Introduction & Notes
Hit selecting is one of the most powerful methods in 1.8 PvP, although it only truly became popular after 2022, mainly because of the Boxing and Ranked BedWars communities.
Do keep in mind that this is mainly taken from a GitHub issue I made for a cheat client — nonetheless, everything still applies perfectly.
Mechanics Involved
There are multiple phenomenons which make hit selecting exceedingly useful, so I'll start from that:
1: Due to how combat mechanics work, you can get free hits / combos if you hit at a different time than your opponent, given the correct distance.
2: Hit selecting makes you hit the ground earlier — this may lead to you being faster, which, combined with a sprint resetting technique, will make you deal more knockback than your opponent, potentially allowing you to initiate a combo. In many servers, there is also a Spigot fork that has custom knockback, perhaps including a ground and a sprint multiplier — making the advantage even greater.
3: Minecraft's attack range is based on a vertical beam starting from your eyes, and is not entirely consistent (by that, I mean that players lower than others will have a slightly higher range).
4: Players make lots of tiny calculation mistakes, and hit selecting takes advantage of that — since your opponent is not taking knockback right away, it'll briefly confuse that same opponent's aim, and you might be able to get a combo.
These advantages can (and should) be combined with multiple other methods, such as W-tapping, S-tapping (both variants), block-hitting, and strafing.
But, how do we use them to our advantage?
It's complicated, but there are several ways to do it, some that should be combined with others, and some that shouldn't.
1: Moving as if you're going to go for the first hit, but you pause hitting once you get in attack range, and you hit circa half a second after you get hit. Keep in mind that you cannot zigzag strafe whilst doing this, you can only either strafe and move forward in one direction, or move in a straight line.
2: Same as the first one, but you hit right after you get hit (circa 200 milliseconds), and you can zigzag strafe right before you do it. It's recommended you follow up with more of this hit delaying, to get enough, in order to achieve the same goal as in the first method.
What if someone performs this against us?
There are many methods to fight back against these methods, but I'll focus on the very first method (also called normal hit selecting), which is the most used on:
1: Hit select too — seriously, this can be extremely effective. However, this leads to a situation similar to rock paper scissors, except that both you and the opponent are trying to find the position most convenient to yourselves.
2: A well-timed, slightly longer W-Tap (takes lots of skill, not recommended for beginners). This makes you get the benefits of hit selecting, instead of your opponent.
3: Counter strafing, which is switching directions right before you can hit your opponent. This throws your opponent's aim off, allowing you to get free hits, and potentially start a combo.
I hope I managed to explain this properly. If any of you have questions, either reply to this post or contact me through my other social media accounts.
