Jazzlok
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Posts posted by Jazzlok
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Then you'll enjoy it. You don't get the satisfaction of jumping into a group of enemies and smashing them all up, or powerful AoE which means you can run through a mindlessly kill mobs, but it's still fun to solo and do the story (which is a great story).
More importantly, though, it is a fantastic class to play whilst in a group. You kinda end up being what an IA is in the lore; as a Sniper you hang back and observe the fights, your damage animations aren't highly noticeable, but you have a specific job. You probably end up being the most important burst dps; you're the one which intelligently picks out the biggest priority targets and takes them out quickly. If extra mobs come into a fight, or your healer takes aggro, you have tools to burst them down and control them.
Hell you can even tank ranged mobs more effectively than most people realise. In Mandalorian Raiders, for example, I always volunteered myself to at least tank the smuggler. Grab some initial threat, dps whatever your group is dpsing, and make sure you keep an eye on your health. You can avoid most of the damage aimed at you by staying behind hard (natural) cover, it's fun when a burly boss is layering down a withering hail of fire and you're sat behind a crate watching it all harmlessly bounce off.
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To the OP: yes they are
Everyone is focusing too much on all the little details which don't make the Sniper a carbon copy class, instead of taking the abstract view.
We are the ranged DPS, whose utility doesn't come from healing or damage mitigation but from our ranged burst and slight snares.
When it comes to melee, we have a couple of abilities but we use them to get out of range.
We're fairly static - WoW hunters are not mobile kite machines, they sit and shoot like everyone else. Hell I played hunter since vanilla, we had no auto-shot back then, like SWTOR we had to hit our ranged attack button.
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I use it, it's incredibly helpful. I generally pair up the same abilities on the same button if they're used on both bars (i.e. Followthrough, frag grenade), but some abilities that work out of cover just aren't as useful in cover (i.e. Overload shot). I like to use my favourite hotkeys, but don't want those hotkeys to only be useful in cover, so I put them on the top bar and they double up. For example, for me 'E' is Sniper while in cover and Overload shot while out of it. '3' is Ambush while in cover, and Shiv while out of it.
It's one of the few perks we get as Snipers in my opinion, lots of different abilities but if you plan your hotkeys well then you don't need nearly as many ^^
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Played my second ever WZ tonight, first game of Huttball, level 21 MM Sniper. I was playing like a mad man, hardly knew what was going on, running about on catwalks and peeling enemies off my mates. Only came about 5th/6th on damage, some objective points but not many (I touched the ball once, briefly). Got 5 MVP votes. Like a boss.
Maybe they detected my enthusiasm and didn't care about the stats or how well I did xD
On a side note, I had no idea you could have Imperial vs. Imperial Huttball matches. Already killed my 3rd Sorceror before something in my brain twigged.
On another side note, after all these horror stories about Sorcs in PvP, it was refreshing to find that we Snipers are basically their counter? The main problem I had was this one particular Mercenary, but that's mainly because she'd always get the jump on me from some weird position and my comp would drop down to 1 fps.
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I'm a little confused, though worried this question has been asked many times (haven't found my answer elsewhere though).
How does your current gear affect low-level performance? I PvPed on my Sniper for the first time today, at level 21, loved it. I don't have good PvE gear for my level, let alone PvP gear, and I was wondering how gear scaled up with your dps?
I mean, is there actually a point in thinking carefully about pvp gear and stats before 50? Does 6 points in Power scale up to something worthwhile?
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7.5/10
It's still the class I pick overall though.
Basically, you don't have the movement of other class. You don't have the AoE. You don't get stealth. You can't heal or tank. Soloing any group content is much more difficult than pretty much any other class.
On the flip side though, we're pretty damn awesome. It can feel a bit stop-start (set down in cover, plan for a group of mobs, kill them, come out of cover, loot, new set of mobs, think about positioning, set down in cover, etc.). On other classes you feel a bit more... I guess 'instant gratification' is the word to use?
