Advice on beating snipers.

[Krask]

Just wondering if anyone had any advice, i'm usually ok fighting any other class but the snipers always piss all over me, they seem to have a million and one binds that barely touch my resolve meter, then they run out of range of my only two attacks capable of reaching them, crippling throw and force leap. Force leap becomes useless as they just whip out the stupid little portable cover.

 

They stun me, run off, cover, shoot the hell out of me, I close the distance, stunned again, still not max resolve, they run, cover, shoot, and by then i'm usually dead.

 

What can I do? Is there nothing to be done? How do you people fight them with a melee class.

[KeyboardNinja]

Just wondering if anyone had any advice, i'm usually ok fighting any other class but the snipers always piss all over me, they seem to have a million and one binds that barely touch my resolve meter, then they run out of range of my only two attacks capable of reaching them, crippling throw and force leap. Force leap becomes useless as they just whip out the stupid little portable cover.

 

They stun me, run off, cover, shoot the hell out of me, I close the distance, stunned again, still not max resolve, they run, cover, shoot, and by then i'm usually dead.

 

What can I do? Is there nothing to be done? How do you people fight them with a melee class.

 

Pacify. Leg Slash (if they're running, which would be stupid of them). Awe and Stasis to interrupt their big casts. Position yourself for their knockback, and save your stun break for their Leg Shot root. Pop Saber Ward early if they're marksman spec (right after pacify falls off), or use Rebuke if they're Lethality or Engineering. Use your cammo to gap close after they knock you back.

 

Of all the specs, watchman has the hardest time with snipers. Combat and Focus really have no issues whatsoever. I can usually down a sniper from 100% with about 60-80% of my HP remaining in Combat spec. It's a little touchier in Focus, but still not too bad. Watchman requires a bit of luck, otherwise they'll just root/stun me out of range and never give me the ramp up time that I need.

[Ramaral]

And just to add to the above, Zealous Leap in Focus isnt effected by cover. Costs focus and is shorter range but still tends to catch them off guard, In 2.0 Zealous will also leap out of roots.

[Krask]

Probably should of mentioned, i'm watchmen specced, so from what you've said it does appear that the best strategy for me is to leave them alone and just run to something else to kill haha.

[JustinxDuff]

If they have hunker down up you will not win.

 

Pacify is you best bet, do not rely on CC against a sniper 1v1.

[KeyboardNinja]

Probably should of mentioned, i'm watchmen specced, so from what you've said it does appear that the best strategy for me is to leave them alone and just run to something else to kill haha.

 

Yeah, that's what I would do. If you happen to already be close and Overload/Cauterize is up, feel free to drop a few dots on them, just to pressure the healers, but don't try to take them down. Find your friendly neighborhood shadow and have them do it for you.

[Alec_Fortescue]

Number 1 rule is "avoid at all costs".

 

Use saber ward when the channeling of ambush nears to an end. You will deflect it and avoid damage + knock back. Saber reflection will be a killer against ambush in 2.0!

 

Use corners to break the line of sight.

 

Break line of sight and have them target another enemy. Fight easier targets once there is less enemies around.

 

Make them move! Get out of range just slightly so they'll attempt to adjust themselves. Force charge once they move.

 

Leg it if you can once they are entrenched and you're not certain that you can handle it. That is be able to identify the gear they wear (best way is to look at HP bar).

 

Fall in love with Force push.

 

Leave out Obliterate until after you get knocked back and rooted with their aoe kb. In 2.0 you'll be able to use it even when rooted!!!

 

With Vigilance always grab unremitting. Since they are stationary it's easier to pull out full Master strike on them (though they usually knock you back /stun quickly before you finish it anyway :'( )

[AngusFTW]

try to anticipate kb and use pacify just before you get kbed certain specs get pretty screwed by that.. dot them then los, camo when rooted so they cant hit you, try to lure them out of cover so you can charge them.

