Ideas on how to balance the sniper

Just read the bold parts.

Its comforting he doesn't own the concept of logic and that the world does not stop at MNC.

Heretic! How dare you say those words in Scathis' Lair. Would I be a violent man I'd stone you in front of all the believers.

And I see that you somehow lost track to what I was replying to. Need help ?

No it's okay.

I understand your crying just fine.

So you're admitting that they're imbalanced at high level play?
Excellent.

I don't think that "X is harder, thus, it should be stronger" is a balanced idea for gameplay.
It basically means that as people get more skilled, they won't be able to compete with said class, and they'll find themselves resorting to that class to be effective.

Not a good idea, making something stronger just because it's a bit harder to learn.

I don't spend much time in scope as Sniper - and so I often see Assaults coming.
If I see them throw a bomb, I run to another Sniper spot.

I dunno, seems logical to *not* get blown up, and be aware of your surroundings as a Sniper.

Also, I could use the exact same line of reasoning to justify that the Assault counters the Sniper, if the Sniper has a minigun that shoots 10,000,000 damage rockets.
"Just go up to him when he's distracted, throw a bomb at him, and detonate it, if you don't kill him, you've at least displaced him!"

HEY. LOOK! TURNS OUT THE ROCKET LAUNCHING MINIGUN IS BALANCED AFTER ALL LUL.
Killable does not mean balanced.

Shouldn't the way that I'm arguing over peak skill and saying that highly skilled Snipers are too powerful - be an indicator than I'm not talking about your average pub trash?
Pretty much everything I have said has been relating to skilled Snipers...

"Hey, I don't have a come back so I'll just say that this line of discussion is harmful to the debate!"

If Snipers are balanced, because you can counter a Sniper with your own Sniper, why not give him 10,000 health?
You can still use another Sniper to kill him, so it's still equally balanced, right?

HEY WUT.
WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!
DID MY SECRETARY GIVE THAT TO YOU?!

Yeah, unfortunately I'm not a crying little girl so I don't care how people use their quotes.
Shurryy(?), feel free to replace my name with anything like "Guy who doesn't know what he's on about" if it makes you feel better.

I haven't had an ounce of trouble with Snipers -- even high level Snipers -- if you just attempt to avoid their firing lanes. I think it's funny how people only mention the OBVIOUSLY "open" maps as unbalanced (Grenade, Steel Peel's center) but have no issue with maps like the Lazer Razer that have a lot of punishing Sniper positions. It's just not as obvious so it goes unmentioned.

avoid entire sections of the map

see their balanced

Why learn to deal with them when you can cry about them on the forum instead lul?

K, I'm gonna lock this down now. I think everything helpful has been said already.

Concerning Scathis:
Have you ever played with him? He's damn good and he plays all classes. He has balanced games that were a lot more complex than MNC, like an RTS with over 300 units. I trust in his judgment and so should you.

I know for a fact that he keep a close eye on all classes, Snipers too. Balancing always takes time though and some overpowered skills might only show up weeks after the game launched. And you can't take one quote and apply it to any possible balance situation.

One of the most important rules when balancing a game is: Don't be hasty. The metagame changes as players gain experience. You know what I'm talking about. How many new players have huge problems dealing with Assassins in the first week. A month later they will have killed more Assassins than any other class.

What if Assassins would have received a huge nerf in the beta? The class would be entirely useless now.

Balancing takes time, patience and experience. Lets see how things develop before we jump to conclusions.