Basically the Sniper does its own thing well, but you miss out on all the other things. I love my Sniper because I love the IA story, I'm ranged, and I can focus on DPS (because in the many years I've been playing MMOs I have a pathological need to please everyone and be the healer or tank... and it stressed me out so much whilst creating characters in this game I just went with pure DPS).
My advice is that, when you start playing as a Sniper, don't play on any other toons for a while. If you do you'll probably start to miss the little things when you go back to the Sniper. No class has everything, and while the Sniper is AWESOME it lacks a lot.
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Good fun in PvE. I haven't done Operations yet, but generally levelling and heroics/flashpoints are good. You have some utility, but mostly it's just good fun to play a sniper in a group. There's people running around with lightsabers, people in bulky armour firing missiles all over the place... but as a Sniper you really feel like the 'professional' one of the group. Yeah, Bioware made a game where the RP seems to affect the actual mechanics of PvE, I don't understand it myself.
I guess what I'm saying is that, as a Sniper, you probably won't feel bored. You've got energy management and stuff to take care of, it's not hard but it's involved. Most importantly though you get to bring an air of order to the chaos, whilst still feeling like you're in an action film.
Most groups will involve Sith jumping about and explosions and flames and lightning. As a Sniper you get to focus on your ranged damage (so it's not stressful but wonderfully easy) and you get to have a good overall view of every fight. You get to admire the visuals and lend support where needed.
In short, you really do feel like an Imperial Agent in a fight.
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I've never really had a problem yet, on Ahto City we're fortunate to have a big population of helping people.
Sometimes you can't get a group right away, but a little bit of patience and usually one gets formed. The beauty of this game is the companion system; like Guild Wars, you can substitute a companion for a real player if you're in a fix. I've done more than one Heroic 4+ quest without a tank, where my Kaliyo has tanked well enough for us (with some stressful micro-management from me).
I do get annoyed when I see people LFG in the general chat and I don't have the quest yet (because I want to do it!) but yeah no problems here.
Though Ahto City has a lot of fairly hardcore players on it that are levelling alts, and they're more than up for heroic quests because you can quest 'til you get the group then hop over and get lots of exp and good rewards.
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I've apparently gotten over the hump, I am now laying waste to everything.
I think Snipers are a class that goes through a severe nadir quite early on. Dromund Kaas could get pretty annoying, lots of melee mobs and you don't have enough utility abilities and enough DPS to compensate.
Halfway through Balmorra now and I'm amazing, and thanks for all the tips everyone. My basic strategy now is to stop myself from logging on to another character at all costs.
Kaliyo is still annoying me but she has redeemed herself somewhat, was doing some Heroic 4+ Balmorra quests and our tank was on the other side of the map and kept saying 'Just gotta finish one more quest before I come'. The Marauder and Merc I was with trusted me to tank with Kaliyo, so we marked up the mobs and went for it (no CC either hehe). Kaliyo tanked all the heroics for us, even if it took a stressful amount of micro-management to get Kaliyo to tank big groups whilst managing my own abilities and energy xD
We forgot to tell the tank, and he arrived 30 mins later just as we were leaving the phases...
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Powertech cyborg named Ironyman
Excellent
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Sidenote: In a Republic zone with ~100 players you'd be lucky to see even a single Scoundrel (Operative equivalent).
That's because playing a Scoundrel is really unsatisfying, I tried. It's not the two blasters thing (I'm a PT>Merc guy), it's the lame abilities and animations.
As an Operative you feel slick and sleek, going around with your assault rifle tucked into your shoulder then coming out with electric vibroblades in a swift motion. As a Scoundrel you hit people with the butt of your pistol and do other silly things that don't feel powerful at all.
Granted, there's humour to be had by backhanding someone across the face. Dropping an explosive probe (or equivalent) on an enemy then making him explode by kicking him in the family jewels never gets old.
It just feels stupid doing that to a droid war machine or giant lizard.
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I'm in need of some advice from Snipers about issues that DON'T concern PvP.
