Ideas on how to balance the sniper

Already running out of arguments? I wonder why...

No i just dont have the energy to repeat myself over and over...

This is a team game, if your team is not griefing the enemy sniper and letting him have free regein of the map, ESPECIALLY grenade, where he can pin down both lanes, then thats not because the sniper is op, its because your team is incompetant.

Gunner, slow moving, big headed, character whose main weapon is a short range minigun gets beaten by a sniper at long range on a massively sniper friendly map?

Yea okay, definately OP, come to think of it i saw this totally OP red light outside my house earlier, it just turns on and all these cars just freeze up infront of it, and a big queue formed... definately needs a nerf... or maybe its working as intended... hmmmm i wonder...

Agreed. Grenadeiii honestly is a bit uhhh, favoring a certain class, but I still don't consider sniper OP in general.

How to balance snipers - Play with decent players.


Now that's an easy fix.

I don't think I've ever played or even heard of a game with snipers where everyone didn't say they were "terribly op!", even in games where they're actually functionally useless, outclasses by other weapons. It doesn't matter, it's in the nature of the sniper. It's the same reason every noob and their mother complained about the assassin (till they realized there was a much more recognizable hate target!): People don't like getting one-hit killed. They especially don't like getting one hit killed when they feel they had no chance of retaliation (like at long range). Whether they did have a chance to fight back or not is irrelevant. It's all about the chance they perceive to have.

It doesn't matter if it's harder to get one hit killed by a perfect sniper headshot than it is to get mauled by a minigun without a chance to escape. It doesn't matter if there are better, more reliable, deadlier options... It's the feeling that there was nothing you could have done. It's a lie off course, you could have done something, like not getting in that situation to begin with, but that's all irrelevant to the guy raging from a bullet through his eyelid. It doesn't matter that weapons like the mortar can two hit the sniper and be fired from behind cover. It doesn't matter that a Tank or a Gunner will kill you just as fast, if not faster and with more ease, if you happen to cross them at closer ranges. All it matters is that you got killed by that damned sniper!

It's hilarious. Most people seem to understand that they shouldn't run up to a tank. Most people seem to be perfectly clear on the concept that staying out in the open at mid range against a gunner is the equivalent of jumping out of the map willingly. But nobody seems to accept that moving linearly and predictably (or worse, stopping entirely) in a sniper's line of sight will get you a lead facial.

Thus the common outcry that tends to crop up in these occasions: Learn to play. Get it through your head that if you're trying to fight a sniper in his optimal range and you're not a sniper, and they're not severely mentally or physically challenged, then you're going to ******* lose. Because that's what a sniper does. A spun up gunner trying to shoot at a sniper across GrenadeIII stands about as much of a chance as that sniper would have if they were both standing in the center of Ammo Mule. Try to get that.

/rant

Optimal range? You mean "If sniper sees you, you're dead" range?

Because in all seriousness, Uber messed up on sniper. Any weakness a sniper class would typically have are completely covered here. Afraid of assassins? Freeze. Assault getting too close? Flak and use the stupidly accurate SMG. Even his grapple does decent damage.

There's nothing wrong with sniper rifle killing at a distance. There is a problem when getting close to him will also give him a good chance to kill you. There isn't any legit weaknesses with him.

explosive shot and map size

bigger maps will give safe zones

explosive shot should be removed and replaced as it doesnt fit into the sniper archetype

Again, someone stating something being removed without actual reason. Can these trolls please leave the forum?

When will people learn..it's not that snipers and assassins are OP, because they're balanced pretty well. People just hate getting killed in one shot by someone they can't see. And this will ALWAYS annoy people. It isn't overpowered, it's just frustration-inducing. Something you have to learn to deal with, i suppose, since it's just a part of the game.

Absolutely not! I play Assault, Support and Gunner (in that order due to snipers) and I respect an Assassin who gets a backgrapple on me. That's something that takes skill and timing and the victim has a reasonable chance to defend himself, maybe even get a drop on the Assassin.

A sniper executing a heavy class from the other side of the map is nothing you can defend against. There is no way you can get to the other base as Gunner on Grenade III or Steel Peel with two snipers on the map. You can jump and wiggle and try to duck into cover, it won't do you any good. Sooner or later you will have to cross their LoS and you have no charge or mobility to help you out in a pinch. They can body-shoot you to death before you can cross the open spaces if need be.

