As such, the guide is loosely divided in two parts. The first with the purpose of showing you various surface level ideas in order to inspire your own thoughts and will to research further, and the second to discuss the various means of practice and mental approaches to integrate those ideas into your intuition. I believe that good strafing is very achievable for anyone with a decent brain, provided with the proper inspiration, practice, and effort.
The AIMER7 guides are a highly recommended pre-reading (and entirely necessary post-reading if you’re serious about improving). More about this in the Appendix.
The artful dodger is a lazy old man. The artful dodger is a man of principle who is not afraid to go his own direction. He has an intention with every keypress. Every movement or lack thereof has a purpose in mind. The artful dodger is calm and confident in his convictions and abilities to achieve his goals. The artful dodger sees the dance for what it is. The artful dodger puts himself in situations where he has to do little, while his enemy must do a lot. His moves are not predetermined and does not follow strict rules that can be forced blindly. The artful dodger is fluid and merging, always adapting to his surroundings, at any point ready to recede or advance; but ultimately preferring to stay where he is if possible. 1
The artful dodger, relying on concepts and theory, has more consistent damage input/output (damage taken/dealt) than someone relying only on his mouse control and ad-spam. This lower variance in input/output allows for more accurate damage foresight, leading both to better decisions in the moment, and also to long-term improvement of gamesense as a whole; if your mechanics are consistent, it is easy to isolate decision making as the main attributor of any given fight’s success or failure. This concept-based approach also helps for high pressure games - as they’re easier to execute than more strictly mechanical approaches when nervous.
If you want an unfortunately accurate analogy, you can compare the artful dodger to the gameplay of a controller player: it’s calm, consistent, and easy to execute despite nerves.
An obvious requirement to strafing well is understanding what goal your strafe is meant to achieve. There are certain simple goals: maximizing damage dealt, minimizing damage taken, moving around the map; and more advanced ones: maintaining a good geometric position2 , dodging enemies to your side/above (while maintaining ”proper goal” to an enemy in front), or pushing at a certain timing to illicit a response from your enemy3 . Begin by focusing your attention on the simpler goals, and the more advanced ones will come in time as you will have developed the necssary geometric positioning and strafing skills. Of course, it is rare that we have one and one goal only for any given situation, more often you’ll have a hierachy of goals with varying ratios.
With true intentful strafing, a lot of the following contents in this document will come naturally to you. For example, if you think about it enough, it shouldn’t be hard to see which purposes your W/S keys, a certain position, or even standing still could achieve. Consider a 1v1 where you are behind an enemy in a good position, what is the best strafe? Is there a point in moving at all?
AIMER7 has written an excellent document on the topic, and if you’re feeling rusty on your knowledge - go read at least pages 1-7. Strafeaim can loosely be explained as strafing tactics that maximize damage dealt above all else. The most simple form is the mirror, in which you match the direction your enemy is moving; meaning that both of you can keep your mouses still and hit 100%4 . Ask yourself when this would be useful? Two answers are when you have more HP, or a higher dps weapon. You don’t mind trading hits in these cases, since your enemy will die before you do. Strafeaim is a very core fundamental which should be the first thing you practice and grow comfortable with (KovaaK’s is a useful tool for this).5
The different strafeaim forms have different characteristics, and are as a result applicable in different situations. Situations with variables that change very fast. Do not then view strafeaiming as something you go into a fight doing, and necessarily committing to throughout. But be flexible and adapt. Master the forms and use them frequently, but don’t be stubborn. React by feel when the variables change (which is: almost always). You will merge in and out of strafeaim often and in a beautiful dance, depending on what your enemies demand of you in that given millisecond. Your movement should be intentional and in accordance with the current variables of the situation - so while you want to be fluid and ready to change up your movement at any time, there has to be a meaningful reason to do so. If the variables are relatively the same throughout, which happens on rare occasions, and you have already adopted an optimal strategy, then do not change a thing.
Let me present a very reductionist example. Say you enter a fight with mostly neutral variables, and you begin to anti-mirror your enemy. For the first few moments it feels as if you both hit relatively the same as each other, and so you maintain the form. However, a short moment later, your enemy moves himself into an unfavourable position, leaving him vulnerable to abuse if you act fast. You move into the geometrically advantageous position (which means you are no longer strafeaiming), and one of your new goals is now to maintain this positional advantage. A few moments later he neutralises the situation, despite your efforts to defend, and you now return to strafeaiming (presumably, since you had the positional advantage for some time, you now have an HP advantage and decide to mirror as a means to finish him off).
