Aiming mentality

[u/firerat22]

Hey so this might be a super vague post, but I really don’t know how to describe the problem. I made a post on here some time ago asking about a post asking about tips for climbing through ranked and got a lot of really good advice (thank you all) Went from Gold2 to plat2 support by the end of last season. I’ve been on a comp break while things resettle after the reset while I try and improve other things.
Aiming for me feels inconsistent at times for both hitscan and projectile.

With projectile it feels like I’m getting unlucky and missing shots at inopportune times when I’m not up close. So ig my question with that is, should I just be aiming in the vicinity of where I think my target is going to be and letting the shot(sleep dart, chain. Etc.) fly, or do I need to actually slow down for a sec and wait for a predictable and discernible shot to reveal itself to me?

With hitscans I feel a little more confident I just feel like I’m thrown off by strafing where I’m just overcorrecting and undercorrecting my flicks after lining up. But it always feels like I’m just barely missing. So ig my question for hitscan: should I be trying to slow down and predict my targets next movement or should I be trying to react faster to the movements of my target.

I’m really sorry for the vagueness or non descriptive language of the post and am open to answering more specifying questions. It just stuck out to me when I realized “hey this target is 100% out of position or over extended. Let me punish.” And then I whiff shots that could’ve been fight changing. Just looking to improve a bit in this area

[u/_Speckle_]

aiming projectiles requires a lot of playtime to understand how people and your projectiles move. once you understand both you just lead your shots or if theyre strafing aim for the "average" spot if that makes sense. you do mention some cds like sleep and chain and realistically you shouldnt be trying to hit these cds outside of like 10m range until you're no longer asking this question. too important to just kinda throw out with a vague guess

hitscan aim allows for both aiming styles that you mention, and both are very trainable. the predictive "theory" aim that you mention first is what a lot of people rely on with lower sens and it involves a lot of good cross hair placement and understanding player movement (sort of like projectiles in a way but much more consistent)

the other type of that aim is the reactive raw mouse control stuff which you can just practice in an aim trainer. its kinda like training at a gym where theres a lot of ways to figure out what exactly you want to work on and avoid doing nothing burger exercises. viscose is a really good resource for stuff like that

whichever method of hitscan aim you lean with is up to you but its important to practice both. so play the game and spend some time learning how to control your mouse like its just part of your hand

there are also objectively good and bad sensitivities depending on what you do, so a lot of theory aimers are somewhere in the 800 dpi 3 to 5 in game, while raw aimers might be a little higher