Are snipers good in Warzones / PvP?

[evexir]

I'm asking this because I leveled a guardian to 22 and then suddenly I found out it's a garbage class at pvp from everyone i ask, at least as DPS.

 

So I'm leveling a sniper as i want to DPS if I raid. I asked a few dif general chats about snipers in PvP and they all said they were OP, but on this forum I've seen people complaining.

 

If it's a skill thing, in WoW I was highly ranked in arena so skill isn't an issue. I just want to know snipers aren't gimp, so I can have something to look forward too while I level.

 

Coming from my guardian, it was very frustrating that I couldn't charge a sniper because he was behind his cover, but I don't have much PvP exp at all in this game.

[muffinslol]

snipers are fine, the class has its problems but if you can get past the problems and have skill and class knowledge you will do fine. we have great burst damage, and great cc.

[JasonPogo]

The only prob I have had with it is people running out of range on me. Other than that I feel we stack up fine in pvp.

[vimm]

Every class is good in PvP.

[Ebiso]

If you are as skilled as you think you are you will hate the Sniper. It only does what you want it to half the time, and forces you to sit and wait for buggy animations to finish before you can do something else.

[Deezlar]

No. Simple.

 

Cover mechanic is broken and a horribly flawed concept, lack of mobility means we are an easy target for most classes, damage is average when you take into account the time it takes to line up a shot and for the most part, anyone with half a brain will have CC'd you through the broken Entrench ability of gone LOS.

 

Go operative to PVP, Sniper to PVE.

[Eisenhart]

Do not roll a sniper, good groups out there will stay mobile in fights and the sniper just isn't a mobile class. On another note, you can roll other ranged classes which arent hindered by the cover mechanic and still do the same damage. Roll those classes.

[Mitso]

Im having fun with mine now that I have some champions gear, Rakata med pack, skill stim and crit adrenal from biochem.

 

Im never ever below top 3 damage from both teams. Orbital strike on a group fight . . . pop cooldowns and watch the numbers roll . . .

[Ebiso]

^ That's the sort of person who enjoys Sniper - the same guy who thinks it's fun to run up and 2v1 the guy sitting on 50% hp.

[vimm]

Bads. Bads everywhere.

[Narfwak]

Good teams will keep a scoundrel/operative glued to you the entire game, and that's not fun. Bad teams will let you burst down their healers and melee as if they weren't even there. Good teammates will peel melee off of you for long enough to burst them down, too.

 

It's not nearly as immobile as people make it out to be, either. Get snap shot, get followthrough, use them, they're amazing. Don't forget to shatter shot, especially if you have nothing better to be doing. If you see someone that looks really distracted or just dumb, do the ol' explosive probe=>ambush=>followthrough/takedown and enjoy watching them flop over more or less instantly and then not release for a good ten seconds wondering what the hell just happened to them (or trying to figure out how to turn on their non-existent combat log).

 

I curse ability delay more than anything else when we're playing games. Unless there's a halfway decent operative. They're bound to get nerfed sooner or later, though.

[Streith]

Eve, please disregard these baddies.

The sniper from my experience, thus far pvping from11-13 and17-19, currently 19- is that it is the hardest class to'master' but once you get the drift of how to play it gets a lot easier, and at 19 the only people i fear in 1v1 is level 40s+, no class stood out on 1v1 versus my sniper and i dont even have pvp gear yet.

 

Before you play though, there are generally speaking two neccesary(sp) attributes you yourself need- good awareness and adaptability

So, dont let these kids make the decision for you(or me for that matter), try sniper out and decide whether you like it or not.

If you want some further help/pointers hit me up in forums with a message.

[davechill]

snipers are fine, they're obviously not the best class but they're plenty playable. they really are no less mobile than mercs either

 

you'd be better off being an op though

[evexir]

Eve, please disregard these baddies.

The sniper from my experience, thus far pvping from11-13 and17-19, currently 19- is that it is the hardest class to'master' but once you get the drift of how to play it gets a lot easier, and at 19 the only people i fear in 1v1 is level 40s+, no class stood out on 1v1 versus my sniper and i dont even have pvp gear yet.

