As the title might suggest, I’m wondering if there have been any changes made to aim assist on console added in with the Anniversary event update. I haven’t seen any mention of such in the patch notes, but since the release of the event something with aiming on console has just felt… off. If anyone else has noticed anything different about their aim, I’d like to know (if only to make sure I’m not just losing my mind). The rest of this post is gonna be explaining why I think something IS different, so if you already have some input to the question in the title or are simply drifting off from this post, you are allowed to skip. (Seriously, a lot of boring babble about settings and gratuitous praise of my own mechanical skill to follow. You’ve been warned). :]
For background reference, I’m a mid-master tank player (mainly Zarya, but I do play all roles a fair bit) and typically am in the top 1% for accuracy on hitscan heroes on Overbuff so I CAN aim (I guess…). I know, I know. No one cares that slightly above-average player is pleased with themselves for being slightly above-average (it does make me happy though), but I wanted to differentiate this post from being perceived as just another hardstuck gold player looking for an excuse as to why they might struggle to hit the broadside of a Rein shield. Anyway… the settings I normally use (and have checked to make sure they haven’t been changed) are:
DualZone
100h/100v
100 aim assist strength
25 aim assist window
0 aim assist ease in
0 aim smoothing
0 aim ease in
Aim assist legacy mode OFF
I also use KontrolFreeks on the right thumbstick.
I’ve been using these settings for well over a year now and have gotten very comfortable with them and how aiming at all sorts of targets feels. (Very scientific, I know). These settings were great for the heroes I play because they offered fast turning speed and very precise tracking aim (particularly in close to medium range). But since the latest patch, aiming in general has felt more cumbersome and the pull from moving targets seems much more pronounced. In short, I feel like I have less control over my aim and more is being done with behind-the-scenes corrections from the assist itself. In my experience from playing several hours yesterday, tracking something with Zarya’s beam, like a strafing McCree, is now harder, but an ulting Mercy can be brought down with much more ease than she used to. A Winston landing in front of you now drags your crosshair towards the ground, but trying to pull away from aiming at centre-mass of anything to alt fire at their feet as Zarya feels like a game of tug of war.
Prior to the update, I was able to move my crosshair off a target while staying within the inner zone (Dual Zone stuff for those that don’t use it). Now though, even on a stationary target I typically have to use the outer zone speed to pull away. It honestly feels like the old Legacy aiming mode or like I’ve got a high amount of aim smoothing applied, but only when there’s an enemy on my screen.
I’m fairly confident that something is different, but I’m not sure whether this is an unintentional bug or a deliberate change by Blizzard. I guess with Echo’s addition to the game, this being intentional would make a bit of sense, but even then I find it to be unnecessary. The myth that Pharah is hard to hit on console has been blown way out of proportion for ages and now I feel the devs think we need a bit more help hitting Echo too. Her hitbox is massive for her model size and regarding Pharah, I always felt that she was far easier to hit than a Widow/Hanzo/Soldier/ etc. playing at the same distance.
Overall, I feel the new aim assist has more negatives than positives and gives LESS control to the player.
Rant over. I’d love to here others takes on this. And hopefully we’ll get some clarification for the devs soon.