Carltton
A lot of this type of argument gets blown way out of proportion because of what’s shown on YouTube or Twitch. Most of those “OMG THE ABSOLUTE BEST SETTINGS FOR BATTLEFIELD 6” videos have more to do with gun attachments than actual aim assist. Streamers and content creators know how to make something look broken to get views and create brainrot content. It feeds the idea that controller players have some kind of hidden aimbot. The reality is you can adjust aim assist settings a bit: things like Aim Response Curve, Aim Assist Type, stick sensitivity, and deadzones. But none of that makes aim assist stronger. It just changes how it feels. Some settings make it smoother or snappier, others make it slower and steadier. It’s all personal preference, not some way to boost magnetism. You’re fine-tuning comfort and control, not turning it into an aimbot.
Aim assist is inconsistent, not overpowered. If it really gave a huge advantage, every top player would be using a controller by now, but the majority of pros still prefer mouse and keyboard for precision, flexibility, and consistency.
And about those “controller disadvantages” being made up, they’re not. Input delay is absolutely real. Acting like input delay doesn’t exist or I made it up is just wrong. Wireless controllers over Bluetooth can add 5 to 10 milliseconds easily, and even wired controllers on console often have a few frames of buffering delay that mouse setups on PC don’t. Then you add display latency from TVs or capped frame rates, and it adds up. The delay might be small, sure, but it’s measurable and it does exist. Pretending it doesn’t exist just makes you sound clueless about how hardware actually works. Every piece of tech introduces some level of latency. You might not always notice it, but it’s there. That’s not an excuse, that’s just physics and polling rates.
As for the “thumb vs. hand” argument, moving a thumb half an inch isn’t the same as full arm aim. The smaller your input range, the more coarse your control becomes, which is why sticks rely on smoothing and acceleration to feel natural. Cranking your sensitivity up doesn’t make you more precise, it just shortens your control range and makes small adjustments harder to manage. Mouse input is true 1:1 tracking, while controllers use curved input scaling. They are two completely different systems.
Controller players are just as tired of hearing PC players act like using a thumb to aim is some kind of advantage. We deal with stick drift that we constantly have to tune deadzones for, even on brand-new controllers, limited range of motion, slower fine-tuning, and analog input curves that are never perfectly linear. Aiming with your whole hand doesn’t make you disadvantaged, it’s just different. If aiming with a thumb was really that much easier, half of you would have dropped the mouse in FPS games years ago.
Forcing mixed inputs just stirs up arguments like this instead of letting players choose what and who they get dropped by. The idea that aim assist is some unfair, exploitable mechanic is mostly pushed by the loudest voices online. YouTubers and streamers love to call it broken one week and then use it themselves the next because controversy gets clicks.
Both inputs have their strengths and weaknesses. Mouse and keyboard offer better precision and reaction time, while controllers have smoother close-range tracking. The real issues are still hit registration, desync, and overall game consistency. If Battlefield fixed those, this entire debate would probably disappear.