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How good can you get with low APM? - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Mr.E
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States434 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-04 16:24:17
July 04 2010 16:24 GMT
#21
What other people are saying. APM might be a measurement of multitasking that you can use to remind yourself to improve... your multitasking, but it does come naturally if your playing competitively due to the fact that there's almost always something else you should be doing.
Looking for top-tier practice partners, especially Z; PM me
yarkO
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Canada810 Posts
July 04 2010 16:24 GMT
#22
On July 05 2010 01:13 ret wrote:
there is no spoon...


Yea because some asshole plate keeps taking them...

+ Show Spoiler +
[image loading]
When you are prepared, there's no such thing as pressure.
EliteAzn
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States661 Posts
July 04 2010 16:24 GMT
#23
Luckily, sc2 is more focus on strategy than APM (some of the tedious actions were removed i.e. workers gathering min/gas, many army groups).

70 is easily enough for diamond.

Progamer wise, you will need to increase...but that's pro.
(╯`Д´)╯︵ ┻━┻ High Five! _o /\ o_
Syphon8
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada298 Posts
July 04 2010 16:26 GMT
#24
I played in Platinum fine maxing out at 40 APM. Having a touchpad didn't help.
',:/
Bob300
Profile Joined April 2010
United States505 Posts
July 04 2010 16:26 GMT
#25
On July 05 2010 01:00 Pads wrote:
| | this good!

I was hoping apm wouldn't be a focus in sc2 but meh.

with the keyboard and mouse that light up because of your apm it will be a major factor, sadly.
NYC Suburbs --- College Freshman --- Season 1 - Drone Whiskey
Balor
Profile Joined April 2010
United States147 Posts
July 04 2010 16:28 GMT
#26
White-Ra has generally less than 100 APM, except in tourney play / games he cares about, and still tops the ladder.
EliteAzn
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States661 Posts
July 04 2010 16:29 GMT
#27
On July 05 2010 01:26 Syphon8 wrote:
I played in Platinum fine maxing out at 40 APM. Having a touchpad didn't help.


That is actually really impressive...nice work.
(╯`Д´)╯︵ ┻━┻ High Five! _o /\ o_
farseer_dk
Profile Joined June 2010
Canada71 Posts
July 04 2010 16:31 GMT
#28
On July 05 2010 01:29 EliteAzn wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 05 2010 01:26 Syphon8 wrote:
I played in Platinum fine maxing out at 40 APM. Having a touchpad didn't help.


That is actually really impressive...nice work.

holycrap i'm like bottom of silver with a touchpad ahahaha... i know because I tried
mao
ItsTheFark
Profile Joined June 2010
United States158 Posts
July 04 2010 16:33 GMT
#29
in ladder matches I have noticed I average at around 50 apm, yet I was a top 10 diamond zerg player, I know that doesn't mean much... but I make my actions count?
Quanticfograw
Profile Blog Joined October 2005
United States2053 Posts
July 04 2010 16:34 GMT
#30
hmmmmmmmm 70 apm seems fairly low but like i know a bunch of pretty good foriegners didnt break 200 and they were a- lvl
https://twitter.com/quanticfograw
BigT
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States304 Posts
July 04 2010 16:34 GMT
#31
You still need to watch your replays. Or at the very least have someone else watch them if you think you know everything already. It seems like you are trying to defend yourself when you were the one who called yourself "lazy" in the OP...
Big T
farseer_dk
Profile Joined June 2010
Canada71 Posts
July 04 2010 16:38 GMT
#32
On July 05 2010 01:34 BigT wrote:
You still need to watch your replays. Or at the very least have someone else watch them if you think you know everything already. It seems like you are trying to defend yourself when you were the one who called yourself "lazy" in the OP...

Well I'm just reiterating the logic I use to justify (to myself) not watching my replays... flawed as it is

What should I be looking out for in my replays? Should i watch myself or my opponent more? What's the best counter to have open?
mao
Snuggles
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1865 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-04 16:47:43
July 04 2010 16:41 GMT
#33
120-150 is certainly enough for a good spot on the Diamond league.

