Sniping Basics, a guide

Understood.
What about the precision perk? What does that do?

Less cone of fire on unscoped shots and SMG, scope is always 100% accurate so there is absolutely no reason to take Accuracy. In Overtime all your endorsements will be level 3 anyway and then your SMG will automatically be precise like a German Engineer.

The calculations in the guide are based around the assumption that every hit connects just for the sake of comparison of those endorsements involved.

Removed portion 5 and 6, no need for an entire portion for one tip. The mouse-part might be re-added later once I get the required info (as of now I have no indication whatsoever which file has priority when it comes to parsing, no reply from the devs in a week)

At least smoothing defaults to off now, accel had been fixed back in beta4 for those who care.

Never forget: To excel at Sniper line your crosshair and your enemy's head up and pull the trigger.

In my extensive research into the sniper I've decided that the ultimate endorsements for my play style are Gold-Clip Size(huge clips allows you to clear several bot waves and spam shots at whole teams without needing a reload), Silver - Armour(enough to survive a front grapple from an assassin), Bronze- RoF (To get a bit of DPS in). Admittedly skill refresh may be better as a bronze however I'm so used to my current rhythm of fire I cba to change it.

I set all my custom classes to different builds of sniper and tried them all out at different stages. This build best suited my style of locking down a location with a good view of the map before migrating further up to lock down a position outside the base where I can poke at their turrets(aka camping the whole game..)

One thing I disagree with in your build is your initial ability selects. At the start of every game I find it essential to take Traps level 2 after getting the Bullet Pen. passive.

Level 2 traps allow you to block both entrances to your nest (if it has more than 2 main entry points you need to learn to camp better). Not only this but it freezes enemies on the spot allowing a free kill if you anticipated their arrival or a life save if you didn't.

Not only this but the traps can be thrown a significant distance to key points such as ramps, tops of jumps etc where enemy pros always run past(but not bots). Watching this spot gives you another free kill. At 300 gold I take lvl 2 grapple then level 2 flak before saving up for Explosive Rounds. What I do after that depends on the enemy teams composition: Grapple 3 if they have aggressive assassins, Flak 3 if we're getting pushed/pushing their base and I need to take down bots/turrets in a hurry, Trap lvl 3 if it's a rofl stomp and I feel like kill farming some scrubs...

If I told you anymore... I'd have to kill you :/

Works for people who actually use traps to guard themselves I guess. I hardly use traps or "stay in a nest" as it is.

I just shoot people in the head and use my SMG whenever they get too near for a headshot (about 100 to 200 units). Grapple is essential for ringouts and those rather simple facegrapple Assassins.

If it's your thing to kick back at the base and hide in a nest, then sure go ahead and do that.

Doesn't necessarily need to be at my base. Picking level 2 traps first allows me to set up anywhere I want, even just outside their base. With one trap behind me and another to chuck into their base exit it's all about free head shots.
Assassins rarely even get in grapple range before I've enough to upgrade to lvl 2 grapple and even if they do I simply follow up a standard grapple with an SMG grapple for a kill.

I have my full limit of traps deployed on the map at all times and chucking them into brewing team fights can swing any battle instantly. Definitely worth the upgrade at the start.

Your point stands however I want to point out that traps are rather binary. Either they work, I may add because of inexperience or unawareness of your opponents, or they don't work at all.

Decent assassins will just jump over that trap and have you by the balls, level 1 grapple plus + SMG grapple won't kill any assassin using armour. Level 2 grapple however will get them away from you and you get plenty of time to get your SMG out, deterring them from attacking you recklessly.

Guess I only ever get put up against noobs then :/

By the way, do you know if the sniper skill grapple does more damage using the Sniper rifle or the SMG kick?
It's a natural reaction to whip out my SMG when I hear the stealth buzz and can't really remember the last time I used the rifle grapple. A friend of mine says the sniper grapple does more but he's a massive noob and I don't believe him. You seem to know what you're talking about so can you confirm this?

Level 1 150 damage
Level 2 140 damage + Throw
Level 3 225 damage + Throw

It's a skill, weapon doesn't affect the damage.

The SMG alternate grapple does 150 damage. (bonus info)

dunno, I love using a survivability/trap build while pushing forward
the only times I ever die is when I kamikaze on the money ball or if there's more than one assassin (IE one frontstabs me and the second one waits for the animation to finish to backstab me)

but that's just in pubs so who knows

thanks for the build ideas though, I might try them out but I really love fully upgraded flak when the moneyball is dropped @_@

Great guide, one suggestion tho.

Do you have a reference or something to give an idea as to how large that range actually is. For example, how wide is a tank in terms of units.

It's 25% the range of the shotgun.

How cute, the PC forum is like the 360 forum all over again.

Might I say good sir that the sniper is much better at area denial, and traps/flak to level 2 is a much better choice then grapple 2 first because you can do a double grapple with the smg because Grapple 1 spins them around, does a much better job then simply throwing them away, which they'll obviously just come back for more. Ringouts are situational anyways and armor is getting a nerf. Besides, people shouldn't be getting close to you with traps 2 anyways.

I half expected this to be several pages of "shoot them in the head".

As a funfact, those of you who are decent snipers but atrocious at trap placement: Assassins will not be locked down by a trap if they lunge through it, until they finish the lunge. If that happens to be right next to you.. well, maybe you can try a different spot when you respawn.

If you're using them to deter and catch assassins, place your traps in locations an assassin will be likely to lunge FROM. Then if you hear a smokebomb, check your surroundings and be ready for a sin to literally drop out of the sky right on top of you.

If i see well placed traps i'm going to practically land on your head to avoid them.