Effective DPI battle: Wrist aiming vs arm aiming

[Kenny]

DPI and Sensitivity settings

Effective DPI equals mouse DPI (dots per inch) * in game sensitivity
Example, eDPI of 800 can be 400 DPI * 2 sens= 800 eDPI, or 800 DPI * 1 sens= 800 eDPI

While both eDPI are the same number, the higher DPI and sens lower than 1 is superior (pros got it all wrong, shocking!). In general, use the mouse native DPI, you have to find it at the manufacturer's website, and a sensitivity lower than 1 to avoid pixel skipping. Sensitivity greater than 1 is similar to zooming into a picture, which makes the picture blurry... and it makes the crosshair jaggy. Now, does it really matter that you have sensitivity greater than 1? Not really unless it is greater than 10 probably. But technically, the ideal is lower than or equal to 1.
In addition, it is best to set mouse raw input on, and mouse acceleration off in the CSGO mouse settings.

Wrist aiming vs arm aiming

Now, the common advice for beginners is lower the eDPI (or colloquially, lower the sens). But how low eDPI is too low, and how high eDPI is too high? It depends on whether you are wrist aiming or arm aiming.

Wrist aiming here will refer to being able to do 120~180 degrees turn with just the full wrist swipe (from experience, it's 800~1800 eDPI ). Arm aiming here will refer to being able to do less than 120 degrees turn with full mousepad swipe (from experience it's below 500 eDPI , and above 400 eDPI , for practical purposes) With wrist aiming, you lightly anchor your wrist on the mousepad, with arm aiming, you do not since you will move your whole arm to drag the crosshair.

Is arm aiming superior than wrist aiming or wot?

It depends on how well you can make yourself relax, and what type of environment you usually play in, high stress, low stress?
Biologically speaking, small muscles become tense more easily than large muscles when moving the same amount of weight (the mouse), duh... it's about proportion. But biologically speaking, there are more neurons per muscle fiber on small muscles than large muscles, allowing for fine motor control at the wrist, but not at the arm.

For beginners, they have more difficulty relaxing their wrists than their arms, and a lower eDPI (suggested range is around 500 eDPI +/- 100) may just be the better choice to allow effective arm aiming. If one plays in stressful environment often, then a lower eDPI indeed provides better consistency aim.

However, most advanced players do not arm aim, they may move their arms a lot to turn, but they aim with their wrist. Around 800 eDPI range, upwards to 1200 eDPI is what most pro players use. This range allows a hybrid approach, using arm to turn allows the wrist to relax while not aiming. Using the wrist to aim allows for fine crosshair adjustment.

With eDPI higher than 1200, (not recommended to go above 2000 eDPI) the player can essentially use only the wrist to turn 180. However, the stress on the wrist is increased many folds, as the player is using the wrist to both turn and aim. To effectively play at this eDPI range, the player is suggested to do wrist stretches and massages, regularly during gameplay (i.e. when dead or waiting) to 1. relax the wrist, 2. prevent repetitive strain injury at the wrist. See stretching exercises videos below. (Easiest wrist massage method, use a baseball sized ball, put it on the table and firmly roll your wrists back and forth, rotate your wrist in different angles while rolling back and forth to target different areas)



To summarize, beginners may start at a lower eDPI around 500 until they feel they can easily relax their wrist while playing. Then they can increase their eDPI to around 800 to allow for wrist aiming. If they prefer to increase their eDPI at this point, it is adviced not to increase past 2000 eDPI because there is no reason to do 360 degrees turn with just the wrist). The writer's opinion is that wrist aiming is indeed superior than arm aiming at advanced level, where players can easily relax their wrists while aiming, and because all pros aim with their wrist, duh

*P.S. Do not be afraid to increase your sensitivity, with the aim training regiment here (see here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/yo-shii/discussions/0/350543841948345576/), you will be able to tune to your new eDPI within 3 practice sessions. This writer was able to smoothly transition from 440 eDPI to 800, 800 to 1200, and 1200 to 1800 eDPI effortlessly within 3 days in each transition.









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbf4mBKq-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngUPvfQJVW0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9OCxQgmfL0