I need help to choose High Sensitivity vs Low Sensitivity

[zlFrosT]

Hello, I am new to the shooter and I would like to know if I would benefit from high sensitivity or low sensitivity and why?

Mouse: Logitech G403 Prodigy

Mousepad : Steel Series QcK 45x40

i use 400 dpi 

[TheNoobPolice]

It's personal preference entirely and also depends on the game. You basically have four options:

1: Use a high sens (approx <20cm 360 turn) and have instant reactivity but sacrifice accuracy, especially in a game that requires long range shooting or countering recoil. Good for chaotic games where you need to constantly be checking your back though. This is often best paired with a heavy mouse and slower pad to assist with control. Important to remember - you can still be accurate with a high sens if you get good enough.

2: Use a low sens (approx >45cm 360 turn) and have high aiming accuracy at the expense of having to put in either more effort to 180 or just accept that it will be more cumbersome to be reactionary than on a high sens. Also, requires a larger mouse area on your desk of  course, and the differences in cables and mouse feet become more apparent and important due to the increased travel distance on the mouse. Usually best paired with a lighter mouse and faster pad. Similarly to point 1: You can still be highly reactive with a low sens if you get good enough.

3: Use a middle sens between the two - and have a compromise, of course (duh!). This compromise approach may also be of the type where you choose to have a fast hipfire sens and a low aiming sens in a game that allows it. Some people like to have sensitivity matched by various methods for aiming down sight compared to hipfire, other people prefer it feels different.

4: Experiment with using a custom acceleration curve that gives you both worlds but requires an entirely different approach to aiming and a much higher learning curve. Most people will tell you to not try this but it's normally players who have never tried it properly using the right tools or invested the time to develop it. There's only currently two viable options for this in my opinion; Custom Curve 2.0 by Grady Interface solutions and Povohat & Kovaak's accel driver. Despite using this myself in many games, if you are very new to gaming (or mouse aiming at least) I also still wouldn't recommend this as it is a much more complicated thing to approach, and you would NEVER use accel that is provided in a game (unless maybe in Quake Live)  or via a manufacturer's mouse driver or the Windows check box.

The main advice though is not just to copy someone else's settings just because they are a good gamer you look up to. They will be good for other reasons not related to their mouse sensitivity most likely. You can also experiment with sensitivity without any long term detriment to your play - it's not going to "ruin muscle memory" or anything like that. Contrary to common opinion, you don't really train muscle memory when gaming to a particular sensitivity - you really just train hand-eye co-ordination as your ability to aim really relies on visual tracking / feedback more than anything else. Of course if you play with one sens for a long time you will get "used" to it, but you can also always adapt to a different approach very quickly.

[iBerggman]

I have no personal experience with that high of a sensitivity but to me it seems like it would be counter intuitive to use a heavy mouse with <20cm sensitivities, if you think about it the higher the sensitivity is the smaller distances you have to be able to move for accurate micro corrections or whatever you want to call it? To me that means that you'd ideally want as fast mousefeet as you can get coupled with a light mouse on a pad with low initial friction so you're able to effortlessly do consistent millimeter precise movements, good luck doing that on something like a G-SR.

Not too sure about low sensitivity requiring ultra lightweight mice either, personally I've always thought you want a bit of friction/weight so it stays controllable. I've never reached that point (yet?) but I have a feeling that if you go too fast/light on the glide you might actually be hurting your accuracy, kind of how it's hard to write/draw precisely on a whiteboard due to the lack of friction. The way I play I sometimes even flick the mouse almost as fast as I physically can move my arm so a little weight might honestly be beneficial but then again I haven't really tried any really lightweight mice so I guess I shouldn't speak until I've tried a Model O or something like that. I definitely agree that you have to find out your preferences on your own though, copying someones setup can only get you so far.

[Siroh]

Choose what you find most comfortable and then match that sensitivity to other games. A good way to find if it works or not is how accurate you are when first trying it out, if you can do perfect 180's or you can hit targets/ track targets more accurately with that sensitivity than stick to it. The PSA method is a very good one to use in my opinion, sure your sensitivity will change if you change your setup, however it will give you the best sensitivity for you based on your setup.