This thread is for the info not mentioned in the FAQ but still notable and more focused towards self improvement.

Input styles

Try Z/X if mouseclicking and alt clicking is too hard.(this would use both hands, one for mouse and one for Z/X)
If you have the money, see if you enjoy a tablet.
Mess with mouse/ingame sensitivity if you feel like your hand is getting exhausted or flying off the pad.(If your mouse is flying off the pad mouse acceleration can be a culprit.)
Use a solid color mousepad or a sheet of paper.(This only truly applies to cheaper mice)
Turn off mouse acceleration.(google it, even if you suck right when you turn it off it doesn't matter. it's like changing sensitivity, just get used to it. It should only take a day at most.)
If your sensitivity is very low, and you refuse to go higher, you may just want to leave mouse acceleration on.

Spinners

Spin small if you spin slowly.
Spin small on harder maps during first playthroughs.
Spin large if you have a high dexterity.
Spin the direction that feels natural.
Smaller circles are more controllable.
Turn off mouse accel and see if you can spin faster/easier. With mouse accel on I end up making small circles around the outside of the play area when I'm making perfect circles on my mousepad, it's all about the speed/distance garbage mouse acceleration is.

Repeating sliders

Hold until the moment you have to click the next beat, in case one lasts longer than you expect.
Unfortunately, having problems with Repeating Sliders usually boils down to memorizing the map since most don't follow the beat that well.

Jumps

If you're having issues with jumps, try experimenting with mouse acceleration off.
If you find jumps to be a big issue, try gradually increasing your mouse sensitivity. This helps with keeping your wrist from getting into awkward positions by minimizing how much your hand actually moves.
Practice makes perfect.

IF YOUR MOUSE IS FALLING OFF THE MOUSEPAD

Either you have some unbearably low mouse sensitivity or it's mouse acceleration, if it bothers you a lot, turn off mouse acceleration.

Offsets
Fix your universal offset, done right you will probably notice a lot less 100s.
If you want to go for accuracy, get a timing ear for adjusting individual offsets to what you like.
Offset hotkeys are available ingame durings songs, just push - or + on your keyboard

Other
Play maps you can't beat, you'll get better faster. Trust me.
Watch a replay before playing the map.(Autoplay works too, doesn't really matter this is just to prep you for some jumps or mapping errors)
Don't use crappy skins that have too many visual effects that can end up blinding you/cluttering your view.

Taiko

Watch some of the replays first to get an ear for the beat.
Just cause they're big, doesn't mean you have to mash both keys.
Sometimes alternating between sides on your drum (like, mine are G H for left and right don(center), and T Y for left and right kat(rim), can mess your timing up. Try tapping on one side for a little and see if it helps.
Just as musicians tap a foot or bob a head to the beat to help them keep rhythm and time, Try this as well! It helps me with EVERY music game I play (beatmaniaIIDX, Taiko no Tatsujin, DDR, Guitar Hero, GFDM, Pop'n music, etc.)
BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE TRACK! listen to it a few times before attempting it! so you'll get a feel for how the track flows!


Catch the Beat

Use shift to move faster.


If I missed anything about this very in depth and complicated game please tell me.

All relevant info will be posted in first post, no need to read through the thread.

Spin small if you spin slowly

Spin small if you are planning to play insane maps, as this will give you a higher recovery rate.

lukewarmholiday at the thread title wrote:

How to Play osu! Like a Pro Megathread

Was the caps abuse intended?
It bothers me

I've always wondered how Pro Megathreads played osu!.

Gens wrote:

lukewarmholiday at the thread title wrote:

How to Play osu! Like a Pro Megathread

Was the caps abuse intended?
It bothers me

good, it caught your interest

I honestly thought this was going to be a troll topic when I clicked it

A lot of this is good info though for newbies

Well I'm sick of seeing the exact same advice posted over and over.

Add a note about playing with both hands, using one hand for one key on the keyboard and clicking with the mouse or tablet with the other hand.

This map has been deleted on the request of its creator. It is no longer available.

I add to this thread try watching the replay of other player and not the replay of auto mod. Observe how did they play
the beatmaps

lukewarmholiday wrote:

Don't use crappy skins that have too many visual effects that can end up blinding you.

*Petitions to include an option to remove Kiai time*

OT: At least put in some more effort into the OP if you don't want people to ask questions. If you put in 2 mins of effort don't expect it to be successful.

I don't see why you get irritated by players' will to learn and improve though. If you see a thread asking for help: Don't open it. (I'm a genius)

schimdth wrote:

I add to this thread try watching the replay of other player and not the replay of auto mod.

Or you can kill two birds with one stone and just watch Cyclone's replays

What's up with your avatar?

I <3 kioukiou

Lucidity wrote:

lukewarmholiday wrote:

Don't use crappy skins that have too many visual effects that can end up blinding you.

*Petitions to include an option to remove Kiai time*

OT: At least put in some more effort into the OP if you don't want people to ask questions. If you put in 2 mins of effort don't expect it to be successful.

I don't see why you get irritated by players' will to learn and improve though. If you see a thread asking for help: Don't open it. (I'm a genius)

Or you could shove your fist straight through your dick and out your mouth.

The fact this thread is helpful took backseat to the fact this isn't a hard fucking game. But I guess some things are a little less known so I decided to just state what I could think up for the moment and wait for community responses to fill in the blanks.(Although I'm angry I forgot about mouse acceleration) The same answers(or should I say Similar answers, since you're a cunt who has to be 100% politically correct), are all that are needed to address the threads.

