I just started a couple of weeks ago, I do pretty well with an NT-11 on an ADV GAL scout.

I've often thought about using 5xmg mods on a mimnatar sniper, but haven't

One the Heavy is now so F***** tanked it is impossible to take them down other than a Charge or a Thale. If you any of wise A** people say I can take down a tanked heavy with a KAAL with three shots I say BS, prove it and post the video. You cant do it, its impossible. If you land one shot to the head by the second shot the heavy is on the move if there smart and guess what genius you just took down his shields with your second shot, now you have to get through the armor which in most cases is at least 300EhP more than shields and now you have to reload. They are gone and your now searching for your next target. The charge is to slow to take a fully bricked heavy for they will just find cover, if there out in the open its there fault if they die. Now the Thale(what should be the standard proto) can take a brick heavy but you have to land 3 perfect shots or 4-5 well aimed shots and hope they do not find cover or have a logi shoved up there A**.


Two hit detection is awful for a sniper, not all the time but when you need it to count, its best just to flip a coin.

Three it is no longer worth to run a sniper fit,why? Because CCP has littered the battlefield with enough material to hide from and a lot of battles are now in buildings or around enough cover if you do get pinged you can find cover.

Being a sniper is not worth it for our weapons do not have the same effect they did months ago due to armor bricking.

I used to run my Thale and do very well but since armor tanking is the rage I am going to just run assault or whatever peaks my curiosity.

it works just fine....trust me.....

The diffrence between the 3rd and 4th is about 5 dmg, 5 is overkill.

Sniper rifles have several issues with regards to the current state of the game:

First of all, sniper rifle damage doesn't scale properly across tiers. This is in fact the state of the matter with most other weapons in the game, but it isn't so obvious as with sniper rifles since the issue usually comes down to having to hold your trigger a little longer than you should if the damage scaled properly. However, since sniper rifles rely on their massive alpha damage to be effective, the problem is very obvious. You can't reasonably expect to land a second (not to even mention the third, or even fourth) shot necessary to take down someone, once your target is aware he's being sniped.

Second, sniper rifles are IMHO conceptually flawed. Tactical snipers shouldn't have better scope magnification than standard ones, not to mention charge sniper rifle. Also, tactical snipers having only three rounds in their magazines is too crippling.

My idea of how sniper rifles should behave to make them more viable, conceptually more alike their present-day counterparts, and more fun to play with is:

Standard sniper rifles: basic tier damage stays the same, but advanced does 10% more, and prototype 20% more damage than basic. All of them have a 3-round clip, and same RoF as now. Scope magnification is "medium" (approximately same as now).

Tactical sniper rifles: all damage stays the same as now (5% increase across tiers), however, advanced variant has a 4-round clip, and proto variant has a 5-round clip. Same RoF as now. Scope magnification is lower that that of standard sniper rifles.

Charge sniper rifle: damage increased by 30%, and just one, manually loaded round. Best scope magnification, comparable to that of a Thale's sniper rifle. Maybe even increased effectiveness against vehicles, to make charge sniper more alike today's anti-material sniper rifles.

What this means is that the devs have actively prevented the creation of good ground-sniping locations and reduced the ranged options to the hills or towers almost consistently. That's why there are so many redline snipers as opposed to other kinds... They've obstructed all the good and great shot venues. :/

Oddly, though, they left a sniper line of fire in... for one of the NEW maps.
TO THE OBJECTIVE!

I got caught out by that one yesterday.

I aint telling where it is though. I'm gonna return the favour :)

Play skirmish mode solo,You will end up on a team with at least 6 guys sniping 99.2% of the time...

People " STOP " asking for the Thale to be placed as a prototype because we " all " know THAT would be the " only " rifle used and that's not skill . That's turning an " art " into something easy and skill less . Using a Thale is " sniping made easy " .

The diffrence between the 3rd and 4th is about 5 dmg, 5 is overkill.

It depends on what sniper rifle you are using.

Depending on the source explaining how damage mods work I think the following calculations are correct.

The NT-511 base damage per shot is 219. With 3 complex damage mods the per shot damage is 318. With 4 complex damage mods the per shot damage is 327. With 5 complex damage mods the per shot damage is 330. For two rounds (a reasonable number of shots you can get on one target) at maximum, this is 660. For the whole clip (5 shots) at maximum, this is 1650.

The Thale base damage per shot is 355. With 3 complex damage mods the per shot damage is 516. With 4 complex damage mods the per shot damage is 530. With 5 complex damage mods the per shot damage is 536. For two rounds (a reasonable number of shots you can get on one target) at maximum, this is 1072. For the whole clip (5 shots) at maximum, this is 2680.

