How Do You Practice Aim?

Competitive Discussion
1

I can’t take it. I’m abysmal with my aim. I love Sombra to death, but if I’m not severely crippling/killing anyone, I’m only as good as my hacks. How do you practice aiming with Sombra?

2

ana bots, headshot only

3

Try Aim Hero, and play lots of DM on top of that.
But sombra, even with good aim, is not threatening anyway, because spread makes her DPS really bad unless she shoting tanks from mid+ range.

4

FFA, bots are predictable and easy enough to overcome after a while.

FFA will test your mechanical skill at all ranges as well as your positioning. When you have a Brigette closing in on you, A Genji jumping around or Tracer blinking about you, you improve your aim pretty quick.

1 Like
5

Aim is one of those skills that requires something very simple and very tedious: Practice. Play as much as you can, with the same hero, or heroes with similar aim requirements (ie, Hanzo, Roadhog, McCree and Zarya requires very different aim training). Muscle memory will develop with time, and you instinctively will start hitting more shots.

This is specially true for people with potato aim, like you and me. We have such a low barrier to cross, that pretty much any in-game regular practice will improve our aim very quickly. I tried to learn McCree to have one alternative in my hero pool to hit Pharah, and while I don’t really play McCree that often, I’m a lot better from one-tricking him non-stop for two weeks.

So, my recommendation is for you to one-trick Sombra for a while, and focus on landing as many shots as you can. Play her like Soldier, focus specifically on your gunplay and a bit less on your hackings and flanks (just to keep your training streamlined). And play a lot of matches. QP, Arcade, Comp, custom or AI, its up to you.

Said that, I would like to recommend two videos from ioStux. One on why aiming drills are not the most important skill you should focus on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1oAfbEaGFY and one on common myths and how to improve your aim (thats a playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmT-z3WqrQzS38UIjrfd24UY-VdxNmq0t

6

If you have a high tolerance for getting destroyed then go into a try hard FFA warm up custom game and just play that for days.

You will get owned so hard, but you’ll also get more practice aiming than you would in weeks of playing ranked.

It can be hard to take for some people though, but just remember you aren’t there to win, just to practice.

Also, check if your mouse sensitivity isn’t too high if you are having trouble aiming. If you can twitch the mouse a couple of CM to do a 360, it’s probably too high.

1 Like
7

For practicing tracking aim (Tracer, Soldier, Sombra, Zarya), I would recommend using Quake Live lightning gun duels against bots. You need the same sensitivity and FOV as in Overwatch. I do this every time before I play and I’m in the top % of accuracy on tracking heroes.

8

FFA. Or just play the game.

9

Ever heard of practice? Widow maker hs only, ffa, qp, loser your sens, get a better pc

10

I lowered the sensitivity from 8 to 6 and 8m dropping dudes pretty cleanly now.

Thanks dudes!

11

I’m surprised nobody gave you the dumb “git gud” reply

1 Like
12

I also have naturally bad aim but I have improved my tracking aim significantly

How do you you play Sombre - Do you stay back or do you flank/assassinate? The assassination style is high pressure. You need to be fast and accurate. This will lead to frustration and you will have a very small window of time were you are actually training your aim.

If you want to learn tracking aim I recommend you use Soldier. You can stand back and spend more time shooting. Bastion and Orisa are also good for this. I now play Tracer who has easier aim requirements because of the larger spread, but she has other skills to learn

As others have mentioned, don’t bother with mcree/windowmaker if you want to improve your tracking aim (see iostux aiming styles video).

Before you go into a match spend a few minutes in the practice range shooting something small while strafing. I shoot at one of the yellow lights. If I hit the light it is a ‘head shot’. Warming up/practising like this is very important as your brain needs to ‘tune in’ to the aiming/movement.

At the end of the day it just takes a lot of time. It is a subconscious thing, you just have to do it as much as you can. It is frustrating when some people just seem to have a natural ability.