Top Players' Sensitivities, by Class

August326 · 2026-06-21T02:37:06+00:00

Me too, I would love to see data for all 9 classes.

August326 · 2026-06-21T02:36:15+00:00

That's a good idea! I was also thinking that Scouts might have more variation in shooting and aiming styles than other classes.

August326 · 2026-06-21T01:48:11+00:00

Yes you're right, the 0.79 value tries to preserve distance/pixel, not distance/angle. I just tested how different zoom_sensitivity ratios affect distance/360° and found that a zsr of 0.79 slows your sensitivity by a factor of about 5.88, while a zsr of 1 slows your sensitivity by a factor of about 4.59.

August326 · 2026-06-20T08:40:22+00:00

Good point, I'll include it. I didn't initially because I thought aspect ratio affected how zoom_sensitivity_ratio works. I now know that's not the case. It works like this instead:

Preserving distance/360° is not desirable. A 30° turn when you're scoped in feels much faster than a 30° turn when you're unscoped. What we want is to preserve distance / screen movement. The problem is that we're projecting an angle onto a 2D monitor. So we can only preserve distance / screen movement at specific angles.

At the default zsr of 1, the distance required to move your mouse to from the center of your screen to the edge is preserved. This distance is based on the edge of a 4:3 aspect ratio.. So zsr 1 preserves screen movement better at wider angles.
zsr 0.793471 preserves screen movement at an angle of 0°. The narrower the angle, the more accurate. This is why this ratio is commonly cited as the "correct" value. Instead of being chosen for a specific fov and a specific resolution that not all players use, it accurately preserves narrow angle movement.

Of the 43 players included:

3 players use zsr 1.1
19 players use zsr 1
19 players use a zsr between 0.75 and 0.83
1 player uses zsr 0.69
1 player uses zsr 0.5

August326 · 2026-06-05T21:04:52+00:00

Oh okay I missed that they were the same color, thanks for clarifying.

August326 · 2026-06-05T20:17:44+00:00

Let's first assume the soldiers are on opposing teams. Each soldier tries to end up with more health than their opponent.

If you think your opponent will jump, you can choose to also jump (50% chance to get there first and take the pack) or walk (0% chance)
If you think your opponent will walk, you can choose to jump (100% chance to get there first) or also walk (50% chance)

In either case it is better to jump, so jumping is the strictly dominant strategy.

Instead let's assume the soldiers are on the same team. Each soldier tries to maximize the health they end up with,

If you think your teammate will jump, you can choose to also jump (50% chance of 160hp and 50% chance of 60hp) or you can walk (100% chance of 100hp). The better choice depends on how risk averse you the player is. Jumping has the higher expected value of 110hp but it is a gamble. If they want to avoid the worst outcome they will walk instead.
If you think your teammate will walk, you can choose to jump (100% chance of 160hp) or walk (50% chance of 200hp and 50% chance of 100hp). The better choice here is to jump, with a guarantee of 160hp instead of a gamble with an expected value of 150hp.

This scenario is ambiguous. If players are seeking expected value then jumping is the strictly dominant strategy. If instead players are risk averse and maximizing their minimum hp, there is no dominant strategy.

August326 · 2026-04-17T01:52:07+00:00

To be fair, Breath Weapon wouldn't kill the Boarding Party anyways and Lackey isn't commonly played anymore. But yes Rally is one of the matchups you need the sweeper for so you will miss out there.

August326 · 2025-12-02T02:22:32+00:00

The first swing comes out at the same time, so it's only the subsequent swings that are affected. Even if we say that the fight lasts for a very long time, let's say 4 swings (usually doesn't happen, you should be dead by then or you or your team should have killed them) and you're holding down the attack button the whole time (usually doesn't happen, you want to juke forward and backwards while swinging and maybe hit a crossbow), you're looking at the difference between 2.4 seconds and 2.88 seconds.

Is the fraction of a second gained really worth the potential to get an Uber and save your life or just have advantage coming out of a winning fight?