The other specs are better at dealing with snipers and in the open you're pretty screwed against a good sniper (well not totally but you will walk out with very low hp against a good one if you survive the encounter) so line of sight whenever you can and lure him out of cover so you can get a charge in.

 

Not to mention pacify isnt all that useful against a sniper in say.. lethality spec.

Edited March 12, 2013 by AngusFTW

[TheTbone]

As others have said, Pacify. When you get knocked back and rooted, use Force Camo. You'll still be rooted, but the Sniper can't target you and then you can stealth back in range. Use Rebuke and Saber Ward to absorb the damage. If possible, keep your back towards a wall to avoid getting knocked back out of range. Crippling throw, Dispatch, Force Statis, and now Twin Saber Throw (new patch) can all be done at range, so don't just stand there.

 

I think using Force Camo at the right time is key. Usually this will cause them to switch targets.

[NoTomorrow]

Hello out there. I am maining a sniper so i can offer some insights on how to beat us from a different perspective.

 

The number 1 mistakes that most of the sentinels do when they engage snipers is that they don't appreciate correctly their chances of beating the snipers. Sniper as a class is designed to counter you, therefore it has multiple tools that very useful to whatever crap you are trying to throw at them.

 

Saber ward is easily countered by target acquired. In fact, saber ward gives you a false sense of security, you think your defense is 50% against ranged attacks while in reality he pops up target acquired 30% accuracy, which brings your defense to a mere 20%, which is very very manageable.

 

Obfuscate/Pacify = again snipers learned to see this debuff, and since it's only 6 seconds, all i am doing usually, is using 3 GCD of tech attacks (explosive probe, shiv, frag grenades, or even orbital strike) then i am channeling ambush while still pacified, but it will hit you just after pacify expires.

 

I can keep this list on and on.

 

What you really need to do is take notice of what CC they have already wasted, and strike at the right moment. You need to learn what spec the snipers is playing. Because depending on spec you can have either a very hard time or a very easy on.

 

If you are rage: lethality is not so hard to kill. Your burst matures faster so you can handle them quite well. If he is MM and has entrench available with 60% AoE DR Siege bunker, just forget it. There is nothing you can do, he can just facetank you while dealing massive amounts of damage and not worrying about anything. In fact since i may have some ballistic dampers left i can reduce your smash damage down by 90% before the armor kicks in.

 

So again learn to notice what spec the sniper is playing. MM is usually your worst nightmare with Engineering coming in a close second. If you see plasma probe, interrogation probe that's engineering. If you see corrosive grenade, poisons and stuff, that's lethality. If you see neither of these, that's MM.

 

Your best bet against snipers is Carnage. It's a very very powerful spec and given some healthy opportunism you can whipe the floor with them. But you need to be watchful. For example i've seen carnage maras attacking engineers when they still had their explosive probe + Series of Shots combo available. They died. When they learned to wait this combo to be applied on somebody else (EP has a 30s CD), then attack the engineer, the carnage mara usually won.

 

Your most guaranteed win is when you are on full resolve, playing carnage against a sniper that has used his evasion. This should be a guaranteed kill for you.

 

You can make for yourself the following set of rules:

• Never fight a sniper that has entrench on
  
• Never fight a sniper that has all this attention focused on you
  
• Never fight a sniper in the complete open without any ways for you to LoS them
  
• Never fight a sniper which has placed orbital strike on him.
  
• Never fight a sniper with his big ballistic shield on.
  
• Never use CC breaker on his 4s stun, save it for his flashbang.
  
• Always anticipate the stun, (it's on 45s CD or even 30s, and since its melee ranged, it is always saved for the melee classes)
  
• Open on snipers with your back to a wall if its possible (so the knockback will not work for him).
  
• Do your best to avoid the ambush (pacify, saber ward, stun, mezz).
  

[AngusFTW]

I swear.. everytime sniper is mentioned in a thread you can sense it even if its a section you never visit

[NoTomorrow]

yeah you are probably right. I just like the class and i have some strong attachment towards it.

