Tips for getting better at shooters?

[rubberduck]

Overwatch is still a great team based shooter if playing with mates and while having a good aim is important, a smart and coordinated team can usually defeat a team with more mechanical skill.

 

[mid_gen]

I have found since getting a 120hz gsync ultrawide that it really does make a difference. The responsiveness and smoothness just seems to allow your reflexes to take over without you having to think so much. Definitely improved my game in Apex. I'm still pretty rubbish But I can enjoy it and compete well enough at age 40 so I'm happy.

I enjoy the tactical side of apex, it's a lot about knowing the legends and their abilities, not purely twitch reactions. I usually play Caustic who's got a little more health and is all about controlling space.

 

[champ222]

Thanks for all your replies guys.

Its all kind of what i expected to be honest, and its good to see some others in the same boat.

Ive tried reducing the sensitivity of the mouse, and while it didnt immediately make it noticeably better, i did get a couple more kills, so its helped for sure. The thing is, Warzone is cross platform, so are these xbox players with their controllers really aiming better than i am with a mouse? or is there some sort of handicap system going on here? i'll have to spectate a console player and see.

So the PC is, in brief, a Z270 board, Pentium G4560, a 1070 GPU and 16GB of ram. All seems to run everything fine... however... I'm currently playing on a 1080p 50" plasma at 60Hz, sat on a dining room chair with a piece of wood on my lap with a cheapo, and i mean cheapo keyboard, a logitech "gaming" mouse of some sort, useful as it has extra buttons, why do some games need so many buttons??? and a headset i got from Argos. I can hear you all cringe from here! Its far from ideal i realise, but it actually works alright, though i get a numb arse from the chair.

I have upstairs a desk with a 1440p 27" monitor, though its still only 60Hz. I'd have to re-jig the desk a bit to increase the space for the mouse, which is possible, but the room is connected to my kids bedroom they are 3 and 6 and the little one still wakes in the night, so i wouldnt feel too happy about closing their door, especially since i'll be sat there with headphones on, so i might not hear her wake, and nor would the wife if ive closed the door... i wouldnt be very popular.

So here we are at the crux of the problem, i'm too old. I'm 42 now. I had kids too late, so i'm constantly tired trying to keep up with them, made worse by working from home, and they consume almost all my time. i have enough hobbies that i dont have time to do, so i'm not looking to become "a gamer". I dont generally enjoy life at the moment, and i dont need more frustration in my life.

I'm well aware i will never be "good" and i'm happy with that. If i play CS:Go on deathmatch. If ive had a good match, i'm in the lower middle of the results table. i'll have, say, 15-20 kills. the winner is at 60 odd i think, but i dont tend to look and my mate is usually similar to me... ive died a million times though. And to be honest, i'm alright with that because its still fun. I accept, that considering all the above, ive done alright.

Warzone is growing on my a bit, last night we had a game with four of us playing, all school mates, and we had a right laugh, yeah we were awful, but it was fun. A bit later we lost one of them to parent duties but one of my mates kids joined us. i dunno how old he is, but having someone on the team that knows what they are doing, added a completely different element to it. It was good, it was fun and thats what matters. There was a time, where i was trying to drive a van or something with a mouse and keyboard in "third person view" (which i cant do with a controller in a driving game) which on my own would have been very frustrating, but with everyone laughing and joking at my driving, it was good fun.

Plans are afoot to extend the house, which should give me some man cave space, unless it changes and it becomes more space for the kids crap, so i'll look into making a much better gaming environment, but this online gaming fad with my mates probably would have died out by then. For this reason, i'm reluctant to sink more money into it, though i could get a new mouse and keyboard and maybe glue a better mouse surface to my bit of wood. I'll look up the prices for a faster monitor, as i could put it on the dining room table, but i have no-where to put it when it isnt being used, and although my PC works nicely at 60Hz, presumably it needs a lot more grunt to do the same thing at twice the speed (120Hz)

I'll follow your advice the best i can guys, thanks again.

