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Retired (for now). Will maybe come back around Lazer official release to play casually. Playstyle: ring + index, z, c tapping - gateron optical blacks - tablet Cool User Pages: https://osu.ppy.sh/users/13357689 https://osu.ppy.sh/users/6036595 https://osu.ppy.sh/users/1583218 https://osu.ppy.sh/users/70730/osu https://osu.ppy.sh/users/6574823 https://osu.ppy.sh/users/559998 osu's biggest collab: https://i.redd.it/6viyd3w5kg641.png AR Graph: https://puu.sh/Bioa2/2f90f2f728.jpg Settings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjvDvOw2L8c Interface: https://osu.ppy.sh/help/wiki/Interface#song-selection-screen https://osu.ppy.sh/help/wiki/Interface#search Tillerino: https://github.com/Tillerino/Tillerinobot/wiki PP Calculator: https://osu-pps.com/#/osu/maps All these videos are based on personal experiences on how to improve, so take a lot of these with a grain of salt unless you've tried them and they work for you. I like them for insight on how to build up certain skills, so when I feel stuck I go back to these videos to see if there is something I can do. Streaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh87BQPYJEk Ryuk Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSfsLfWTNG4&list=WL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewczbBZbOv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlXNj-E4Rp4 Spare Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXdtbFNgCfY Most of the speed tips have to do with learning burst/death streams as a way to speed up tapping, but also improving speed outside of DT by playing fast no mod songs, slowly increasing the bpm by 5-15 each time. Increasing the bpm slowly and starting low can help with warm ups and sore hands as well. This is the gist of both Spares and Ryuk's videos, but I'd recommend to watch Ryuk's video to have a better understanding. Kariyu Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEOEGU_kriw TL;DR/Important info: take breaks to remove mental/mind block and turn it into "rust", so that you can grind through it instead of feeling like you can't improve. Willy Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBbpS5RHmWc TL;DR/Important info: play through a song in its entirety, don't restart a lot - consistency When I say "low ranks" in the title I am talking about ranks under 4 digit (18/01/2021), but of course there are outliers and rank isn't necessarily a representation of skill, more so an indication, giving a rough outline of what skill the play might have, but not a pin point representation of their skill. Obviously you have players that also don't bother ranking up and only play for improvement, which creates more outliers. So to specify: people who cannot play AR 10 comfortably, aswell as lower ARs (8 through to 10 usually), aswell as people who struggle with high bpms (varies in difficulty based on star rating). Now this may sound absurd to "gatekeep" mods based on your ability to read high/low AR or play high BPM, but I see skill as a pyramid of progression. What do I mean by a "pyramid of progress"? Every house needs their foundation, as well as every pyramid, a pyramid being easier to understand in terms of skill. The lower platforms are the largest, these are what I consider the fundamentals. As you work your way up the pyramid you reach higher ARs, BPMs, OD etc. Problem with players nowadays is that they force themselves to play high AR/BPMs/Mods, bruteforcing it until they learn it. This hardstucks them in small AR ranges, as well as pushing them further down the pattern difficulty due to how mod scaling works with stars/difficulty. This way they won't learn more complex maps, diverse AR, diverse speeds etc. This is terrible for linear improvement, and shoots up late game skills passed their fundamental skils, breaking the pyramid structure, and their foundation with which they learn on. You can play lower AR DT, and lower BPM DT, so of course this isn't as strict as saying "don't play x mod until y", but if you are feeling as if you can't keep up at all, or you can't read it, and you're getting terrible acc and a lot of misses, high chance is that you aren't learning well, because how can you learn well from something you aren't able to "understand"? Sure... You can still get good, and reach higher ranks by being a one trick DT player, or one trick HR player, or even a one trick EZ player - but you will have to unlearn in order to diversify play, and build up what others have been building up since the start. Of course you should play what's fun to you, so if you enjoy these mods, go ahead and play them, but if you want to not reach a sudden wall in progression, or don't want to be thrown off when anyone in multiplayer gets you to play outside your comfort zone, learn no mod first. Now how does one get from no mod to hardrock or doubletime? Well quite easy actually. osu!search is a good resource for this, while not able to download from that site, you can use it to find maps that are high bpm, and maps that are high AR. Then once you've got the songs, simply type in bpm>250 (or whatever bpm you're learning passed), and or AR>9.8, and learn these skills individually at the difficulties you normally play at. This way you are still learning complex patterns, and you're only changing one or two variables, keeping you within your comfort zone, but progressing towards higher ARs, BPMs, smaller circles etc. If you build yourself up on no mod, once you make the switch to DT or HR you will be so much better with