 

Before you play though, there are generally speaking two neccesary(sp) attributes you yourself need- good awareness and adaptability

So, dont let these kids make the decision for you(or me for that matter), try sniper out and decide whether you like it or not.

If you want some further help/pointers hit me up in forums with a message.

 

 

yeah there seems to be a lot of biased posts in this thread, they're all probably bad because my exp so far in PvP has been 3x as good as my guardian. Getting top 5 in dmg / kills at level 14 is funny.. being mobile is not an issue plus with our stuns melee don't pose a threat. I also don't receive much delay at all on my abilities, ie I can snipe, run a bit / stun someone, snipe again etc.

 

I realize ops are probably better but I'm not interested in melee. And yes I do want to PvE so I'm happy with snipers.. our damage is so ridiculously higher than that of juggs / guardians (and probably alot of other classes). And since 90% of the community is complaining about ops they WILL be nerfed soon, snipers wont be touched.

[Streith]

I also don't receive much delay at all on my abilities, ie I can snipe, run a bit / stun someone, snipe again etc.

I never had any problems until last night, when I was getting PILED by like 5 people in huttball(A guildie thought it would be funny to throw it to me with only 30 sec left and I was in cover)

I tried to get into cover and cover pulse and try to live- cover never went up, I never survived

But thats the only time I've had a serious issue with it, and Im level 13 Valor, so so far so good

 

I realize ops are probably better but I'm not interested in melee.

___

And since 90% of the community is complaining about ops they WILL be nerfed soon, snipers wont be touched.

 

Ops,in all honesty(and from personal experience versing them and other stealths), are great at burst, but they may only drop you to 50% health, and at that point all you need to do is get distance and they can't hurt you at all.

 

I also think that cause of this point^, Ops wont be nurfed because 90% of the forum community is full of people moaning about X and Y class actually doing what they are supposed to do. and the community consists of maybe... 10% of the SWTOR membership, at most. So thats maybe 9% that have a problem with Ops, while the other 91 don't care/think it works.

 

What is left to be seen is whether BioWare actually listens to the whistleblowers(hope not )

[Kiphere]

Snipers are good in pvp.

 

Snipers suck in pvp.

 

Depends on the player and the style.

 

I run solo, I tend to be that hidden force in a WZ that makes the win happen. I stray from the pack, sneak around where the action is happening,load up dots, interupt casts, pick off weak targets, etc. WHen I get noticed, I pop smoke and run like a *****. Circle back and start my string all over again. I do well in WZs.

 

If you're playing with a team or organized group and want to be a part of the front line action, sniper sucks. If youre a solo player but still want to jump in the fray, sniper sucks. If you can't adjust your playstyle to fit in the box that the sniper class builds around you... sniper sucks.

 

you have to play sniper LIKE a sniper, you're not a front line fighter, you're not even supposed to be seen. Think about the namesake, snipers make a HUGE difference in wars but no one ever really knows about it, they creep the sides and blow up important targets. You can't play a sniper like a BH/Trooperor a Sith whatever. You can't even play em like an Operative/smuggler. They have their own playstyle and you will be punished severely for tryin to 'force' em into something else.

 

99% of the people ************ about sniper are probably tryin to play it frontline or in a very aggressive format where they're always in some ones face or they're thinking they can pop cover in the middle of a skirmish and just throw down some damage like a wizard or mage or other nuker class. you can't, you've gotta be stealthy without stealth.

 

Sniper 'can' rock in PVP if you play it right but a lot of people don't like the style so they either complain that it sucks or quit the class. Works for me, I love mine and I like being one of the few that actually hits good numbers on the boards

[Wollfe]

Ive posted this some where before but Ill give you a quick break down. Im 456 expertise or near that atm. I have near full pvp gear. Im pvp rank 51.

 

1. Snipers do no more damage than any other dps class that has some other advantage over us, ie heals, mobility, better armor, escapes. In fact as other classes gear up with superior set bonuses and damage types ,ie energy and internal, they do more damage then us.

 

2. All of our damage except for explosive probe and dart are kinetic. Most of our damage is mitigated by armor. Other classes dont have this problem, sorcs, troopers/bh. Hell even the marauder has other damage types and a dot as well.