Mega post, sorry (working from home very bored)

 

[montymint]

@champ222 Like you I'm a slightly older player (later 30's) with less and less time to play, but want to enjoy and get better at shooters again.

I'm finding playing PUBG fun at the moment because I can play with a consistent group made up of friends and / or my brother (who is a much better player). I'm not getting bumed about being bad because I'm getting better every time I play but mostly because PUBG is a social activity where I can joke around with ym friends over discord, so even if I die early game (I usually do) I'm still ahving a good time.

 

[Nugsy88]

There's so many things...

• Decent PC of course.
• Having a good monitor with high refresh rate.
• Getting your in-game settings right, to maximize your FPS... while also turning-off all the fancy stuff that looks nice but doesn't help you to be competitive.
• Having a decent mouse and surface.
• Getting your mouse settings right (DPI/EDPI)... plenty of good video guides on this.
• Aim Trainers... if you can be bothered (Aim Lab for example is free on Steam).
• For games like Warzone, knowing the best guns/loadouts from the endless videos on YouTube.
• Having good team mates helps.
• Practice.

... I have/do most of that and I'm still rubbish

This is exactly correct. Settings/hardware is something you can change instantly and helps the most. Skill is a massive factor but hardware advantage is also. Was good at FPS but didn't realise until I got a high refresh monitor, changed to competitive settings and lower mouse sensitivity. High fps = low input lag

little background was in the selection for the first Overwatch world cup for UK and most fps games I play I rank quite high (3.05 k/d in warzone over 2k games etc)

Research is a massive factor in being competitive so keep up to date on the meta and look at positions of professional players, practice makes perfect etc

 

[philo-sofa]

I have to disagree that hardware is the solution. Play, play more and play again.

- Practice
- Join a clan with good players
- Learn from them
- Practice more
- Play against tough opponents, you’ll learn more from then

 

[Junglist]

1. Practice
2. It's all about mindset. Start, if you're playing TDM or objective modes, calling your team newbs even if they're beating you
3. RGB. The more RGB the better
4. Gaming socks


Truth is, just find a FPS you enjoy and stick at it.

Serious note - Play a game like Destiny. It's mostly PvE so it'll give you a good chance to get used to controls, the PvP used (haven't played in a few years) to be a blast and the Co-op PvE stuff is some of the best gaming experience you can have. I'm half tempted to start playing D2 again once VoG releases

 

[Smok3y]

Cheat

 

[Rezident]

CSGO (or any CS) is probably the hardest to play casually. If you haven't done already (at risk of stating the obvious), make sure you're using a low sensitivity. Most decent FPS players will be using a sensitivity that requires two full swipes of their mousepad (with their arm) to turn 180 degrees. This means you move with your arm/elbow, pre-aim the same, then have your wrist for the finer details. I'm probably stating the obvious for most on here, but it's very common for people to wonder why they can't aim on a high sensitivity.

I think with CS and COD specifically you're always going to struggle. Those are two games/franchises that you can only ever get ahead of the pack by playing a serious amount. Like minimum 2hrs a day. Mind you, that might be said for a lot of FPS games no?

Totally disagree with this, use a higher sensitivity and just practice. The human brain is amazing, it will learn. It's just physics. It's not even a fair fight if I can aim faster than you every time.

If you're playing casually v AI, fair enough but if you're playing v people, why be slower than them every time? I think you are underestimating the human brain, it is amazing. And with a bit of practice, people will be accusing you of cheating regularly (take it as a compliment). Because you really are faster than them every time.

CS:GO is probably the best game to practice on.

 

[Scam]

Totally disagree with this, use a higher sensitivity and just practice. The human brain is amazing, it will learn. It's just physics. It's not even a fair fight if I can aim faster than you every time.

Sorry, but you're talking nonsense. 99% of pro CSGO players are using sensitivities around 1-2 at 400-800 dpi. That's one and a half to two full sweeps of a mousemat with your arm to turn 180deg. There's zero point being able to turn 180 quickly when you're playing CS at a decent level. You only have to watch videos like this to see why; How it feels to play CS:GO against PROS?