transitioning, and you won't have to bruteforce and create bad muscle memory that will ruin your previous ability. Of course this is preference in learning/play, but I guess you understand that as you're reading this on my profile. This is an extension of my other write up "Playing HR early is bad for newer players". In that writeup you learn more about my difficulties with learning HR and how it affected my play. I have also played DT a lot, with similar results to struggling with AR/speed, but I would not say it is as detrimental as HR was for me. Ryuk also expresses in his video on improving speed to improve speed in no mod, and even shows him getting very low acc on fast-high-star songs back when he was learning; saying that he only really pushed speed once he was already in the top 50. Don't take my word on it, go watch that video. There is no "correct" way to play, and you should play the game in the way you enjoy it, but if you're stuck with improving, and are constantly hitting walls/feeling like you aren't improving fast, or you are lacking in areas, this advice should help. TL;DR: HR creates bad muscle memory with its high OD and high AR modifiers - making lower ARs harder, and creating a bad cycle of being comfortable with getting low accuracy. Unless you're at a stage where AR 9 through to 10 is easy to cycle through without any negatives towards either end, then I'd suggest not playing it. PLAY COUNT WITH HR Around about July 2017 I stopped playing HR (3 years ago), before that I had played HR from around 12k plays (maybe 17k, can't really remember), to roughly 27-30k plays. 15-18k plays with HR, which means as of 9/07/2020, the rest have been with mostly hidden, no mod, and DT/DTHD, besides me playing easy songs with HRDTHD. Around about 26k plays without HR, give or take. MAKES 'NO MOD' HARD From these numbers, you can see that I put effort into HR in the early stages of me playing osu!, probably around the time I was just getting into FCing easy 5 stars. Forcing myself to learn AR 10 that early wasn't the wisest decision, and with the hard OD that HR gave me on most songs, I was struggling with accuracy aswell. What this did to me early is that I could not play lower ARs well, and I struggled to get good accuracy. This made it hard for me to play no mod, unless the song was already AR 10, which isn't many songs, and it made the game uncomfortable hard for me to play. LOSS OF FUN/PLAYING WORSE This made me lose the fun I had grinding out FCs, and by the time I could do FCs with HR, they were extremely difficult to do, and it resulted in an absurd play count. Coming back to the game after a break was way harder aswell, as the AR took quite a bit for my eyes to adjust to, and with my 60hz laptop monitor, it hurt my eyes just trying to see every note. I'd say this overall made me play worse, and made getting to 6 stars practically impossible for awhile. This left me in the dust comparatively to my friends at the time, even though I assumed that playing the game on what I considered as "hard mode", would force me to speed ahead of the curve. This was a huge mistake on my part, and I should of gotten more comfortable with no mod before I even considered such a difficult mod. DT HAS A BETTER LEARNING CURVE While I consider DT much harder than HR - the thing is that DT scales well in regards to AR, which makes playing AR 7 with DT very natural for most people to learn, and not ruin their reading on lower ARs. It also allows for a natural progression towards AR 10, and eventually allows you to surpass it. AR 9.67 is a nice step before you tackle on AR 10, and I'd say that the communities negative stigma towards DT farming is absurd, when this is probably the easiest way to improve in regards to AR, speed, and flicking. UNLEARNING While I don't think you shouldn't play HR, I do think that you should avoid it until you can at least play ARs 9 through to 9.67, and until you have enough play count to make those ARs easily switchable due to good muscle memory with both. You can always learn EZ mod to get out of the HR hell, but that in itself is quite hard as well. Just switching back to No Mod was too much for me after being stuck on AR 10 for ages, and I practically had to unlearn what I had practiced over 10s of thousands of plays. My main tip for improving in osu! would be to play everyday, only missing 1-2 days at most. You build up a very strong muscle memory, and your hand gets infinitely stronger/more able to bear pain as you play more, but this slowly deteriorates the more days you aren't playing. Play for 2 hours a day if you want to see consistent improvement - this seems to be the sweet spot for me. Don't limit yourself to only pp farming as that will get boring and you will wear yourself out, but instead play the game in many different ways to make sure that your skill range is large and you don't end up a one trick pony. I like to play lower star songs to build up consistency, higher star to build up speed/stamina, and I pp farm to see improvement and push myself past certain thresholds that I'd otherwise be too sluggish and not bothered to surpass. Playing with different mods, ARs, or simply just playing songs from older time periods can really build up a diverse muscle memory that can help with reading - especially sight reading. The old saying is that to improve, you need to play more; while this is true, I really think that focusing on how you go about playing will help with improving areas that you lack in - rather than just playing for the sake of