Basically, I need some confirmation and validation about Snipers getting better as they level.
<<WARNING>>: A small mini-rant here, not intended to be whiny or asking for a buff but merely providing context to my concern.
As it is right now my Sniper is only level 18. I also have a Powertech at 20, a Mercenary at 18, and an Operative at 19.
As you can see my time hasn't been spent focused on one toon, but on many characters, because I'm having a really hard time choosing what to play. This means that I don't have the mid to late game experience, but I do have comparisons with lots of other classes having just cleared the same content multiple times.
The Sniper is the class that I want to love the most, but the one I'm having the most trouble with. See, I love my Powertech, and therefore would prefer my ranged class to be a Sniper and not a Merc (thinking ahead). I really want my Sniper to be the character I take to 50 first, and to focus on him. It's just... lacking so much right now.
I'm aware though that my comparisons are biased. If we take my Powertech as an example; I'm shield-tech (tank) specced, and have Mako healing me as well as doing damage. I can run through groups of enemies, dealing great AoE damage with Fire from Above/flamethrower/explosive dart/etc.. I never have to recuperate. I never have to worry about positioning, I don't even have my grapple/jet charge yet but I can fire on the move, use lots of pretty good ranged attacks and smack people up close.
On my Sniper... I have none of those things. Kaliyo and I need to recuperate constantly (okay I know most classes do this isn't my major concern), I feel very slow, positioning is a constant worry too. Now I finally have leg shot and the cover pulse it's not so bad, but so many fights in this game start from a cutscene or unexpectedly from around a corner or something that I feel so vulnerable. In flashpoints and group quests I often feel frustrated that I'm lagging behind a group (since I don't have the gap-closers they do, and have to set up in cover and charge a snipe or ambush by which time the mob could easily be dead). Being in cover also doesn't feel like it gives me much protection at all, even though I've finally got ballistic dampers (I think that's what it's called?).
All of this would be fine if I still wasn't convinced that I don't do as much damage as my Powertech tank does! I'm not a min-max, flavour of the month, must be top of the dps meters guy; I still don't appreciate it when I begin to feel frustrated because I don't 'feel' like a marksman. My Powertech can use his Unload ability (channeled for a couple of seconds, unleashes a flurry of bolts from his blaster at 30m, staggers weak opponents, on a short cd) and kill a mob outright. I can take longer setting up and sniping an enemy, and I struggle to even take of half their health. Single target, at range, my melee tank has a more powerful burst with slight utility.
td;dr My Sniper has a fat, useless companion and is getting out-damaged at range by my tank.
My question:
I'm expecting the paradigm to shift at some point. I don't need my Sniper to be uber-amazing, but I'd like to know from the Sniper community the point at which I should be seeing the gameplay experience improve. I know there have been similar threads but they're either not quite what I'm asking, or the thread devolved into more PvP debate before a proper answer was given. Is there a companion which makes the experience much better? Is there an ability I'm missing? Do Snipers begin to feel more powerful in the mid to late game?
I know what the class is, I know how it plays and how it was designed. I still want to play one, I'd just appreciate it if the Sniper community can say whether or not this is a common phase which all Snipers pass through like some rite of passage.
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On Ahto City, Snipers are certainly in the minority.
It's just the law of the MMO universe that, whenever you're playing a certain class, you will only ever see other players playing the same class as you.
I mean, seriously, I roll a Powertech when they're pretty much only 5% of the server population, and in an hours levelling session I see at least 10 other powertechs and little else.
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This IS my BH name:
Originated from a call-sign i used while serving as OPFOR at the U.S Army JRTC
Our LT was a fresh Ranger-school grad and loved pool.
He gave all patrol positions Billiard ball names
He had a gold bar - so he was Nineball
Pointman always went first, so that was Cue-ball
I was rear securtiy - and, since i watched "our six", was "Six-ball"
Used the name in UO, AC, AO, WoW - so why stop now?
That's a damn fine way to pick a name.
I secretly suspect that the real reason people join the military isn't just to serve their country, but to earn a nickname/callsign.
