Valor 65 Sniper Explaining [In Detail] State of Snipers in PvP atm -->

[TehChozenOne]

What kind of "utility" does an assassin, marauder, or operative bring to the group?

Assassin- Carry the ball. Vanish. Super Tanky. Ect. Decent Damage, and LOTS of AoE. an enemy pull

 

Marauder- healing debuff, sprint for party, 15% damage increase for party [bloodthrist], group heals, charge, GodMode [carrying the ball], Vanish.

 

Operative- Heals. Same CCs as Snipers. INSANE burst.

 

*note- DPS Operatives are going to be aweful for Ranked WZs too. Healing operatives are obvious in what they bring to a team.

[durvas]

The only thing i can advise is to get a better group or stop rolling soloQ

 

As a Sniper from Beta to Release with full BM gear i have seemingly zero issues in group play.

 

I am 95% of the time top dps/kills

I have no problems with any class except Geared Assassin Tanks.

I have very little Energy concerns when played right.

 

The only changes sniper need is more Tech abilities in Marksman Tree, that's it.

 

 

0 issues in premade vs. pugs is not a good indicator if the class is good/bad. Only when rateds come out and people will be fighting each other with (relatively) equal gear and organization will the true potential of classes be realized. For now, we can only compare the tools each class has.

 

Right now, it does not look good for Snipers/GS due to their lack of defense and escapes; the trade off between benefit/drawback compared to other classes is too high. Lethality has pressure, but pressure is better applied by a sorc because they won't be hit as hard resource wise if their dots are dispelled and they can escape/defend way better with much more utility.

 

This leaves the burst kill role which brings in many factors: burst dps, ability to be shut down, ability to be killed, CC. We are basically tied for the best in burst against soft targets with pyro/assault and far behind them vs. tanks and armor. We are also not hardest to shut down, which goes to merc/commando spammers because we can still operate due to not being interrupted in cover. But our CC is meh, not great like a sorc. The only thing beside root (which can be deflected and thus is affected by rng and other defensive cds) which can help out without rushing into the middle of the fight (really bad idea) is the flashbang. Sometimes it's amazing like mezzing everyone as they rez in voidstar but in the middle of a fight, it's situational/high risk, can't work with some classes (jugg smash, dot classes, aoe abilities), and has a travel time. This is not mentioning the high amount of resolve these get relative to other class's abilities.

 

Which brings me to defense and mobility. We have poor defensive cds and no escapes. For a class that has medium armor, we're supposed to sit there and take it. Versus a single player, sure we can keep them off if they're certain classes and don't use cds of their own. But this is about group play with focusing and target switching. The very nature of our class, that we are supposed to be away from the action can also be a vulnerability as our teammates aren't always in a position to help. Wasting the healer's life pull every cd because you're getting trained is a terrible idea. Our aoe knockback is on a 30 sec cd compared to sorc 20 and merc 15 (as dps). The only decent cd is entrench which means "everybody los or attack me now, i'm not going to move". Everyone already knows the defensive limitations of cover and getting knocked out so easily. DPSing on the move as MM or MM/eng hybrid isn't as terrible as some other classes, but cover is not conducive to repositioning as you are very vulnerable out of it due to the root=no cover bs. Simply put, other classes can either get away from trouble or take it until a healer arrives, we can't and our offense/utility doesn't justify that.

 

I think Snipers/GS are in the same general boat as dps mercs/commandos and will do better in the lower brackets due to people not really knowing how to counter/los/focus us, but there will a ratings cap where the opposition starts to pay attention to us and completely takes us out of the game because we are easy targets. Neither AC will be at the very top until they get utility (merc) or defensive (sniper) increases.

[jaakkeli]

Let me ask everyone something...What kind of "utility" does an assassin, marauder, or operative bring to the group?

 

DPS Operatives are pretty gimped and won't be seen much in rated zones unless tweaked a lot in the patch. The only thing they have is stealth but it's better to bring an Assassin for that.

 

A Marauder with its group buffs, godmode cooldowns and insane harassment capability will be necessary for every group that wants to be competitive.

 

A tank Assassin will be similarily nearly obligatory for every group. They're massively powerful on ball carrying, for node defense AND great for Huttball defense as well with the pull AND knockback (which they can position for in stealth!). DPS Assassins will be less overwhelmingly popular (but these days you rarely see Assassins not running in Dark Charge anyway...) but they still have great utility.

