I'm one of those story line players, you'll never catch me hitting the space bar through a conversation, I'm strictly a PVE'r and I really dislike PVP (simply because I lack the hand eye coordination and I have an issue remembering hot keys) However; I realize if I want to hit that next lvl a little quicker, I need to hit a war zone. All that being said, my sniper does fairly well in most war zones. The only one I get my butt handed to me in is the one where your attacking/defending the ship. I really don't see what the problem is. Since I'm not a fan of PVP and won't do it outside a war zone I probably don't have the entire picture of what the OP is troubled with.
I do think the sniper is overpowered for PVE, I had a lvl 40 OP with which I couldn't finish a mission without help, when my lvl 37 sniper when through the mission I dominated through the whole thing.