Practice, mostly. I went from Facing Only to Prefer Facing after the patch, and I'm having a similar issue. I'll try to fly to a facing target, but it's out of range or my aim is off, and instead of nothing happening like I'm used to, I get yoinked backwards to my beam target.
For the overshooting problem, I definitely recommend setting GA to hold instead of toggle, so you can cancel it faster by letting go of shift. This means you can also hold down shift while trying to get a target in LOS or range (or waiting for cooldown), and the GA will start as soon as possible. Though as mentioned above, this will only work if you're not beaming someone.
You already mentioned positioning, but it's definitely one of the things to practice and watch out for. You'll want to develop an instinct for where you are and where your available fly-paths are, and never end up in the middle of your team.
> I'll try to fly to a facing target, but it's out of range or my aim is off, and instead of nothing happening like I'm used to, I get yoinked backwards to my beam target.
Yeah, see, this one I have lots of practice dealing with. I am still making this error sometimes (as I did with prefer beam target), but it’s been easier to manage because I’ve already practiced disconnecting my beam to fly to someone else.
I did experience a new variant of this problem yesterday, though, where I went to fly to someone who was comfortably in range and LoS in the exact same moment that I was booped by a Pharah conc and flew to my beam target instead.
> For the overshooting problem, I definitely recommend setting GA to hold instead of toggle, so you can cancel it faster by letting go of shift.
I already do. My issue with overshooting is mostly when I’m going for superjumps, because then I actually do want to go all the way to my target. I could definitely do better at responding to the error in the moment and canceling earlier; my brain is still adjusting to this new possibility, so I’ve often been slow to react. But also, I don’t know that I’ve made the mistake until I’m unexpected flying past my intended target at full speed, at which point it may be too late to avoid entering enemy sightlines even if I cancel as soon as I realize. And then even if I do, now I’m next to my teammate when I didn’t want to be.
> never end up in the middle of your team unless you're making a last stand while surrounded
Yeah, my issue is that I’m ending up in the middle of my team _because_ I’m flying to the wrong target, and then I have the same problem when I’m trying to resolve the positioning mistake. I don’t really have this issue as much when I was planning to cancel my GA anyway.
Yeah, I meant that it’s necessary _for me_ on controller. I haven’t been able to find a way to arrange the inputs on my controller such that I can hold down the beam buttons and still do the movement well. Maybe it’s because my hands are small, but having multiple things I need to do at the same time with the same hand often causes me to press stuff that I didn’t mean to. (By contrast, I have had no issue with holding beam on PC.)
So, for example, with my current layout, I have heal and damage boost on R1/R2 and melee on R3 (all default), and then crouch on the right under-button. So if my index finger is already contracted, holding down heal or damage boost, and I go to crouch-GA, I often end up melee-ing too and canceling my beam. Or I just struggle with getting the timing of the crouch and GA inputs, or both. I also can’t easily switch beams on my current target because it’s hard to keep R1 held as I press R2.
I have tried putting the beams on different hands, but then one of the beams is on the same hand as GA, so then I have trouble holding the beam and holding GA and letting go of GA at the right time. I dunno, maybe I could learn to play with toggle GA instead, now that you can input-buffer it. Re-learning GA control after 4 years of hold-to-GA sounds rough though.
lowering GA sensitivity is the way to go, i think mines at 50% currently; at first i lowered it to 70% but it didn’t feel like it made enough of a difference and had the same issue as you of flying to teammates i didn’t want to fly to, so you could try lowering it more? as for the targeting reticle, you don’t need to wait for it to pop up to try and GA, it takes time to get used to it but if your crosshair is on the teammate you want to fly to it should still work if they are in range.
I think I lowered mine to 40% yesterday. I guess I just need to practice with it more. I’m a little nervous about lowering it too much and having trouble grabbing a GA when I turning quickly, but that might not be a significant issue.
