How to improve at low 6 digit rank (~200-100k)?

Question

After breaking the 200k rank barrier (I'm at about rank 190k now)a few days ago I feel as though I've hit a bit of a wall. While I can see small improvements in certain game aspects, I feel like I'm still playing the same star ratings and not improving much overall. Gaining ranks has also become a bit of a struggle as I now barely gain any pp from raw scores as high as 60-70 pp.

I usually play maps between 4 and 5 stars. My highest pp play is 121 pp and the highest difficulty I have passed is a 5.51, but I really haven't passed many five stars at all; probably less than 20. I'm pretty good at aim/jumps but I'm really bad at streams (I can hold 140 BPM for less than 30 seconds) and not great at finger control. I can kind of play hidden but really haven't started learning mods yet.

While my primary goal is gaining rank, I also really want to improve over all and play more difficult songs. In a few weeks I'll have considerably less time to play, so I was hoping to reach five digit by then, but I don't know that that is realistic at this point.

For reference, after warming up (I do hand warm-ups as well), I usually spend about half my time playing "Improvement" maps from my stream practice, burst practice, and finger control collections. The second half is usually spent farming (mostly nomod but sometimes low star DT).

While I don't have time to play for more than 2-3 hours a day, I'm willing to try anything as long as it doesn't mean my rank doesn't drastically drop. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: I reached 150k a couple days ago but I had to grind A LOT. I'm gonna go back to practicing finger control and streams more, but still need to farm a bit until I reach 5 digit. I won't have as much time to play for a while, either. I'm wondering, when should I start really trying to pass a 6 star, and what I can do to practice for that? Also, what is a good sign to know that I can stop exclusively practicing finger control maps for my main practice time (for now).

Answer 1

I think you should keep doing what you're doing but, try fcing a lot more 4.2 - 4.7 star maps as well. (i do the same thing). Once you start getting to 120k progress gets very hard and you need to get consistently 120 - 130+ pp plays if you want to rank down considerably fast. Try to play (not fc) more 5 stars and get used to higher ar's if you haven't.

This helped me to get from 200k to 103k in 40 days with a lot of hours so I don't think it'd be possible to reach a 5 digit with your time frame but this could help.

Profile: https://osu.ppy.sh/users/14402013

(If you want the easy way just get sotarks, log off now and monstrata's maps and fc them)

Answer 2

Like what @Shuckling mentioned in his answer, try FC-ing more maps in the range you can play as well.

Additionally, play some maps that are 5~6 stars that are at least playable to you.
This is just for you to get familiarized with what the higher-ranked maps are typically like, and for you to adjust accordingly to it.
Do not quit half-way through even if your progress is bad.Use No-fail if you need to.
Use offline-mode or edit the map if you don't want it to affect your rank

Additionally, you can edit maps as well to make it a little bit more challenging for you. You just have to do simple edits on the Circle Size, or Approach Rate, etc.
Plus it does not count towards the online leaderboard too if you are training, if that matters :V

Plus, an obvious one, practice. But practice smartly.
Try to find out why you are bad at certain areas and adjust accordingly.
Be a little bit more conscious on how you are tapping and moving around the cursor, it can help you to find out where you can improve at.

Also, what I personally do is this: I search for players near my rank's range, and then try to 'one-up' their Best Performance maps.

Answer 3

I'm a mouse-only player, currently at #94k but peak was #89k. I hit the same wall. For me the biggest thing that helped me was taking about a month off and then derusting hard for 3 days. On the third day I would be able to get about 15-20 new top 100s somewhat effortlessly (relatively). I've done this a few times and it works best for me. When I life the game for too long I get sick of it and tilt a lot more often and the break helps with that.

Also, I went for my first 6 stars around that rank. There are some relatively easy ones like Flamingo. I'd recommend sorting your collections by difficulty and running through your easiest 6 stars, you will probably be able to pass one (if you have a large collection of maps).

I recommend Tillerino for recommendations if you aren't sure what to play since it's based off other players who have passed what you have passed.