Does it matter what APM do you have?

General Discussion
1

Does it matter what APM do you have??

  1. If you have more than 200 apm is it any good?

  2. What minimum apm should you have if you want to be a master?

  3. Does it matter what race do you have, if you have a low or high apm? I ve notice a lot of Protoss a lower APM.

  4. Does apm shows any indication of good macro or micro skills or mechanics?

  5. apm vs epm?? if you have a high efficient action per minute does indicate any skill or anything what so ever?

2

Hardly. My APM is like 100 and I’m low diamond.
I regulary beat people with 200 - 250 APM.
No idea what theyre spending that APM on.

3 Likes
3

This. There was a pro player in either WOL or HOTS that literally had around 100-120 apm and won games. 120 good moves beats 300 bad moves or mediocre moves. Spamming reply points and camera hotkeys only get you so far.

2 Likes
4

depends what you’re doing with it, someone with under 100 apm can be more efficient than someone with 300 apm.

3 Likes
5

For short answers, see the posts above. For a long answer, keep reading.

Don’t worry about being ‘fast enough’, but you do need a decent reaction speed and ‘mechanics’ to play certain styles at a high level. For example bio vs ling bane is a very mechanical matchup and you need to feel comfortable enough with actions like splitting to do well if that’s how you want to play. But the thing is, everyone has terrible mechanics when they start. If you want to be faster, you just need to be more comfortable with those actions and that comes with experience over time. If you’re actively trying to get faster, my best advice is that whenever you think to yourself ‘I don’t have time to do that, I’m not fast enough’ just do it anyway. At first, yeah, you’ll make mistakes because you spent 15 seconds to shift click out a unit to the xel naga tower. But eventually that shift click to the xel naga will be second nature and will take a fraction of the time it used to. Now imagine that process for all the actions you say to yourself that you don’t have time to do… Eventually you are ‘fast’.

There is another aspect of this though that people often neglect: your physical health. Obviously you need to eat, sleep, and exercise. But your arms, hands and wrists are a huge part of speed too. I recommend doing some sort of arm exercises daily before playing and then stretching arms, wrists and hands. You can also do some stretching while waiting for a game to queue. If you have issues with cold or stiff hands or it feels like they’re just really slow you should give this a try.

5 Likes
6

APM does show how much skilled you are, but only to a certain extent, high APM in theory is how fast you are to do actions and react to things, but making a bunch if unecessary rallies, 12 clicks to move a reaper across the map is not it.

That’s where EPM comes in, EPM is the number of actions without being repetitive.

Around 100 APM is good enough, even then, avoid spamming clicks until you be seriously good with macro, no point doing marine splits if you’re behind in production and upgrades.

2 Likes
7

Are you playing Protoss?

8

I understand, but I could say people who have more than 300 apm are not bad right? they are pretty ok, no?

9

Most ppl with 300 apm that are not in master 1/GM league just spam keys which doesn’t affect the game in the slightest.

A minimum apm you should have to become masters is about 140-150, ofc you can be masters with a lot lower as long as your strategy doesn’t really benefit from high apm(cannon rush, proxy rax, 12 pool)

1 Like
10

pure phoenixes/disruptors, 6k mmr, vs most terrans 120 apm is enough. vs very aggressive - around 180

2 Likes
11

Race mechanics actually play a big part in how high APM looks. Protoss will inevitably have lower APM than T/Z because of how their production works and because they’re making higher supply units. Mech is much the same way. My APM as Zerg is 30-50 higher than it is as Protoss, depending on builds, and I play protoss more so should be a bit quicker on things.

Also, what sort of micro is being done affects APM. It’s a lot easier to stutter step and right click than to cast spells or target fire with specific units, so the former is going to result in a higher APM count than the latter.

EPM > APM as a practical measure of anything.

What people are saying is that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Maybe they have their keyboard set to repeat or something. That’s how TLO had like 600 APM in the showmatch games against alpha star.

If that person with 300 APM is just spamming random buttons constantly, it doesn’t necessarily contribute anything to their play. Having high “real” (not due to a keyboard setting) APM is beneficial if you’re using it efficiently, and there’s definitely a big downside to having an APM below certain values with each race (but since race and playstyle affect APM, it’s not going to be a constant), and your APM will get higher as you play more frequently; muscle memory is a really significant factor there, since it means not having to think before making an action, and that’s something you can only get by playing a lot.

2 Likes
12

It was a German (Terran) Mech Player named Goody probably.
He also had a lot of supply blocks and stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkNhcRx4nn0

13

EPM is a far more effective way to measure how fast you do stuff

2 Likes
14

Yes but combined with no life style cause you need to learn to use it well not just spam than you see that this game is all abbout click fest.

15

it matters but do not try to consciously increase your apm, it probably wont work. and just because you have a high apm in no way means you are good.

1 Like
16

They are not spending that apm,they are just clicking keys.

I remember white ra playing at the start of lotv, he started playing again after a long break and he was fairly slow,100-120apm, but that was more than enough to reach GM, was funny seeing people calling him a noob, poir grandpa toss was just trying to play without knowing the latest builds or meta.

17
  1. APM is a joke. I would say checking your EPM going into a replay is a significantly better indicator of skill than APM.
  2. You can hit master with about 120 APM or less. APM is a joke when all you’re doing clicking back and forth between control groups and acting like you’re doing so much in the game when your EPM is 50.
  3. Yes, when you spam roaches/drones as zerg, your apm becomes significantly higher than the other races. When you play terran, you have a lot of production facilities to work with, and usually, more to micro. Protoss has less of those things to do, so their apm tends to be lower. I’ve noticed that t and z players spam significantly more than p players, so if you’re a p player, don’t be intimidated if you lost to a z or t with 150 apm over you, chances are they are just spamming like an idiot.
  4. Yes and no. Lots of APM potatoes spam, but also, it takes a lot of APM to efficiently macro/micro.
  5. Yes EPM is a good indication of skill. There are people in plat with higher APM than me (say, they have 200 and I usually hit around 150-200 depending), but when you look at EPM, chances are they are only hitting 60 while I hit 120-150 EPM. Pro players can have about the same apm as a low M1 player, but in terms of EPM, you should see that pros have a significantly higher EPM, not considering race though because each race is different.
1 Like
18

I play random. So… yes this includes Protoss :slight_smile:

19

Wait, so what is your main race? Please don’t tell me you are equally good with all 3 of them? ))

20

No. Mechanics and decision making matter far more.

In theory, 140 apm is enough to get you well into mid gm on NA.

2 Likes