[SNIPER] beginner need tips

Okay, I've been playing MNC for like a week now. I've been trying all of the classes, and I found myself interested in playing the sniper class.

My Current Endorsements:
Gold: Rate of Fire - For getting bodyshots if I can't take a headshot
Silver: Armor - Survivability
Bronze: Clip Size - Supporting the RoF endorsements. 1 extra clip does matter.

I often do lane pushing, and i never snipe at a one place. after getting a shot, whether it is a killshot or a failed shot (the enemy fled from my view), I'll move to another sniping spot. I move around a lot. In the early game, i build a defensive sniper. picking the sniper passive skill and flak for bot wave controls. I usually build the most inner turrets also. However I found a difficulty in a war against melee unit such as assassin, where i'm not an excel in quick-scoping. I have a poor situational awareness (maybe i need those headphones).

I need tips to overcome those assassins. I don't know how and when the traps/grapples should be done..

Place traps on the upper end of jump pads, assassins who don't know what they're doing will get stuck there.
Place one trap underneath you incase an assassin is going to smoke bomb + jump directly behind you. Also, if you hear a smoke bomb sound, start jumping like crazy.
If you hear a cloak, start jumping like crazy and stay in range of your ice traps.
Incase you see an assassin lunging at you (only level 3 ice traps stop lunges), start jumping.
Basically, jump whenever there is any sign of an assassin close to you.
Also, as soon as the assassin gets caught by the ice trap, quick scope + headshot them.
Incase an assassin gives up trying to grapple you and tries to kill you with lunge and sword slashes, run from one ice trap to another while jumping constantly and shoot them with your rifle whenever they get stuck in the traps.

EDIT: Also, you know those little glass walls that are low enough to jump onto them? Incase you hear an assassin, place yourself ontop of them, this way, the assassin will have to get up there to grapple you, losing the element of surprise.

Never place a trap beneath you, place them near paths where the enemy may get you.

You can still be grappled from the ground when you stand on the low glass-ledges.

You may want to start the round with Passive + Grapple so your grapple throws the assassin away buying you valuable time.

And finally the most important part: play more, it'll come naturally.

Instead of jumping like crazy, if you have confidence you won't be backstabbed as soon as you hear the sound; Turn around and look up in the air. Play assassin for a bit and try the smoke bomb jump, memorize how high up assassins can jump while using this, and as soon as you hear the sound, turn around and look for the smoke trail. Afterwards its a matter of the assassin having cloaked or not, but even then if you see the smoketrail you can guess if its nearby you and if you need to worry or if it's just one of your teammates. Being paranoid is fine though if you prefer bunnyhopping.

I'm pretty sure it's not possible, at least I've tried that plenty of times.

Yeah, if your butt sticks out too far...

Just want to point out that marmalade's tips won't work if she is the actual assassin coming at you

Anyway some general guidelines about the sniper:


- It is all about how fast, often, and efficient you are at dishing out headshots. You are mostly a slayer class, taking out high profile targets and control parts of the map. Being able to quick-scope extremely well will make it so the enemy thinks twice about engaging you close range. If you cannot do this don't play the class. Its as simple as that

- Situational Awareness is very important. You must know every enemy pro's current position at any given time - including assassins with their silly cloaks on Not knowing this will allow people to sneak around you, costing your team deaths and maybe even the game

- Ice - you should get a headshot everytime an enemy falls into your trap. 'Nuff said

Thats all I could think for now, I'll come back later.

Pretty much this.

- Don't sit in scope all day.
- Learn to quickscope effectively.
- Don't get ambushed like a noob (getting ambushed likely means you were sitting in scope for too long)
- Get out earlier rather than later.
- Abuse the hell out of ice traps. (1 ice trap can usually section off a half of the enemy's base.)

Ice traps are pretty awesome to annoy juicers, if you see or suspect an enemy is about to do a juice rush, put down a few traps on his way to the turrets, lots of people tend to go "rawr raep tiem!" when they juice and won't notice them. After a few wasted juice they might start to be a bit more carefull, just put the traps around the turret you think they will rush.

When assaulting the enemy base, flak does wonders, on most maps you can throw one from a relatively safe spot that will hit the moneyball and a turret (from rank 2 I think), and even to help take down turrets it is incredibly helpfull. Also when you got an enemy trapped a flak in the face before shooting can help if you're not too confident about getting a headshot and you know the pro will be able to charge or lunge you when the trap will wear off. It's also awesome to be a jerk to people who hide behind cover, either to finish them or to make them leave their hole.

One last thing, given you will often be on high ground, ejectors are often pretty accessible to you, don't hesitate to use them either to harass enemies, or just to put them on cooldown if your team has control of the area.

PS: is it just me or the headshot hitboxes are a bit weird sometime? I noticed a few times not getting a headshot while the bullet is clearly hitting the head on my screen, even sometime on some non rank 3 deployed gunners two shots in a row at the exact same spot (maybe a few pixels difference but really not much), and only the second one is a headshot.

When it comes to gunners and tanks, you aim for the neck, from my experience.

Yeah... Never, ever, do this. Whenever I see a Sniper doing this I laugh like a motherfucker and go "free kill!". Doesn't save you from anything, just gets you killed.

Assassins can lunge and assaults/tanks can charge over ice traps. They'll be frozen, but able to complete their lunge/charge. On top of that frozen only means they can't move, not that they can't fire and grapple.

