The Sniper's Handbook

[Easelman]

Good lead on the number crunching website....

 

One of my problems with most "agent" websites is the fact that they concentrate on MM. We are breaking new ground here, but the game is only a month old, soon the accountants of the MMO world will crunch numbers for us creative types.

[Karaokelove]

Hey guys, thanks a lot for your informative posts! Just an update, I'm still working on getting my Sniper to 50 so that I can make certain aspects of the guide a lot more accurate. I should be hitting 41 within the next hour. Don't worry, I've been keeping a close eye on your comments and have plenty of great updates planned. And as always, thanks for reading!

 

-Woody

Edited January 12, 2012 by Karaokelove

[Vill]

I just rolled a fresh sniper, so while I'm stuck at work I was checking forums for builds, rotations, etc. Excellent guide, very helpful. I had two questions:

 

Playing on a PvP server i had a question about Entrench. What exactly does this encompass? Can a Jedi Sage blow me off of my cover with a force wave? Can i be lifted? I'm assuming stuns and direct interrupts / lockouts still work. 20 seconds of CC immunity is pretty sexy.

 

Someone made a sound argument about snap shot in another thread, if Snipe takes 1.5 seconds to cast, and the GCD is 1.5, and you still have to fire from cover, really then, what would be the point in ever taking this? I guess if you coupled it with Calculated Persuit, but outside of this scenario, Snap Shot seems like an awful waste of 2 talent points. . .

Edited January 12, 2012 by Vill

[Merroc]

Snap shot, in pvp at least, is useful as you don't have to sit still for 1.5 seconds.

 

The big difference between sitting still for 1.5 seconds and waiting 1.5 seconds GCD is, well the sitting still. For pve this is less useful, but in fights where you have to evade mechanics, you can still do some dps while on the move.

 

However, don't think you can spam snipe this way, there is an internal cooldown on snap shot. I don't know if there is an exact value somewhere, but it feels like 5-6 seconds.

 

edit: not to forget, you have to put the points somewhere. Also another reason to take this, if you open the fight, you're at 100 energy and not regenerating. If you have to wait 1.5 sec for snipe to cast, thats 0 regen. If you insta-cast snipe, it is 1.5 seconds of energy regen, while the damage is the same.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Merroc

[Vill]

Thank you for your feed back.

 

This was my understanding regarding the snap shot; I am still going to be limited by the GCD. At best you can cover, snap shot, then move again, perhaps affording you 1.5 seconds of running, but you still can't activate any abilites that are governed by the GCD during that time anyways. I guess it will come to personal preference in the end. I agree with the OP and will likely spend my talent points similarly, at least in regards to this paticular talent.

 

Any word on Entrenchment? Mostly just curious if i can be blown out of my cover during this 20 seconds.

[Vyrzeden]

Snap shot, in pvp at least, is useful as you don't have to sit still for 1.5 seconds.

 

The big difference between sitting still for 1.5 seconds and waiting 1.5 seconds GCD is, well the sitting still. For pve this is less useful, but in fights where you have to evade mechanics, you can still do some dps while on the move.

 

However, don't think you can spam snipe this way, there is an internal cooldown on snap shot. I don't know if there is an exact value somewhere, but it feels like 5-6 seconds.

 

edit: not to forget, you have to put the points somewhere. Also another reason to take this, if you open the fight, you're at 100 energy and not regenerating. If you have to wait 1.5 sec for snipe to cast, thats 0 regen. If you insta-cast snipe, it is 1.5 seconds of energy regen, while the damage is the same.

 

I saw the same thread and I take SS for the energy regen reason. You don't want to be energy capped and starting a fight with a cast time is effectively the same thing. Laze->SS Snipe->Followthrough is an excellent way to start a fight (avoids non-energy regen, begins the cooldown of one of the best attacks for MM, and an almost certain Reactive Ambush proc).