[KeyboardNinja]

Saber ward is easily countered by target acquired. In fact, saber ward gives you a false sense of security, you think your defense is 50% against ranged attacks while in reality he pops up target acquired 30% accuracy, which brings your defense to a mere 20%, which is very very manageable.

 

Obfuscate/Pacify = again snipers learned to see this debuff, and since it's only 6 seconds, all i am doing usually, is using 3 GCD of tech attacks (explosive probe, shiv, frag grenades, or even orbital strike) then i am channeling ambush while still pacified, but it will hit you just after pacify expires.

 

As a combat sentinel, 4.5 uninterrupted seconds is all I need to chew a solid 80% of your HP. If you Shiv me in the middle, I'm a lot less happy, but without extremely Combat-specific counter maneuvers, there's no way a sniper is going to survive the Pacify window using only Tech attacks. The safest thing to do, honestly, is to Flash Bang during Precision Slash, but you're still usually going to eat at least two ticks of Master Strike (3k a piece), 1 Blade Rush (2k), 3 Ataru procs (1.8k together), as well as the fully-proc'd Blade Storm (6k) and a Cauterize (3k). That's 18.8k damage all during a phase where you can't put out any appreciable burst. And that's *assuming* you counter such that the final tick of Master Strike is avoided. If you don't avoid that last tick, it'll be a full 26k damage in the Pacify Window, which obviously is more than enough.

 

As long as my cooldowns are up, I can usually take out even a good Marksman Sniper without too much trouble. With that said, if they have a terrain advantage (stupid Huttball), I'm not even going to attempt it.

Edited March 13, 2013 by KeyboardNinja

[NoTomorrow]

As a combat sentinel, 4.5 uninterrupted seconds is all I need to chew a solid 80% of your HP. If you Shiv me in the middle, I'm a lot less happy, but without extremely Combat-specific counter maneuvers, there's no way a sniper is going to survive the Pacify window using only Tech attacks. The safest thing to do, honestly, is to Flash Bang during Precision Slash, but you're still usually going to eat at least two ticks of Master Strike (3k a piece), 1 Blade Rush (2k), 3 Ataru procs (1.8k together), as well as the fully-proc'd Blade Storm (6k) and a Cauterize (3k). That's 18.8k damage all during a phase where you can't put out any appreciable burst. And that's *assuming* you counter such that the final tick of Master Strike is avoided. If you don't avoid that last tick, it'll be a full 26k damage in the Pacify Window, which obviously is more than enough.

 

As long as my cooldowns are up, I can usually take out even a good Marksman Sniper without too much trouble. With that said, if they have a terrain advantage (stupid Huttball), I'm not even going to attempt it.

 

This is what every good sniper fears and knows he has to avoid. It takes a huge skill on sniper's part to beat a very good carnage marauder, but it's manageable. The only 100% guaranteed win for the marauder is a full resolve mara while sniper has his evasion on CD. Every other scenario is subject to individual player skill.

 

My original post about tech attacks is not to get into the wrong assumption that obfuscate offers the marauder complete immunity to sniper attacks. And by using an activation ability that will hit after obfuscate expires you can eat a few more time out of obfuscate.

 

I take pride in not rushing to fill a marauders resolve bar as fast as many other snipers do. I've seen this done so many times, rushing to cover pulse before It can disrupt something significant in carnage rotation.

 

Oh and by the way, we snipers also have our own combo of 2 abilities with which we can debuff your universal accuracy (everything, melee and force attacks) by almost 70% for 8 seconds. I've been doing this after evasion, effectively delaying the entire carnage burst including ataru procs and thus auto-crit force scream by a relatively long enough time.

[KeyboardNinja]

Oh and by the way, we snipers also have our own combo of 2 abilities with which we can debuff your universal accuracy (everything, melee and force attacks) by almost 70% for 8 seconds. I've been doing this after evasion, effectively delaying the entire carnage burst including ataru procs and thus auto-crit force scream by a relatively long enough time.