Sitting on top of your ice trap means that when an assassin smoke bomb jumps behind you she'll be frozen... While it kills you with a grapple. Your ice traps need some "buffer" distance, and you need to remain aware of your surroundings, as even a perfectly placed trap isn't full proof.

So, instead, use them to "shut off" access points or well traveled areas. Put them in front of jump pads and you're bound to catch people at least once or twice. If you're on a tight spot, place one behind you and one ahead, with some buffer distance, and you'll be relatively safe if you also pay attention. The idea is to use them on choke points the enemy would have to use to reach you. Jump pads, bridges, doorways, corridors... The tighter or more predictable the spot (i.e.: landing area of a jump pad) the better. Ideally you want to be sure that anyone who wants to reach you needs to go through a trap... BEFORE they reach you.

Also, I play it a bit differently from grim. I upgrade passive and traps first, since I use traps a lot, and lvl 1 trap only allows the use of 1 trap, and only slows down an opponent, doesn't freeze them. I tend to upgrade the grapple to lvl 2 either right after, or after passive 3, depending on the game and the needs I'm having. I find that lvl 2 traps are fundamental to limiting access to myself wherever I'm going (because there are usually two access points to wherever I am - one up front, and one behind. Or one to each side, whatever). That said, grim plays it differently, and prefers to upgrade the grapple for earlier ability to ring out/push away other classes, which is also very important for the sniper, who tends to be more fragile at close range than other classes, and often has to rely on his throw to even the field.

That said, I think we can both attest that they're both valid options, so it comes down to how you personally play. If you find you rely more on grapples earlier, go with passive+grapple. If you find you rely on traps more, go with passive+traps. Either ways, passive is a priority.

As for the rest, just be aware of your surroundings and possible threats, and learn to only scope when you have a target/plan on shooting. Snipers who stay scoped in all day suffer from "funnel vision", specially in this game due to the gigantic zoom of the rifle, and are therefore, easy targets.

The rest comes with practice really.

@Llamatron: Yes, the hitboxes are a bit wonky. Try shooting an assassin in the forehead, even if they're not moving. Yeah... Assassins are the worse due to the particularly bad hitbox and the fact that they move faster than other classes (which this engine's lack of smooth hitreg and lag compensation make very awkward). Tanks are also a bit weird. In short, aim lower in the faces. Around the mouth and neck.

If you're a beginner, I say don't worry about quickscoping until you've got plenty of experience. The more important thing is awareness, both of your surroundings and of the game situation. Once you've got that down, then work on the more advanced stuff.

Surroundings: If more snipers learned to keep moving and keep their head on a swivel, they'd be a lot deadlierI don't know how many snipers I've sneaked up on as an assault or gunner. Always be moving and looking around, and stay unscoped as much as possible. Don't get tunnel vision.

Game situation: Do what will help your team at the moment. If it means picking off enemy pros from long distances because your team has them on the ropes, do it. If it means sniping bots while the assault who was pushing that lane respawns, do it. Don't be so focused on your KDR that you let your moneyball get raped. And don't forget your turrets!

The point of this ice trap is to freeze assassins who will smoke bomb / jump right behind the sniper. I kill snipers all the time by jumping over their traps directly to their location.
Also, assassins can't lunge over trap 3.

Looking around and jumping when you hear the incredibly loud smoke bomb sounds like a better plan than wasting one trap that can be used for another location, and really doesn't keep you safe at all. Even if they're frozen when they land, they can still grapple you, so why does it matter if they're trapped at all?

At lvl 3, and depending on the map and your location, you can spare a trap, and I'll sometimes put it under me, but not really to catch smoke bomb jumpers (which doesn't really work), but only to give myself an extra buffer against enemies.

Last I tried I could. Level 3 doesn't slow you down anymore than lvl 2 (both set speed to 0.0). The only advantage of lvl 3 is being able to keep 3 traps out and the skill drain while frozen.

Is there any way to get rid of the mouse sensitivity changes when you go into scope? I play on the sensitivity that's one tick from the right on the settings bar but the scope's decreased sensitivity means I have to pedal to track even very small distances. Is there a way I can get it to a one to one ratio? I haven't found it in the ini files.

It's a balance value atm, the factor is 0.6 (AHK can help you here :>)

do you mean having it type in a new sensitivity at the console any time you zoom?

well im getting used to play against those assassins. i could grapple some of them already. im getting better in placing traps and so on.
however i dont headshot after placing traps, i prefer to flak + smg (if the trapped one is an assassin or sniper, which they have a lean build that makes me harder to get a headshot...) i found that trick quite effective. i realized that SMG's damage isnt that bad either.

by the way... I even put a dot in the middle of my monitor to learn quickscoping... :?

Usually when facing an experienced assassin, they tend to dash/lunge towards me after they do a facestab (i dont die coz im using silver armor). Now i just want to ask how to dodge a lunge/dash after? its like i dont have any chance to escape from it...

Be aggressive. Try to grapple them right after theirs to get the best result...if they back away, stay close enough so you don't get lunged at. The trick is not to rely on your instinct and run away from them.

i dont get the timing yet. it always seems that they lunge faster than my grapple. however usually i manage to jump back shooting smg while running away and keeping distance. i counldnt grapple them back, but sometimes i could kill em back with flak+smg combo...