[Karaokelove]

As far as I can tell, Entrench is only mildly useful in pvp. If you leave cover the effect ends, and it seems to be fairly easy to knock a Sniper out of cover, even while Entrench is active. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I can tell, that seems to be the case.

 

As far as opening your fights with Snipe goes, do none of you guys open with Series of Shots? I've been experimenting with it a bit, and here's what I've been able to come up with so far:

 

Since it's a channeled ability, the energy is used upfront, but the damage is dealt over the next few seconds, allowing you to regen 5 energy /second while doing some nice damage. If you then follow up SoS with Snipe, you continue to regenerate energy while Sniper charges up, and the Snipe should actually go off the moment your energy caps back out.

 

I'm still messing with assorted rotations, which I will be adding into the Rotations chapter of the guide.

[trixlixmy]

As far as I can tell, Entrench is only mildly useful in pvp. If you leave cover the effect ends, and it seems to be fairly easy to knock a Sniper out of cover, even while Entrench is active. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I can tell, that seems to be the case.

 

As far as opening your fights with Snipe goes, do none of you guys open with Series of Shots? I've been experimenting with it a bit, and here's what I've been able to come up with so far:

 

Since it's a channeled ability, the energy is used upfront, but the damage is dealt over the next few seconds, allowing you to regen 5 energy /second while doing some nice damage. If you then follow up SoS with Snipe, you continue to regenerate energy while Sniper charges up, and the Snipe should actually go off the moment your energy caps back out.

 

I'm still messing with assorted rotations, which I will be adding into the Rotations chapter of the guide.

 

 

 

Entrench is amazing it save you from operatives shadows etc many players usually open up with some sort of cc, cc knocks us out of cover and being out of cover is almost a deathwish. I play engineering and will say entrench is the most usefull skill for snipers using it at the right time is essential...

[Dwogger]

Good questions, Dwogger. Here are your answers:

 

There are basically only 2 Cover abilities: Crouch in Place, and Take Cover.

 

Take Cover is the one where you roll behind a physical object. This provides you with a 20% bonus to your ranged defense against any enemy within an invisible 45-degree cone in front of you. It also allows you to stay ducked behind the physical cover in order to completely ignore the enemy's basic ranged attacks.

 

Crouch in Place is the one where you...(wait for it)...crouch in place. Initially this yields no bonus, other than granting access to your cover-based abilities. However, once you hit level 10 your character will start deploying an energy shield whenever you crouch in place. This grants the 20% bonus to ranged defense, but not the basic attack immunity.

 

By default, the "F" hotkey causes you to use your Take Cover ability. Shift+F causes you to use Crouch in Place.

 

You can find a slightly more detailed explanation in the "Cover" chapter of the Sniper's Handbook, along with some handy tips and tricks. Hope that answers all of your questions!

 

Thank you for answering, but I still do have some questions about the cover mechanic

1. When I Take cover behind an object, there is no red conus shield visible. Do I still get a 20% bonus in 45 degree when I Take cover behind an object?

2. Does this red shield of Crouch ability gives any immunity like a box or only a 20% def. bonus?

3. Does the immunity of ranged attacks works only from basic attacks? I mean can I be hitted from another's sniper ability (Snipe for example), by inquisitor's lightning or even by special attacks of mobs when I kneel down (completely under cover and don't cast anything)?

4. As I noticed, when I cast any ability from behind a box or other cover mobs can hit me. Could you tell me, what is chance of being hit while I cast (Snipe for ex.) by range attacks? It must be about 40-50 % according to logic, but may be you know the correct numbers?

Thanks in advance for answering all 4 questions))))

[Vill]

Thank you for answering, but I still do have some questions about the cover mechanic

1. When I Take cover behind an object, there is no red conus shield visible. Do I still get a 20% bonus in 45 degree when I Take cover behind an object?