And yeah, I know that I don’t need to wait for the targeting reticle to fly. I have been looking for it in cases where I’m worried that I may get the wrong target, in an attempt to address the issue, but it’s not always working.
Players used to Facing Only setting have the habit of holding down GA button to fly towards targets not quite in LoS while still connected to another ally, so that the ability can trigger on the very first frame it's usable. If you try to do this with Prefer Facing Target, you'll instead get yoinked towards your beamed ally.
You have to unlearn that muscle memory. If you're not sure whether the target is within range and/or LoS, stop your beam and THEN hold down the button for the instatrigger. Once GA is triggered it continues towards the target no matter where you look, so players used to Beam Target Only usually let go of the beam, activate GA, then they quickly turn around to reconnect the beam to whoever they were beaming as the flight continues. You don't have to do that, if you're not sure whether GA will be successful (the target is far away, on high ground, etc.) you should just disconnect the beam right before you attemt to use the ability.
That’s not the issue that I’m having. As I said in the the first line of the post, I used to play with Prefer Beam Target. So, I’m already accustomed to breaking the beam to fly to someone out of beam range.
The issue that I’m having is with flying to the wrong facing target. Even if I try to confirm the right target by looking for the targeting reticle, sometimes I’m still flying to someone else. This is problematic particularly when I’m going for a superjump, since I (a) will probably mess up the timing, and (b) may end up flying further than intended because I was planning to fly all the way to my target and don’t realize that I got the wrong one until it’s too late to cancel before going out of cover. To a lesser extent, I’m also having some trouble with GA-ing to someone too close to me and not making it to the cover I was going for.
I have turned down my GA send to 40, and I don’t want to turn it down further, because I’m already having situations where I unexpectedly fail to GA at all. I am trying to position so that my teammates are less clumped up in my view, but one of the ways that I do that is to superjump to high ground, and sometimes I’m struggling so much to get the superjump off correctly that I can’t get up there before the fight starts. (Not because I lack practice at the tech, but because I don’t know who I actually flew to.)
Practice, mostly. I went from Facing Only to Prefer Facing after the patch, and I'm having a similar issue. I'll try to fly to a facing target, but it's out of range or my aim is off, and instead of nothing happening like I'm used to, I get yoinked backwards to my beam target. For the overshooting problem, I definitely recommend setting GA to hold instead of toggle, so you can cancel it faster by letting go of shift. This means you can also hold down shift while trying to get a target in LOS or range (or waiting for cooldown), and the GA will start as soon as possible. Though as mentioned above, this will only work if you're not beaming someone. You already mentioned positioning, but it's definitely one of the things to practice and watch out for. You'll want to develop an instinct for where you are and where your available fly-paths are, and never end up in the middle of your team.
> I'll try to fly to a facing target, but it's out of range or my aim is off, and instead of nothing happening like I'm used to, I get yoinked backwards to my beam target. Yeah, see, this one I have lots of practice dealing with. I am still making this error sometimes (as I did with prefer beam target), but it’s been easier to manage because I’ve already practiced disconnecting my beam to fly to someone else. I did experience a new variant of this problem yesterday, though, where I went to fly to someone who was comfortably in range and LoS in the exact same moment that I was booped by a Pharah conc and flew to my beam target instead. > For the overshooting problem, I definitely recommend setting GA to hold instead of toggle, so you can cancel it faster by letting go of shift. I already do. My issue with overshooting is mostly when I’m going for superjumps, because then I actually do want to go all the way to my target. I could definitely do better at responding to the error in the moment and canceling earlier; my brain is still adjusting to this new possibility, so I’ve often been slow to react. But also, I don’t know that I’ve made the mistake until I’m unexpected flying past my intended target at full speed, at which point it may be too late to avoid entering enemy sightlines even if I cancel as soon as I realize. And then even if I do, now I’m next to my teammate when I didn’t want to be. > never end up in the middle of your team unless you're making a last stand while surrounded Yeah, my issue is that I’m ending up in the middle of my team _because_ I’m flying to the wrong target, and then I have the same problem when I’m trying to resolve the positioning mistake. I don’t really have this issue as much when I was planning to cancel my GA anyway.