Even though all of us pretty much agrees that you don't need an insane amount of APM to be successful, I'm pretty sure you'd need quite a bit as the game gets older and older.

I mean I play Zerg, I've been practicing with the AI this whole time working on having high APM NON-SPAM. I can hit the 170 - 230 range quite easily late game because there is soooooo much to do, and that's just my macro. I suck so I can't multitask with my micro very well, but in battles when you micro and also macro at the same time, your APM will shoot up like crazy. So when SC2 is out long enough for people to get really good at it, I predict that 200 + APMs will be a norm. I doubt 300+ APM will be around like it was in BW, for the obvious reasons.

And this APM is all non-spam- it really throws you ahead of the game if your opponent simply cannot keep up, especially when you are doing all the "right" things. Before the Beta ended I had several games where it turned into an intensive macro battle where would have big armies clashing over and over. In this one game his apm was around 70 and he was ranked 7th in the diamond league at the time while my apm was a good 160 and I was ranked like 30 something. I would win easily simply by being able to fit in upgrades, expos, and creep(ovi spreading) etc. while producing a ton of units because I kept my queen energy below 50 (I think keeping queen energy low no matter what is a really good exercise). So it really goes to show that high APM has its advantages, especially when it goes into late-game where none of it is spam.

All that said, the fundamentals are still more important... much more important. Not being a solid player will make you lose to a lot more crap. High APM can't get you out of a situation where the toss 4gates you and you have NO IDEA WHAT TO DO ARGGHHHH..... I could never get into the top 10 because I don't have all the fundamentals down. It was only after this month of practice I learned how to prepare myself for timing pushes and just learning what "timing" really means and what it can do lol.
BigT
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States304 Posts
July 04 2010 16:43 GMT
#34
Well there are many many things to take into consideration. Obviously any error that you see yourself making could be for two reasons. A) Because you just messed up or B) it was a mistake because of what your opponent was doing.

And thats the beauty of watching replays. Although you know exactly what YOU did the entire game, you don't know what your opponent was doing the entire game. Sure you have a broad sense of what he did, but you don't know his exact timings. Which if you do a lot of early aggression is absolutely crucial. For a horrible example, you need to know exactly when your zerg opponent is going to have 6 lings out if you are doing early aggression.

So yes, I would say the most important thing would be to first analyze what your opponent did, then go back and analyze whether or not you played appropriately. Perhaps if you had known he did "A" instead of "B" you would have reacted differently. By doing this over and over again you will start to notice re-occuring tendencies which will then trigger specific according responses. That way you will know exactly what to do vs every build possible over time.

Hope that helps,

Big T
Big T
vileChAnCe
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada525 Posts
July 04 2010 16:44 GMT
#35
Dude keep doing what your doing starcraft from a mechanical level is just like anything else skill based. It requires alot of practice to become fast I.E piano, if you take the time to play consistently and worry about precision and your mental check list your APM will consistently rise. Too many people will focus spamming which takes away thought process from the actual game, again piano if you practice a slow piece to perfection it will sound beautiful compared to a technical/fast piece that's played poorly.

I never played an RTS on a competitive level and I held the 1-3 rank spot in diamond, my APM was tripled in alot of matches. My biggest problem was misclicking I know EVERYTHING that needs to be done, but precision was lacking.

http://www.d3scene.com/forum/cs-guides/18396-guide-complete-cs-s-mouse-optimization-guide.html

read this and then play some OSU! if you get your mouse precision to feel natural you'll literally soar through your games!

Hope this helps

Day[9] i've broken 6 mice, 5 keyboards, 3 pairs of headphones, and a mousepad, all from raging after starcraft losing streaks
farseer_dk
Profile Joined June 2010
Canada71 Posts
July 04 2010 16:44 GMT
#36
On July 05 2010 01:41 Snuggles wrote:
120-150 is certainly enough for a good spot on the Diamond league.

Even though all of us pretty much agrees that you don't need an insane amount of APM to be successful, I'm pretty sure you'd need quite a bit as the game gets older and older.

