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[H] So you want to increase your apm?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
uhohh
Profile Joined October 2010
5 Posts
November 25 2010 09:33 GMT
#1
Greetings - long time lurker, first time poster.

I see alot of people asking for tips on how to increase ones APM, so I'm posting here to reveal what helped me personally, in the hope that it helps you as well. For me, I always hovered around 70-80apm and as i got better and stuff i started tweaking parts of my play that I thought were important. For starters, you need good gear to be able to keep up with your brain and make your decisions swiftly and most of all - precisely. So spend 50-100 bucks and get a good mouse/pad/keyboard. In the game menu under Gameplay you'll see a "Mouse Sensitivity" bar, most people i found on average were sitting around the 25 mark. What i did was increase that amount by 1, every game i played, untill around 37. I play with regular DPI settings and no mouse acceleration. The things i noticed straight away was that the game felt faster, because i was moving faster. My theory is that if your hands are moving faster than your brain is thinking, then your brain will have to catch up / think of things that you should be doing! This is only supposed to be a little thing, it might only save you 0.1 of a second by getting a worker to build a building at a specific spot, but when all those .1's add up, that will be the difference in how much faster you react/play the game!

This is not for everyone, nor is it guaranteed to work, it's simply what i did and i thought i'd share so we don't see an "HAPL ME INCREEES MA APM" thread every day. some people might get all jittery, it's simply how i increased my apm from 70-80 average to a 130 average, with no unnesscesary clicks.

Hope this helps.
mistgun_EU
Profile Joined October 2010
309 Posts
November 25 2010 09:40 GMT
#2
I dont think that you need gaming gear around 50-100 bucks to increase APM.

nekuodah
Profile Joined August 2010
England2409 Posts
November 25 2010 09:41 GMT
#3
Your basically saying increase your mouse sensitivity for high apm? higher apm just comes from practise as you will know the next step and will be able to do it faster, changing your mouse and sensitivity most definatly didnt increase your apm by 50 unless you started to spam more too.
Lobo2me
Profile Joined May 2010
Norway1213 Posts
November 25 2010 09:56 GMT
#4
The best way to increase APM is to get better at knowing what you should be doing, making your hands do what your brains wants to happen in game. A harder part is when you just don't have time to do all the stuff you know you have to do, because then you have to become a mechanically faster and more accurate player. Increasing sensitivity and getting used to it is definitely a way to get your speed up if you know what you should be doing.

I'm playing at 6/11 window sensitivity, 55% in game sensitivity, and 800 dpi on the mouse. I probably could increase it to 1000 or 1200 dpi because then it would be easier to move the pointer from middle to a corner of the screen without moving my hand significantly.
Bad manners are better than no manners at all.
Buffy
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Sweden665 Posts
November 25 2010 10:25 GMT
#5
If your super low on sens on your mouse mabey increasing a bit will help you a small bit, and by small bit I mean really small. Getting mechanicly better and getting better knowledge of the game in general is probably the overall proven and absolute way to get higher apm.

And why is everyone so focused on apm ? More impressive to me seeing someone with 80 apm that is a total macro/micro beast then a 200 apm+ that is really making massively more mistakes in both micro/macro play. Getting better should help your apm, but it isn't the benchmark for how good of a player you are.

Just my thoughts..
Yes I am
Silidons
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States2813 Posts
November 25 2010 10:34 GMT
#6
i average about 100 apm with no mousepad, a 4 year or something old razer copperhead, and a g15
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon Bonaparte
Syro
Profile Joined April 2010
Germany113 Posts
November 25 2010 10:36 GMT
#7
Yeah that's true that your APM get higher if you set up your Mouse sensitiy. I have made this twice, and increase the sensity every 3 days, 5 Points higher. Now my APM is around 100 and that work really well for 1800 Diamond Player. I can every average Player recommend to making this.
ChickenLips
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
2912 Posts
November 25 2010 10:39 GMT
#8
APM = useless

Having a game plan and experience = will actually win you games.

