Confessions of a Sniper

Good day to you random forum-reader,

my name is grimbar (no fancy capitals) and I played Sniper for quite some time - sparking the infamous grim streak and other fads.

Over the course of the beta and initial release voices have been heard about the so called overpowered sniper, the one that connects headshots coupled with high rate of fire among other complaints; not limited to quickscoping, good defense and freeze traps as well as crazy SMG juice using.

People accused the good snipers of defending their overpowered class many times and we told them it was their lack of skill that prevented them from outdoing us, this point still stands.

Here however, I will come to the point that some would love to jump on: sniping is incredibly, up to beyond retardedly, easy in this game on all classes but assassin (due to some nice hitbox). Wait for some snipers to say it isn't - they are not good enough.

In another thread I announced I'd withdraw from this game if quickscoping (a rather big issue for some) was removed - some misinterpreted this statement. I stand by those words - in most other games it has been removed or reduced for the sake of a better overall experience. I am no friend of this kind of coward move - if you implement a sniper class you'll have to deal with it.

To get to the point: Hi my name is grimbar and high rate of fire quickscoping allows me to connect headshots at any range without any drawback, bring on the banhammer.

Addendum: I no longer snipe for my team for the betterment of all people.

I approve of this post, quick scoping doesn't exactly make you a "god" in this game. This tactic is no different from using the rail gun in Quake 3 at shotgun or rocket distance. Effective?

Yes. Overpowered? No. The trajectory of the rifle sometimes doesn't even hit, due to the spread.

I approve of this post, and I play sniper LEAST of the other classes (main tank and support, then assault and gunner, then assassin, THEN sniper).

Snipers aren't powerful enough to get a nerf. You don't nerf classes that aren't currently breaking balance. "Don't fix what isn't broken". The gunner needs a particular nerf to make his mortar only go the distance of the map in GrenADEIII to prevent air-mortaring. The assault needs a very mild nerf on his grenades/bomb moneyball damage, like 20% less but not so weak that the support or assassin outdamages him. Snipers could use a nerf the least, and if it is a rate of fire nerf then the game balance will be broken and assassins and gunners will run rampant as overpowered uncountered classes, but they don't even deserve an aiming or quickscope nerf.

Whats the point of this thread again?

Sounds like someones ego just wants to be inflated.

Grimbar is just raging cause Mickey Cantor burned the bacon on purpose O_O.

Point of this post: Nerfing a class that the devs specifically designed to balance other classes in the game and be balanced by other classes in the game, unbalances the game. Every nerf acts as a buff for something else.

I swore that if the sniper is nerfed, I will unleash hell in every server on pc, taunt every kill, curse and flame every kid, and get an uberstreak every game... until every forum whiner has eaten enough cups of rage, and comes here begging for the sniper nerf to be undone and for the gunner to get nerfed. I feel like if I CAUSE enough of the RIGHT whinning, maybe I can fix this nerf-begging problem.

Just because 20 threads beg for nerfs, don't mean that the class is unbalanced. It means that 20 people play tanks or assassins, and don't play right and end up dead too often, and want their counter class nerfed. We could just as easily get 20 people who play assault to make threads asking for sniper buffs. Snipers don't win games against supports and assaults.

Buzzers and gapshots beat them. They have no reliable way to kill turrets. They can't push bots as well as they used to already, although they can still clear a wave, they are one rate-of-fire nerf away from being unable to kill bots (you shouldn't need passive to kill 3 blackjacks, you should be able to fire at least 3 regular bullets to kill a normal bot wave, and some people miss a shot so 4 is perfect clip size)

Removing quick scoping won't make a difference from non-snipers perspective. They'll still get punished if they make a mistake. Removing quick scope will only FORCE snipers to play defensive. That's what happened in TF2. No longer will it be viable for snipers to move up and support their team. They will ALL sit back near their spawn. Uber already made mistake adding a cooldown to jetpacks forcing both heavy classes to play more defensively and lowering the skill ceiling. Don't want to see it happen to snipers. If it does, expect assassin lunge to have 10 second cooldown and assault bomb cooldown to double.

