I have been playing mania for the last 2-3 weeks on a daily basis. Went from easy to normal difficulties with steady improvement until i could get 96% acc on the hardest NM maps i had. After that i started doing hards rated between 2,4-2,7* and thats when the tables turned... At first i thought its fine that i cant read most of them and finishing with 80-90% acc is just temporary but boy, was i wrong...

Im currently experiencing a serious decline in acc on these HD maps and the number of misses increasing as well. Of course i looked around what i might be doing wrong only to make sure my settings are totally fine. I mean, i would be glad if someone could find anything wrong with them...
These settings im talking about are 23 scroll speed across all maps, 60 fps Vsync enabled since it gets quite laggy with a 60 Hz monitor otherwise, the default DF JK bindings, a skin definitely more readable than the default one and a red switch mech keyboard which i dont think rly matters at this difficulty.

After getting that out of the way i think my problem might be residing in gameplay. I tend to rely on the bit of muscle memory i built up for the parts i cant read which almost every time results in mashing compared to what i should be pressing. I also cant yet feel streams of any kind which only gets worse if they are not placed in a stair type pattern.

I know that for these kind problems there is always the obvious answer to play more but i actually wanna know more accurately what i should be playing at this point. Should i continue on playing hards in the range i mentioned or try to get more acc on normals? Is it already time for pattern practice maps?(i hope not) Maybe i should take a brake?

Aayyyyeeee, I went through that phase two weeks ago. I didn't do much either than playing more. You'll get over it eventually. Also, try DTing some 1.9-2.0 star maps.

Don't use Vsync, it increases visual delay. Use unlimited fps option instead.

Adjust your hit position. Check how to do it in this guide: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/146615 (you might need to change skin.ini instead of xK.ini depending on your skin)

Always look in the centre of the screen or above. You can put your combo counter where you want to look to help you focus.

The difficulty tag really doesn't matter much. It only matters within one map. Between different maps those tags may not match at all.

Also star rating is a joke and doesn't show the true difficulty most of the time. You shouldn't focus on such a narrow range.

Play maps you can pass with 90-96% acc no matter what star rating or tag they have. If you can consistently get more than that, increase the difficulty.

TruthIsNear wrote:

Don't use Vsync, it increases visual delay. Use unlimited fps option instead.

Tried this and it immediately improved my acc a bit. (with Vsync enabled i was hitting everything late) My only problem here is that i dont seem to get 60 fps using the unlimited framerate option. The whole thing is weird because in standard its smooth as silk but in mania quite the opposite.

TruthIsNear wrote:

Adjust your hit position. Check how to do it in this guide: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/146615 (you might need to change skin.ini instead of xK.ini depending on your skin)

Will give this a shot once i fix the fps issue mentioned above.

TruthIsNear wrote:

Always look in the centre of the screen or above. You can put your combo counter where you want to look to help you focus.

I always try to look at the centre and most of the interface is hidden while playing such as the combo counter. If not highly advised i would rather not enable any interface of that kind since it being there only annoys me.

Manysi wrote:

My only problem here is that i dont seem to get 60 fps using the unlimited framerate option. The whole thing is weird because in standard its smooth as silk but in mania quite the opposite.

60 fps is actually not enough for the smooth experience. I'm pretty sure you need around 500 fps to reach 1 ms. What ms does it show in the bottom right corner while playing a map?

You can also try turning on compatibility mode in options (may help if you are playing on a laptop).

Compatibility mode did nothing and my ms wiggles between 0,47 and 0,50.

Manysi wrote:

Compatibility mode did nothing and my ms wiggles between 0,47 and 0,50.

Then you are actually getting a ton of fps and it's just your monitor being a 60hz one.

The reason why standard is silky smooth is that notes appear in place, but in mania they scroll vertically, causing ghosting.

The one more thing you can do other than getting a 144hz+ monitor is playing with a skin that uses bigger notes like circles or arrows.

TruthIsNear wrote:

a skin that uses bigger notes like circles or arrows.

Can you recommend one?

Manysi wrote:

Can you recommend one?

This is what I use (circles): https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/524811
Arrows: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/512453

hmmmmmm how about your keybinds, turning effects on/off, changing scroll speed, changing skin? Those are really big ones and each of them can help you out if you haven't checked them out yet. Keybinds especially.

Also its the most basic and overused answer but play more. Push your limits a bit to. If you get 80% on a song try aiming for 81 or 82%. Also anything at or above 90% isn't bad actually. Play more songs that you get around 88-93% on and you will improve a lot.