Epic announce massive changes to Fortnite’s aim assist

❘ Published: 2020-03-06T18:33:04

Epic Games

Epic has announced that Legacy aim assist will be removed from Fortnite, which could signal an unexpected end for all the L2 spammers out there.

Aim assist has always been one of the hottest topics of debate among Fortnite players, and with the arrival of Season 2, players soon discovered you could use Legacy aim assist settings to find and lock on to players even when they were behind cover.

Contentious as the aim assist debate has been, there are always two sides to every argument: controller players claimed that aim assist was needed for them to keep up with mouse and keyboard players, while the latter party was obviously upset with seemingly blatant wallhacks.

Explain this controller players?? #aimassist pic.twitter.com/iZjpzgMAkQ

— OrangeGuy (@OrangeGuy_YT) March 4, 2020

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Fans were fairly convinced that Epic would keep their hands off of aim assist for fear of upsetting the controller community, which could be just as large as the game’s mouse and keyboard demographic.

Read More: Myth explains why Fortnite is actually harder with a controller

However, on March 6, Epic announced they would be removing Legacy aim assist from Fortnite starting March 13, leaving players currently using the setting with no choice but to switch to Linear or Exponential.

With the improvements we’ve made to Aim Assist, we plan to remove the “Use Legacy Look Controls” setting on March 13.

To use the new settings and maintain your legacy sensitivities, select “Copy from Legacy” in the Controller Options and toggle off “Use Legacy Look Controls." pic.twitter.com/Latu1j0KNc

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) March 6, 2020

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Most professional controller-using Fortnite players use Linear aim assist, but a few still prefer the L2-spam strategy popular with Legacy, like NRG pro ‘Unknown.’

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In fact, Unknown himself played a large part in the L2 debate, as he was one of the first pros to show off how to track players while they’re supposed to be invisible.

Wtf @UnknownxArmy1x literally tracking people through bushes LMAO pic.twitter.com/htIVyQGFdo

— The Fortnite Guy (@The_FortniteGuy) February 26, 2020

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The issues with Legacy aim assist aren’t new by any means, though; players have been using the L2 spam for close to a year at this point, and non-controller players have been complaining about it for almost as long.

It’s not clear why Epic decided to make the changes now, but they won’t be leaving Legacy players entirely out in the cold once the update takes effect.

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Those currently using Legacy aim assist will be able to copy their settings and sensitivity over, but it certainly won’t feel the same for users who have made it an integral part of their playstyle.

Whether this is a sign of things to come remains to be seen: Aim assist certainly does rub some players the wrong way, but the argument persists that it’s needed in some capacity to keep controller players competitive at the highest levels.