesome. I'm always looking to improve my EAPM, my regular APM hovers around ~250 but my EAPM is around ~130.
On August 01 2012 13:44 -IntEnZ- wrote: ^ Does not display in the Strategy forum. For this thread, this guide is awesome. I'm always looking to improve my EAPM, my regular APM hovers around ~250 but my EAPM is around ~130.
It truly is not a difficult task at all to press 456 or 12.
This is actually something that has been a problem for me since i first watched the famous day9daily #252, where also day9 recommends to do so. How am i supposed to keep my hand on the keyboard while i spam 456? Should i use only my index to press the 3 of them or should my middle help? The problem is that moving the middle to the 4 button completely messes me up, and i'd like to know if this is just a big limitation of mine that i should overcome...(it's not like i never use 6+ buttons, but keep spamming them is quite problematic for me)
It truly is not a difficult task at all to press 456 or 12.
This is actually something that has been a problem for me since i first watched the famous day9daily #252, where also day9 recommends to do so. How am i supposed to keep my hand on the keyboard while i spam 456? Should i use only my index to press the 3 of them or should my middle help? The problem is that moving the middle to the 4 button completely messes me up, and i'd like to know if this is just a big limitation of mine that i should overcome...(it's not like i never use 6+ buttons, but keep spamming them is quite problematic for me)
It truly is not a difficult task at all to press 456 or 12.
This is actually something that has been a problem for me since i first watched the famous day9daily #252, where also day9 recommends to do so. How am i supposed to keep my hand on the keyboard while i spam 456? Should i use only my index to press the 3 of them or should my middle help? The problem is that moving the middle to the 4 button completely messes me up, and i'd like to know if this is just a big limitation of mine that i should overcome...(it's not like i never use 6+ buttons, but keep spamming them is quite problematic for me)
show me a fpvod and mention where it occurs
Thanks for your attention
Mmh...what are you looking for in a fpvod? Maybe you mean a video of my hand on the keyboard? I am not sure i have well explained my problem in my last post...i'ts just that when i move my hand away from her "standard" position (pinkie on shift, index on 4), i lose orientation and can hardly refind the right keys without giving a glance at the keyboard...of course i'm fine if i only have to quickly press a button like "i" and then return to the comfort position, but to keep spamming "456" at 200+ apm i must keep my hand in an uncomfortable position like all the time, and my fingers just aren't used to find right keys starting from this position. I want to know if i should just have my hand getting used to be more dynamic on the keyboard.
I also share the same problem as highlordakkarin. When you see pros playing, their hand is hovering over keyboard yet they hit every key perfectly. For those of us that are accustomed to using the keyboard the way it is used in fast typing (hands in stationary position, they only move toward specific key for a short while and than go back to the neutral position) I guess this means learning to use keyboard from the very beginning ;/
I was talking about my standard position while i play. I have nexi on 4, so my index is very comfortable with 4-E-C. While i write my home keys are asdf jklò of course...
something I learned from playing the piano for over 10 years is that without proper hand figure you wont get the best possible sound quality when you hit a note. when your knees are at a 90 degree angle put both of your hands over your kneecaps and then take them off while maintaining the circular shape.
this shape is directly applicable to sc2 because hitting keys on a keyboard is exactly the same as playing notes from a piano. you want sharp, accurate taps that cant be accomplished with sloppy hand posture
First off, that is a well written guide! After seeing the season is over soon I wanted to take myself more time to play again. The goal is to reach my masters league again. (I've been in there in Season 2) So the question now is: What do you think about certain mechanic training maps, for example this one? + Show Spoiler [How the map works] +
On May 12 2010 22:09 stet_tcl wrote: On the bottom left side of the map is your starting position and right above that is a terran base. Your purpose is to create an army and destroy the enemy base. The terran will attack and/or drop you at several points in time depending on the difficulty setting. There is also a neutral unit at the island on the right side that you have to rescue and bring back to your base.
The tricky part is that in the top right side of the map you control a probe that is constantly being chased by a zergling. So you need to manage your base, defend the attacks and save the neutral unit, all while microing the probe to keep it from dying. This is a great way to practice not only your early game scouting but also your multitasking and hotkey usage.