I mean I play Zerg, I've been practicing with the AI this whole time working on having high APM NON-SPAM. I can hit the 170 - 230 range quite easily late game because there is soooooo much to do, and that's just my macro. I suck so I can't multitask with my micro very well, but in battles when you micro and also macro at the same time, your APM will shoot up like crazy. So when SC2 is out long enough for people to get really good at it, I predict that 200 + APMs will be a norm. I doubt 300+ APM will be around like it was in BW, for the obvious reasons.

What AI do you play against? I can very easily beat every non-cheating AI I've tried... I need a sparring partner.
mao
mikx
Profile Joined June 2010
United States16 Posts
July 04 2010 16:46 GMT
#37
To me playing SC is a lot like playing a guitar. Not sure if you play any kind of instrument, but if you do you might notice that it is pretty hard to keep your fingers still while having a guitar in your hand. If you enjoy playing an instrument you just fiddle around with it whenever in reach... playing a stupid riff... over using hammer-ons and pull-offs for no reason... etc I think this is why many players spam... they just like the feeling it gives you....

Thinking about the keyboard in SC (or any other high speed RTS) as a music instrument is a good concept for me. You practice very slow for a while (learning notes/hotkeys), play your first songs/games and after a while you will notice you are not thinking about it anymore. Certain hotkey combinations just feel like playing a riff. Misclicking is like playing a false note. And as you never stop playing on a false note during a live show you just keeping macroing in SC2 even if you make a miss on micro.

Speed comes with confidence and knowing the notes/keys. Of course you can train your APM skills just "mechanically" by practicing, but usually this will come automatically. If you try to play faster and you make much more mistakes - try practicing key combos in a test map (e.g. YABOT) until you can do them without much thinking. If your error rate is low and you feel your game is at the right speed don't worry about APM.
Stripes
Profile Joined May 2010
Australia57 Posts
July 04 2010 16:46 GMT
#38
I feel like, when I play enough to put myself at a higher level of play, my apm just increases naturally out of simply knowing what I need to be doing, and doing it! 70 apm is really fairly low and I think once the game actually comes out, if you want to keep a high position in diamond, you will need to play more than you do now and your apm will naturally just increase.

I find that at about 100 its fairly easy to play without any worries because of the new hotkey set ups. I play terran and I find that since I can just set all my barracks to 4 and tab through techlabs/reactors. It really doesnt need as much as in the original where I would hotkey multiple barracks/factories to keep my macro up.
EliteAzn
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States661 Posts
July 04 2010 16:46 GMT
#39
On July 05 2010 01:38 farseer_dk wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 05 2010 01:34 BigT wrote:
You still need to watch your replays. Or at the very least have someone else watch them if you think you know everything already. It seems like you are trying to defend yourself when you were the one who called yourself "lazy" in the OP...

Well I'm just reiterating the logic I use to justify (to myself) not watching my replays... flawed as it is

What should I be looking out for in my replays? Should i watch myself or my opponent more? What's the best counter to have open?


IF you have absolutely no idea, look at commentaries and see what the pros do. You don't have to mimic what they do, but look at their playing styles and what they do...then you can look at your own game and you can probably see your mistakes yourself...then it's just practices...

(that's just what I think..)
(╯`Д´)╯︵ ┻━┻ High Five! _o /\ o_
Gerbeeros
Profile Joined May 2010
101 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-04 16:49:22
July 04 2010 16:47 GMT
#40
I was low silver with 45 apm during the beta (i only got to play maybe a 1 & half weeks) and did everything by mouse: the only two hotkeys i learned were r for depot and ghost sniper shot. I never even did any hotkeys for buildings. I just jumped all over the map doing my macro and micro by mouse.

I allmost broke my mouse hand during one game against other terran which took 1hour 55 minutes in which my apm rose to 80 apm avarage during the last 40 minutes of the game. I had some wrist pains for an hour after the game.

During the downtime i actually learned to do my macroing and mules & scanning with hotkeys and at least against the ai:s ive improved significantly, im still bit slow and keep on missclicking stuff tho so im not really exdpecting to get even to the gold yet when the beta is back.

But yeah, if someone is doing good with 50 apm in diamond id say you really know what youre doing then.
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