Mastering EZDT: A Guide to the Best osu! Maps for Learning Easy Double Time

For aspiring osu! players looking to enhance their skills, the Easy Double Time (EZDT) mod combination offers a unique challenge and a pathway to improvement. This article explores the best maps to learn EZDT, focusing on the skills it develops and how to approach learning this mod combination effectively.

Understanding the EZDT Skillset

Aim Control is a unique skillset in of itself. Instead of being its own skill, like precision or flow aim, it is a culmination of many, including:

Ability to comprehend and aim most/all said patterns, based on accurate pattern recognition.

The EZDT mod combination, achieved by activating both Easy (EZ) and Double Time (DT) mods, presents a distinct challenge in osu!. The Easy mod slows down the song and reduces the circle size, while Double Time speeds up the song and increases the approach rate. This combination might seem counterintuitive, but it creates a unique environment that can be beneficial for skill development. EZDT can be a valuable tool for players of all skill levels.

The Benefits of Learning EZDT

Playing with EZDT can help improve various aspects of your gameplay:

Reading: The slower song speed provided by the Easy mod gives you more time to process the patterns and improve your reading ability.
Timing: While the Double Time mod increases the speed, the Easy mod's effect on hit windows can make timing easier to learn.
Aim Control: HonBae's Aim Control Collection is a good start. With the increased speed, you will have to move your cursor more quickly and accurately, improving your aim control.
Stamina: Playing longer maps with EZDT can help you build stamina, as you'll need to maintain focus and accuracy for extended periods.

Selecting the Right Maps

Choosing the right maps is crucial for effective learning. Here are some key considerations:

Star Rating: Start with maps that are significantly below your usual difficulty level. The EZDT mod combination will make even easy maps more challenging.
Song Choice: Pick songs that you enjoy and are familiar with. This will make the learning process more enjoyable and help you focus on the gameplay.
Map Type: Focus on maps that emphasize aim control and pattern recognition. Avoid maps with overly complex rhythms or gimmicks.

Recommended Maps and Collections

While specific map recommendations can vary depending on individual skill levels and preferences, here are some general suggestions:

HonBae's Aim Control Collection: Thanks for all the Favorites, glad to see people find similar joy in what I enjoyed playing. Appreciate you all. You'll notice some of the maps feel quite "normal"/"not fun". That's where YOU get to experiment, and make it fun for yourself! I highly recommend to lower approach rates (range eg. AR8.5 - 0), make circles smaller (range eg. CS5.5 - 7+), and try mods you don't normally use.

Tips for Effective EZDT Practice

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your EZDT practice sessions:

Start Slow: Don't try to jump into difficult maps right away. Begin with easier maps and gradually increase the difficulty as you improve.
Focus on Accuracy: Accuracy is more important than speed when learning EZDT. Focus on hitting the notes consistently, even if it means playing slower.
Experiment with Settings: Adjust your approach rate (AR) and circle size (CS) to find what works best for you. HonBae recommends lowering approach rates (range eg. AR8.5 - 0), make circles smaller (range eg. CS5.5 - 7+), and try mods you don't normally use.
Take Breaks: Don't overdo it. Take regular breaks to avoid fatigue and prevent bad habits from forming.
Record and Review: Record your gameplay and review it to identify areas where you can improve.
Don't Be Afraid to Fail: EZDT can be challenging, so don't get discouraged if you don't see results immediately. Keep practicing, and you'll eventually improve.
Recommended rank range doesn't exist: "𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞" 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬'𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Learning EZDT can present several challenges:

Overstreaming: The increased speed can lead to overstreaming, where you hit notes too early. Focus on maintaining a consistent rhythm and avoid rushing.
Reading Difficulties: The smaller circle size can make it difficult to read patterns, especially on denser maps. Practice reading patterns at slower speeds and gradually increase the speed as you improve.
Stamina Issues: Playing with EZDT can be tiring, especially on longer maps. Build stamina by playing regularly and taking breaks when needed.