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The great thing about this game is the abundance of mobs during group play which aren't elite.
When you're soloing in the wild as a lone dps and your companion is off doing a crew skill, is it hard to fight a mob, even a lone elite? Not really.
Tanking in this game is based on the principle that, as the tank, your job is to run and go mental and get as much threat as you can on the biggest priorities.
With your AoE and a clear head, you shouldn't have a problem getting threat on every target. Most importantly, in most situations, you don't need to KEEP threat on every target. There are supposed to be 'burn' targets for your DPS to take down quickly which require minimal tanking. If a non-elite mob peels off and runs for your DPS, take a look at its health. Chances are it's already below 75% maximum. Off your initial damage, and the amount of damage that the DPS caused to take threat off you, the mob should be a lot weaker. Any DPS worth their salt in this game isn't just thinking about maximising their DPS, they think about about maximising their survivability. As a Sniper, for example, a leg shot/flash grenade/debilitate combo could easily let me finish off a mob solo (hell that's overkill).
The most important thing as the Tank is to not let loose mobs run around which actually have the chance to cause damage. If your DPS can't handle the pressure, then set up a kill order, make them stick to it and make them wait for you to build aggro. If multiple DPS are peeling off mobs and don't know how to minimise damage taken then the healer will quickly get overwhelmed.
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I'll tell you the main reason why I've been trying to stay away from Powertechs (and failing miserably). I think long-term.
I know that, at some point, I'm going to make a force-user. I'm a Star Wars fan, so whilst I'm not a 'ooh Jedi, shiny!' player I know that at some point I'll want to smack people over the head with a lightsaber. Main problem is... that's all melee, really. I wanted to make a Sith Jugg and a Sith Assassin, and I already had an Operative which I thought was my main. My Republic main was even a Commando, which I enjoyed a lot.
Powertechs are just... SO COOL THOUGH! I can't stay away. I've even abandoned my Operative to be a Sniper and plan on rolling a Sith Sorc at some point (something I thought I'd never do) just so I can stick with my Powertech.
Basically, the way I see it, the Mercenary is like Jango Fett. Pretty damn cool, elegant, twin blasters, some missiles, enjoyable.
The Powertech is like Boba Fett. Just... awesome. If you've read any of the extra Bounty Hunter books, Boba Fett is exactly like the Powertech. I especially like the main function of his Mandalorian armour - not just 360 degree vision, but a built-in video recorder. This is because many of his clients, like Jabba the Hutt, like it when he brings back footage of his kills, so he has a tendency to walk up to his victims then jam a flamethrower in their face before uploading it to youtube.
Real men only need one pistol. Mercs are over-compensating. Don't even get me started on Commandos.
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If you really want to go Pyro, then you're better off going PT. As a Merc, Pyro is less useful in general than Arsenal (before all the Merc Pyro's say anything, Pyro is still awesome!). However I think the general consensus is that PT Pyro > Merc Pyro.
But choosing the spec over the Advanced Class does seem an odd thing to do.
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Yeah don't be afraid of nuking some mobs; standard and strong mobs you can afford to aggro in most cases. When it comes to dpsing the harder mobs and your group isn't using symbols it's also fairly easy; you either look to see where all the lightsaber flashes are (for juggernaut and assassin tanks) or you see which mob is engulfed in flames (powertech tanks).
Don't be afraid to peel mobs if they break from the pack. If they're really strong mobs then leg shot/flash grenade/debilitate to kite and cc them so others can come back and help, and if they're soloable then just go to town.
As a sniper you'll probably find yourself in an infuriating position sometimes where, by the time you set up in cover and begin a snipe or ambush, the mob you were targeting is already dead. This is more prevalent at the lower levels and if you're Marksman spec, in the higher levels mobs aren't so easily burst down in groups and you get your instant snipe when going into cover. It can still be an issue though, so on the weaker mobs in groups don't be afraid to open with a frag grenade or something like that.
