Aiming by Sock

Firstly, there is no magic sensitivity: there is no setting that will instantly turn you into a gaming god. Secondly, the most important thing is consistency: changing settings, tweaking things, is all fine and well for the first few weeks you play a game, but after this time you should really settle into a sensitivity you feel comfortable with; this is not to say that you shouldn't ever change, just don't try to switch from high sens to low sens if you're performing well.

The most important divide between sensitivity is that of high and low: a low sens gamer most likely uses his whole arm to move; a high sens gamer uses his wrist. Low sensitivity gives a greater “buffer zone” for mousing errors, that is when you move your mouse in the wrong direction, it does not go as far off course as it would were you using high sensitivity; the benefit of this can be found in games which require, above all, tracking: such games include RTCW, Quake (Lightning gun, machine gun, plasma gun), although it is far more noticeable in the slower paced rtcw, some advantage is stilll to be gained in quake.

High sensers, as stated, use their wrists to aim: they rarely lift their arms off the surface, unless very large movements are needed. This type of aiming is most beneficial when you are faced with landing 1 shot, (railgun, rocket launcher, shotgun, Counterstrike(?) ). This may seem strange, that a high sensitivity would help you in counterstrike, however, it is true: there is a large downside however, in that it takes a much greater time to become accustomed too; with a low sensitivity one can gain proficiency in weeks, however with high sensitivity, map knowledge and movement become far more important. To aim with high sensitivity, many strafe with the opponent, matching them in their movement, thus negating the need to move their mouse at all. As stated regarding low sensitivity, it is much easier to misfire with high sensitivity, hence the longer learning period, however your reaction times will improve: with low sensitivity, your reactions are nerfed in that there is a limit to how fast you can move your mouse; with high sensitivity the opposite is true, your reactions may cause you to move your mouse too fast (being jumpy with high sensitivity is not a good idea).

Now, to decide one which style you should use, you must consider the game you are playing, how long you intend to play, what you personally feel comfortable with, what your hardware willl allow. If you are playing, for instance, a game such as Enemy territory, it would be wise to use a low sensitivity: the enhanced tracking abilities will aid you greatly, and you will improve at a faster rate. With a game such as Quake, the decision is a lot more difficult: the benefits are almost equal between both styles. Although most counterstrike players use a low sensitivity, i would recommend playing with a higher sensitivity: your wrist movements are a lot more accurate than your arm, and your reaction times will be improved, both essential parts of aiming in counterstrike.

Once you've chosen your style, try to become accustomed to it: run around maps, try trickjumping, but most importantly PLAY, play the game that you want to become good at; public servers are fine, but if you want to be a good clan player, then clan wars are where you should be. Many players simply think practise is “practise”, but that is not true; practise is only practise if it's the right kind of practise. If you want to become the best dueler in quake, you need to play duels, and lots of them, against players better than yourself: raping noob ffa servers will get you nowhere. This may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people get stuck playing a game type that isn't related to what they want to become good at. Try to put yourself in difficult situations aswell, in counterstrike, if you want to merely improve your aim, put yourself in positions in which you are disadvantaged against a better player: if you find yourself camping, rush, try to rely soley on your aim, it willl improve with time. Of course, you should also pay attention to the other factors of your game: map knowledge, movement and patience are gaming virtues in themselves.

Written by Sockeh friday 20th januari 2006
© Peon Productions

Pepper: Imo public are more skilled than clanwars :D cause with more people and more spam you can train on how to avoid it better :D
Sockeh: The point is, playing publics will make you great at playing publics, but it won't help you that much when it comes to clanwars. There's plenty of spam on public servers, but it's not the same spam that you'll find within a clanwar: the positions, timing and general intensity will differ so greatly that, for the purpose of acquiring perfection, the two are hardly related.
Pepper:but imo playing clanwars wont make you good at clanwars, it will make you good at ET :D Im just saying that you can develope great aim and timing on pubs and also in clanwars ofc ^^
Sockeh: You can develop great public aim, and indeed great public timing, by playing public servers; playing clanwars, however, is completely different, and if you can not see that, then I can not even begin to describe how much of a peon you actually are.
I don't care to go into great depth's describing the difference between even the best publics and the worst clanwars, but the fact remains that there is a great difference: players take different positions, are more aware, and in general care more about the game, completely changing the required skillsets. Of course, you will still possess aim of a certain description, but it will be no where near the level of a well practised clan player--when it comes to clanwars.

