Can't aim, please help

General Discussion
1

Yes, it’s another one of THESE threads. Maybe today’s the day the magic word comes in, but probably not.

I can’t aim. I’ve played since open beta with my main account, and I can’t aim. The longer I play (over the course of months) the worse it gets. Accuracy numbers are dropping, I lose duels, I have 0 presence in games.

So, how do I fix this problem? Before you tell me to “lower my sensitivity and practice good luck :slight_smile: :)” I have. A long time ago, I’ve ruled out all the easy answers. My sensitivity is reasonable around 4K EDPI. Comfortable gaming mouse, high refresh rate monitor, pointer precision turned off, focusing on target not crosshair, none of it has fixed the problem.

Yes, I’ve since improved gamesense and non-mechanical skills. Yes, I’ve put many more hours into non-aim intensive heroes. No, I do not like having more than half of the roster effectively cut off to me because I can’t use them, even if I have to knowledge to play them right. It’s extremely frustrating to have played so long, to have tried to hard to get better at the most boring skill in the game, and have actually gotten worse. I’m out of ideas, really and truly. I’ll keep posting what is basically the same thread every so often because it’s all I’ve got left.

If you’ve read this far, let me rule out some other things: Yes my sensitivity is comfortable. Yes, I’ve taken breaks from the game. Yes, I’ve put in serious practice time (say 400-500 hours of tracking DPS, what I want to be better with) with no progress at all. This is not my first shooter. I am not new to PC shooters in general. I own aim hero and used it, didn’t help. Tried Ana bots and aim drills, didn’t help. Watched Iostux’s series, didn’t help.

So give me what you’ve got. Tell me something I haven’t heard before, point me to some resources I might’ve missed in my efforts to get better at this. Just, for the love of all that’s good please don’t tell me to do something I said didn’t work. And I’m not accepting not being able to aim either.

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It seems like you’re really stressing out about the aim aspect, games should in the first place be fun.
trying to force yourself to be “good at aiming” logically sounds like it would have an adverse effect.

You likely will have less fun than you should be having, and frustration will likely make you aim worse, not better.

I know I am not the best at aiming, I likely won’t be GM material, but it’s the fun that keeps me coming back.
In time I will improve anyway.

As for a tip:

Free for all is IMO the single best place to train your aim, and you will be matched with players of similar skill while you improve.

2 Likes
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Go into steam and buy a program called Aim Hero, it’s geared for CSGO but the logic it applies is for any shooter. It’ll help your aim if you use it once a day.

it’s like $5

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I’m level +500. It took me around 400 levels to find my best settings. If you check my playtime, you will see that hitscans are my least played heroes (except for Widowmaker). Now I’m starting to aim better and started using those hard tracking heroes.

My changes:
-Changed my desk. A bigger space allows you to move better.
-Mouse and mousepad. It made a HUGE difference. Currently using a Razer Sphex V2 and Razer Lancehead TE. The mouse moves like a sponge and it’s pretty light (weight) so if I use low in-game sens I don’t have that horrible shaky aim I used to have before. Currently 1800dpi with 4.00 sens, green small green circle w/ dot crosshair. My experience was better with cloth mousepads.
-Changed visual settings. Now running everything low at 80fps. Better PC performance helps your movements to be quicker and accurate.
-Ping. When playing hitscan, defines if you get the kill or not. Some people can play well with high ping (I do most of the time) if they get used to it, but others can’t since they have lack of movement prediction. It depends. Make sure to have low ping and close all the apps. I’ve recently changed my connection so my ping is lower now. From 70ms I’m now at 25-30.

To find my right settings, I would check what other players would recommend.

That’s all I can tell you for now… I don’t know if this would help you since you said you’ve tried most of the things.

Good luck my friend :slight_smile:

By the way, don’t worry about your aim, aim isn’t everything in the game. You only need to have fun!