There is also a mineral cap that you must not exceed or you loose the game, a set number of probes that you are allowed to loose and a time limit in which you have to complete the mission.
I don't have to work next month and I want to push myself up really hard. Do you think playing this "fun"map an hour a day or so will help me? And again thanks for this highly valuable piece of work!
On August 22 2012 16:13 Syntaxs wrote: First off, that is a well written guide! After seeing the season is over soon I wanted to take myself more time to play again. The goal is to reach my masters league again. (I've been in there in Season 2) So the question now is: What do you think about certain mechanic training maps, for example this one? + Show Spoiler [How the map works] +
On May 12 2010 22:09 stet_tcl wrote: On the bottom left side of the map is your starting position and right above that is a terran base. Your purpose is to create an army and destroy the enemy base. The terran will attack and/or drop you at several points in time depending on the difficulty setting. There is also a neutral unit at the island on the right side that you have to rescue and bring back to your base.
The tricky part is that in the top right side of the map you control a probe that is constantly being chased by a zergling. So you need to manage your base, defend the attacks and save the neutral unit, all while microing the probe to keep it from dying. This is a great way to practice not only your early game scouting but also your multitasking and hotkey usage.
There is also a mineral cap that you must not exceed or you loose the game, a set number of probes that you are allowed to loose and a time limit in which you have to complete the mission.
I don't have to work next month and I want to push myself up really hard. Do you think playing this "fun"map an hour a day or so will help me? And again thanks for this highly valuable piece of work!
They are of minor use in finding problems... and of moderate use in practicing correction of problems.
It truly is not a difficult task at all to press 456 or 12.
This is actually something that has been a problem for me since i first watched the famous day9daily #252, where also day9 recommends to do so. How am i supposed to keep my hand on the keyboard while i spam 456? Should i use only my index to press the 3 of them or should my middle help? The problem is that moving the middle to the 4 button completely messes me up, and i'd like to know if this is just a big limitation of mine that i should overcome...(it's not like i never use 6+ buttons, but keep spamming them is quite problematic for me)
show me a fpvod and mention where it occurs
Thanks for your attention
Mmh...what are you looking for in a fpvod? Maybe you mean a video of my hand on the keyboard? I am not sure i have well explained my problem in my last post...i'ts just that when i move my hand away from her "standard" position (pinkie on shift, index on 4), i lose orientation and can hardly refind the right keys without giving a glance at the keyboard...of course i'm fine if i only have to quickly press a button like "i" and then return to the comfort position, but to keep spamming "456" at 200+ apm i must keep my hand in an uncomfortable position like all the time, and my fingers just aren't used to find right keys starting from this position. I want to know if i should just have my hand getting used to be more dynamic on the keyboard.
Hahahahaha. Re-read the OP i think cuz the term FPVOD should be 100% known as a certain thing in the context of this thread.
Just make a vid of your screen as you play (read the OP and figure out what fpvod is )
It truly is not a difficult task at all to press 456 or 12.
This is actually something that has been a problem for me since i first watched the famous day9daily #252, where also day9 recommends to do so. How am i supposed to keep my hand on the keyboard while i spam 456? Should i use only my index to press the 3 of them or should my middle help? The problem is that moving the middle to the 4 button completely messes me up, and i'd like to know if this is just a big limitation of mine that i should overcome...(it's not like i never use 6+ buttons, but keep spamming them is quite problematic for me)
show me a fpvod and mention where it occurs
Thanks for your attention
Mmh...what are you looking for in a fpvod? Maybe you mean a video of my hand on the keyboard? I am not sure i have well explained my problem in my last post...i'ts just that when i move my hand away from her "standard" position (pinkie on shift, index on 4), i lose orientation and can hardly refind the right keys without giving a glance at the keyboard...of course i'm fine if i only have to quickly press a button like "i" and then return to the comfort position, but to keep spamming "456" at 200+ apm i must keep my hand in an uncomfortable position like all the time, and my fingers just aren't used to find right keys starting from this position. I want to know if i should just have my hand getting used to be more dynamic on the keyboard.