2. Does this red shield of Crouch ability gives any immunity like a box or only a 20% def. bonus?

3. Does the immunity of ranged attacks works only from basic attacks? I mean can I be hitted from another's sniper ability (Snipe for example), by inquisitor's lightning or even by special attacks of mobs when I kneel down (completely under cover and don't cast anything)?

4. As I noticed, when I cast any ability from behind a box or other cover mobs can hit me. Could you tell me, what is chance of being hit while I cast (Snipe for ex.) by range attacks? It must be about 40-50 % according to logic, but may be you know the correct numbers?

Thanks in advance for answering all 4 questions))))

 

1. The red shield, and physical objects offer the same 20% damage reduction bonus.

2. No. Only solid cover gives immunity to basic attacks.

3. Yes, only the basic shots, so you will not be immune to a special ability like Snipe. Also, you will only have immunity from these shots if you are innactive behind the cover, you will not be immune to anything if you are returning fire.

4. Their odds to hit you as the same as if you weren't in cover, you only get a damage reduciton at this point. So... Unless the mob just misses for some reason or you dodge, you are still going to have the same chances of getting hit. If it's basic attacks see #3.

[IronSalamander]

So more on the cover vs. crouch situation.

 

I ended up completely removing cover from my binds and using mouse button 5 for crouch in place only. Too many times in the past I've rolled into cover and being unable to see my targets for one reason or another, or rolling back into an aoe that I broke cover to get away from in the first place (I'm looking at you Hammer Station). Since I'm almost always actively shooting, I don't really notice the basic attack immunity loss, but should we generally have cover available as well or just drop it? I'm 35 so no hard modes or operations yet, but will we need that immunity later perhaps?

 

So far I've been loving ballisitc dampers when I am getting hit in cover and it can be easily reset if need be after a short time.

Edited January 13, 2012 by IronSalamander

[Vyrzeden]

As far as opening your fights with Snipe goes, do none of you guys open with Series of Shots? I've been experimenting with it a bit, and here's what I've been able to come up with so far:

 

Since it's a channeled ability, the energy is used upfront, but the damage is dealt over the next few seconds, allowing you to regen 5 energy /second while doing some nice damage. If you then follow up SoS with Snipe, you continue to regenerate energy while Sniper charges up, and the Snipe should actually go off the moment your energy caps back out.

 

I'm still messing with assorted rotations, which I will be adding into the Rotations chapter of the guide.

 

There are a few reasons I don't open with SoS.

 

1 - I want to get Followthrough on it's cooldown rotation ASAP. Snap Shot Snipe->Followthrough does that. This is still energy efficient since Snap Shot uses the rest of the GCD after firing for energy regen and Followthrough is already energy neutral with its upgrade.

 

2 - SoS has the same cooldown as Ambush, 15 seconds. I like to line these up for....

 

3 - SoS crits activate Reactive Ambush. If any of the 4 shots crit during SoS, it triggers.

 

4 - SoS->Reactive Ambush is just the right amount of time to use Followthrough again after cooldown.

 

So my opening is almost always: Laze(if up)->SS Snipe->Followthrough->SoS->Reactive Ambush->Followthrough. After that I get into the engineering abilities (with my 23/16/2 spec I posted earlier). Snipe->E. Probe->I. Probe->Followthrough generally lines up well after my opener. Toss in OS and by that time SoS and Ambush are coming off cooldown.

 

Note that I make no claims to this being the "correct" opening sequence, but it works very well for me.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Vyrzeden

[Vyrzeden]

1. The red shield, and physical objects offer the same 20% damage reduction bonus.

2. No. Only solid cover gives immunity to basic attacks.

3. Yes, only the basic shots, so you will not be immune to a special ability like Snipe. Also, you will only have immunity from these shots if you are innactive behind the cover, you will not be immune to anything if you are returning fire.

4. Their odds to hit you as the same as if you weren't in cover, you only get a damage reduciton at this point. So... Unless the mob just misses for some reason or you dodge, you are still going to have the same chances of getting hit. If it's basic attacks see #3.

