Aim help, LF tips

General Discussion
1

Anyone know of a good way to improve your overall consistency with aim? As a plat player I think the main two thing stopping me from improving are my PC and my consistency. Is there anything you do to improve your muscle memory? Thanks to anyone who comments <3

2

Consistency improves with:

  1. Lower sensitivity
  2. Slower mousepad (higher friction mousepad)
  3. Heavier mouse
  4. More playtime
  5. More hours in an Aim Trainer (e.g. Kovaakā€™s)
  6. Less shaky (smoother) aim is more consistently accurate
  7. Better sleep and diet (less caffeine and drugs)
  8. Less tilt
  9. Aiming with a harder to see (or invisible) crosshair to improve target reading
  10. Higher FPS, lower input lag, and lower ping all improve consistency
  11. Having a firmer mouse grip (palm or claw for example) is generally more controlled and consistent than something like a fingertip grip
  12. Practicing strafe aim and anti-strafe aim improves your consistency by making your aim more movement (keyboard) reliant so you need to move the mouse less distance when aiming
  13. Practicing aim (in-game or in an Aim Trainer) with higher movement speeds so that normal speeds feel more effortless after practice
  14. Accepting that we all have human limitations and even pros can never be fully consistent

Note:

1. There are diminishing returns on how much a slower sensitivity and a heavier mouse will improve your consistency. While you may build muscle memory easier, a lower sensitivity will just as easily reduce your time to react or correct your aim and in turn make your aim worse. Try to find a healthy balance.

As NighthAwk mentioned:
A lower sensitivity will increase your arm fatigue and lead to lower consistency. It is better to keep the control in your pad rather than your mouse inertia. Try to reduce your sensitivity or increase your pad friction before you mess with your mouse weight (unless you have unsteady hands).
3. Not all these ideas will work equally for everyone. Not everyone is an arm aimer for example.

2 Likes
3

This series helped me some as well. Itā€™s a worth a listen.

Specifically this one:

4

Interestingly I wouldā€™ve said the exact opposite of these two.

1 Like
5

Iā€™m coming from a building muscle memory perspective that fully utilizes primary muscle groups in your arm. I agree that a mid to high sensitivity will have a higher skill ceiling for aim as you can react faster and better utilize your reaction time. Also, your wrist is better suited to make small fast corrections as it is a more complex muscle group. However, this generally uses your wrist more which is less consistent without far more practice.

Since the OP was more interested in consistency rather than improvement alone these were my suggestions. I agree that consistency is more helpful one you already aim well. For example, 20+/-5% accuracy is still bad, whereas 40+/-5% accuracy is much more useful.

6

I play at 3.5@800dpi - nearing the bottom of the scale for pretty much anyone not one tricking on widow. I would never buy a heavier mouse. Less weight means less momentum and combined with lower friction generally means quicker and snappier aim/responsiveness.

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Again, yes you will have faster reactions with a lighter mouse. But you will not be more consistent, just quicker. Consistency comes from your muscles learning to overcome the weight of the mouse and frictional forces of the mousepad. The larger the force and distance the easier it will be for the muscles to learn. Your muscles donā€™t have unlimited resolution and it would be nearly impossible to build muscle memory on and effectively weightless mouse or zero friction mousepad.

I mostly track aim and my sensitivity is far higher than yours so I donā€™t disagree that reaction time and wrist aim is generally superior to full arming aiming (esp for tracking). However, it definitely does not make me more consistent, but just better. You can still aim better than someone else (higher average %acc) but still be more inconsistent than them (higher standard deviation from the mean).

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Do you have a source for that? My experiences have shown the weight of the mouse has little to do with consistency.

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I can find one. Iā€™ll post it here later (at dinner). I can tell you that I have experimented with this greatly and have modded my g305 from 100g down to 65g and my aim was total trash and inconsistent at the lighter weight. Around 90 g was the sweet spot for me.

10

Well I mean, if you make a change that drastic then yes youā€™re throwing away muscle memory. You spent time practicing on 100g. If you suddenly go to 65g your aim will be much worse because you will consistently apply way to much force to the mouse because itā€™s what youā€™re used to doing.

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So you think that a lighter mouse and lower friction pad will always be more consistent than the inverse, while considering human limitations of muscle dexterity?

I just want to make sure we arenā€™t confusing better aim with consistent aim.

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My initial reply to your comment was a bit orthogonal to consistency and more just my suggestion with respect to improving aim (both consistency and accuracy are important).

However with respect to the ongoing discussion, I think that consistency is a function of practice, not weight. If you train at 100g then you will be more consistent when you use a 100g mouse. In my own time practicing I have not found a correlation between mouse weight and my consistency once I take the time to actually put in the practice and adjust.

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Iā€™ll give a Widow example, the arguably best Widow pro player right now uses low sens 800dpi and 4 with a medium-high friction pad (QCK+) and a medium weight mouse G Pro.

14

I would personally consider the g pro a light weight mouse. (83g is very lightweight amongst a large selection of gaming mice that generally range from 90g to 130g)

15

I see. I think the light mouse craze has kind of thrown people in a light weight illusion with aiming. I do think that there is such a thing as too light. Iā€™ll try to find something to back this up, but I do agree that practice supersedes all else.

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Itā€™s all relative. Compared to the G903 maybe, but not the Glorious O. Mostly why I said a mid weight.

17

True, but Iā€™m thinking more along the lines of ā€œput all the gaming mice on a bell curve.ā€ Compared to individual mice it could even be considered heavy, but if youā€™re in the bottom 1% for weight Iā€™d still call it light :slight_smile:

But itā€™s just semantics.

18

Yeah thatā€™s true. I usually scale it from around 130 to 67g on the extremes. This would be roughly 97.5g mean, but since there is probably a skew normal distribution this isnā€™t quite accurate.

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19

I think the mousepad friction is generally more personal preference, but in my experience, using heavier mice has actually made my arm tired which eventually lowers my consistency over long periods of play. Just food for thought.

Granted this is also a function of playing at very low sensitivity. A 180 for me is over 3/4 (maybe closer to 2/3 - just ballparking an estimate) of my mousepad (QcK+)

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20

Thatā€™s a really good point. I didnā€™t think of that. Also, I agree itā€™s better to keep the control in your pad rather than from your mouse inertia. I was just noting ways to improve consistency in general rather than the most optimal way to increase accuracy. Good points.

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