 

Actually, just the taunt and aoe taunt means that a pure DPS class needs to offer something really, really good for the group to be brought along. Marauders have good group buffs, Snipers have, ironically, a protective shield that's badly inferior to taunts in PvP.

 

They basically do the same thing that snipers do, just at a melee range. They do absolutely nothing but kill things.

 

Sounds like you've never even tried these classes. Again, someone who has only tried a Sniper doesn't really realize how badly gimped the class is. (Actually, how gimped both the Agent/Scoundrel classes are.)

 

Don't play the class then and get off of the forums. There are plenty of snipers out there who know how to play and are doing just fine.

 

No, there aren't. Any Sniper or Gunslinger I see is just a joke when I'm on my other chars, especially since I've played the Sniper and I know exactly how to screw them over with immobilizes, cover bugs and los. I love the Sniper and I'd love to have it fixed so I could play it in competitive rated zones but at the moment it's just not going to happen. I for sure will not join a rated warzone group with any of my chars if they're unserious enough about winning to let a Sniper in.

[Wingfoot]

I agree with the OP. I'm rank 61 (would be higher but I didn't play for about 3 weeks), I have full rakata but BM comms haven't been as kind to me. Regardless I could go naked and still do better than most people I see playing simply because I know how to play.

 

The thing that gets me about Sniper are all the bugs and useless things. I still get unknown effect all the time which drives me insane. Also have to love getting CC'd because it takes 3 seconds to get into cover and then cast Cover Pulse. CP needs to be on demand! I run engineering/lethality specs the most because MM is just not as good in my opinion. With that said I just am not in love with our specs, there is such a lack of synergy with every spec with wasted points. We have the WORST 2 piece bonus on our PvE set as well. It's kinda like they just threw a bunch of stuff together for the Sniper as an after thought.

 

They need to rework cover. I made a post about this months ago but it gained no traction (here is the link Cover Change). The quick version of that post is this:

 

The cover mechanic should be made portable, as in forming around your character on the move. It wouldn't be a shield like sorcs have or like our shield probe, but instead more like a stance that Tanks have or DPS classes have. The cover screen can do what it does now when you kneel, except now kneeling is not required. There would also be a buffed version of cover if you want to entrench (not the ability) yourself behind a worldly object, but the portable cover should be just that, like a body shielding of sorts that does the same exact thing it does now, but just opens up mobility and doesn't make you kneel down. The abilities in cover aren't all that different from what other classes have on demand all the time, which is why they should do the same for us.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Wingfoot

[TheRagingPwner]

It seems that all of the talk about "Utility" comes up to Hutball. No one mentions any utility in Voidstar or Civil War. But do you have any idea how usefull it is to pop down and put up your AoE shield while trying to take a door or turret? 20% less dmg taken for your entire team is pretty useful I'd say. In rated WZs, Hutball will be 1/4 of the games played....enough with all of the ball carrier talk. What kind of utility is brought to the other games where the goal is to take and hold objectives? I agree that we suck as ball carriers. I think being able to rain down dmg on the Hutball zerg from above is pretty helpful as well as taking out enemies that are trying to get into forward position to move the ball quickly. As a sniper, I never have to worry about being knocked off the ledge while trying to kill the ball carrier as the melee classes have to deal with. And what good is the sorc pull if they are never in a good position to pull the ball carrier because they are dead. The main goal in 2/3 of the existing WZs is to kill people on the objective as fast as possible. Snipers do a great job of that. I play a Sage as well (usually as a healer but I switch to DPS as well) and the Sage has more utility but nowhere near the ability to burst someone down. From what I am hearing out of all of these "pros", if you aren't either a tank class or a healer, you will not be brought to the WZ...I'll just say that I really hope they allow cross server PvP so I can play against your team and show you what a real sniper can do.

I am not saying that snipers are the best class out there. Every class has its strengths and weaknesses. Sniper strength is being able to burst down any non-tank class faster than anyone else. Their weakness is that they are pretty squishy if a melee can get on top of them. I think it is actually pretty balanced. I would love to have some kind of escape mechanic as it would make my job much much easier.

I the end, there is really no point in arguing. You say that your sniper sucks and I say that my sniper completely dominates the WZs. Maybe its the competition or maybe its the skill of the player. I have always been a top PvPer in the MMOs that I play. Nothing you say will make me change my mind because as of right now, it's at the point where people see me and avoid even coming within range of me. So I guess you can say that I am happy with my results right now.

