Sniper is a great class, but for the quick levels it was not there compared to say Merc or a class with stealth.
I used the Middle tree for great AOE skills, i loved them, but how ever there were times I would die too much, like on Taris, even with great AOE sometimes hate would be too much or the adds, as Sniper cannot take any dmg unless you bring your healer and I pretty much used Temple to take things down quicker, but when I was ina pickle, I was in a pickle and died...lol