Watch Sjow consistently roflpwn players with two to three times his APM. He has a game plan, he knows his timings and he understands the game.

stop the apm bullshit please
❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ✿
BeMannerDuPenner
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
Germany5638 Posts
November 25 2010 10:45 GMT
#9
On November 25 2010 19:36 Syro wrote:
Yeah that's true that your APM get higher if you set up your Mouse sensitiy. I have made this twice, and increase the sensity every 3 days, 5 Points higher. Now my APM is around 100 and that work really well for 1800 Diamond Player. I can every average Player recommend to making this.


it only works if your sens was too low before. ofc when you have to drag the mouse around like crazy just to do basic stuff it will slow you down alot.

but increasing your mouse sense wont do anything except maybe even slowing you down when you found your optimal settings.


also a huge part of apm comes from the keyboard not from the mouse.
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
sNatch
Profile Joined September 2010
United States93 Posts
November 25 2010 10:46 GMT
#10
i don't think increasing your mouse sensitivity will really increase your apm, that's just personal preference.

but 25% does seem kinda low lol
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/366499/1/GiR/
Constituent
Profile Joined October 2010
United States25 Posts
November 25 2010 11:22 GMT
#11
APM is focused on too much by a majority of Starcraft 2 players. Because pros are known to have a high APM most players focus solely on APM. APM comes with the playing experience. Knowing what to do, when to do it, and what hotkeys and rhythm you are in, you begin to control units effectively without having to focus on it. Alot of players try to get high APMs spamming and clicking random things for no reason. If you want a high APM, its simple. Watch replays of good players, play yourself, and get comfortable with the game. Use your hotkeys more and more and learn to combine actions. Don't go to get high APM, let the high APM come to you.
sleepingdog
Profile Joined August 2008
Austria6145 Posts
November 25 2010 11:28 GMT
#12
Not another APM thread....but to be honest this one is high up on the list of stupid suggestions of how to increase your APM.

Many pro-gamers actually play with quite low sensivity, they are fast because they think fast and move their hands fast. End of story.
"You see....YOU SEE..." © 2010 Sen
SovSov
Profile Joined September 2010
United States755 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-25 12:16:20
November 25 2010 12:13 GMT
#13
Oh God, please OP... You're encouraging people to fall into marketing ploys?

Mouse+Keyboard does extremely little to actually help your APM or play, especially in StarCraft where precise movement isn't as needed. The only noticeable advantage you'd gain is a psychological one from buying into marketing schemes of "Become a better player after you buy this!"

Then increasing APM by increasing mouse speed.. is understandable, but it seems more like a psychological thing again, which seems to suit you based on my previous paragraph. Increasing APM is more of a mental state, knowing when you can do what and when you should be doing what (for example, moving an SCV .01 faster doesn't exactly help much if you don't know what action to preform next). An APM increase from mouse speed, again, is minimal.

You're spreading a lot of false information for the general populace, though it might work for some.

Moon said himself that APM comes from practice, and nothing else. People create threads because they're looking for shortcuts, when really it is something that comes naturally as they get better.
nodq
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany123 Posts
November 25 2010 12:26 GMT
#14
On November 25 2010 18:40 mistgun_EU wrote:
I dont think that you need gaming gear around 50-100 bucks to increase APM.



I had a fucked up normal 25 EUR logitech keyboard... with really shitty SHIFT+CTRL Keys (hard to press etc.) switched to a mechanical keyboard as i needed a new one so i bought a mech. KB. My apm were around 90-110. Now with new and better keyboard ive around 110-130.

Of course better Hardware can improve your apm, no one can argue that actually. good hardwar makes your gaming life easier, for sure.
Spawn moooaaaar Overloooaaaarddzzzz!
lundell100
Profile Joined July 2010
Sweden232 Posts
November 25 2010 13:06 GMT
#15
Higher APM has nothing to do with mouse sensitivity whatsoever.
Most of your apm comes with your keyboard, obviously.
To increase your apm -> Practice. Tbh, you don't really need more than... I would say 120-150 apm. Then you're good.
Geiko
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
France1976 Posts
November 25 2010 13:10 GMT
#16
Apm means exactly nothing, or if it means something, its how much you spam.
To prove my point to a couple of friends, everytime i play with them, i average 300 apm. I'm usualy at 70...
Anyone can spam, and any one at 200+ apm is probably spamming at one point or the other in the game.
geiko.813 (EU)
TehDruid
Profile Joined November 2010
Switzerland5 Posts
November 25 2010 13:10 GMT
#17
APM is not your mouse speed. APM is thinking ahead, so your next X actions don't take very long at all to perform.

Who cares what that little number says, what you really want to be better at is thinking faster.