I'm not saying don't play CSGO. Just that it's very unforgiving to someone wanting to play casually. I hardly playing public games anyway, I have a group of mates that have started to play together again (used to play regularly about 8-10 years ago) but we stick to competitive style 5v5. We can do alright, but I'd probably still get my rear handed to me on most public deathmatch style games by a 12 year old that has been playing 6 days a week for 4hrs a pop

EDIT: https://prosettings.net/library/how-to-find-best-sensitivity/

People often fall into the trap of thinking that they need to be able to react quickly and that, as such, a higher sensitivity is plainly better, but precision matters too. With a super high sensitivity you’re just not going to be able to make the necessary micro adjustments when you’ve overaimed at a target or what have you. Once again: there is a reason that practically every pro uses a large mousepad and that’s because they need the space. We’re not saying you have to blindly copy the pros, but if over 1500 analyzed professional players are doing one thing there’s got to be a reason for that.

 

[Woodsta888]

Ah the old missed shots where on your screen, you know you were 'on'.

Setting the correct game region in the game if available. Ping and latency in the game is key to a 'connected feel' and many people forget about this and often the buig AAA titles dont display it because they want you to join any server in the world, particularly these days where the game servers are centralized and owned by the game

I see so many folk in a game I play (insurgency sandstorm) join servers with +100 ping and then have a terrible game and call the game rubbish. They haven't set the game region in the game. (Some Americans think Europe is in the USA )

A high resolution to pick out movement at a distance is useful and a 120+hz refresh with matching fps supplied by your gfx card.

SInce many servers became centrally run you end up getting thrown in with a range of pings that will make the server feel sluggish. Warzone is terrible for this, then you have the crossplay feature where console players have aim assist.

So look for games that have decentralised and privately run servers where game options can be other than vanilla to make games more interesting - e.g. no sniper, no explosives etc etc. These then often have ping limits where poepl with +100 ping can be automatically kicked. You want to be aiming for a ping <50ms with ideally <30 - can be a stretch if you live in the sticks on ADSL.

Battlefield 4 servers were some of the last of the good ones in a big game, where servers ran between a 30hz and a 120hz refresh rate (120 being the most responsive or updated every 8.8ms). Dunno what today's warzone servers are at?

If you have the option to search for game servers then chose those with the lower pings (the measure of your ping to that server) otherwise using quick play could have you joining a USA server @ 120+ ping which will feel rubbish.

As someone mentions above - correct DPI setting for your mouse and trying to emulate that between games is also key.

I have spades for hands and so I use a programmable keypad instead of the keyboard for my left hand. Much more comfortable and more ergonomically spaced for me.

So without spending any money - mouse DPI settings (clean any fluff from optical aperture) and join servers with a low ping. You'll have a more accurate game, high pingers wont - but they can sometimes feel un-hitable).

 

[ne0]

Play through Doom Eternal. I'm not even joking, that game will turn you into a hyper FPS God.

 

[ColdAsIce]

Totally disagree with this, use a higher sensitivity and just practice. The human brain is amazing, it will learn. It's just physics. It's not even a fair fight if I can aim faster than you every time.

If you're playing casually v AI, fair enough but if you're playing v people, why be slower than them every time? I think you are underestimating the human brain, it is amazing. And with a bit of practice, people will be accusing you of cheating regularly (take it as a compliment). Because you really are faster than them every time.

CS:GO is probably the best game to practice on.

You are wrong. Something like 0.0000001% of the pro scene will have some stand out player that plays on a high sense / high DPI. The rest don't for a very good reason.

 

[Jester*]

Play through Doom Eternal. I'm not even joking, that game will turn you into a hyper FPS God.

I am playing through on Nightmare at the moment and the pressure it puts you under with the precision you have to nail makes it a great aim trainer.

After my first playthrough I popped back into Apex Legends and found I was hitting my shots much much better than before.

 

[Smokey Deza]

Play through Doom Eternal. I'm not even joking, that game will turn you into a hyper FPS God.

