By aim assist, I'm not referring to the reticle friction you get on a controller - the aim assist stat on guns is a degree value that creates a cone within which bullet magnetism is active - in this cone, the game corrects your aim to be on target. Both reticle friction and the bullet magnetism stay active within the range value of the gun you're using.

1st diagram is aim assist cone for the Misriah at 11m with base aa stat, you can be literal feet off target and the game corrects it for you.

The 2nd diagram is the aim assist cone of the Misriah at 15m - I rounded up the aim assist stat since I some attachments increase aim assist. If anyone can share a pic of the stats of a gold Misriah, I can make a better diagram including the pellet spread too – I am assuming the ADS pellet spread tightening of some mods interacts with this in a way that is very powerful, but would like to see it visually.

At the extreme range of the Misriah (base 11m, mods out to 15m), **you can be literal \*feet\* off target with your aim but the game will correct this for you**. This is what allows people to flick shot with the Misriah and still land many of the pellets – Knowledgeable players likely understand this – the ability to aim a bit more carelessly with confidence shots will stand land is a big advantage. Given these stats **aren't explained clearly in game at all,** new players are at a strong disadvantage because they have worse guns and don't know the meta around building them. 

Furthermore, the reason the KKV/Copperhead fail at "countering shotgun rushers" is that automatic weapons benefit far less from the AA magnetism interaction because you have to land more shots while keeping the cone focused on the target. You only need to do this **once** with the Mizzy to chunk someone for a little over 3/4 of their health. 

I used the Misriah to illustrate because it is by far and away the most powerful weapon in the game, but other favorites benefit HEAVILY from this too. **The D54 Battle Pistol** has a range of 29m and an aim assist cone of 2.47 degrees, **meaning the cone is a whopping \*2.5 meters wide\* at it’s max BASE RANGE** – with only 1.16 degrees ADS spread. If we assume shoulder width is a little under 0.5m, you basically **get a meter of forgiveness on either side of the target**… this why the sucker melts and “feels so good” to use.

**The Bully** is another example of a gun with very nice interactions between range, ADS spread and aim assist cone. Bungie is for some reason unable to stop themselves from giving insanely generous mixes of these stats to guns that are already very powerful.

Meanwhile, the **KKV** feels like absolute ASS because it has a base range of 17m, aim assist cone of 1.17 and a fuckton of recoil. At it’s base max range of 17m, you only get **SEVEN INCHES** of forgiveness on either side of your target. This is why the thing is bullshit to use despite theoretically good TTK on paper.

The fact a supposed “hardcore” shooter revolves around building your guns to increase the range at which aim assist kicks in plus how much it corrects your mistakes is actually ridiculous. This game is heavily praised for its “smooth” gunplay, but what it is really happening is it is artificially correcting sloppy aim– add on reticle friction with controllers, and there is very very little skill expression in the game’s gunplay relative to basically any other shooter. I’m not a Destiny guy, but the videos on aim assist for Marathon indicate that this game has even more overtuned AA/magnetism than Destiny, so I’m just going to assume it’s worse unless I see data to the contrary.

AA being less busted would require more skill and reduce the bullshit feeling of losing because your opponent’s gun fixes their aim better.  Getting larger magazines, better optics, less recoil is one thing, it seems clear that the true culprit to generationally bad gun balance in Marathon is due to range/AA stat/ADS spread interaction.

 

Aim assist (really, magnetism) stat on guns and its interaction with the range stat is a major determining factor in which guns over- or under-perform, and it plays a huge role in determining how many shots you get on target and thus the outcome of fights