 

On points 2 and 3, I have personally had natural cover block power shot from a champion mob I solo while still on Corellia. His grenades are not affected though.

[Karaokelove]

Wow guys, thank you for the great info!

 

I did have a few points to add on the cover situation. If you "Crouch in Place" behind a natural cover location, you should still benefit from the standard-attack-immunity.

 

As far as the standard-attack-immunity goes, it should actually block any "straight" attacks, such as the standard attack, Snipe, Ambush, etc. It won't block things like Frag Grenades, Probes, and AoE attacks.

[Dwogger]

1. The red shield, and physical objects offer the same 20% damage reduction bonus.

2. No. Only solid cover gives immunity to basic attacks.

3. Yes, only the basic shots, so you will not be immune to a special ability like Snipe. Also, you will only have immunity from these shots if you are innactive behind the cover, you will not be immune to anything if you are returning fire.

4. Their odds to hit you as the same as if you weren't in cover, you only get a damage reduciton at this point. So... Unless the mob just misses for some reason or you dodge, you are still going to have the same chances of getting hit. If it's basic attacks see #3.

 

1. Great. But I didn't understand point 4 a little. Do you mean that while I am behind a solid (box, stone, etc.) cover and I cast Snipe or anything else, the chance of mob to hit me is just his standart chance like I am standing in empty field, although half of my body is behind an object, right?

2. Can inqusitor hit me with his lighting while I'm inactive behind an object? Do I get 20% reduction in this case?

And one more, just offtop: do only I can't see the duration of Debiliate ability or it's information is bugged?

[SithShogun]

Where are you crunching your numbers from. As a level 50 sniper in a mixture of Champion/Columni and Rakata gear I can say my Crit snipe's don't even come close to 5k damage. Could you share your gear as well to explain what the difference is?

[Merroc]

He's using these arbitrary numbers for sake of argument, he even says he's making them up:

"So for instance, let’s say Snipe, which has an energy cost of 20, does 5,000 damage"

[Invious]

Where are you crunching your numbers from. As a level 50 sniper in a mixture of Champion/Columni and Rakata gear I can say my Crit snipe's don't even come close to 5k damage. Could you share your gear as well to explain what the difference is?

 

If you look at abilities on Torhead which i think he said he pulled them from, it shows values such as those, 5k+ for snipe, etc. It is wrong. Snipe does 1603-1711 dmg for me (per the tooltip) at my gear level, 4pc columi, all artifact gears with a sniper rifle equal to the Columi one. Top snipe crit is around 3k.

[Invious]

So I looked at the Sith Warrior forums for Snipers and there DPCT/DPE part and decided to crunch the numbers for my gear. On the left are the numbers from SithWarrior forums, on the right are my numbers. Just gives an idea of how well abilities scale with gear (SoS I'm looking at you here!)

 

Priority list for sustained damage

Rank....Ability...........................DPE.....My Numbers

1..........Followthrough................328.......424

2..........Ambush........................201.......234

3..........Series of Shots..............190......247

4..........Takedown......................157......390 (4pc) 208 without

5..........Orbital Strike (1 target)...147.......178

6..........Explosive Probe.............116.......133

7..........Snipe.............................90........107

.............................................................113...Shiv

.............................................................101...Corrosive Dart

...............................................................78...Overload Shot

...............................................................65...Frag Grenade

...............................................................60...Shatter Shot

...............................................................35...Suppresive Fire (1 target)

 

Priority list for burst damage

Rank.... Ability...........................DPCT......My Numbers

1..........Orbital Strike (1 target)...2210........2667

2..........Reactive Shot Ambush.2012..........2339...(non RS 1403)

3..........Takedown...................1570..........2077

4..........Explosive Probe..........1540..........1779

5..........Followthrough.............1313..........1696

6..........Series of Shots...........1268..........1646.....(2057 When using Rapid Fire)

