forum

Skill Ceiling Reached?

posted
Total Posts
9
Topic Starter
Marluxia1
So I've been playing Osu for what I think would be considered a fair bit of time, a few years. Started on a mouse, moved to using my drawing tablet, moved to a smaller tablet, reduced play space, etc... but I don't think I can possibly improve any more.

It's a rare thing for me to fc any map that I play in my range (4-6*) but the highest map I've passed was Airman and an unranked Kigamure Mercy map (both 7*). The issue is that unless I'm in the zone I can't do anything with this game. I've been stuck in the range of 5-6*s being passable for over a year now and it's physically hurting me to try and do better. I can't stream consistently or do really hard jumps for long without my hands giving in, as mentioned before I have to be in the zone and have adrenaline going, and sometimes things that I shouldn't miss I do because my pen hand wanders a bit or it goes to a different spot than what I'm expecting.

Whenever I look at advice it's always coming down to "Just play more you'll do fine" but I can't keep playing for years without any form of improvement and just bite through it. I think I've picked up on too many bad habits because slow maps that don't really challenge me are very boring and I end up doing worse on them because of it, so I don't think I can really start over and re-learn how to play the game. I think I've hit my skill ceiling and trying to go past it will just be a waste of time.

Any of you have that same feeling or is there something big I've missed?
Juuuuuuuuul
It seems like your expectations are too high.
Trying hard on impossible stuff (not only impossible to pass, but to FC or to acc as well) is pretty fun sometimes, but if you're not improving fast enough to play correctly this stuff, you'll get frustration.
Also, 391 hours for 4 years is not a lot, playing a few hours per week is not enough.

This video may help you :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uWUpT8ub6s
Implojin
Squeaking out a terrible acc Airman "pass" doesn't count as being able to pass 7*, dude. That map has ridiculously low HP drain. Looking at your profile, 6*s and upper 5*s are also way above your current skill. If you're trying to play these maps, it's no wonder you're frustrated!

It looks like you've gotten into the bad habit of mashing your keyboard on maps way above your current ability to play. Osu isn't about whack-a-mole button mashing! Accuracy is important to scoring, and rhythm helps you to read maps.

You need to go back and work on your accuracy and your sightreading ability on maps that you are actually capable of playing; not on maps that you want to pretend you can play. It's nuts for you to be trying 6*+ with your current skill.

The range of maps you should be playing is probably somewhere around mid-4* to low-5*. To find where you should be playing, drop the difficulty until you can FC maps that you haven't played before in one try. Then go do some multiplayer 4* lobbies until you have a whole bunch of maps around your /actual/ skill level, then start working on your sightreading acc. Play each map once, don't retry. If you get 95%+ acc, start moving the difficulty up a little bit.

Don't play maps that you're getting less than ~80% acc on; this usually means the map is too hard for you to read and you're training bad habits. Go play easier maps and come back later.

(If you think that maps in the 4* range are too slow for you, is it normal for you to sightread FC them? No? Why do you think that is? Osu isn't just about speed: Pattern density is a big factor in how hard a map is to read, and if you can't read simple little AR8 / AR9 4*s with super sparse patterns then you can't /actually/ read faster maps either, you're just playing whack-a-mole and the fact that you never learned how to read map rhythm is being covered up inside a bunch of 100s. You're not too fast for the game; you never learned how to play the game.)

I have more than twice your PP† and I've mostly been playing low 6*s recently, but I still get good practice in 5* lobbies. When I'm warmed up and trying to push things, I'll play some upper 6*s.
†(This is just an example of how the maps you are trying to play are way out of your current range -- I am still terrible at this game.)

Fundamentally you just need to click circles to the beat. That's all there is to this game. "Play more" gets thrown around because there's not some secret that will let you train better. Just pick maps that are slightly above your physical skill level until you can do better maps. If you do this consistently, one day you'll wake up and be able to read big black.

It's good to play maps that push your ability once in a while, but if that's all you do you're going to blow your consistency to shit and consistency is an important measure of how comfortably you can read maps. Play more, and then play some more. Also play more.

Marluxia1 wrote:

and it's physically hurting me

RSI can permanently damage your hands.

If you experience persistent pain or numbness in your hands/wrists/forearms/elbows as a result of osu play, stop playing and see a doctor.

I know, "american healthcare", but just do it. People on an internet forum for a video game are not a good source of medical advice. RSI can cause permanent damage.
Topic Starter
Marluxia1
@Juuuuuuuuul

I just watched that video and honestly it does help a lot. And I should have clarified, I started playing it like 4 years ago but I've been more actively playing it for a couple of years. But your statement is still true regardless that it's not really a lot of time for something like this.

@Implojin

Honestly whack-a-mole is pretty damn accurate for the way I have been playing for sure, which would also explain why my hands hurt when I go for harder maps. It's basically huge amounts of knee-jerk reactions in a very short time there. This all sounds like the thing I wasn't seeing, that I was inherently playing the game wrong this whole time be trying to "get better" by playing maps that are way too much for me. I'll take your advice to heart and try exclusively playing maps down in that skill level you put me at and try to re-learn how to properly play the game, and by that I mean NOT whack-a-mole
Endaris
Your realistic skill level is low to mid 4*.
Don't bother with maps above 5* in Solo play until you FCd 10 maps at or above 4.75*.
Multiplayer is whatever, feel free to go ham for fun there, there's nothing wrong with playing unreasonably difficult stuff out of your reach once in a while.
Topic Starter
Marluxia1
Follow up about a month later:

I've been playing low-mid 4* maps as suggested and took advantage of the easier maps to read patterns more than simply reacting to them (or rather, playing whack-a-mole). While I was doing so I was thinking about how unstable my hand still felt and thought about the pain I felt in my hands as I would play and I found one of the major culprits that I hadn't considered before. My pen area was wayyyy too small for what I found comfortable. The space I had designated on my tablet for Osu playing was about an inch and a half diagonally and once I changed it to a larger area (and re-adjusted my coordination) my accuracy was FAR better than anything I had done before with pain almost non-existent.

I'm still not trying high 5* or above yet (except when just goofing off) but now I can think "Will my accuracy be above 95%?" as opposed to my previous thoughts of "Will I pass?". I've fc'd a few maps and I'm consistently getting A-B ranks with my accuracy going between 88%-98% even while playing mid 5* maps.

I appreciate your guys' comments, they've helped me significantly improve more in this past month than what I've been able to do for the past year and a half or so.
Dawns
Congratulations on your improvement! Hopefully people take this as an example
Implojin
👍
Vuelo Eluko
This is your problem.



Do not fixate on things like how old your account is or whatever, getting consistently high plays (3k+) month after month is how good players got good, in addition to pushing themselves and trying to fc things that are hard for them.

16 days played isn't very much, especially stretched out over 2+ years. Big gains come from playcount happening densely. Commit and see yourself improve, or just keep playing casually and stay roughly the same level no matter how much you play.
Please sign in to reply.

New reply