[TehChozenOne]

Wing.. i like your cover idea, however it would vastly gimp Marks [assuming it was on a cd like our current shield probe]. It would just increase the cd between our "requires cover" tool set. Better to have cover remain the same, but give us a CD that allows us to have a movable cover buff that is on a 1min cd that shares a cd with entrench [otherwise that would be absurdly OP].

 

That would fix alot of mobility issues.

 

IMO Bioware should also have a system like WoW did where if you are using a channeled spell on another target and they LoS you, it will continue to channel onto that player [going through LoS].

It seems that all of the talk about "Utility" comes up to Hutball. No one mentions any utility in Voidstar or Civil War. But do you have any idea how usefull it is to pop down and put up your AoE shield while trying to take a door or turret? 20% less dmg taken for your entire team is pretty useful I'd say. In rated WZs, Hutball will be 1/4 of the games played....enough with all of the ball carrier talk.

I would like to point out that because huttball [currently] is the ONLY WZ that can be played against your same faction.. the Empire players play Huttball an average of 2/3 games played. Your logic is flawed. If Snipers are going to be less effective in 2/3 games that are being played then how is our class not gimped?

 

Also, be advised.. after 1.2 Bioware is making Ballistic Shield a 15min Cd.

 

You stated in your post that perhaps you are the greatest Sniper in the world.. sure... i'll play your game. That might very well be true. I also roll pretty much ALL of the players on my server.. except for the other top 2% of players on my server that play OTHER classes.

 

Have you ever gone toe to toe with a geared Assassin Tank? Geared Marauder? Geared Operative? ect.

 

You *********** melt.

 

Our lack of self peels is an auto loss.

 

Unless you somehow have found 50% accuracy in your gear+talents that i can't seem to find myself able to come up with, or the ability to crit on Tank Assassins for 10k those are ALL unwinnable fights.. and the ONLY class above that you even stand in contention to touch is an Operative.. why? because THEY HAVE THE SAME UTILITY AS YOU.. except they have a vanish.. so when you decide to CHANNEL they are now untargeted, your Cull/SoS goes onto CD, and then they cleanse your DoTs.

 

Assassins can do the SAME THING.

 

Maras do more damage than you, have more defensive CDs, and have a vanish as well.

 

I don't know how much experience you have playing against toons that are completely capped min/maxed.. but the difference is absurd.

 

Unless you completely OUTPLAY the other players, AND the player you're fighting F**ks up, then you're GOING TO DIE.

 

The ONLY way to bridge the gap, is to use Cybertech Grenades.

Edited March 8, 2012 by TehChozenOne

[nikthebeast]

I think we might be pulling off into the extremes here. Claiming that snipers are useless is plain wrong, there are a few issues that would be nice to see resolved but hyperbolic language like "Snipers will never be allowed into rank WZs" is unnessecary and in all likelihood wrong.

 

We are a glass cannon but when I play with people who know what they're doing, ie, let's me play my role without having to worry(too much) about getting swamped and killed, I am a wrecking ball. This is where I adopt TheRagingPwner's rationale.

 

However, there are issues I'd like to see resolved(get it, resolve... sorry) as well as some kind of defencive mechanism. This is where I adopt TehChozenOne's rationale. However, whatever the solution is I hope it won't go into even more CC abilities(this game has too much of this already) but rather reactionary skills or escape methods.

 

Sorry for going all carebear on you but it seems like the discussion is headed towards who's the better sniper rather than discussing the issues. Let's talk issues and use argument's that does not pertain to L2P-arguments or E-peen stroking. We all have different perspectives on the sniper, some have played other classes, some perfer a particular build, etc etc.

 

My main concerns:

1. Cover; When rooted or the hairpullingly annoying experience of using cover near a ledge(it is enough for us to find a good vantage point to have to deal with this stuff).

2. Poisons and energy cost. Speaks for itself, dispells and reapplication of poisons drains your energy extremely fast. Either that or add some chance of poisons sticking through dispells.

EDIT: Perhaps add debuff upon being poisoned? Like a 10 sec debuff reducing the cost of poison on the affected targets?

 

3. Give us an evasive ability akin to vanish or something.

 

So yeah, there might be issues but let's not blow things out of propotions.