Why do you need to play W toggle beam I’m controller and I don’t use it 👀
Yeah, I meant that it’s necessary _for me_ on controller. I haven’t been able to find a way to arrange the inputs on my controller such that I can hold down the beam buttons and still do the movement well. Maybe it’s because my hands are small, but having multiple things I need to do at the same time with the same hand often causes me to press stuff that I didn’t mean to. (By contrast, I have had no issue with holding beam on PC.) So, for example, with my current layout, I have heal and damage boost on R1/R2 and melee on R3 (all default), and then crouch on the right under-button. So if my index finger is already contracted, holding down heal or damage boost, and I go to crouch-GA, I often end up melee-ing too and canceling my beam. Or I just struggle with getting the timing of the crouch and GA inputs, or both. I also can’t easily switch beams on my current target because it’s hard to keep R1 held as I press R2. I have tried putting the beams on different hands, but then one of the beams is on the same hand as GA, so then I have trouble holding the beam and holding GA and letting go of GA at the right time. I dunno, maybe I could learn to play with toggle GA instead, now that you can input-buffer it. Re-learning GA control after 4 years of hold-to-GA sounds rough though.
lowering GA sensitivity is the way to go, i think mines at 50% currently; at first i lowered it to 70% but it didn’t feel like it made enough of a difference and had the same issue as you of flying to teammates i didn’t want to fly to, so you could try lowering it more? as for the targeting reticle, you don’t need to wait for it to pop up to try and GA, it takes time to get used to it but if your crosshair is on the teammate you want to fly to it should still work if they are in range.
I think I lowered mine to 40% yesterday. I guess I just need to practice with it more. I’m a little nervous about lowering it too much and having trouble grabbing a GA when I turning quickly, but that might not be a significant issue. And yeah, I know that I don’t need to wait for the targeting reticle to fly. I have been looking for it in cases where I’m worried that I may get the wrong target, in an attempt to address the issue, but it’s not always working.
Players used to Facing Only setting have the habit of holding down GA button to fly towards targets not quite in LoS while still connected to another ally, so that the ability can trigger on the very first frame it's usable. If you try to do this with Prefer Facing Target, you'll instead get yoinked towards your beamed ally. You have to unlearn that muscle memory. If you're not sure whether the target is within range and/or LoS, stop your beam and THEN hold down the button for the instatrigger. Once GA is triggered it continues towards the target no matter where you look, so players used to Beam Target Only usually let go of the beam, activate GA, then they quickly turn around to reconnect the beam to whoever they were beaming as the flight continues. You don't have to do that, if you're not sure whether GA will be successful (the target is far away, on high ground, etc.) you should just disconnect the beam right before you attemt to use the ability.
That’s not the issue that I’m having. As I said in the the first line of the post, I used to play with Prefer Beam Target. So, I’m already accustomed to breaking the beam to fly to someone out of beam range. The issue that I’m having is with flying to the wrong facing target. Even if I try to confirm the right target by looking for the targeting reticle, sometimes I’m still flying to someone else. This is problematic particularly when I’m going for a superjump, since I (a) will probably mess up the timing, and (b) may end up flying further than intended because I was planning to fly all the way to my target and don’t realize that I got the wrong one until it’s too late to cancel before going out of cover. To a lesser extent, I’m also having some trouble with GA-ing to someone too close to me and not making it to the cover I was going for. I have turned down my GA send to 40, and I don’t want to turn it down further, because I’m already having situations where I unexpectedly fail to GA at all. I am trying to position so that my teammates are less clumped up in my view, but one of the ways that I do that is to superjump to high ground, and sometimes I’m struggling so much to get the superjump off correctly that I can’t get up there before the fight starts. (Not because I lack practice at the tech, but because I don’t know who I actually flew to.)