Nerfing EVERYTHING really nerfs nothing. It just makes the game worse and worse. Besides, didn't sniper rifles in TF2 do MORE damage for scoping in LONGER? That WAS the fix for quickscoping. It didn't need ANYTHING else.

Shuryy, wylietimes, anyone else that posts sniper-nerf-threads... please play assault, and use grenades from max range on snipers, or push bots as assassin while cloaking when not behind cover, and then come back here and tell me snipers need a nerf.

I might like to see the sniper rifle work more like the one in Action Quake2!

- Slow rate of fire
- Zooms out briefly after every shot
- 6-shot clip with a fairly slow 1-at-a-time reload
- Different zoom levels, all the way down to just 2x
- No movement restrictions while zoomed

This all meant in AQ2 that the sniper rifle was a great precision medium-range weapon, because people could run and jump around in 2x zoom, giving them a still-decent view of things going on around them. By reducing spammability (low RoF, slow reload) but boosting combat effectiveness (full movement, 2x zoom) it would encourage snipers to actually be part of the game, not just sit around spamming on anyone that pokes their head out.

"What about quickscoping?" you say? Oh, this is much nicer than quickscoping.

Keep it powerful, but in a different way.

The problem they had in tf2 was you could quickscope and headshot instantly since all headshots are criticals. What they changed was you had to atleast scope in for 1 second before you were able to score a headshot, so they eliminated quickscoping.

Good snipers in tf2 don't charge their shots, they land non-stop headshots. And that skill carries over into this game.

tbh, I don't think a similar change would ruin snipers one bit. Obviously grimbar and you would rage on the forums but balance is balance.

200ms is the limit, and it was still too severe for teams to run a regular sniper to mid.

Wow. You're... actually serious.

Are you even listening to yourself?

Yeah. I figure if you think the sniper is broke, then I can convince you that the gunner is actually broke. It is. Especially if the sniper becomes nerfed.

I don't mind the quake thing, as far as unscoping. Rate needs to stay the same, just make spammable bodyshots not as bad.

You don't know the first thing about competitive TF2.

The reason they don't run a sniper to mid is because it leaves your scout stuck in a 2v1 with the other team's scouts while you're still making your way there, which is just tactically unfeasible.

Source: http://www.ubercharged.net/2010/08/07/c ... -season-6/

Stop acting like you know what you're talking about.

Lol this guy's ego just can't be bigger.

I even added him on steam a few days ago,just to play with him some time and he replied "Your comment about the sniper's balance made us think that you are not worth our time.Have a nice day." Then he deleted me from friend list.

I SERIOUSLY ROFLED.Apparently having an opinion (My message was "Sniper is so op lol ") makes you not worth this guy's time.I also loved how he assumed i wanted to join his clan or something,when i just wanted to play a few games with him...

Now you make this thread that only confirms two things:

1-I (and half the forums) was right:Sniper is freaking OP.You just were too blind.
2-You are a huge attention wh***.

Have a nice day.

Top TF2 teams ran a sniper until quickscope nerf then all ran 2 scouts and no sniper so I'd say that little change made a huge difference.

tbh i would be shocked if its not nerfed. This game is far more casual than tf2 and its changed in that game.

Only serious players even know how to quick scope effectively. Imo its an exploit of what the scope is for. You are not using it for aiming or the zoom. You put your crosshair where it needs to be then exploit for a 1 shot kill.

Do I have to point you to the point ibuprofen makes about the 200ms delay that disables him from being the beast he used to be?

Sniper has been changed a lot from the very beginning and me linking actual good old-school sniper footage would not make this any better but please do believe I do not know what I am talking about - it actually amuses me.

Here's the logical conclusion to the whole nerf scenario:

Remove Sniper! -> OMG GUNNER'S OVERPOWERED! -> Remove Gunner -> OMG, TANK IS OVERPOWERED! -> Remove Tank -> OMG, ASSASSIN IS OVERPOWERED -> Remove Assassin -> OMG SUPPORT IS OVERPOWERED -> Remove Support -> .......Assault only sucks! -> End.

The sniper is extremely powerful in the right hands, he's not OP. He's OP against bad players.

But all assaults would be perfectly balanced!