Edited March 8, 2012 by nikthebeast

[TheRagingPwner]

The thing that gets me about Sniper are all the bugs and useless things. I still get unknown effect all the time which drives me insane. Also have to love getting CC'd because it takes 3 seconds to get into cover and then cast Cover Pulse.

 

Those are actually the 2 changes (fixes) that I would like to see. The unknown effect is probably coming from the fact that we cant go into cover on a ledge or while standing on top of uneven ground which limits our ability to DPS on targets below. That needs to be fixed.

 

There has never been any mention from the devs if the inability to take cover while rooted is by design or not but if they made us able to take cover, it would solve a lot of those annoying problems.

[Pretorian]

The sniper (and the devs) are in a pretty akward situation. The same was (still is?) for the rogue in WoW. We are pretty much like ranged rogues. We get in position, wait for the right opportunity. Then we open with everything we got, burn the target in seconds and disappear from the spot. We leave the opponent perplexed as to where the attack came from and what really happened. Now, this is how it SHOULD be (and how the rogue was).

 

Seeing us as some one that can't really hold our own in CQC, our defense should be our offense - we kill the target before it reaches us. If they do get close, we have different CD's to blow in order to finish the job. In an ideal world, no one should ever get near us before it's too late. If they do, we're toast. That makes us a rather "binary" class.

 

And here lies the problem I think. It's very easy to make the sniper far too powerful. If we are given too much of a damage boost, we will have certain given situations where the sniper is unbeatable and can act as an undisputed area of denial. No one will get near key point X because there is a sniper burning everything down. So the team has to change focus to getting him, probably by just swarming him. Now we have a situation where every WZ game will be won by those who have the most snipers and every tactic will revolve around countering snipers.

 

Another problem I see is the philosophy of PvP combat. I personally don't have a problem with certain fight ending very quickly depending on the classes. One would think that a fight with a sniper and another class should be over in three seconds. The sniper should kill extremely quick but would also BE killed equally fast if not playing it right. But I do know that this is often a pariah in PvP. Developers strive to lengthen PvP combat and introduce different kinds of damage reducing stats. This leave burst classes in the back water. We have had our main defences (our fast damage output) reduced but don't have any additional tools to handle a lengthy fight. This also negates the whole point of the sniper. Who on earth heard of a sniper involved in a lengthy firefight?

 

I think the main problem is the devs who are dead afraid of boosting the sniper cause the way we kill is extremely annoying. Perhaps not so much that we will be OP, but that we will be able to (in very specific situations) nearly oneshot players and they won't stand a chance againts us.

 

I draw parallels the the WoW rogues stunlock method. It was an extremely annoying feat that rogues could completely shut down a player and bringing him to (near) death with out him doing anything. This caused massive rage on the forums and Blizzard bent to the whiners. What they didn't think about was that the stunlock involved perfect timing and that all attacks could be blocked/dodged/parried or even miss so chances where that the stunlock failed. However, when executed perfectly and everything landed, the stunlock was seen as a kind of exploit.

 

TL;DR - we should BE snipers, meaning that we finish players off in seconds, but are also equally vulnarable oursleves. Right now, it seems that the first part is lacking.

[Wingfoot]

Wing.. i like your cover idea, however it would vastly gimp Marks [assuming it was on a cd like our current shield probe]. It would just increase the cd between our "requires cover" tool set. Better to have cover remain the same, but give us a CD that allows us to have a movable cover buff that is on a 1min cd that shares a cd with entrench [otherwise that would be absurdly OP].

 

I'm not sure how that would gimp MM, it would be a buff to them for both PvP and PvE since both are so friendly to mobility. Your idea isn't bad either about putting it on a CD as well. Balance issues aside, since that can be addressed with the change, I still think something like this would solve a lot of Sniper's woes.

[Veala]

The problem with Snipers isn't so much a problem with Snipers as it is a problem with Huttball. Huttball is horribly designed with regard to class balance. If you're running anything other than Juggernauts, Assassins, and Sorcs in Huttball, your team isn't ideal. Some classes suffer more than others (ours suffering the most besides dps Operatives), but Huttball as a competitive format is broken.

 

In the other two warzones we're fine. I wouldn't mind an escape tool, but as much as people like to go on about damage not mattering, Civil War is pretty much decided by which team is better at killing the other. Same for Voidstar, except crowd control comes more into play when moving between doors, which is something we excel at. We can easily stop 4-6 people dead in a choke point (until we die =p), and we excel at killing everything except for tanks.