How to increase your effective APM: play one of the decent "APM Practice" maps, where you have to run an SCV away from a Zealot whilst building up a force. Play it lots, and your effective APM will increase by a lot. Do this for 20 minutes before every playing session, and you'll see your APM shoot up, and the game will start to feel 'slower' as you've more time to think than before.
SovSov
Profile Joined September 2010
United States755 Posts
November 25 2010 13:27 GMT
#18
On November 25 2010 22:10 Geiko wrote:
Apm means exactly nothing, or if it means something, its how much you spam.
To prove my point to a couple of friends, everytime i play with them, i average 300 apm. I'm usualy at 70...
Anyone can spam, and any one at 200+ apm is probably spamming at one point or the other in the game.

Not true. APM is like a canvas. If you have 300 APM, it's a huge canvas, but you might not have the paint to fill it up (aka you're mindlessly spamming).

But if you have TONS of paint (aka skill, actions needed, etc), then you need a larger canvas (APM) to effectively use it.
nodq
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany123 Posts
November 25 2010 14:10 GMT
#19
i find it funny that this is still a topic to discuss even after years... of course is the more apm you the better it is. which normal person would say otherway around? but if you have high apm without good decision making, then your apm will not win you matches.


imho right decision making > more apm.... and of course better hardware lets you get better with your fingers/eyes whatsoever, or did you see any Tennis pro playing with a Racket of a piece of Wood today? no they play with Carbon Rackets... why? because this makes their play easier/better. Why playing with a hightech football instead of a bottle or a rock? because it makes playing better/easier. etc. pp.

ALl the ppl telling that better hardware does not matter are just jealous because they cant afford the money for such good hardware or they are just trash talking about things they have no clue of.

Even a bronze Player getting new keyboard if he has a crappy one, can do better after this, NO ONE on the fucking Plant would tell him to get a new Mouse/KB and after that he will be playing Diamond Level... be realistic damn it. No but he can make his life in bronze easier and practise better with good hardware.

And for me personally, i want the good/best hardware i can get so i know nothing will fuck my play up (like stupid shift / ctrl keys no responding correctly, a mous which skips pixels, a 4:3 Monitor for SC2 etc. pp.)

Why is there still the need to discus that topic, srsly?


1. if you have good APMs but still in Bronze/Silver? Then READ READ READ and WATCH WATCH WATCH other matches and train your BRAIN.

2. You have lots of Tactics, you know every BO out there and how to correctly Counter that? but your APM is very very low and you can not do all that stuff you got in your Head? Then PLAY PLAY PLAY and PLAY MORE until you don not have to think about waht your Fingers have to do.
Spawn moooaaaar Overloooaaaarddzzzz!
nodq
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany123 Posts
November 25 2010 14:12 GMT
#20
On November 25 2010 18:33 uhohh wrote:
Greetings - long time lurker, first time poster.

I see alot of people asking for tips on how to increase ones APM, so I'm posting here to reveal what helped me personally, in the hope that it helps you as well. For me, I always hovered around 70-80apm and as i got better and stuff i started tweaking parts of my play that I thought were important. For starters, you need good gear to be able to keep up with your brain and make your decisions swiftly and most of all - precisely. So spend 50-100 bucks and get a good mouse/pad/keyboard. In the game menu under Gameplay you'll see a "Mouse Sensitivity" bar, most people i found on average were sitting around the 25 mark. What i did was increase that amount by 1, every game i played, untill around 37. I play with regular DPI settings and no mouse acceleration. The things i noticed straight away was that the game felt faster, because i was moving faster. My theory is that if your hands are moving faster than your brain is thinking, then your brain will have to catch up / think of things that you should be doing! This is only supposed to be a little thing, it might only save you 0.1 of a second by getting a worker to build a building at a specific spot, but when all those .1's add up, that will be the difference in how much faster you react/play the game!

This is not for everyone, nor is it guaranteed to work, it's simply what i did and i thought i'd share so we don't see an "HAPL ME INCREEES MA APM" thread every day. some people might get all jittery, it's simply how i increased my apm from 70-80 average to a 130 average, with no unnesscesary clicks.

Hope this helps.


btw. here on TL are some Threads about SC2 ingame Sensitivity Settings etc. 51-54% is equal to the 6/11 Windows Setting, which has no Pixel skipping. So do not set SC2 ingame Sens to higher as 55% or lower as 51% if you don't wanna have Pixel skipping. Set Windows to 6/11 of course.

Ah and, Sensitivity != DPI/CPI
Spawn moooaaaar Overloooaaaarddzzzz!
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