With several shots these numbers can be the difference between a few ticks of armor left on a target (which happens quite a bit) and a proto fatty on the ground in a smoking heap.

Munch

Rapid fire damage has increased... armor has increased. snipers single-shot damage has not.

In other words, the HP of all dropsuits has gone UP quite noticeably, as well as the damage from rapid-fire guns has gone up with the hit detection improvement at close range.

On top of that, sniping has become a bit harder. Hit detection has gone down a tad, shots that used to be direct hits no longer register. Bullet damage has stayed the same, and players at a distance have begun to blend into walls, or walls don't load properly, and you can see a target who is inside a structure, but you don't know it.

NOT only that, but if you actively wander around a map, you will find out that there are many, many combat-sniping positions that would be perfect to shoot down... except for that strangely placed box, or that crate that blocks the path.. or that strangely parked truck.. etc etc etc... What this means is that the devs have actively prevented the creation of good ground-sniping locations and reduced the ranged options to the hills or towers almost consistently. That's why there are so many redline snipers as opposed to other kinds... They've obstructed all the good and great shot venues. :/

I don't mean all venues completely, there are plenty of "meh" and "well I guess that's okay" kind of venues if you wander around. Most of them are so close to the intended targets that an AR can hit you in the face if they spot you.


There is only one sniping spot that is "Holy Hell Excellent!" but it is so blatantly obvious with the paneling split just so, and the blocks all arranged for a clear-alleyway shot, that if you actually snipe from it, you give your spot away immediately. :/

If you are a sniper , making shots as compared to trying to successfully make shot after shot isn't even a problem because that's a part of the job , they are sniper rifles not automatic's and some work is required . You said that having three rounds in a clip is crippling but your first suggestion that's made to and for the standard's is to make their clips a three shot round .

One of the skills that is offered is additional ammo so the ammo is not a problem . The rate of fire from Tactical Snipers are faster and the scope is magnified because they are suited for urban area's like around short to intermediary targets . Like around compounds warehouses and null camp sights . The Tactical Sniper rifle has more ammo as well as the rate of fire for quick kill closer targets .

Now I can see for your words that you must favor the Charged Sniper Rifle . Most favor Thale's and as far as the differences in the classes are fine as they are and gives the guns subtle changes that keeps them interesting . They are not meant for instant knockouts and if you can make a headshot then you have what you need in stopping power . Why would you try to take out a Heavy and complain that you can't and get frustrated as well ??? This makes no since and is a waste of ammo . Help out when and as you can and maybe assist the assaults by eating away at their HP's , a team kill and victory far out shines a personal one .

If I remember correctly the formula goes something like this:
219 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.08 * 1.05 = 300.46 with 3 complex damage mods (have to remember to take into account the extra 10% damage all handheld weapons get). I'll skip the other damage mods for this one.

Thale's would be 355 * 1.1 * 1.09 * 1.1 * 1.08 * 1.05 = 530.94 with 3 complex damage mods (1.09 is the pof 3 required to use the Thale's)

355 * 1.1 * 1.09 * 1.1 * 1.08 * 1.05 * 1.03 = 546.87 with 4, and 552.34 with 5.

The max it could do not taking into account armor/ shield resistances is 355 * 1.1 * 1.15 * 1.1 * 1.08 * 1.05 * 1.03 * 1.01 = 582.75 to the body and 355 * 1.1 * 1.15 * 1.1 * 1.08 * 1.05 * 1.03 * 1.01 * 1.9 = 1107.22 to the head. (at least I've been lead to believe sniper rifle head shot bonus is 190%. Though I'm not sure if it's applied to base damage or total damage at impact.)

Edit: I'm rounding my math just a bit according to this.

I used prof 3 because that's what I have so I'm used to using it in my calculation. The 2nd 1.1 is like I stated, the extra 10% damage all handheld weapons have. After we got Uprising 1.0 and hit detection was still sh!tty for all weapons there was a big fuss on the forum over how CCP removed the 2% extra damage per level from the weaponry skill so they just gave us the 10% from lvl 5. There was a dev post about it but I don't feel like searching for it.

Like I said about the head shot bonus, it's what I've been lead to believe. This from multiple people but from a quick google search this wiki says, it's 175%. Though it's sniper vs shield & armor percentages is backwards; so that 175% could be wrong as well. Until I see a post from a dev about it I'll go with the most commonly stated headshot bonus which so far to me has been 190%.