 

All that said, we're perfectly capable of filling the mid/backfield control role in a Huttball team. As everyone seems to agree, we're very good at killing things, and that's what that role primarily calls for. Most teams will take an amazing Sniper to do that over a mediocre Sorceror, but we'll never be ideal without some major mobility buffs, which I honestly think would make us overpowered.

[TheRagingPwner]

The problem with Snipers isn't so much a problem with Snipers as it is a problem with Huttball. Huttball is horribly designed with regard to class balance. If you're running anything other than Juggernauts, Assassins, and Sorcs in Huttball, your team isn't ideal. Some classes suffer more than others (ours suffering the most besides dps Operatives), but Huttball as a competitive format is broken.

 

In the other two warzones we're fine. I wouldn't mind an escape tool, but as much as people like to go on about damage not mattering, Civil War is pretty much decided by which team is better at killing the other. Same for Voidstar, except crowd control comes more into play when moving between doors, which is something we excel at. We can easily stop 4-6 people dead in a choke point (until we die =p), and we excel at killing everything except for tanks.

 

All that said, we're perfectly capable of filling the mid/backfield control role in a Huttball team. As everyone seems to agree, we're very good at killing things, and that's what that role primarily calls for. Most teams will take an amazing Sniper to do that over a mediocre Sorceror, but we'll never be ideal without some major mobility buffs, which I honestly think would make us overpowered.

 

This is exactly what I have been saying in pretty much every post I respond to. Civil War and Voidstar are all about killing the people as fast as you can...Which we do a good job at. Hutball is bad for us in terms of running the ball but there are 7 other people on the team for that. I play a more defensive role in Hutball to prevent the other team from setting up for easy scores and counter attacks after we score.

[jaakkeli]

But do you have any idea how usefull it is to pop down and put up your AoE shield while trying to take a door or turret? 20% less dmg taken for your entire team is pretty useful I'd say.

 

It's a joke. Any DPS or tank Powertech, Assassin or Juggernaut brings 30 % aoe damage reduction on 45 second cooldown and single target 30 % reduction on really short cooldown.

 

In rated WZs, Hutball will be 1/4 of the games played

 

Voidstar in its current form will be irrelevant though as you cannot ever plant a bomb against a competent team with a balance of healers and tanks. It will be just 50/50 by random chance with neither team getting anywhere.

 

On Alderaan range won't have much of an advantage to melee DPS as the fighting will be on nodes and the squishiness of Snipers will be a huge problem. Given that nodes are still damn hard to capture against a co-operating team that rapidly moves to defend, the good classes are ones that either last long at defense (ie can guard a node while reinforcements are coming), classes that have high speed abiltiies to move between nodes to reinforce whichever is being attacked and classes that can do stealth harassment.

 

The main goal in 2/3 of the existing WZs is to kill people on the objective as fast as possible.

 

The current design favours defense, not offense.

 

From what I am hearing out of all of these "pros", if you aren't either a tank class or a healer, you will not be brought to the WZ...

 

Exactly. One Marauder for the buffs, the rest will be healer classes and tank classes. The only real question is whether even DPS sorcs are good enough to be brought into rated (neither Operative or Merc will be brought unless they're healers).

 

I don't think you realize how brutal this is going to be on DPS. After you've filled the tank and healer spots, there will be an absolute maximum of 4 DPS spots and some groups will probably run with only 2 DPS spots. With 3 healers 2 tanks there will be 3 DPS left and that will probably be typical. One of those DPS will always be a Marauder for the buffs. The Sniper will compete for the 1-3 remaining spots in a group with all the rest of the DPS specs and what they can offer in comparison is really not looking that good.

 

I have always been a top PvPer in the MMOs that I play.

 

I'm sure you have.

[Dasamukha]

Lets see if we can sum this up.

 

1. No escapes (poor escape options.) If you are trapped by any other class a sniper is either meat, or if we use all of our cooldowns we have a chance to win.

 

2. No utility that can't be brought by another class. The other class can do the job more effectively. Other classes have utility that a sniper cannot come close to matching.

 

3. Issues with certain classes. Marksmen have no business killing tanks or any class with descent mitigation and Lethality can be countered with any class that can purge.

