English Text XIM Apex Competitive Overwatch Config Tutorial

Hey Everyone, and welcome to another ZIM Tutorial.

Today I will show you a very unique configuration setup that in my opinion results in the best mouse movements and aim assist in Overwatch. The setup will look a little bit strange on first sight but trust me, it will result in a phenomenal gaming experience. It will also work on the next gen consoles such as the Xbox Series x or Playstation 5.
Also, don’t skip the Necessary Preparation steps this time, they will include some major changes.

After the preparation steps I will start by showing you how to setup a configuration for heroes that only shoot from the hip. Next we will take a look at the configuration for Heroes that have an aim down sights, or zoom ability. In the following topic I will give you some recommendations on what aim assist settings in the in-game options work best for which hero. At last I will show you a nice Soldier trick that is commonly used by PC Pro players but is normally quite difficult to do on consoles.

So, let’s start with the best mouse DPI value for this configuration. We will use a fairly uncommon value of 1800. The reason for such a low DPI value is that we want to significantly boost the aim assist while also adding a little bit of micro stutter. The stutter will help to avoid aim assist issues where it can become difficult to aim from one target to another. The DPI amount will also ensure that a lot of lower budget mice don’t suffer from sensor smoothing. Once you have set your DPI to 1800, you can continue by adjusting the polling rate.

Head into the global settings of your ZIM Manager. Your polling rate for this configuration should be set to 1000 Hz. If you cannot see that option, then tick the expert mode box at the very top. Even if your mouse struggles to send a 1000 Hz signal you should still use that option. The reason is that we are going to use synchronization off, plus we also want a little bit of mouse stutter for a better experience around the bubble of the aim assist. The configuration will of course also work very well with 500 Hz, but definitely try 1000 Hz first, and see how you like it. Once you completed your polling rate changes press the save button in the bottom right and restart your ZIM Apex. Otherwise your polling rate changes will not become active.

Next let’s take care of the in-game settings. The required in-game settings for Overwatch can be found by pressing the wrench button in the bottom right of your configuration picture. Press the yes button and you will be forwarded to the ZIM forum. In general, you should always use the recommended in-game settings from the ZIM website. Settings that aren’t listed here can of course be customized to your personal preference. I will later give you some recommendations on what in-game settings you should use for certain heroes at the end of the video.

Now let’s take care of the configuration for heroes that shoot from the hip.
Start by clicking on the edit button in the top left of your ZIM Manager. My configuration colour is set to blue, and my hotkey is the F1 key. That way I can load my Overwatch configuration by pressing the F1 key on my keyboard. As a confirmation my ZIM will then show a blue LED light.
Now let’s swipe one more time to the right to enter the hip configuration.

As always adjust your synchronization settings first. For this configuration we will use synchronization default. It’s the best tradeoff between responsive but smooth mouse movements.

After that adjust your HIP sensitivity. I will use a sensitivity of 25.55.
If you are unsure what sensitivity you should use, then you can watch my sensitivity tutorial to find your most optimal mouse sensitivity. You can find a link to it in the video description.
Now about Boost and Steady aim. Neither of the two are necessary for this configuration, so keep them untouched. We will later adjust the aim assist with the in-game options. The same goes for the Simulate Analog Behavior feature.  So keep the S A B option at its default value of 0.

Next we will add a small curve that will boost the aim assist experience. Scroll up again and click on the curve generator. In the video description you can find a link to the curve. I already opened the link beforehand. The website and the code look like the following. Copy the whole code now, which includes the arrows and everything else. Once you copied the whole code you can go back to your ZIM Manager. At the bottom of the curve generator you can now press the paste button. Your curve should now look like mine. It basically has the following effect. In the first third the curve will only lower your sensitivity a little bit. Your slow and precise mouse movements will therefore not be affected by any acceleration or aim assist boosts. In the other two thirds you can see that the graph is steeper than in the first third. So your mouse movements are slightly accelerated, but at a percentage that you will hardly notice. This however will noticeably improve the aim assist on faster movements, which is key if you want to switch between targets or quickly flick onto the head of an enemy.
Once you have changed the graph you can close the curve generator. Since the curve slightly changed your sensitivity you may have to readjust your ZIM sensitivity.

Next you can scroll down until you can see the button bindings. Here you can either copy my button layout that you can see right now, or you go with your own one.
At the very bottom of your button bindings you can find the option to switch to the secondary button bindings. If you want to double bind specific keys or game actions, then you can do that here. I am for example using this to double bind my ability keys as well as the spray button. Also the L3 action is used to teleport with Symmetra’s Teleporter, so the label in the ZIM Manager is actually wrong here.

For heroes that only shoot from the hip we are done here now. Next we will create a new configuration that will be used for heroes that have an aim down sights feature. This includes Ana, Ashe or Widowmaker. So swipe one more time to the left, and expand the advanced settings under the hotkey option. Press the copy button, and then save your configuration in the top left option. Next you can exit this configuration.

We will now create a second Overwatch configuration. While I quickly do that in the background, I will explain you the idea behind this. Sniper heroes in Overwatch usually rely on high damage single fire shots, so instead of continuous tracking you are incentivized to flick and instantly place your crosshair onto the head. Therefore sniper heroes require additional steps to reduce the aim assist bubble around the head without removing the overall strength of the aim assist. For that we will need a second configuration.

