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I am inexplicably bad at aiming with a mouse

H

Hylian7

Member
For some reason I have always been bad at aiming in FPS/TPS games with a mouse. I think mouse is much better than a controller, but I don't know why, I can't get it right.

I've been bad at it for as long as I can remember, but a particularly recent egregious example is Overwatch. Had an encounter today where I was playing Soldier 76 and there was a Hanzo right in front of me that I was shooting at and barely hit any shots on him. He was jumping around, and I chased this guy for a good 30 seconds and finally shot him when I backed him into a corner, and he almost killed me. I've tried modifying sensitivity, I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.

Is there some fundamental thing I am doing wrong aiming with a mouse? I used to be really into TF2 back in the day, and then I was still bad at it, but I somehow got to where my aim was somewhat passable then. I also have trouble sometimes clicking things in Dota 2 for instance, even though that isn't really the same thing. I feel like my biggest problems are things up close to me, and sniping. Generally any smaller twitch movements I cannot do for some reason.

For some extra information: My mouse is a Logitech G700 (I use this in wired mode). The DPI is set on 1200 with 1000 reports per second polling rate.

Does anyone else have a similar problem and suggestions on how to overcome it?
 
F

Faustek

Member
Damn that sounds rough. I can sympathise, I really do Suck at fighting games. Former basement King and now old and slow to actually do it correctly no matter what my brain says.

Sorry I can't help but I feel you.
 
S

sanstesy

Member
Lower your sensitivity to a point where you still can do a 180 and then just get used to it. It will be worth it if you care that much about your aim.
 
E

Erasus

Member
Same here and been PC gaming since 2009 or so.
It sucks

One thing is practice and try to lower your sense.
My sens was way too fast, its better to "arm aim" than to use your wrist.

+ get a big mousepad helps
 
I

ivanthebearable

Member
I'm kind of the same way, though I'm a bit newer to KB/M Shooters, Overwatch being my first real attempt at getting into a FPS and improving my skills.

What's worked for me is going into the Practice Range in Overwatch and strafing around the bots without shooting in random bits of left, right and all around them. At first I found that I was constantly behind, so I tinkered with the sensitivity and discovered my sensitivity was far too low. Then I just kept drilling myself until I could accurately track the bots without messing up.

Then I practiced hitting EVERY shot with McCree in the far corner of the Range with the moving bots. I tried to hit every bullet for 10 rounds of reloads in a row, and if I missed, I'd start over.

I still can't do 10 in a row, but it went from 1-2 in a row without messing up to about 5-6 in a row. Once I have that down, I want to try it with headshots only.

It's utterly bizarre too because I actually have fairly great aim with Ana and Widowmaker, of all characters. I can't play characters like S76 or McCree to save my life though for whatever reason. Hope this helps in some way, seeing as you mentioned OW.
 
C

capylikesgames

Banned
Check if you have acceleration on. In Windows, it's under mouse settings as "Pointer Precision", and it really hurts your aim. Also, some games have it built in, and you have to disable it within menus, or in a worst-case scenario, edit .ini files. If you're clear on that, just lower your sensitivity and work on adapting to it. You don't need to go outrageously low if you just play for fun, but you definitely shouldn't be able to do multiple 360° spins on one full mouse swipe. I used to play like this, and although I had fun, I was an awful aim. I've definitely improved the last two years by adjusting these two things. You may have already messed with them, but I still think it's worth throwing out there!
 
C

ChoklitCow

Member
Lower your sensitivity, get a larger mouse pad, and don't grip your mouse so tight. Also ensure that you don't have any form of mouse acceleration on in Windows or your games as you could be floating past.

I'm not good by any means, but when helping others that have poor aim in games I've noticed the biggest culprits are extremely high sensitivity and extremely jerky motions caused by being anxious because of a gorilla grip. Having a lower sensitivity with you having to do larger sweeping motions eliminates this. However, you have to build up the muscle memory for your body to appropriately know the length of your swipes.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
It does take a good bit of practice. Easier to learn than aiming with a controller but it's not like everyone is instantly better with a mouse.
 
D

DizzyCaffeine

Member
Erasus said:
Same here and been PC gaming since 2009 or so.
It sucks

One thing is practice and try to lower your sense.
My sens was way too fast, its better to "arm aim" than to use your wrist.

+ get a big mousepad helps
Click to expand...


ChoklitCow said:
Lower your sensitivity, get a larger mouse pad, and don't grip your mouse so tight. Also ensure that you don't have any form of mouse acceleration on in Windows or your games as you could be floating past.