playing, play with intention. My main issue was my constant breaks, which destroyed my muscle memory and hand strength, and each time I came back it would take a week or two to regain my old skill back. This is noticeable with my over the top play count which should reflect someone much better than me. Does 144hz matter? Yes, but ultimately no. I was able to read AR 10 back in 2017 better than I can now (2020), because I played it more back then. I also had a 60hz monitor back then, and now I have a 144hz. I feel as if it has helped me consistently with playing a multitude of ARs, switching from AR 9 to 9.8 with no problem, but ultimately I don't need it for higher AR. The main advantage it gives is your eyes not wearing out from strain. On 60hz it feels like your eyes need to put in a lot more work - I remember not blinking for large sections of songs just to avoid missing on higher ARs. If you have the money and you play FPS games, go ahead and buy it, but buying a 144hz just for osu! is a tad ridiculous imo, and I'd say that a mechanical keyboard or a better mouse would be a more affordable upgrade that will actually help - if only slightly. People talk about the small distance travel their switches have, and how good they feel, but how does this really help you in osu!? The thing is, membrane and rubberdome keyboards actually actuate quite short aswell, and a "speed" switch won't actually make much difference in your speed because of it - it is negligible. Speed switches make a difference in speed if you are upgrading from another mechanical switch, but from a rubberdome/membrane keyboard? Not really. The question is, outside of feel, what is the benefit to mechanical switches? For me it is the cushioning and bottoming out distance that actually helps. As someone that bottoms out a lot, having a switch that bottoms out faster definitely improves my overall speed, and while the actuation isn't that different from lets say, a laptop keyboard (which would bottom out faster), the bounce back helps with streaming/stamina. The cushioning helps with stamina aswell as I don't feel like I am fingering Lego blocks, but rather it is like I am letting out air underneath the keycap. The force required to push down a mechanical switch would also help with stamina and finger pain, and after testing a laptop keyboard vs a mech keyboard myself, I'd say that this is one of the more important, if not most important factors. My fingers have been in a much better state since I got my first mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX red switches back in 2015-2016 (?), while on my Logitech 20 dollar keyboard and the Razer Deathstalker I had a lot of pain in them; most of my pain now comes from my aiming hand. Obviously this is a luxury buy, and will help, but in indirect ways. People say they can stream for longer on mechanical, and while this might be true, I don't think it has anything to do with the actuation distance like most claim, unless compared to another mechanical. The most likely cause of this would be the force required to push the switch down, making mashing when your stamina is at its worse more viable. The feel and comfort of a mechanical switch is more than enough for me to keep investing in mechanical over membrane, but as for typing speeds and osu!, I can't sit here and say that I am better because of it, but rather my fingers are better because of it. I first want to express that so far as of writing this I have only experienced rubberdome, membrane, and red/silver/black switches. I have no justified opinion relative to tactile as I have yet to own a tactile keyboard, and have only typed on them in stores. I've already expressed in my high end peripherals section what I think about mechanical switches in terms of how they help you, but how do they compare against one another? As I have only experienced MX Reds and MX Silvers so far, keep in mind that I am talking about my personal experience + extended knowledge from research. MX Reds for me were a good starting point, and were recommended by a lot of players. They are a linear switch that have very median stats, with very introductory actuation/bottoming out points. They have the same distance as Cherry's other MX linear switch: black, and the same as their tactile brown switch, varying only in weight (black) and tactility (brown) when compared. Outside of these comparisons they usually only vary by .2mm, usually used for extra tactility. Some say that linears are the best for osu, because the tactility of other switches can distract, especially since the sound triggers before bottoming out, and sometimes even before actuation, throwing off timing. For others this is not a problem, and they say that the tactility allows them to know when they've clicked a switch, but for a game like osu!, where you're clicking at such insane speeds, it's hard for me to understand this point, so I stand on the side of linears in this argument. Reds were quite good, and for a starting switch I'd say they are probably the best. I'd start with Gateron Reds instead of Cherry MX just for the smoothness difference/pricing. Then we have Silvers, which are in everyway just fast reds, but not because of the weight, but the shorter actuation and bottoming out distances. Now this adds in a question, if they are just faster reds, wouldn't they be better for osu!? Now for me, the answer is yes, but that's because I'm used to them, and largely because the keyboard I own has PBT keycaps/better build quality. They do improve my speed, but for