There's a guy called Zero Master (and a few others) that speedrun this on nightmare, alongside modded demons with go fast stripes.

The ability to think that fast is truly incredible.

 

[alec]

I never really know what im supposed to be doing

Think taking care of this one is key
Either pick a game as simple as HL deathmatch, where there is only one goal, KILL
Or spend time learning objectives, maps, mechanics, situation awareness in a specific game. Well, what others said, practice.
The reaction time and skill and fine tuning your setup is secondary. If you don't know you are entering a choke point liable to get shot, no 360Hz display is going to help.

 

[jasonsony735]

The more you play a game the better ! The problem is you need to master everything about a game to become a pro at it ! Doesn't matter how good you think you are there will always be better players or someone who out smarts you ! Thats the fun in gaming , Use 27" Screen or smaller , Not tryed 120 refresh rate screen but everyone seems to rave about them... I played CS back in the day and I must have played for about 3 years before I got half decent at it.

Having a good internet connection is a massive help a ping around 1-10 max is a bonus.

 

[jimjam81]

I just got back in FPS multiplayer last few months on Coldwar on ps5 after 10 years of not playing FPS.

Internet speeds definitely helps, I play with nephew who is 5 time zones behind and on war zone when he Hosts party my ping is like 200 and I die every face to face encounter. When I host i find it slightly easier.

120fps also helps, noticed a difference on Cold War, I find I edge most 50/50 encounters where as 60fps I lose more.

Learning the maps though I find the most important. I am more of a camping player rather than charge in attacking though I do have my moments doing that. I’d rather flank attack and get drop on people and avoid face to face where possible.

Gradually getting better at Cold War though, EKD at 1.75 now, gone of the days with 0 kill and 18 deaths like my first game. Aim is to get to 2.5-3.

Warzone I suck at though, it’s locked to 60fps and even though I have won 4 games I hardly kill anything. I prefer Cold War faster movements and gun play. My kd must be like 0.2-0.3. My nephew carries me at it, he will get like 10-20 kills and me like 1 if lucky.

Warzone has loads more cheaters too which does not help but I have had fun games on it.

I should start playing few singles on it and try learn map better but priority is levelling guns in Cold War at moment.

Out of interest, anyone else use inverted vertical axis. Out of all my friends that play shooters I am only one that uses.

 

[clv101]

So here we are at the crux of the problem, i'm too old. I'm 42 now. I had kids too late, so i'm constantly tired trying to keep up with them, made worse by working from home, and they consume almost all my time. i have enough hobbies that i dont have time to do, so i'm not looking to become "a gamer". I dont generally enjoy life at the moment, and i dont need more frustration in my life.

I'm well aware i will never be "good" and i'm happy with that. If i play CS:Go on deathmatch. If ive had a good match, i'm in the lower middle of the results table. i'll have, say, 15-20 kills. the winner is at 60 odd i think, but i dont tend to look and my mate is usually similar to me... ive died a million times though. And to be honest, i'm alright with that because its still fun. I accept, that considering all the above, ive done alright.

There are probably 'eaiser' games out there, more accessible, satisfying and fun for the casual gamer. I'm having a good time with Doom 2016 ATM for example.

 

[BUDFORCE]

@champ222 Like you I'm a slightly older player (later 30's) with less and less time to play, but want to enjoy and get better at shooters again.

I'm finding playing PUBG fun at the moment because I can play with a consistent group made up of friends and / or my brother (who is a much better player). I'm not getting bumed about being bad because I'm getting better every time I play but mostly because PUBG is a social activity where I can joke around with ym friends over discord, so even if I die early game (I usually do) I'm still ahving a good time.

It's has a really high level of skill now. I have nearly 1000 hours and get my arse handed to me by most, that being said, I can tell many of the players less experienced, anyone less than level 500 really, occasionally you'll get a good lower player but not often then some of those will be cheating.

But, I'm in my late 30's....... literally age.....I just don't have the reactions and hand eye coordination when I was like 17 playing the original counter strike.