Hahahahaha. Re-read the OP i think cuz the term FPVOD should be 100% known as a certain thing in the context of this thread.
Just make a vid of your screen as you play (read the OP and figure out what fpvod is )
Yea sorry, i desperately tried to figure out how your post could make a sense in response to mine and thought that YOU could have misunderstood what a FPVOD is. I was sure that the perplexity i showed in my post was enough to realize this, even without the "ahahah" mark of intelligence and respect. I also know that my english is not that good and that i could have some problem explaining myself clearly, but since other users understood me perfectly, i must just assume that you are the one slow to understand. Don't bother minding my questions from now on.
@highloardakkarin - I understood perfectly what you meant in your post (and why it wouldn't make much sense to provide a FPVOD of it) and apparently StateofReverie did as well. I was really looking for an OP oppinion on the question you asked but oh well...
So, other than the hand shape, how do you 300 APM guys position your hand on keyboard (with default key bindings)? Fingers 'by default' over asdf? More to the right? Or maybe 456 with ring to index and press most common commands (like a and s) with pinky?
Very very nice read and very informative topic! Good job man, seriously. At the moment both my APM and EPM are very low (gold player), but I'm sure this will get me far
On August 22 2012 22:39 crow_mw wrote: @highloardakkarin - I understood perfectly what you meant in your post (and why it wouldn't make much sense to provide a FPVOD of it) and apparently StateofReverie did as well. I was really looking for an OP oppinion on the question you asked but oh well...
So, other than the hand shape, how do you 300 APM guys position your hand on keyboard (with default key bindings)? Fingers 'by default' over asdf? More to the right? Or maybe 456 with ring to index and press most common commands (like a and s) with pinky?
i dont mean tocsound cliche but it really is true. just as a sword is just anotger extension of your arm, so is your keyboard in a way. you are looking at it all wrong when you ask about hand position because ifcyou are going to play at 300apm a second thats 5 actions a second. thats pretty fast and when you are thinking that fast you think where do i need to go next so you dont slow down when you do something else. You ask where you want your hand to be on the kryboard you make it ALL OVER the keyboard because unless you customized all your hotkeys to one side of the board you will be jumping around more then one handlength on the keyboard
I feel you should add Losira ? But totally agree with the chosen I follow Idra / Sen / Stephano already. On a side note I follow Hero because of his epic micro even though I am zerg.
If only Losira would stream! I maybe cover a changing 6 hours for about 12 hours of a day, but I rarely RARELY see him.
On August 22 2012 16:13 Syntaxs wrote: First off, that is a well written guide! After seeing the season is over soon I wanted to take myself more time to play again. The goal is to reach my masters league again. (I've been in there in Season 2) So the question now is: What do you think about certain mechanic training maps, for example this one? + Show Spoiler [How the map works] +
On May 12 2010 22:09 stet_tcl wrote: On the bottom left side of the map is your starting position and right above that is a terran base. Your purpose is to create an army and destroy the enemy base. The terran will attack and/or drop you at several points in time depending on the difficulty setting. There is also a neutral unit at the island on the right side that you have to rescue and bring back to your base.
The tricky part is that in the top right side of the map you control a probe that is constantly being chased by a zergling. So you need to manage your base, defend the attacks and save the neutral unit, all while microing the probe to keep it from dying. This is a great way to practice not only your early game scouting but also your multitasking and hotkey usage.
There is also a mineral cap that you must not exceed or you loose the game, a set number of probes that you are allowed to loose and a time limit in which you have to complete the mission.
I don't have to work next month and I want to push myself up really hard. Do you think playing this "fun"map an hour a day or so will help me? And again thanks for this highly valuable piece of work!
They are of minor use in finding problems... and of moderate use in practicing correction of problems.
Well said. There is simply no substitute to the first step of self analysis (playing a ladder/1v1 recording your FPVOD and watching it over looking as he says to). Training wheels can only go so far, gotta get on the bike eventually.