Again, this is very reductionist, and should not be used as an example of how to think about the art of strafing. It does, however, illuminate the merging in and out of strafeaim.6 Strafeaiming should be the default on which you fall back upon, but should be broken frequently in the pursuit of various measures. The way to achieve this fluidity is to begin by practising your strafeaim thoroughly, so that you are very comfortable with all forms and can execute them intuitively and without thinking. After you have achieved that level of comfort, strafeaiming should be a natural default for you ingame. As you now begin to practise achieving other goals with your movement (eg. dodging or geometric positioning) you will do these while still maintaining the default of strafeaim. This is how the perfect fluidity is achieved.
If there would exist a ”quick-fix” to get better dodge, it would be to have a global bias throughout the fight. To, over time, move towards one side more than the other. Think of it, loosely, as not finishing the fight on the same spot as you started it. Notice that if you do not use any bias (ie. your ad-spamming), your enemy can easily “underaim” at the middle of your strafes, hitting a lot with very little effort. By introducing bias you remove this possibility from him, while forcing him to aim at a larger angle 7 . Notice that ”ras-jumping/kr jumping” uses strictly zero global bias, and is a result easy to counter with correct strafing8 and aim strategy.
Being able to dodge with a bias also allows one the very important ability to relocate on the map mid-fight. This is of course very important in order to e.g. hide/expose an angle, move in respect to teammates/enemies, or achieve any other ”gamesense”-goal you can imagine.9
Be aware of the geometry that you and your enemy reside in. Notice the space where your enemy can be, and aim accordingly. For example, if your enemy is in a corridor, you never have to aim closer to the wall than 1 body width. Notice how positioning in a certain way can limit the amount of space your enemy has on your screen. Notice how the distance to a corner affects who can see who, and affects who has control over continuing or cancelling the fight. Notice the psychological effect of dodging into a wall; your enemy will likely expect you to dodge back out - you can use that to your advantage. Notice what certain inputs do when you’re below an enemy. Notice what distance to openings does to the available space your enemy has on your screen. Notice that players tend to feel unreasonably safe right next to cover (”since they can hide any time”), and will dodge there with no bias; giving you many free hits by just spamming next to the cover. Notice that when an enemy wants to hide, he’ll often go towards cover in one straight line. Of course, all of these scenarios have a reverse complement, where you are in the enemy’s shoes.
When fighting a weaker opponent, I often experience a sense of mind control. I feel as if I decide what my opponent will do, just an instant before he does, and he rarely does anything I hadn’t pre-decided. I’m always comfortable and never surprised. When you move in a way that the enemy has difficulty aiming at, he will naturally use his movement to make aiming easier12 : meaning that you just controlled his movement. When an enemy tries to force an attack but you defend well, he is forced to cancel, and: you just controlled his movement. When an enemy is in a poor position and you are taking advantage of it, he is forced to try to leave it in a more or less predictable manner: you just controlled his movement.
The goal of practice is to take new ideas and grow familiar with them. Either through sheer experimentation or by taking concepts that you are more or less convinced of theoretically, and developing a sense of how it feels when applied. Think up ideas on your own and try them extensively in intensive practice.
Of course, when playing an important game you do not want to be actively thinking about your movement. Your theoretical convictions (easy to achieve) have to be integrated to such a degree that you can execute them by feel and on autopilot (hard to achieve). To trust your intuition enough to execute a “previously” foreign technique to you in an important game requires substantial practice. And the only feasible way to achieve a high level of mastery of these concepts is with dedicated and intensive such: Quake lg duel/uht/ca, KovaaK’s, Firing Range, r5reloaded, Control, Pubs/Arena are all decentish (with lg and uht being far superior, but unfortunately rapidly dying).
You have to actively be thinking during practice. You should deliberately try to geometrically position, strafeaim, have bias in your dodge, or whatever it may be that you’re currently practising (one at a time, of course). 1v1s lend themselves naturally to this, as there is a short break between every fight where you have time to think what you want to practice in the next round. Being creative and seeking out means (not only technically but also mentally, ie: you can’t be nervous or care about looking bad) of intensive practice where you can deliberately try new random shit is imperative to your success. After I read Geometric Positioning seriously for the first time I went on a fake name (because I didn’t want to care about looking bad) and played some hours of lg duel, only thinking about taking angles on my opponent. The fights were ridiculous, but I improved a lot. This is a process I’ve done on many aspects.