 

I know, I hate that grenade. :-) I usually start watching out for it as soon as I see they're in marksman spec. Unfortunately, between that grenade and evasion, my life can be pretty miserable. My only real hope at that point is to waste time resolve capping you while the accuracy debuff wears off. If I'm *lucky*, you've already hit your stun break and I can just Awe you and return in 8 seconds. If I'm not lucky and you're actually a competent player, things might get a bit unpleasant. That's usually when I would start using the terrain, since a straight-up 1v1 under those circumstances would end poorly for me.

[Ashuranrx]

Carnage Marauder can easily beat Snipers 1 on 1. The tactic is to engage the Sniper and provoke him to use his cooldowns, like Entrench, damage dampener, knockback ... etc. Then hide out of LOS and wait out the duration of the buffs, or wait for him to run out of his buff zone and come after you. If you get out of combat during the wait, then heal up. Round 2 is easy when the Sniper does not have his cooldowns anymore.

 

If it is not 1 on 1, then gang up on the Sniper after he used up his cooldowns. He breaks easily under focus fire when his cooldowns are not up.

[tomofoureleven]

Carnage Marauder can easily beat Snipers 1 on 1. The tactic is to engage the Sniper and provoke him to use his cooldowns, like Entrench, damage dampener, knockback ... etc. Then hide out of LOS and wait out the duration of the buffs, or wait for him to run out of his buff zone and come after you. If you get out of combat during the wait, then heal up. Round 2 is easy when the Sniper does not have his cooldowns anymore.

 

If it is not 1 on 1, then gang up on the Sniper after he used up his cooldowns. He breaks easily under focus fire when his cooldowns are not up.

 

That would be all good and fine if you have time but usually in a pure 1v1 in a warzone you ain't got time to wait 20 seconds for his cooldowns. Works great in duels though (But then that's why snipers are considered terrible duellists)

 

For me the best tactic to kill snipers is to bait him into attack something else, then while he's distracted you can open up on him without him annoying you. Force camo and LOS work great in group fights to cause the sniper to attack something else.

You really can't beat him (Without every single cooldown, and even then) if he is as smart as you or really wants you dead. Don't even bother trying if you gotta walk 35m to him.

Edited April 11, 2013 by tomofoureleven

[angelserra]

i have not witnessed a sentinel beat a sniper 1v1 Edited April 24, 2013 by angelserra

[HuntersPoint]

start pvp'ing and you'll see it happen then....

[K_osss]

start pvp'ing and you'll see it happen then....

 

haha this made me chuckle

[Luckeyduckey]

Get a gunslinger to kill him for you.

[NoTomorrow]

Get a gunslinger to kill him for you.

 

A sniper enganged in a range fight is a good choice to gank on him. If you see a friendly infiltration shadow, the sniper should be dead even without your help. Our relationship with shadows is even more troublesome than yours with snipers.

Edited April 28, 2013 by NoTomorrow

[Ramtar]

i have not witnessed a sentinel beat a sniper 1v1

 

I have done it a few times, but I have lost more than I have won.

[dufox]

when you leap to a sniper and he knocks you back, pray to god you have a defensive cd or something to los the *** kicking he is getting ready to lay on you.

 

bottom line is you need him out of cover.

 

1. if you have full resolve use master strike. he will either try to stun you and fail then try to run, or sit there and eat the damage. either way you have a real shot at killing him.

 

2. los him every time you see him casting and he will eventually get annoyed then try to get a better spot. allowing you to leap to him and use force stasis then usually burst him down fast enough before he kills you

 

3. if you target a sniper and you see he is targeting you. run away from him not towards him. (unless he is close to dead and u have a defensive cd.)

 

the list goes on but you get the idea^^.