 

4. Poor survivability. Hand in glove with no escapes. 1v1 its a toss up depending on which class is on you and whether your cooldowns will work. Cover pulse/leg shot/flash grenade all sound good in theory, but then you have to get off an effective shot routine without interruption and pray for a couple of crits. Shield probe and ballistic shield are fantastic but you are still in 3 seconds of cooldowns. Valuable time not dpsing.

 

5. In every pvp situation, there are always going to be classes at the top and classes at the bottom. The game will never be balanced perfectly. Snipers tend to be at the bottom and their role, as defined by Bio (a/k/a ranged defense) is weak at best and does not fit well into the current pvp reward system.

 

The community has offered tons of tweaks to fix the sniper's short coming. Some include:

 

A. Changes to cover pulse.

B. Changes to cover. Allow it to better mitigate melee attacks

C. Dependable escape ability, (I personally like the long cooldown short duration stealth)

D. Revamp of armor "penetration."

E. Extended range, (my least favorite)

F. Some utility option on par with grapple, guard, extraction or force leap.

 

Regarding rated war zones, I agree. Few snipers would be chosen for inclusion on a team. Zone defense and poor/average mobility are not desired traits. Couple that with poor survivability, average dps and none of the assume utility options, the sniper will be on the side lines watching.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Dasamukha

[Migey]

The Sniper class is 80% fine. The 20% that isn't comes from our DoTs being dispellable, ESPECIALLY when some other classes (madness Sorcs) have DoTs which are not dispellable. Make DoTs undispellable and i'd say Snipers are fine - we have boatloads of utility especially in maps like Civil War with Ballistic Shield + Entrench, Orbital Strike, and some of the best long range aoe in game (spec into the right talents in an EngiLeth build and your c-nade + 3 sec cd Frag nade + Orbital Strike abilities are all RIDICULOUSLY strong.

 

Edit : the Cover defense bonus also needs to be changed slightly i think - as it is, Snipers are a class that are fantastically designed around killing other Snipers, because our Cover mitigates ranged damage, which is most of MM Sniper, a bit of EngiLeth or Leth Sniper, and a tiny bit of Merc.

 

Make Cover mitigate all damage that comes from range including force damage and i'm happy.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Migey

[TheRagingPwner]

@Jaakkeli

 

You speak as if your idea for WZs is going to be the norm. It sounds like your team theory is going for a passive playstyle with no team being able to kill each other. I am sure that your strategy will work just as I am sure that other setups will work just as well. Only 2 classes out of 8 taken as DPS? I don't really fear that setup as I have little fear that my healers will ever be killed if the other team only has 2 DPS. The squishiness of a sniper is also pointless against a team like that as you will not be able to split the DPS since you will have trouble enough taking down the healers. In my experiences with our 4 man premades thus far, when all 4 switch to a target at the same time and burst, there is no saving him. IF what you say does end up being the case, I am sure that Bioware will do something to prevent every game of Voidstar from being a 0-0 tie. It is all speculation right now though. BW announced that they are reworking all of the skill trees. You really have no idea what the game is going to be like and what ranked WZ will be like when 1.2 comes out.

[Dasamukha]

I'm sorry sir, wrong again. Sounds great in theory, except that your team can't tell the difference between your OB and the opposing players. Your healer better be damn sure that you are the only one who can cast OB, else he is standing there with a melee and takes more like 9K. In that situation, your healer is going to move, and that melee is going to follow right out of that OB, and the melee not being sure what side is firing is going to let the healer move. In the real game where I play, there are Operatives, Snipers, and gasp Smugglers, who also cast a version of OB.

 

The only time that OB is terrific, great and wonderful is when your side has planted the bomb and the other team is rushing to disarm. OB placed as a door guard is wonderful in that specific situation. Otherwise it has marginal utility, and depends on the stupidity of the other players to succeed.

[TheRagingPwner]

I'm sorry sir, wrong again. Sounds great in theory, except that your team can't tell the difference between your OB and the opposing players. Your healer better be damn sure that you are the only one who can cast OB, else he is standing there with a melee and takes more like 9K. In that situation, your healer is going to move, and that melee is going to follow right out of that OB, and the melee not being sure what side is firing is going to let the healer move. In the real game where I play, there are Operatives, Snipers, and gasp Smugglers, who also cast a version of OB.

