I’m not necessarily objecting to this, but are you sure? At the 2 or 3 shot down range, I always thought that I’m better off aiming at their upper body than at their feet due to increased damage.
OK I reread what you said. I think you’re saying the opponent will take more damage on the upper body than lower simply because the upper is a larger area and therefore will take more pellets. Not necessarily because the pellets themselves inflict more damage.
So I think we can agree though that you will put more damage on someone by aiming at their upper body than their lower body, right?
As for the OP:
Competitive IMO rewards movement, accuracy, team
work to a degree, and skill better than core. This is certainly the idea behind the tuning and I think it holds true. Not to say that skill doesn’t play any part in core, obviously. You have to be skilled to excel in both consistently, but the approach is a little different.
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when hip firing, yes.
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in close up battles, generally I hip fire because I think I’m more accurate and quicker to react that way. Especially when you’re in a sudden 1v1 at close/gib range. But this doesn’t mean you should do the same. Ive had a sort of obsessive tendency to watch other people’s gameplay and I notice all sorts of varying techniques with good players. Find what works for you. The downside to hipfiring in general is that the spread is wider therefore inflicting less damage than a hard aim/popshot.
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I will second that the spread is the same. As I said, in case you’re not aware, spread is smaller when hard aiming/pop shotting than it is while hip firing/blind firing. A smaller spread is favorable because more pellets land on the opponent therefore inflicting more damage. But that doesn’t mean you should always hard aim. If you’re much quicker to react to their movement and more accurate with your shots in fast paced situations, then hip firing is better IMO.
I find my pop shots pretty hit and miss but some people are very accurate with them. At the 2-3 shot down range, a player who can popshot, perform a timed bounce, popshot, bounce and popshot in just about any situation and LAND their shots each time is a force to be reckoned with.
- I’m going to say too that your settings are probably too high. It took me almost a year to finally stop messing with my sensitivity and when I did, I settled on something in the slower range. There are a lot of really good players with good movement and accuracy who have very low sensitivity. I would recommend taking it down to maybe 24-22-22 with your dead zones the way they are and try that. There are a ton of players who go lower than that. Accuracy always trumps speed. I personally use 26-18-18 with inner 3 and outer 7. I feel agile enough moving my camera but nice and accurate with lancer and snipe (well…I actually sort of suck at snipe…still working on the muscle memory there) Id keep your dead zones the same and just mess with the 3 top numbers and lower them a bit.
The important thing is to give it a while to allow your brain to adjust. And commit. Muscle memory is so important. I’m a little older myself (34) than a lot of the 16 year olds and I’m finally getting to where I can rely on muscle memory to get out of a lot of situations where I may not be able to with reflexes alone. So find a sensitivity and STICK with it for a long time to allow that muscle memory to become a thing.
- as far as mastering the technical aspects of performing the up a, nothing but experience is going to help with that. Go into a private match and practice the up A and back A. Better yet if you could get a friend to be a sitting duck for you that would be better that way you can see if you can actually kill them. If you like, you can shoot me a message some time and I’d be happy to be your sitting duck for a while. I don’t have a mic tho atm.
Up A works OK for unsuspecting opponents when you need to be on the move. You’ll find that in the higher ranks especially when you know your enemy is watching you approach them as they sit there undistracted, the up A is a total crapshoot. I generally counter the up A by simply stepping back from cover at the perfect time and shooting. No back a or side a needed for me.
So many techniques used in this game it’s mind blowing. Nothing but experience, trial, error, and making a lot of mistakes is going to help you improve. Go into social and make a fool of yourself with practicing the up A and with some time you’ll get a feel for what situations you’re likely to get away with it and what situations you probably won’t (I don’t think anyone ever gets to the point where they know for sure their up A is going to work for them lol)
A lot of players find the back A more reliable and less risky. Understand that the back A can be performed at many different angles. Not just when the opponent is directly in front of you.
Also when learning new techniques, I find it easier to focus on one at a time. Experiment with it a lot and die a lot. That’s the only thing that’s going to teach you how and when to use it (such as the up a)
I love it when I run into older guys playing this game. Don’t let the age deter you from destroying kids! Things like strategy, patience, smarts, and muscle memory can go a hell of a long way IMO. I reached onyx 3 as a solo player in TDM and KOTH after a year playing (never touched a video game before) and I never ever thought I’d be able to do that not too long ago. Just don’t give up and be patient with yourself as far as improvements go. Watch other people play. Evaluate yourself. Think about what you can do to improve and how. You’ll get better eventually.
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