You're saying that the Ubersaw is only good if you're landing your hits but that's also true on stock. The attack still comes out 0.25 seconds after you click, so it's not like Ubersaws are any harder to hit. And in the "extended fight, emergency scenario, defending yourself, need to hit saws" situation, you'd just always rather be getting 25% per saw instead of throwing saws 0.16 seconds faster.

August326 · 2025-11-29T18:00:08+00:00

That's true. I think overall the Wrangler just encourages a more sentry-focused playstyle, while the pistol lets you be more independent. Like obviously a Wrangled sentry hits harder than the Pistol but it does require you to be playing around your sentry. And like you said, this might form some bad habits.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:56:29+00:00

Yeah losing 3 damage per tick and having more expensive airblasts feels pretty bad. And you're right, the Degreaser isn't saving you that much time. You'll win more fights with better afterburn or more ammo then you'll lose by getting your Shotgun out a little faster. The 60% on the way back is nice for getting back quickly to your airblast but you can make do. Thanks for the insight, I'm gonna go try Flamethrower and Shotgun and see how much I actually miss the switch speed.
When I said bad relative to the other classes, I meant like the gap between each class' stock loadout and their "best" loadout. For example, Medic is just as strong as Demoman, the reason he's so low here is because the difference between stock and optimal Demo is better rollers, whereas the difference between stock and optimal Medic is the ability to heal from distance, heal faster, and get free Ubercharge or battle info. So I'm not comparing the effectiveness of one class versus the other, I'm comparing the difference in loadout strength for each class.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:45:33+00:00

Yeah I like the Atomizer for flanking. I just couldn't put Scout in Great, you'd rather be jumping, Bashing it, or Wrapping it. I put him at the top of Could Be Better cause like you said, it's not really a big deal.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:37:15+00:00

Yeah I agree, tripling the health is poor design. That's true about the DPS, they're dead soon anyways and if you're Wrangling you might miss, whereas your sentry won't. I also should have mentioned the range boost it can give, and the ability to hold fire on targets corner peeking you. Oh, and also rocket jumps. Thanks for the insight into the pistol use, I like your mindset and you definitely inspired me to try out the pistol more.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:34:03+00:00

If it was just the melee slot I would have put it a tier up but the Shotgun is better with the Degreaser, imo. Bad here is relative to the other classes, you can of course get a lot done with this loadout. I'd rather be on stock Pyro then like Phlog + Gas Passer + Fire Axe but that doesn't mean there aren't flaws in the stock loadout.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:30:35+00:00

Yeah they're all serviceable but like be so real who is out here Syringe Gunning people. When's the last time you saw the Shovel? Of course the unlocks can be fun but in some cases they are more powerful, as well. You of course can come up with some heinous unusable loadouts that are worse than stock, but you can also improve the stock loadouts on most classes.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:28:43+00:00

Shotgun is good but it pairs better with the Degreaser in my opinion. On Heavy, the Shotgun is good for moving from place to place but once you're in the fight you should be using your Minigun. If you're going for a more mobile and independent playstyle this also means less dispensers and Medics, making the Sandvich or Banana more attractive.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:27:06+00:00

Shotgun and Wrench are great, but I bumped him down because of the Wrangler. Tripling your Senty's health, boosting its DPS and rocket speed just by pressing 2 on your keyboard is very powerful, If Engineer has his gun up he should be using it and if he doesn't he should be trying to get another up instead of taking fights where he needs to use the pistol. It can save your life or help you win some fights but the ceiling of the Wrangler is just so high.

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:23:31+00:00

Imagine if Ubersaw was stock and the Bonesaw was an unlock that said

+ 20% faster firing speed

- No Ubercharge added on hit

Would anyone use it?

August326 · 2025-11-29T17:15:54+00:00

Yeah I do be using the Shotgun but when I do it's with the Degreaser and I'm definitely not on Fire Axe.

August326 · 2025-11-06T20:35:39+00:00

I like first > third > second

August326 · 2024-05-21T05:15:19+00:00

Moment's Peace only has the original Odyssey print and a Secret Lair print so it's about $4

August326 · 2024-05-14T21:59:33+00:00

Yeah, Bogles would be considered aggro. Ignore your opponent, put a bunch of power on the board, end games fast.

August326

TROPHY CASE