High tier mouse player uses a controller - constructive discussion
Just wanted to air my thoughts & findings of my BF6 session today using a controller - can’t post this on the main BF6 sub for some reason but here we go
I want to preface and say I have no bias or preference if you are a controller or a MnK player - play what you enjoy and as you should hopefully read on, I feel that both inputs are fairly well balanced
I’m a decent mouse player, Master rank in the Voltaic benchmarks apparently puts me in the top 3-4% of aim trainers. I love the knowledge/science behind learning to aim correctly (it’s a deep rabbit hole) and I understand it well along with the practical follow through to back up the theory.
I usually play BF6 with a mouse and do pretty well, 4.5k/d and drop a 100+ kill game every now and then as infantry - I still die a lot due to being a rush/frontline kind of player and making bad positioning decisions (definitely a game sense issue)
Today I decided to play with a controller, I use controller on and off, never really seriously and not played much of BF6 with a controller. I used a controller for majority of my childhood and on/off gaming later on. I would consider myself maybe above average with a controller when I’m dialled in.
Before I started BF6 I did a few aiming routines in aimlabs with the controller, like I would do with a mouse before I play any FPS game, even if it’s a casual game like BF6. Aimlabs has no aim assist and the settings are quirkier than the settings in BF6 but I did it anyway
First game I load into with a controller, I go on a tear and get an 18 kill streak off the bat, ending a game of Escalation 53-9 - my brain could not fathom??? Perhaps an easier lobby? There were no bots in this lobby
Load into a second game, this time Breakthrough. Few deaths straight away. Perhaps my last game was a fluke and this is controller for me??? Come back with 13 kills straight to bring to me 13-4. Attacking side, lost the game, top of the leaderboard and 41-11.
These are the sort of k/d’s that I get with my mouse?! Is my 1000+ hours of aim training totally wasted in a game like BF6 lol???
My conclusion:
Playing with a controller was really fun for me and I enjoyed every minute of it. There were straight up kills I got with a controller that I knew I’d likely have not gotten with a mouse. Example - enemy is on a nasty head glitch and I can only see a tiny head in the distance, controller just ended them quickly. I know with a mouse these are trickier to hit and often require tap firing. Hip firing on a controller is a lot fun too!
The aim assist, I definitely visually saw, and felt, the reticle sticking to the enemy. Is it too strong? I don’t think so. I just wanted to pick up a controller and play, and be somewhat competitive and I was just that. I am objectively better with a mouse because of the time I’ve spent working on that skill, but I was just as good, and quite quickly. I think it’s balanced for the most part. Although if I had spent 1000+ hours aim training with a controller instead of a mouse, I think the outcome would be ridiculous. I felt the Aimlabs routines I was running for controller were really really beneficial and gave me a boost even before I shot an enemy in game.
What assist struggled with on controller was the snap of a mouse. If you have good aim with a mouse you know this is called target switching, it’s potentially one of my strongest aiming categories. Going from 2 or more adjacent enemies on controller is more difficult for sure. A mouse I will just snap from 1st to 2nd with no issues. If the enemies are behind one another, I always use penetration ammo so it felt the same on controller and MnK. The controller felt like sticky and hard to switch to the next target.
Recoil, I only noticed it marginally. It’s definitely a little less on controller, on guns like the VCR for example, I can beam at considerable distance full auto with a controller and won’t get away with that as much on a mouse.
I play with 40cm/360 in BF6 on mouse and I used 70 sensitivity on controller. It felt really cool to be able to flick and rotate on controller really fast, it was odd seeing my screen move so rapidly. To the point going back to mouse felt visually slow.
Finally - I believe the game is balanced for both inputs. I love that if I’m not feeling like using a desk/mouse I can just sit back with a controller and play and still have fun. I’m going to start implementing small amounts of time to controller aim training the same way I would with a mouse aiming program and I’m excited to see the results and how they translate in game.
Anybody else experimented with this? Or gone down a different route? I know some mouse players will use a controller if the game has aim assist so I’m curious to hear/discuss
