trollface.jpg or efg.gif?

At Prof 3 with the Charge and 3 complex damage mods on a 'Neo' ck.0 commando at CalMando level 3, you don't OHK a militia heavy on a headshot - you're not even close enough to OHK for me to buy doing this at Prof 5 with CalMando 5. Where the hell are you OHK'ing heavies with the STD sniper rifle?

That's with Charge after hotfix as it stands, if I'm understanding you correctly?

If so... I'll eat a 200m range nerf for the power to actually kill heavies with my Charge SR. Sure. That ammo capacity nerf is bloody draconian, though.

What "other buffs"? Was there something in the Narrative thread that I missed? Because Rattati doesn't mention any buff beyond putting the headshot modifier where it should be in the OP of this thread. All he mentions are range and zoom nerfs. What are these 'variety of other buffs presented'?

EDIT: If I did in fact miss something, I'll go look for it - but nothing was linked to the barbershop so I might just not know that something better than the situation described here is on the table.

From what I could gather of Rattati's input, it seems to me that the charge variant is going to be the least used. Standard version has the best range and receives a damage buff, so I suppose it will be the most used variant for all tower and redline snipers (yes, redline snipers aren't going away after delta - if you believe the contrary you are sorely mistaken). The tactical variant may see some good use, especially on Cal. commandos in a RR + TacSR combo. The charge however, seems like the worst choice. No base damage buff, and with the new orientation towards headshot bonus, the charge is going to be the most difficult to use. If you miss with the charge, you will get the fewest chances to correct. Combine this with the fact that you can be outranged by the standard version, and you get a pretty lousy weapon.

With all that in mind, here's my (counter)proposal to Rattati's OP:

I believe that the new headshot orientation for SRs is not necessarily a bad move. However, I think that headshots shouldn't be the only option for successful sniping. Getting headshots may prove to be so difficult task that no amount of headshot damage bonus could compensate. And since there are three sniper rifle variants this could be remedied and also allow for several different approaches to sniping, making the role more versatile and customizable.

Therefore,

Sniper rifle: I think the proposed change seems a solid choice for the "headshot sniper". With the longest range, it would allow it's user most safety to go for those hard-to-get, but immensely rewarding headshots.

Tactical sniper: This could be the closest thing to a DMR, but it's currently not clear just how much ROF, clip size and ammo it will get. If it would be possible to eliminate sway while standing (still, of course), this could be a very interesting weapon. However, to differentiate it further from the standard SR, I think it should have even less range (300m), less headshot bonus (200%), but allow for less static gameplay and making quick successive shots. Sort of a TacAR on steroids.

Charge sniper: This one would be the "bodyshot sniper". By this I mean very small headshot bonus (if any at all), but massive base damage. By "massive" I mean being able to OHK any scout suit, and even poorly (or cheaply) tanked mediums. By no means should the charge SR be able to OHK proto, or even solidly tanked advanced mediums, and my proposed small (or non-existant) headshot bonus would be a guarantee for that. If this variant proves to be OP, or the next "redline favorite", it's range could be further nerfed to 350m, but I think it should retain it's massive base damage.

So, there you have it. Three very different sniper rifles, each allowing for a distinctive approach to sniping.

Whaddaya think?

P.S. I also think that the charge variant should be introduced at advanced level, not just proto.

Current charge sniper has a range of 600m. Reducing the range to 400m (or even 350) will make the rifle lose much of it's "allure". Especially if it exists only in a 47k ISK proto variant (which I'm against). Also, body shotter or not, if you score a headshot with a (current) charge, you'll OHK almost everything but a heavy. This is not what I'm proposing.

I'm simply against the idea that all snipers should so heavily rely on headshots to be effective. AFAIC, standard variant could be made as a "body shotter", and charge as a "head shotter". As long as people have the option to choose what suits them best, this balancing of sniper rifles can only make the game better and more interesting.

The charge should have more damage per clip, otherwise there would be no charge time. I just think changing the clip size of the charge without a significant base damage increase removes bodyshot sniper rifle play from the game. The standard sniper rifle used to one hit kill on headshots anything except ultra tanked heavies. The return to the original vision is fine, in fact the standard doing 1000-1200 damage on a headshot is great, and allows you to immediately follow up with a body shot for the kill.

What I'm asking for, is the charge sniper rifle with the same headshot multiplier as the standard, and with the clip size of 5.

One major concern is that for PC, you can't go for headshots as a primary means of detterence. Often times they're laggy, in fact any match that has equipment spam or suffers from graphical lag headshots are almost out of the question. Meaning what sniper rifle does one use when it's like this? I would go for something that hits hard, so long as I hit someone. Obviously the charge sniper rifle.

Anyway you get that I'm not happy with the change, I'm sure you see why. If you can find some sort of work around to have the clip size be something more than 3 and not have the charge sniper rifle become come the new Kaalakiota, I would greatly appreciate that. I really don't want to spend the entire match going for headshots, and there isn't a body shot type rifle left if you do this.

Oh yay OHK vs. Sentinel will be a thing then.

At least I'll be able to fire back at you now.

Will the old tracer contrail be making a return? The hit indicator on the hud sucks horrendously for helping spot attackers.