[gtangtan]

Really good post from a sniper's perspective. I've played sentinel since launch and GS for over an year and am better than most pvper in all builds for both classes and I have maxed pvp gear for both toons as well. Anybody who's saying carnage/combat has easy time against sniper is either full of **** or has never faced a skilled sniper/GS. GS/Sniper is designed to counter knight/warrior class and your best bet of killing them is learning when the right window to attack is. The guy wrote a really good guide on it and I'm not gonna repeat him. If you HAVE TO kill a sniper, You have to wait for them to use their CD or catch them when they are moving. Otherwise, you can just watch your distance and walk around them. No shame in drawing snipers out of their positioning and fight on your terms rather than charging into a sniper who's set up in a prime defensive position.

But if you are trying to kill a sniper without using LOS or anything to protect yourself against knockback, you have zero chance of winning. I don't care how good you are at playing sentinel. you have no chance of killing him. Sniper/GS have 4 abilities to keep a melee stunned/rooted: Flash Grenade, Dirty kick, leg shot, knockback. They also have high-tail it to create a gap and continue to root you after then have created a gap. On top of that, a good sniper will spec into ballistic damper (passive mini bubble) and have the other CDs up as well.

 

 

 

Hello out there. I am maining a sniper so i can offer some insights on how to beat us from a different perspective.

 

The number 1 mistakes that most of the sentinels do when they engage snipers is that they don't appreciate correctly their chances of beating the snipers. Sniper as a class is designed to counter you, therefore it has multiple tools that very useful to whatever crap you are trying to throw at them.

 

Saber ward is easily countered by target acquired. In fact, saber ward gives you a false sense of security, you think your defense is 50% against ranged attacks while in reality he pops up target acquired 30% accuracy, which brings your defense to a mere 20%, which is very very manageable.

 

Obfuscate/Pacify = again snipers learned to see this debuff, and since it's only 6 seconds, all i am doing usually, is using 3 GCD of tech attacks (explosive probe, shiv, frag grenades, or even orbital strike) then i am channeling ambush while still pacified, but it will hit you just after pacify expires.

 

I can keep this list on and on.

 

What you really need to do is take notice of what CC they have already wasted, and strike at the right moment. You need to learn what spec the snipers is playing. Because depending on spec you can have either a very hard time or a very easy on.

 

If you are rage: lethality is not so hard to kill. Your burst matures faster so you can handle them quite well. If he is MM and has entrench available with 60% AoE DR Siege bunker, just forget it. There is nothing you can do, he can just facetank you while dealing massive amounts of damage and not worrying about anything. In fact since i may have some ballistic dampers left i can reduce your smash damage down by 90% before the armor kicks in.

 

So again learn to notice what spec the sniper is playing. MM is usually your worst nightmare with Engineering coming in a close second. If you see plasma probe, interrogation probe that's engineering. If you see corrosive grenade, poisons and stuff, that's lethality. If you see neither of these, that's MM.

 

Your best bet against snipers is Carnage. It's a very very powerful spec and given some healthy opportunism you can whipe the floor with them. But you need to be watchful. For example i've seen carnage maras attacking engineers when they still had their explosive probe + Series of Shots combo available. They died. When they learned to wait this combo to be applied on somebody else (EP has a 30s CD), then attack the engineer, the carnage mara usually won.

 

Your most guaranteed win is when you are on full resolve, playing carnage against a sniper that has used his evasion. This should be a guaranteed kill for you.

 

You can make for yourself the following set of rules:

• Never fight a sniper that has entrench on
  
• Never fight a sniper that has all this attention focused on you
  
• Never fight a sniper in the complete open without any ways for you to LoS them
  
• Never fight a sniper which has placed orbital strike on him.
  
• Never fight a sniper with his big ballistic shield on.
  
• Never use CC breaker on his 4s stun, save it for his flashbang.
  
• Always anticipate the stun, (it's on 45s CD or even 30s, and since its melee ranged, it is always saved for the melee classes)
  
• Open on snipers with your back to a wall if its possible (so the knockback will not work for him).
  
• Do your best to avoid the ambush (pacify, saber ward, stun, mezz).