What Aim Assist (AA) does in Destiny:
1) https://www.reddit.com/r/CruciblePlaybook/comments/3kjq06/indepth_aim_assist_target_acquisition_analysis/ (61 points, 96% upvoted)
I spent an unjustifiable amount of time recording and analyzing footage of the two major theories of what constitutes Aim Assist / Target Acquisition (reticule slowdown near enemies, bullet magnetism toward enemies). Hopefully the results are helpful to our understanding of this stat, what it affects, and what the implications are to us. Here is the link:
TLW: Aim Assist / Hidden Hand has no discernable effect on reticule slowdown, but rather affects bullet magnetism and is subject to Range falloff like damage.
2) https://www.reddit.com/r/CruciblePlaybook/comments/3nvfki/dear_skilled_pvp_snipers_why_should_i_seak_out/ (0 points, 39% upvoted)
Well, pretty much because I watched this video that explained that Aim Assist comes in three parts: 1) reticle slowing down over targets (reticle stickiness), 2) reticle being pulled by a target that is moving (reticle pulling), and 3) "bullet magnetism", or bullets that should otherwise be a miss actually being pulled into the target by high aim assist. Now as the video shows the third part, bullet magnetism, also the best part about aim assist, DOES NOT EXISTS FOR SNIPER RIFLES unlike every other weapon. If you miss their head, you miss. No amount of aim assist is going the bullet magically curve towards their head (bullet magnetism doesn't actually curve bullet trails but that's not the point).
Comment from Pwadigy in this that thread:
And tbh, there was a reticle displacement video with over 100 trials that demonstrated that Hidden hand could add 50% more magnetism (larger average displacement on penultimate frame). Considering Weineski just confirmed that Target acquisition will always be related to the aim assist stat...
Believe Planet Destiny only tested stationary hitbox size. I don't know if they referred to that as magnetism, but that's not what magnetism is (at least, it's more complicated than that in Destiny).
Of course stationary hitbox size will always be the same on a sniper. With a sniper, it'd be so obvious that you're not actually hitting your target, because the reticle is already so small. Likewise, the hitbox will artificially increase in size by locking your reticle between frames (whole point of the displacement test).
I legit wish that Planet Destiny would take that video down. It's so inaccurate at this point.
AA does 3 things in Destiny: 1) affects reticule stickiness, 2) affects reticule pulls toward targets, 3) increases hitbox size/increase bullet magnetism (you can quibble about what the exact mechanic is, but these are in effect the same thing).
It's debatable that AA does not affect magnetism on snipers. There are posts/videos indicating it does, and there are posts indicating it does not. Planet Destiny's video is not proof that AA does not affect magnetism/hitbox alterations.
Is that better?