7..........Snipe.........................1197..........1423

..............................................................1347...Corrosive Dart

..............................................................1063...Shiv

................................................................882...Overload Shot

................................................................867...Frag Grenade

................................................................707...Rifle Shot

................................................................609...Suppressive Fire

................................................................400...Shatter Shot

..............................................................2045...Headshot (normal/weak)

..............................................................1397...Headshot (Strong target)

 

 

I went a little further with the number of abilities. I did take in to account Imperial Assassin and Between the Eyes, however without having a base armor to start with numbers will be off and Ambush would be a little better that it show. I also have 2pts in Explosive Engineering.

[Karaokelove]

@Invious: That is fantastic! Thanks a lot for your hard work!

 

And yes, as far as the numbers I use in my post, they are just arbitrary numbers used for the sake of argument. You should be able to see that disclaimer in the post. Right now it is very difficult to nail down hard numbers (though Invious has come about as close as you can). That is one reason I'm pushing so hard towards 50 (43 now!) before I update the guide further, so that I can start to do some actual number-crunching.

[Invious]

Working on trying to figure out the scaling ratio's so far since I'm bored at work. Think I've got Orbital Strike about nailed down, easy since it doesn't use weapon damage. Should be something like..

 

 

1068+7.44(BP)

 

Base damage seems to be 1068

 

Scales off Bonus Power by a multiple of 7.44 (or close)

 

Just napkin math really but its a start.

 

 

Edit: Oh yeah, Rifle shot was the easiest I think. It appears to be Weapon Damage + Bonus Damage. Thats it.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Invious

[Invious]

Its gotten busy in the last hour or 2 here, and I don't want to save the notepad I'm working in on my computer so ..

 

Rifle Shot - WD+BD

Ambush - 1089.4+WD+2.9(BD)

Orbital Strike 1068+7.44(BD) (10% dmg is included in there for explosive engineering)

Snipe 463.7+WD+1.82(BD) (6% dmg is included for Stead Shots)

 

WD = Weapon Damage

BD = Bonus Damage

 

Numbers aren't 100% exact but are in an acceptable range (for me)

 

To figure out actual numbers on target you'd need armor values and Ambush would scale a little better considering 20% armor pen.

[Karaokelove]

Well I finally got around to updating the guide a bit. Nothing major, though I did update the Crew Skills section quite a bit to reflect some new information I've been able to learn. The biggest change is my emphasis on Diplomacy over Slicing. It's just no comparison. I was able to make more credits with a 150-skill Diplomacy in 3 hours than I was with my 400-skill Slicing in the span of 3 weeks. As it now says in the guide, I literally went from having 56 credits to my name to having over 450,000 in that span of 3 hours. Though around 100k of that was from selling off old Bioanalysis materials I had accumulated over the weeks, the major chunk was directly from medical supplies gathered via Diplomacy.

 

I also now recommend going with a non-Biochem crafting skill to start with, and switching to Biochem only after you have hit 50 and crafted all of your skill's level 50 gear.

[Karaokelove]

Ok, wow. I've seen a lot of people complaining about the Cover bugs, and although I had experienced them on occasion in PvE, I really got my taste of them tonight. I was not able to attack from cover for the entire first half of a Huttball match. Literally any time I tried to do a cover attack it would glitch out on me. It didn't matter how many times I changed positions, or how far or close I was to my opponent. For around 8 minutes I was completely useless to my team, unless you count running around casting Probes and Frag Grenades as being useful... I really hope they get that fixed very soon, or a lot of players are going to get permanently turned off to the Sniper class.

[Leonique]

Accuracy past 100% reduces a targets defense. This means it reduces his chance to parry/dodge. As a marksman, your primary attacks are based off Ranged damage/accuracy. If you use attacks that are Tech based i.e Kinetic damage, then they reduce a targets resistance. Resistance is an actual separate defense and my sith juggernaut friend, lvl 50, has 0% resistance,