awhile my accuracy was a lot lower with them, and while I remedied this with time, I could not improve my accuracy much on streams. Now for awhile I did not know why this was the case, and because I was already naturally bad with accuracy I assumed it was just me. Because of the short actuation, silver switches quite literally force you to mash on streams. It makes slow streams hard to time, and streaming in general hard to balance. You never can "feel" whether you're going too fast or too slow. Now ofc you can improve this with time, but even Ryuk - a top player - said that despite the speed, he does not like them due to the accuracy dip he has on streams. If a top player has the same issue as me, I assume that the issue runs deeper than just bad muscle memory. On top of this, if you alternate naturally, the timing between each key press fluctuates because of how inconsistent it is. You quite literally don't have enough time between each press to adjust speed/timing, as the actuation comes out way too quickly, throwing off timing completely, especially in more tech orientated sections. Doubles now become much harder, and stacks end up being mashed. Silvers may improve your speed, but the struggle to time intervals between presses and to feel each press leads to too much inconsistency. Black Switches: Now I've only recently got these, so I have limited experience, but after roughly 1k plays with them, I feel comfortable enough to talk about them in some length. I think of black switches like a car that has a heavy exhaust. It allows you to keep at steady speeds, without wavering too much when trying to control the speeds due to the heavy weight, but you won't have the speed benefits of other exhaust/switches that are lighter. The lighter/easier it is to actuate/bottom out on a switch, it feels like you're pushing on the gas, but the lack of resistance puts strain on your legs to keep a consistent speed, wavering between that speed. With this analogy, hopefully it's understandable that black switches help with accuracy/maintaining speed, but also hurt max speed by (according to Ryuk) 20 bpm, and roughly 30-40 bpm when vsing silver switches. Because of the weight, each key press is prominent, allowing for accurate timing and barely any accidental presses and or overpresses. Black switches are great, and if you can build up the speed and stamina on them, they will do wonders for timing, accuracy, consistency, streams, and in the long run, stamina - since you can stream/burst at the actuation point easier than other switches which enable/promote bottoming out. The constant want to improve peripherals is something that has haunted me and gamers alike. I stopped to think after seeing FGSky's live play whether any of these high end gaming equipment actually mattered. I came up with a few things that are quite objective: Ergonomics of a mouse/keyboard actually makes a difference. Ergonomics is based off of mathematics at its simplest form, and given that maths is something that is heavily ingrained as an objective principle that holds up the foundation of reality as a invariant transcendental quality - I'd say that ergonomics has a lot of objectivity to it. The subjectivity comes down the hand measurements and how they allign/contrast with the ergonomic calculated measurements that build up a mouse/keyboard. Zy from Rocket Jump Ninja goes into detail about whether a claw grip, palm grip, fingertip grip would be good at x width and x length of your hand for each mouse he reviews. On his site you can even search for a mouse based off your hand measurements, which makes the sea of mice a much easier hill to climb to get to the one you want. The other objective quality I could think of is polling rate, sensors, actuation distance, and feet contact with mouse pads; in short: specifications of the mouse. These all fall into maths and physics, and the numbers from test can show a direct improvement from one mouse to another. The question is, when does these numbers/stats become indistinguishable? This would be highly relative to each person, as someones experience with a 100+ mice could allow them to notice small differences from one mouse to another. On the other hand, a person who knows barely anything about mice, who lack experience with them, could come up with very different opinions based on subjective taste. For me I'd say that the difference starts at 30-50 NZD. The difference I've seen between a lot of mice in the 10 dollar range vs. the 50 NZD range is quite immense - ranging from dpi settings and high polling rates to ergonomic designs that have more thought behind them. That difference does start to blur as the price goes up though. Once you reach the 100+ NZD range, a lot of mice are so similar that reviewers are now comparing one plastic feet from another, and how the cords flex. The same could be said for most peripherals, that yes, 144hz is better, yes, mechanical switches feel better, but at the end of the day, it does come down to your wallet and subjective body stimulus and bone structure... https://imgur-archive.ppy.sh/SSLe2H6.png?1 https://imgur-archive.ppy.sh/eK8LEMU.png Wacom Intuos Pen Small Tablet (CTL480) (Old Version) ̶C̶M̶ ̶S̶t̶o̶r̶m̶ ̶Q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶F̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶T̶K̶ ̶-̶ ̶C̶H̶E̶R̶R̶Y̶ ̶M̶X̶ ̶R̶E̶D̶ ̶S̶w̶i̶t̶c̶h̶e̶s̶ Ducky One 2 - Cherry MX Silver (Speed) SK64S GEEK MECH KEYBOARD - Optical Gateron Black Switches Razer - Viper Mini (mouse) https://imgur-archive.ppy.sh/mbpZrT6.png