Another very underrated thing is to surround yourself with better players13 Better players often take on the role as a coach to their friends and teammates, and even if they aren’t great teachers (or have good understanding), simply 1v1ing them is good practice for you. Just make sure to not copy him too hard (he’s probably not worth copying) or try to win too hard by developing very specific counter-strategies; always remember to experiment and practice the fundamental concepts. Of course, when a better player agrees to play you or help you out, be thankful and respectful. Do not whine or waste his time. I’m not saying this because I value respectfulness, but because it is in your interest to do so.
Watching top players can also be good. Here I’d recommend that you do not attempt to analyze specifics or details until you are very high skill. Instead, focus on taking in the ”feel” or ”look” of their fights, and try to emulate that. It’s hard for me to recommend specific players to watch, since I don’t know when in the future you’ll be reading this, but faye14 is a safe bet as an incredibly high skill player. For Apex players you’ll have to seek them out on your own; look at who people regard as good and compare them to the description of the artful dodger.
Have the courage to actually play the game and stop being a panicking little baby. Trust your convictions and intuition. Many are too afraid to ever stop ad-spamming, perma jumping, and even to delay their wingman shot by a few ms. Realise that the game is not that hard. Your target is not that small, and he’s not moving that fast. He’s also not hitting that much, and he’s not that good. Simplify the game and view it for what it actually is. Look at what is real rather than what your chicken brain tells you.
Most people have a very warped sense of what their enemy can actually do (look at how they aim if you don’t believe me). In most given situations his set of options is quite limited, and they span a small output. Be aware of what your enemy wants or has to do. Realizing e.g. that your enemy wants to hide around a corner, it can lead to a very easy anti-mirror (to rotate around the corner with him and expose him for longer) or mirror (if that will finish him off before he disappears). Sometimes I see players aim into walls as if expecting their enemy to noclip into it, or flick manically as if they believe their enemy is much faster than he actually is.
It is not a matter of “actual” nerves, either. As in: it’s not an issue restricted to important games. Rather, it is a fundamental issue caused by a lack of simplification and ability to see. Simplification in the tangible sense of what you do ingame. Of course, if you flick manically all over the place while ad-spamdodging without strafeaiming and jumping every other second, it will be hard for you to see reality. Your enemy moves across your screen erratically and at high changing speeds. Compare this to the artful dodger, who frequently strafeaims and moves his mouse effectively (both leading to enemy moving slower on his screen), positions well geometrically (leading to enemy having less options), and controls his enemy’s movement through carefully timed pushes on hard angles (leading to almost necessary predictability).
Of course, calmness requires a certain level of confidence. Being an artful dodger can be scary, since it doesn’t feel like you’re doing much when you eg. do a longer strafe or keep your mouse still at the middle of your enemy’s strafes, even though they might be the best plays. As such, it takes time and experience of seeing that these concepts work to develop the sufficient confidence required to execute them well. A feedback loop at best, a catch-22 at worst.
I have to make a strong note here. This document is an inferior version of the AIMER7 guides, filled with inaccuracies and dumbing-downs, and without the holistic approach. The AIMER7 guides: Strafe Aiming 101, Heuristic about geometric positioning, and the dodge parts of his & zorro7’s tracer guide, are REALLY REALLY REALLY good. I’ve recommended them to every client I’ve coached, and everyone tells me they’ll read them, the issue is: for some reason they never do. That’s why I’ve reluctantly written this guide (and why I haven’t done it before) - I’m not the best person for it, and it shouldn’t even have had to be written.
This document is written in a different style to AIMER7’s guides, hopefully better suited for the ADHD brains of semi-/pros. It is soaked in artsy, ”Art of War”, flimsical bullshit. This is intentional to keep your attention, as is the fact that I didn’t talk any real technical details. View this document as an introduction to the topic, to awaken some thoughts and inspirations in you - but a document which indeed has to be complemented with the technical texts if you want to achieve real maturity. Let me repeat myself: this document is to an overwhelming degree based on AIMER7’s writings, and while I have quoted him frequently and at length, you need to read the source material for the proper holistic understanding. The entire purpose of this document was to inspire people to go read his guides - I hope it worked.
As a finishing note, it can be difficult to discuss these matters abstractly and without the context of a real fight. If you’d like to discuss these topics more tangibly, I recommend you join the @d0dgerz discord. There are plenty of interested people there who will 1v1 you, look at your fights, or just discuss the topic in general.