On August 22 2012 23:32 Kentisc wrote: Very very nice read and very informative topic! Good job man, seriously. At the moment both my APM and EPM are very low (gold player), but I'm sure this will get me far
It's not about league, i am Diamond in EU and my apm / epm has been like exactly the same since i was in silver (120/130 - 70/80). And i'm sure i could get to master without increasing apm, by studying BOs and Timings, i just want to learn to play faster because i think it's cool u.u
On August 22 2012 22:39 crow_mw wrote: @highloardakkarin - I understood perfectly what you meant in your post (and why it wouldn't make much sense to provide a FPVOD of it) and apparently StateofReverie did as well. I was really looking for an OP oppinion on the question you asked but oh well...
So, other than the hand shape, how do you 300 APM guys position your hand on keyboard (with default key bindings)? Fingers 'by default' over asdf? More to the right? Or maybe 456 with ring to index and press most common commands (like a and s) with pinky?
i dont mean tocsound cliche but it really is true. just as a sword is just anotger extension of your arm, so is your keyboard in a way. you are looking at it all wrong when you ask about hand position because ifcyou are going to play at 300apm a second thats 5 actions a second. thats pretty fast and when you are thinking that fast you think where do i need to go next so you dont slow down when you do something else. You ask where you want your hand to be on the kryboard you make it ALL OVER the keyboard because unless you customized all your hotkeys to one side of the board you will be jumping around more then one handlength on the keyboard
Well, this is like what i wanted to read ^^ I was starting to realize by myself that this spam-like-an-idiot training is forcefully improving my control over the keyboard and my dynamicity - even if i still have a long way to go ><
ya basically what the spam like an idiot does is it improves your hand eye coordination between your actions and your thoughts. I can do this pretty flawlessly but only because ive done this for a while now.My main race is terran, but I like to offrace as zerg and protoss sometimes. It is very appearent though because i can get 270apm with each race that there is an underlying similarity between the three races that allows me to play so fast with little practice.
An argument can also be supported that no race is "faster" than the other. My personal opinion on that though is that I think zerg gives me the most eapm and least spam while terran has more redundant actions and protoss macro is "easiest" because of the simplicity of warpgate.
My personal record highs are Terran - 297 apm/188eapm Zerg - 331apm/210eapm Protoss 272apm/163 eapm
Edit: Dont look at apm as actions per minute. There are aimply too many things going on during a minute of sc2. In reality I have about 3 effective actions per second and 4-5 actions per second. How can this be applied to improvement? Well lets see how long it takes to do something like make 3 scvs. The hotkey command for me would be 4sss. Well hitting 4sss is pretty easy to do in one second. Thats 4 hotkeys, or actions, in about a second and thats pretty accurate to my overall records.
Heres where the "art" is applied to truly create masterpiece execution games. Now almost everyone can hit 4sss to make 3 scvs in a second. Hell Im even betting that people with mechanical keyboards can clear that in half a second easy. Lets add in another macro command, lets say making 5 marines. To make 5 marines I hit 5aaaaa. Now we have 2 different things that we can do. What happens when are in an intensive micro fight at the opponents main and he is attacking our third with a small counter attack? Well heres all the issues that have to be addressed. - we have to make marines/scvs - we have to micro our troops -we potentially might need to make some supply depots or lift up buildings or start an uograde.
We have all of this to do all seemingly at the same time. This is called multitasking as Im sure you know. I outlined several tasks that all have to be done at around the same time. First we have to make some priorities. The most important thing that takes our attention is the battle on hand. The rest can be looked at as a bonus. Its a bonus if you keep your macro going and keep making units. Now that we have our maib attention focused on the battle the subtle thing that gets done to be able to micro and macro is actually more reliant on micro more than anything.
We normally micro our units to gain an upper hand during a battle by trading more cost effectively compared to the other guy. That is the goal if you want to win a micro fight. However the goal changes slightly when you change the objective from solely winning a fight to wining a fight AND macroing. As stated earlier, for us to "macro" all we need in this situation is to make 3 scvs and 5 marines by pressing 10 keys on the keyboard.
Now during the fight, different micro tactics become available through this train of thought. As stated earlier it should take you 2 seconds max to carry out all the macro tasks at hand. During the fight now we need to obtain about 2 seconds of downtime where we can hit 10 hotkeys. 2 seconds might sound like a lot but in reality we dont have to have those seconds uniformly. In other words those 2 seconds can be split up. The best opportunities for this are to do your macro before and after the important parts are over such as casting spells and before the main battle actually commences.