I'm not good by any means, but when helping others that have poor aim in games I've noticed the biggest culprits are extremely high sensitivity and extremely jerky motions caused by being anxious because of a gorilla grip. Having a lower sensitivity with you having to do larger sweeping motions eliminates this. However, you have to build up the muscle memory for your body to appropriately know the length of your swipes.
Click to expand...

This is interesting. I play at 1800 dpi...I think with a gorilla grip... and I always fuck up in close quarters situations. Never thought about using my arm rather than my wrist before.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Try inverting your aim. It'll force you to re-learn it and maybe get rid of some bad habits, once you feel comfy with it, switch back to normal and do it all over and become better.
 
N

Nothing1016

Member
DizzyCaffeine said:
This is interesting. I play at 1800 dpi...I think with a gorilla grip... and I always fuck up in close quarters situations. Never thought about using my arm rather than my wrist before.
Click to expand...

What's your in game sens? I use 900dpi with 6 or 7 in game sensitivity. 1800 sounds really high
 
M

maouvin

Member
Are you aiming with your arm and wrist or with your wrist? Going wrist-only will either have you with sens too high for fine aiming, or too low for 180s/large movements.
Also, try to play hitscan characters while learning. Getting projectile timing while learning aim can be frustrating.

To note, right now I'm at 1400dpi/3.5 game sens (or maybe 3.25, I've been slowly reducing it). My mouse space is limited, so I can't go much lower than that. Won't say I have a superb aim, but my tracking is alright.
 
P

Pankratous

Member
I'm the same.

Can aim perfectly with a controller (with or without auto-aim), but mouse? Nah. Way too difficult. Can barely operate a computer decent with a mouse.
 
SoulUnison

SoulUnison

Banned
I've been a heavy PC gamer for like 20 years now and getting me to aim at another player in an FPS is like asking me to have a minor seizure with a faint sense of purpose attached.

I don't understand how people play snipers in games like TF2 or Overwatch.
 
Hazelhurst

Hazelhurst

Member
Mouse aiming is easy for me. I would suggest using 800dpi and below. Then adjust the mouse sensitivity within the game to find what works best for you. This can take time.

I don't get how people aim so well with gamepads in FPS games. That has never clicked with me. It feels so limiting.
 
M

Mawile

Banned
Turning off mouse acceleration is weird. Just turned it off for the first time just now, and it feels like I have to move the mouse a lot more for desktop usage. It feels a little bit more accurate though, so I'll give it a go in a game.
 
V

Vampirolol

Member
I too suck with the mosue, yet I'm very good with pointer controls and analogue controls. There is something in me that just hates the mouse... even when I use the PC I tend to use the keyboard and that's it.
 
C

capylikesgames

Banned
Mawile said:
Turning off mouse acceleration is weird. Just turned it off for the first time just now, and it feels like I have to move the mouse a lot more for desktop usage. It feels a little bit more accurate though, so I'll give it a go in a game.
Click to expand...
It's super weird at first, especially if you've been using it for a long time, but you get used to it. Absolutely worth it.
 
M

Muninn

Banned
I honestly prefer FPS with my DS4 pad. I haven't used a keyboard in any main AAA game for years. Even with a high-end PC, I will always prefer the trigger of the controller. Analogue movement immerses me about 1000% more than a keyboard does. I also am probably not very good with my mouse as I have never invested time to tune it for each game.

I don't have a problem with mouse aim, but I really do not like clicking or holding a mouse to shoot. It just feels off to me, and too unlike an actual gun for my tastes. I know people love their mouses, and more power to them. I play BF1 on a Pro not even my PC and it's great. I'm not even very good with a mouse setup because of the keyboard. I have done a half and half a couple times with controller movement and mouse aim, but eh I don't care enough to try much.

DS4 wins for me.

When I do use a mouse I keep my profiles pretty clean and without much acceleration.
 
X

Xyber

Member
DizzyCaffeine said:
I just leave it at whatever the game's default is.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you are using way too high sensitivity then. I'm not really sure about my dpi, but it's something like 1200-1600 and I go down to around 10% sensitivity in most games. It's way to jittery with standard settings, would not be able to aim at all like that.
 
P

Paragon

Member
1. Make sure that you have all mouse acceleration disabled.
In Windows' mouse settings, disable the “Enhanced Pointer Precision” option.
In all games, make sure that acceleration/smoothing is disabled.
If your mouse has additional smoothing/angle snapping options in the driver, disable that too.
You may find that you want to drop the DPI lower than 1200 on the desktop now. I generally use 800-1000 DPI depending on what the mouse offers.