Advanced Techniques and Strategies

Once you've mastered the basics of EZDT, you can start exploring more advanced techniques and strategies:

Hidden Mod: Try combining EZDT with the Hidden (HD) mod for an even greater challenge. This will force you to rely more on your reading ability.
Flashlight Mod: The Flashlight (FL) mod can also be combined with EZDT to improve your focus and aim control.
Specific Pattern Training: Identify patterns that you struggle with and focus on practicing them specifically.

The Taiko Star Rating System and Its Implications

Although this article focuses on standard osu!, understanding the Taiko star rating system can provide insights into how map difficulty is assessed, which can indirectly inform your map selection for EZDT practice.

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The Taiko star rating is calculated through strain, similarly to standard. Here's a breakdown of the factors involved:

Rhythm Bonus: The rhythm bonus occurs any time the gap between two objects is different from the previous gap within a certain margin. If it changes by an amount that is not a multiple of two (1/2, 2x, 1/4, 4x, etc) a fixed bonus is added to strain. This means maps with varied rhythms are considered more difficult.
Color Bonus: The color bonus occurs any time a map goes from an even number of one color to an odd number of the other color, or vice-versa. Similarly to the rhythm bonus, the color bonus is a fixed value, which results in patterns that swap color in this way being worth much more than patterns that do not. This emphasizes the challenge of color switching in Taiko.
Strain Calculation: The way strain was calculated was fine at first, since most older taiko maps were mapped in a similar style to the official taiko games. For rhythm, rather than a fixed bonus regardless of change, different fixed degrees of change result in different fixed bonuses.
Fixed Sections: Fixed sections are determined, starting from position 0 in the map, and moving a set distance for each section (adjusted when dt). The highest strain value from each section is taken and used to determine star rating. For this, instead of going from start to end, it goes in order from the highest strain object to the lowest strain object in the entire map.
Slider/Spinner Spam: Slider and spinner spam results in excessive star rating - this is not technically an important problem, as any map that would have this issue would be unrankable, but if it wanted to be fixed, all that would need to be done is to not add any strain on sliders/spinners, instead of still adding the fixed amount of strain that all objects do. This is more of an unimportant change, though, as some mappers might appreciate making maps with silly star rating using this bug/gimmick/feature (ex.
Map Length: Concept-wise, this is fine, since logically, a longer map would require more consistency and therefore be worth more. The problem comes when maps are mostly easy, with very short points of difficulty, this results in an unnecessary bonus. So, for this, instead of directly using the number of objects in a map, it should use a weighted object count based on the strain of objects. The closer a strain of an object is to the highest strain in the map, the closer its weight is to 1. The further it gets from the hardest strain in the map, it gets closer to 0.
Misses: Mostly, the way misses work is fine. I just think that maps with a higher weighted object count (from previous point) should have the effect of misses be lower than objects with a low weighted object count.
Overall Difficulty (OD): While the higher OD certainly does make it much more difficult to get such good accuracy, the difference right now is just a bit TOO high. 3* 2500 object SS at OD 4 is 167 pp, which is probably still reasonable. But, the same map at OD 10 (and yes I know a 3* with OD 10 would never get ranked) is worth 300 pp, which is way too much for a 3 star map. Alright, after some thought, OD changes are probably unnecessary to make right away.
Technical Maps: 1/6+1/4 maps have their star rating decreased. Some extreme examples of technical maps will still be underweighted, and some probably more than before. (ex.
Difficulty Consistency: Due to reduction of bonuses from rhythm, certain maps where easier diffs have a higher star rating than the difficulty above them are mostly fixed. (ex.

While these points are specific to Taiko, the underlying principles of rhythm variation, color switching (similar to alternating patterns in standard), map length, and OD all contribute to the overall difficulty of a map in any game mode. When selecting maps for EZDT practice, keep these factors in mind to choose maps that will effectively challenge and improve your skills.

Star Rating Calculation Tool

This is coded in Visual Basic, mostly for convenience of the data display, but the method of implementation should be compatible with how star rating is currently coded, it would just need to be adjusted to the correct language (and cleaned up a bit). This is just the compiled .exe from that project. It calculates both the old and new star rating as well as some other values for each taiko map in your osu!/songs folder.

tags: #best #maps #to #learn #EZDT #Osu