 

3. Mobility is terrible, coupled with the delay, and dubious cover system sometimes its frustrating hitting snipe and nothing happening for a second. This isnt game breaking balance issues, its a buggy mechanic which I'm sure will be adressed. However, the lack of escapes and general mobility makes you less of a contributor in hutball than any other class. Some one tosses you the ball, you want to increase your survivability? You, have to root yourself in place making you useless for ball movement.

 

4. Far less survivablye than say a trooper who pops his shield or a sorc with a rediculous 3500 point absorb on a 20 seccond cd, 17 secs with set bonus or jugg/marauder popping saberward.

 

5. Our damage can be passively blocked by any ligh saber wielder. Sure would be nice to resist some of those ungodly pebble spams. But no this is not to be. Instead i sit there for 2.5 secconds channeling ambush only to have it blocked by a sorc running away from me...why? because he has a 10% inherant chance to block blaster attacks. Just like my 10% chance to resist force attacks...oh wait.

 

6.Our damage scales for crap. Im doing double the damage i was at level 20 in greens and blues and I'm not 50 in full epics with the champion rifle. The weapon coefficient needs to be examined. I feel like they couldnt decide if we are a wizard who relies on base spell damage or if we are melee with a weapon coefficient. Unsure of what to do they picked neither leaving us in a puddle of mediocrity.

 

7. Entrench is amazing. If you arent you nee to be entrenching when ever things look like they are getting close to you or your gona get CCed. 20 secconds of happyland ftw.

 

8. I have been interupted so many times while in cover now I want to puke. We arent supposeed to be, so make it that way. The buff doesnt allways apply. Ive watched it pop up after being in cover 10 secconds. Sometimes never. Fix it.

 

9. The ease of breaking LOS coupled with other classes getting a heal means you will be frustrated alot as they duck behind cover just before we kill them because takedown didnt crit. Voila few secconds later after pinch heals from themselves and back in action. Meanwhile any dots that have been cranking on us have done permanant damage.

 

10. I have to be in cover to knockback, I cant tell you how many times i have actually blown a person into our end zone because of the delay between getting into cover and then using cover pulse. No other class has a prerequisite to use their KB. Its so damn frustrating.

 

11. Being rooted prevents me from dropping into cover, denying me acces to those skills and the cover bonus for survivability. I can understand being stunned and not being able to drop into cover. But if im rooted to teh spot....like i am in cover...why can i not just...crouch down and deploy my shield.

 

I can list more things but this should suffice to say that snipers arent great at pvp. I wold place them in the mediocre category. Yes Im usually top 3 or 4 in damage, but you have to realize im drilling 20s in the face for 5k with no expertise. When I pop a sage in full expertise its 3k crit...maybe. Young snipers your damage is amazing pre 30. After that the scaling stops and by 50 you will start saying *** where did it go. Lets put it this way a trooper who has more hps more ac and a shield that is amazing can grav round...for as much damage as ambush lands for. 3 seccond ambush...3k...grav round 1.5 seccond cast ....3k. And again i have almost full champion gear with a few pieces of centurion mixxed in. Its not like my gear is atrocious.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Wollfe

[Eisenhart]

Wollfe posted the truth.

[neirocity]

Wollfe, your information is mostly faulty here and I'll explain why.

 

1. Snipers do no more damage than any other dps class that has some other advantage over us, ie heals, mobility, better armor, escapes. In fact as other classes gear up with superior set bonuses and damage types ,ie energy and internal, they do more damage then us.

 

Disagree. What other class can effectively drop 10k in a matter of 2-3s? Sniper is the highest burst class in SWTOR.

 

2. All of our damage except for explosive probe and dart are kinetic. Most of our damage is mitigated by armor. Other classes dont have this problem, sorcs, troopers/bh. Hell even the marauder has other damage types and a dot as well.

 

If you're in a decent team and trying to burst down a tank? You're doing something very wrong. Neutralize a squishier DD class or a healer because that's what you're designed to do. Let's not forget Marksman build's 20% armor ignore on ambush and Shatter Shot's additional 20%. Ambush can still crit 4k+ on tanks.