The most effecient way of getting things done would ultimately be able to stutter your army backwards for a moment which allows you to get most macroing done. Things do get more complicated but I just used an easy example that would make more sense and cause less confusion
This is a good way of thinking about it. And there ARE things that you can only do if you can play fast, which will be unavailable to a low-apm player. By pushing up your max raw APM then trying to fill it with eAPM in a consistent and organized manner as talked about in this guide, you can get access to new strategies, tactics, and moves that you wouldn't be able to execute with low apm.
Zerg gives you higher EAPM because keeping a key pressed when making say 100 lings is considered effective actions, and therefore makes crazy EAPM peaks. To people arguing that you can be a good player without high apm and perfect mechanics, it may be true, but you'll be better with, so why not try to improve them too?
@blazinghand good way of putting it if you were referring to my post. I actually didnt mean to post it right away and added a bit more hehe
@Nimix The argument itself is flawed. There is more than one way to be good at this game and it shows by what and how you practice. a good player without high apm would have other traits such as good builds or very good knowledge of the game that a player with high apm doesnt have
@StateofReverie yeah I was talking about your post. I like the new addition, it's a good way of looking at the concept of APM and speed and how that translates into both macro and micro.
On August 24 2012 01:51 Blazinghand wrote: @StateofReverie yeah I was talking about your post. I like the new addition, it's a good way of looking at the concept of APM and speed and how that translates into both macro and micro.
tyty I had still some more to write so instead I just made a blog post about it all going over a couple more common scenarios and how to break them down
A great way of increasing mouse speed and accuracy is by playing the marine split challenge. I would recommend this to any player, not just terran. This challenge basically forces you to make really quick movements with a purpose (this is a main difference between this method of increasing mouse speed and accuracy and games like OSU or Missioned).
I found this gem of a thread a few weeks ago, and its taken me from "forever plat"to high diamond in a few weeks however I'm starting to realize that maybe I'll never have the kind of hand speed required to ply sc2 extremely fast
I wanted to ask, when talking about apm and eapm are we talking about sc2 gears numbers adjusted for real time, or in game numbers from replays? If were taking about in game numbers, I feel like I might never hit that 200apm benchmark. Infact even 170 seems nearly out of reach. I sit at around 90-100eapm based on in game numbers and about 150apm.
Anyone else that's tried this guide have trouble hitting that 200apm benchmark ? Should I just ignore it and move onto the next step and watch some fpvods? I apologize for any typos and bad grammar as I'm typing this from my phone.
On September 03 2012 09:47 mushlafa wrote: I found this gem of a thread a few weeks ago, and its taken me from "forever plat"to high diamond in a few weeks however I'm starting to realize that maybe I'll never have the kind of hand speed required to ply sc2 extremely fast
I wanted to ask, when talking about apm and eapm are we talking about sc2 gears numbers adjusted for real time, or in game numbers from replays? If were taking about in game numbers, I feel like I might never hit that 200apm benchmark. Infact even 170 seems nearly out of reach. I sit at around 90-100eapm based on in game numbers and about 150apm.
Anyone else that's tried this guide have trouble hitting that 200apm benchmark ? Should I just ignore it and move onto the next step and watch some fpvods? I apologize for any typos and bad grammar as I'm typing this from my phone.
We are always talking about the sc2gears where its adjusted for real time. The ingame replay sc2 apm is slightly slower so 200apm in a replay isn't 200apm in a time frame of 60 seconds.
I usually float around 200-220, but in reality, its about 50 apm higher. a 200apm benchmark would be closer to 180apm, which it seems would be a more approrpiate goal
I dont think you even need that much apm to have realy good mechanics. I am mid master zerg my apm is around 120-150 and i think my mechanics are better than lot of my opponents with around 200 apm.
I am surprised to read that Protoss folks have eAPMs as measured by SC2Gears of 150+.