Found it on my HD, he prolly never finished that guide so I took out the only part he did finish.
Comments
18
this is sock at his best!!!11
You are a wise man indeed Mr Fusen!
Parent
bow to sockeh

<3
[Enhance pointer precision] how exactly does it work?
change mouse dpi or what?
Turn it off, bad screenshot ;)
Parent
I don't think even eternity and a 300 page book could teach you how to aim, so it most likely is bullshit. On a side note, don't be so pissy that I wouldn't help you make your movie, it's not like you're a nice guy ;o<.
Parent
I just came across this right now, hence why I'm commenting on it almost 3 years later.
I just commented to tell that I disagree; Yes, your aim will become better with low sens faster than with high sens.
But after a while you aim just as good with high sens as with low sens, it just takes a larger amount of time.
But then you'll also have the advantages of high sens. You can move better ingame, turn faster towards enemies, always hit the first bullet (if your reactions are fine) etc.

In my opinion lowsens is good if your aim is to become medskilled as fast as possible, while highsens is good if you aim to become med+ or high after a bigger amount of time.

That's at least why I'm playing mid/high-sens (24cm/360 degrees), but I could be wrong even though I aim great.
Parent
You can achieve the same level of aim with either low or high sensitivity. I'm certain that even the most ridiculously low sens player rarely moves their hand as fast as humanly possible, and unless they do all of your high sens advantages are null and void. However, even if they do somehow push the limits of the human neuro-muscular system, your list of advantages are still uninformed:

You can move better in game: would you care to elaborate on this statement? If you mean the ability to traverse the map in an efficient manner then I would point you towards a player called Squizz. As far as I'm aware he uses a mid to low sensitivity, and in doing so achieved what many would regard as the fastest, most elegant movement in ET.

You can turn faster towards enemies: Wrong. You can turn faster with less hand speed, but then you also run a high risk of overshooting the enemy should you turn too quickly. The same is true for low sensitivity, but the margin for error is lower. Imagine you're driving a car that can stop instantaneously. A fast car would be analagous to high sensitivity, covering lots of ground in very little time. A slow car would be analagous to low sensitivity, covering less in ground in the same amount of time. Now imagine your task is to stop the car on a specific spot: for the fast car, a small error in the time you press the break to stop, results in a large error of distance, for the slow car you are afforded a lot more time in which to stop and still equal the error of the fast car. Sensitivities are analogous: stop your mouse a fraction too far with high sensitivity and you will find the cursor to be much farther away from the enemy than if you had done the same with a low sensitivity.

You'll always get the first shot: the first accurate shot in a duel has a lot more to do with your cursor position before the duel started than what your sensitivity preference is. The same argument used above also holds, since the two are related.

My point isn't to bash high sens, only to demonstrate that it's advantages over low sens practically balance out.
Parent
Hm, your arguments actually gets to me. Now, my aim is in fact towards the level of mid+ or high if I can rate myself, with highsens.
I guess I wouldn't gain advantage of using lowsens now that I'm this used to highsens, but maybe you're right. =)
Parent
Actually very many CS-player uses ultra-low-sens (like 180deg / 40 cm), that's becouse they have to put that one shot directly into right place.
Actually, my whole point was that wrist aiming, and thus high sensitivity, is the better option if you want to get your crosshair to one place in particular - this is in contrast to tracking, which requires you to follow a moving target. Of course, it all ends up at personal preference, but the idea that you need a low sensitivity to play CS is proven wrong not only by my words, but by Spawn, a rather famous CS player.
Parent
Imo it's easier to place crosshair to one place with lower sensitivity. And sensitivity is so personal thing that you can't say "In CS one doesn't need low sens becouse Spawn has high". Actually, one should just play with that sens which one feels good.
Parent
If you notice, I said that it all ends up as personal preference; the spawn allusion was merely to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve with a high sensitivity.
Parent
Sot Varma but Sock has right. Read carefully next time :) Anyways i prefer Low sens (0.9 or 1.15) even tho i was high sens player at my very start (2.87).
Shock - nice article keep it up!
Parent
Many low-sens players still use wrist aiming and only use their entire hand when they have too.
Parent
ultra low? i need 45cm for 160 turn :D
Parent
really good
Back to top