Ranged DPS for PvP: Tell me why I should choose Mercenary over Sniper

[ZeusThunder]

Here is how I see it -

As a Sniper I get this:

- 5m longer range

- Passive immunity to Leaps, Pulls, and Interrupts*

- Multiple abilities that root targets

- An interrupt

- Instant cast mez

* Sure, I can't move while being immune to things but as a Merc the abilities I use the most are casted so it's not like I'm moving all the time either. Essentially I can choose to be immune to leaps/pulls/interrupts while casting or choose not to be.

 

As a Merc I get this:

- Heavy Armor, about 10-15% less damage on non-elemental/internal damage**

- My stun is ranged and not melee

** Of course, the Sniper can just be 100% immune to this type of damage by going behind their cover.

 

Am I missing something here? Is there someone out there that loved their DPS merc in warzones and would never play a Sniper?

[Macroecon]

In a 1v1 matchup, Snipers are the only subclass that Merc dps currently have an advantage over. Fire while moving to flank their cover. Once flanked, open up with Unload.

 

The problem here is that there are very few Snipers in the game. Hence there is virtually no reason to be a Merc dps. BW wants there to be more Snipers. And you will hear people claim that Snipers are the 1v1 "hard counter" to the OP Marauder/Sent class. But that is just bull hockey. I play a Marauder too, and Snipers are at best a 1v1 hard counter to Mara/Sent IF the Sniper is defending an objective, such as a turret/door. If the Sniper is attacking an objective vs a Mara/Sent 1v1, the Sniper will get butchered. So the supposed Rock/Paper/Scissors relationship doesn't exist. Which is one of the reasons why Snipers are still so rare in wz even though their supposed prey, Mara/Sent, are as common as sand on a beach.

[SoNofHuD]

Well I play Pyro and the mobility is clearly prefered over sniper. I LOL when I go up against a sniper, incindiary/thermal/rail shot, and run behind a pillar. /dance with them and so forth. Really not great in PVP if you have to be stationary to do anything (which is why Mara/Assassin/Operative are dominant).

 

The answer is....neither are really great but out of the two I prefer my Pyro Merc.

[Sinsavz]

My 2 50s are a merc and a sniper, and I way way prefer the merc. Sniper gets very tedious and boring whereas I always find the merc fun, even though we aren't very strong in terms of class balance atm. The one thing I love about the sniper is the charge immunity, but even then I still just find the merc cooler and more fun to play. Imperial agent is a kinda boring class, very boring gear, general appearance, firing animations etc. Dull.

 

I also think mercs 3 skill trees give you more to play around with, they all have very different styles and are all enjoyable (arsenal is a bit sucky atm but I would still happily play any spec and have a blast on it whilst doing decent output). With sniper you've got engineering which is meh, marksman which gets very very annoying with the tank deflections etc, and lethality which is cool for a while but gets old fast.