Even after practicing, my eAPM is in the 70-80 range with Protoss. With Zerg, I can hit 120 pretty easily so I can at least see how 150+ would be possible. But I have no clue how Protoss are generating enough non-spam actions to get eAPMs of 150+.
On September 04 2012 15:21 SacredCoconut wrote: I dont think you even need that much apm to have realy good mechanics. I am mid master zerg my apm is around 120-150 and i think my mechanics are better than lot of my opponents with around 200 apm.
First of all, when you are playing ZvP and ZvT, they both have different guidelines that create good mechanics so unless you are mid masters PvZ and TvZ as well than you are only stating your opinion, but not stating it
On September 05 2012 20:46 mrangry wrote: I am surprised to read that Protoss folks have eAPMs as measured by SC2Gears of 150+.
Even after practicing, my eAPM is in the 70-80 range with Protoss. With Zerg, I can hit 120 pretty easily so I can at least see how 150+ would be possible. But I have no clue how Protoss are generating enough non-spam actions to get eAPMs of 150+.
If you think about it, 120 actions per minute is 2 actions per second. That's relatively slow compared to progamers who have almost 4 actions per second. People with more eapm find more things that they can do which improves the timing of their pushes and such.
On September 03 2012 09:47 mushlafa wrote: I found this gem of a thread a few weeks ago, and its taken me from "forever plat"to high diamond in a few weeks however I'm starting to realize that maybe I'll never have the kind of hand speed required to ply sc2 extremely fast
I wanted to ask, when talking about apm and eapm are we talking about sc2 gears numbers adjusted for real time, or in game numbers from replays? If were taking about in game numbers, I feel like I might never hit that 200apm benchmark. Infact even 170 seems nearly out of reach. I sit at around 90-100eapm based on in game numbers and about 150apm.
Anyone else that's tried this guide have trouble hitting that 200apm benchmark ? Should I just ignore it and move onto the next step and watch some fpvods? I apologize for any typos and bad grammar as I'm typing this from my phone.
We are always talking about the sc2gears where its adjusted for real time. The ingame replay sc2 apm is slightly slower so 200apm in a replay isn't 200apm in a time frame of 60 seconds.
I usually float around 200-220, but in reality, its about 50 apm higher. a 200apm benchmark would be closer to 180apm, which it seems would be a more approrpiate goal
OMG. I was so so so sure you all were talking about game-readjusted time apm. I'm better than i thought then :D
Update: Here's one way to boost your eAPM, at least as measured by SC2Gears. Gears counts attack moves as effective actions so in your tapping cycle, just include some dummy attack moves with your army. I prefer to use the minimap for these attack moves because - bonus - it improves your map awareness. Easy to bump eAPM well north of 100 with this technique.
Seeing as my boy Breezy got banned.... I have taken control of the thread. At one point I was going to do a video coaching project with this but I got WAY too busy so that is on hold. I will be adding the faq soon.
Can clarification be added to the OP on whether the 200 APM exercise is real time APM or Blizzard time APM?
Saying "sc2gears" is ambiguous because a lot of people (including me) have the "convert game-time to real-time" checkbox unchecked.
That being said, I'm trying to aim for blizz time 200 against the AI. I just want to know whether I'm having so much trouble because I'm really slow or because I'm aiming a little higher than the OP intended.
On September 29 2012 13:43 GWBuffalo wrote: Can clarification be added to the OP on whether the 200 APM exercise is real time APM or Blizzard time APM?
Saying "sc2gears" is ambiguous because a lot of people (including me) have the "convert game-time to real-time" checkbox unchecked.
That being said, I'm trying to aim for blizz time 200 against the AI. I just want to know whether I'm having so much trouble because I'm really slow or because I'm aiming a little higher than the OP intended.
Definitly aiming higher than the OP intended. I think about 180apm in a sc2 replay is about 200apm in real life
Me personally, I have never gotten above 230sc2 apm. Maybe I can't get any faster, maybe I am not trying hard enough. Either way, it's plenty fast for me and I can find plenty of things to do with even just 200sc2 apm :D
This guide seems to be just the boost I need to bump myself from EU diamond to Master. Im hitting 100 eapm but surely can hit 200 apm and perhaps 130 eapm. Thanks a lot!