 

The only time that OB is terrific, great and wonderful is when your side has planted the bomb and the other team is rushing to disarm. OB placed as a door guard is wonderful in that specific situation. Otherwise it has marginal utility, and depends on the stupidity of the other players to succeed.

 

If you call out what you are doing (which is going to happen in most premades) then he will see 1 OS cast going off, that being yours. If another one goes off without being called out, then chances are it is the enemies and you need to move. Its not that hard to notice things. The Pub version is easily distinguishable as it is a blue aoe on the ground instead of a red.

[Migey]

@ Dakamukhas post at the top of the page

 

Orbital Strike is plenty powerful. If you use it strategically you can force other players to run around it. it doesn't matter if it doesn't hit - use it at a good spot in Civil War or Voidstar and you make things awkward for the enemy. In addition using it on yourself is great as it forces melee to keep their distance or take alot of damage. Many people don't seem to realise that its area of effect is bigger then the circle, so often i hit people standing a bit away from the circle. It can be used very strongly if you get the jump on someone without their stunbreak up - Flashbang them, then stick on an explosive probe and OS on them, and they will take a ton of damage - you can keep them there through use of Leg Shot or Debiliate. Ofc those examples are rather situational but i usually have my OS on cd and its very helpful. Also, in Empire v Empire Huttball, it can pretty hard to hell who's OS belongs to who.

 

OS may not be easy to use and it might not always hit, but it is certainly plenty useful, and it hits so hard that when it does hit, its worth it.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Migey

[TheRagingPwner]

@ Dakamukhas post at the top of the page

 

Orbital Strike is plenty powerful. If you use it strategically you can force other players to run around it. it doesn't matter if it doesn't hit - use it at a good spot in Civil War or Voidstar and you make things awkward for the enemy. In addition using it on yourself is great as it forces melee to keep their distance or take alot of damage. Many people don't seem to realise that its area of effect is bigger then the circle, so often i hit people standing a bit away from the circle. It can be used very strongly if you get the jump on someone without their stunbreak up - Flashbang them, then stick on an explosive probe and OS on them, and they will take a ton of damage - you can keep them there through use of Leg Shot or Debiliate. Ofc those examples are rather situational but i usually have my OS on cd and its very helpful. Also, in Empire v Empire Huttball, it can pretty hard to hell who's OS belongs to who.

 

OS may not be easy to use and it might not always hit, but it is certainly plenty useful, and it hits so hard that when it does hit, its worth it.

 

1 more use is against people who are using some kind of terrain to LOS you. If you put the OS on top of a ammo crate or right next to a post that someone is behind, it will hit them if they dont move. I use this when fighting healers who try to LOS me behind a post, I pop down OS right next to their cover and they have to come out. OS is a very useful tool in situations.

[Migey]

I use that one all the time - completely forgot to post it though xD thanks!

 

Another rather situational use is just to plop it on the bridges in Voidstar when they open, if you died and are waiting for the attackers to come across - if you time it right, they have to either wait, which they usually won't do, or get hit at least once.

[Wingfoot]

Here is another idea, since there are leaps, pulls, etc., what about giving a Sniper an inverted version of a leap. Since we are best at range, what about giving us a self knockback.

 

An instant cast ability on a 30 second cooldown (double the cooldown of Force Leap) that knocks us back away from the target 30m.

 

Of course this does nothing for the issues everyone is talking about, but for some reason I thought about this while reading the posts...

[TehChozenOne]

That would be OP. Best case situation i can see a 10 meter backwards hop.

 

also.. its been done.

 

Why not give us ScatterShot and FeignDeath too -_-'

[Mythicrose]

Why not give us ScatterShot and FeignDeath too -_-'

 

I'll pass on those in favor of silencing shot.

[NotRonin]

Ballistic shield to be on a 15 minutes cooldown in 1.2? Is there a link to the info? I would think we're the last class that needs nerfing.

 

A good sniper can destroy poor players and those in lesser gear. However once both side are equally geared and skilled we fall behind due to our lack of utility. Geared sith assassin can makes a mince meal out of us. Even though my sith assassin is rather poorly geared, a sniper to him is simply a 'free kill'. MM will find most of their attack being deflected, Lethality will have their DoT dispelled. With 3 slow, a pull, and force speed, the sniper cannot run away either. That is pretty much similar to other DPS speced tank classes.

 

When rated warzone comes out, a glass cannon with no utilities and cannot kill tanks is the last choice for a team.