And when you try to mortar you way past the sniper he will almost always win. Because the mortar is not a one-hit kill hitscan weapon. You have to stand out in the open, you have to aim without crosshairs and your round will travel for an eternity before it hits. And may the gods have mercy on your soul if you don't aim your shot perfectly...

Ok. So, how about this:

Gunners and Tanks get less damage from body shots due to the "thickness" in their armor. Not a nerf or a buff, it's just the way it should probably be. I'll admit that body shotting tanks and gunners is quite easy and without armor is a death sentence.

How much to increase the resistance is probably what might kill the sniper. I would say 6 shots to a tank in the body should kill, maybe 4-5 for gunner. This "balance" I would approve of. Also, I wouldn't body-shot as often as I do on gunners and tanks if it wasn't for their head hitbox is so wonky sometimes. Gunners are easier to headshot though.

If you can't kill a sniper as an assault you may as well uninstall the game and fire up Farmville.

Also, stupidly accurate SMG? Can I have whatever you're smoking? You're better off using the sniper rifle up close against half the classes.

a decent assault with almost always beat a sniper in a 1 on 1 fight hands down, the bomb where you can just throw it at him and charge away, charge at him, assault rifle him to death, obviously you don't run straight at him you gotta flank him and use the map, but thats why i said decent.

PC players seriously need to get better at this game and play it a little more.

Gunner's Mortars, Tank Product Grenade, Assault's Bomb, Support's Air Strike, Sniper's Flak and Assassin's Lunge all bypass Sniper's freeze traps. Assassin's lunge just lets her past it while the others set it off without having to be near it.

Since when?

Grenade 3 makes the sniper better due to it's design. It has nothing to do with class match ups.

i believe that even if the assault gets caught he can just activate his jet pack and it "melts" the ice, xeno does it many times in his vids but thats on xbox, i think it works on pc?

Honestly, we are not sure if that is intended or not. If it is, the Assault needs some kind of nerf then.

it works on pc and i think its fine? your skills are being drained so you only have a limited amount of time to use it? and not many players seem to know about it haha

only thing about snipers that annoys me is the explosive round proccing on everything and the fact they can sit at the back of their base and be annoying, but its not something that's OP

A decent sniper doesn't get flanked. There are no secret tunnels in this game, on most maps the sniper can see every possible threat froms miles away. If he ignores them and let's them close, he has already made a mistake. And even then, as someone else pointed out, the sniper is not a free kill in close range either.

Ok, apparently not :?

And regarding the comment about making tanks and gunners more durable against bodyshots - it still woudln't fix the fact that they're slow and their heads are huge. It's stupidly easy to headshot them, buffing their bodyarmor would probably do nothing at all in 9/10 cases.

Sniper is the best pro killer in the game hands down. Whether the assault can counter him or not is not relevant, because you might aswel say that the sniper is balanced only when there is an extremely good assault around. And that is not balance. I'm all in for some classes being strong against other classes, but I don't want one class to be able to counter atleast three classes, still have moderate chances to beat the remaining two, and also be a great bot/turret killer.

I know that most, if not all of the players here trying to argue against sniper nerfs, are in fact sniper players themselves. Think outside the box. MAYBE you aren't as good as you think. MAYBE you're just getting carried by an overpowered class. Did you ever dominate entire teams as a sniper in other games? Can you dominate a pub as a gunner as well as you would as a sniper? Have you personally as a sniper ever been shut down to the point of not topping kills in a match?

I'd really like to think that I am in fact just as good as my scores say. But that's not the case. There's no way I'd get 62-2 on any other class. It didn't even take any learning, I just picked up sniper and I had it right from the start.

Compare sniper in this game to snipers in other games.

TF2? Way more mobile opponents, a lot more flanking routes, no chance in close combat aside from twitch headshots.

CS? A lot more flanking routes, severe disadvantage in close combat, bolt action snipers not allowing for spam. Auto sniper is stupid though.

Global Agenda? Insanely fast opponents, flying with jetpacks, no OHKO's, having to lead your opponents.