 

Let's not forget that you're wrong entirely since if you go lethality build, all of your damage is INTERNAL(not mitigated by armor). If you really want to have some laughs, go Leth and laugh at the silly Juggernaughts/Sin tanks that try to escape. Dot stack + Cull = /end life.

 

3. Mobility is terrible, coupled with the delay, and dubious cover system sometimes its frustrating hitting snipe and nothing happening for a second. This isnt game breaking balance issues, its a buggy mechanic which I'm sure will be adressed. However, the lack of escapes and general mobility makes you less of a contributor in hutball than any other class. Some one tosses you the ball, you want to increase your survivability? You, have to root yourself in place making you useless for ball movement.

 

This is one thing I will agree with you on and it will most likely be addressed. But really, a lot of bugs still in game, and they are quick with addressing problems. It's not that big of a deal to be honest. There are tricks and ways to counterbalance this.

 

4. Far less survivablye than say a trooper who pops his shield or a sorc with a rediculous 3500 point absorb on a 20 seccond cd, 17 secs with set bonus or jugg/marauder popping saberward.

 

What? lol. You have a root, a knock back on a 30s(20s if you buff it, lethal build) which is also a root, you have flash bang which is one of the longest lasting CC's in SW;TOR, you have debilitate which can have it's CD reduced (also lethal build: I hope you're getting my hints). You have Cover2 which makes you immune to CC (no other class has this), you have Ballistic Damper ADDED TO Cover's additional survivability (ever attacked another sniper in cover and seen "Cover"? Yeah, 100% mitigated. You have two shields, one a 20% party buff and another a significant absorb similar to sorc buff).

 

5. Our damage can be passively blocked by any ligh saber wielder. Sure would be nice to resist some of those ungodly pebble spams. But no this is not to be. Instead i sit there for 2.5 secconds channeling ambush only to have it blocked by a sorc running away from me...why? because he has a 10% inherant chance to block blaster attacks. Just like my 10% chance to resist force attacks...oh wait.

 

Lethal Build Internal damage.

 

6.Our damage scales for crap. Im doing double the damage i was at level 20 in greens and blues and I'm not 50 in full epics with the champion rifle. The weapon coefficient needs to be examined. I feel like they couldnt decide if we are a wizard who relies on base spell damage or if we are melee with a weapon coefficient. Unsure of what to do they picked neither leaving us in a puddle of mediocrity.

 

This I also do not understand.

 

7. Entrench is amazing. If you arent you nee to be entrenching when ever things look like they are getting close to you or your gona get CCed. 20 secconds of happyland ftw.

 

I thought their survivability was lacking? Surely other classes have this ability to resist CC's, stuns, knockbacks, interrupts or anything else.

 

8. I have been interupted so many times while in cover now I want to puke. We arent supposeed to be, so make it that way. The buff doesnt allways apply. Ive watched it pop up after being in cover 10 secconds. Sometimes never. Fix it.

 

Time your entrench better, you can buff the CD time you know. I dont really get interrupted. I'm almost in full pvp gear (3 piece camp, 1 piece cent, mostly full accessories with champion main hand and cent offhand).

 

10. I have to be in cover to knockback, I cant tell you how many times i have actually blown a person into our end zone because of the delay between getting into cover and then using cover pulse. No other class has a prerequisite to use their KB. Its so damn frustrating.

 

This requires better situational awareness. You either have to be into position sooner (something player skill can fix, not game) or just not using the skill KNOWING it will do that. Honestly, sometimes players are so far gone that no class will be able to stop a score. Not to mention most of the time when a player has made it that far they have full resolve bar. Why are you trying to Cover Pulse near the end zone anyway?

 

11. Being rooted prevents me from dropping into cover, denying me acces to those skills and the cover bonus for survivability. I can understand being stunned and not being able to drop into cover. But if im rooted to teh spot....like i am in cover...why can i not just...crouch down and deploy my shield.

 

Sniper has many things including CC after CC you can use to fix this. Along with a buff to countermeasures (lethal: this keeps coming up) which allows you to break movement impairing (i.e root) effects every 45 seconds. Bind that to a quick key and you won't really have a problem here.

 

I can list more things but this should suffice to say that snipers arent great at pvp. I wold place them in the mediocre category.

 

This is laughable. I'm sorry.