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I haven't quite given up on my sniper but I now have a level 25 powertech BH.
It's like I hit the option for easy mode leveling.
You start with a healer pet. Mako has given me about half a level of xp just from conversation, as well as being good in a fight. Kaliyo never did this and isn't worth a damn in a fight.
As a BH I pulled an elite, 2 strong mobs and a regular and just steamed on through, the sniper gets worried at one elite mob.
The BH has fantastic AOE options right from the start not at lvl 48. Death from above may as well be renamed skip encounter, but I also get flamethrower and explosive dart when it is down.
The only thing im missing from my sniper is my classy accent. The bounty hunters 40 cigs a day tones don't do it for me.
You can definitely understand how people when they try another class don't want to touch the sniper again.
I continuing my BH as an alt, but we will see when 50 hits.
This is my exact experience.
I fell in love with my IA. When I turned into an Operative and suddenly became a melee class I was so disappointed, I played on 'til level 20 but I felt squishy with little control over a fight.
I've now levelled a Merc, Powertech and Sniper to around that level as well. As much as I miss the IA story and accent (seriously, I want my sarcastic English accent back, it mirrors my own so much) I'm just struggling to find a reason to level up my IA toons.
I really want to like the Sniper, because I want to level a Powertech as my main and I want a ranged character as an alt. At this moment though, as much as I want to love the class, I feel so weak and useless compared to my Merc/PT. When it comes to multiple enemies, well, either BH AC is much better at AoE damage. Most disturbingly of all, my Sniper feels weaker at single target damage too. The worst part is that I have to stop and recuperate after every fight on my Sniper because Kaliyo and I just get pounded. I know there's the whole 'Play smart, play better' issue, but I feel like I'm missing a trick. When I'm in cover I no longer feel protected in any way.
I'm still going to focus on the Sniper at some point, but I sincerely hope it becomes a more enjoyable experience soon. I'm not overly concerned about any FotM, or how they rank against other classes, but I just don't feel great when playing one. It takes so much to drop a single enemy, so much time and energy, that I don't feel like some elite Marksman at all.
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I remade my Merc, with his stubble and cybernetic eye I've called him Soric (yet another Gaunt's Ghosts reference)
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I broke my rule and chose body type 3 for my male BH. I did it partly because of this thread, actually, since everyone said that the powertech armour looked much better.
At first I kept thinking "I've made a huge mistake, the running animation is weird, I only have a small blaster, and my face is really wide". I've actually come to like it though, it feels great being a tank of that stature. Standing there, wielding a flamethrower, looking like a boss.
If I ever roll Sith I'm staying as body type 2 though, you don't need strength to be a Sith.
I'm actually wondering what I would look like if I rolled body type 4... it looks way too comical for my liking, but once I had some awesome armour and a helmet I think I may have looked like a real powerhouse...
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Name's Mkoll after the chief scout in the Tanith First And Only.
Fantastic. My buddy got really annoyed because he wanted his Sith Assassin to be called Mkvenner but it was taken
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Yes I know this is one of those generic topics, but the one over on the IA thread had some really cool names and reasons behind them and I couldn't find a Bounty Hunter one. A shame, because Bounty Hunters really have the most opportunity for uniqueness and variety.
Personally, I have a Merc called Needles (partly inspired by the Republic Trooper storyline I must admit).
The Toon I'm focused on now though is a Powertech called 'Brostin'. This is because my friend has a Marauder named 'Mkoll' and, well, any Gaunt's Ghosts fans in the house? xD
If you're sick of these types of threads then just let it die instead of posting your dislike (and giving it a free bump to the top)
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On a slightly related topic;
Do Powertechs get any skills which improve Death from Above? It's my favourite ability and I'd like it to be an important part of my playstyle.
If they increased our range... would that solve our problems?
in Gunslinger / Sniper
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That would be insanely amazing and probably OP; I already love being in the back shooting at max range anyway, I can only imagine what kind of frustration other people would feel if I could be even further away on top of a ledge.
It would certainly be fun xD