2 Likes
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Oh yeah, totally get as big a mousepad as you can!
I got the gigantus mousepad and I’d get an even bigger one if I found one, but it’ll do for now(I really don’t like lifting/resetting my mouse too much)

1 Like
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Legit no sarcasm how do you hold your mouse and is your mousepad big/ at an angle

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Generally use a claw grip, and my mousepad is massive. I have a solid 24 in/61 cm square of mouse space.

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Well what it took for me to get around mid-master level aim was honestly mostly… learn the hitboxes.
Seeing the broad image of “yes, me shoot target where red glow” really tampered with the way i would place my crosshair. Also, i cannot stress how important crosshair placement is. I see alot of lower ranked players knowing where the enemy is and instead of placing the crosshair head level ( this is where learning hitboxes helps out, know what height each head hitbox is of each character and re-adjust crosshair placement with the information given to you, i usually like to keep crosshair placement mccree level if i dont know whos coming behind that corner.) they instead place the crosshair far away from the corner, wrong height and go for the most outrageous flicks. Learning footsteps is also important to know what threat is coming your way. I gave tips mostly with mccree/widow in mind since those are my main heros. Hope this helped atleast a bit and wasnt a rerun of previously heard things :sweat_smile:
(Also play aim hero, you wont regret it.)

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Some ppl aim better when they just idk hold their mouses like a weirdo

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Aim hero didn’t help me. My problem generally isn’t situational awareness or crosshair placement. When I say I can’t aim, that’s really it. I can know where the enemy is, hear them coming, and it doesn’t matter.

They mash their keyboard like a spastic and land more shots than me. I don’t have any medical conditions, but it’s like my hand and eye won’t cooperate to the standard that this game demands. And like I said, this isn’t my first PC shooter, far from it.

11

Well it’s hard to identify the problem you have. What’s your grip style, hand size, mouse, sens, dpi. Maybe you’ve been playing games that require less movement than overwatch and are now finding yourself dragging your mouse across the entire pad when you see the genji has already killed you.

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Do you tend to move your mouse side to side a lot? I find that was an old habit of mine. I had to force myself to play from (where my default was 10~15) higher sens to a lower one of 3~4. It was very difficult but I think it helped me improve my aim. But of course you can go gradually, like 8 then 6 then 4.

Oh I also bought a larger mouse pad from the standard 5x5 desk ones to a 12x9 one. Helped me out to move my arm.

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If I had to try and summarize a pattern, I tend to overadjust to movement and have a really hard time tracking someone after they leave my screen, despite my sensitivity being as low as I can comfortably have it.

I use a claw grip with a Razer Deathadder Chroma. My mouse pad is huge, two feet by two feet and I rarely use the whole thing.

Edit: Other shooters I play include TF2 and Unreal Tournament. UT in particular is fast paced and mechanically intensive.

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What is your sensitivity and DPI?

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4.48 @ 800, well within the realm of reasonable sensitivities.

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Wrist or arm aiming?

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Yeah, that is about what I play too, I think I’m using 5 and 800 atm. I don’t know I guess you’re making too much movement with the fingers. Gotta try to keep your fingers steady or you could go down to 3. That worked for me a bit.

Some higher level players always seem to recommend flick training with bots or something, so that you’re not just tracking wildly as it can be wasted effort and take up time to line up a shot. I’m also still practicing to improve my aim, especially bursting with Soldier. So, yeah I feel ya, its a constant struggle lol.

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Primarily wrist since that’s how I learned PC FPS years ago, but I put time in to learn arm aiming. I incorporate it, but it’s not the dominant force.

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Personally I think a deathadder is one of the worst choices you can make while getting a gaming mouse. The sensor has the technology of a 2004 mouse and the amount of dust it absorbs is absurd, the buttons are clanky too. Razer honestly makes some of the worst gaming mice. Personally I use a g903, it’s rated as one of the best wireless mice in the world, held up for countless years now and works perfectly while my deathadder worked for a couple of months

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Speculation and nitpicking over hardware doesn’t help with the underlying problem, that something with my technique is likely fundamentally wrong.

The mouse works, it’s comfortable to me.