Once your new configuration is ready, open it with the edit button in the top left corner.
The first step is to insert your first configuration into this brand new one. You do that by expanding the advanced settings, and then press the paste button. This configuration is now 100% identical to our previous one. I will now change the name of the configuration and add the word sniper to it. To further distinguish my two configurations, I will also change the configuration color from blue to yellow. At last I will change the hotkey to the F2 key. By pressing the F1 and F2 key, I can now instantly cycle between the two configurations without using the ZIM Manager.

Next swipe one more time to the right again to enter the hip menu. Here we will change the synchronization from default to off. This is required to help with the aim assist bubble. To maintain the same hip sensitivity as in our previous configuration we now have to multiply our sensitivity with 8. If I multiply my current sensitivity of 25.55 with 8, I get a new value of 204.40 for this configuration. This will result in the very same turnspeed as with synchronization default.
Everything else in the hip menu can stay as it is. The values and button bindings will be the same as in your first configuration. Of course the curve will be part of your hip settings as well.

Now swipe two more times to the right to enter a new sub configuration and activate it by pressing the enable button. This sub configuration will now become our new aim down sights and zoom configuration. Start by binding your zoom button to the activation key, for me this is the right mouse button.

Just like before, adjust your ZIM synchronization next. To maintain the same mouse feeling as in our hip configuration we will use synchronization off again. After that adjust your Aim Down Sights sensitivity.
Here you can use a trick to have the same zoom sensitivity as in your hip mode. For Widowmaker and Ana you have to multiply your hip sensitivity with 0.45 to get your aim down sights value. If I multiply my sensitivity of 204.40 with 0.45, I get a new sensitivity of 91.98 for Ana and Widowmaker. And for Ashe the multiplier is 0.61 to have the same mouse sensitivity. But personally I prefer 0.65 because it results in a slightly more responsive aim down sights feeling. When I use the multiplier of 0.65, my new sensitivity is 132.86 for this sub configuration. By the way you can of course create another configuration to differentiate between Ashe and Ana or Widowmaker. Since I use my second configuration for all sniper heroes, I have no need for this though.

Next we will insert the curve again. Go back into your hip configuration and open the curve generator. Click on the copy button. After that exit this menu and return to your aim down sights configuration. There you can now expand the curve generator and press the paste button. We obviously want to benefit from the curve in the aim down sights mode as well. Once that is done you can close the curve generator and continue with the translator mode.
The following change isn’t really necessary but you can switch your translator mode from hip to aim down sights. The two modes are identical in Overwatch, but it would feel wrong to not make you aware of this option, especially when considering that other games don’t share the same aim mechanic across hip and aim down sights.

All the other settings can remain as they are, we have no need for those. You can hit the save button in the top left and exit your new sniper configuration. As I said earlier, if you want to use two different mouse sensitivities for Ashe and Ana or Widowmaker you can now repeat the steps and create another sniper configuration.

In the next step we will take a look at the optimal aim assist settings in the game options.
For Widowmaker, Ashe and Ana I recommend the following values. First make sure that your relative aim sensitivity while zoomed is set to 100. This is required for this configuration. In the aim assist settings I recommend to use the following. Set the window size to 10, and use an aim assist ease in of 75. Together with the curve and all the other configuration settings this will allow you to flick over a target, and the aim assist will stop you at the perfect moment. You can also enter and leave the aim assist bubble much easier than with higher window size values.

These settings are also ideal for hitscan heroes that only shoot from the hip but deal high damage.
For any other hero I recommend to increase the window size to 25 for the best results. The aim assist ease in option should not be changed then. This will work excellent for both projectile and hitscan heroes.
Your Overwatch setup is now complete.

In the last topic I will show you a Soldier trick that will make it very easy to sprint cancel. If you are more familiar with competitive Overwatch you probably know how difficult it is to shoot at a Soldier who can do perfect sprint cancels. With the following trick you can easily cancel and sprint again with a single button press.
First I will load my first Overwatch configuration again, it is the one we created for heroes that shoot from the hip. Enter the editing mode of your configuration, and swipe three times to the right to enter a new sub configuration. Start by pressing the enable button to activate the configuration. For the activation key you will now have to pick a key that you have not used before. With this key you will sprint forward. I will use the R key on my keyboard. Next you have to copy your hip sensitivity and synchronization into this sub configuration. My hip sensitivity is 25.55, and my synchronization is default. Next you have to insert the curve again. Go back into the hip configuration and copy the ballistic curve. After that you can close the curve generator and go back to your sub configuration. Now insert the curve by pressing the paste button in the curve generator. Once that is done, close the curve generator. You now have to untick the inherit box at the very top. You can now scroll down to the movement area. Once you are there, you have to change your forward button. Bind it to your sub configuration activation key. So I have to remove my W key, and bind this action to the R key. At last switch into the secondary button bindings at the very bottom of this configuration. Bind your activation key to the ability 1 action here. That is already it. More adjustments are not necessary.

Here is an example clip of Overwatch. When I now want to sprint cancel, I just press my R key to sprint forward, and then cancel it by pressing my S key to walk backwards. When I press the two buttons very quickly one after another, you can see that I can sprint and cancel it just as well as all the PC Pro players. Without this trick it can be difficult to perfectly time the sprint and forward input. As a result the sprint cancel can become very inconsistent. But with that trick you can do this as often as you want, and it will work  100% each time.

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But that’s about it for this video guys, thanks for watching and I will maybe see you in the next one.