So why sit as people post the same exact shit over and over.

This map has been deleted on the request of its creator. It is no longer available.

Turn off "Enhance Pointer Precision"

Wut? If I do that, I reaaaaaally suck. Can't play with that off.

It helps you in the long run.

Trust me, I don't know a single person in any FPS team I've been in that still uses it.

It's going to take you a day or two to get used to it being off, maybe fiddle with your sensitivity a bit too.

Seriously with mouse acceleration on not only do you have to have good hand eye coordination you have to be used to different speeds moving your cursor different distances.

lukewarmholiday wrote:

It helps you in the long run.

Trust me, I don't know a single person in any FPS team I've been in that still uses it.

It's going to take you a day or two to get used to it being off, maybe fiddle with your sensitivity a bit too.

Seriously with mouse acceleration on not only do you have to have good hand eye coordination you have to be used to different speeds moving your cursor different distances.

While I trust that you are right, I don't think I'll change it. Jumps are usually not a big problem for me, and I am ranked in the top 100 players which takes some skill, I think I'm too used to it now to change it.

This isn't and end all for sure, you can be good rubbing a mouse against the side of your tower.
But for a noob player thread I suggest it off.

This map has been deleted on the request of its creator. It is no longer available.

strager wrote:

Disclaimed for the OP:

Your milage may vary.

I know no other somewhat serious gamer who has mouse accel enabled. It hinders me greatly, as movements of the cursor is less predictable.

i play with mouse accel, i've got quite a balance. streams are usually slow mouse movement while jumps needs a fast movement. idk im just used to it now. i tried once without mouse acc but i was so bad with it lol, but yea it's true that mouse movement is pretty unpredictable sometimes with acc.

yeah you can be used to it and play fine. But when telling noobs what input style I think we can agree to suggest the one where you don't have to adjust to mouse placement AND speed.

This map has been deleted on the request of its creator. It is no longer available.

This map has been deleted on the request of its creator. It is no longer available.

Lucidity wrote:

If they're used to having it turned on in Windows then they'll have more problems if they turn it off for osu. Neither setting is superior. It's completely about what you're used to.

I disagree, having mouse acceleration turned off definitely is superior.

My reasons:

1. The erroneous calculation when mouse acceleration is turned on:
At a certain offset the cursor speed will be multiplied softwarematicly, making it skip pixels.
Also mouse acceleration is calculated over delta-x and delta-y separately. This would lead to much error to the directional vector.

2. While you would be able to predict what speed you have to move the mouse when taking account the offset,
you definitely would have problems when the required speed to follow a slider is near your mouse acceleration offset, making your cursor movements very unpredictable.

3. When it's turned off you will be able to store movements in all ranges to muscle memory because of the linearity.

gopice wrote:

Lucidity wrote:

If they're used to having it turned on in Windows then they'll have more problems if they turn it off for osu. Neither setting is superior. It's completely about what you're used to.

I disagree, having mouse acceleration turned off definitely is superior.

My reasons:

1. The erroneous calculation when mouse acceleration is turned on:
At a certain offset the cursor speed will be multiplied softwarematicly, making it skip pixels.
Also mouse acceleration is calculated over delta-x and delta-y separately. This would lead to much error to the directional vector.

2. While you would be able to predict what speed you have to move the mouse when taking account the offset,
you definitely would have problems when the required speed to follow a slider is near your mouse acceleration offset, making your cursor movements very unpredictable.

3. When it's turned off you will be able to store movements in all ranges to muscle memory because of the linearity.

I dunno if the osu! setting works differently, but I'm assuming it's the same as Windows..

1. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/pointer-bal.mspx

2. I can't comment on that as I don't use mouse accel anymore, but you're assuming that there is a very large step function in play here instead of a smooth progression? I'm not sure that that is true and I never had any problems tracking players in FPS games when I used mouse accel.

3. Of course this applies to mouse accel turned on as well. I played FPS games at a high level for 2 years with this setting enabled. Believe me when I say that it can be committed to muscle memory '-' (And it makes those flick shots oh so sexy? ;p)

IT IS A FUCKING JOKE IF YOU USE MOUSE ACCELERATION IN FPS LEAGUES, PEOPLE WILL LAUGH AT YOU. IT'S THAT BAD. DON'T BLINDLY SAY IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Osu! doesn't require pinpoint accuracy most of the time so you can skate with it off. But honestly it doesn't take too long to adjust than you think. If you're just starting out, TURN IT OFF.

Lucidity wrote:

1. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/pointer-bal.mspx

2. I can't comment on that as I don't use mouse accel anymore, but you're assuming that there is a very large step function in play here instead of a smooth progression? I'm not sure that that is true and I never had any problems tracking players in FPS games when I used mouse accel.

3. Of course this applies to mouse accel turned on as well. I played FPS games at a high level for 2 years with this setting enabled. Believe me when I say that it can be committed to muscle memory '-' (And it makes those flick shots oh so sexy? ;p)

That link is a good read.
My mistake, since the coming of windows XP acceleration is no longer based on one acceleration offset and is smoothly interpolated between multiple points.
Also with the new algorithm the directional vector error is heavily minimised.
(that means point 1.2 and 2 no longer stands)

I still stand on point 3 though, like I said you cant learn to memorize at multiple speeds on all ranges where you could with mouse acceleration off.

Also new mice are capable of responding to a high speed range, it would be wasteful not to use it.
That's why I would heavily recommend turning mouse acceleration off if you have a good mouse and not have a lot of prior experience with fps games.