 

Here, I'll give you a challenge. Since you think Sniper is so mediocre, go reroll to something else, level it to 50, gear it, and then watch as some Sniper completely demoralizes you and you'll think back to this post you have read knowing I was right. Just go lethal build because from what I can see most of your complains are resolved with those upgrades.

 

It's quite simple, if you don't like the playstyle of a sniper, then it's not for you. Some of u play the class because we love being the ranged burst DD. I played Sniper not caring whether it was strong or not. I just chose to make my sniper into an absolute monster. Needn't try to prevent players from playing this class which is already underplayed as it is.

Edited January 8, 2012 by neirocity

[Fantasmo]

I leveled an Assassin till 41 and i got bored and rerolled a sniper and im having a blast ...

Isn't that the most important thing when u play a class ?

 

im lv 21 and im eating everything because i play aggresive , i dont stay there waiting for ducks to pass ..

[Darphin]

I'm only level 31 on my sniper, but I'm currently debating on rerolling sorc or something else.. Mainly because while snipers damage is good, their survivability is meh but what really bugs me is their mobility.

 

I'm sort of regretting rolling a sniper and not an operative, I just got out of a warzone where an operative would two shot my Sorc then go off and heal himself. He literally would not die.. :|

[iMakesh]

I love playing a sniper, the damage is great and you have all the tools to escape or create distances. The only thing I hate is that it's sometimes really hard to re-enter cover or it's a big delay on it. :S

 

My alt char will be a Bounty Hunter (because they look awesome and get a Jawa companion), I wonder how much better it will feel to not have to worry about being in cover. The mobility seems great.

Edited January 8, 2012 by iMakesh

[RkJedi]

nope sniper is terrible in pvp.hell its terrible also in pve i find. . cuz sniper have to be stationary (in cover) to launch any good skills to do decent damage.. we are always the 1st target of any players cuz they know once they get into the face.. the sniper is screwed. BH i the better choice does decent damage and is mobile.. i really do hope BW fixes the class .. sniper is an awesome class but so broken at the same time... ... snipe shot to the head it gets absorbed by the target.. uhh.. lol. the best one is sniper shot charging then gets interrupted cuz some jedi throws a rock at u LOL at 40m away... more than the snipers range.. (35m LOL)

for me iam gonna continue playing my sniper toon .. in 6months time they still haven't fix this class yet .. bw/ea aint gonna be getting anymore money from me.

[iMakesh]

nope sniper is terrible in pvp.hell its terrible also in pve i find. . cuz sniper have to be stationary (in cover) to launch any good skills to do decent damage.. we are always the 1st target of any players cuz they know once they get into the face.. the sniper is screwed. BH i the better choice does decent damage and is mobile.. i really do hope BW fixes the class .. sniper is an awesome class but so broken at the same time... ... snipe shot to the head it gets absorbed by the target.. uhh.. lol. the best one is sniper shot charging then gets interrupted cuz some jedi throws a rock at u LOL at 40m away... more than the snipers range.. (35m LOL)

for me iam gonna continue playing my sniper toon .. in 6months time they still haven't fix this class yet .. bw/ea aint gonna be getting anymore money from me.

 

You just need to learn to position yourself better, and keep re-positioning. I see too many Snipers set up in the wrong place everyday, making them really easy targets for anyone, be it the marauders at the frontline or assassins in the backline. Just keep practicing and you'll nail it, don't waste your valuable time asking BW for buffs or nerfs.

 

And I don't play much PvE, but imo Snipers are pretty good in that department.

Since in PvE you hardly have to move unless you're melee, you can just sit behind your rock and do amazing sustained damage because it's too easy to maintain a good energy level in PvE.

[RkJedi]

the problem is not where u position urself when u go into cover if a jedi/sith targets u they will leap jump towards u stun u then hit you with the glow sticks. there is no defense to that or anysort of good melee defense except that burst push skill that pushes them away 2m and stuns them for 3sec... and it takes the sniper shot 3.5sec to charge.. by the time we get the shot off the target throws or does something then u get interrupted and break the shot charge... i dont know... kindda regret choosing sniper though.. should had went operative for stealth and healing. Edited January 8, 2012 by Zilrota
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