Change:
-Sniper Rifles TO Bolt Action, Up the Damage, and Scope Fidelity 8x ?.-
*Sniper Rifles Keep Same Mag Size, Slower Rate of Fire*
*Increased Damage on "Sniper Rifles"

-Change Tactical Sniper Rifles to Marksmen Firearm, (semi-Auto),
* increase Mag Size 10 Shots at least, Acog, or 2x-4x Sights+
Lower Damage on Tacts. increase Rate of Fire.


-Charge Sniper Rifle, Changes
*more Damage, More Scope Fidelity, Over Heats when Charged to Fullest, and has to wait for the barrel to Cool,*

It's not that enemies are getting "smarter at being able to avoid snipers"

It's that there has been an increase in health for any suit running armor plates. (combined with)

Proficiency Skill +15% damage versus armor only (instead of flat damage to both shields and armor) (combined with)
Damage Mod Decrease getting 12% damage from 3 of these mods instead of 24% (combined with)
Gallente Map Packs designed to be unfriendly for snipers (combined with)
No Adjustment to the Sniper Rifle in an unbelievable amount of time to keep the weapon up to date. (combined with)
Sniping in a Heavy Suit for a 10% bonus to sniper rifle damage. It feels almost forced. (combined with)
Stealth Removal of Sniping Locations without warning or patch notes (combined with)
Easymode Attack Drop Ships for high rate of fire splash damage anywhere you want it. (combined with)
Cloaks and 1500hp Heavies pick one miss a lot more than normal or waste your time chipping away (combined with)
Reduced AV Grenades in both damage + amount carried. Used to be decent drop ship defense (combined with)
Increased Drop Ship Health so much so that you can't even carry enough AV grenades to kill one! (combined with)
Fog of War /ON to no longer see what your squad sees. Waste time scanning over teammates(combined with)
Z-fighting enemies render invisible against certain surfaces, what a huge waste of time (combined with)
Removal of Mountains forcing snipers to relocate to more ground level or obvious positions. (combined with)

I can keep coming up with stuff to show you how the game has changed, and not in favor of sniping. I'm probably missing a few easy ones I could have pointed out. Oh well! Nice talk.

Remove the redline and I'll talk.

Oh, yes you can.

Nowadays 50% of the suits I see are scouts.


Munch

Not bad; a headshot is an OHK.

I play my matches as fairly as possible, yet when Im 1 shotted in 480 EHP suit by a Sentinel with a Sniper so far in his own redline you can't even get a dropship to him, I'm told its my fault for winning.

Allow anyone with a sniper rifle the ability to "spot" targets for their squad.

If this is the case, you've probably been hit headshotted. With the limited zoom, bad rendering and system glitches that's quite an accomplishment for a sniper behind the redline. Keep moving, keep your head down, and look for cover.

Rest assured that when a sniper is so far in the redline he hardly ever contributes much to the team, which means more wins and war spoils for you.

Change nothing. Make new guns if you want new mechanics.

(also your first rifle description is essentially the charge sniper rifle)

Wow, people will defend ANYTHING.

Is there an OP weapon? "I can do good with other weapons so it's not OP!"
Is there and UP weapon? "Not every weapon can be competitive" or "I killed someone with it so it's balanced"
Uncounterable tactic? "Just avoid them!"

I don't think sniping from deep in the redline is OP. It sucks, as it doesn't help the team much. The redline Sentinel isn't mobile, has hardly any zoom, doesn't have a clear view on objectives, can't shoot inside buildings, can't hack anything, and is easily suppressed.

Yes, it's pretty much uncounterable, but so is a headshot from a cloaked scout, a swarm to your HAV, etc. As long as it doesn't dominate the outcome of many matches, it''s not OP.

All of those have some sort of counter
Sitting in the redline is 100% uncounterable

I was concerned that sniping wouldn't be viable in 1.8.

It is. Thanks, scout suits and UP mediums!

Remove the redline and I'll talk.

you think sniping is "viable" because you can kill a couple scrubs in pub matches ^^;;

some people are easily pleased ^^

All of those have some sort of counter
Sitting in the redline is 100% uncounterable

All of those have some sort of counter
Sitting in the redline is 100% uncounterable

Once you get used to relying on Tacnet to place your shots (that is, once you get in the habit of pulling/releasing the trigger when damage profile information--ie, a % figure--is onscreen and your reticle is red), everything is much easier.

All of those have some sort of counter
Sitting in the redline is 100% uncounterable

I was concerned that sniping wouldn't be viable in 1.8.

It is. Thanks, scout suits and UP mediums!

EDIT: Also, I thank anyone with low shields, which is actually a lot of players, since armor is the preferred tanking method by far, ATM.

And headshots aren't as difficult to land as people say--the poor rendering at a distance is actually a boon, since it means I have a 1x1 pixel area to hit on top of a 1x2 area (ie, 33% of the area = a headshot), versus, say, a (roughly) 3x3 area on top of a 5x9 pixel area (20% of the model's area is its "head"). In other words, the models' heads become a smaller proportion of their body the closer they are, since they are rendered in more detail. At longer distances, the graphics engine abstracts things to more general shapes, which blends previously distinct areas/features together. Once you get used to relying on Tacnet to place your shots (that is, once you get in the habit of pulling/releasing the trigger when damage profile information--ie, a % figure--is onscreen and your reticle is red), everything is much easier. Couple this with shooting reds on a horizontal beeline, and you'll hear the sweet gong again and again.

Nah, you can always countersnipe. Just as it's hard to take down a tank by one person, you'll need 2 snipers to fire simulaneously. Or you can hunt them with a Minny scout and a shotgun (my fav way to take a Thales away). Alternatively, you can use a dropship or an orbital, but it's just not worth it, as it's also someone that hardly makes a difference in the match.

If someone like that is on the enemies team, all the better for you. The only thing they do is pad their K/D, which means
absolutely nothing in Dust.

Sniping isn't good enough for PC. The rifles don't do enough damage at range to make it worth running a Sniper over let's say a slayer actively pushing or defending.

This is a push for Sniping to be more than what it currently is in end game DUST 514. Which is essentially non-factor unless using a Thale's at which point it's viable but not broken. Thanks to that huge long list of things I've named that keep the Sniper from being something desirable.

You shouldn't need things you can't purchase (OFFICER WEAPONS) to be considered worth putting on a team for competitive end game play.

When putting together a bunch of mercenaries to form a team it's NEVER desired or essential that a team fields a sniper. I'm not asking to make the role essential, just less undesirable than it currently is.