2. Turn down your sensitivity in-game. (Not DPI)
Generally the lower the better.
At most, set it so that one sweep across your mouse pad from one side to the other does a 360° turn. Maybe slightly more - about 380-400°.
Once you're used to that - because that is usually much lower than many people new to aiming with a mouse use - you will probably want to reduce that even further down to about 180–200° or so.

Once you start using a consistent turning speed in games, you will start to build up muscle memory for it and develop your aiming.
If you just use whatever the game has as a default, or have acceleration/smoothing enabled, you cannot build up that muscle memory.
This is why so many people complain when a developer ships a game with mouse acceleration/smoothing and no option to disable it.

3. Invest in a larger mouse pad.
Anything smaller than a 25cm (10") diameter is very restrictive.
A nice gaming mat like a Steelseries QcK Heavy will be 45x40cm (18x16") and even larger mats exist.
You should be aiming with sweeping arm motions, not your fingertips/wrist - unless you want to develop bad RSI/Carpal Tunnel.

VanillaCakeIsBurning said:
Use WASD to adjust aim.
Click to expand...
That's the opposite of what you should be doing.
The keyboard is far less precise at aiming than a mouse.
It's something I see gamepad users do a lot though.

Doctor_Thomas said:
I've never got to grips with mouse aiming. I'm 30. I have no intent to learn anymore.
Click to expand...
It's really sad to see people give up on learning new things by the time they are only 30.
 
keraj37

keraj37

Member
Above all that, that was said, I would try with my theory:

I think it is psychological thing partially if not completely.
I have same problem but only when playing online against real people.
When I play with bots, I am much better.

I would say it is just cause you fill stress trying to frag the guy in front of you very badly - more you want, more you are stressed, and that is not helping aim good.

So visit you psychiatrist and take some pills - than go back playing.
 
J

Jimnymebob

Member
I'm sort of the same, although my biggest problem with PC games is how many keys they use when you can play the console version and do the same things far more easily.

But I do suck with aiming with a mouse though. I'm fine with analogue and motion control aiming, but I'm nowhere near as accurate with a mouse.
 
J

julesodies

Member
-Minimze the use of your wrist. The most stable technique for writing, you know letters with a pen, is holding your wrist and fingers stationary and using your arm to shape the letters. Most golf players and darts player hardly use their wrist.

-Try different mousegrips. The most comfortable grip isn't always the best. I like to hang back in my chair and that destroys my back when I stand up again.
 
Spukc

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
julesodies said:
-Minimze the use of your wrist. The most stable technique for writing, you know letters with a pen, is holding your wrist and fingers stationary and using your arm to shape the letters. Most golf players and darts player hardly use their wrist.

-Try different mousegrips. The most comfortable grip isn't always the best. I like to hang back in my chair and that destroys my back when I stand up again.
Click to expand...

Like this? ;)

latest
 
M

Mawile

Banned
julesodies said:
-Minimze the use of your wrist. The most stable technique for writing, you know letters with a pen, is holding your wrist and fingers stationary and using your arm to shape the letters. Most golf players and darts player hardly use their wrist.

-Try different mousegrips. The most comfortable grip isn't always the best. I like to hang back in my chair and that destroys my back when I stand up again.
Click to expand...

It'd be better to be comfortable and properly supported for gaming in the long run then getting in unhealthy positions each gaming sessions. You end up paying for it eventually.
 
B

Bastables

Member
TheTrain said:
Lower the mouse sensitivity considerably in game, start fron the 20% and see if you feel comfortable. Also usually 800DPI are more than enough.
Take also a look here:

http://www.pcgamer.com/aim-training/
Click to expand...

Pretty much this drop it to 800 or below and practice, assuming you're "overshooting" your aim.

I personally noticed I had major issues going to to a laser mouse in 2003 with high dpi, until I remembered all my prior use of mouse (headshots in CS 3.1/5.2) in fps or gaming in general was at 800 or even lower.
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Jimnymebob said:
I'm sort of the same, although my biggest problem with PC games is how many keys they use when you can play the console version and do the same things far more easily.
Click to expand...

I bought a mouse with plenty of input options, so it helped a ton for me to offload some keyboard commands onto my mouse. I'm definitely not as good as some with a keyboard. Especially when I'm expected to hit keys well out of the W, S, A, D range.
 
V

verbatimo

Member
I have mild tremor hands and holding the mouse and trying to aim is sometimes difficult.

This is bad because I really like competitive First Person Shooters Battlefield, Counter Strike etc.

Planetside 2 is one my favourites, but sometimes especially on close combat encounters when you need perfect aim to hit and with hand tremor means shitty aim and often dead player.
 
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